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

Almost mythical pony

25 July, 2024

The Shelby came to our shores in 2003. It went from the original New Zealand owner to an owner in Auckland. Malcolm just happened to be in the right place with the right amount of money in 2018 and a deal was done. Since then, plenty of people have tried to buy it off him. The odometer reads 92,300 miles. From the condition of the car that seems to be correct and only the first time around.
Malcolm’s car is an automatic. It has the 1966 dashboard, the back seat, the rear quarter windows and the scoops funnelling air to the rear brakes.
He even has the original bill of sale from October 1965 in California.

Becoming fond of Fords part two – happy times with Escorts

17 July, 2024

In part one of this Ford-flavoured trip down memory lane I recalled a sad and instructive episode when I learned my shortcomings as a car tuner, something that tainted my appreciation of Mk2 Ford Escort vans in particular. Prior to that I had a couple of other Ford entanglements of slightly more redeeming merit. There were two Mk1 Escorts I had got my hands on: a 1972 1300 XL belonging to my father and a later, end-of-line, English-assembled 1974 1100, which my partner and I bought from Panmure Motors Ford in Auckland in 1980. Both those cars were the high water mark of my relationship with the Ford Motor Co. I liked the Mk1 Escorts. They were nice, nippy, small cars, particularly the 1300, which handled really well, and had a very precise gearbox for the time.
Images of Jim Richards in the Carney Racing Williment-built Twin Cam Escort and Paul Fahey in the Alan Mann–built Escort FVA often loomed in my imagination when I was driving these Mk1 Escorts — not that I was under any illusion of comparable driving skills, but they had to be having just as much fun as I was steering the basic versions of these projectiles.