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17 Oct 2010, 01:27 (Ref:2775967) | #1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1986/1987 New Zealand Group A and Production Saloon Car Racing - Discussion & Results
Continuing the theme of New Zealand Group A and related saloon car racing, this time for the 1986/1987 season. Dates of races found so far looks like this:
The Wellington race was very likely held on 25th January 1987. Confirmation would be nice. The 1987 Nissan series would be the last international races for the TWR Jaguar XJ-Ss. From http://www.motorsportsresults.com/be...Touring.nz.pdf, Glenn McIntyre was the Group A touring car champion in an ex-Frank Gardner BMW 635CSi, races held over the December-January period, if I'm reading the calender correct. Again, confirmation would be very nice. Jesper |
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17 Oct 2010, 10:54 (Ref:2776103) | #2 | ||
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I am guessing you mean ex-Frank Sytner BMW? From memory that State Coal sponsored car was the RHD 635 from the UK wasnt it, owned by Erle McRae/Charlie O'Brien?
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17 Oct 2010, 11:27 (Ref:2776114) | #3 | ||
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I might be confusing cars, so I take your word for the McIntyre-635 for being something else. Faintly, I remember this as a dark car, but in there lays the problem - memory!
Jesper |
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25 Oct 2010, 06:44 (Ref:2780023) | #4 | ||||||||||||||||
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I am currently at my parent's place and managed to find my copy of The Dunlop Book of New Zealand Motorsport by David McKinney(c. 1987).
The book does not add much more detail to the results already published for 1984 and 1985. However, it does give me brief details of the 1986 Benson & Hedges series, so here they are:
For this round, the Crosby/Wilkinson Commodore, the Crowe/Richards BMW and the Baigent/Bowkett Nissan Skyline Turbo joined the field. The Skyline took pole from the Crosby Commodore but failed during the race. Other points of interest - was the round 1 victory at Baypark the only time a BMW 325i won a major Group A race? And was this car an ex-JPS/Gardner car? I assume JPS/Gardner had two 325i that were raced during 1986, as I know for sure that Bill Bryce's BMW 325i was ex-JPS and the Lamont car was also black. The Lamont car was sponsored by JPS. Also, the Pinepac Mustang won a race! I had a suspicion that the team achieved a podium during their years of campaigning the cars, but I hadn't thought they took a win. So I now know that Group A Mustangs won two races - the Adelaide Grand Prix race in 1985 for Dick Johnson and the Baypark B&H round in 1986 for Anderson/Morton. Did Mustangs win any other Group A races? Also, although only one of the Pinepac Mustangs can be seen in the photo linked below, I have a vague memory of two Pinepac Mustangs in the series. One for Bruce Anderson/John Morton and the other for Wayne Anderson/Graeme Addis. Anyone confirm this? A photo of the start of the Pukekohe B&H 6hour can be found here: http://media.photobucket.com/image/n...he1986.jpg?o=5 Of interest in the photo - the Baigent/Bowkett Skyline leading the Crosby/Wilkinson Commodore. In third is the Billington/Castle Commodore (a Roadways built, ex-Bowkett car - thanks RacerVK for this info) and fourth is the Anderson/Morton Pinepac Mustang. Trevor McLean's silver Commodore and Trevor Crowe's BMW can be seen tucked in behind the Mustang. Last edited by brendonwood1; 25 Oct 2010 at 06:56. |
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25 Oct 2010, 15:39 (Ref:2780274) | #5 | ||||
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Very interesting additions you've contributed with Brendon. Jesper |
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25 Oct 2010, 07:15 (Ref:2780031) | #6 | |||||||||||||
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The Benson & Hedges series was immediately followed by the three round Simpson Appliances series.
This series replaced the New Zealand Touring Car championship. It was also rounds 2 to 4 of the South Pacific Touing Car Championship. The first round of the South Pacific Touring Car Championship was at the Adelaide Grand Prix meeting and was won by Allan Grice in the Chickadee Roadways Commodore VK. The Simpson series attracted a very decent field. The final round at Pukekohe had 29 cars on the starting grid, although many were small class Corollas and Escorts. Outright contenders included the Crosby/Wilkinson Commodore; Allan Grice joined Kent Baigent in the Team Nissan NZ Skyline Turbo; there were BMW 635CSis for Trevor Crowe and Charlie O'Brien/Glenn McIntyre; there were two BMW 325is for Ed Lamont and Dennis Hulme (in Bill Bryce's newly acquired ex-JPS car); there were two Mustangs for Bruce and Wayne Anderson and the newly acquired ex-Dick Johnson car of Robbie Ker/Wayne Huxford; the Mark Petch Motorsport ex-Rouse Ford Sierra XR4Ti was raced by Robbie Francevic and there was a Volvo 240T for Per Gunnar Andersson/Gary Croft. The duration of each race in the series was 3 hours. The series resulted in three winners. Here are the results I have for now.
