Photos: The Sprague Family Collection

[Steve Holmes]

Brilliant image here, which I assume is a publicity shot, either taken for a magazine article or advertising of some kind. Perhaps Todd Motors?

Anyway, thats Ernie on the left, and Leo Leonard on the right. Pictured are two pretty significant Charger race cars. The car in the foreground of Leo's massively successful E49, which dominated the 1972/73 Castrol GTX series. The white car is the 770 which Leo and Ernie shared in the Bensen & Hedges 500 race. I'm pretty certain this is the car they drove in the 1972 race, which finished second to team mates Jim Richards/Rod Coppins after a late pit stop for tyres and brake pads cost them time. If I'm right, and this is the 1972 770, then this is the car that later became the wild Graeme Addis Sports Sedan with the motor in the back.

I had wondered if the white car pictured here was the Charger sold to Graeme Addis, and which became his wild Sports Sedan racer. Graeme kindly emailed me regarding this, as follows:

"I can confirm the 770 picture, with Ernie and Leo, is in fact my ADDIS Charger,

"I can remember having second thoughts about removing the sign writing after buying the car from Todds after the meeting. It was purchased through Wilson Pearce Motors the Chrysler dealers in Waiuku for commercial reasons, but the deal was done at the track ½ an hour after the meeting . Mike Pearce sorted it out.

"That car was never a road car, which is unique".