Motorcycle Maketplace Magazine

V8 Flathead Ford, Vintage Stockcar #88.
By Steve Green
www.motoringmarketplace.co.nz

Among the modern Superstocks competing at the recent Dewtec Enzed Superstock Teams Championship in Palmerston North were a number of Vintage Stockcars from the Historic Stockcar Club of Auckland.
One of the more interesting of these old Stockcars was the original number 88 which is based on a 1935, Ford Coupe and is the oldest surviving, original Stockcar in New Zealand. The Stockcar was built in 1958 by Ron Hogan and Adam Wike and is now driven by Adam’s son Gary Wike. The Stockcar is powered by a 239ci, flathead Ford V8 that is currently fitted with vintage Offenhauser cylinderheads although when it was built the car originally used pair of Kiwi made, 16 sparkplug, Hogan cylinderheads.

Initially the car was raced at the original Epsom Speedway track in Auckland and also toured Australia as part of the successful New Zealand Stockcar team of eight cars which raced in Australia in late 1958.
After the closure of Epsom Speedway the car was raced by Mark Jennings at Western Springs and Gloucester Park. After years of sitting around gathering dust the car was rescued by Gary Wike and restored to original in 1985. Painted in it’s original black & yellow colours the car is quite striking visually and makes a pleasant mellow rumble from its exhaust when racing.

At the end of this season, Gary will be repainting the car and renumbering it for the next year. It will be painted black and white with a big number 6 on the side as this is how it looked exactly 50 years ago when it was car number 6 of the New Zealand team of eight cars that went to Australia in late 1958 and early 1959. This New Zealand team raced successfully at Sydney and Brisbane over that season.

German Riders on Russian Ural Sidecars
April 2008.
By Steve Green
www.motorcyclemarketplace.co.nz

Recently the Horowhenua had a couple of unusual visitors, a pair of German tourists who are both riding Russian made Ural sidecars. The two friends, Christian Beyer aged 40 from Amberg, and Dirk Thiesmann aged 42 from Munich, are in New Zealand for a four week holiday which will include taking a photographic and video record of their trip.
One section of the video will be the pair riding along the sands of Waitarere beach with the video recorded by local magazine Editor Steve Green who was their host during their visit to the Horowhenua. Although the video is not expected to be finished until later in the year it will include the short section on the Horowhenua as well as lake Taupo, the Desert Road and a trip across the waters to the South Island.

The two friends are regular travellers in Germany although they live around 180 Kms away from each other, and they are even apparently dating two sisters which would bring them into contact fairly regularly.
Even though their bikes are both Ural motorcycle fitted with factory Ural sidecars, on closer inspection they have some noticeable differences. Christian’s bike is a 1994, 650cc model that has been bored out to 750cc while Dirk’s came out of the Ural factory as a 750cc version. The engines are flat twins similar to an early BMW, except with the push rods on the top of the cylinders and the single camshaft in the crankcases above the crankshaft.

Starting for Christian’s bike is by kick start only with a sidewards mounted lever that goes out at ninety degrees to the bike, so you are not kicking backwards as on a modern bike, rather sideways away from the bike. The gearbox is equally interesting in that it has four forwards gears as well as a reverse gear which is handy when you have a large and heavy sidecar attached. Most modern sidecars use fibreglass or aluminium to save weight but not the Russians, these two sidecars are solidly constructed and use a thin skin of steel just like a car, good for longevity, but somewhat heavy.

Both sidecars come from the factory fitted with a spare wheel on the back and all three wheels including the rear wheel which is shaft driven, all have the same fittings. This means that if you get a flat on any wheel you can fit the spare to it and Christian also said that, what Ural riders tend to do is rotate the wheels like a car driver would, so that if the driven rear wheel tread gets a bit low it is swapped for the sidecar wheel which has less stress on it.

On the road the bike has a mechanical linkage worked off the foot brake which applies the drum brake on the sidecar to help slow down what is a quite substantial machine, Dirk’s bike even has a small lever by the foot brake which works as a park brake.

