Messages

Red Dawson's Shelby Mustang (#35) suffered piston failure at the final championship round in practice, so Dawson's good friend John Riley loaned him his own Mustang for the race. Dawson then jumped the start, and was later penalised, but used his persuasive powers to eventually overturn the decision, and thus he and Coppins were joint champions.

Thank you for the kind words Robert, much appreciated. I'll post some details about the Bob Jane ZL1 Camaro on here soon.

This is the same car, one season later, now being driven by Rod Coppins. Coppins won the 1969/70 (New Zealand racing season takes place during its summer months from around October through to around April) New Zealand Saloon Car Championship, tied equal with Red Dawson, in a Shelby Mustang. This was the one and only time two drivers shared the championship, as both had taken the same number of points, the same number of race wins, and the same number of 2nd and 3rd placings during the season.



Mike Feisst photo

Hi guys, this is an amazing forum you have going here. My good friend Bruce Thompson (Bruce302) informed me of it. I am really impressed with some of the rare photographs you've managed to unearth, particularly of the many privateer cars which didn't enjoy the level of exposure the factory cars did.

I hope you don't mind me muddying the waters a little here by starting a separate thread on the Camaro's that raced 'down-under', but I thought some of you might find this interesting. Jon, if you feel this in inappropriate for this forum, please feel free to delete or move it.

This Camaro (sponsored by Lexington cigarettes) was built for and raced by Spencer (Spinner) Black for the New Zealand Saloon Car Championship. It debuted in 1968. It was built from a road car, it wasn't an imported race car as many were in NZ. The engine was 327ci, as New Zealand had a 5,500cc engine limit until 1971, when it was changed to 6,000cc.

Apologies for these images being a little smaller in size, I have copied and pasted some of them from my own historic racing website.



This photo was supplied by Mike Feisst