How do you celebrate rallying in New Zealand’s 50th birthday?

5 August, 2016

Fifty years of rallying in New Zealand will be marked in 2017 with a tour of the nation’s most celebrated rally stages. The week-long tours — one in each of the North and South Islands — will traverse some of the most legendary roads in our rallying history, and are timed to coincide with popular international events.

The first tour, starting in Picton on Sunday, April 2, 2017, has overnight stops planned for Reefton, Christchurch, Oamaru, Alexandra, and Invercargill. The final afternoon sees the tour completed in Dunedin on Friday, April 7, in time for the ceremonial start of the Otago Classic rally.

Similarly, the northern tour leaves Wellington on Sunday, April 23, moving up through Masterton, Gisborne, Napier, Rotorua, and Auckland, arriving in Whangarei on Friday, April 28 to view their popular Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) event.

The organizing committee comprise some of the country’s most experienced officials, responsible for the route plotting of various Targa, Variety Bash, and national championship rallies. 

Event Chairman Rod Peat explains the rationale behind the tours.

“We felt 50 years of the sport needed appropriate recognition, particularly for those who may no longer be competing at the sharp end. The daily tour schedule will be very much at gentleman’s hours, with 8am starts and 5pm finishes most days. The roads will not be closed — and will not be timed — but there should be ample time to wallow in nostalgia with old rivals.”

The tourists will complete the route — with a choice of individual days — or the whole tour, in a loose convoy in their own normal road cars. As the start dates near, prospective entrants are being kept up to date within the group’s Facebook page.

All profits from the venture will be channelled to the new Hayden Paddon Foundation, designed to support and encourage young drivers.

Photos: The Paul Smith Collection

A second dose of Dash

When the car arrived in Wellington in December 2018 it was duly taken along for entry certification. Vehicle Inspection NZ (VINZ) found some wrongly wired lamps and switches — not too bad — but, much more significantly, some poor welding repairs. As the structural problems were probed more thoroughly, we realized the previous owner’s restoration would not do and we needed an upgrade. Dash had made it into the country but it would take some time and money before he would be free to explore any of New Zealand’s scenic highways.
We took the car to our new home in Johnsonville in the northern suburbs of Wellington and I pored over the car in detail to figure out what was next. There were lots of new parts on the car and a very perky reconditioned drivetrain but the chassis needed serious work.

Lunch with… Jim Palmer

In the 1960s, Hamilton’s Jim Palmer won the prestigious ‘Gold Star’ four times and was the first resident New Zealander home in the New Zealand Grand Prix on five consecutive occasions. He shared the podium with Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart, and Chris Amon. The extent of his domination of the open-wheeler scene in New Zealand will probably never be matched or exceeded. Yet he’s always been modest about his achievements.