When elite drivers and crowds flocked to Feilding
When the Manfeild motor-racing track opened 50 years ago, there was an almost immediate international flavour. Crowds of 12,000 packed out the place from the first meetings in 1973.
Terry Rush attests to that. He was a Manfeild founding father and has records at his museum at Feilding as invaluable as his car collection.
He recently unearthed the names of the 118 overseas drivers who raced there, before the advent of the Toyota Racing Series, that is.
When Manfeild opened, Rush, as the Manawatū Car Club chairman, promptly sent invitations to overseas drivers and three of them drove in the first national meeting, a Formula Ford round. They were Filipino Arturo Tuason and Americans Peter Lissuik and Steve Schlendering. The biggest-name to grace Manfeild, though, was world champion Jackie Stewart when touring the world as a Ford ambassador. He did an exhibition drive in a Ford Mondeo.
What really captivated the crowds, and still does, were the thundering Formula 5000s. They were New Zealand’s top formula at the time, were quicker than Formula 1 cars and there are still 62 in New Zealand.
Three Australians – Kevin Bartlett, Max Stewart and Johnnie Walker – arrived and drove British-built Lolas. Formula 5000 was an American class, but when they began beating the famous marques, the Europeancentric world body (FIA) banned them because they were showing up their Formula 1 cars.
Meanwhile, Motorsport NZ hated Manfeild because they had packed crowds and the MNZ meetings didn’t.
In 1974, Ralta got into motorsport sponsorship. The company had its head office in Palmerston North, turning out toasters, hair dryers, electric blankets, frypans. Ralta closed in 1997 after operating for 42 years.
When Manfeild was being set up, Ralta’s Ewan Osborne was head of one of the big four companies that each contributed $10,000 as guarantors if the circuit didn’t work out.
World champion Jack Brabham’s son, Geoff, raced in the first Ralta meeting in a Formula Ford. He went on to win the Le Mans 24-hour race while son Mathew races in Indy Lights in the United States.
Cigarette advertising was all the go then. The car club ran the Rothmans International for saloons in 1974 when Aussie touring car champion Pete Geoghegan raced his ‘‘Craven Mild’’ 3000cc Porsche 911.
Another cigarette company, Peter Stuyvesant, backed Manfeild’s first international openwheeler event in 1976 and attracted the first big name, Englishman Brian Redman.
He raced everywhere in anything that had a wheel on it, getting plenty of what was called ‘‘seat time’’.
Redman drove for five Formula 1 teams.
A year after he raced at Feilding, he was pronounced dead after a 260kmh crash in a
Can Am car in Canada. But he ultimately survived and lives on in Florida aged 85.
Australian F1 driver Frank Gardner contested the Marlboro International in 1976 in a Chev Corvair saloon. A three-times British Saloon Car champion, he always said he wasn’t concerned if he was the fastest, – he wanted to be the oldest. He lived in Queensland until his death at age 77.
In 1977, a test between Australia and New Zealand was run for saloons and at the same meeting the Formula Pacific for 1600cc open-wheelers kicked off with 14 international drivers, from Britain, Australia, Finland, Canada, Hong Kong and Indonesia.
Among them was Finn Keke Rosberg in a Chevron, then racing in European Formula 2. He went on to be the 1982 F1 world champion and is the father of the 2016 F1 world champion, Nico.
The Scandinavian drivers are remembered for all having a twinkle in their eyes when a long way from home.
Tasmanian Andrew Miedecke was a leading touring car driver and he raced in Formula Pacific alongside Albert Poon, the only Hong Konger to win the Macau Grand Prix.
Others who graced the formula at Manfeild were American IndyCar driver Bobby Rahal, Australian Larry Perkins who drove in F1 and in V8 Supercars, Italians Teo Fabi (who won NZ Formula Pacific and was in F1) and Andrea DeCesaris (208 F1 starts, no wins) and the first woman, South African Desire Wilson, one of only five women to have competed in F1.
Later, mostly driving Ralt RT4s, were Brazilian Roberto Moreno, who raced in 75 Formula 1 grand prix; German Christian Danner, who had 36 F1 starts, American Nascar driver Davy Jones, who won the NZGP in 1984 and 1987; and Ross Cheever, who won the NZGP in 1985 and 1986.
Then there was Tom Blackaller who raced a Ralt at Manfeild. He was better known to New Zealanders as a world champion yachtsman and a helmsman at three America’s Cups.
Aged 49, he died in 1989 of a heart attack during practice for a sports car race.
Also at Manfeild was Dutchman Jos Verstappen who had eight seasons in F1 and went on to coach his son Max, the current world champion.