593 replies to this topic

[Peter Leversedge]

Who is going come up with a name ?

[Bruce302]

How about, Roly Levis, Roly Crowther, Barry Butterworth, Trevor Morris.....................

and a whole lot more, but right now I can't remember the forgotten ones.....

Bruce.

[maoricar]

Dawson Donaldson; Roger Bertram; Trevor McLain; Richard Sisler

[Lee Nicolle]

Graeme Crosby

[Bruce302]

Roger Bertram, damn he could drive, literally around the outside of everyone else.

Still on the spanners I believe.

[Lola5000]

Jim Palmer.

[Ron B.]

Leo Leonard...all right no more mopar stuff....

Graham McRae

[Ron B.]

David Oxton

I would think a lot of older Kiwi's remember these guys but Barry Butterworth and Trevor Morris are legends in the dirt world and how about Satan Brewer?. Not many remember him or have ever heard of him.

[Bruce302]

Satan Brewer, names don't get any more evocotive than that.

I'd love to hear some stories about this man.

[Catalina Park]

Brett Riley
Bert Hawthorne

[hatrat]

When you think about it there are quite a few. Some names that spring to mind:

Dene Hollier
Bill Stone
Ken Sager
Laurence Brownlie
Bryan Faloon
Bill Caldwell
Neil Whittaker
Bruce Abernethy
Rex Flowers
Vince Anderson
Andy Buchanan ........

[Dallas84]

Peter Hughes
Charlie Conway
Roy Harrington
Jack Nazer

[thunder427]

Contributions from my 'Hero' list; Harrold Heasly from Ashburton/quick Humber80, Johnny Mansell (looked like Stirling Moss, but in a Black.t.Shirt)great in single seaters,'Big' Bill Harris (Wouldnt drive on Saturday being a devout, Seventhday Adventist,but he could drive!!)Max Richards/Austin Healey (around 'Lake Brwndwyr')Eddie Murray/Speedway Midgets (and fast!!)Lynn Neilson and Barry Brown in the Mini era, Pete De Lore ,Quick, but lacked funding,Heck Green,the 'innovator'urban myth has him building a rear engine race car before the 'Poms'and it was a winner!!,Ron Rutherford,smooth with well prepared equipment,,'Doc' Langly,think he was a dentist,Bruce Kinsett raced a Vanguard with some 'Bravardo!!,............for now...............regards427

[ensign14]

Angus Hyslop? I seem to remember he won one of the Driver To Europe things?

[Paul Parker]

During some picture rearch with Ted (ferret) I came across a colour shot of Ron Roycroft in his blue Ferrari 375 driving straight at the camera.

He certainly deserves more public recognition and I think there might even be a biog on him in recent times.

[David McKinney]

Congratulations on spelling half those names correctly, thunder
Harold Heasley was from Rangiora
Doc Langley was a cardiologist

PP - yes, Up to Speed by Scott Thomson. An excellent book - and even non-NZ people say so

[Paul Parker]

I would like this book David do you recall who published it?

[alfredaustria]

What about Red Dawson? Who has more information about Red Dawson? When was he born? Is he still alive? He took part in some Tasman-races? If anyone has his private postal address, please send me a PM or an email, please. Thank you very much for your help. Regards from Austria. Alfred

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by Paul Parker
I would like this book David do you recall who published it?

Steele Roberts 2006
ISBN 1-877338-71-0
infor@steeleroberts.co.nz

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by alfredaustria
What about Red Dawson? Who has more information about Red Dawson? When was he born? Is he still alive? He took part in some Tasman-races? If anyone has his private postal address, please send me a PM or an email, please. Thank you very much for your help. Regards from Austria. Alfred

I'm afraid he's no longer with us, Alfred
He contested the NZ rounds of the Tasman series from 1965-69

[Michael Clark]

Merv Mayo
Phil Kerr
George Lawton
Kerry Grant
Jim Murdoch
Peter Hughes
Dave McMillan
Avon Hyde
Brent Hawes
Neil Stuart
Dennis Marwood
Laurence Brownlie
Grant Walker
Kevin Ingram
Steve Emson

[Bruce302]

Rod Coppins
Spinner Black
George Bunce
Rod Collingwood
Barry Phillips
Rex Hart

[GD66]

Geoff Mardon
Max Pennington
Baron Robertson
Neil Doyle
Rodger Anderson
Andy Buchanan...

[ensign14]

OK, this is about as informative as a phone book with no numbers. How about telling us a little about these chaps?

[Lee Nicolle]

Originally posted by Bruce302
Satan Brewer, names don't get any more evocotive than that.

I'd love to hear some stories about this man.

