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16 Oct 2010, 09:23 (Ref:2775692) | #1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1985/1986 New Zealand Group A Racing - Discussion & Results
As there seems to be some knowledge about the New Zealand Group A scene around this forum in general, a new threat or more seems appropriate. As usual the time line is centeret around the Kiwi summer season. I thought I didn't have anything to add but the obvious Nissan series races, but looking at my files I discovered the result of this particular Benson & Hedges 3 hour race, held on 20 October 1985 – two weeks after the 1985 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst.
I'm sure that somebody can provide the track, and the source of this result might be from an apparently defunct Mark Petch site. DNFs/DNSs would be much appreciated, as a general synopsis of the race would be. Jesper |
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16 Oct 2010, 11:16 (Ref:2775728) | #2 | |
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Thanks for those results Jesper. That race is Rd 1 of the 1985 Benson & Hedges series at Manfield.
The main retirement was the Kent Baigent/Neal Lowe, BMW 635CSi - as a result of a barrell roll which destroyed the car and left Baigent in hospital with a broken arm and concussion. Also, the Anderson/Anderson Pinepac Mustang would have been a retirement as well. Looking at the results, the first eight cars home were Group A cars. The nineth placed Allport/Freeth Mazda would be the first NZ Production car beating the Hiscock/Gillies Cordia Turbo. The cars in 11th to 13th are all Group A cars. The cars from 14th to 16th and 18th and 19th are NZ Production cars and the 17th and 20th placed Corollas were Group A cars. The Adams/Woolf Corolla must have suffered problems as it finished on the podium at Pukekohe a few weeks later. The lead of the early laps was contested by Hulme and Baigent - and it was a clash between these two that resulted in Baigent's crash. In later years a story came out that Hulme was unimpressed by Baigent's aggressive driving in Australia and warned him that he'd hurt himself if he tried it against the wrong driver. This crash was a race incident - but that story may have been a partial reason for the crash. There are some hints that Hulme was giving Baigent some of his own "medicine". All of this was related in a biography about Ray Smith - who ran the Auckland Coin & Bullion Exchange and owned and co-drove the Hulme/Smith Commodore. I read the parts of the biography concerning Smith's racing career in a book store in Auckland a few years ago. If I ever see it cheap I'll buy it. After the crash between Hulme and Baigent, which dropped Hulme back, the Volvo came through to win. |
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16 Oct 2010, 11:34 (Ref:2775737) | #3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Also, following are brief results of Rounds 2 and 3 of the series.
The Baypark round was the second round. The two Commodores of Bowkett/Wilkinson and Hulme/Smith both retired. The Volvo led until 10 minutes from the end until Petch was overtaken by the Crowe/Longhurst BMW. The Volvo suffered from tyre wear on a circuit that was hard on tyres, and this tyre wear cost the team their second successive win.
The results are incomplete I'm afraid. My only current source for the 1985 series is the Australian "Raceyear 1985" annual, which gives a synoposis of each round, but doesn't give full results. I am assuming that the Volvo took pole, but that needs confirmation. The book doesn't say who finished third. And I cannot confirm if the Mazda 626i or the Mitsubishi Cordia Turbo was the winning car in NZ Production. Round 3 was the six hour race at Pukekohe. There was additional interest in the appearance of the Dick Johnson Mustang, which he shared with Neville Crichton. I remember the car ran in John Andrew Ford colours in this race. John Andrew Ford was/is Auckland's largest Ford dealer, and at the time the dealership was owned by Crichton. The race saw the Commodores hit problems again, but there was a great three-way dice between the Volvo, Johnson Mustang and Crowe BMW for the first three hours. The Volvo broke its diff at the three hour mark and the Mustang got stuck in gear causing Johnson to lose a lap. This allowed the Crowe/Longhurst BMW to cruise to the finish. The little Corolla GT of Adams/Woolf finished third.
Apologies for not having full results or confirmation of the grid for these races. If I have a chance to check through some of my NZ mags while visiting family next week I'll see what else I can find. |
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16 Oct 2010, 11:44 (Ref:2775741) | #4 | |
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Finally, there was in December-January there was a four round New Zealand Touring Car Championship held over December 1985-January 1986.
