teams, mechanics and crews

[paul lancaster]

Time to honour some of the folk, who without them, drivers wouldn't have won championships, or made a name for themselves.
Coming from timaru, nz, we have got some great local guys, who have worked for all sorts of teams.
Wayne Murdoch, fast peddler himself, but also an excellent mechanlc.
Alan Dunn, former racer, turned car builder, has worked in the U.S., Australia, and lots of other nz teams.
Jody Wilson, who has a fine reputation, worked for the Andy knight team for a long time, helping build and sort their super tourer, now helping Martin short, Brent Collins nzv8 new generation cars, he's not long been back from the U.S., to the saltlake flats, where he spannered Craig Gilbert to a new landspeed record, 387kph, which Craig told me, data showed it was wheelspinning at 300kph.
Eric Johnston from ashburton, also well known for building a fine v8,

Tell us your story's, either on the track, or off it, some of the road trips teams have made, or havnt.

[rf84]

From Hawkes Bay.
Steele Therkleson who worked for Carroll Shelby and to whom Shelby attributed a large amount of credit for their Le Mans victory. In later years he ran a very successful car restoration business in California.
Garry Simkin and Phil Harris. Phil worked for Graeme Lawrence on the M4A, F5000 etc before moving to Oz where he worked for Alec Mildren and then Pat Burke Racing on Warwick Brown's F5000. When Garry moved to Australia he also went to Pat Burke's then the pair went to the US and ended up with VDS. I'm sure Garry will fill in some more details.
Darryl and Wayne Palleson-Murray Taylor racing (UK)
Malcolm Webb-Dick Bennett's West Surrey Racing.
Alistair Caldwell-McLaren.
Alan Curry (originally from Scotland) but now residing in a retirement home in Havelock North-Borders Reivers. He was working with them on the 'D'Type Jags at Le Mans.
Bill Hanna-went with Dennis Hulme and Angus Hyslop to UK.
Craig Sant

[paul lancaster]

That's a good memory you have rf84, I think it's only right that these guys are mentioned, behind every good or great driver, there is a good mechanic, and a good team.

[Barry]

Don't forget max Rutherford in New Plymouth, Jackie Stewarts right hand man after working for Brabham.

[rf84]

Dick Bennetts himself
The Schollum brothers
Steve Horne
Roger Hill
Kevin Ingram
The Porteous brothers (Dale and Roger) and Leo Wybrott (all from Hastings). All 3 worked for both Lotus and Dale and Leo also worked for McLaren.
Alan McCall (builder of the Tui cars and designer of at least 1 Tecno F1 car)
John Nicholson (along with Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon designed, built and raced their own F1 cars).

[Oldfart]

Alex Bell (Surtees and a lot of others)
Bill Robinson
Phil Sharp
Grant Clearwater
all in Kerikeri (and there are others

[rf84]

Oldfart. Next time you are talking to Alex Bell ask him what happened to the U2 and Lotus 41 he once owned.

[paul lancaster]

I was lucky enough to meet Dick Bennett's at levels 2 yrs ago, he said he's had something like 16 f1 drivers pass through his team

[Grant Sprague]

Paul , you might want to talk to Peter about this ............... he would have some interesting stories , also Gary worked with Niki , Ronnie Peterson at march engineering & became good friends with james hunt .............. Grant

[paul lancaster]

Hi grant, good to here from you, I also remember when I was a kid, pumpkin Wilson looked after your brother Gary, when he ran the falcon in early 80s.I remember sitting in the car that was stored at jonesys place on Rathmore st.
Yes your right, peter Sprague has also been around a lot of teams too, Porsches, trs. As has ET (Evan Thomas), who has also been to the U.S..
Nigel Barclay worked for Paul morris for years, lots of good crews etc out of timaru.

[Grant Sprague]

Yep Nigel ran prancing horse, a lot of teams as did good friend McLrea , Rods son ..........mate the list goes on & on .... See you in a few months , are the Patement boys doing the corp boxes again [Ford] ?? cheers mate .......... Grant

[Grant Sprague]

Was thinking , Wal Wilmott from Timaru would be the pioneer of the lot , as was with Bruce from day one ........... lovely man lived in Hassel Street , now he could wright some books ................ we [Erine] bought a slot car set off ether him or his dad back in the early 60,s remember it well paper mache the track went through a make believe country side , hills, bridges etc etc , seemed big as a boy 7 yrs old but was probably 1& 1/5 mitres long .......................... Grant

[woody]

Paul, Is Pete Wilson the same man that was Peter Knight,s mechanic?

