Lawrence Bruce

[camaroman slp]

Lawrence Bruce sadly passed away on 21-02-2015
Christchurch racing driver & winner of many Osca tittles -- travelling all over NZ -- 1970s --1990s Always admired by so many spectators & friends
Driving Minis -- Escorts -- mustangs -- Camaros -- Victor chev.
All on a shoe string budget was always there to thrill the spectators & enjoy what he loved doing best
Such a happy & friendly guy

May he rest in piece.

[camaroman slp]

I hope some people can send some photos of his cars & history in motorsport.
Laurence was always a person I idolised driving the Blue mustang.

I am 12 years younger than Laurence my name is Alistair
My father used to do a lot of work for Laurence & others on there race cars.

[gokiwi]

Found this "snippet"....apologies if its repeating existing information.

http://www.nzmustang.com/Images/History/Racecars/Haig.htm

[woody]

Lawrence Bruce.

[Grant Sprague]

Lawrence Bruce. That is sad .. I often wondered & thought of where & what Lawrence was up to , I met him many years ago I would have been a teen at the time , Lawrence seemed to spring up out of no where , but was a very colourful & well liked guy... I looked up to him as a boy like so many others in those years .. & still have the respect ....they were always fond memories of the hey days ....when men were men ..caught up in the drug of motor racing ........ ps what was Lawrence up to etc in the last 30 years ??

[Warninglight]

He brings back fond memories of the 70s and 80s. He was a very likable sportsman and a great person to be with.

[Jac Mac]

Phoned Lawrence a year or two ago checking Info on OSCA cars & other stuff for this site, still had a mine of info in his head from back in the ~70's.

[woody]

Lawrence is or was married to Louise B. from Ravensbourne.

[Grant Sprague]

I am trying to read the advertising on the mustang ,,,,, independent motors ... that would be Pete Kocas,s garage I think ... on the door might be wrong "terminus" hotel the creek pub where we all hung out ...also on r/f guard Timaru car sales .. its a bit of a blur I remember the car well ..............the old club rooms in the back ground geeee how time has flown but beaut days

[kiwi285]

Here is a photo of Lawrences Camaro taken in the paddock at Pukekohe in January 1977. This would have been the Grand Prix meeting. That is over 38 years ago - where does time go.

Sounds like a really nice guy - RIP.

http://i60.tinypic.com/2nr11z9.jpg

The background is almost as interesting as the car.

[Rod Grimwood]

Mike that photo would have been later than 77 into the 80's I think. Lawrence ran with the OSCA and Sports Sedan boys. Think McElrea, Osborne, Crowe, and Tulloch came up. This was Reds ex-Marlboro Kensington Camaro

Another one to the big track in the sky

RIP Lawrence

[Spgeti]

I was there in 82 and saw the car there.....along with George's ex Sidchrome Mustang and the Bulivent Capri which was for sale. RIP Lawrence.

[camaroman slp]

Laurence owned & raced the ex Spinner Black -- Rod Coppens -- Camaro which was sold to Bruce Jenner who drove & owned the yellow Ultra Service Station sponsered 68 Camaro from Timaru. Fantastic looking car with the same wide body flares as on the PDL mustang 1. Bruce Jenner sold the Camaro & went to live in the USA doing R/H drive conversions.Thats when the yellow Camaro was bought by Laurence Bruce who raced & sponsored by AML Performnce Tuning for 1 or 2 seasons when next it was then sold to John Osbourne who painted it blue.Then it spent about 20 years being restored by Canterburys Chris Cullen who painted it red & also went to live in the USA selling the Camaro minus engine, to Tony Boydon who currently owns & races it on special occasions.Such a cool muscle car owned & driven by many people.

[Carlo]

I am trying to read the advertising on the mustang ,,,,, independent motors ... that would be Pete Kocas,s garage I think ... on the door might be wrong "terminus" hotel the creek pub where we all hung out ...also on r/f guard Timaru car sales .. its a bit of a blur I remember the car well ..............the old club rooms in the back ground geeee how time has flown but beaut days

Correct in all your identification Grant but you left out Len Bennetts Mini Cooper in the background

[camaroman slp]

Did Laurence race a Chev powered Victor V8, after the black Camaro I think he was mates with Steve Dymond & Rob Kennard.

[Jac Mac]

Did Laurence race a Chev powered Victor V8, after the black Camaro I think he was mates with Steve Dymond & Rob Kennard.
Yes, he owned the ex Alec Dickie, Gary Jenkins SBC V8 Victor at the same time as the Ex Dawson.... Camaro. just spoke with Gary to verify this..... I see Rob Kennards name on the Camaro hood.