Round 1 was at Baypark and was won by Trevor Crowe (BMW 635CSi) from Graeme Cameron in the Petch Volvo. Round 2 was a Pukekohe in support of the New Zealand Grand Prix. The evolution version of the Commodore VK was homologated and Graeme Bowkett took pole and won ahead of Crowe and Cameron. Round 3 was at Manfield. Francevic was back in the Volvo and diced throughout with Bowkett in the Commodore before the Volvo got through to win. Round 4 was at Wigram in support of the Lady Wigram Trophy meeting. There were two heats, with Crowe and Bowkett winning one heat each. Of interest, David Oxton debuted the ex-Rouse Sierra during the series. Although the Raceyear annual doesn't mention this, I remember that Oxton got at least one pole. Again, I only have brief results. This takes us through to the 1986 Nissan Mobil 500 series at Wellington and Pukekohe. Extensive results for both races are available on Frank de Joeng's website and Wellington race highlights can be found on Youtube. I will post up a report on this series when I return from my NZ trip in a few weeks time. |
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16 Oct 2010, 14:32 (Ref:2775782) | #5 | |||
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A John Andrew ex-Ruedi Eggenberger Ford Sierra XR4Ti made about half the 1987 ATCC rounds in the hands of both Chricton and Denny Hulme. I think that particular car made its southern debut at Wellington in early 1987, Steve Soper co-driving. Otherwise, I have read your recent posts with great exitement, brendonwood1. Most of this is new territory for me. I'm noting that dates for the various races are a bit fluent at the moment, but will have a look at http://www.progcovers.com/motor/tracks.html Jesper |
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16 Oct 2010, 15:28 (Ref:2775797) | #6 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Had a look at the programme covers site and it proved quite fruitfull. I have chosen to list all available dates for the various tracks, to not let any obscure race slip.
The Wigram race dated as 1986-01-xx very likely was held on 19th January 1986. And please note the spelling of Manfeild - it's not a mistake! Jesper Last edited by Jesper OH; 16 Oct 2010 at 15:39. |
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22 Oct 2010, 12:26 (Ref:2778381) | #7 | ||
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The Wellington result includes 4 RS1600is: #35 Phil Mhyre/Graham Lorimer- finished 11th #48 Jim Clark/Paul Mabee- DNF #64 Andrew Bagnall/Paul Radisich- DNF #84 Chris Toms/Rex Rattenbury- DNF We looked at these in the RS1600i thread- I don't have the Bathurst book to hand, but the #35 car was blue, sponsored by Lakeland Ford. Apparently, the other 3 were all ex-BTCC Group A cars of Richard Longman origin- #48 ex-Alan Curnow Datapost car, (resprayed yellow), #64 ex-Richard Belcher John Jeffeys Engineering car (still in the red/blue/white Jeffreys colours) #84 an ex-Longman/Curnow Datapost car, (still in Datapost red- now back in the UK, see pics in the RS1600i thread) http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/ There are more pics from the 1986 Nissan-Mobil races in that Flickr set. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...th/2788592820/ Last edited by KA; 22 Oct 2010 at 12:42. |
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24 Oct 2010, 18:00 (Ref:2779707) | #8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes made from a VHS of the '86 Wellington 500, showing the presence of about 40 cars for the race.
Jesper |
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24 Oct 2010, 20:59 (Ref:2779815) | #9 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Hi Jesper- I've got the '86 Bathurst book to hand, and think I can fill in some more of that- I'll try and match them up with pics in the album on Flickr I mentioned in my last post- I'll add details in bold
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Last edited by KA; 24 Oct 2010 at 21:13. |
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25 Oct 2010, 06:20 (Ref:2780012) | #10 | |
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25 Oct 2010, 06:25 (Ref:2780015) | #11 | |||
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25 Oct 2010, 07:34 (Ref:2780043) | #12 | ||
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Also, I have the wrong results for the Baypark round. Round 1 at Baypark and was won by Trevor Crowe (BMW 635CSi) from Graeme Bowkett (Commodore VK) and Graeme Cameron in the Petch Volvo. Bowkett's Commodore would have been in pre-evolution form for the Baypark race. Also, can add that Denis Hulme (Commodore) was 3rd at Manfield and Trevor Crowe was 4th. |
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26 Oct 2010, 03:56 (Ref:2780553) | #13 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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After retirements of the leading Commodores, it was the Jaguar XJS of Mike Hourigan and Allan Prince which finished third at Baypark. This car was largely standard except for good brakes and suspension. They tweaked the motor after this race and did not finish another race during the 1985/86 season. Also, the Pukekohe 6-hour race saw Graeme Crosby and Lew McKinnon join the series in a BMW 635CSi. The "Bathurst 1986/87" annual describes the car as an ex-Frank Sytner car. For some reason I thought the engine/gearbox from the destroyed Kent Baigent BMW ended up in this car. That may have been the case later on. At Pukekohe the car finished fourth after an early stop to replace a half shaft. |
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26 Oct 2010, 04:15 (Ref:2780556) | #14 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Thanks to the Dunlop Book of New Zealand Motorsport and the Bathurst 1986/87 yearbook, I now have extensive results of the NZ Touring Car Championship. So I have now put it in table form as follows:
The Sierra's turbo blew on the warm up lap, so Oxton was a did not start.
