Bill Stone

[Michael Clark]

Our mate lost his battle with the dreaded 'C' in the early hours of this morning.

The funeral will be on Friday at 3pm - Pukekohe Presbyterian Church.

Godspeed my friend

[pallmall]

We have been expecting it, but a shock never the less.

RIP Bill.

[RGM]

A sad day indeed Bill was a great bloke at least he does not have to suffer any more.

[bob homewood]

Rest easy ,old friend

[Russ Cunningham]

Illness may have caught up with Bill but it did'nt damper his spirit one little bit.

A bloody good bloke - whoever witnessed his 2nd or 3rd placing in the very wet FF event at Hampton Downs last year, witnessed a man with talent and spirit.

Rest in peace,

Russ Cunningham

[Michael Clark]

Here is what I posted earlier today on TNF

He was there at the start of March, Reynard and BAR - he raced Coopers and a Brabham in NZ before heading off to seek his fortune in Europe in 1968.

A McLaren M4A in F3 form wasn't his best move (that came when he married Susanne Mallock) but the BT21 showed his promise behind the wheel.

Sadly Bill has gone - his struggle to beat the dreaded cancer ended this morning peacefully. He hung on a lot lot longer than the medics had predicted - he remained 'Mr Positive' throughout the ordeal - always firm of handshake and unwavering in his optimism.

Bill rebuilt a Mallock Mk6B and raced it hard it historic races here. In January 2011 he drove a Formula Ford at the Chris Amon Festival - he last raced a FF in 1970, a March 708 he'd modified so much it was nicknamed 'Starch'.

His great buddy Martin Lucas offered Bill his Lotus 69. I was unable to compete because my Crossle had a problem - but it was worth not being out there just to watch Bill. It rained..and rained and rained. Bill was a fair way down the grid but as the race went on and rain got harder, the magic came out. He was over 70 and fighting cancer yet he just picked off car after car. When it was over, Bill - with the #24 he'd raced with since the 60s, was second.

It was the drive of the meeting.

Godspeed my friend

[bob homewood]

Interesting at the Pukekohe Car Club 50th Reunion which was help a few weeks ago ,Bill was there on the Friday night and over the weekend there was some old film footage playing and on there was Bill back in the days when he had the "big engined "Cooper FJ car racing at the Pukekohe Car Club Tuakau grass track meeting and also at a couple of gravel hill climbs with it ,back then he just put a couple of Town and Country tyres on the rear of it gave it his best shot and got on with the job, he was that sort of guy

[Kiwiboss]

A great motorsport legend that i didn't know personally but have read about, RIP Bill.

It goes to show we must get on with life, do as much classic racing as possible and probably not grumble so much. Our end will come one day too.

Dale Mathers

[RogerH]

The passing of a great guy who at the track always had a smile and a bit of helpful advice. A sad day.

[bob homewood]

Yes Dale As I wrote recently

One day there will only be photos and memories
Of us all left there to see

[jamie]

Goodby BILL old racing mate,No more Grass tracks or Western Springs just Memories RIP Jamie A

[Neville Milne]

I knew Bill for over 60 years; we both grew up on farms in Pukekohe East; our fathers became good friends sharing interests in fishing, hunting and, in their spare time, farming. In those days, Bill's dad, Ben, was the 'go-to' guy in that area, whenever anyone had some form of farm machinery that needed repair. The Stones were amongst the earliest settlers in that area.
There was always some vehicle or another for Bill to drive and to tear around in........I still have pictures of Bill (in his teens) with his early 20's Fiat chassis; apple-crate seating and an inverted bath-tub as a make-shift bonnet
What may not be so widely known, is that Bill had a wide range of interests, outside of his second love..... of motor sport ( his first love, of course, being Susanne)
I last saw Bill and Susanne when they were entertaining and educating some High School kids from Auckland, about the history and the pitched battle that involved the Pukekohe East Presbyterian Church,,,still standing and right across the road from the Stone's old farm. Bill demonstrated to the students, an old muzzle-loading rifle that he owned....for many of them it was a first-time experience and the high-light of their visit.
Bill was such a generous fellow; multi-talented; hard-working. In his own way he represented all that was good about being a Kiwi...with none of the bad........it seemed he could do anything he set his mind to accomplish, if it were humanly and humanely possible.
Bill was a good friend and I shall miss him.
Neville Milne

