Thanks to our awesome former
Bulletin Editor Bruce Jury (or BJ as we fondly know him) for the
following look back at what 'went on':
Mrs
Shirley Heine won the April Trail organised by Alan Reid. Eric Sullivan
was second and Alan Rowling third. The trial criss-crossed the Waimea
West, Appleby, Mapua, Tasman and Upper Moutere.
John Wells took the Farina Ford to victory at the Pig Valley Hillclimb
by just over 2 seconds from C Mason in a Prefect. Wayne Heine was third
in a Mini Cooper. Amongst the entry list were a couple of Cortinas,
a Morris 1300, a Mk.III Zephyr and one Dallas Harris punting, wait for
it, a Mk.I Zephyr !!!!! As you can well image Harry rounded out the
time sheets.
The first Night Trail of the season saw many competitors getting totally
confused and going round in ever decreasing circles due to an organisational
blunder - the organiser had omitted to remove a check board which applied
to the opening section. The event was eventually awarded to P.Jordan
from Alan Rowling and Kevin Renwick with Kevin Walton languishing back
in 11th place.
Charlie B in the Corolla was too quick for the rest of the pack at the
inaugural Rosedale Hillclimb beating home Ross Hore in the E-type, yes
a Jaguar-type one, and Ron Nicoll’s Escort 1600. Paul Russ finished
3rd in Class A in a Mini 1100 and Dog Frost 7th in Class B in the Singer
Vogue.
Ross Hore won the ‘End-of-the-Month’ Trial from Alan Rowling
and Alan Reid with Walt 8th in a Vogue.
Odds and Ends (the forerunners of Tailshaft)
recorded Ross Hore’s description of the Rosedale Hillclimb - “There’s
not even enough time to change stations on the radio !! “ It
also recorded that John Wells had retired from racing and the ultra-successful
2-litre Cortina-powered Farina has been sold to Mark Chisnall while
Dick Tout had become the proud owner of the ex-Ross Hore Farina.
Knappie hosted the June Gymkhana
at Belfit Lane and despite having used the paddock frequently
for testing the BDA had to give best to Tony Burbridge in the Datsun
1200 with Kevin Marsh third and Ashton Wood 4th. It was noted
that the afternoon finished with cream cakes and ham sandwiches at ‘Chateau
Knappsack’.
Kerry Smith/Warwick Smith and Robert Hart/Richard Popenhagen
were the only locals to tackle the Mainfreight/3ZM Canterbury
Rally, the Smith’s coming
home 8th o/all and 2nd in Class B in an Escort 1600 while Robert and Richards
run ended in SS5 when the Escort 2000 broke an axle.
The Owen brothers dominated the Limestone Creek (Hira Forest) Rallysprint
in the RS1800 Hugh beating Lloyd by 10 seconds from Graeme Burbridge
(Escort 1600) and Ashton Wood (Escort 2000). Interesting to note
that of the 10 entries nine were Escort of varying capacity, the
sole-interloper being Wayne Bateman’s
Datsun 1200.
“Bits & Pieces” noted that Dallas Harris had transferred the
running gear from his rally Anglebox into a Mk.1 Cortina, Adrian Douglas had
purchased a Mallock U2 Sports, Rob McKee had sold the 120Y to Dean Cameron who
had swapped the 1800 for a 1600 while Deano’s ex-Richard Hunt Mk.II Escort
now with 1600-power was now in the hands of Kerry Smith. John Thomson had sold
the ex-Trevor Crowe Datsun 1200 Coupe to Dean Bowden and there was a fair amount
of conjecture as to whether Craig Watson was learning Italian following his sojourn
with the Lancia service team on the Sanyo Rally. Short course apparently as Craig
only wants to learn the Italian for ‘Slow down you crazy dago’, ‘Stop,
Craig wants to get out’ and ‘Watch out, you have to go round roundabouts’.
‘Noddy’ Nicoll in
the RX7 pulled out a blinder on his last run to beat Don Urquhart’s
323 and Leitchy’s Datsun 1200 at Tunnel Road ahead of Guy Griffith
in Johnnie Johnstone’s Starlet 1600 and Craig Watson (Woolbloc
Datsun 1200). After disappearing off deep into the scrub on his practice
run Sefton Sharp hit a bank on Run 2 , Tim McQuade (RX7) broken an axle
and “Little Audreys’ Fee-Art 850 Coo-pay lost its engine
oil.
Ashton Wood and Ross Dixon won the Marlborough Rally in the Sierra Cossie
from Ross McKay with Gary Cliff third. Gavin Sendall/Marty Stevenson
were 8th in the FX-GT, Don Urquhart/Leon Wood (323) 12th, Gary Adcock/Gary
Donaldson (TR8) 13th, Johnnie Johnstone/Guy Griffith a noisy 25th in
the Starlet and Craig Watson/Kevin Walton 28th in the Datsun 1200 after
gearbox problems.
Fifty-four, I’ll repeat that, 54 cars turned up for the Kerrs
Hill Hillclimb naturally restricting everyone to just two timed runs
with not enough road closure time to squeeze the third one in. Just
over half of the top 10 places fell to Mazda’s, Noddy winning
the event in the RX7 from Garry Adcock (TR8), Tim McQuade (RX7), Gavin
Sendall (323), Chris McQuade (RX7), Don ‘Foorkit’ Urquhart
(323) and Sefton Sharp (RX7) with Brett Stevens (240Z0, Ian Shellock
(Lotus 7) and Jim Paki Paki in the big ‘Falcoon’ rounding
out the top 10.
Don Urquhart was happier back on the gravel at Pig Valley beating Knappie
in the RS1800 and Gary Adcock (TR8) . Johnnie Johnstone took out Class
B in the Starlet while Class A fell to Tony Martin’s Datsun 1200.
