A well-established fixture on the annual calendar each February, the Southern Festival of Speed covers four weekends on New Zealand’s South Island, home to fabulous local machinery, some excellent restoration workshops and (usually) good summer weather.
The SFoS starts at the Ruapuna circuit, near the very “English” city of Christchurch, then moves to the circuits at Teretonga and Timaru before finishing on the dramatic street circuit in the “Edinburgh of the South”—Dunedin. Most years, a hillclimb or two is included as well.
A 37-race program at this year’s Ruapuna event was split into a number of classes, including three each for single-seaters and saloons, a Sports & GT cars group and an astonishing variety of cars in the Vintage Car Club’s race groups. The latter included some typical New Zealand-built front-engined single seaters from the 1950s and ’60s, including the two Stanton specials (one—the Cropduster—with a Gypsy Moth aero-engine and open exhausts), the V-8 Daimler-powered Begg from 1967, a “breadvan” shaped Ford Anglia and Grant Silvester’s amazing 1938 Chevrolet coupe, which is still winning races today!
The F5000 field was a bit smaller than hoped, with 11 cars, supplemented by a few others like Abba Kogan’s superb Brabham BT36. Roger Williams, in his McRae, won each time out at Ruapuna chased by a gaggle of Lolas. In the smaller single-seaters a flock of Formula Fords did battle, but the Lotus 59/69 of Grant Martin was the car to beat.
Fifteen V-8–powered cars were in the Muscle Car class along with assorted Porsches, BMW M3s and other quick stuff. As well as Mustangs, the locals turned out with Ford Falcons and Holden Monaros (the Australian kind), Camaros and a Corvette. In the smaller classes, winners included a Chrysler Valiant Charger and a Holden Torana (Australian market models again).
VRJ readers would be very welcome to “come on down” next February, either as racers or spectators. You get a lot of excellent but “friendly” racing in a short space of time and don’t have to drive across a large continent to get from one event to the other! Log onto www.canterburycarclub.co.nz for more details.
Submitted by Mark Holman