[bob homewood]

Nev I am sure we all will miss him ,I'm glad now that you made that last visit of yours when you did and I think having seen a couple of those early photos they deserve a place in this thread

[Michael Clark]

Neville you are sure right about his wide range of interests. One of the last times I saw Bill he showed my photos of the various pistols and other antique forearms he has owned - a passion he had but that a lot of his 'motor racing friends' had no knowledge of.

[stubuchanan]

Nev I am sure we all will miss him ,I'm glad now that you made that last visit of yours when you did and I think having seen a couple of those early photos they deserve a place in this thread

I'm not sure this one is as early as the photos you were thinking of, but Bill was a keen hill climb competitor in the earlier 1960's, and this picture is from a 1965/66 Auckland Car Club Bombay climb in the 'Big Engine' Cooper Ford. I'm not sure what date, but there may have been one J. E. Aislabie in a bobtailed Cooper there as well.

http://s6.postimage.org/6dnxx7vch/Bill_Stone_ACC_Bombay_HC.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

Stu

[Powder]

His great buddy Martin Lucas offered Bill his Lotus 69.

Amon Festival Jan 2011.
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Malcolm.

[Trakshots]

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Bill Stone. Levin 1968

[Milan Fistonic]

I'm not sure this one is as early as the photos you were thinking of, but Bill was a keen hill climb competitor in the earlier 1960's, and this picture is from a 1965/66 Auckland Car Club Bombay climb in the 'Big Engine' Cooper Ford. I'm not sure what date, but there may have been one J. E. Aislabie in a bobtailed Cooper there as well.

http://s6.postimage.org/6dnxx7vch/Bill_Stone_ACC_Bombay_HC.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

Stu

No way of knowing if this is the event shown in your photo but Bill Stone shared fastest time of the day at the 14th November 1965 Chamberlain Road hillclimb driving number 24 in Class I (0 - 1500cc Racing Cars).

He shared a time of 38.0sec with R. Maddox, a name I don't remember.

[GeebeeNZ]

Milan, I worked with Bob Maddox until he retired about 4 years ago. I understand he owned the Ron Learnan built RGR 500 in 1965 and later owned a Cooper 500.

[David McKinney]

Yes and no, Geeb. By this time the RGR was usually entered as a Cooper, as it was by later owners

[Oldfart]

Yes and no, Geeb. By this time the RGR was usually entered as a Cooper, as it was by later owners

As you say David, yes and no. In later times it has always been known as the RGR, at least since the early 90s. Now gone back to the UK and known as that. Ron informed us in the 80s that he was told by Coopers (before he brought the car back to NZ) that it was so different from any Cooper that he must not use the name.

[David McKinney]

It was called a Cooper for many years, until reverting to its proper name for historic racing

Ron raced it as the RGR in the UK for two or three seasons before taking it to NZ

[stubuchanan]

No way of knowing if this is the event shown in your photo but Bill Stone shared fastest time of the day at the 14th November 1965 Chamberlain Road hillclimb driving number 24 in Class I (0 - 1500cc Racing Cars).

He shared a time of 38.0sec with R. Maddox, a name I don't remember.

I went back to my other photos from the same hillclimb and found following Jim Boyd photo. Boyd set fastest time at the ACC Gold Star hillclimb on 3 October 1965 at Chamberlain Rd - 36.2 sec vs Bill Stone's 36.5 for second-fastest. I have 2 other Cooper photos from same day which could be Steve Boreham or Maddox (or somebody else..). I could put them up but wouldn't want to go too far off topic. Must be 3 October I think.

