New Zealand Classic Car contributors win big at MotorSport New Zealand Awards 2015

27 May, 2015

MotorSport New Zealand recognized our best and brightest at their recent annual awards ceremony, MotorSport New Zealand Awards 2015, which was held in Wellington on May 23. The evening began and ended with emotion onstage, as the motorsport community paid tribute to those who have excelled on the track, and contributed off it, in the past 12 months.

For Parkside Media and New Zealand Classic Car magazine, the awards were something of a hat-trick, with three regular contributors to the magazine walking off with awards.

Terry Marshall, who has been providing stunning motorsport images to New Zealand Classic Car for many years, received the President’s Award for the best single motorsport shot of the year. His winning image is pictured above.

Terry Collier was the proud recipient of the Lupp Trophy, awarded to those who embody the very spirit and values associated with the classic and historic racing movement. Terry has also written many features for New Zealand Classic Car — his ‘Kiwi Connection’ feature on the Maserati 250F still stands as the definitive history of these iconic racing cars in New Zealand. Terry was also presented with a Distinguished Service Award.

Once again, our very own Donn Anderson, was recognized as the Feature Journalist of the Year through his July 2014 ‘Motor Man’ column on Jack Brabham.

Also on the classic-car front, well done to NZ Festival of Motoring Chairman, Jim Barclay, who was a deserving winner of the Ron Frost Award.

Other highlights of the evening included Karen Paddon of the South Canterbury Car Club accepting the Distinguished Service Award for the more than 35 years that she has spent working behind the scenes to ensure events in several categories run smoothly.

To close the evening, immensely proud father Bryan Hartley accepted New Zealand’s premier motorsport award — The Jim Clark Trophy — on behalf of his son, Brendon, who is currently competing as a factory Porsche driver in the prestigious FIA World Endurance Championship.
 

MotorSport New Zealand Awards 2015

  • The Jim Clark Trophy: Brendon Hartley.
  • The Rally Founders Trophy: Richard Mason, the current New Zealand Rally Champion — a title he has won five times.
  • The Steel Memorial Trophy: New Zealand Formula Ford winner, James Munro.
  • The Lupp Trophy: Terry Collier
  • The MotorSport Media Personality of the Year Award: Hayden Paddon
  • Volunteer of the Year: Allan and Sue Baird
  • Technical D’Honneur Awards: Ron McMillan and Barry Carrington
  • The Ron Frost Award: Jim Barclay
  • Distinguished Service Awards: Karen Paddon, John Armstrong, Nigel Russell, Terry Collier, Jill Cowham
  • Awards of Merit: Steph Harris and Roger Laird.

The Certificate of Outstanding Achievement, Richard and Sara Mason Media Award winners:

  • News Journalist of the Year: Shaun Summerfield
  • Feature Journalist of the Year: Donn Anderson
  • Photographer of the Year (Portfolio): Bruce Jenkins
  • President’s Award (single shot): Terry Marshall

Put a ring around that

Provenance is a valuable part of a classic car and DKW/Auto Union collectors Brendan and Bobbette Odell have a detailed documented history of a special car in their growing collection of these little two-stroke wonders.
Brendan’s hometown of Pretoria enjoyed more than its fair share of the marque, where their reliability and performance made them popular..
“There used to be a joke going round in South Africa that there were more DKWs in Pretoria per square mile than anywhere else in the world,” Says Brendan.
The Odells redressed that balance a little when they shifted to New Zealand as they brought some of the cars with them.
One of their DKWs also accompanied them to Tonga. Brendan’s green 1959 Auto Union 1000 two-door went with them from South Africa to Tonga from 2010 to 2013 where he worked for the local airline. It then travelled on with them to New Zealand. It is one of just 10 right-hand drive cars of the two-door basic model remaining worldwide.

Stag roars again

The Triumph Stag pictured here has been lovingly restored from what was once, in the owner’s words, “a horrible, terrible job”. Owners Glynn and Alison Gaston hail from Dunedin and along with their grandchildren now enjoy cruising in the Stag after a three-and-a-half-year restoration.
In 2011, Glynn was looking for a classic car to restore. After 21 years with Air New Zealand he was working as a Super Shuttle driver, with four days on and four days off, which gave him the time to take on such a project — something he had always wanted to do.
“I’d looked at quite a few cars over the years. The idea was to restore a car as something to keep me going. I had looked at different MGs and I would have quite liked an Austin Healey or something similar but they were really expensive.
“Then I saw a Stag and I thought, Ah, this is nice. This is what I would like.