Frank 'Satan' Brewer was avery good speedcar performer I think late 50s. Well known on both sides of the Tasman.

[Lee Nicolle]

Barry Butterworth drove both midgets and Sprinters in NZ, Oz and the States. He could be very quick and was often very rough.
Trevor Morris had a great NZ reputation though when I saw him he never did much. He was not Goerge Tatnells hero!

[maoricar]

Ensign14......point taken. Given that I am relying on memory and have been out of the country for almost 30yrs, here's my best shot...
Dawson Donaldson:
died as a result of injuries received after inverting Bruce McLaren's Ulster Austin at a gravel road hillclimb; Ostrich farm road. The car seemed to suffer little damage.

Roger Bertram:
prepared and drove a small block Chevrolet powered super modified, mostly at Western Springs.
One could hear the wail of that engine turning 9000rpms above almost everything else racing. He had a garage in Manurewa and was, probably still is, a very quiet, and extremely versatile technician. He prepared and tuned a Lotus twin cam for me ( the ex Alwyn Marshall car), after several failed attempts by another, highly touted shop in the south Auck area

Trevor Mclean(sp?)
owned a transmission shop in Takanini, regular at club and long distance meetings at Pukekohe. Threw the crowd ( and probably the organizers) into a tizzy the first time he showed up and raced his valiant ute; auto trans of course,

Richard Sisler;
I first saw Richard when he was still racing a "humpy" Holden and I seem to remember that he was then, or later, working on Johnny Mansell's 250F. A quick driver and a thoroughly nice fellow

Bill (Arthur) Stone:
a lifelong racer of anything with wheels, Bill, with the moral and physical support of his dad Ben and mum Amy, campaigned, in typical Kiwi fashion from one end of NZ to the other, a series of somewhat outdated openwheel race cars on the veritable shoestring budget. An instinctive mechanic and always good humoured and ready to assist with advice.

Tony Vazey:
very quick on the hill climbs of the day in, what at first sight, should have been a quite improbable entry..a '38 Chev coupe, lowered, with a 300CID GMC 6 and (from memory) a packard Super 8 gearbox, The GMC had near perfect hemi combustion chambers, full pressure lube, headers, SU's and huge amounts of torque

And..TFNer Bob Homewood; preparer, builder; tuner par excellence and a very quick driver indeed..the last time I saw him race in his Ford Anglia. Bob is STILL in the business, was and still is a very nice chap and I dare say, is just as quick as ever

[alfredaustria]

Originally posted by David McKinney

I'm afraid he's no longer with us, Alfred
He contested the NZ rounds of the Tasman series from 1965-69

Perhaps do you know his birthdate and when Red Dawson died, please?

[Paul Parker]

Thank you David.

[Vicuna]

Pete de Lore

Gary Pedersen

Barry Keen

[thunder427]

More from My 'Hero' list; Ernie Sprague and his Dark Green Mk3 Zephyr with triple carbs,had great battles with 'Mr Jaguar'..... Ray Archibold (the Christchurch Jaguar Dealer)Very smooth driver,not to much into the 'Argee Bargee' style of the time,( The last race of the day ,as I said before,The Allcomers, Saloon Car Race,created the concept of "Rub'in is Racing" way before 'Days Of Thunder')....on with the list.......Frank Shuter, was a real Character/Mechanic,mainly involved with the 'Flathead V8 and V8-60',would go to America,buy 'Edebrock' performance parts,bring them back,reproduce them with 'SHUTER' cast on them (I've Still got my 'Polished' SHUTER twin carb manifold for a Flathead)..got to stop digressing...trying to Help, 'Ensign14,....with a bit of colour !!!............Pat Hoare ,MR FERRARI,come Saturday Morning ,PAT would fire-up the Red (ofcourse)Monster for a quick,'Around our Block',(no car alarms in those days)Made getting up early worthwhile,he would give the one Finger lifted of the steering wheel 'Nod'...MOOORRNNINNNG!!,there was a very attractive lady that used to enter her (Dare I say !!??) 'Powder' Blue XK140 Jaguar,a Miss June Monk,I'm Sure she was married, but entered as 'Miss',....Ron Roycroft,always had real nice single seaters,think he may have been a farmer,sure somebody will know,.......Ronnie Moore , my all time 'Speedway' HERO,( 3 times World Speedway Champion,and a real nice person,always had a moment in time!!) he dabled in the speedway off season with the 'single seater' thing and raced at some New Zealand events................................for now ....regards427

[David McKinney]

June Monk at one stage ran a hotel in Lyttelton. She was married to another driver, Bruce Monk - and is entered in the only relevant programmes I have as "Mrs June Monk"
Ron Roycroft lived in the country but wasn't a farmer - he had a garage and drove the local school-bus

[d j fox]

How about Tony Shelly?

