The Martin Derbyshire Collection

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I was handed two cd's on the weekend, both from different photographers, both containing New Zealand motorsport images which I'll be posting on The Roaring Season over the coming weeks for everyone to enjoy. For me, its like Christmas time when I'm handed image cd's. I just don't know what I'm going to find inside, but damn, if it isn't exciting finding out!

The first of the image cd's is from Martin Derbyshire. Now all you single seater guys, I'm going to warn you straight up, Martin is a huge modified sedan racing fan, and virtually every photo in this collection is of modified sedans from the 1976 - 79 period. But more than that, Martin is a huge Jack Nazer fan, so the dominant subject matter in this collection is Nazers Jim Stone built Chevy powered Victor. Its not a large collection, just over 50 photos in all, but still, its really interesting.

So here goes.....

Kicking things off here is a shot of Nazer at Bay Park, during the 1976/77 season, followed by some nice looking action shots of Bill Leckie, Leo Leonard, Nazer, and Jim Richards bursting through one of Pukekohe's temporary, and thankfully, long since demolished, chicanes. The Puke shots are all from the 1977 season, the last year of the big engined sedans before Motorsport NZ killed them off.

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OK, Nazer and Leckie feature again. I wish I knew what happened to the Leckie Capri. See also the beautiful Brian Blackberry Frist sponsored Escort.

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This batch contains what looks like the Alan Boyle Coke Viva (bottom), although this photo would have been taken approx 1976. Did Boyle still own the car in 1976?

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Great stuff Steve, I have known Martin since we were teenagers and he has been a keen motorsport fan for years, infact his nick name is "Jack" after Mr Nazer himself, most still call him "Jack" today without even knowing why!! Martin(or Jack to his mates) use to get photoghapers pass's to Baypark, one time he got me a pass so i could hold his camera bag, both us around 16/17 in age at the time and here we are out in no mans land on the edge of the track with the cars coming in the second to last turn(3 i think) he's taking pic's and i got all his gear getting ready to RUN, just no way you would get away with this in todays PC world, great memory's and good times.

PS: I was always a Sidchrome/PDL fan

Dale Mathers

More action from the Puke chicane, including Jim Richards being chased by Tony Edmonson in the ex-John McCormack Charger, plus Brent Bullivant (Chevy Capri), Nazer, Pat Crea/Greg Lancaster, Crea in the Chevy Cortina, Lancaster in the Chevy Victor, plus Roy Harrington in his Chevy Torana.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kiwiboss

Great stuff Steve, I have known Martin since we were teenagers and he has been a keen motorsport fan for years, infact his nick name is "Jack" after Mr Nazer himself, most still call him "Jack" today without even knowing why!! Martin(or Jack to his mates) use to get photoghapers pass's to Baypark, one time he got me a pass so i could hold his camera bag, both us around 16/17 in age at the time and here we are out in no mans land on the edge of the track with the cars coming in the second to last turn(3 i think) he's taking pic's and i got all his gear getting ready to RUN, just no way you would get away with this in todays PC world, great memory's and good times.

PS: I was always a Sidchrome/PDL fan

Dale Mathers

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Thanks Dale! In fact, it was Dale who suggested to Martin (Jack) that he share these photos. As Dale has said, Martin is a huge Nazer fan, even his email address has the name martinjack in it!

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I assume that must be Robbie Lester in the Vee?

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This batch includes the Halliday MkII Escort, as discussed in another thread, plus the Frist machine again. Can anyone ID the #108 Escort?

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Post #8, the two "racing cars" are #11 Kenny in his March 76B and #3 Phil Sharp, Modus M3 so it is Puke top chicane (obviously), Jan 1977.

Thanks Howard, yes I was supposed to ask for someone to ID the Modus driver. Great to meet you on the weekend, by the way.

OK, next batch, including a great shot of the Nazer Victor interior, plus Nazer and Red Dawson at Bay Park, late 1976. Note that the Victor still wears its Brambles colours, but no Brambles signage. A full repaint and Cossack sponsorship would soon follow. Also, Dawsons Monza is now running fuel injection (note the taller, narrow hood scoop), which had been developed over the off-season for an all-out assault on the NZ Saloon car Championship.

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OK, counting down towards the finish. This post includes more from the late '76 Bay Park encounter, which also had Frank Gardners Corvair in attendance. Gardner, Nazer, and Dawson fought over the race wins, which was also the case a couple of weeks later at Manfeild, where Dawson spun the Monza through the in-field, before slamming into a ditch and rolling.

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The first two shots in this post are again from the 1976/77 season. The last two are from January 1979, when the Bay Park, Pukekohe, and Manfeild promoters organised an Open Sports Sedan series, which helped revive big engined sedan racing in the North Island. Each round had two races, each race was a handicap start, with the fastest off the back. The fastest two cars were the Leo Leonard PDL II Mustang, and Jim Richards Falcon hardtop.