Christian has had his Ural for fourteen years and it is set up so that he can remove it and ride the bike as a solo. On the other hand Dirk’s sidecar is set up as a single unit and can not be ridden as a solo without some major work, as his front suspension is a leading link type with the geometry set up purely for sidecar use. At the rear of Dirk’s bike is something not normally found on many sidecars, a sideways mounted driveshaft coming out of the side of the rear wheel diff housing and heading across under the sidecar chassis to drive the sidecar wheel.

A lever down by the riders right foot is used to engage this extra drive which normally is not engaged as it upsets the handling and makes the Ural very hard to steer at anything above walking speeds. Dirk had never actually had cause to use it for real till he buried the rear wheel while turning around in the soft sand on Waitarere Beach.

Dirk’s machine is a more modern 2003, Ranger model the same as is still used by the Russian Army today and Dirk has seen them fitted with a small Rocket launcher on the back where his spare wheel is mounted. And even Dirk’s sidecar has the factory fitted mount for the machine gun which could come in handy for rush hour traffic in Auckland.

Memo to the New Zealand Defence Forces, stop wasting taxpayer money on six wheel Jeeps and Glad wrapped Skyhawks that can’t even fly, buy a couple of Ural sidecars and fit them with machine guns and they will do just as well at a fraction the price, and they will still be going strong for decades to come.
Dirk is actually the second owner of his bike, which the previous owner rebuilt and repainted to resemble a World War Two BMW Army sidecar which looked very similar to the Ural complete with the extra drive to the sidecar wheel. The paint and graphics are for the Fifth Mountain Division, plus the original owner fitted a few extras like the spotlight, ammo boxes and a small shovel on the outside of the all metal sidecar body.

This Ural being of a later design has electric start fitted as well as the sideways kick starter and has been fitted with a pair of Mikuni carbs and an external electronic ignition system. The factory ignition is normally housed inside the front of the engine crankcases where they are prone to occasionally giving trouble if they get too hot.

Both bikes are running special Heidenau tyres which were especially designed for the Ural sidecars and both riders are full of praise for them. The tyre pattern may look a little dated however they are reputed to be an excellent, long lasting, multi purpose tyre for the likes of the Urals which are less Sports orientated than most, more like the Farm Ute of the motorcycling World.

After their short stay at Waitarere Beach, Dirk and Christian headed down South for a ride down the Kaikoura coast and further South to Dunedin, before crossing over the Alps and coming back up the island along the West Coast and returning to the North Island.

Before they head home to Germany they have to partially disassemble the two bikes and refit them back into their Transport cases which are currently in the care of the New Zealand Ural Motorcycle agent Kurt Nielsen in Katikati.

Then once the bikes are packed ready for their slow trip home by the boat, their two riders will fly home and go back to their full time jobs in Germany, a reunion with their girl friends and the prospect of sorting four weeks worth of video and photo’s into a story for a German magazine and the eventual forty minute video. For further information on the riders and their New Zealand trip readers can visit their Website: www.uralinterkontinental.de

Mothers Mc 30th Annual Race Day
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
By Steve Green

Rumbling Exhausts, Falling Rain and Racing Bikes, not always a good mix but they all came together for the Mothers Motorcycle Club of Palmerston North’s 30th Annual Race Day. Over 100 racers and a small crowd of spectators made the annual trip to Manfield Racetrack at Feilding to see or take part in 22 races split into 10 classes from Classic sidecars to a ladies race.
From the first practice the scene was set for the day with a few drops of rain and one bike disappearing in a cloud of dust over at the Higgins corner. The Ambulance staff picked him up and took him away, he was sore but basically OK.
The 8 Classic sidecars managed to get through their practice and races OK although I did see one expire in a small cloud of smoke over by the hairpin. In the first race of the Classic bike class, young Jamie was way out in front on his Dad’s 1962, Norton Atlas Lowboy before he tried some classic scrambles on the exit from the sweeper on the first lap, oops it would seem that the famous Norton Road Holder forks only work if you actually stay on the road !.

In the Club Cup, Gaz of the Mothers was the man to watch, not only because he was running in the top three or four on his V-Rod, but he was doing it with just one biological leg and one mechanic one that looked like a spare part for a Terminator robot. Gaz has always been fast, on a bike or on his old Nourish Weslake Speedway sidecar and even loosing a leg from above the knee has not slowed him down too much.

