The driver of the 1971 Dodge Challenger contacted us. This car was one of only 7 remaining that we didn’t have pictures for.
30 September 2017
Hi,
I entered car 43 the 1971 Dodge Challenger, my co driver was motoring journalist and driver Peter McKay.
I imported one of 200 new hemi 426 cu inch motors for the event and the car only ran on 7 cylinders until the day of the accident when it was ready to run on the full 8 cylinders due to bent valves etc. It turned third fastest time the day before,missing out by 1kmh on equal 2nd due to the lack of a full 8 cylinders, it was very fast and was capable of beating the F40 in my opinion, the other cars were no contest.
I was equal third and flagged off by Marshall Peron on the accident day, just behind Kahlbetzer’s Porsche (with significant damage to its rear wheel arch) and I had a Tarago following me with my 3 sons and wife, they have at least 12 hours of video footage. I was also up very early that morning and joined Pritchard and Linklater for breakfast, as we were the only ones in the dining room, I explained to them that I was a competitor. I withdrew my car despite it being fully repaired as my family came upon the accident just after I and Peter McKay had, minutes after it happened. This is all on the video from the Tarago.
I bought and built the car purposefully to win the race, I spared no expense. The video is VHS and was taken from the Toyota Tarago which my family flew up and hired. Kevin Kent and his mate were there in another service car wagon.When the accident happened, we decided to pull out as it was badly organised and confusing plus dangerous. We had cars passing us at high speed who were flat strap and then had to get back behind us as they would have arrived in front of us and been penalised. We had a high tech Halda and were fully aware of our position. We always started the Flying Mile at 60kmh fearing disqualification, this requirement was never policed and some cars kicked off at 100kmh plus, not fair. The fresh unswept gravel on the apron to pull over on was a major contributor to the accident combined with the F40 not having adjusted its trip meter for its new high gearing and also as Alan Moffat said”Ferrari owners are not necessarily Ferrari drivers” at a Top 10 function prior to the crash. I still have footage of Marshall Perron flagging us off, the F40 first, Kahlebetzer’s Ruff Porsche next(1kmh per hour faster than our day before 7 cylinder speed, then the equal placed with us Taylor’s Wines Porsche and us, McKay wrote a column on it about a year later which I will forward.
He was in a car I entered in the 1979 Repco Trial with Ross Dunkerton, 12 cars finished out of over 200, mine came fourth outright after the 3 commodores (Holden Dealer Team) and George Shepheard, who managed the HDT team was then given my Dodge to prepare for the top speed runs in the Cannonball flying miles, where we felt we could excell.
Also, I attach a picture of the Cannonball plate no 43 (Richard Pettys NASCAR number) in my wine cellar and to the left about a half metre away is the Cannonball plaque for competitors.
Regards,
Nigel
Can’t wait for the video Nigel.
Here is a link we found to the Peter McKay wrap up of the event from car 43 perspective:
http://www.motorweb.ws/1996/01/purple-blaze-recalling-1994-cannonball.html
