Obituary

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32096, 18 September 1969, Page 18

Obituary

MR FRANK SHUTER A well-known Christchurch motor-sport enthusiast and racing driver, Mr Frank Shuter, died in Christchurch on Tuesday. He was aged 51.

Mr Shuter was born and educated in the North Island, and came to Christchurch about 20 years ago. He won more than 60 trophies for his sporting achievements. Before he came to the South Island, he won the Waikato hydroplane championships, and he also won a champion of champions trophy for cycling at Rotorua. Before and after World War II Mr Shuter also did a considerable amount of motorcycle racing. His interest then turned to motor-racing, and he competed at the Mairehau circuit, in hill-climbs, and in several Lady Wigram Trophy races. At Mairehau, driving a car he built himself, he once recorded the fastest time against a good field of factorymade cars, in 1954 he won the New Zealand beach-racing championship, and he won the South Island hill-climb championship several times. Much of his racing was done in cars he built mainly himself, but he also drove some factory-built cars. In 1959 he set a national flying kilometre record for 2000 c.c. to 3000 c.c. cars at 157.4 m.p.h., and this record still stands. On this occasion Mr Shuter drove a Maserati 8 CLT.

In the 1961 Lady Wigram Trophy race he drove a Ferrari, and the car was wrecked when it crashed into a parked car near the track. Using factory plans, Mr Shuter later rebuilt the Ferrari, and took it to England where it was bought by a collector.

At the time of his death Mr Shuter was a member of the Motor Racing Club, the New Zealand International Grand Prix, the Brighton Working Men’s Club, the Waimairi Beach Golf Club, and he was a honorary member and vice-president of the New Brighton Tiger Motor-cycle Club. Mr Shuter is survived by his wife, by a daughter who is in Malaysia, .and two sons, one of whom is in England.