The Martin Derbyshire Collection

[Steve Holmes]

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.....

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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?

[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

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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

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!

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]

I assume that must be Robbie Lester in the Vee?

[Steve Holmes]

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

[Howard Wood]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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!

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[kiwi285]

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

[Jac Mac]

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..

[Steve Holmes]

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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.