I also have a brief Autosport report of round two back in Sydney. Unfortunately New Zealand Motorsport does not go into extensive detail on the series, but did say that the Francevic Sierra retired from all three races. Also, it is worth noting now that all three races saw poor reliability among the leading runners. The Pinepac team was obviously having a good season as they added another podium result and led the final round at Pukekohe for many laps before the Mustang broke. |
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25 Oct 2010, 21:55 (Ref:2780453) | #7 | |
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Also, I remember reading that one of the Zakspeed built Mustangs that Dick Johnson acquired was used by Klaus Niedzwiedz (or was it Ludwig?) to win a Group A support race to the 1984 European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.
Also, in regards to the BMW 325i, I think Tony Longhurst may have won a round or a race in the AMSCAR series in 1986 - though I am sure we'll confirm that when we do the Australian Group A threads. |
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26 Oct 2010, 16:11 (Ref:2780809) | #8 | |||
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I'm quite sure Tony Longhurst won an AMSCAR race in either the 323i or 325i, but it depends on weather to regards an AMSCAR race major Group A race. Jesper |
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26 Oct 2010, 21:17 (Ref:2780908) | #9 | |||
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Just touching on theCharlie O'Brien 635 mentioned in earlier posts, it's referred to in the Bathurst annual as ex Sytner (we know this) but that it was also an ex BMW GB car. I'm assuming this would be one of the ex CC cars that Sytner acquired at the end of 1984?. Can't recall what we identified but that CC had 3 with Sytner possibly buying them all, then selling one onto Mike Newman, one going to France and the other to Charlie? |
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29 Oct 2010, 13:04 (Ref:2782082) | #10 | ||
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Frank kept his existing car for the BTCC, and sold the 3 BMW GB cars on at various times in the year- Mike Newman and Charlie O'Brien had the two race cars and the LHD T-Car went to Europe- France or Belgium I think. I'm guessing the O'Brien car didn't reach Australia until the autumn in time for Bathurst, as Sytner was able to run a pair of 635s at both the Donington ETC round and the TT. Weren't there a couple of other 635s in NZ with Sytner history? |
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26 Oct 2010, 22:12 (Ref:2780929) | #11 | ||
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Also, the AMSCAR races generally attracted pretty solid fields, so I think they can be regarded as at least as major as that Manfeild round of the NZ B&H series. |
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29 Oct 2010, 06:22 (Ref:2781926) | #12 | ||
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Longhurst didn't manage a win in either '85 or '86 in the AMSCAR Series, he won the '86 series on consistency (plenty of BMWs won races though in the series that year, Richards, Rogers and O'Brien in the 635s)
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29 Oct 2010, 07:09 (Ref:2781937) | #13 | |||
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Same meeting Gerhard Berger drove the ex Schnitzer Bob Jane BMW 635, the last GP driver to punt a tourer on the same program? |
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29 Oct 2010, 09:01 (Ref:2781973) | #14 | |||
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Did Gerhard get involved in some kind of contretemps with a Commodore or something else? |
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26 Nov 2010, 19:41 (Ref:2796196) | #15 | |||
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26 Nov 2010, 20:10 (Ref:2796207) | #16 | |||||||||||||||||
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For future references of the South Pacific Touring Car Championship, this would be the calender:
Glad to see that one of my all-time touring car heroes Allan Grice won this title. To my reckoning he won few races during the Group A era and the SPTCC was his only title during this. Would the South Pacific Touring Car Championship be an equivalent of the 1960/1970s TASMAN single seater series, but for tin-tops? Jesper Last edited by Jesper OH; 26 Nov 2010 at 20:26. |
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27 Nov 2010, 01:24 (Ref:2796268) | #17 | ||||
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BTW, nice to hear you're a Grice fan Last edited by William Dale Jr; 27 Nov 2010 at 01:30. |
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24 Nov 2010, 14:43 (Ref:2795228) | #18 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I've finally had a chance to go through my ever-expanding collections of Auto Action, and here's what they had on the Simpson series. Co-drivers weren't always mentioned in race reports so there may be a few omissions, but a few drivers did usually drive single-handed (including Crowe, Hulme, and Francevic).