The LeMans race had 25 starters riding many different makes including Guzzi’s, BMW, KTM, Ducati, Norton, Aprilia and Triumph. They were good races too although

In the All Comers race there was also a good field or racers although they did not all finish. One guy from Wellington finished with a broken collarbone and a bent Big Block, but the only thing he was worried about was telling the missus when he got home.

During a short break, Baz from the Mothers Mc took his new V-Rod Destroyer Drag bike for a quick blast up and down the main straight, the burn outs were a bit mild but the bike can certainly move when you nail it.

By mid afternoon the rain had come back and the next race had to be called off and with the rain setting in hard and heavy the whole meeting was called off at 3.41 and

the riders and racers were then all invited back to the Club House for Prize Giving and drinks.

Legends of Dirt Festival, Saturday, 22nd, 2008.
By Steve Green
www.motoringmarketplace.co.nz
The full days photo’s are available to view or buy from: www.racepics.co.nz

On Saturday 22nd of March, a Legends of Dirt Festival was held on the grass infield of the Wanganui Jockey Club. The event was basically a Classic Scramble with a couple of informal parades as well as some semi serious races for Pre 1965, 1970 and 1975 British machines, with a guest class of Pre 1975 Japanese and European machines.
The event had three special guests including double 500cc World Motocross Champion Jeff Smith MBE of England, who rode in the Saturday’s Scrambles as well as the Classic Trial on Sunday.
The other two equally famous guests were Shayne King of New Plymouth who has also won a 500cc World Motocross Championship and Hugh Anderson MBE who has four World Road Racing titles to his name.

With over 50 New Zealand junior & senior Motocross and Supercross titles to his credit Shayne King is no stranger to a Scrambles track although he is not often seen on a 600cc, Matchless Works bike.
Over recent years Hugh Anderson has been a regular competitor at the New Zealand Classic Racing Register events on various Road racers, however he is not as well known for his off road accomplishments. In his day Anderson was a professional European motocross rider and 11 times New Zealand off road Champion, while back in the 1960′s he raced a 500cc, BSA Gold Star Scrambler and later a 350cc AJS Scrambler as a works rider for the AJS factory.

For the Legends of Dirt Festival Anderson rode a 500cc Matchless Metisse of 1964 vintage with a potent Jack Emott engine and a four speed gearbox. On the Scrambles track Hugh was speeding around like a rider half his age and on the first lap even managed to cut a corner a bit too fine and take out one of the wooden marker pegs with his foot. This did not even phase him at all and he had the Matchless sliding around the open grass track all day beating riders half his age. Despite being a mere 73 years young, he is still going strong, although he did comment after the meeting that he might possibly be a bit sore in the morning and need the help of his long suffering wife to help him out of bed.
Shayne King is a couple of decades younger but he still has the same urge to win which showed clearly on Saturday with some really impressive riding to keep Anderson in sight and beat him. Results aren’t important at a Festival like this however there was at least one race win to each of the pair, and they were hard fought battles too, despite the event being more in the way of a low key display of older Scrambles machines.

The riders included many families including the Garnett family which had three generations riding, Roger Garnett, one of his sons Carl as well as two of the grandkids Rhys and Tamara. And don’t forget Mum who came along to keep the tribe fed, hold bikes and generally make sure the whole clan had a good days riding.
Other family teams included the Brown family, father Jim and son Craig along with Jim’s Kiwi built Special which is powered by a 600cc Compy Matchless motor and four speed AMC gearbox housed in a home made Replica Rickman frame. Jim built the bike and son Craig rides it since it is a big and very potent machine requiring some serious muscle input from the rider to get the best out of the bike.

Other riders included Craig Elliot of Shannon on his 250cc British Cotton Scrambles bike and veteran BSA rider Bruce Fergusson on his 441cc BSA B44 Victor Special, who now resides in Palmerston North.
After a great days racing there was a prize giving and dinner Saturday evening with highly entertaining talks by the three special guests. Hugh Anderson and Shayne King gave the diners an insight into the world of professional racing while Jeff Smith gave us an insight into the world of BSA for whom he worked over many years. He also spoke of some of the more hilarious events that happened in his own long racing career, keeping the crowd well entertained until late in the evening.

