My guess is that the Cooper photo is on the approach to the hill turn on to the front straight at Puke, and the Brabaham photo is coming onto the front straight at Levin.
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My guess is that the Cooper photo is on the approach to the hill turn on to the front straight at Puke, and the Brabaham photo is coming onto the front straight at Levin.
I can confirm that the "Red Dawson" ex bryan Trans Am 67 Mustang is now owned by Nigel MacDonald of Hawera, we prized it way from the Bowdens a few years ago because they didn't see the world wide value in but for NZ it has huge Historic Race value, Nigel plans to restore it back its blue colour and race it with HMC. The good thing about this car is it still retains alot of its correct Trans Am parts and sheet metal as when Red was finished with it he sold it from his lot as a road car, had several owners who probably didn't even know what it was? until John Chapman bought it in the early 80's and piece the original motor back with the car!! Lots of stories and History with this Mustang, more than i can write.
Dale Mathers
Frank Bryan had a bit of an off at his first appearance at Timaru Motor Raceway with the Mustang on the Saturday and damaged the front suspension somewhat. The car was taken to Timaru Motors where it was decided that it could not be repaired due to a lack of time and spare parts, that is until a few of us youngsters arrived on the scene and decided that Falcon parts would do the job so a quick phone call to the sales manager and a new car was slipped into the workshop. Frank raced the next day and we returned the new car back into the showroom on the Sunday night ready for it's new owner.
The Dawson Cooper pic is at Pukekohe, heading towards the hill at what was then Rothmans. The interesting thing about this shot is the driver of the Rothmans Cooper behind him - one P B Fahey
The Brabham looks like coming into the main straight at Levin
A couple of good cover pics : the Coppins Camaro leading Fahey's FVA Escort, Grady Thompson's Monaro and Jack Nazer in the Cossack Escort into the dreaded Levin hairpin, and the shot of Red looks like the turn from the front straight at Puke onto the long circuit loop : what about the thieving buggers at Motorman asking 35 cents for the mag !!
Murray, I think the Mustangs beneath the trees shot from Puke is 1970, as I have a similar pic. Norm Beechey flogged them that day.:)
Heres an oldie, from Baypark
taken by a then keen young fella with his own little camera. I actually bumped into him at Hampton Festival and he said he had some old photos. he sent them to me and I will post them on threads and may even start a thread for them and any similar shots taken by amatuers with ordinary gear. It is all good.
Thread dredge, but, only discovered this site recently----
This is Red Dawson, Pukekohe, 4.11.67 - according to the photo. Its the Riley Lotus in the foreground.
That's Johnny Riley clambering out of Red's Brabham, too.
Levin 64Attachment 15991
My father in law Barry Pointon was friends with Red from their teenage years through to Reds passing, and the yarns abound.
A lot of people knew Red as a car dealer in his later years, but the family also owned a large pig farm on the Great South Road in Wiri, just south of where Rainbows End is now, and Red worked bloody hard working all hours of the day and night. In their early 20s Barry would often go with Red on his pig food collection run through Newmarket and the inner city where Red would exchange an empty 44 gallon drum for one full of food waste from many restaurants on his rounds . His truck at the time was a near new late 50s Bedford flatdeck which would carry about twenty drums. Over a period of time Red developed a technique whereby he could bearhug a full drum of pig food, get it up on to his bent knee, then up on to the deck of the truck. Needless to say, Red Dawson was a very strong, tough person who didn`t suffer fools at all.
In later years when Red had his car sales yard in Otahuhu, just down the road from Barrys and John Rileys car sales yards, on a Thursday the three of them would have a `victim' competition, whereby with Thursday being the local freezing works payday. Red always rearranged his yard putting a row of cheapies along the front by the footpath. When any of these `victims' turned up with their pay packets, Red was straight to the point: `How much money have you got, don`t go looking past this row here because you can`t afford any of these others' etc.
When it came to motor racing, many people thought Red was brutal on his gear. His reasoning was that he could afford it and that is why he had the sort of equipment that is part of his legacy.
http://i45.tinypic.com/280sh6v.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/oq8tmr.jpg
Not the best photo of the Camaro but it was a great car on track and Red used to wring its neck.
Must be Kerry Grant in The Southwood Cortina following Red!
Although much of his career was in saloon cars, Dawson did try single seaters briefly. I believe Dawsons' Brabham is ex-Frank Matich? This photo is from an upcoming chapter in the Ian Peak Collection.
Attachment 16059
Dunno about briefly, Red galloped the Repco Brabham for over three years.
Car history here...:cool:
http://www.oldracingcars.com/f1/car.php?CarID=BT7A/1-63
Motorman said that Beechey told him that he was " bloody beaut in a teeeen top" and not waste time in a single seater.Results show he was at the pointy end in saloons, tail end in the open wheeler.Easy to decide which championship could be won .
Love his cool suit he is wearing in the pic.
I think you and Steve are doing Red Dawson's single-seater efforts a bit of an injustice. He raced single seaters for 5 seasons, from 1964-65 in the ex-Palmer-ex-Hyslop Cooper 2.5 and then the ex-Matich Brabham from 1965-66 to 1968-69 season. He scored points in the Tasman Series at least one season, won the Waimate race in 1966, and had podium finishes in other National races over the years. The Climax-engined cars were getting older and slower by comparison, and Red didn't run single seaters after the Formula 5000's arrived.