Incidentally, all the races began with a rolling start. Was this common practice in NZ? Round 1 @ Manfield, on November 30
There were 35 entries for the race, including 13 under-1600cc cars (10 of which were Corollas), but only 27 arrived at the circuit. It rained throughout the race, making the outfield particularly boggy and the track particularly treacherous. Most had trouble getting heat into their tyres; Crowe and the Skyline both ran throughout on one set of wets! Croz took pole (his first on 4 wheels) and drove off into the distance. His only challange came during lap 1 from Andersson, but contact between the pair sent the Volvo sideways and down through the field. The Francevic Sierra went out with a broken turbo actuator rod. Grice went off into the mud trying to lap a slower car and lost many laps being recovered, before mechanical woes slowed the car toward the end. Under 1600cc class positions:
Under 2500cc class positions:
Also entered was John English/Dennis Roderick in a BMW 635CSi, but it didn't appear at the meeting. |
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"Our traction control was kinda how much your last crash was still hurting you." - Kevin Schwantz |
27 Feb 2012, 13:57 (Ref:3031911) | #19 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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28 Feb 2012, 08:29 (Ref:3032300) | #20 | |||
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"No. 62 Isuzu Gemini 2ZT 1844cc, Ian Schuler, Peter McNeil; Before... Schuler... obtained the car, Glenn McIntyre and Dennis Roderick raced it in the debut Nissan Sport Series for a 6th at Wellington and 9th at Pukekohe" The Nissan Sport Series was early in 1985 and there might be some relevant photos here: http://www.theroaringseason.com/show...et-Race-Photos or here: http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...ellington%201/ Malcolm. |
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2 Mar 2012, 02:57 (Ref:3033849) | #21 | ||
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Conrad |
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16 Mar 2012, 00:47 (Ref:3041944) | #22 | |||
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Going from the pics on the roaring season, it is a PF60E rwd gemini the same as mine, can you find out what your friend's is please? At the wellington 1985 race, it was painted red at that stage, what is it now? |
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26 Nov 2010, 11:27 (Ref:2796015) | #23 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thanks for the excellent report. I tried to buy the issue of Auto Action featuring this race and several other issues featuring NZ races from 1986 off Ebay recently, but was outbid on all of them! Amazing how much some of the issues went for - one featuring a track test of Peter Brocks Commodore VK went for $26.
I'll add the results of Rd's 2 and 3 now that I have had a chance to check the two magazine reports I have. Rd 2: Baypark. Duration 3 hours.
I have a brief report on this race in Autosport, Dec 11, 1986. This was a race of attrition, with the pole-sitting Crosby/Wilkinson Commodore blowing an engine, the Francevic Sierra retiring with turbo troubles, the Hulme BMW suffering a blown gearbox and the Andersson Volvo suffering an "internal disorder". The Skyline was in only its fourth race start, and set the pace throughout to win by four laps. The Nissan NZ team had started to find the some reliability and pace from the car dispite a trouble debut at Bathurst a few weeks earlier. It sounds like this was not the most exciting of races, with Crowe also having a largely untroubled run to finish second. Crowe did have to stop to replace a badly worn tyre five minutes from the finish, but second was safe. The Andersons had their second good run in the space of a month at Baypark to finish third in the Pinepac Mustang. The ex-Johnson Mustang of Ker and Huxford suffered brake problems and joined the retirement list however. Class winners were Ed Lamont (1601-2500cc class) and Dave Barrow (0-1600cc). |
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26 Nov 2010, 15:22 (Ref:2796110) | #24 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The AA report can add a little to the round 2 results:
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Yep, Tulloch leased the car from Slako for the summer. |
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27 Nov 2010, 15:25 (Ref:2796469) | #25 | ||
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Some time ago I put together a race-by-race record for the Slako Rover and interesting to know that another likely handfull of races can be added, when more information emerges. I guess that it was still running in the usual pink/green colours when Tulloch raced it?
Jesper |
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