Photo Recall: First sign of life to come

Photo / Michael Tubberty, Photo Researcher / Emma Walter

The close-knit world of New Zealand's motor rallying fraternity meant tracking down people from more than three decades ago was relatively easy.

It took the motor rally world less than an hour to track down a face from 33 years ago. The young woman, Glenda Styles, of Greenlane, leaning out of English driver Russell Brooke's Ford rally car, is now Glenda O'Donnell, of Botany, mother of twin boys and married to Murray, who's been a petrolhead all his life.

Back in September 1978, Murray was in his first year as organiser of the Motorgard international rally.

Glenda, his girlfriend at the time, was dutifully helping to stick the livery on the competing cars with Cheryl Harper, whose husband Stuart was Murray's co-driver.

After waving off their menfolk, the women would follow in their own cars on standard roads - the rally course was often on back roads and through forests - to meet them at the end of what was seven gruelling days.

In the early 70s, Murray began working at John Andrew Ford in the performance parts department and became involved in rallying through Mike Marshall. From there, he was soon involved in the country's premier rally event.

Not much has changed. More than 30 years later, Murray still works in the motor industry and is still involved in rallying. He has helped organise the Variety Club Bash for more than 20 years and is still involved in the Rally New Zealand annual signature race as part of the safety crew. "Murray is one of those people who can't say no to anyone," Glenda says. "He's had all sorts of connection to all sorts of sports."

Two years after that 1978 rally, Glenda and Murray married and had sons Nicholas and Nathan, now 24. That spelled the end of Glenda's rally days. "I stayed home, it was easier."

But she was still roped in to type up the course route book, in the days before computers.

"Murray would go out and plot the course and I would type the route book and all the notes ... with lots of whiteout." After that came the photocopying, collating and binding of each book. "We did all that together."

Cheryl and Stuart Harper moved to Queensland but the Herald on Sunday was not able to contact them.