Curtis P40 Kittihawk.
Photos by Steve Green
www.motoringmarketplace.co.nz

One vehicle which drew plenty of attention at the Masterton Motorplex Drag Race meeting earlier this year at the Hood Aerodrome was this 1942, P40 Kittihawk which is one of a number of older and interesting aircraft based at the Hood Aerodrome.
Owned by the Old Stick & Rudder Company and operated by them in partnership with the Merrifield Trust, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of vintage aircraft worldwide. The Old Stick & Rudder Company was established by a group of dedicated aviation enthusiasts who wanted to see New Zealand’s aviation heritage preserved for future generations. The company mission is to restore, preserve and maintain these classic aircraft and to offer visitors the chance to view them, learn about them and fly in them.

The Curtis P40E Kittihawk was developed from the P36, and was America’s foremost fighter in service when WWII began. P40′s engaged Japanese aircraft during the attack on Pearl Harbour and the invasion of the Philippines in December 1941. They were also flown in China early in 1942 by the famed Flying Tigers and in North Africa in 1943 by the first AAF all black unit, the 99th Fighter Squadron.

The P40 served in numerous combat areas, the Aleutian Islands, Italy, the Middle East, the Far East, carrying out offensive and defensive fighter operations, bomber escort and dive bombing duties. Although often outclassed by its adversaries in speed, manoeuvrability and rate of climb, the P40 earned a reputation in battle for extreme ruggedness. At the end of the P40′s brilliant career, more than 14,000 aircraft had been produced for service in the air forces of 28 nations, of which 2,320 were of the “E” series.

This rare aircraft was initially built in Buffalo, USA during 1941 for the Royal Air Force. With Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbour however the P40 was reclaimed by the US Army Air Corps and flew with the 68th Fighter Group in the Southwest Pacific. It was then handed over to number 14 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force, previously based at Masterton, with whom it served throughout WW II.
During this time it was flown by several famous Aces including Geoff Fisken the top scoring Commonwealth Ace, who fought against the Japanese during WWII.

After the war it became part of the famous Rukullia scrap yard, an area of more than 500, WWII RNZAF aircraft. These were slowly broken up until the 1960′s. This P40 was saved by a group of teenagers who scraped the money together to buy it. It was selected and therefore survived by dint of the fact that it was closer to the gate than the others !. Thereafter it was in a museum in Auckland prior to being purchased and restored by Ray Hanna in 1992. In December 1997, after a six year rebuild the P40 flew again for the first time since 1945.

This Kittihawk is painted in the paint scheme of the famous American Volunteer Group, formed in 1941 under the leadership of General Chennault, popularly known as the “Flying Tigers”. Flying various marks of the P40, the American Volunteer Group wrote a chapter in aerial warfare that has yet to be surpassed. These P40′s were lend leased to China in 1941 and were flown by experienced American pilots, flying for the Chinese Air Force. In the slightly more than nine months of its existence the American Volunteer Group amassed a total of 286 confirmed kills of Japanese aircraft against only four losses. In July, 1942, the American Volunteer Group was absorbed into the USAAF and renamed the 23rd Fighter Group. It remained in China throughout the war, eventually becoming part of the 1st Chinese American Composite wing.
In November 2004 the Old Stick & Rudder Company entered into an agreement with Ray Hanna to purchase the P40E which then took its place in the Classic Aircraft Collection based at Hangar 14 at Hood Aerodrome, Masterton.

Listening to the Kittihawk take off from the grass airstrip beside the main concrete runway and do a low level fly past overhead, it makes a very pleasant rumble from the open exhausts of it’s 1500 horsepower, Alison V12. It was interesting to see that most of the crowd ignored the Dragsters every time the Kittihawk took off or landed and watched the old fighter plane. More information of this plane and others in the collection can be found at www.oldstickandrudder.com

Aircraft Registration: NZ3009.
Registration: ZK-RMH S/NUMBER 41-25/58.
Maximum Take off Weight: 9,100 lbs clean.
Wing Span: 37 foot. 4 inch.
Length: 32 foot. 0 inches.
Height: 12 foot. 5 inch.
Engine: 1500 horsepower, V12 Allison, V1710-115A.
Crew: One.

