Daring driver will race no more

Press, 15 March 1978, Page 18

Daring driver will race no more

By

MURRAY OLDS

“It's hard to talk about 20 years in five minutes on the telephone.” said Peter Annan, and he proved his point 45 minutes later when he arrived complete with four bulging photograph albums and scrapbooks. For inside the ageing covers dwells a comprehensive and voluminous record of the birth and growth of speedway in Christchurch, and in particular the 20-year career of Peter Annan. It is a career that came to an end at Templeton speedway last Saturday week, for Annan has hung up his crash helmet and is emigrating to Australia in May, Annan enjoyed his first racing experience in 1957 when he trundled a threequarter midget around the track in the last season of the Aranui speedway. He was 22. and had been given the chance of a drive by a friend. He fell in love with the sport and resolved to buy his own car. Then came the shift of venue from Aranui to Templeton, and to raise money to develop the necessary facilities the fledgling Christchurch Soeedway Association organised scramble races for cars over the bumpv waste they hoped to transform into a racing circuit. Annan was involved in these early races, and it was not long before he began to make his mark in the just-emerging stockrod class of the sport.

Templeton was the first speedway in New Zealand to hold this type of competition, which was the prototype of the supermodified machines of today.

Official sanction for the new class was granted by the ACU, and it was not long before Annan started winning the first of his string of national and regional championship titles. Throughout this early period, the class of racing that attracted Annan was subject to a continually changing process. The stock rods became Sportsmen, the first single-seater cars to race in New Zealand. The Sportsmen gave way to modified rods, and these cars in turn gave way to the super modiffeds which race at Templeton today. “We would follow Australian trends,” says Annan. “We’d go down and buy the Australian speedway magazines and look through the photographs. If we saw anything we particularly liked we'd go away and build the feature in our own cars.” He competed in his first South Island championships in 1964, and finished third. Annan did not contest the title the next year, but was runner-up for the next four years in a row. In 1968 he won his first national championship title in the modified rod

class, and repeated the performance in the stock

the next year. National titles were won in 1970 and 1971, and Annan .was becoming known as something of a “tough customer” on the speedway circuits around the country- . . He finished second tn the nationals in 1972 and did not contest the inaugural modified championships the following year. But he bounced back into prominence with first placings in the 1974 and 1975 contests. Annan did not race in the 1976 competition, and was beaten the next year by another Templeton stalwart, Harry Pierson. Industrial unrest which brought to a halt the inter-island ferry’ service a few w'eeks ago prevented the Christchurch drivers from getting across to Wellington, but Annan would have been a top

prospect for his seventh national title. Annan’s impressive record in the national championship is enhanced by’ his remarkable string of successes in the South Island championships. Since 1970 he has won the title five times and finished second on three occasions. He has also won the Templeton trophy for the top supermodified driver every year since 1975, and he is so far ahead in the quest for the 1978 title that he cannot be caught. One South Island title that stands out in Annan’s mind is the 1969 dirt track championship, raced that year in Timaru. “We beard about the meeting on the Monday, so we bought a car that night and worked on it throughout the week. After putting a good motor in it — a V 8 Ford — we went down to Timaru and won the title that week-end,” said Annan.

His interest in competition racing has not been confined to supermodified cars. Annan has also raced both speedway bikes and scrambler machines in the course of his 20-year career, which has never been punctuated by injury.

Peter Annan does not see a healthy future for super-modified racing at Templeton, especially in light of the rising costs of racing.

“The cost of running the cars is getting out of hand,” he said. “The drivers are competing for peanuts out at Templeton, and there is no incentive for them to improve their cars at all.”

He considers starting money would be one way of attracting new drivers and keeping the class progressing and moving forward. He also cites Hie attractive sponsorship in the North Island competition as one reason why drivers may consider a shift to the northern tracks.

The changing face of super-modified racing is reflected in the appearance on New Zealand circuits of more sprint cars, a gradual transition that has accompanied the class since its inception nearly a decade ago. Annan does not think the sprinters will take over entirely, but can see a time when there will be more sprinters than super-modifieds.

Peter Annan has no plans at present to break into the Australian speedway scene, “but if I can see an opportunity, I’ll take it.” “I certainly would like to do something along those lines in Sydney, but ’’ll just wait and see how things turn out. The competition is sure to be a lot harder and a lot tougher over there.” One thing is certain — the departure of Peter Annan will leave a large gap in the sport in Christchurch.