Sometimes, when the weather and light are just right, I’ll park up the old Nissan Terrano part-way along Muriwai Beach, close my eyes and try to conjure up the ghosts of New Zealand motorsport’s glorious past.
Is that the bark of an open exhaust coming from Howard Nattrass’ stripped down Cadillac? The chatter of the exposed tappets of one of the many budget-modded Model T Ford that proved so popular in the various support class races? Or the howl of the ex-Indy Stutz that the scion of the NZ Herald-owning Wilson family, Bob, used to eventually dominate the annual race meeting held of the popular West Auckland beach from 1921 to 1928.
I got hooked on the early history of the sport here when I was researching my book, RACING – A history of motorsport in NZ, and got the same goose bumps when I rocked up at one of the sport’s early South Island venues – Christchurch’s Addington (trotting) Raceway, for the start of the Targa Rally there in 2014.
Because I live in West Auckland it’s easier for me to get to Muriwai of course, the home of the first major (I suppose you could call it) ‘international’ car race meeting, the Australasian Beach Championships of 1921 – the event the original NZ Motor Cup trophy was created for.
That makes the ‘Motor Cup New Zealand’s oldest and most storied motor racing prize. And as the countdown begins to the annual SpeedWorks Motorsport NZ Championship/HRC Events’ NZ Motor Cup meeting at Hampton Downs this weekend it’s worth a look at the close to 100 year history on the trophy the winner of the main TRS race will earn.
Like the New Zealand Grand Prix trophy which will be awarded at the Manfeild round of the TRS a fortnight later, The NZ Motor Cup has been won by a who’s who of the world’s motor racing greats over the years – from Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham in the 1950s to Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill in the 1960s and Keke Rosberg in the 1970s.
What is special about the NZ Motor Cup, however, is its link to that first meeting at Muriwai in 1921, the original one minted by the organising club, the Auckland Automobile Association, for the winner of the main race on the day at the Australasian Beach Race meeting, the ……NZ Motor Cup.
Extrovert businessman and inventor Howard Nattrass of nearby Riverhead won that race, then became the first two-time winner of the NZ Motor Cup in 1924.
It was fellow Aucklander R.B (Bob) Wilson who got to keep the original trophy after his third win in as many years at Muriwai in 1928. And that’s where the story would have ended, had not Wilson’s family donated the ‘Cup to the Auckland (later NZ) International Grand Prix group for their own first major motor race meeting. at Ardmore in 1954.
From then until 1995 the NZ Motor Cup was awarded at the ‘Auckland’ round of the annual summer international motor racing series. For the first nine years that meeting was held on a converted airfield circuit at Ardmore (sth-east of the city) then for the next 33 at Pukekohe Park Raceway (sth-west of Auckland).
After a two-year hiatus the Trophy was pulled back out of its cabinet at the NZIGP office in Auckland’s Ellerslie and awarded to the winner of a race in Christchurch, but it was back as the major prize at Pukekohe in 2000 before another break – this time of six years – until it joined the NZ Grand Prix on the TRS trophy roster, where for the past nine years it has been awarded to the winner of the main race at Hampton Downs.
It is 98 years since Howard Nattrass won the NZ Motor Cup for the first time and though it has not been awarded every year when you know the history behind it you can understand why the ‘Cup has a special place in the hearts of local drivers and fans alike.
Bruce McLaren became the first resident Kiwi to put his name on it in the modern era (at Pukekohe in 1964) and since then other Kiwis to win it have included Chris Amon, Ken Smith, Craig Baird, Grey Murphy, Simon Wills, Shane Van Gisbergen, Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy.
Considering that he is still competing 61 years after he started – and indeed, lines up as the odds-on favourite to win the SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series support races at the NZ Motor Cup meeting this weekend – evergreen Auckland veteran Ken Smith was the only New Zealander to win it at Pukekohe in the seven years the Auckland round of the annual Tasman Series was run for F5000 single-seaters.
On the contrary, when Sydneysider Frank Matich won the Cup for the first time with a dominant win in the NZGP at Pukekohe in 1970 in a McLaren M10A, it marked the beginning of a golden run for Australian rather than NZ drivers.
Another Sydney resident, Niel Allen, then beat fellow McLaren M10B drivers Matich and Graham McRae to the line – getting his name on both the NZGP and NZ Motor Cup trophies in 1971 – before a third Sydney-born driver, Frank Gardner (Lola T300), did the GP/Motor Cup double in 1972.
Tasmanian John McCormack then completed something of an Australian circle by winning both the NZGP and NZ Motor Cup trophies at Pukekohe in 1973 in an Australian-built (and-powered) car, the Repco Holden-engined Elfin MR5 created in Adelaide by Garrie Cooper.
McCormack also won the New Zealand Grand Prix in 1974 in his Elfin MR5 though that was the year the NZGP was contested at the Wigram Airbase in Christchurch (to coincide with the Commonwealth Games being contested at nearby QE2 Park) meaning the NZ Motor Cup went to the winner of the Pukekohe round of the 1974 Tasman Series, (see Terry Marshall photo) Brit Peter Gethin in a Chevron B24 from McCormack and Kiwi David Oxton in the NZ-built Begg FM5.
It was very much a case of normal service being resumed in 1975 when yet another Australian, Warwick Brown, won both NZGP and NZ Motor Cup trophies at the NZGP round of that year’s Tasman Series back at Pukekohe driving a Lola T332.
New Zealand finally got a look in in 1976, however, when in the final year of the ‘Tasman Series’ (which this time had been split into a four-round Peter Stuyvesant International Series here and a four-round Rothmans International Series across the Tasman) Ken Smith won both Cups in his Lola T330/2.
Smith, who went on to win the Peter Stuyvesant International Series here and finish a close second to Australian Vern Schuppan in the allied but independent Rothmans International Series across the Tasman, also won the NZ Motor Cup trophy at Pukekohe a full 14 years later (1990) behind the wheel of a Swift Formula Pacific single-seater.
And this year?
With a new generation of fast-rising young stars like Marcus Armstrong, Liam Lawson and Brendon Leitch on the grid there is every chance that another Kiwi name will be added to the NZ Motor Cup at Hampton Downs on Sunday!
Picture: 2016 NZ Motor Cup winner Pedro Piquet with second placed James Munro from Christchurch
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