This post shows the reworked PDL II, with new deep front splitter, and tall rear aerofoil, which had been grabbed from an idle F5000 the team had in their workshops. The yellow Capri is that of Brent Bullivant, who built this car in 1974, when he was just 19 years old. By 1979, he was living in Australia and maintaining Richards' Falcon, but he dusted off the Chevy Capri for these races. The Capri always struggled with no rear grip, the result of Bullivants non-existent racing budget, which forced him to use old cast-off tyres from other teams. Jim Richards tested the Capri on a couple of occasions for Bullivant, noting the car would benefit from a new set of tyres!

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OK, last post for this thread. Kicking off here again at the 1979 Open Sports Sedan series, and a shot of the beautiful alloy block, fuel-injected small block Ford in the PDL II Mustang. This wasn't the most powerful sedan racing in NZ at the time, with around 550hp, but the car handled so well, it was completely formidable.

Second shot here is of Jim Richards stepping out of his XC Falcon hardtop. He scored Winfield backing for his NZ visit. No doubt he'd have loved to have Winfields support in Australia too! Interestingly, more than a decade later, when he was driving a Group A Nissan for Fred Gibson, the team was sponsored by Winfield.

The final two photos show the line-up at Pukekohe, as the cars assemble for the handicap start. From left to right are: George Shewiery (ex-Jim Richards Mustang), Graeme Addis (Charger), Jack Nazer, John Briggs (ex-Red Dawson Chevy Monza), Bullivant, Leonard, Richards. Bullivant would have been making his way towards the front of the grid. Nazer had his gun fuel-injection system stolen from his workshop just a couple of weeks prior to the 1979 Open Sports Sedan series, so had to make do with a quickly cobbled-together replacement, and was never on the pace of the faster cars.

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Hell there are some great photos there - thanks for sharing them with us. It never fails to amaze me the photos that surface on this site. Any chance of being teleported back to those meetings !!!

Javman will have no excuse for not getting the 'Miss Victorious' absolutely spot on. LOL

The 'Alloy Small Block' in PDL II was a Cleveland- not a windsor 302 sb or 351w in case there is any confusion, all of them were 'back door/midnight specials' from the Ford foundry & a bit of a disaster longevity wise as they had insufficient material in the main webs etc.... meant to have been destroyed, but rumour at the time had a well known Aussie who spotted an opportunity & whisked them away to the southern hemisphere....there were several..:)

Thats right Jac. Rick Deihl told me the block was purchased from Ron Tauranac. And yes, longevity wise, you're right on the money, the PDL II made a special guest appearance at Wigram following the 3-round Open Sports Sedan series, ran just one race, and blew a great hole out the side of the block. PDL II has been fitted with an iron block ever since.

The Open Sports Sedan races were actually televised I think. I hope one day the coverage finds its way into the right hands, and gets posted online.

I have just returned from the International Vintage car Rally in Wanganui. Jack Nazer was in attendance in his 1927 Delage. He travels a bit slower these days.

Is that Les Laidlaw in the Viva?

Marty, thats a good call, Les did race that car, so you're probably right. Les is a member on here, perhaps he could confirm.

Good news for fans of the Sidchrome Mustang. The restoration of this vehicle is progressing well.

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Originally Posted by Steve Holmes

Good news for fans of the Sidchrome Mustang. The restoration of this vehicle is progressing well.

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I saw something the other day from Chris Watson that they are looking at creating a historic class for allcomers again. If that is the case would that be a series keeping an eye on. Maybe we will get some of those old beasts back on track yet again.

Thats great to hear Mike, I think this needs to be done. It should probably be split into a couple of groups, ie, original cars that raced prior to (for example) 1973, and cars that raced after this right through the the late 1980s Sports Sedan era. Slick tyres began appearing around 1973 (ish) on tin tops, and many cars from this period onwards were built around slicks. And you wouldn't want to have the Sidchrome Imp in the same race as Roger Williams Greenwood Corvette etc.

Is this the Corvette Steve. If so WOW can not wait to see it going out here. I have a record of it's life up till now

Some more of it undressed. This very nice

No, thats not the one Rod. It looks like this one:

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Heres the history on the other one.

This is one of the most successful and historically significant Corvettes in IMSA history. This Greenwood “Supervette” driven by John Paul Sr. was one of the fastest cars in the IMSA series and always a threat to win. In 2003 the car was fully restored to period correct specification both cosmetically and mechanically. Every component was either rebuilt or replaced with new parts. Since the completion of the restoration in 2004 it has only competed in five vintage events. It is completely sorted and race ready.



In 1976, the IMSA sanctioning body changed road racing rules to allow full tube frame cars to compete in the premier North American Road Racing series. John Greenwood saw a major opportunity to design and build the next generation of racing Corvette. With the help of chassis designer Bob Riley, the first Greenwood tube frame Corvette was built and rolled out for competition in 1977. This car was the second of only two chassis built.

