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Moore wins on Touring Cars return

3 December, 2015

Auckland driver Richard Moore has starred in his debut of the BNT NZ Touring Cars at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park over the weekend of November 28–29, by taking the class one–round win in his Holden Commodore. The class one–round podium rounded out with Simon Evans in second and Jason Bargwanna in third.

Moore notched up a third place in Saturday’s opening encounter, in what was a rain-affected race, as series leader Simon Evans speared off the track finishing well down the order.
Moore had actually won the race before a post-race investigation penalized 11 drivers for weaving across the track after the safety-car lights had gone out following the Evans incident.

A 10-second penalty relegated Moore to third place, with Jason Bargwanna in his Toyota Camry promoted to the race win.

Race conditions for Sunday’s two races saw clear skies and hot conditions greet drivers at the north Waikato circuit, where Evans fought back claiming two wins, and Moore was close behind with two second-place finishes.

Moore who worked twice as hard by also competing in the UDC V8 Ute series, taking the round win there, says the weekend result was the perfect way to get his ‘late’ championship campaign started.

“Unbelievable! I haven’t been in a car like this for 12 months. We won in the ute too, it was the perfect weekend really,” says Moore.

“Big thanks to our sponsor group GVI.kiwi, Mike Pero, and DownForce Advanced Driver Training — without them we wouldn’t have been here this weekend.

“It’s all about building the momentum now, keep the ball rolling. We’ll get some more sponsorship support between now and the next round, and hopefully continue the fight up front when the championship heads to the South Island in the new year.”

Simon Evans still leads the championship on 564 points, with Bargwanna in second on 505, and Tim Edgell in third on 445 points.

Class two was won by Wellington’s Brock Cooley, his first round win of the season. Auckland’s Brad Lathrope took second place ahead of Hamilton’s Simon Fleming who took third. The trio capitalizing on the misfortune of class-two championship leader Kevin Williams, who struck trouble in race two of the weekend with a DNF.

Photo credit: Simon Chapman

NZ Classic Car magazine, March/April 2025 issue 398, on sale now

23 February, 2025

An HQ to die for
Mention the acronym HQ and most people in the northern hemisphere will assume this is an abbreviation for Head Quarters. However, for those born before the mid-’80s in Australia and New Zealand, the same two letters only mean one thing – HQ Holden!
Christchurch enthusiast Ed Beattie has a beautiful collection of Holden and Chevrolet cars. He loves the bowtie and its Aussie cousin and has a stable of beautiful, powerful cars. His collection includes everything from a modern GTSR W507 HSV through the decades to a 1960s Camaro muscle car and much in between.
In the last two Holden Nationals (run biennially in 2021 and 2023), Ed won trophies for the Best Monaro and Best Decade with his amazing 1972 Holden Monaro GTS 350 with manual transmission.
Ed is a perfectionist and loves his cars to reflect precisely how they were on ‘Day 1,’ meaning when the dealer released them to the first customer, including any extras the dealer may have added or changed.

You’re the one that I want – 1973 Datsun 240K GT

21 February, 2025

In the early 1970s, Clark Caldow was a young sales rep travelling the North Island and doing big miles annually. He loved driving. In 1975 the firm he worked for asked Clark what he wanted for his new car, and Clark chose a brand-new Datsun 240K GT. The two-door car arrived, and Clark was smitten, or in his own words, he was “pole vaulting.”
Clark drove it all over the country, racking up thousands of miles. “It had quite a bit of pep with its SOHC 128 hp (96kW) of power mated to a four-speed manual gearbox,” he says. Weighing in at 1240kg meant the power to weight ratio was good for the time and its length at almost 4.5 metres meant it had good street presence.
Clark has been a car enthusiast all his life, and decided around nine years ago to look for one of these coupes. By sheer luck he very quickly found a mint example refurbished by an aircraft engineer, but it was in Perth.