[camaroman slp]

I think he had a narsty accident in the victor chev at Timaru in its early debut, after he bought the car as it went off the track crashing heavily.Did the victor have the engine out of the ex Dawson -- Haig camaro when Laurence owned the Victor.

I see the car is now owned & raced by Tony Mann who rebuilt it well done Tony great to see it racing again.

Does anyone have any stories & photos of the Victor Chev

[camaroman slp]

Does Gary Jenkins have some photos of the car when it was white as he raced the car so well for maybe 2 seasons of Osca
I remember it painted white and sponsored by A.j. Automotive It would be so good if you could put some photos on or ask some one else to help you do so.

Old stories & photos are fantastic ?
Also also can you put some photos of your car onto Alic Dickies page, with the Anglia & Victor to extend the history of the car aswell thanks.

[Jac Mac]

When speaking with Gary this morning, he sold the car to Lawrence shortly after fixing it from a prang Gary had at Teretonga, Gary also mentioned that Lawrence had mentioned that if the Camaro was not competitive he would repair the Victor and race it instead..... based on that & your post would suggest the car had a couple of fairly substantial hits in a short time frame, Gary thinks that he was still racing the car ~1979 thru early 81 which sort of fits in with my recollections as well. Motor in the car when Gary raced it was 327 out of Art McKee's Monza. there are a few pics of the Victor from Alec & Garys ownerships plus Tony Mann, none of Lawrence or Ross Cameron etc that I am aware of. Victor was Red?/Gold with Makikihi Garage signwriting in latter period of Gary's ownership. AJ Automotive was 'A' for Alec & 'J' for John Beattie who owned the building that AJ traded from., I will check with Gary on the photo stuff.

[Beedub]

A mate of mine (stu collett....collect motors Timaru(son)) introduced me to Lawrence, he was racing the Motor Court Camaro, that went to John Osbourne. L Bruce was a a real gentleman, as a young kid itching to get closer to motor racing he was the first driver I got to know... I assumed you guys were all the same as he was and that what's kept my face at the tracks these years....very sad for you guys that knew him well. Will post some photos of the Camaro soon...cheers Bryan

[Greg Ghost]

A good guy absolutely loved his motor sport 27927

[hbdunedin]

yes he had the victor after the arbuckles sponsered camaro, the mustang pictured above he owned a couple of times over the years. the second time he got it he added some big get fu-k-d flairs, he got my old man (has brother in law at the time) to do them. paint red and motormarket across the top of front screen. back in 70's,when blue like in pics, he took me round levels in it,i was only a kid, ill never forget it tho, no way!would never be able to do that now days at the end of the last race.

[hbdunedin]

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[hbdunedin]

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[hbdunedin]

have one pic of the victor (lvb"s middle name as well lol) but have to reduce its size to upload first

[woody]

hbdunedin, Is ross Brown and Margaret related to you? Louise Was Margaret's younger sister.

[Grant Sprague]

A good guy absolutely loved his motor sport 27927Does any one know what Lawrence was up to during the last ten years or so , reason I ask is I had lost track of him over the years & was often on my mind like so many of you that were around the same tracks ....... ps looks like Kevin Ryan,s BDA escort in back ground , ... might be wrong .. have a fantastic weekend .. Grant ........

[hbdunedin]

no they are not related

[hbdunedin]

no he wasnt woody, his first wife was karen

[hbdunedin]

have pics but cant seem to upload them

[GD66]

PM sent re uploading pics.

[camaroman slp]

We would love to see some pics of the Victor chev in Gary Jenkins hands he said he had some photos of it

[alwylie]

29596I met Lawrence Bruce about five years ago when I was researching the article I wrote about Trevor Crowe's MGV. Lawrence had owned that car briefly and here's what I wrote about him and it: 'Lawrence Bruce then bought the car, painted red by then, and ran it at the Nelson beach races in 1972. “I nearly won” he says “I was leading (Peter) Leversedge by half the straight and the motor seized. It had been boiling for 3 or 4 laps because the radiator fins were clogged with sand. As I went into a corner the back wheels locked so I just declutched and coasted off the track. I thought the motor was buggered but when it had cooled down it started right up and ran sweet as ever”.' Lawrence was very helpful in providing information for my article and let me copy some old photos, one of which I've tried to upload here. If I've succeeded, you'll see it shows Lawrence (face obscured) backing the MGV off the trailer at Tahunanui in 1972.

[camaroman slp]

Fantastic photo of mgv v8 ex Trever Crowe
It just shows what Laurence got up to in the early years of racing
Moorhose mucle cars sold it about 3 years ago to a new well known Christchurch owner driver its often seen at the PDL Scope Classic its now painted black & still unrestored this car has so such a history & charm.
Im glad its well cared for by its current owner & not scrapped like so many others were .

