A motorsport love story

IT was motorsport that brought Dick and Doreen together. Dick was an active competitor in hillclimbs and rallies from the early 1950s ? one car he has fond memories of was a 1934 Ford V8 Coupe ? and teenager Doreen was intrigued by the dashing young racer.
In 1950 she engineered a meeting and the rest, as they say, is history. Six years later they recited their vows, and this year they celebrated 50 years of marriage.
Today Dick, a couple of clicks short of 80, and Doreen, 70, live a rich and very full life, and their shared love of motorsport is as strong as ever. On Sunday, for example, they'll be getting up in the wee hours to cheer on their favourite, Kimi Raikkonen, in the Hungarian Grand Prix. And of course there's the upcoming Trust House Racetech Rally Wairarapa, where they hope to see Richard Mason and Sara Randall wrap up the New Zealand championship for the second time.
Both were born in Wellington ? coincidentally, both of them at Nurse Linklater's Maternity Home at Petone ? and they lived in the Lower Hutt area until moving to Carterton nearly 20 years ago.
Dick trained as a mechanic at the Austin factory in Wellington, learning skills that still stand him in good stead. He spent half his working life in engineering and half in the motor trade.
Doreen trained and worked as a tailor, and during the years when their daughter and four sons were at home she took in sewing work for a Wellington factory, making dolls' clothes and ballet tutus ? "I must have made 60 of those," she recalls. Her needlework skills came in very handy years later when Dick restored a Model A tourer and she did all the upholstery.
With her children off her hands, Doreen spent 20 years in kindergarten and childcare, eventually finishing up at Whatman in Masterton, from where she retired.
Dick can't remember a time when he wasn't a motorsport fan and had an interesting collection of cars. Apart from the Ford V8 he had a series of mostly English cars ... several Morris Minors (one of them supercharged!), A40s, Anglias and so on.
In the days when overseas funds (or friends in high places) were needed to buy new cars, Dick was lucky to negotiate the purchase of a new 1954 MGTF. The importer was weeks behind in his predelivery checks, and Dick remembers peering in a basement window of the Wellington show buildings, where the cars were stored, for a glimpse of his new baby. As it turned out, the MGTF was disappointing, lacking power, and he didn't keep it long.
Initially with his mates, and later with Doreen at his side, Dick helped out with the Wellington Car Club and what was then known as the Hutt Valley Motoring Club.
They were good times, without today's competitiveness and high technology.
"We had more fun in those days," he says. "We all got on well together."
They didn't have the fancy electronic timing gear we have today. Instead they laid out army surplus cables, many of them, plugged together, for communication.
"Imagine doing that up the Paekakariki Hill," says Dick. And at the end of the day it all had to be disconnected and carted away.
They went through this routine at all the regular competition venues in the early 50s ? the Wallaceville hill, Mangaroa, Houghton's Bay.
Lest the O'Briens should appear one-dimensional, it must be pointed out that they also have a 15-year association with carriage driving ? when Dick first retired he started up Lincoln Carriages, building vehicles for the sport. In 1982 he trained his first pony, Beau Brummell, for carriage work, and the couple still have close links with the sport. Beau Brummell delivered Dick and Doreen's daughter to her wedding.
The family also had a go at yachting, Dick building a Hartley trailer-sailor, racing it at Evans Bay. The children enjoyed it but it wasn't really Doreen's thing.
And they remain lovers of caravanning, still making regular trips around New Zealand. Not surprisingly, Dick built their first caravan (he leaves the room to find a photograph, and Doreen confides: "He's a very clever man. Everything has to be just right.") And subsequently the family toured the South Island and as far north as Northland. They also did an eight-week tour of Australia by caravan in 1987, taking in Bathurst and the Adelaide Grand Prix along the way.
In 1993 the couple travelled to the United States to visit one of their sons, and inevitably joined 500,000 other fans at the Indy 500. That was the year Nigel Mansell nearly won, finally taking second place.
They have passed their love of motorsport to their sons, and now, to a third generation. As a family they followed the motor racing at Levin and the annual Rally of New Zealand. One of their sons is a former president of the Hawke's Bay Car Club, and Dick and Doreen were on hand when that club staged a 50th anniversary sealed hillclimb. V8 Supercar star Greg Murphy won that event, setting a course record in an 800hp Commodore.
They helped Masterton motor racing historian Scott Thomson on one of his excursions south to race his Brooklands Riley. And Doreen proof-read Thomson's latest book, Up To Speed, the Ron Roycroft story.
Dick's interest in cars took a new turn when he restored the Model A roadster. That was completed in February 1996 and the couple became very involved with the Wairarapa branch of the Vintage Car Club. The VCC provides officials for the annual rally, which is how Dick and Doreen became involved.
After 10 years with the Model A, Dick is looking for a new motoring challenge. Something more suitable for a man in his late seventies, perhaps?
Actually no, says Dick.
"I'm thinking about a sports car."