The Ford Motor Company was quick to see the advantages motor sport could bring to a car maker - success on the race track would draw attention from a wide audience that even great sums of money would not buy.
Even before the Ford Motor Company was incorporated in 1903, its became involved in motorsport. Of course, the new sport of motor racing attracted a media frenzy wherever an event was held. Readers were hungry for the excitement the horseless carriage might bring. The American motor champion at the time was Alexander Winton, proprietor of the Winton Motor Company. He seemed unbeatable. Ford teamed up with engineer Childe Harold Wills and built a racing car which they named “Sweepstakes”. In testing, their car achieved an incredible 74 miles an hour! So Ford challenged Winton to a race.
That high-profile, 10-mile event took place at Grosse Point, Michigan in October, 1901. On the seventh lap Winton’s engine failed and Ford took over the lead and won the race. Ford was later quoted as saying “…it bought advertising of the only kind that people cared to read”. Mr Ford’s name was now known in the motor city.
The JWA Racer at Muriwai Beach, 1924 a record-setting Ford supercar!
Credit: Norm Andrew Collection
But once production was under way at the new Ford Motor Company, motor racing was dispensed with. Even with the arrival of the Ford V8 engine in 1932 the company still did not engage in motor racing. Indeed, it was not until the very late 1950s that the Ford Motor Company – now with Henry Ford II at the helm – changed their mind about that. Ford would again support motor racing – they would challenge Ferrari at the toughest race track of them all, Le Mans.
If something has wheels, people will want to race it! So of course, throughout those years, there was plenty of amateur motorsport happening all over the world, and Ford cars were right up there with the best of them, including in New Zealand.
Beach racing always provided a spectacle here. The roads to Nelson, to New Brighton in Christchurch and to Muriwai near Auckland would become clogged as thousands turned out to watch. In 1923 Stan Andrew, the sales manager for the Auckland Ford dealer John W Andrew & Sons, debuted at Muriwai driving his Model T Ford racer in the prestigious 50-mile New Zealand Motor Cup. In 1924 he returned to Muriwai, where the Ford racer set the Australasian Five Mile Record at an average speed of 86.1 miles an hour, which suggested the car was capable of more than 100 miles an hour!
Gold Leaf International, Levin, January 1964 – professionals Kerry Grant (Lotus Cortina no 55) and Paul Fahey (Lotus Cortina at right) challenging amateur Ernie Sprague (Ford Zephyr)
Credit: Euan Sarginson – author collection
The advent of the Ford V8 engine was too tempting for amateur racers to ignore, and all sorts of Ford Specials were created here in New Zealand in the interest of winning a race! Then, when the Ford Motor Company decided to once again back the sport, the game changed. While the American arm of Ford was preparing for Le Mans, the Ford of Britain had teamed up with Colin Chapman at Lotus to prepare the already-peppy small Cortina into a giant-killing sports car.
Ford New Zealand imported five of the new Lotus Cortinas to tackle the tracks in New Zealand during the summer season of 1963-64. One of New Zealand’s most inventive, courageous and talented motor racing drivers at that time was Ernie Sprague, from Timaru. Sprague’s specially-prepared Mark 3 Zephyr, said the be the fastest of its type in the world, would now be facing Ford factory-prepared Lotus Cortinas.
This is covered with amazing photos in the book Driving Ahead. All the main motor racing events with Ford involvement are covered, from the annual Benson & Hedges 500 endurance racing at Pukekohe, to the appearance of the magnificent GTHO Falcons in the early 70s, the Ford Escorts in the Heatway and the International Rally of New Zealand, the creation of the Formula Ford single seater series, the Escort Sport series and, of course, the AGC Laser Racing. It’s all there.
And, let’s not forget Ford’s wonderful win at Le Mans. New Zealanders Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon and Denny Hulme were three of the four drivers in the two winning Ford GT40 cars! Driving Ahead includes a four-page spread on this feat which also shows the only genuine Ford GT40 to grace New Zealand roads. Driving Ahead is a comprehensive history of Ford in New Zealand.
World Rally Championship, 1977 – the “flying Finn” Ari Vatanen and New Zealander Jim Scott in their Masport Escort.
Credit: Jack Inwood – Ray Stone Collection