He had a brief F1 season in 1962 , mainly in England, with a John Dalton entered Lotus18/20. He ran mainly in non championship races with a best place 3rd at the Goodwood Easter Monday Lavant Cup for 4-cylinder F1s. He ran in the British GP at Aintree (dnf) and dnq'd for both the German and Italian GPs, and then returned to NZ.

Obviously a proud Kiwi (I’ve never met one that wasn't!) his crash hat was, naturally, black emblazoned with the Silver Fern....an "All Black" on wheels!

David Fox

[Michael Clark]

Originally posted by ensign14
OK, this is about as informative as a phone book with no numbers. How about telling us a little about these chaps?

Fair enough.

Merv Mayo and Phil Kerr were the other finalists, along with Bruce McLaren, for the forst Driver to Europe. Merv had raced a Buckler and then did very well at Wigram in 1958 in a Cooper-Climax. He continued to spanner Jack Brabham's cars in NZ after he stopped racing to start a business and family. Heavily involved in his church, he still follows F1 closely.

Phil Kerr - McLaren, and Hulme, man as most will know.

George Lawton - joint Driver to Europe with Denny in 1960. Killed in Denmark in 1960.

Kerry Grant - very fast A40 driver who went open-wheeler racing with a Brabham. Still fast but had the odd crash.

Jimmy Murdoch - top bloke, great friend of David Oxton for whom he spannered initially and then decided to have a go at FF soon after it started here. Ran Atlantics in the UK on not even a shoestring and then became a very respectable F5000 racer with the last Begg.

[TennisUK]

Not unknown to UK/Aus/NZ peeps at all, but I read today Paul Radisich as officially retired.

[Lee Nicolle]

Originally posted by TennisUK
Not unknown to UK/Aus/NZ peeps at all, but I read today Paul Radisich as officially retired.

He has not had a good time of it recently with those very major crashes and injurys. Not really surprising. Lets hope he comes and has the occasional dabble at lower levels like some do.

[Tim Nevinson]

My first (and probably only) attempt at writing a book was called 'The Drivers', featuring pen portraits and contempory photographs of fifty odd new Zealand drivers who did circuit racing outside their own continent.
Its not perfect as I am sure some experts will attest, but then there is a TNF thread about writing books for experts which I wholeheartedly agree with.
Some of the drivers mentioned above are covered in the book, as well as many others. My first attempt at a website, www.kiwidrivers.com again is not perfect, but mentions all the drivers covered.
My motivation for the book was to give some credit to drivers who received remarkably little in their own country, and to hopefully to give people like the average TNFer a bit of pleasure.

[sterling49]

Originally posted by Tim Nevinson
My first (and probably only) attempt at writing a book was called 'The Drivers',

Good book Tim I have one of the few copies I guess in the U.K.

[eurocardoc]

part time F3 driver, Cavan Riley, of Racing Transmission Service.

Alan McCully reasonable in F3 early 70s.

[Ron B.]

Dennis Marwood had a place on the great South road Between Papakura and Takanini,( Home of that Mad Valiant Ute! .My parents had a house on School Road in Takanini for a while...and I raced the ute a few times with various cars I owned ;) )
Dennis tuned Datsun 1200's for the B&H race i think,i know he was selling the carbs off them in the late 60's early 70's and he was a Dellorto agent. he was then one of the first Honda tuners,about 30 years before his time when he was souping up the first Civics. he was also close to Bunn and Cummings engine rebuilders.
Frank 'Satan 'Brewer,
heres is the best info on an interesting guy.



Frank Brewer

[Ron B.]

Originally posted by maoricar


Trevor Mclean(sp?)
owned a transmission shop in Takanini, regular at club and long distance meetings at Pukekohe. Threw the crowd ( and probably the organizers) into a tizzy the first time he showed up and raced his valiant ute; auto trans of course,


B

Tony Vazey:
very quick on the hill climbs of the day in, what at first sight, should have been a quite improbable entry..a '38 Chev coupe, lowered, with a 300CID GMC 6 and (from memory) a packard Super 8 gearbox, The GMC had near perfect hemi combustion chambers, full pressure lube, headers, SU's and huge amounts of torque

A mate bought what I think was Tony's Chev coupe around 1976 . The Jimmy engine went straight into a 46 Chev pickup that Kev had bought from one of my neighbours. The Coupe was last heard of in the Thames area about 1978.
GMC (Jimmy's) engines and parts were obtained from old man Gillies down south( lower Hutt?) ,who had bought a few hundred acres of army surplus trucks after WW2. very handy indeed for those of us who knew how to extract power from these engines.
Heres Kev at meremere in 1978.