[Grant Sprague]

Woody , Peter Wilson [Pumkin] worked on Peter Knights Snr Boat , there were a few peters working , admin, , & racing must be a bit confusing ................. in that time & mostly from Chch & Timaru . Hope you did not mind me answering this question as Paul might not be here for a few hrs of days ............. cheers Grant

[paul lancaster]

Yip, your right there woody, Pete's nickname was pumpkin, he was a close friend of Paul Jones, who was my step-father.Pete's son Jody Wilson is also a top mechanic, and worked on Andy knights rides for years, and now looks after Craig Gilbert, and of late the 2 new generation nzv8 camrys run by the tony Richards team.
Pumpkin n jonesy were best of mates, and I remember some big sessions on Sunday nights after race day, lol.

[Kiwiboss]

From Hawkes Bay.
Steele Therkleson who worked for Carroll Shelby and to whom Shelby attributed a large amount of credit for their Le Mans victory. In later years he ran a very successful car restoration business in California.
Garry Simkin and Phil Harris. Phil worked for Graeme Lawrence on the M4A, F5000 etc before moving to Oz where he worked for Alec Mildren and then Pat Burke Racing on Warwick Brown's F5000. When Garry moved to Australia he also went to Pat Burke's then the pair went to the US and ended up with VDS. I'm sure Garry will fill in some more details.
Darryl and Wayne Palleson-Murray Taylor racing (UK)
Malcolm Webb-Dick Bennett's West Surrey Racing.
Alistair Caldwell-McLaren.
Alan Curry (originally from Scotland) but now residing in a retirement home in Havelock North-Borders Reivers. He was working with them on the 'D'Type Jags at Le Mans.
Bill Hanna-went with Dennis Hulme and Angus Hyslop to UK.
Craig Sant

My American mate out of Southern California reckons us Kiwis are the Gypsy's of the world, he says were friggen everywhere, LOL and he means that kindly!! he still doesn't believe we only have 4.5 M(he's been down a few times and now has a Kiwi wife) reckons more like 40M, LOL and he says if everyone came back at once were'd have no were to put them all!! A few years back he went up though China(via NZ and Australia) to do the Mongolian express as the train stops at his ancestors old home town somewhere in the Ukraine!! he gets put in with the only 2 other white people on the train, yeap you guess it, they're from Dunedin!!

I had the pleasure to visit Steele several times the last few years of his life in California, amazing guy and achieve greatness in the auto world especially with Shelby Automobiles!! his nickname was "Stainless Steel" and built the engines in both the McLaren/Amon and then Gurney/Foyt GT40's that won Le Mans, that's how good he was. I had the pleasure to be invite by Steele to a Shelby Reunion in Gardena and went along with him one time, it was fun!! he always had a luv for NZ but had been in the US for so long it was home and couldn't come back even though he quite often talked about it. RIP Steele.

Dale M

[928]

Dick Bennetts himself
The Schollum brothers
Steve Horne
Roger Hill
Kevin Ingram
The Porteous brothers (Dale and Roger) and Leo Wybrott (all from Hastings). All 3 worked for both Lotus and Dale and Leo also worked for McLaren.
Alan McCall (builder of the Tui cars and designer of at least 1 Tecno F1 car)
John Nicholson (along with Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon designed, built and raced their own F1 cars).

John Nicholson did not design and build his own car. the Lyncar was designed and built by Martin Slater, for JN

[John A]

18745
Spot the Kiwis

[paul lancaster]

What a cool pic john, unfortunately, before my time.I'm sure someone will recognize them.

[Howard Wood]

J.A. you had better id them. I think I can see you plus Graeme Cook, Pete Bruin, Ian Griff and honarary NZer Norman Hossack. Given the year, Alister Caldwell must be somewhere in there too.

[Oldfart]

Oldfart. Next time you are talking to Alex Bell ask him what happened to the U2 and Lotus 41 he once owned.

