Photos: The Gerard Richards Collection - Part 1

[Steve Holmes]

The beautiful Red Dawson Chevy Camaro. This car first appeared on the NZ scene in late 1971, after Red took a trip to the US to find a replacement for his elderly Shelby Mustang. He actually wanted a Trans-Am car, possibly a Penske Javelin, but couldn't find anything suitable for sale, so bought this. It was a road car when purchased, and converted into a race car by Red's team back in NZ. He raced it for four seasons, three in the gold of Kensington Carpets, then, finally, in the less attractive white/red of Marlboro cigarettes. It never did give Dawson his second NZ title. While it had plenty of poke, it was quite a heavy car, and suffered somewhat from reliability issues, as Dawson was always searching for more power. But it was certainly a charismatic race car.