Stu
I dont have earlier Motorman mags than his last season in singles seaters..I have not seen any other information on his earlier days on these threads until your 60 post.Thanks to you Stu ,we have more info on this period.
Here is a very rare mint condition Red Dawson racing decal. This is from the Steve Elliott collection.
http://i45.tinypic.com/iyk506.jpg
and here is a pic of the iconic Camaro that features on the decal.
http://i48.tinypic.com/14xjrsz.jpg
Prior to the Marlboro livery, Red's Camaro was painted in the gold Kensington Carpets colours. Always a good looking car.
This is also from the Steve Elliott collection as with the above pic. Photographers unknown.
http://i50.tinypic.com/17vk20.jpg
Great two pictures Bruce, which begs the next question!! were is this car these days? did it survive? or has it bitten the OSCAR/All Comers dust like many did back in the mid to late 70's once there group II Saloon car duties where over!!
Im sure someone on here will know
Dale M
Think it still down south Dale
Results 65 Red in car 66
66
Kelvin Towns in Dunedin still has the car I believe. The ironic thing about this Camaro, is that Red actually went to the US with the intention of buying one of Penskes Javelin Trans Am cars, and when that didn`t happen, he sat down and wrote out a `shopping list'. One Camaro, two Bartz 302 race engines, wheels, tyres, etc and NZ here we come. Also on this trip he thought he may as well get a good tow car, so he bought a Chev Impala Super Sport, from yes, a little old lady from Pasadena!! No shit! As I said in an earlier post, if Red wanted something, he just paid the money.
In its first season in "gold Kensington' colour that car had some trick Firestone? cantilever tyres[ might have been rear only].. rim width was only 8 or 10 inch wide for regs, but tyres had huge sidewall bulge out to a treadwidth about 4"/5" wider, these rules did not apply in NZ so the next season saw some wider rear rims fitted along with a change of tyre.
That's how the American Trans Am cars raced Jac Mac, SCCA had 8" max rim width rule so Goodyear and Firestone made a special "cantilever" tyres to gain that extra tread on the ground, i guess this design made the cars move around a bit when cornering and gave a spectacular on-track look when racing, was no doubt for its time "state of the art" in tyre technology i presume and a real tyre war started between the two companies. So to have a set of these down here in NZ would have been quite something!!(until they wore out that is)
PS: I believe thats how Goodyear started there advertising campaign of the "Lifesave TA Radial" and then in later years just known as the "BF Goodrich TA radial" i had several sets on my road going mustangs over the years not even knowing that TA part stood for Trans Am, must have been good for business for them to last that long.
Dale M
Liked the car in this colour, it looked big and mean (it was)
Note the then mark from USA of advertising decals all over front guard and front of door.
She sure transfered weight, compare back tyre on ground in 2nd and 3rd photo.
Yeah thats right Steve, Kelvin has owned it for years and years. Amazingly this car didn't really get cut up, despite having raced in OSCA through to the early 1980s. It did have an engine set back, doing the old trick of cutting the firewall and bringing the motor back into the cockpit slightly, but this was really it. The car still has its original flares that were built for it when Red first converted it for racing, and everything else is basically as it was when Red first built it. It still even has its original headlining! Its a pretty original car.
That's Right Dale, BF Goodrich contracted T/G Racing after Jerry Titus died, they were paid around $ 0.50 per lap for tire testing. One of the remaining T/G Firebirds was branded as the Tirebird, and it raced on T/A Radials and I believe after some development work, they won the first series race on a street tire. Later engine (Pontiac 303) reliability issues saw the Firebird changed into a Camaro, but still branded Tirebird. It had more chance of winning, and did, with the Chev power.
Later Ron Grable was involved in the John Greenwood/BF Goodrich Corvettes. They even took on Le Mans but a late night run by a team member left the car unable to start the race. I understand the incident came from someone trying to impress a young lady.
PS: I believe thats how Goodyear started there advertising campaign of the "Lifesave TA Radial" and then in later years just known as the "BF Goodrich TA radial" i had several sets on my road going mustangs over the years not even knowing that TA part stood for Trans Am, must have been good for business for them to last that long.
I will put some pics up later.
Bruce.
Dale M[/QUOTE]
Bruce, without getting away from Reds thread, the original Titus Camaro/Firebird, prior to the factory Firebirds, which ended up in Mexico, was tracked down and bought by Jerrys` son Rick, who had Bill Elliott Racing restore it, is now for sale in California for $350,000 USD. I`m still keen at 60K if you want to cash up Rods Firebird!!!!
I'm sure some people have seen it Steve, but I've not personally seen any photos. I spoke to Kelvin about it several years ago, and he explained its condition, and I was amazed by how original it was. He told me at the time he was slowly restoring it, as time and money allowed.
I last saw the Camaro at the 82 Granprix meeting at Puke. engine bay was cut back quite a bit and the car was still fairly original but tired. During my membership in the Camaro Club, Red wrote to us offering to sell his spares off the Camaro as he was retiring.
I shot round there and purchased the Camaro bits I wanted for $100.00, mainly interior trim so that I could finish the resto on the Tulloch Camaro. The dash and consol in my car was ex Reds camaro. For years I had the original grill surround and front roll bars off Red's car and now regret leaving them behind in Whangarei. He would not sell me the yankie number plates off the car. He was a very nice guy.
I have always loved this word " tired" to describe an item -whether it be a house or car.
I was being polite John, the then Riley Camaro description would be a wee bit more colourful and your Monaro.....well, your a brave man. Cheers, Bruce