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Great weekend watching Supercars at a much improved Ruapuna Raceway (pothole corner exempt). It brought back Rodger Anderson’s memories of very happy times. Same as today there were willing helpers, these days called ‘teams’ but they get paid. Back then I had ; Ray Gedye, Robert Duncan, David Keenan, and several others all helping (unpaid) part time. That year was the first year of “Levels Raceway Track” major event and there was a dreadful storm. The pits were mud up to the ankles. It was the second to last round of several New Zealand Championships including Sports cars, 1.5 single seater gold star etc, and of course the N.Z.Saloon Car Championship in which I was competing. The decision was made to cancel and go to the next weekend when Ruapuna was supposed to be run and have BOTH race meetings on the same weekend. It meant Saturday at Levels near Timaru and then drive up to Christchurch for Ruapuna on the Sunday. We had a quiet week to spend sightseeing and contemplating a plan. I knew Jim Mullins who ran a garage in Christchurch but had a lot of competition experience and had won the N.Z. production championship in a Morris Cooper ’S’ 1275 c.c. Of course he had loads of local knowledge about our cars and the track. He said I needed a 4.3 ratio final drive instead of the 4.1 that I was running. This meant lower gearing for the tighter tracks than were in the North Island. So we got our hands dirty and changed it as well as a bit of a tune up. (We were well versed in engine out- engine back in in the Mini cars by then. Lots of short cuts. 15 minutes, engine out of the car.) Also we took the AUSTIN badges off and put MORRIS badges on it so we could get better sponsorship from the local Morris Dealers. Jim talked to me a lot about ideas and ‘tricks’ he had for the tracks. In particular about the first corner at Ruapuna. The race track was a bit different then and the first corner was a ‘hairpin’ and quite sharp. He said leave the start and don’t take a wide line using the wide Ruapuna straight. Go off the grid and stay down the inside, go down to first gear instead of second, tight around the corner and you have plenty of power to get out of the corner. As it turned out that is exactly what I did and got a huge advantage on the first lap. You have to keep in mind we were in 1000 cc Minis and the start line is only half way down the straight so not normally a lot of speed at that first corner. I got around the corner in first place, looked in my mirrors and thought the race had been stopped because I had so much lead. “Thanks Jim for that tip.”  So we had won at Levels on the Saturday and now with the win on the Sunday that gave me the Championship. That was the first year that points were awarded in classes; 1000 cc 1500 cc 4000 cc and unlimited capacity. Paul Fahey’s Mustang had 56 points in his class in second but I had 60 points in the under 1000 c.c. class. I won every under 1000 cc race that year except Levin when I stuffed up the start. At one race at Pukekohe there was 35 cars in my class so it was not that easy. There is still a thousand stories of the Motor Racing times back in those days. Total commitment then as now. It pretty much consumed your life. Just like the “Big Dogs’ at Ruapuna Supercars this weekend 17th to 19th
April 2026.
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