Photos: The Bill Pottinger Collection - Part 3

[Steve Holmes]

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Time for another new photo thread. Parts 1 and 2 of the amazing Bill Pottinger collection of historic New Zealand motor racing images proved hugely popular. Bill has continued sending me photos, and Part 3 should be just as enjoyable.

Once again, with Bill as a young bloke being based in Invercargill, these images are centred around his local race track of Teretonga, but we also travel north a little, to other South Island race venues.

Anyway, enjoy these. My thanks once again to Bill for sharing his stunning images with us. Many of these have never been seen before, which makes them all the more special.

[Steve Holmes]

First up, and we're off to Timaru. This is 1970, with Peter Hughes in the pretty little Lotus.

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[Steve Holmes]

This is Dennis Marwood, with 'the fat one', the Eisert Chevrolet. It was built as a USAC car, but then converted for Formula A/5000, and sent down to New Zealand with Stew McMillan in late 1968 for the grandly named Monaco International Trophy, at Bay Park. This was the first time F5000 cars had raced in New Zealand. The Eisert stayed on after McMillan went back home, and Dennis Marwood drove it during the first couple of years of F5000 in NZ.

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[Steve Holmes]

At Teretonga, and some sedan racing action. This is Paul Fahey in the Cambridge sponsored Boss Mustang that would eventually become the PDL Mustang. Fahey leads Don Halliday in the Escort the Halliday brothers campaigned for several seasons, and is now owned by John Dennehey.

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[Michael Clark]

OK - 1,2,3,4

1 - Note the little 'winglets' on the Lola T192 behind the front wheels

2 - Daimler V8! Probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Peter has since told me he wishes he's stuck to a T-C. And kept it, the Lotus, for a lot longer...

3 - good old Marbles - great Alfa man - 80 last year, although you'd never know it.

4 - always loved the Steppenwolf tribute on the Halliday's Escort - get ya motor running...

[Rod Grimwood]

This is Dennis Marwood, with 'the fat one', the Eisert Chevrolet. It was built as a USAC car, but then converted for Formula A/5000, and sent down to New Zealand with Stew McMillan in late 1968 for the grandly named Monaco International Trophy, at Bay Park. This was the first time F5000 cars had raced in New Zealand. The Eisert stayed on after McMillan went back home, and Dennis Marwood drove it during the first couple of years of F5000 in NZ.

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Note rear tyres with big groove in middle, was this a 'wet weather' conversion.

Yep Dennis a great bloke and gentleman.

[Michael Clark]

He only ran the Eisert for one season - 69/70

[Kwaussie]

OK - 1,2,3,4



2 - Daimler V8! Probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Peter has since told me he wishes he's stuck to a T-C. And kept it, the Lotus, for a lot longer...
Looks like the TC is still there!

[Michael Clark]

Quite but after running the Daimler, Peter stuck the 'tin can' in and wished he'd never bothered with the Daimler exercise. That car had already had a Climax V8 then a BRM V8 in the back!!

[Steve Holmes]

From the Teretonga round of the 1971 Tasman Series, and Teddy Pilette thunders down the front straight on his way to 3rd place finish in the McLaren M10B.

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[Steve Holmes]

Couple of neat photos here of happy Graeme Lawrence, having just won the Timaru Trophy event, in early 1969, in his McLaren M4A.

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[Grant Sprague]

Beaut piks Bill & Thanks Steve....... 5 days ago Judy & Marion [Rolo,s] Ex & daughter popped into say hi.... we go back a wee way ... never seen this pik of Roly before .. see the look of the drug in the eyes [motor racing ] competition up the pointy end was big time in those days [& still is at that level as we know....].

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Grant, great post!

[Steve Holmes]

A quite rare shot this one, as it captures the infamous BRP Ford actually moving under its own power! Under the grandly titled Sir Charles Napier Racing, Kaye Griffiths was awarded a fairly reasonable chunk of cash to run each New Zealand round of the 1970 Tasman Series. After having failed to even start the Bay Park, Levin, and Wigram races, and failing to finish at Pukekohe in the NZGP, Griffiths abandoned the old nail and Peter Hughes tried it out for size here at Teretonga. Unfortunately, it suffered a series of issues, and again failed to make the grid.

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[GD66]

Wow, you must have used a fast shutter speed to capture that, Bill !


What a shed...;)

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, you must have used a fast shutter speed to capture that, Bill !


What a shed...;)

Ha ha ha, brilliant!

