I'll dig you out some old photos

[merv]

This will take a while because I have a lot to sort through. Sadly my Bro' passed away in January as I mentioned on his RIP thread and now I'm up to having to organise and clear out all his stuff. Being an avid biker and photographer there will be many bike photos.

I've posted a few for the trials boys already, but now I've found some sidecar shots too, starting with this one of Plummer and Watson leading Corbett and Forbes at the 1975 Onekawa Grand Prix in Napier. Enjoy.

Those from that era will remember the success Corbett and Forbes had on the Suzuki waterbucket powered chair.

Howard Gregory (RIP) and partner Cresswell were using Triumph power that day.

[White trash]

Very interesting Merv, as I've previously said mate, I'd ove to sit down one day with a dozen and pore over your extensive photo collection.

Question: How popular were "Bottle" powered outifts? Reason I ask, when I was a kid, the first bike I actually remember my dad owing was a 75' Kettle. The motor had been reinstalled after serving time in a rig and (for the day) was wicked fast. It had this immense three into one, unsilenced 'spanny on it and during the evening living in Aviemore, you could here him slowing down for the Waitaki village, then getting back on the pipe a few seconds later on his way home from the Kurow pub.

I think it's about twenty kays from Avimore to Waitaki........

[merv]

Mate they (the Suz 750s) were the best in the 70's and the chair guys can pipe up here and tell it like it was but Corbett and Forbes were multi NZ champs weren't they and that power unit type was quite popular? It took a while before the big four strokes came along to knock the bottle off its perch.

Trashy, wait and see what two wheeler race photos I can find, starting with Marlboro series - check them out here http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=93992.

[merv]

Here's some more shots for you from my Bro's collection, this time from the January 1977 Marlboro Series races at Gracefield. This was just a few weeks after the big Wellington floods of December 1976 so the road had been patched in quite a few places. He labelled them as follows:

Pic #1 Looking down the back straight, #2 Peter Campbell (sorry bad exposure on that one), #3 EL Tigre, #4 Crowd coming.

[Mark sMITH]

Any idea who the guy is in the sidecar with 74 on the front? Are you interested in seeing some more old pics. I have a collection of some of the riders of that era (including myself)

[markc]

Absolutely !!!

We're keen to see any sidecar pics from the past.

Cheers, Mark

[Atlas]

any chance of putting them on http://www.sidecarracing.co.nz/ Mark?
these pics are priceless. :niceone:

[sidecar bob]

Keep them coming please!!

[markc]

Excellent idea !

I'm actually in the process of finding another home for our pics.

The current location, Flickr.com only allows 3 folders of pics to be set up. For more than 3, you have to pay.

I actually copied all the pics over to facebook.com. Then I realised that they could only be viewed by registered Facebook users.......

I think Google has something called Picasa. I still have to check it out

[merv]

Any idea who the guy is in the sidecar with 74 on the front? Are you interested in seeing some more old pics. I have a collection of some of the riders of that era (including myself)

If you're talking to me about that second photo in the first set we had that down as Howard Gregory as I mentioned above. Can anyone confirm it was him?

I've found my Bro' had all the old programmes too but haven't had a chance to sift through them yet.

[Mark sMITH]

Hi Mark Smith here. No am pretty certain this is not Howard (Who I raced with and travelled with frequently) Fairly certain this is me. Those are my leather colours and I raced with that number for a short time. Changed to 63 then 5 for all the remaining years of racing. If I could see the wording "side car' up theside of the lower arms I would be positive. But photo not quite clear enough. Still have the leathers, and sidecar (on loan currently.)

[merv]

Yeah well funny, looking at the programme there was no number 74 mentioned with Howard shown as using his "usual" number 3 and no Mark Smith listed - were you a late entry or something?

[Rossgo]

Not sure why it had Howards name on the program as this IS Mark Smith in the photo. 99% of the time Howard had used the No.3 on his photo. I also have old sidecar photos I can post.. I will hunt some out for you

[Atlas]

There's Gordon Skilton, Shorty Reay and Bruce Williamson's outfits there and those bikes are still on the scene!

[merv]

Gordon Skilton got a good write up in the Dom Post and probably other Fairfax papers this morning as it seems to be from the Manawatu Standard. Here's a copy of the article from the digital edition, and I've extracted the photos out seperately for you so you can save them and then you can look at the story and zoom in on the photos.

Else the plain Stuff version is here http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/2670673/Like-riding-a-bike-70-year-old-back-in-racing-saddle

[Atlas]

He's a legend. 10 times NZ champion and still racing. At Pukekohe this year for the classics we had 5 ex NZ champions racing! Probably 20 years of championship wins between them. These guys dont just make up numbers. Thanks for the link!:2thumbsup

[merv]

Yeah well I was never really into sidecars but in the 70's I was in awe at his ability and he only finally got beaten when the other guys got the much more modern rigs. He was such a great competitor and still is. How many people can race with their grand-daughter?

[98tls]

Theres a heap of good side car stuff on the Marlboro series 30th year anniversary dvds.Fwiw.Great pics you got there Merv.

[skilly035]

He was such a great competitor and still is. How many people can race with their grand-daughter?


I'm the grand daughter...
Apparently there was a team in Isle of Man who had a 80ish year old mother on the chair!
But, I've been told, that Gordon and I are the first Grandfather-Granddaughter team in the world :Punk:

[davejp]

Hi Merv are you from Napier I was Gordon Skiltons first passenger I wondered if you had any early photos ie around 1957

DavePlunkett

[davejp]

Merv I was Gordons passenger in the mid fifties I wondered if you any photo's from that period

Dave Plunkett

[davejplunkett]

Re photo of Vic Plummer and Clive Watson they both live Oz Clive took the Aussie sidecar champs at 59 years of age at 60 he had a massive roll over and was seriously injured

I have some photos of him in action but don't know how to post them on this site

Also Vic is still racing in Queensland he is 60 now and still fairly quick did you know Vic's father Bill Plummer introduced sidecar racing to NZ he was a Nz Champp many years ago and is about to celebrate his 90th birthday