Oxton qualified the Sierra second for this race and ran second until a half-shaft broke. The race saw the Evolution Commodore VK take pole and win on its World Debut.
Mark Petch and Robbie Francevic agreed that the "order had to be restored", so Francevic was back in the Volvo for this race. This was the most exciting race of the series, with the Francevic and Bowkett exchanging paint several times in their battle for the lead.
Many teams skipped this race due to the fact it was just a week before the Nissan Mobil 500 at Wellington. Oxton finally found some reliability and finished both heats on the podium. |
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26 Oct 2010, 06:24 (Ref:2780578) | #15 | |||||||||||
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Ok, thanks to Dick Johnson's column in Chequered Flag Dec 1985, I can confirm that Johnson took pole for the 1985 Pukekohe 6-hour race. Johnson comments in his column that at the 2/3rd race distance they had a 70 second lead, only for the gearbox to jam. Apologies for how bitty this is turning out - I keep finding small bits of info and adding them. |
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26 Oct 2010, 16:26 (Ref:2780814) | #16 | ||
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Adding small bits had made a major contribution to the various BTCC pages and will hopefully do so here too. I had little knowledge except for the Nissan Mobil 500 races before these threads, but am pleasantly surpriced that New Zealand appears to have had it's own unique Group A community.
Jesper |
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27 Oct 2010, 10:39 (Ref:2781088) | #17 | ||
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About 40 minutes worth of highlights from the '86 Wellington Street Race has appeared on Youtube - you may be able to glean some more info off that
Bonus points if you can figure out what Armin Hahne's on about! (Actually, look like the '87 WTCC race is there too, in similar detail...) |
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29 Oct 2010, 13:15 (Ref:2782086) | #18 | ||
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Frank apparently bought the 3 CC Motorsport/BMW GB cars, then sold them on- one to Mike Newman in the UK who ran it in the BTCC 1985-7 (and I think may still have it?), one to O'Brien before Bathurst '85... (the red 'State Coal' car in the NZ races) http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/ ...and I thought the third (the spare) went to Europe (Belgium?)- pretty sure this one was LHD- the other two being RHD, as shown in the pic of the O'Brien car. The pic clearly shows the Crosby car as another RHD 635- so was this Sytner's 1985 BTCC car sold on to NZ? (don't recall if the Sytner car was LHD or RHD) http://www.flickr.com/photos/8021817...7606882601980/ |
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7 Nov 2010, 07:53 (Ref:2786203) | #19 | ||
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Conrad ' |
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14 Nov 2010, 07:08 (Ref:2789971) | #20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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26 Nov 2010, 12:58 (Ref:2796050) | #21 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I've been sitting on these results for a while, so time to put them up.