[Michael Clark]

The Kaye Griffiths/Sir Charles Napier episode always reminds me of Basil Fawlty fawning over Lord Melberry - 'someone' got tucked up royally with the BRP...

[T332]

I remember this car at Wigram and thinking what a pile of shit it was even as a 15 year old the car was a joke the driver was a joke the entry to The Tasman Series was Fraud and im afraid Ron Frost and his merry men never done their homework on this bunch of wankers.

[GD66]

And that's the cleaned-up version...:cool:

[Steve Holmes]

Some dramatic tin-top action. This is Teretonga, 1971, and Jack Nazer in the Cossack Escort battles Clyde Collins in the PDL Falcon. A lap or so later the pair fought over the same piece of tarmac, this time with Nazer on the inside, and spearing straight across the tyres. In behind, enjoying the view, is Don Halliday.

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[Steve Holmes]

Couple of neat shots here of the famous Dave Silcock Jaguar. But is this Dave driving, or is this when Steve Millen bought it? The car was sold during the 1971 season, and Dave switched to a twin-cam Escort. But he usually ran the #40, whereas Millen, I think changed the number? Maybe someone can clarify?

Can anyone ID the Anglia?

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[Jac Mac]

Anglia is Henry Hammond I think, will have to check in with Greg Elder as he did most of the work on it when Evan Dickie raced in OSCA with a replacement roofline. If its not Henrys car it could be Lee Heads.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Jac, thats great info.

[Steve Holmes]

Nice shot here of Lawrence Brownlie, which Lawrence has also signed for the young enthusiast Bill.

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[Grant Sprague]

Some dramatic tin-top action. This is Teretonga, 1971, and Jack Nazer in the Cossack Escort battles Clyde Collins in the PDL Falcon. A lap or so later the pair fought over the same piece of tarmac, this time with Nazer on the inside, and spearing straight across the tyres. In behind, enjoying the view, is Don Halliday.

24110 Thanks Bill & Steve just great stuff thank you

[bp photos]

I enjoyed #24 of Laurence Brownlie in his (then) new Brabham having its first try-out at Teretonga. I remember taking the photo quite clearly. It was a mid-week day in Nov 1967, and as a 15 yr old I biked out to Teretonga after school with my (Dad's) camera and crouched in a ditch on the outside of "the loop" corner, a position I wouldnt normally be able to photograph from on a race day. I had been tipped off by SSCC member Donald McDonald that Laurence would be there testing his new car.
Laurence was giving the car a real workout and as I was looking through the lens as it rounded "the loop" the car was moving around on the track as it was drifted at the limit. The car control was very impressive!!

I remember looking at the Brabham in the pits that day and noting that the tyres had the name "Rindt" on them in white chalk.
That was fairly impressive to me!! The motor was a Lotus Ford Twin Cam modified by Vegantune as I remember.

There was great excitement amongst the handful of people present as they looked at this beautiful Brabham and imagined how well Laurence was going to do with it in the coming season.
Little did we know it would turn to custard after contact with Denny Hulme in the Pukekohe NZIGP race less than 2 months later.

[bp photos]

I enjoyed #24 of Laurence Brownlie in his (then) new Brabham having its first try-out at Teretonga. I remember taking the photo quite clearly. It was a mid-week day in Nov 1967, and as a 15 yr old I biked out to Teretonga after school with my (Dad's) camera and crouched in a ditch on the outside of "the loop" corner, a position I wouldnt normally be able to photograph from on a race day. I had been tipped off by SSCC member Donald McDonald that Laurence would be there testing his new car.
Laurence was giving the car a real workout and as I was looking through the lens as it rounded "the loop" the car was moving around on the track as it was drifted at the limit. The car control was very impressive!!

I remember looking at the Brabham in the pits that day and noting that the tyres had the name "Rindt" on them in white chalk.
That was fairly impressive to me!! The motor was a Lotus Ford Twin Cam modified by Vegantune as I remember.

There was great excitement amongst the handful of people present as they looked at this beautiful Brabham and imagined how well Laurence was going to do with it in the coming season.
Little did we know it would turn to custard after contact with Denny Hulme in the Pukekohe NZIGP race less than 2 months later.

[Steve Holmes]

OK, not sure who this is, and neither is Bill. He said he took it around 1968 at a Teretonga club meeting. Can anyone help?

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[Michael Clark]

Looks like the Cooper T52 modified by Bill Stone and currently owned by Kevin Anderson.

[Kwaussie]

Dave Morrison for sure.

[bp photos]

Ah yes, that's right. Dave Morrison, I remember now!!

