Toilet across the track!!! .... Luxury...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
I would agree with you about Ken Smith having this car. it was also raced by Croz and Lew McKinnon, Graeme Lorimer,Warren McKellar and Richard Gillies and must have been one of the higher mileaged Grp A cars in New Zealand.. I remember being told by Lew it was quite special with a very low chassis number 001.. Greg pedalled a bunch of cars including a quick 1200 coupe and a lease deal of a Tranz Am Ford that he shared with Dick Johnson. My memory is hazy but it sounds plausible he did have a drive of the Beemer as well..
All I know is that the Volvo was an ex works ETCC car. After Wellington the car was shipped to Oz for the 85 ATCC where Francevic finished 5th. For 86 the car was run by the Volvo Dealer Team and this was the year Robbie won the ATCC.
Anthony
Not the same Greg Taylor. The "earlier one" was predominately a rally driver, but also drove one of the DJR Sierras at Bathurst one year as well as a stint in Group A .In fact he had a Group A Lancia Intergrale rally car at about the same time as a Group A BMW. The Taylor brothers had a roadmarking business in Wanganui and dabbled in everything motorsports
Yes the original car, owned by a chap in Nelson who pilots a large fishing trawler, and drags it out at the occasional historic event. Drives it very well too He purchased it many years ago from Ken Smith. It is a "proper" Gp.A car built by Sytner from a BMW Motorsport Gp.A kit.
The very early (001?) chassis numbered car is still owned by some friends of mine, they purchased it for not much in 1989,when it was well past its "use by" date, and is still as last raced. Was an Eggenberger car, and converted at some point to RHD. Basic colour is yellow, ran with a few liveries and sponsors in its day, and still retains alloy roll cage.
Last edited by conrod; 02-04-2014 at 07:57 PM.
Note the flaggies perched on the concrete wall that separates the two straights here!
Attachment 23510
Martin Smith photo[/QUOTE]
Great memories Steve. I was on the next flagpoint along from Crunch, at the entrance to the right hander that took the cars from the wharf on to Custhomhouse Quay (look above the Falcon in the photo). You can see that this corner, like many parts of the track used containers rather than concrete barriers to line the track, in this case on the exit. And in the photo you can spot one of the many spectators who thought standing on a container would make a great viewing spot. We spent the weekend chasing them off. Fortunately no one it hard as I recall
Thanks for the reports on the race and the interesting TV aspect. I feel much better for that!
As the Sytner/Morton team kept accurate lap charts (which was the norm, even for F1 teams years ago with a triple analogue stopwatch board - stopped, running, ready) it is almost impossible to get it wrong, just as long as the scorer presses the lever each time the car goes past. They are used to watching just their own car and it is/was very rare to miss it.
As I remember it, at Manfeild, each timer wrote the lap time on a pad so I am not sure if the above mentioned 'flip pad' system was in addition to the time keeper's or was combined? Maybe someone will know?
If combined, it was far from fool proof and even lap times could be very dubious, as in handicap racing particularly, if they failed to spot a car until it was past the finish line, that lap would be a second or two longer than normal, meaning that the next lap would then be a second or two quicker, leading to some weird 'fastest laps'! The same applied to timekeepers at other circuits of course.
As always, the timekeeper was a judge of fact, but the stewards could have accepted the Morton/Sytner pit crew's summary and compared it to the Petch charts, (I assume they were doing the same?) as it is extremely difficult to fake - especially given the time scale - as the cumulative time and the individual lap times could have been tied to the TV coverage, particularly the pit stops, which was of course filmed and broadcast live.
Our team was in the pits adjacent to the Volvo, we had three people doing our lap scoring/timekeeping duties and we had the Volvo in the lead.
We need to remember that most cars had numerous pit stops because of clipping kerbs, damaging tyres and items falling off them whilst our Bluebird turbo just keep on circulating out of trouble until we lost a brake pad with about 35 minutes to go. Even though our car was probably the slowest on the track it was running 3rd when the pad dropped primarily because it kept out of trouble and played the percentage game of achieving a result by spending less time in the pits and more time on the track. That last half hour saw us over run by 5 cars that were considerably faster than ours.
Had it not been for a small mistake by Kent Baigent just after the halfway mark, its quite likely this car would have won the race. Neil Lowe made an early pit stop on lap 20 due to a fluctuating oil pressure light, but the team did a quick check, and came to the conclusion it was a signal fault, not an oil pressure issue. The stop dropped the car one lap down, but it made up ground when the others made their first stops. Eventually, Lowe/Baigent worked their way into the lead, which they then lost when they picked up a puncture. But the car was quick, and with others also having issues, this pair eventually moved back in front.
Just after the halfway mark, with Baigent at the wheel, the oil light came on again, distracting Baigent for a moment, and he missed his braking point, got on the marbles, and slid into a concrete kerb. This punctured another tyre, but also damaged the suspension, which lost the team several laps. At the time the car was leading, and the Sytner/Morton car was running second, but both these drivers struggled as their stints went on, because the Metro magazine BMW didn't have power steering, and the Baigent/Lowe car was consistently faster.
Martin Smith photo
Another shot of the Baigent/Lowe BMW. I may well be wrong about this, but I seem to recall this was a Schnitzer car out of Europe? Sadly its career ended in a nasty barrel-roll along the back fence of Manfield a year later.
Its amazing the number of potential hazards the Wellington track had in this first year. As Carlo said above, most of the top runners were making multiple unscheduled pit stops due to being caught out by the track.
Steve Twist photo
Here are a couple of pics of the two GTM Engineering Volvos from Frank de Jongs excellent touring car history website. Both Michel Delcourt and Pierre Dieudonne drove these cars throughout the 1984 ETCC. Dieudonne was originally entered in the Petch car at Wellington. You can see the similarities with the Petch car, right down to the white number backings and the tape on the headlights.
Its hard to find a better looking colour scheme than the black and gold of JPS in the '80s. This is the Crichton/Wilkinson car prior to the race. Wilkinson did the opening stint, and ran second to Johnson in the early laps before a quick spin, then a delay with a puncture. Another spin while lapping a slower car put the BMW into one of the shipping containers lining the track, which created further delays while the bodywork was whacked back into shape. This dropped the team three laps down, one of which they made back up to finish 3rd.
One week later at Pukekohe, this car won, which I believe gave Crichton/Wilkinson the series title for both events.
I believe this was one of the former Group C cars run in Australia by Frank Gardner? I assume its still in Group A guise? Where is it now?
Steve Twist photos
Brilliant shot here of JPS crew members man-handling the front guard away from the tyre following the mid-race spin and subsequent clash with a container. Note how close the punters were able to get to the action in the background!
Martin Smith photo