I have just spoken with him, and he gave me a run down on the 41 which was actually a 41Bbrought out here as a test car. Alex bought it from MacLean(?) in Napier (who had crashed a Tiger Moth) and then turned into a Formula Ford. Alex put a new body on it after a biff or two, put the side rads on (and a new chassis) sold it to Kevin Ingram who won the Champs in it, Bruce Turnbull helped him rebuild it into the car which is around. Probably the only bit still around from the original car is the (illegal) gearbox.
Bruce Turnbull also got the U2 and it wound up with someone in broadcasting who apparently still has it.

[rf84]

Thanks for that Oldfart. It confirms what I suspected. The Lotus 41 was imported by Roger and Dale Porteous after their first stint at Team Lotus. It had a standard 1500 pre-crossflow Ford in it. It sat in the Ford dealership in Hastings for years before going into storage in a fertiliser factory. Glen McLeod (one of the McLeods of DePelichet McLeod a big stock and station company) bought it but before he could drive it he was very seriously injured when a Tiger Moth he was a passenger in crashed while practising for an air show. He was crippled and from then on he only ever drove an MGB automatic. I looked him up in Vancouver in 1988 where he was a minister in a Baptist church. Glen sold it to Alex who converted it into a Formula Ford. It got pretty punch drunk and the final straw came when Alex "lost it" coming over the hill at Puke and was T-boned. The remains went to Kevin who built a new car using the bits. If I am right it formed the basis of the Keram (currently for sale on Trademe).
Wonder who it is that has the U2? Any ideas Jamie?

[Oldfart]

Thanks for that Oldfart. It confirms what I suspected. The Lotus 41 was imported by Roger and Dale Porteous after their first stint at Team Lotus. It had a standard 1500 pre-crossflow Ford in it. It sat in the Ford dealership in Hastings for years before going into storage in a fertiliser factory. Glen McLeod (one of the McLeods of DePelichet McLeod a big stock and station company) bought it but before he could drive it he was very seriously injured when a Tiger Moth he was a passenger in crashed while practising for an air show. He was crippled and from then on he only ever drove an MGB automatic. I looked him up in Vancouver in 1988 where he was a minister in a Baptist church. Glen sold it to Alex who converted it into a Formula Ford. It got pretty punch drunk and the final straw came when Alex "lost it" coming over the hill at Puke and was T-boned. The remains went to Kevin who built a new car using the bits. If I am right it formed the basis of the Keram Currently for sale on Trademe).
Wonder who it is that has the U2? Any ideas Jamie?

Alex told me that when he bought it for $10K, it had a twincam, which he sold off to a friend with a rally car. I believe you are right on the button with the Keram (if that's what it's called). 10 was a fair bit in that time, he let go of a pristine Viva GT to get it. Alex did the deal with the wife while Glen was still in hospital, the story is a long but good one.

[fullnoise68]

Not taking anything away from any of the guys mentioned already, those that were fortunate enough to listen to Denny Hulmes' mechanic Carey Taylor ( not sure if spelt correctly) at this years NZFMR in the paviliion, I`m sure were as impressed as I was at his vivid memory and being able to hear just some of the very interesting times with Denny through all the highs and lows of his peak years. Very much a number 8 wire kiwi mentality against the odds scenario, and it`d be great to hear more from him.

[John A]

Pretty good Howard. From left 2nd Ian Griffiths, 4th Peter Bruin 5th Phil Sharp 7th Alistair Caldwell 14th Graeme Cook and 15th JA.
The car on the left is an M23 F1 and on the right an M16 Indy car. The photo was taken for some press shots on a weekend and shows about half of the staff employed by McLaren at that time

[shellsport]

A great shot indeed when mechanics were just that and actually had dirt beneath there fingernails and on there overalls , real " Hands on " blokes !

[Michael Clark]

Welcome to TRS John A - I have just forwarded that photo to Cookie - it might encourage him...

[John A]

Welcome to TRS John A - I have just forwarded that photo to Cookie - it might encourage him...

Thanks Michael. Here is another that he might like. That is Cookie in the middle at the back and another Kiwi Warwick Orr third from right and JA front left.18792This was the Ibec Hesketh LeMans team.