[Kwaussie]

Great photos Bill, enjoy every one that is posted.
A very good source book is Teretonga 25 as on page 245 there is an entry on Rothmans Teretonga Champioship 9/3/69 car# 5 Dave Morrison Cooper!
Just to confirm Jac Mac's post earlier page#248 Rothmans Teretonga International 24/01/71 car#29 Henry Hammond Anglia and car#40 Dave Silcock Jaguar 3.8

[Rod Grimwood]

OK, not sure who this is, and neither is Bill. He said he took it around 1968 at a Teretonga club meeting. Can anyone help?

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What a great shot (all are) you must have snuck into some amazing positions to get these photos Bill. Thanks for shareing they are brilliant.

[bp photos]

Thanks guys, and thankyou for reminding me about the Teretonga 25 book for reference.Have just dug it out now,its great.
(Written by Marilyn Bunce, Keith Douglas and Donald McDonald).

[bp photos]

Thanks guys, and thankyou for reminding me about the Teretonga 25 book for reference.Have just dug it out now,its great.
(Written by Marilyn Bunce, Keith Douglas and Donald McDonald).

[Steve Holmes]

This is the tow-rig for the Silcock/Millen Jaguar (though not sure who owned the car at this time). An enclosed trailer would have been the envy of many teams in the pits in the early 1970s. Check the angle on the Valiant tow car, the back wheels are just about off the ground as weight is applied to the rear of the trailer.

You can't argue the dedication racers had for their chosen hobby back then. They put in some long hours travelling very average roads in pretty basic machinery by todays standards. Yet, you couldn't get much further south from Auckland than Invercargill. They were probably back at work on Monday morning too!

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[Rod Grimwood]

Check out the retreaded (with Aqua-Jet Pattern) tyres in back of truck in case of rain. These were done back then in East Tamaki some where.

We had a Valiant on one of our tours of both islands, classic old girl, just kept on slugging away. Pretty solid also if some one played silly buggers with you, could pop a boot on a Cortina real easy.

[Steve Holmes]

Bills description of this pic as follows:

"This is Russell Thomson (now a racing mechanic in Vancouver) in the Begg 1600 (Humber) from Southland".

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[Grant Ellwood]

Thanks for posting that pic, I shortened the chassis on this Begg but didn't think to take photos of the original set-up (probably because I was about twelve at the time). You can see in the photo the frame extends past the rear axles, I modded it to the (60s) current trend of ending in front of the axles. Really pissed George Begg off as described in an earlier post.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Grant, brilliant description!

[Grant Ellwood]

Thanks Steve, I am guessing that most purists, myself included, would wonder why you would chop up a historic car like the Begg. But as we know, cars like that aren't historic at the time (when they are back of the field) they are old dogs and acquired by broke people like me who wanted to go racing.
So the result is we see progressively altered race cars which morph into very different iterations in an attempt to stay competitive, I note the postings here which try to track the mods of cars like Red Dawson's Camaro etc, so many changes over the years.

[Steve Holmes]

OK, these two pics show another spinner from the same October 1968 Gold Star event as that above of the Begg. Can anyone ID this driver?

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[Steve Holmes]

How charming is this! What a great photo. Only in New Zealand would you see a sight like this. No pretences, just stick the latest high-tech Formula 1 Brabham Cosworth and the some Formula 1 drivers on a trailer, and tow them all around the track with a tractor! Perfect.

This is Bill's description of this photo:

"This is the victory parade lap following the 1969 Teretonga International and shows winner Piers Courage, 2nd place Graham Hill, and three others on the trailer. Plus of course Piers' Brabham-Ford BT24 Cosworth V8. In order of finish the next three would have been Chris Amon, Derek Bell and Roly Levis. I can't quite make out if those are the other three on the trailer or not. What do you think?

"The tractor is being driven by my friend Alan Johnstone, son of Clerk of the Course Jack Johnstone and the Massey Ferguson would have been from Jack's business, J.J. Ltd Tractor Services, in Invercargill".

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[Kwaussie]

The spinning Cooper Austin is J. Tschursinov. Car is T36 MKIX ex Jensen, Dunstan, M & G Jukes etc. Dave Silcock

[paul lancaster]

Dave Morrison for sure.

