4 replies to this topic

[Lee Nicolle]

Last night I went to Adelaide Motorsport Park [formerly Speedway City]  for what was a club show. There was 360 Sprinters, Streetstocks, junior sedans and Wingless Sprints and Classic Supermodifieds. I took some pics [with my phone] of the Modifieds which I hope people like.

 

SA14, very recently restored by Trev Mackerath. The ex Ron Quigley reputedly Zeke Agars built car. Trevor owns 3 super mods!

 

SA 42. The Dave Germein owned/ driven car that was raced in the 70s by Dave and Bob Aylesbury.  A copy of the Phil Hereen SA1 chassis. circa 73. One of two built by Minlaton Engineering. Injected Dodge 360 with With W2 heads as it had in the day. . Very succesful 75/73.  Seated l-r Chris Brown, Tony Hudson and Dave Germein.

 

SA92. ex Ray Wilson 1975  Jeff Harris built car. Holden 6. driven by Tony Hudson. This car was found in a local tip, had been converted to front drive to use in motorkhanas. rebuilt from engine plate forwards

 

V9. late 70s car. Presented as last ran on country tracks in the early 80s. Driven by Dave Moore. 318 Dodge LA.

 

D13. originally built mid 60s by Peter Denton  with a Chev.  originally a light weight stockcar. Went to Darwin  to Alan Davidson as D12 and extensively modified and used a 289 Ford and last raced as D13 by Bob Smith with a 351 Cleveland as it is now. Dodge DA body. Found in the Tennant Creek dump.

SA 97. built by Zeke Agars  about 67 for Peter Denton. Used the Chev that came out of the above car. Went to Doug Sunstrom in 70 and was driven at times by Garry Patterson, the racing reverend hippy! This car  too was found in the Tennant Creek dump and restored by Peter late 90s. Again steel Dodge DA body. And homemade quick change diff made by Peter from a Ford V8 diff. The diff turned up in Mildura!

This car won one version of the Australian title in 69.

 

SA49 Built by Glen Catford in the mid 60s. 1 owner for over 50 years! Dragged out from under a tree and restored by Glen about 2000. Another lightweight stockcar powered by a 272 Ford with triple 97s. Still driven quickly by Glen!  His later car  [up to 79] with a 300 Ford truck engine is still around as well.

 

SA88. A car owned but never raced by Bill Wigzell from the late 70s. This came from Bill about 8 years ago. Chev power. Driven by Chris Brown.

 

SA1. a replica of the 72 built Phil Herreen car that won the state title then. 318 Dodge, with SIX 97s. Built and driven by Rob Vella.The car was supervised by Phil and his crew when built late 90s. The original car went  to Bob Ekins in Darwin [his son won a Midget title late 90s] then through a few hands and ended up in the NT where it was robbed of all the good parts and dumped.

SA30, a replica of the Mal Sommerville 73-79 car built and driven by Mal Sommerville. Built around the original spare front axle, a triple 97 intake and the correct vintage Halibrand diff! 318 A block [poly/sawtooth] Chrysler.

And he still has the orginal towcar home in the shed!

 

V75. a car that has been around classic speedway for a long time. Evidently last raced early 80s and largely as it was then. Chev powered. He had travelled over from Victoria.

 

Most of these cars have been extensively rebuilt from junk or where they sat very incomplete for a decade or two and more. The trailers you see are similar to the transporters used in the day. Glen Catford still has his original trailer! though it has recently been retired on the farm.

All of these cars are using modern tyres as the originals are just not available. Many ran in the day  on  smooth dusty dolomite tracks]  on recap race tyres and or winter treads on the front. Modern hooky rutty clay tracks are just impossible to use those tyres. Though many still use the plate centre rims [great big flywheels] as they did in the day.

 

These cars do spirited demonstrations, the demonstrations are often very spirited! But unlike racing, cars generally go home undamaged though over the years [over 25 now] quite a few cars have been bent and repaired. And unfortunatly a couple of drivers hurt as well. The downside, and the youngest driver is in his 40s and the oldest mid 70s.

While there is no results it seemed yet again  a Dodgey whitewash! [Mopars] With the Chevs nowhere!  best of the rest was the 272 and Holden 6.

[DanTra2858]

Very nice Lee but the Tyers do not look Historic to me, I used to run at Kembla Grange Speedway (Wollongong) in the mid 1960 in Sedans.

[Lee Nicolle]

Very nice Lee but the Tyers do not look Historic to me, I used to run at Kembla Grange Speedway (Wollongong) in the mid 1960 in Sedans.

Yes as I said the tyres used in the past are not readily available and are unsuited to the modern hooky rutty tracks.

All of those cars are as raced in the 70s and 80s. Not as they were in the 60s.

The black SA14 looks very close too its pics from 1979. The SA 42 used similar size rims in 75/76 when it was runner up in the track championship. These days more stagger is used and the steer tyres are generally wider. Though by late 70s a l/r and r/f were basically interchangeable.

Most of the cars too have modern sprintcar/ midget power steering, a combination of older drivers and again modern tracks. I do call them girls!! IF you set them up properly and use stagger on the front they really do not need power steer. Though a LOT of cars in the day used the alloy FE-HR type steering boxes which are very basic and especially at 50 years old. I converted my car to a XF Falcon box long ago. Stiffer iron case with needle rollers on the main shaft and stronger gears makes them lighter to steer and they do not break. And basically bolts in where the Holden went.

The SA 30 car had the Holden box break 10 plus years ago and he hit the wall hard. The original car had a Ross steering box from an Inter Scout that was very good. But are impossible to find these days and if you do they are buggered.

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 29 January 2017 - 08:46.

[Ladeeda]

Nice pics,Lee. As an apprentice at GMH Woodville, I somehow became involved in helping remove an old car body from a property at Snake Gully ,if I remember correctly. I don't remember any details about it, but it was for use in an early speedway car of Peter Denton. Probably one of the cars in your photos. 

[Lee Nicolle]

Depending on which year for which car I suspect. He only had the two. Peter was there last night helping Glen Catford.

I can remember going to scrambles at Snake Gully when I was a kid.

Edited by Lee Nicolle, 29 January 2017 - 11:43.