[jamie]

Rf84 will try and find A name for you Jamie A

[Howard Wood]

Thanks Michael. Here is another that he might like. That is Cookie in the middle at the back and another Kiwi Warwick Orr third from right and JA front left.18792This was the Ibec Hesketh LeMans team.

John, Martin (Lyncar) Slater 4th from left and Norman Hossack to his left in front of Graeme?

[John A]

John, Martin (Lyncar) Slater 4th from left and Norman Hossack to his left in front of Graeme?

Correct Howard and Dave Shaw far left, Ray Stokoe back left, Ian Grob front 2nd from left, Ant Brown centre, Ian Bracey far right. Sorry can't recall the other two. Photo was taken after the race where it did not finish thanks to a blown engine after about 19 hours. Note the simulated NZ flag on the front right.

[Howard Wood]

Note the simulated NZ flag on the front right.

A little JA trade mark!

[paul lancaster]

Can't forget Gareth Heywood, another local lad.worked for Lyell Williamson on the gt3s and of late, Toyota racing series, working on Alex Lynn's car.
But, as a commentator, you take notice of teams, crews etc, and one of the cool story's I think sticks in my mind, is the team that was behind Brent'bones' Collins in the first year of the Toyota racing series.
Here was bones, never raced a wings andcslicks car before, his crew was Paul sheddan, a rotary specialist, and john Palmer, who raced pre65s, none of whom had had anything to do with an open wheeler before, and bones put the car on pole, going on to win the first ever trs championship.
A small town team who took on and beat seasoned engineers and crews with heaps of experience.

[paul lancaster]

Matt Jackson is another local that has worked all over, and a young guy Anderson, who built cars for haydn Mckenzie, and worked on Paul manuels cars.
Don McGregor drove the transporter for Paul morris motorsports, Ashburtons Andy Mcelrea, now a team owner.

[ged]

tony rioeden gore worked on inkys Camaro/ capri jac mac would know. went to usa

[Jody Wilson]

Yes Tony did go to the USA to Hendrick's, still up there but has been fighting a battle with cancer. Haven't spoken to him for a while but I do know that Paul Andrews goes up and stays with him a few times a year.

[Grant Sprague]

Jody , good to see you here, Tony is ok ....... bounced back & put on weight ..... Paul & Liz got back from North C L .. usa a few days ago [week] reports are [Kiwi] Tony is holding his own........ Talk soon Grant ............

[paul lancaster]

Hi Jody, glad to see you found the site.I bet you have a few stories about different crews and teams you have worked with.hope you enjoy the site

[paul lancaster]

Dave lovegrove was another ex pre 65 driver who went on to work in f1, not too sure if he still is, Nigel Barclay is another ex pre 65 er, who worked for Paul morris for years, now running a supertourer team in nz, his old man stu, works for Leo Leonard in timaru

[Grant Ellwood]

Dick Bennetts himself
The Schollum brothers
Steve Horne
Roger Hill
Kevin Ingram
The Porteous brothers (Dale and Roger) and Leo Wybrott (all from Hastings). All 3 worked for both Lotus and Dale and Leo also worked for McLaren.
Alan McCall (builder of the Tui cars and designer of at least 1 Tecno F1 car)
John Nicholson (along with Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon designed, built and raced their own F1 cars).

Regarding Alan McCall, I have one of his Formula Supervee Tuis in my shop now, originally designed for Formula Atlantic then adapted for Supervee which was really taking off in USA back in the early '70s. The monocoque is beautifully built and I'm hoping this car ends up in New Zealand. Haven't much more info as the Tui has just arrived and I'm just starting to research its history.

[Andrew Metford]

How about John Nicholson, who used to build engines at McLaren, and is/was the Nicholson in NicholsonMcLaren.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nicholson_(racing_driver)

http://nicholsonmclaren.com/home/1845120

Apparently he returned to NZ in 1978, anyone ever caught up with him? I bet he's got some stories.

[Michael Clark]

Johnny Nick splits his life between England and Clarks Beach. I did a story on him for NZCC back in the October 2004 issue - typical of an engineer for whom what is in interesting is 'what happens next?', not 'what happened back then?', he was amazed to think anyone would be interested in reading about him.

I also have a little piece on him in the next NZCC because he was one of three MSNZ heritage award winners this year along with Cary Taylor and Rob Wilson.