Your dead right kwassie, I was at daves yesterday, he has a similar picture on his wall

[Grant Sprague]

The spinning Cooper Austin is J. Tschursinov. Car is T36 MKIX ex Jensen, Dunstan, M & G Jukes etc. Dave Silcock
Would this be the same {J} Tschursinov that ran a fiat 127 in GTX....mid 70 s

[Grant Sprague]

The spinning Cooper Austin is J. Tschursinov. Car is T36 MKIX ex Jensen, Dunstan, M & G Jukes etc. Dave Silcock
Would this be the same {J} Tschursinov that ran a fiat 127 in GTX....mid 70 s

[Kwaussie]

From Teretonga 25 book - National GTX 7 October 1974
Car# 13 J Turschinov Fiat 1.33.8
Car# 63 G Sprague Fiat 1.33.6

[Grant Sprague]

From Teretonga 25 book - National GTX 7 October 1974
Car# 13 J Turschinov Fiat 1.33.8
Car# 63 G Sprague Fiat 1.33.6Thanks Kwaussie..... yep nice chap & fast I remember TJ quite small in size [these were the smaller sized cars in this class GTX but the rules & flags were the same as the then big boys].... there were only a couple 10ths in it all the way through every race always hard to shake him off ....

[Steve Holmes]

F5000 action from the Teretonga round of the 1971 Tasman Series.

This is John Cannon leading Kevin Bartlett.

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[Steve Holmes]

Same race, same corner. Graham McRae and Frank Matich.

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[Steve Holmes]

Another one for you guys to ID. This is from the Ruapuna Gold Star event in October 1968.

Check out the spectators cars. Some of those would have been classics even in 1968!

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[Kwaussie]

Another one for you guys to ID. This is from the Ruapuna Gold Star event in October 1968.
Looks very like the ex David Young Cooper T65 with a guess that it is Alan Burrowes.

[graham donaldson]

[QUOTE=Steve Holmes;38746]From the Teretonga round of the 1971 Tasman Series, and Teddy Pilette thunders down the front straight on his way to 3rd place finish in the McLaren M10B.

that was my 1st season working for VDS.they then took me to work in the UK with them.all because a shipping agent in wellington was looking for a mechanic to help them..since then I have been lucky working with good drivers and still in the business at TRD

[khyndart in CA]

This is a typical unassuming comment from Graham.
He was not lucky, he was good.
He was a sought after mechanic by many teams over the years and has been
an esteemed member of the Toyota Racing Development staff for many years.

They have just announced that Toyota is moving their facilities from California to North Carolina next year
which means Graham may have more time to follow The Roaring Season !
Check this information on TRD.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Racing_Development

(Ken Hyndman )

[Kwaussie]

Saw this the other day.http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsport/78585745/The-schoolboy-and-the-speedsters
Great that Bill's photos are part of a new publication. I can remember buying a photo of my car - very proud at the time!

[Grant Sprague]

Saw this the other day.http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/motorsport/78585745/The-schoolboy-and-the-speedsters
Great that Bill's photos are part of a new publication. I can remember buying a photo of my car - very proud at the time!

What an interesting read , now I know more of the back ground of our" Bill".....after reading about this I decided to read it all , Bill works for Supply Services in Christchurch small world I am having lunch with the man that owns Supply Services tomorrow ....a close friend that backed me in motor racing .......Anglia, BMW, Mustang ..... a true gentleman

[BMCBOY]

I ordered a book off Bill Pottinger last week and it arrived yesterday.
Great book with lots of photos (176 pages) from this very talented photographer.
I would recommend it to anyone interested in this era of racing.
I'll be reading it over the Easter break for sure.

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[Roger Dowding]

" Easter Break " we had that a while ago, BMC BOY you are retired every weekend is a long one, only issue the pubs close on Good Friday !! .. :confused:

[BMCBOY]

I guess that should read Anzac weekend - you're right, all weeks and weekends run together anyway!

[Horizon]

Steve,
Bill/james Clark ?, cooper T59 .

[Horizon]

Steve,
Bill/james Clark ?, cooper T59 .

[IanWagstaff]

A quite rare shot this one, as it captures the infamous BRP Ford actually moving under its own power! Under the grandly titled Sir Charles Napier Racing, Kaye Griffiths was awarded a fairly reasonable chunk of cash to run each New Zealand round of the 1970 Tasman Series. After having failed to even start the Bay Park, Levin, and Wigram races, and failing to finish at Pukekohe in the NZGP, Griffiths abandoned the old nail and Peter Hughes tried it out for size here at Teretonga. Unfortunately, it suffered a series of issues, and again failed to make the grid.

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I am currently writing a book on the history of the British Racing Partnership (BRP) and would be interested in possibly using this photo. Could you let me have contact details for the copyright holder? Many thanks.