1986/1987 New Zealand Group A and Production Saloon Car Racing - Discussion & Results

[Jesper OH]

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:

Date	Track	Name of the race	Notes
1986-10-26	Baypark Raceway	Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Series
1986-11-16	Pukekohe	Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Classic
1986-12-28	Baypark Raceway	Mita Copiers International Motor Races
1987-01-04	Pukekohe	Mita Copiers New Zealand Grand Prix
1987-01-11	Manfeild	Mita Copiers New Zealand Grand Prix Series
1987-01-18	Wigram	Lady Wigram Trophy Meeting
1987-01-xx	Wellington	Nissan Mobil 500	Nissan Mobil Series, round 1
1987-02-01	Pukekohe	Nissan Mobil 500	Nissan Mobil Series, round 2
1987-03-29	Baypark Raceway	Radio B-O-P National Motor Races

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

[GTRMagic]

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?

[Jesper OH]

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

[brendonwood1]

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:

Round 1: Manfeild Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Series

Results

1st Ed Lamont/Graeme Cameron BMW 325i

Round 2: 1986-10-26 Baypark Raceway Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Series Results

1st Bruce Anderson/John Morton Ford Mustang GT

2nd unknown

3rd Ed Lamont/Graeme Cameron BMW 325i

Round 3: 1986-11-16 Pukekohe Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Classic 6-hour race

Results

1st Graeme Crosby/Wayne Wilkinson Holden Commodore VK

2nd Trevor Crowe/Jim Richards BMW 635CSi

3rd Ed Lamont/Graeme Cameron BMW 325i

Championship:

1. Ed Lamont/Graeme Cameron BMW 325i

2. Bruce Anderson/John Morton Ford Mustang.

Some notes on this series. It was poorly supported. The only round to attract a decent field was the 6-hour finale at Pukekohe.
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.

[brendonwood1]

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.

Rd 1 Simpson Appliances Series/Rd 2 South Pacific Touring Car Championship: Manfeild

1st Graeme Crosby/Wayne Wilkinson Holden Commodore VK

Rd 2 Simpson Appliances Seres/Rd 3 South Pacific Touring Car Championship:

1st Allan Grice/Kent Baigent Nissan Skyline Turbo

2nd Trevor Crowe BMW 635CSi

3rd Bruce Anderson/Wayne Anderson Ford Mustang GT

Rd 3 Simpson Appliances Series/Rd 4 South Pacific Touing Car Championship:

1st Charlie O'Brien/Glen McInyre BMW 635CSi

2nd Trevor Crowe BMW 635CSi

3rd Robbie Ker/Wayne Huxford Ford Mustang GT

New Zealand Touring Car Champions: Charlie O'Brien/Glen McIntyre BMW 635CSi

South Pacific Touring Car Champion: Allan Grice Holden Commodore VK & Nissan Skyline Turbo)

I have complete top en results and a race report for the third round in a copy of Racing Car News back home in Sydney. Will add extra detail when I get a chance after I return home this weekend.
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.

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

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.

Although not strictly Group A, but Winnie Vogt won the 1985 DTM race at Mainz-Finthen in a BMW 323i. On a hot day, all the bigger more powerfull cars suffered from tyre and break wear, with Vogt taking it carefull eventually winning.

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

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?

Again, referring to the early DTM years, Manfred Trint won the fifth round of the 1984 series at Wunstorf on June 11th. A few of the other races were held as two-part races and Trint succeeded in winning one half of the races at Avus on May 13th, Nürburgring on June 17th and Hockenheim August 4th. Good to hear the Pinepac car had a win.

Very interesting additions you've contributed with Brendon.

Jesper

[brendonwood1]

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.

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

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.

As I remember it, Klaus Niedzwiedz in a Zakspeed Ford Mustang finished second to Tom Walkinshaw in one of his Jaguar XJSs, at the 1983 German GP support race at Hockenheim. But just discovering that a two part Group A race was held at Nürburgring on October 6th and 7th 1984, that would be exiting news.

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

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

As I remember it, Klaus Niedzwiedz in a Zakspeed Ford Mustang finished second to Tom Walkinshaw in one of his Jaguar XJSs, at the 1983 German GP support race at Hockenheim. But just discovering that a two part Group A race was held at Nürburgring on October 6th and 7th 1984, that would be exiting news.

