Chapter 3: From Dreams to Reality

 (Continued from CHAPTER 2 )
In 2011, while assisting Bryce Townsend with his Midget driving experience at Patetonga Speedway, I was taken to the shearing shed by Patetonga Speedway Jeremy ‘Cripp’ McClelland to see and photograph the car. I looked the car over and photographed it, not thinking much of it at the time other than it was another old race car, dilapidated and laid to waste.

As the years went by and I began to gain an ever growing appreciation for the close-nit vintage speedway scene in New Zealand and some of its core supporters. I considered what it might be like to be a vintage speedway vehicle owner and the satisfaction gained by restoring an old car to a presentable and operational condition. Knowing that most vintage speedway cars usually fall into two categories; firstly: Too broken, too old, too used and too many no longer produced and hard to find parts missing to be a viable rebuild with my limited experience and resources. Or secondly: Already restored to a high degree with a price tag to match, let alone the restoration joy and build satisfaction having already been extracted by a previous loving owner.

When these thoughts first came to me I had forgotten all about the old car in the shearing shed photographed 6 years prior and it wasn’t until I was scrolling through old photographs that I stumbled upon the 2011 shots and my vintage car owning aspirations truly peaked as I dared to imagine owning this car. I rang ‘Cripp’ and enquired as to the vehicles current status and, as hoped, it was still on the farm with Cripp having stowed the bonnet away separately for safe keeping.

After speaking with Plummer and on the understanding he may be prepared to sell it, I enlisted the help of two Speedways elder statesman and stalwarts, Ray Townsend, father of the aforementioned Bryce Townsend and John Stanley, to look the car over with their experienced eyes to asses weather this project was viable. Upon sending Townsend and Stanley my 2011 photos, combined with 2006 photos when the Toyota engine nestled between its rails, the two concurred that, based on the photos, the car looked to be in a bad state of deterioration but more or less complete except for the engine and driveline.

#63 Ray Townsend in his Vintage Midget and John Stanley in the Mike Bayliss owned #12 Sprinter

The next stage was to inspect it first hand and Townsend, Stanley and I made the mid-week trip an hour south of Auckland to the Plummer farm in Patetonga. I was pleased that within minutes of viewing the car my senior advisers proclaimed the car to be a rare find and most definitely a worthwhile project. A deal was struck with Plummer and I returned back to Auckland and made plans to return and collect my new old unraced race car. The day after our inspection I thought I ought to contact Ray Alach, the cars creator, to proudly let him know of my find. After several minutes into our phone call Alach informs me I am not the first of our trio to tell him of my find as Townsend had rung earlier that morning to share the news. It wasn’t till another few minutes went by before I was told I was in fact the last of the threesome to ring him as Stanley had also contacted him the previous night. Alach added a bit more info to the cars history and accepted my plea for advice and guidance and offered to look the car over once I had it home and offer his opinion on what he might do with such a car to bring it back to life.

Several weeks later I arrived back at the shearing shed to take possession and was assisted by Bryce Townsend and fan boy turned crewman Alfred Bidois to roll the car into the trailer. A task the old #19 did willingly without much persuasion needed, which was a good sign. We then towed the car back to my West Auckland home. I was pleased to find the car had received no noticeable damage during the approximate two weeks between buying and collection as during this time we had received weather warnings that were touted as being the worst since the 1980’s, the worst this car had endured in the open faced dilapidated shed. With the car safely home I later returned to the farm with long time Speedway fan and former neighbour Mazz Davies-Colley to look through the original barn where the car was stored to retrieve any pieces of the car that hadn’t made the move from its first home, the barn, to shearing shed and also for a more thorough look through the back of the semi-collapsing shed. Mazz was able to find the steering wheel centre upholstery and seat cushion which was a great find.

Now it was time to blo

w off the dust and have its creator cast his eyes over it first hand and lay out the finer points of the restoration ahead.