CONTACT DETAILS
Old Stick & Rudder Company
PO Box 933
Masterton
Phone: 06-377-7999
Website: www.oldstickandrudder.com

Horowhenua Vintage Machinery Club inc
Postal: C/- Mr W Dyson, 110 Lindsay Road, Levin.
Sec/Treasurer: Wally Dyson, 06-368-8981.
President: Don Elliott, 06-368-5500 or 027-440-6593.
Committee:
Arthur Coulson, 06-364-7450.
Graham Cottle, 06-367-0786.
Rod Clifton, 06-364-3105.
Ian Skeet, 06-364-0057.

Horowhenua Vintage Machinery Club’s Harvest Weekend.
February 9th & 10th, 2008.
By Steve Green
www.motoringmarketplace.co.nz

The full days photo’s are available to view or buy from: www.racepics.co.nz

The Horowhenua Vintage Machinery Club’s Harvest Weekend had everything from Horses to Horsepower, old and new, big and small, something for anyone interested in older Farm Machinery. It is not often that you can see a team of four Clydesdales, steam engines, stationary engines, huge bulldozers and numerous Vintage Tractors all in action on the same day and even in adjourning paddocks.
There were plenty of stationary displays as well with a working haystack crane, a cowshed run by a stationary engine, a busy lady making scones in a small Victorian kitchen and a number of vintage cars and trucks. There were over 200 tractors on display ranging from the early 1920′s through to one of the latest huge Case Magnum 305, four wheel drive tractors.
Although some of the early Vintage tractors were unrestored, many were running and put to use in the ploughing display like the 1949, Standard 77 made by Oliver Tractors and powered by a 30 horse power, inline six cylinder engine running on petrol and pulling a 1940′s Reid & Gray two furrow plough. Owner Eddie Dench from Bunnythorpe has had this tractor for a number of years and has even won a couple of ploughing championships with it.
At the other end of the vehicle scale was the metre high replica of a Caterpillar D11R Bulldozer built by Alan Mayo of Otaki. Built to scale, this small Bulldozer is powered by batteries and runs on electric motors with functional hydraulics to lift the front blade and lower the rear ripper. Controlled by a remote radio controller like a model car, the Bulldozer was a crowd favourite and drew a big crowd every time it started to move and even had it’s own personal pile of dirt that it pushed around all weekend.
Over the other side of the paddock, one of it’s big brothers, a full sized Caterpillar Bulldozer also had a pile of dirt that it was moving, but with a blade over a metre high and six metres wide it was a lot bigger pile however it also drew a good crowd every time it started to move.
In preparation for this event, land owners Grahame & Sue Cottle had planted the nearby paddocks in Hay and other suitable crops that the drivers of the Vintage Farm Machinery could mow, cut, bale and then they were able to plough the resulting stubble fields. By the end of the weekend all the fields were bare and many had been ploughed by everything from Vintage Tractors through to the team of four Clydesdales and their old school, four horsepower, Equine ploughing system.
By late in the afternoon on Sunday the Vintage Machinery Enthusiasts were packing up and heavy trucks started to arrive to return the assembled tractors and heavy farm equipment back to their prospective homes, however everyone was smiling and the organizers were extremely happy with how successful the weekend had been and would like to thank all those who have helped to make it possible.

Harrisville Speedway, Sunday, March 23rd, 2008.
By Steve Green
www.motoringmarketplace.co.nz
The full days photo’s are available to view or buy from: www.racepics.co.nz

Thundering exhausts, flying dust and the smell of burning Methanol set the scene for the opening meeting of the new Harrisville Speedway which is on the Harris property adjacent to the RNZAF Base at Ohakea. A fine day and around 20 Sprintcars, another 20 Minisprints a further 20 or more Ministocks and a similar sized collection of Classic Midgets and TQ’s made for an exciting and entertaining afternoons racing.