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

Yes i've been trying to find out more about the entry for the '83 German GP supporter. A programme/racecard would be extremely useful!

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?

[brendonwood1]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

As I remember it, Klaus Niedzwiedz in a Zakspeed Ford Mustang finished second to Tom Walkinshaw in one of his Jaguar XJSs, at the 1983 German GP support race at Hockenheim. But just discovering that a two part Group A race was held at Nürburgring on October 6th and 7th 1984, that would be exiting news.

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

Thanks for refreshing my memory about the German GP support race. I remember reading something about it in the motorsport mag articles of the time that discussed Johnson's purchase of the Zakspeed built Mustangs.

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.

[racer69]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

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.

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)

[cavvy]

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

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.

Dicks only win a Group A Mustang was the first (1985) Adelaide Australian Grand Prix, which chassis?

Same meeting Gerhard Berger drove the ex Schnitzer Bob Jane BMW 635, the last GP driver to punt a tourer on the same program?

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by cavvy

Dicks only win a Group A Mustang was the first (1985) Adelaide Australian Grand Prix, which chassis?

Same meeting Gerhard Berger drove the ex Schnitzer Bob Jane BMW 635, the last GP driver to punt a tourer on the same program?

Ah that rings a bell!

Did Gerhard get involved in some kind of contretemps with a Commodore or something else?

[KA]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Yes i've been trying to find out more about the entry for the '83 German GP supporter. A programme/racecard would be extremely useful!

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?

Yes, that rings a bell. From memory, I think the conclusion we reached in the 635 thread CC/BMW GB had 3 cars as you said- 2x RHD race cars, and a LHD spare (think this was a very early car, ex-Eggenberger?) which were all sold to Sytner at the end of 84.

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?

[William Dale Jr]

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

Position	Number	Driver/s	Car	Race Time/Laps	Retirement Cause	Qualifying Time	Grid Position
1	6	Graeme Crosby / Wayne Wilkinson	Holden Commodore VK	131 laps		1m13.91s	1
2	31	Trevor Crowe	BMW 635CSi	131 laps		1m15.28s	3
3	4	Per-Gunnar Andersson / Gary Croft	Volvo 240T	130 laps		1m15.31s	4
4	25	Denny Hulme	BMW 325i	129 laps			8
5	7	Charlie O'Brien / Glenn McIntyre	BMW 635CSi	127 laps		1m15.53s	5
6		Dave Barrow	Toyota Corolla	126 laps
7	17	Robbie Ker / Wayne Huxford	Ford Mustang	126 laps			10
8	1	Robbie Francevic	Ford Sierra XR4Ti	123 laps		1m14.35s	2
9		Ed Lamont	BMW 325i	123 laps
10		John Billington / Chris Castle	Holden Commodore VK	122 laps
	5	Allan Grice / Graeme Bowkett	Nissan Skyline DR-30			1m15.58s	6
		Alan Prince / Mike Hourigan	Jaguar XJ-S				7
		Inky Tulloch / Winston Wrigley	Rover Vitesse				9
DNF	33	Bruce Anderson / Wayne Anderson	Ford Mustang		alternator
DNF		Trevor McLean	Holden Commodore VK		gearbox

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:

1		Dave Barrow	Toyota Corolla
2		Bruce Fowler / Kirk Stoneman	Toyota Corolla
3		Warren Burt / Jeff Pascoe	Toyota Starlet
?	46	Andrew Bagnall / Bob Holden	Toyota Corolla

Under 2500cc class positions:

1		Denny Hulme	BMW 325i
2		Ed Lamont	BMW 325i
3		I Schuler	Isuzu Gemini ZZ

Also entered was John English/Dennis Roderick in a BMW 635CSi, but it didn't appear at the meeting.

[brendonwood1]

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.

POLE	Graeme Crosby/Wayne Wilkinson	Holden Commodore VK
1st	Allan Grice/Kent Baigent	Nissan Skyline Turbo	169 laps
2nd	Trevor Crowe	BMW 635CSI	167 laps
3rd	Bruce Anderson/Wayne Anderson	Ford Mustang GT	165 laps
4th	Ed Lamont	BMW 325i	164 laps
5th	Graham Lorimer/Tony Lawrence	BMW 635CSI	161 laps
6th	Charlie O'Brien/Glenn McIntyre	BMW 635CSI	161 laps
7th	Dave Barrow	Toyota Corolla GT	160 laps

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).