[thunder427]

David; I stand corrected,I thought about it a little harder,( mind you its some 49yrs ago!!)..I believe I was thinking of another great 'KIWI' lady driver...Miss Ivy Stevens...in a sports car,a Buckler, from England I think?.....how am I doing so far................regards427

[GD66]

Close as it gets, bud, Ivy Stevenson I believe is the lady in question : A Buckler and then a Lola, as I recall.

And Tim: Never say never, mate. The book was aching to be written, and the interminable questions about who to include and who to omit, are only subjective. Good on you for giving it a shunt, I have one on my coffee table as we speak, and wish I'd had a go at it. I always meant to get off my clacker and try one about NZ motorcycle roadracers, but Rhys Jones has done one, and it's a good effort. Whatever has burnt your candle down a bit will pass, so have a break, and move onto your next one....

[Mr Plug]

Originally posted by thunder427
More from My 'Hero' list.........Ronnie Moore , my all time 'Speedway' HERO,( 3 times World Speedway Champion,and a real nice person,always had a moment in time!!) he dabled in the speedway off season with the 'single seater' thing and raced at some New Zealand events.

If you are going to include Ronnie Moore, you HAVE to mention the brilliant Ivan Mauger; I seem to recall he had a go at F3 in the UK (correction/confirmation awaited!).

[David McKinney]

Better, Thunder
The car was from England, but not the driver

Originally posted by GD66
Close as it gets, bud, Ivy Stevenson I believe is the lady in question : A Buckler and then a Lola, as I recall.

Or to take it a step further, Ivy Stephenson
MG TD, Riley Special, Buckler-Climax, Lola-Climax, Lotus 23
She liked her small sportscars

[maoricar]

Originally posted by Ron B.


A mate bought what I think was Tony's Chev coupe around 1976 . The Jimmy engine went straight into a 46 Chev pickup that Kev had bought from one of my neighbours. The Coupe was last heard of in the Thames area about 1978.
GMC (Jimmy's) engines and parts were obtained from old man Gillies down south( lower Hutt?) ,who had bought a few hundred acres of army surplus trucks after WW2. very handy indeed for those of us who knew how to extract power from these engines.
Heres Kev at meremere in 1978.

The last I heard of Tony's coupe, Roger Lister owned it; he and I had a battle for FTD at an Autocross type meeting on land owned by, and adjacent to Aitkenhead'c sawmill at Pokeno. Lord knows how many blocks Tony went through on the one set of Jahns pistons--welded up ring lands and all...it's what you did when parts and money were both scarce. I know that strong backs were made for the 2 intermediate main caps in an effort to keep the crank in the block
G.T Gillies and Len (Sir) Southward betweeen them, scarfed up huge supplies of WW2 surplus, although I obtained several 270CID GMCs from the Wairarapa Catchment Board,......and you're right....they provided a reliable parts source for those of us that mucked around building 'specials' and the like. I was luckier than most, I was Tech rep for Glacier Bearings, before and after their purchase by Repco, pistons, rings, valves , bearings etc etc were no problem.

[ReWind]

Originally posted by Ron B.
Frank 'Satan 'Brewer,
heres is the best info on an interesting guy.
Frank Brewer

Thanks for that link!

The U.S. Social Security Death Index (he died in Arizona) gives his initials as "A.H." - how do these fit with "Frank"?
Can anyone solve this small riddle?

[Vicuna]

Originally posted by David McKinney
Better, Thunder
The car was from England, but not the driver

Or to take it a step further, Ivy Stephenson
MG TD, Riley Special, Buckler-Climax, Lola-Climax, Lotus 23
She liked her small sportscars

She still has the Lotus 23 in her garage in Kohimarama

[Ron B.]

Originally posted by thunder427
David; I stand corrected,I thought about it a little harder,( mind you its some 49yrs ago!!)..I believe I was thinking of another great 'KIWI' lady driver...Miss Ivy Stevens...in a sports car,a Buckler, from England I think?.....how am I doing so far................regards427

The Buckler,that brings back a few memories of TeKuiti and old school mates relative and giving him a hand to get one going one saturday afternoon and riding around town in it. Climax engine and all ,no muffler and water off the wet road spraying in through holes!.I understand that this was Ivy's car and was very well known in it's day for having been maintained regardless of cost .Ron Roycroft even had one. Buckler had an agency in new Zealand ... And Tasmania.
Bucklers Down Under

[Milan Fistonic]

This is Roger Lister at the top corner of the Chamberlain Road Hillclimb sometime in the early seventies.