For Sanson based agricultural contractor’s Brent and Denise Harris this opening meeting was the realisation of their six year dream to host their own Sprintcar meeting and not surprisingly Sprintcars had the top billing on the programme with the “Winged Thunder 1″ finale carrying $10,000 in prize money and the winner receiving the challenge cup that will be contested for on an annual basis.
From the start of racing it was clear that the new track was going to be a big hit with close racing on the track and a big crowd of spectators in the grandstands. For a first meeting at a new venue, the event went exceptionally smoothly and even a few minor racing incidents did not slow proceedings down as the infield crew were quick to clear stalled cars off the track and restart competition.
The Harrisville Speedway track is actually a dual oval with the main track around the outside ringed with a two metre dirt wall and an inner track with a low wooden fence on the inside edge. The bigger cars use the outer track while the Historic Midgets & TQ’s do their rapid demonstration laps on the inner track.
These Classic Midgets & TQ’s were a spectacle all afternoon sliding around the small track and showing how things were in the past, big engines shoe horned into small cars as well as a few motorcycle engine powered vehicles. Some vehicles like the early Speedway car of Bryan Ireland were raced as a family affair with son Mark on the pit crew as well as 2 1/2 year old grandson Jadin helping out. Built in America in 1952 the car is currently powered by a straight six Holden motor of 138 cubic inch capacity.

Another car in action on Sunday with a similarly long Speedway history was the little blue and white midget of Laurie Callender which was built in 1953 by Johnny Callender of New Plymouth and is powered by a single cylinder, 500cc, English made J.A.P. engine.
In the modern Minisprints there were three Levin drivers in action, Carol Golding, Paul Connelly and Levin driver Declan Roe who used to share a Ministock with his father Aaron Roe. For Declan the meeting had mixed results with two finishes and two races he did not finish, and although he did have car troubles of a mechanical nature his driving was such that he clearly has no troubles with the actual driving side of the new car. Carol Golding also had engine troubles with her car failing to finish two of her races. For Paul Connelly, his engine was running fine, but unfortunately the aluminium tube that holds his axle and supports the left hand rear wheel broke clean in half ending his day’s racing at the start of the second race.

In the Ministock class, 30 cars on the track for the first race made for an entertaining race and despite it being a non contact class there were still a few minor contacts and a few cars spinning around. Levin driver Jesse Rose was one who I saw get spun around, fortunately without any damage and he just straightened up and continued on his way. For 13 year old Jamie Madden, she too was in the midst of the action and despite a few bumps and nudges along the way she finished all her races, generally finishing around 20th place in each race.
In the Sprintcars veteran Sprintcar racer Ian Easton was going hard in his Dewtec, Bryant & Simpson sponsored car which is powered by a 410 cubic inch, Dart Allpro V8 engine running on Methanol fuel. With such a big field of Sprintcars the racing was split into heats which saw eight to ten cars on the track at a time and a number of minor spins including Easton himself who did one big spin at the Pit turn early in the meeting. Later in the afternoon I thought he was going to take a big lump out of the outer dirt, pit wall when he took the Highway corner a bit fast and slid very close to the outer edge however he managed to get away with it, although it looked like his huge rear tyre was close to touching the two metre dirt wall that surrounds the main track. A couple of his fellow competitors did collect this wall during the afternoon doing minor damage to their cars.

At the finish of the day’s racing was the Grand Finale, a 20 lap, Winged Thunder Sprintcar feature that had 17 cars line up for the start. Watching and taking photos from in the middle you soon lose track of who is leading and it becomes a blur of dust, Methanol fumes, huge wings & tyres and the thunderous roar of 800 horsepower V8′s at full throttle.
I did notice that when there was a restart after a minor incident early in the race veteran driver Ian Easton was in fifth place but after that I quickly lost track as the cars spread out and there was an endless parade of Sprinters powering through the Highway corner in front of me. The fastest of these Winged Wonders was Skinny Colson who was completing a lap in just fractionally over 18 seconds at around 90 mph or around 145 Kph. Very impressive to watch when even the slowest of the 17 Sprintcars was doing 85 mph. After 20 action filled laps the winner of the Winged Thunder Sprintcar Feature was Skinny Colson, second was Greg Pickerill, third was Peter Huijs with Shannon’s Ian Easton finishing in fifth.
Interestingly enough when the overall day’s points results were added up for the meeting, Easton placed third for the day with 17 points, Skinny Colson had 18 points and Colin Entwistle topped them all with 19 points.