Stu
http://s6.postimage.org/cnsuv2qgh/Boyd_GS_Chamberlain_Rd_Oct_65.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

Boyd was at Renwick on Saturday 13 November '65(see quote), and while Bob Homewood or someone will tell us how they made it from the South I to Auckland overnight once, Boyd doesn't seem to have done so.

Class indicators ( I and H etc) were only used at Gold Star Climbs?? True/False??

Look at the size of the crowd at top of picture!

[bob homewood]

Stu ,put them in the hill climb thread ,I am not sure of the class indicator question ,maybe David can help ,got agree with the crowd ,it could pull a good crowd in those days and it even had a good PA coverage on the top corner area ,a couple of times I was there they had to open a extra paddock up for the spectator cars

[David McKinney]

Can't help with the class lettering question. It certainly wasn't used often

[driftwood]

Sorry to read here about the passing of Bill (i have not been on the forum for a long time army race season has now started) he was great guy
I met Bill around 11-12 years ago when he was working for Paul Stoddart European Aviation race team and Paul had recruited him from BAR ( Nee Tyrrell F1 team) after Paul ahd bought the 99 BAR cars and parts.

I have the ex Reynard Factory F3 F3000 car parts and had not long before read the Reynard story and had already read the March story when I went to see Bill about some of the European collection F1 cars they wanted to sell

Bill was telling me some his his side of the March story and then SABRE fabrications and his tie up with Adrian to form Reynard race cars and later leaving the company returning to NZ in the early 1980's and later coming back to the UK and Adrian hiring him again !

Bill then told me how he later went to work at Ray Mallock Racing and then onto Tyrrell F1 and then being incorporated to BAR F1 and back with Adrian again !!

Bill also raced Classic Saloon cars in the UK in a morris minor and i told him that i recall his name in the results and the story of how he lightened his Mogey shell by rubbing the paint off and he left the car outside to oxidise.
1 week later he would come back and lightly rub it with wet n dry back to bare metal and leave it repeating the process many times for the next month or so!!

Before we embarked on the factory tour to inspect the F1 cars i pulled out my Reynard story book and said can you sign it.
He looked at me as if to say are you serious??
I said "you think I am taking the pish? I am being serious you are a founder member of Reynard racing cars and i want you to sign my book and you are technically and F1 driver!!"
"NOW you are taking the pish !! " he laughed and signed my book and he told me nobody had ever asked him to do that before !!

A year later Bill finally officially retired and returned to NZ
Bill was an unassuming but interesting guy to talk to and we will not see his type again

I wonder if this thread is the place to now post more photos and info or whether a separate thread is required??

[markec]

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[markec]

The latest Classic Driver has an excellent write up on Bill's career

[Jacques]

We are not racing people but knew Bill and Susanne in the UK and were even on holiday in Maderia with them when Bill proposed to Susanne. We are very saddened to hear of his passing. As everyone said he was a great bloke and they were a lovely couple.

[driftwood]

I have bought the ex works March 708/ 718 that Bill raced in the UK to restore- i agreed to buy it a year ago once i had found out about it.
My plan is to rebuild it and come to NZ with it and do one of your festival weekends or 2

[Michael Clark]

As you no doubt know, the car was referred to as the 'Starch' - the STone mARCH - I assume unofficially.

Please feel free to keep in contact about this - will this be for the 2014/15 Howden Ganley Festival? Our Old Fart FF group will be only too pleased to help.

[driftwood]

yes the cunning plan is to get down for that
of course need some $ to restore car in 6 months so its ready to ship in time
i dont consider myself old but i can sure Fart and i have some FFords amongst other cars

[driftwood]

25783March FFord as imported dismantled and now stripped sandblasted

[driftwood]

Update on the March of Bill Stone
Chassis now sandblasted ready to carry out the repair work.
I have made contact with Martin Lucas who has given me some good "intel" Bill passed to him on their days together racing and some photos from Mrs Stone.
Once I get the chassis repaired I can plan the rebuild and start looking at the viability of coming to NZ HD with the car

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