[Fitzy]

For the last few years, Lawrence was buying and selling a few cars here and there. He would still come out to the car racing and was still so passionate and knowledgeable especially about the classics at the Scope meeting. Another mate of ours has a big American camper and LVB would come out and occupy the Captains chair in the camper, at the hairpin at Ruapuna in total comfort.
I had known him for over 30 years. I never raced against LVB as I was a bit younger and later getting going, but raced against one of the cars he had previously had some success with being the ex Dickie Victor / Chev in OSCA. Funny thing is that the current owner of that car also has my old Capri. Tony Mann of Dunedin has restored both cars and they have never looked so good. Lawrence was impressed.
Sadly LVB had had some challenging health issues especially over the past 10 years or so, but just like in racing he would bounce back from what would of seemed the impossible. I last time I saw Him he came round home for Bathurst last year. Osso was also here and these 2 good old boys had a good old catch up and LVB lasted for the whole race and managed to get a Heineken or 2 down. Much better than the previous year which he only made it for a couple of hours. He had a bloody colourful life,was pretty connected, but with all the Mustangs, Camaros and the history, it was his daughter Charlotte that was the top of the list. Sadly missed Mike Fitzgerald.

[Grant Sprague]

Thank you Fitzy...... this was good to read...we seem to go through life & drift in other directions so to hear about Lawrence & a few of the old boys is a wake up call but well knowing we cant be every where & making contact as much as we would like ... I had a phone call from Allan Farr yesterday...... a good timaru boy..we go back to the teen years a great circle , we chat about twice a year & its just like when we were boys ......although Allan is a little older we had some fantastic fun ....his call was about an other friend that past away the rest was about car racing & pinto 2.0 engines , an hour past very quickly ........so we must enjoy the NOW moment ...go and have some fun guys ... Grant

[camaroman slp]

Thanks Mike Fitzgerald for the great story cherishing the moments that touch our hearts It seems life can be full of unfortunate changes but lots of wonderful memories.

[Fitzy]

29642
Thanks for your comments, and camaroman for starting a thread. LVB would not have expected that we would be talking and remembering him on an internet site. In fact I know he would have been humbled by this. I have tried to upload a photo but not sure that this has happened. It was one that was on display at his funeral which summed him up pretty well. They were pushing the Mustang along in the pits, Lawrence was having a passing chat to another racer, cig in hand and a couple of pretty women pushing the car. Legend!!!

[camaroman slp]

Great photo I remember Laurence having some photos of his cars on his office wall in Sydenham about the time of the first earth quake in Chistchurch.

Could his Daughter Charlotte try and put some of these photos on this site or ask someone else to help her keep the great memories of her great dad continuing cheers

[Fitzy]

I will ask her if she would mind putting up some photos. Was talking about LVB today with another mate Chris Shamy. We were discussing LVB had a brief taste of drag racing in Ron Colletts alcohol dragster, this was after the Arbuckles Camaro I think. Chris raced with Ron then another mate of ours Greg Taylor raced it and crashed it big time up at Meremere. He ended up with a broken neck and some other pretty good injuries from that, but Greg was no stranger to danger. He had done a couple of insane car jumps at Ruapuna before all this. Just caught up with him a couple of weeks ago too. He now lives in Oz. anyway where this story was going, was that LVB had hooked up with Ron Collett and was to drive the new dragster as the other one had been written off by GT. unfortunately, I think LVB only did a handful of runs, at best. One of his experiences was going all the way to Auckland in Rons Leyland Comet bus only to be rained out and as far as I know, didn't get in a run. That was painful as the bus only did about 80 ks, and , I stand to be corrected, but it didn't stop along the way for pit stops because of its terminal velocity being a bit naf. I you wanted to pee, the door was opened and you just had to unload. No wonder windshield washers are mandatory these days😉

[Rascal]

29642
Thanks for your comments, and camaroman for starting a thread. LVB would not have expected that we would be talking and remembering him on an internet site. In fact I know he would have been humbled by this. I have tried to upload a photo but not sure that this has happened. It was one that was on display at his funeral which summed him up pretty well. They were pushing the Mustang along in the pits, Lawrence was having a passing chat to another racer, cig in hand and a couple of pretty women pushing the car. Legend!!!

Outstanding contribution photo , certainly At levels, That old familiar water tank on the skyline, Is that Bruce Bellis, driver of the x Clyde Collins Cortina chev approaching LVB ? "independent motors" , was that a Peter Kockis, Geraldine connection ?