New Zealand 40th Drag Racing Nationals, Masterton, 2nd & 3rd February 2008
By Steve Green
www.motoringmarketplace.co.nz
The full days photo’s are available to view or buy from: www.racepics.co.nz

The 40th annual New Zealand Drag Racing Nationals had a new venue for 2008 to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Drag Racing at Masterton’s Hood aerodrome. The impromptu Drag Strip is at the South end of Masterton and attracted racers and fans from all over the country to this, the highlight of the New Zealand Drag Racing calendar.
Action started on Saturday with practice and qualifying for the big fields of racers with every vehicle getting around three runs on the day. In the bike class there were excellent fields with a variety of machines from street legal road bikes through to purpose built supercharged and turbo charged Drag Bikes. Barry Sproule, owner of Road & Sport Motorcycles in Hamilton took the weekend off work to Drag Race his Harley Davidson, V Rod Destroyer complete with Nitros Oxide for that extra boost. The Destroyer is an interesting machine based on a 1300cc, V Rod street bike, but built by the factory and available to the general public as a fast and relatively affordable, production Drag bike complete with full spares backup from your local Harley dealer.
Fast times and fast speeds were the order of the day with Mark Vincent from Auckland turning in a very impressive 6.12 second pass at 222 mph in his Dragster which is powered by a 526 ci Keith Black engine topped off with a large 14-71 Littlefield Supercharger.
Chris Tynan from Hamilton was not quite as fast but he could not be faulted on style after a couple of very spectacular runs. One run saw his 1955, Chevy Belair get more than a little sideways down the track and despite his big weave he stayed in control and still sent through the finish line at 112 mph. For his next run the weave was even worse to the point where he actually left the sealed runway and headed out across grass still doing better than 100 mph. While speeding semi controlled across the grass, Tynan had the forethought to release his parachutes, eventually coming to a stop, very dusty but no worse for wear.
A couple of other top Dragsters had similar troubles with a few wild rides during qualifying fortunately without any actual crashes as such, although one car did get very close to the concrete safety wall before swerving back onto the track.
Proper Dragsters are by their very nature custom made specials, however every now and then you see something a little different like the long rail Dragster of Grant Briffault from Hamilton. The basic design and construction of the car itself is relatively normal until you see the engine which has two huge slabs of milled aluminium, one each side where a normal car would have had it’s cylinderheads. The two slabs are actually the heads and rocker covers which were milled from solid aluminium in America and are mounted on top of a Kiwi made cylinder block. Grant the owner literally made his own engine, building a pattern for the new engine out of polystyrene, then having a casting made, originally using the aluminium from melted down aluminium wheels supplied by the Scrap Palace recyclers. After a couple of tries they produced a cast aluminium engine block which was then sent to Morrinsville for machining. Internally it has a billet crankshaft and conrods, billet pistons and Chrysler gudgeon pins.
Lubrication for the unique V8 engine is provided by a Enderley fuel injection pump and another similar pump is used to pump copious quantities of Methanol into the engine via a fuel injector set up and a large 16-71 Littlefield Supercharger. Even the manifold was custom made for this engine by Revolution Engineering in Tokoroa. Ignition is provided by MSD with a large Magneto and it’s associated ignition control systems. The huge power output is then sent to the Hoosier rear tyres by way of a Chevy Powerglide gearbox and a Ford nine inch diff.
Levin Drag racer Shane Windley took to the track on Saturday in his father Ross’s Rail Dragster “Bojangles” to put in a qualifying run before rushing off to another important event, his own wedding. For new wife Jemma, the first day of her honeymoon and of her marriage was spent watching her new husband winning the National Supergas Class and doing a personal best run of 9.8 seconds at 138 mph in his fathers Dragster.
On Sunday there was plenty of action on the track, lots of interesting vehicles to look at in the pits and a special area set aside for children with bumper cars and a slide castle, as well as a Kittihawk and a couple of other Aircraft displays to look at.
Full results from the Nationals and more information on Drag Racing at Masterton can be found on the Club’s Website: www.mastertonmotorplex.co.nz