Have reviewed the highlights of the race uploaded to Youtube and from a DVD sent to me (thanks to ten-tenths member, Chavez), which has helped add in some minor details. However, the complete grid and results are from Frank de Joeng's website here: http://homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jon...ellington.html 1986 NISSAN MOBIL 500 Rd 1: Wellington Starters: 39
RESULTS
*Rolled one car in practice, but believe they swapped to second car for race. For its second year, the Nissan Mobil 500 attracted a very strong field. The newly homologated evolution Holden Commodore VKs of Brock/Moffat, Grice/Cameron, Hulme/Smith and Bowkett/Wilkinson were expected to take the race to the two TWR Rovers of Walkinshaw/Percy and Hahne/Dickson and the Volvo 240T of Francevic/Lindstrom. Andy Rouse came down to NZ to share his BTCC winning Sierra XR4Ti with David Oxton, and while considered a strong prospect for the pole, not many people thought the car would last the distance. The Mustang of Johnson/Crichton and the BMWs of Crowe/Longhurst, Morton/Richards, Crosby/McKinnon, O'Brien/McIntyre and Keogh/Robertson were expected to go the distance, but would be relying on legendary reliability or rain to score a result. As it turned out, the weather played a big role in the race. Rouse did take the pole - in a top 10 shoot out held in very wet conditions. Francevic was alongside, followed by Brock, Johnson, Crowe, Grice, Harvey, O'Brien, Hulme and Bowkett. From the start, on a dry track, the Volvo took the lead and Brock quickly found a way past Rouse as well. The Volvo would lead for the first 1/3rd of the race, chased by Brock's Commodore. Behind, the Bowkett Commodore was an early casualty after clipping a wall and Grice suffered early problems dropping him well back. Rouse's Sierra retired on lap 5, parked on the opposite side of the track from the pit wall. Meanwhile, Denis Hulme had moved the AC&B Commodore up ahead of Crowe into the top three. The Volvo retired about 1/3rd distance, leaving Brock in charge from Hulme and Crowe. Then the weather arrived and the Holden Dealer Team gambled on intermediates, leaving Moffat struggling and falling down the field. The Hulme/Smith car took on full wets and took the lead of the race, with the Crowe/Longhurst BMW - also on wets - grabbing second and closing quickly on the AC&B Commodore. The great run of the AC&B Commodore came to an end when the gear lever came off in Smith's hands at 2/3rd distance, leaving the Crowe/Longhurst BMW with a huge two lap lead over the Brock/Moffat Commodore. The rain had stopped by 2/3rd distance, and on a drying track Brock took on the task of hauling in the BMW, lapping some 2.5 seconds a lap quicker than the BMW. However, Longhurst seemingly had it all under control until a suspension failure pitched the BMW into the wall with 10 laps to go. This promoted Brock into the lead, ahead of Dick Johnson, John Harvey in the second HDT Commodore and Per-Gunnar Andersson in the visiting Rockgas Volvo. However, no sooner had Harvey taken over third, then he exited the race with engine failure, promoting the Volvo into third. This is the way they finished, with the amazing little factory backed UDC Toyota NZ Corollas of Jennings/Barrow and Adams/Woolf finishing 1st & 2nd in class and 4th and 5th outright. The Nissan Bluebird Turbo of Halliday/Croft won the 1,601-2,500cc class ahead of the Barry/Heyer Fiat Ritmo 130TC. |
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26 Nov 2010, 13:21 (Ref:2796063) | #22 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Have filled in a few more gaps. The Capri, the Bowkett Commodore and the Collingwood Commodore can all be seen in the You Tube footage. The only shots I can see of the Collingwood Commodore is where it is parked off in the background after retiring. Look for the Blue Evo VK Commodore in the background of some of the shots. Footage of the race had been linked before, but I'll link it again here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA6VqI1-MVg Last edited by brendonwood1; 26 Nov 2010 at 13:30. |
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14 Jan 2011, 10:37 (Ref:2815605) | #23 | ||
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the bowkett commodore. to add a bit, and off the top of my head Roadways 1st full groupA car and brought new by bowkett Ran the 4 enduros in Aust including bathurst 1985 with wilkinson Won NZ touring car championship 86? Bent coming over the hill at Pukekohe the weekend after this picture was taken rebuild and sold to John billington QC run with chris castle in groupA events in NZ Run Bathurst 1987 with billington and motorcycle champ Graeme Crosby from Billington to Dave barrow Ran pretty much all the groupA and Nissan Mobil Races in NZ ran pretty much every nissan mobil race |
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11 Apr 2011, 04:12 (Ref:2861669) | #24 | ||
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I have the 1986 Nissan Mobil 500 yearbook if anyone wants some information.
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13 Apr 2011, 16:31 (Ref:2862944) | #25 | |||
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Entrant names lacks for most entries as does the number of laps for most DNF's. Any information about non-starter or DNAs? Jesper |
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