[brendonwood1]

Round 3: Pukekohe. 29 Starters.

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Laps	GRID
1	7	Charlie O'Brien/Glenn McIntyre	BMW 635CSI	151	4
2	17	Robbie Ker/Wayne Huxford	Ford Mustang GT	151	7
3		Graham Lorimer/Toy Lawrence	BMW 635CSI	148
4		Ed Lamont	BMW 325i	146
5		Bryan Bate	Toyota Corolla GT	146
6		Bruce Fowler	Toyota Corolla GT	143
7		Rupert Gardiner	Toyota Corolla GT	139
8		Andrew Bagnell	Toyota Corolla GT	137
9		Jim Clark	Ford Escort RS1600i	133
10	5	Graeme Bowkett/Allan Grice	Nissan Skyline DR30 Turbo	130	2
DNF	6	Grame Crosby/Wayne Wilkinson	Holden Commodore VK	24	1
DNF	1	Robbie Francevic	Ford Sierra XR4Ti		3
DNF	31	Trevor Crowe	BMW 635CSI		6
DNF	3	Trevor McLean/Rod Downs	Holden Commodore VK		8
DNF	33	Bruce Anderson/Wayne Anderson	Ford Mustang GT
DNF	4	Per-Gunnar Andersson/Gary Croft	Volvo 240 Turbo		5
DNF	25	Denis Hulme	BMW 325i
		Dave Barrow	Toyota Corolla GT

The results for this race and the report details are from Racing Car News, February 1987.

This was yet another race of attrition. The Crosby Commdore continued its dominence of qualifying in the series, with Grice putting the Skyline in second and Francevic in third. Charlie O'Brien had sort the rocker problem that kept him down the order at Baypark and qualified fourth.

In the race itself, the Skyline took the lead from the start and held it for the first hour until forced into the pits for the first of many long pit stops. The first one resulted from a broken fanbelt. Further pit-stops were required to sort the problem, with the team eventually spending twenty minutes replacing the alternator. However, such was the attrition, the Skyline still finished tenth, allowing Grice to take the South Pacific Touring Car Championship.
The Crosby Commodore ran second until oil pressure problems caused its retirment on lap 24. The Francevic Sierra went out early with a broken camshaft.
Trevor McLean was another early retirement, after being punted off by O'Brien's BMW on the first lap. The collison caused O'Brien to pit for repairs to the front guard.
At the end of the first hour, Andersson took the lead in the Volvo until he too was forced to retire with a damaged differential.
Amazingly the Anderson brothers Mustang took the lead from the Volvo and held it for 29 laps until their usual reliability curse struck and they retired with a badly bent strut which had damaged the differential.
Winner of the 1600cc class in the first two races, Dave Barrow, retired the Corolla with a blown clutch at two-thirds distance and Trevor Crowe retired about the same time with a broken rocker.
Through all of this O'Brien had worked his way back into the lead after his first lap collision and held it to the finish. The Robbie Ker/Wayne Huxford Mustang ran reliably to finish second on the same lap, while Graham Lorimer and Tony Lawrence in the ex-Crosby BMW completed the podium.

[brendonwood1]

I won't attach copies of the articles as I imagine there would be copyright restrictions. Hopefully photos from the articles are ok.

Attached are photos of the start of the Pukekohe race; the damaged Trevor McLean Commodore; the O'Brien State Coal Sponsored BMW; the Bowkett/Grice Skyline.
The final photo is of a BMW 325i. The article claims this is the Ed Lamont car, but William Dale Jnr's report above says that the 25 BMW was the Hulme car.
Also, I thought the Lamont BMW was sponsored by Lockwood.

From the start photo, just visible in the background is the Tulloch/Wriggley Rover mentioned in the first report. I assume this is the Tim Slako car. I'm pretty sure that Slako and Tulloch shared it in the Nissan Mobil series later that season.

[William Dale Jr]

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

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!

Yeah, sorry about that, pretty sure I was the guy who outbid you! I didn't get the one that had the round one results, though, I already had that one. Lucky, since I think that issue went for $33!