After racing a Porsche Carrera RSR John Paul Sr. was looking for a major horsepower racecar and the Greenwood Corvette was it. In the off-season between 1977 and 1978, John Paul bought the second tube frame from Protofab Engineering. The JLP Corvette was assembled by AVC engineering, which included Charlie Selix, Bob Urban and Gary Pratt (later of Pratt and Miller). In an effort to reduce drag and increase top speed the design of 002 differed from the first car and was built with a narrower track and more aerodynamic bodywork. There was even talk of running the car for a land speed record.

John Paul drove the car in the 1978 IMSA season competing for overall wins in the premier GTX catagory. There was on going research and development with this car as the Porsche 935 were now the dominant car to beat. John Paul had many podium finishes with a best finish of 2nd overall at Hallett. Finally at the end of the 1978 season, John Paul retired the Greenwood Supervette and began campaigning a Porsche 935.

John Paul sold the car to Tico Almeida and Rene Rodriguez of T&D Racing. Tico and Rene raced the car once in 1980 and then rebodied the car with the new Greenwood Daytona body style for 1981. The car appeared in the 1981 Daytona 24 hours with John Greenwood as the driver however engine failure prevented the car from starting the race.

The 1982 IMSA season produced strong results for the John Greenwood/T&R Racing Team. The car ran as #13 with the updated GTO body style the entire season in IMSA’s GTO class with impressive results. However, Porsche competition was fierce and the team retired the car at the end of the 1982 IMSA Season.

From here, the car was driven by Ernesto Soto is a variety of IMSA events for four years, then sold to Luis Burgos who was a club racer from Puerto Rico. Luis raced the Supervette in club events in Puerto Rico and later brought the car to Miami for the 1984 IMSA Grand Prix.

Burgos later sold the car to Paul Canary who stored it for many years in California. The Supervette was purchased by Goldin Brothers Racing in 2002 and restored for vintage racing. The restoration was completed in January of 2004

600 cubic Inches, 950+ hp
Kinsler Cross Ram Fuel Injection
Race History

1978
Road Atlanta 5th. John Paul
Laguna Seca 8th. John Paul
Hallett 2nd. John Paul
Lime Rock 3rd. John Paul
Brainerd 34th. John Paul
Daytona 250 51st. John Paul, Michael Keyser
Sears Point 19th. John Paul
Portland 17th. John Paul
Road Atlanta 23rd. John Paul

1979
12 hr Sebring 53rd. Tico Almeida, Rene Rodriguez

1980
12 hr Sebring 68th. Tico Almeida, Rene Rodriguez, Gabriel Riano

1981
Daytona 24 hr, DNS John Greenwood

1982
Road Atlanta 14th OA, 9th in GTO, Rene Rodriguez
6 hr Riverside DNF John Greenwood
Laguna Seca 7th OA, 2nd in GTO, Rene Rodriguez
Charlotte DNF John Greenwood
Mid-Ohio 6th OA, 2nd in GTO Rene Rodriguez
Lime Rock 9th OA, 3rd in GTO, Rene Rodriguez
Daytona 250 DNF John Carusso, Rene Rodriguez
Brainerd DNF Rene Rodriguez
Portland DNF Rene Rodriguez
Road Atlanta 5th OA. 1st GTO, Rodriguez, Greenwood
Pocono DNF Rene Rodriguez, John Greenwood
3 hr Daytona DNF Rene Rodriguez, John Greenwood

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Originally Posted by Steve Holmes

No, thats not the one Rod. It looks like this one:

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Don't know if i like the rear guards, kind of makes it look like a Funny Car. Bet it has some good gear though.

Its a '75 model car Rod, all the Greenwood cars had that same look that year, both the Greenwood raced cars and the customer cars.

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I first heard Roger had bought the car two years ago, and emailed him about it. He said it was to be painted in Old Blue colour scheme, so I don't know if that means its the Old Blue car as posted above, and has been returned to its original colour scheme, or if its just the paint scheme Roger likes the most from the '75 Greenwood cars. I should really find out more! Anyway, he said its running 540ci alloy motor with cross-ram injection. Nice piece of kit!

The body on the white car looks nice, it's just those funny scoops on the blue car just don't look quite right. Still bloody nice car and i would accept it any time.

If you go onto the Hampton Downs website and have a look at the July newsletter there is a photo of the car as it appeared at the recent Speedshow in Auckland. Darkish blue # 75

http://www.hamptondowns.com/pages/107/latestnews.htm

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Originally Posted by Rod Grimwood

The body on the white car looks nice, it's just those funny scoops on the blue car just don't look quite right. Still bloody nice car and i would accept it any time.

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OK, it turns out the above Old Blue car is not the one Roger Williams owns. Old Blue is also the Spirit Of Sebring car, as also pictured above. It was also Greenwoods 'mule' for testing various ideas, hence the rear ducts which soon disappeared again. The reason Roger painted his car this colour is because he likes it, and because he knows the Spirit Of Sebring 75/Old Blue car will likely never be painted again in the Old Blue colours.

Good on him, want to see in the roar.

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Holy crap comes to mind!

Hey Sloper, thanks for posting these. That thing is a weapon!

Beautiful, that looks the part.