John Power

[Porkpie]

Does anyone have any photos or information of John Power from the 70's and 80's?

John is a friend of my wife and I and over the last few years he has started to tell us stories of his racing exploits, these include;

Navigating for Tim Bailey in the Rentokil Porsche in the 73 Heatway rally - he still has the route book!
Co driving with Lew McKinnon in the Philips Commodore in the first Wellington street race
Co driving with Kenny Smith in a Telstar in the late eighties??

John and his wife dropped in to see my wife and I at Hampton Downs on the Friday of the last weekend of the NZFMR. This was the first time he had been to a large race meeting since the early Nineties. I managed to get him back in touch with Kenny in the pits before they had to leave on a trip to the South Island on their Goldwing.

Unfortunately, on 1st Feb a foreign tourist turned in front of them just outside of Hamner Springs. John and his wife, Heather were thrown over the top of the car. Both ended up in Christchurch hospital with extensive injuries. Heather is doing alright, but John took the full force of the accident and is still in a coma with serious injuries, but is very slowly responding to treatment. Our fingers are crossed that he comes out of this and can continue telling his stories.

I know after catching up with Kenny he had a smile a mile wide and was planning a dinner on their return to Auckland. We were all looking forward to hearing the stories flow over a few drinks.

Thanks in advance for anything that anyone can provide that can help fill in some blanks just in case John can't!.

Cheers
Brent

[stirlingmac]

Holy hell...I crewed on John and Lew's Commodore at the first Wellington Street Race. There are some pics in one of the galleries, look for the white and blue Phillips sponsored number 9 VK.. I often wonder what happened to that car...must be the only 4 cylinder SS ever built.!!! When the car was assembled at Trentham the planned HDT supplied V8 hadn't arrived so it went down the line with a 1900cc Opal motor !!!! It was driven onto a trailer and promptly stripped to fit the cage and HDT suspension. I remember a taxi driver bought the brand new interior to update his car... I recall it chewing up water pumps at the Nissan Sport 500 and ended up borrowing a pump from Ron Scanlon's SLR 5000 that was parked nearby...he didn't seem to mind we "borrowed it" with out his prior knowledge.. A similar thing happened at the Puke round when the gearbox crossmember bolts snapped and I went on a "ninja mission" and "found some under a new VK in the car park !!! Shit I wouldn't try that now.. I have a bar mirror featuring the car Lew gave me I will dig it out and post a pic.. Fingers crossed they both make a full recovery...

[Lee Tracey]

Hi porkpie,

Sorry to read about John & Heathers accident, hope they both make full recoveries.

As regards the Commy there are some pics (not very good) of it in my Photobucketalbum from that race. The car ran on radials which as you can see resulted in less than stellar handling :)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b123/leetra/Wellington%201/IMG_0123.jpg

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b123/leetra/Wellington%201/

Cheers
Lee

[stirlingmac]

Thats the album..!! The radials were a deliberate choice. There were slicks available but Lew was wary of the nature of the circuit with it's curbs and grates etc he chose to go with the radials and to his credit they finished. If I remember correctly David Oxton drove the car around the circuit with an in car camera for the pre race TV build up.

[Porkpie]

Thanks Guys, this is great, exactly what I was looking for.

John told me something about running in the engine on that car up and down Paekakariki Hill Road in the wee hours before the race day? Also one of the star Oz drivers (Perkins??) visited in the pits and offered some parts to help cure the overheating problems??

I didn't get all the finer details at the time - you always think there will be another time to get the story right?

Would be really great to find that TV footage, I can only find the '87 race on youtube.

Anyway got word today that John's responding to voices, opening his eyes and squeezing hands etc. Baby steps, but progress all the same.

[power]

Couple of photo's here from the very early days of John's rallying. Packed away somewhere, I also have a professional side on shot of the number 9 Philips Commodore with John at the wheel, i will dig this out and post also :)64226423

[Porkpie]

Thanks Power that is fantastic. what year would that be?

Last time I saw him he still had that big smile. I wonder though when you see how big John was....how the hell did he co-drive with Kenny Smith in a Telstar :confused: Must have been allowed standard seat runners back then.

[power]

That certainly is his signature smile! Not 100% sure of the year mate, but i do know that the car is an RX2, which would put it somewhere in the early to mid 70's. Yes Kenny is such a little guy, and John stands at 6'2", so i would say runners or one heck of a big seat insert :-)

[Porkpie]

Quick update as its been a long time.

I took the mini up to Ardmore last weekend for single car sprints with the Jag Club (great day by the way). John was well enough to be let out from the spinal unit to come spectate for an hour or so.

It was great to see that big smile on his face again. He was in good spirits watching some classic machinery being thrashed down the old runway.

As an added bonus, the old strikemaster came out of the hanger, fired up and did a few circuits of the airport. Such a magic sound that old jet. Why is this venue not being used more?? - topic for another thread.

Johns plans to be home by the end of June albeit with the aid of a wheel chair and walker. He's been on his legs and looks like with some lengthy rehab walking again is not out of the question.

I'm also wondering if anyone has any pics of the Rentokil Porsche from the 73 heatway that John co-drove with Tim Bailey? We have Jim Scott coming to our club AGM in June so would like to jog some memories from him is I can.