The AA report can add a little to the round 2 results:

Position	Number	Driver/s	Car	Race Time/Laps	Retirement Cause	Qualifying Time	Grid Position
1	5	Allan Grice / Kent Baigent	Nissan Skyline DR-30	169 laps		1m00.75s	3
2	31	Trevor Crowe	BMW 635CSi	167 laps		1m01.98s	5
3	33	Bruce Anderson / Wayne Anderson	Ford Mustang	165 laps		1m02.07s	6
4		Ed Lamont	BMW 325i	164 laps		1m03.86s	10
5		Graham Lorimer / Tony Lawrence	BMW 635CSi	161 laps
6	7	Charlie O'Brien / Glenn McIntyre	BMW 635CSi	161 laps		1m03.02s	9
7		Dave Barrow	Toyota Corolla	160 laps
8		Alan Prince / Mike Hourigan	Jaguar XJ-S	160 laps
9		R. Gardiner / S. Gardiner	Toyota Corolla	155 laps
10		Bruce Fowler / Kirk Stoneman	Toyota Corolla	152 laps
1?		Don Halliday	Nissan Bluebird
15		Bob Holden / Andrew Bagnall	Toyota Corolla
DNF		Allan Drinkrow / Bruce Drinkrow	Toyota Corolla		engine
DNF		Chris Castle / John Billington	Holden Commodore VK		clutch
DNF	1	Robbie Francevic	Ford Sierra XR4Ti		turbo actuator	1m00.65s	2
DNF	4	Per-Gunnar Andersson	Volvo 240T		overheating	1m02.70s	8
DNF	6	Graeme Crosby	Holden Commodore VK	13 laps	engine	0m59.67s	1
DNF		Denny Hulme	BMW 325i	11 laps	gearbox	1m01.60s	4
?	17	Robbie Ker / Wayne Huxford	Ford Mustang			1m02.30s	7

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

Round 3: Pukekohe. 29 Starters.

...The Robbie Ker/Wayne Huxford Mustang ran reliably to finish second on the same lap...

According to the AA report, the Ker team's lap chart showed them to be leading so Huxford took the last hour of the race easy, and was gutted to find out he'd finished second.

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

The final photo is of a BMW 325i. The article claims this is the Ed Lamont car, but William Dale Jnr's report above says that the 25 BMW was the Hulme car.
Also, I thought the Lamont BMW was sponsored by Lockwood.

I think the caption's right, the #25 is the Lamont car. One of the AA articles says his 325i was sponsored by JPS. Plus, it makes more sense for the Bill Bryce-owned 325i to carry Lockwood logos, since they sponsored the car in '87.

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

From the start photo, just visible in the background is the Tulloch/Wriggley Rover mentioned in the first report. I assume this is the Tim Slako car. I'm pretty sure that Slako and Tulloch shared it in the Nissan Mobil series later that season.

Yep, Tulloch leased the car from Slako for the summer.

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by brendonwood1

Round 3: Pukekohe. 29 Starters.


The results for this race and the report details are from Racing Car News, February 1987.

This was yet another race of attrition. The Crosby Commdore continued its dominence of qualifying in the series, with Grice putting the Skyline in second and Francevic in third. Charlie O'Brien had sort the rocker problem that kept him down the order at Baypark and qualified fourth.

In the race itself, the Skyline took the lead from the start and held it for the first hour until forced into the pits for the first of many long pit stops. The first one resulted from a broken fanbelt. Further pit-stops were required to sort the problem, with the team eventually spending twenty minutes replacing the alternator. However, such was the attrition, the Skyline still finished tenth, allowing Grice to take the South Pacific Touring Car Championship.
The Crosby Commodore ran second until oil pressure problems caused its retirment on lap 24. The Francevic Sierra went out early with a broken camshaft.
Trevor McLean was another early retirement, after being punted off by O'Brien's BMW on the first lap. The collison caused O'Brien to pit for repairs to the front guard.
At the end of the first hour, Andersson took the lead in the Volvo until he too was forced to retire with a damaged differential.
Amazingly the Anderson brothers Mustang took the lead from the Volvo and held it for 29 laps until their usual reliability curse struck and they retired with a badly bent strut which had damaged the differential.
Winner of the 1600cc class in the first two races, Dave Barrow, retired the Corolla with a blown clutch at two-thirds distance and Trevor Crowe retired about the same time with a broken rocker.
Through all of this O'Brien had worked his way back into the lead after his first lap collision and held it to the finish. The Robbie Ker/Wayne Huxford Mustang ran reliably to finish second on the same lap, while Graham Lorimer and Tony Lawrence in the ex-Crosby BMW completed the podium.

