Last Friday started – literally – with a bang…but ended, if you were like me and had been looking forward to the day for months, with a whimper.
Friday, you see, was March the 5th, 100 years to the day, since the first motor race for the New Zealand Motor Cup was held on the distinctive black sand of Auckland’s Muriwai Beach.
To mark this most auspicious of occasions MotorSport New Zealand, the NZIGP group and the Historic Racing Club organised a special morning function at the Muriwai Surf Club, however – you guessed it – it had to be postponed when, the Sunday before, Auckland was plunged into its 4th Level 3 or 4 Lockdown.
As it turned out, however, in this case the early call to postpone (because of restricted travel and gathering number limits) was probably a good thing, given the fact that three separate 6.0+ magnitude earthquakes were felt across the upper North Island between 2:00 & 9:00am that morning, resulting in a Tsunami warning which wasn’t lifted until later in the afternoon.
True, being on the opposite (west) coast to the possible tsunami threat meant that Muriwai was not in the direct firing line, but by 9.00am I know I was well rattled and kind of glad that the Level 3 Lockdown restrictions were going to keep me close to home.
With the New Zealand Grand Prix trophy, The New Zealand Motor Cup is one of New Zealand motor racing’s two most prestigious awards – one of three if you count the Lady Wigram Trophy.
All three have been won by a literal who’s who of both the local and international motor racing scenes.
Having now been awarded since 1921 however, it is the New Zealand Motor Cup which can rightly claim to be the ‘Daddy of them All.’
While Christchurch appears to be able to claim bragging rights as the cradle of the sport in this country (with the first actual race at Hagley Park on November 08, 1901 and the first proper car race ‘day’ held at the Addington Raceway (trotting track) on December 26, 1905, it was the first major race meeting at Muriwai Beach on Saturday March 05 which really kick-started the sport here.
As I wrote in my book Racing – A History of Motorsport in New Zealand (Whitcoulls 2007)
‘The idea of a beach race at Muriwai came to members of the Auckland Automobile Association in 1920. The occasion was the Northern Tour, a sort of rolling trade promotion put on by members to create interest in the motor car in Northland. On their way back, via the Western Kaipara route, the tourists decided to take a detour down to Muriwai Beach. One thing led to another and a challenge was issued: “Race you to the other end.”
Once back in Auckland one of the motor trade men on the tour, W.S. (Bill) Miller convinced Buick dealer Jack Gillet that a race meeting on the beach would be good for business and together they took a pitch to a full meeting of the AAA.
The AAA was keen, and in time-honoured fashion a committee was formed to turn the idea into reality, with the first meeting held on Saturday March 05, 1921.
The race itself could not have been simpler – a 40km (25 mile) dash down the beach won by former Wellington-based motor trader (but by this time Riverhead, West Auckland residenta) Howard Nattrass driving a cut down, V8-engined Cadillac.
On the way down the beach Nattrass averaged a very tidy 141km/h (87.8 mph), leading the race from start to finish.
Nattrass, whose notoriety in the district is remembered, nay celebrated, in a Hall of Fame-type promo in the refurbished Riverhead Tavern, became the first two-time winner of the NZ Motor Cup in 1924.
However, a year later The Truth newspaper devoted a full front page (a rarity in those days when classified ads usually took up the most valuable spots) to an expose of the dubious dealings of Nattrass, described as the inventor of the Nattrass Tank-Carburettor, and a couple of ‘fellow businessmen’ as they supposedly frittered shareholders’ funds away on a number of what the crusading newspaper considered highly frivolous trips to the US.
With Nattrass otherwise occupied favourite status at the by now highly popular annual beach race event passed to R.B (Bob) WiIson, scion son of the ‘Wilson & Horton’ Wilsons, publishers of the ‘NZ Herald’ newspaper.
Now, Bob was not brought up to think small – so when he decided to get serious about winning the NZ Motor Cup for himself, he went out and acquired the best possible car, as ex- Indianapolis 500 Stutz Bearcat.
Just keeping it going proved an uphill battle but from 1926 through to 1928 Wilson proved to be unbeatable and having made some sort of wager with the organisers that ‘if he won it three years in a row, he could keep the NZ Motor Cup trophy in perpetuity that’s exactly what Wilson did.
And that is where this particular story would have ended had not the Wilson family donated the trophy back to the group behind the new-look New Zealand Grand Prix meeting at Ardmore.
And so, the New Zealand Motor Cup enjoyed a second wind if you like, he NZIGP readily agreeing with the Wilson family’s only caveat that the Cup be competed for under its own name at any NZGP meeting held in or near enough to Auckland.
Initially that meant at the Ardmore aerodrome in south-east Auckland (from 1954 to 1962) then to the newly-build Pukekohe Grand Prix circuit in the region’s south-west.
In what can only be described as a 41-year golden run (form 1954 to 1995) the NZ Motor Cup was run and won by the likes of Grand Prix greats Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon, Aussie F5000 innovators like Frank Matich, Neil Allen and Warwick Brown, and a new breed of Kiwi star, spearheaded by Ken Smith and the likes of Steve Millen and David Oxton but leading into the next generation of generation of ambitious young guns like Craig Baird and Greg Murphy.
Fast forward (literally) until today, and the Castrol Toyota Racing Series has provided a home for the NZ Motor Cup since 2006 and it is now receiving some of the recognition, I have always believed it both warranted and richly deserved.
It’s not every day, after-all that a driver – or any other sportsperson for that matter – gets to compete for a Trophy first awarded 100 years ago!
Or celebrate the fact – when Chris Watson from HRC Events can come up with another date, one not likely to be affected by COVID_19 Lockdowns, earthquakes, tsunamis et etc, that is!!
Main picture: Howard Nattress’ grandson with a replica of the 1921 NZ Motor Cup winning Cadillac
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