The career of a Levin motorsport legend who died in tragic circumstances half a century ago will be revisited in a Levin Motor Racing Tribute Day next month - including a display of the fully restored racing car he once drove.
Bryan Faloon was Levin's only racing driver to competeat the top level of single-seater racing in New Zealand, and his career will be a key focus of the club's tribute day.
The event will be held at the Horowhenua Vintage Car Clubrooms in Tiro Tiro Rd on Saturday, January 8 - 50 years to the day since Faloon was killed in an accident during the New Zealand Grand Prix at Pukekohe.
The driver he collided with that day, national Gold Star champion Graeme Lawrence, will be present to pay tribute to Faloon, and his racing career will be recalled with pictorial displays of his performances in saloons and Tasman Formula single-seaters.
The event will take place a short distance from where Faloon was buried, at the cemetery on the corner of Mako Mako and Tiro Tiro Rds.
Of special interest will be the fully restored Ford Anglia 105E that Faloon raced in Allcomers saloon events during the first three years of his career in the mid-1960s.
The late Bryan Faloon's fully-restored Ford Anglia 105E.
The Bryan Faloon Memorial Trophy, for many years awarded to the first New Zealand driver home in the annual Manfeild International, has also been recovered and would be on display for visitors to admire.
A second Levin motor racing identity will also be honoured on the day – Ron Frost MBE.
The late Ron Frost pictured racing at Levin in a Cooper 500.
Frost was the creative force behind the Levin racetrack, the first permanent car racing circuit in New Zealand to complement the major temporary circuits at Ardmore and Wigram.
He was a car dealer in the town, with the agency for Rootes Group models, and also raced Mini Coopers through the 1950s before rising to be the country's top promoter and administrator.
Frost was primarily responsible for the galaxy of grand prix drivers, including every world champion from 1959 to 1971, to race at Levin and other New Zealand circuits in the fabled Tasman Series during the 1960s and 70s.
His vision saw the likes of Sterling Moss, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt, Bruce McLaren, John Surtees and Denny Hulme all race at Levin through what was a golden era of motorsport in the town.
As part of Heritage Horowhenua's Walk of Fame programme, a plaque to Frost will be unveiled by his widow Suzy and placed in the pavement in front of his old Frost Motors premises in Oxford St.
A photographic memorial to his career will accompany that of Faloon's in the Vintage Car Clubrooms.
The old Frost Motors building in Levin.
And a Cooper 500 of the type he raced during the 1950s will also be on display, along with other racing cars of the era. These will include the Denny Hulme Brabham BT4 that won the first official Tasman race at Levin in 1964.
Perhaps equally evocative will be the sound of racing engines across the historic Levin racetrack venue for the first time in decades.
As an extra event, Levin Car Club is staging a Bryan Faloon Memorial motorkhana on part of the old circuit site, inside the still-existing horse racecourse in Mako Mako Rd.
All the day's activities, starting at 10.30 am, will be open to the public for a small cash entrance fee, and on production of a Covid vaccine pass.
In the evening, a dinner will be held in the clubrooms with a limited number of tickets available to the public. Guest speaker will be the veteran editor of Motorman magazine, Donn Anderson.
For more details, contact the organisers at: levintributeday@gmail.com