Currently re-reading this thread, and I can only say a big thank you for the recent updates to William and Brendon. The Simpson Appliances Series is new to me and thank you for telling it was effectively the New Zealand Touring Car Championship. I'm also getting an idea of what the South Pacific Touring Car Championship was about. Here's another try at dates for the series':

Benson & Hedges Series:

Date	Track	Race name
1986-xx-xx	Manfeild
1986-10-26	Baypark Raceway	Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Series
1986-11-16	Pukekohe	Benson & Hedges Saloon Car Classic

Simpson Appliances Series:

Date	Track	Race Name
1986-11-30	Manfeild
1986-12-xx	Baypark Raceway
198x-xx-xx	Pukekohe

Baypark might have been held on December 7 1986.

Nissan Mobil 500 Series:

Date	Track	Race Name
1987-01-xx	Wellington	Nissan Mobil 500
1987-02-01	Pukekohe	Nissan Mobil 500

Wellington likely held on January 25, 1987

BTW, why is it Manfield but Manfeild?

Jesper

[Jesper OH]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Ah that rings a bell!

Did Gerhard get involved in some kind of contretemps with a Commodore or something else?

..as a reference to Berger participating in the Australian GP support race at Adelaide. Could the Commodore be the winning Grice car. From what I have pieced together Allan survived two spins on his way to winning the race.

Jesper

[Jesper OH]

For future references of the South Pacific Touring Car Championship, this would be the calender:

Date	Track	Race Name
1986-10-25	Adelaide GP	Australian GP
1986-11-30	Manfeild
1986-12-xx	Baypark Raceway
198x-xx-xx	Pukekohe

Baypark might have been held on December 7 1986.

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

[William Dale Jr]

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

..as a reference to Berger participating in the Australian GP support race at Adelaide. Could the Commodore be the winning Grice car. From what I have pieced together Allan survived two spins on his way to winning the race.

Jesper

I think you're getting the years mixed up, Jesper. Grice won in 1986; Berger raced in 1985, the year Johnson won in the Mustang. The Commodore he tangled with was John Harvey's Mobil HDT car. Harvey had jumped the start, and Berger was battling to get past him, when Harves dispatched the orange Bimmer entering the chicane.

Originally Posted by Jesper OH

Baypark might have been held on December 7 1986.

...

Would the South Pacific Touring Car Championship be an equivalent of the 1960/1970s TASMAN single seater series, but for tin-tops?

The NZ rounds were all one week apart. Manfeild on November 30, Bay Park on December 7, Pukekohe on December 14. I'm not really sure where the Simpson series fits in the overall scheme of things. I don't know enough about the NZ scene to be able to say definitively, Brendon or maybe some of the Kiwis in the Australia/NZ forum would be better placed to answer this. However, I think equating it with the Tasman series is probably exaggerating its importance, since there was comparatively little Australian participation.

BTW, nice to hear you're a Grice fan

[brown dog]

Very interesting thread to me! A friend of mine has bought the ex Eggenberger/Crichton/Petch Sierra, sorry Merkur XR4Ti and parts are being gathered to restore it to its original Gp.A specification. So nice to read some history about it here.

Here is the car in its Gp.A days, I am guessing this is probably Pukekohe January 1987:



And this is the car as it is now, ba$tardised into a "Thundersaloon":



Conrad

[brown dog]

Thinking about it now, the car I have pictured above was owned by Neville Crichton at this time, and the "Francevic" Sierra mentioned above was the ex Andy Rouse XR4Ti (RHD) car.
The Eggenberger car pictured above was being raced first at Wellington Jan 1987, then Pukekohe 1987 a week later, then taken to Australia and campaigned (rather unsucessfully) by Crichton and Denny Hulme for a handful of rounds in 1987. Although a fast car, it was plagued with reliability problems, then completely outclassed when the Cosworth came along that year with its better engine and less weight.

Conrad