Motorsport: Far-sighted fans bequeath a class venue

When the New Zealand V8s roar into action for the fourth round of their championship this weekend at Teretonga, they will be about as far away from Auckland as you can go without packing your passport.

Which will be music to the ears of the decibel monitors of Ponsonby and Grey Lynn, who equate motorsport with mosquitoes and the painted apple moth.

Teretonga, 8km out of Invercargill, is the southernmost motor-racing track in the world, but one beloved of racing drivers since it first opened almost 50 years ago.

And ironically, its creation owed much to the type of controversy that saw Auckland reject a V8 Supercar race around Victoria Park last year.

Back in 1956, Southland was marking its centennial and one of the proposals for the celebrations was a street race in Invercargill. The course suggested would have taken the cars around Queen's Park in the centre of the city.

But the editor of the Southland Times was a keen golfer and Queen's Park included a golf course. He argued strongly against having noisy cars disturbing the players while they were trying to hole their putts.

With co-operation from the government departments involved, an alternative was arranged at Ryal Bush, incorporating part of a State Highway. The race was staged there in 1956 and again in 1957 with Englishman Peter Whitehead winning both in a Ferrari.

Meanwhile, enthusiasts from the Southland Car Club concentrated their efforts on building a permanent circuit at Sandy Point, which became Teretonga Park. It is a tribute to their foresight that the circuit remains essentially as it was designed.

Southland historian Keith Douglas says the building of the circuit and its long survival owe much to the generosity of local people. Interest-free loans were raised, but the circuit never made enough money to pay them back and many of those involved at the start died without being reimbursed.

The track, however, very quickly paid dividends in entertainment from the best in the business.

The first international race was in 1958, and through the golden years of New Zealand motor-racing, winners included Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Piers Courage, Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon.

Stirling Moss and Graham Hill raced there and the cars included Ferraris, BRMs, Coopers, Maseratis and Lotuses through to the mighty Formula 5000s.

Ken Smith, who this weekend will be competing in a Toyota single-seater, first drove there in 1967 in a Lotus Ford, when Clark won the international.

Douglas concedes that the Southland weather is not always ideal - one year they raced in near horizontal hail - but golfers who drove the cars away from their course would sympathise with one of the more unusual hazards.

In the early 60s the dapper Swede Jo Bonnier slid off the track in his yellowy green car and officials had trouble finding it amid the profuse growth of similarly coloured lupins.

Whatever the weather, the track drains well. During the 1984 Southland floods it was used as an emergency airport.

For some years Teretonga had its own special hero. George Begg, from Drummond in central Southland, designed his own cars, which were driven with considerable success by David Oxton, Gary Pedersen and Jim Murdoch.

More recently Teretonga has hosted the New Zealand Grand Prix in Formula Fords and Lindsay Beer, the voice of the park, rates last year's closest-ever victory by Smith from youngster Andy Knight as his most exciting race call.

Smith rates that win, his third Grand Prix victory, very highly but one of his abiding memories of Teretonga is of a race he didn't win. In 1976, driving a Lola Formula 5000, he had the international race at his mercy only to have to back off because of a cracked cylinder, allowing Graeme Lawrence to win.

Fresh from winning two of the three V8 races last weekend at Timaru in his Tracer Ford, Auckland-based John McIntyre is looking forward to returning to one of his favourite circuits.

"I absolutely love it," he said. "Everyone would like to move it closer to home.

"It's fast and flowing and a real driver's circuit where you can have a chance to pass. It's not as vital to be on pole. But that's what I always work for. If you can get pole, you can control the races."

McIntyre is in third place in the V8 championship with 494 points. Christchurch Holden driver Wade Henshaw leads with 613 from last year's champion, Andy Booth, with 501 in an Orix Holden.

"I think Wade might be getting a bit rattled," said McIntyre. "He won the first two rounds but the Fords are getting better. The Holdens still seem to be able to produce that one blinding qualifying lap on brand-new tyres but we're still a work in progress on that."

Standings

Points after four rounds:

Wade Henshaw (Holden) 613
Andy Booth (Holden) 501
John McIntyre (Ford) 494
Paul Manuell (Holden) 404
Kayne Scott (Holden) 401
Shane Drake (Ford) 363
Paul Pedersen (Ford) 319
Mark Pedersen (Ford) 315
Andrew Anderson (Holden) 305
Michael Thom (Holden) 268