HOWDEN GANLEY Another N.Z. Racing Star?
A young New Zealand driver who has risen to prominence in British motor racing in the last two years, but who is still virtually unknown in this country, is Howden Ganley, at present second behind P. Gethin in the European Formula 5000 championship.
Ganley, now aged 28, last raced in New Zealand more than eight years ago, but he may race here in the Tasman series next year. Ganley was born in Hamilton, and attended the Hamilton West Primary School, Southwell School, and Hamilton Boys’ High School before joining the staff of the “Waikato Times” as a cadet reporter. An early interest in boats had been supplanted by an even greater interest in motor-racing when Howden Ganley was 13. After leaving school he started in competition: first with a “perpendicular” Ford Anglia, and then in an airfield race with his mother’s Morris Minor.
In 1960 he bought the Lotus 11 sports-racer formerly campaigned by Jim Palmer, and rebuilt it He had considerable success in this car, and in 1962 decided to seek a career in motorracing in Britain.
Ganley arrived in Britain with just £2O in his pocket, and went to work as a mechanic for a racing school. Promised race drives did not eventuate, and he became dissatisfied. Then M.
Moseley, of the Falcon Shells company, entered him in a Silverstone race, and he did well enough to be asked to join the company full-time. He started building a GT car for the company and in 1963 raced a light-weight version of the car in several events, with some success. The Falcon company gave up racing, and Ganley had a brief period with the team of G. Henrotte, driving a Formula Junior Gemini, again with moderate success. After yet another brief and not very productive few months with another sponsor, he started work for the Fulham County Council to earn some money—then the Bruce McLaren organisation offered him a job in its workshops. Ganley spent two years with McLaren’s, helping build the prototype McLaren sports-racing car and working in California on Ford V 8 engines destined for the early McLaren Formula I cars.
In 1966 he went to work for the Lola team, spending his spare time working on a Brabham he was building for himself. Then he was asked to crew for an American driver in the Can-Am series, and earned enough money from the venture to buy himself a new Brabham BT2I.
Ganley first raced this car in 1967, at Oulton Park, and came fourteenth. He gained several placings in his next few months of racing, and in 1968, after his car had
been rebuilt, he really started to come to the fore.
In 1969, with several good placings behind him, he bought a Chevron Formula 111 car. With this he set lap records and made his mark as one of the best Formula 111 drivers in Europe. This year Ganley gained a sponsor, Mr B. Newman, and a Formula 5000 McLaren MIOB, which is receiving works support. In
this car he has usually been among the first to finish in championship F5OOO events, although he has so far been unable to beat last year’s champion, Gethin. Ganley has, however, equalled Getbin’s fastest laps. Some British motor-sport publications have predicted that Howden Ganley will, in the years ahead, become yet another successful New Zealand driver in Formula I events.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Issue 32333, 26 June 1970, Page 16
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568HOWDEN GANLEY Another N.Z. Racing Star? Press, Issue 32333, 26 June 1970, Page 16
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