Motorsport

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Gemini MK3A

I was born in Rotorua on the 16th of August 1945, I am single and was educated at the Rotorua Boys High School. I have spent most of my working life in the agricultural spare parts field working with International, John Deere, Fiat, Ford, and Kubota franchises.

The above photo of me is with Gemini MK 3A which was a single seater race car that I drove back in the 1960s here in New Zealand and is now owned and raced by Group Captain Jim Barclay of the Royal New Zealand airforce. I started racing cars almost as soon as I left school, starting with a Mistral Ford which had been built in Rotorua by Ross Baker and then moved on to an ex-works Buckler-Climax which had been raced by one of New Zealands first women racing drivers, Ivy Stephenson.

In 1971 I went on to drive a mini in special stage rallies, one of the most interesting being the 1973 Heatway Rally which used both North and South Island roads and took some 7 days to complete and driving an 850cc mini, just finishing was an achievement. Later cars included an RX2 Mazda and two RX3 Maszda's. Some 9 international rallies and dozens of national and club events in all. My major sporting interest has always been motorracing and special stage car rallying, spending some 18 years as a competitor and then 16 as an oficial.

In 1995 I was asked to become an on road official on the inaugural Targa NZ classic car rally and did this job until the 1999 event working as a special stage commander.

I am now involved with the Gold Coast Tourist Trophy in a similar position. We have in fact already held our first event in Australia in Febuary 2001 which was a one day rallysprint and this was extremely well received by competitors and public alike and we are doing more events duing August 2001 and into the future.


This is an event which as far as we know has never been done by any NZ group in the past and is something that we are all very proud of.

I am also looking for ward to getting back behind the wheel of a competition car and I have purchased a Mini to prepare for racing in the next couple of years. My ambition is to compete at the Silverstone Race to Sky at Mt Cardrona.

Some of my other interests

I have become interested in Genealogy and have started tracing my ancestors who came to New Zealand from Scotland and England in th mid 1800s. In my family line there are names such as McNair, McMillan, Hunter, Forsyth, and Whitely.

I have traced my male line back to a Duncan McNair born in 1703! and I am quietly working on other lines as I get the time.

My other interests include reading, computers, animals and many other things and I intend to breed Rhodesian Ridgebacks in the future. As it is not possible have another dog right now so I have become a sponsor of Guide dogs and this gives me a lot od satisfaction. I also enjoy classical music, particually Micheal Crawford, but I am not adverse to listening to Elvis Presley at times.

E-mail

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