Expat Englishman Finally Gets Chance To Join Local F5000 Race Series This Weekend

When expat English businessman, and keen lifelong amateur race and rally driver Alastair Chalmers emigrated to New Zealand in 2015 he brought with him two rather tasty cars - a classic 1965 Austin Healey 3000 and a contemporary, late model Lotus 7-style Caterham R400.

Soon after arriving he added a third, track-ready, Honda Integra DC5, and late last year he acquired what you could describe as the Daddy of them all, a one-off Chevron B32 Formula 5000 single seater.

Having achieved significant success over a number of years in classic race and rallying series in the UK and Europe, the now Hawke’s Bay-based72-year-old certainly had no intention of stopping competing when he arrived here. Hence the purchase of the Honda.

When he did start competing here, however, he discovered a car racing ‘scene’ very different to the one he had got used to in the UK.

“While the Integra was great for club events, what I found was there are bigger, higher profile meetings here in NZ where if you’ve got a classic single seater or muscle car you can run at what back home would be considered National level meetings.”

Which got Alastair thinking, and during the long days of COVID-19 Lockdown late last year, keeping a weather eye out for a second proper competition car to add to his local ‘stable.’

As it turned out at pretty much the same time, family of former SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 competitor, the late Karl Zohs from Rotorua, had decided to put the Chevron B32 he had acquired from Aucklander Hamish Paterson, in 2016, up for sale.

And so, an opportunity to view the car was organised, an offer was proffered and – long story short – Alastair Chalmers became the proud ‘third Kiwi owner’ of the only Chevron B32 ever built.

Though the 1975 B32 shares the same fully faired-in nosecone and flat-topped /slab-sided/monocoque chassis of the original – and very successful - B24 and B28 models of 1973 and 1974, the Chalmers car was a true, one-off 5.7 litre model, built for Yorkshireman John Cussins to contest the British Hillclimb Championships.

In a comprehensive history of the car authoritative website Oldracingcars.com states that in his first year contesting the British championships in the car (1975) Cussins finished 4th overall. However, the next year (1976) the best he could muster was a 4th place finish at a couple of rounds, and at season’s end the B32 was sold to a pair of Guernsey (Channel Islands) enthusiasts Noel Le Tissier and Tom Coughlan for Le Tissier to run in local hHillclimb and sprint events.

In 1979 Coughlan also shipped the B32 to the Isle of Man for top British F5000 driver Brian Redman to use in a special car vs motorcycle ‘grudge match’ against his equivalent at the time in the two-wheel world, Phil Read, riding a TZ750 Yamaha 2-stroke.

And that might well have been it had not the B32 been ‘found’ in 1990 and put back into circulation by Chevron marque enthusiast Richard Budge then converted to F5000-spec by its next owner, Welshman Richard Jones.

Once eligible to compete, Jones then put Anthony Taylor in the car for its first contemporary run in a FORCE F5000 Series race meeting in 2002 after which it passed into the hands, first of top UK F5000 category driver Mike Wrigley, then Kiwi Hamish Paterson, who shipped it here in 2008 and competed in only selected rounds of the SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series between 2009 and 2011.

Rotorua man Karl Zohs then acquired it for his own use in 2016 however he too only got to use it occasionally over the next three seasons as

his health deteriorated.

Even the unique Chevron’s latest owner/driver/custodian, Alastair Chalmers, has had to cool his heels as the first three (of four) rounds of the of 2021/22 SAS Autoparts/MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series were cancelled thanks to concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus.

And it is only this weekend at Hampton Downs that the expat Englishmanfinally gets his chance to ‘unleash the beast’ at the opening round of the re-jigged, now three-round SAS Autoparts MSC series.

The unique Chevron, now running in its original red with white and green striping Waring & Gillow Racing livery, will join at least nine other pukka period F5000 seaters on the grid for the SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series races at the Historic Racing Club’s annual Legends of Speed brought to you by Coombes Johnston BMW meeting at Hampton Downs this weekend.

Included will be the Talon MR1s of Grant Martin and ‘Mr SAS Autoparts,’ Davd Banks, the Local T332s of Banks’ son Codie, and Tony Galbraith, and the later model Lola T400 of fellow Aucklander Glenn Richards.

The meeting will also see a strong entry of McLaren cars, headed by Tim Rush in his M22, and ably supported by the Class A (for earlier era cars) M10B models of Tony Roberts, Toby Annabell, and Frank Karl.

Finally, making a return to the local F5000 series after a long break is John McKinlay from Auckland with his original but now much modified March 72.

The SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Serries is organised and run with the support of sponsors SAS Autoparts, MSC, NZ Express Transport, Bonney's Specialised Bulk Transport, Mobil Lubricants, Pacifica, Avon Tyres, Webdesign and Exide Batteries.

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