23-7 - 93 Ron Rutherford moves to the Gold Coast By John Hawkins WELL-KNOWN city motoring identity, Ron Rutherford, recently left Christchurch to make There were not many areas of motoring or motorsport Patis permanent home on Australia's Gold Coast. activity in Canterbury that remained untouched by his presence, and his career included time as a successful driver, administrator and businessman in the motor trade. Rutherford's racing career began in 1952, when he took part in a sprint at McCormacks Bay in a Ford Popular. He had been working alongside a well-known racing driver of the time, Frank Shuter, at Hutchinson Motors, which triggered his interest in racing. Rutherford progressed to a Ford 10 engine midget, which he raced at Aranui Speedway and at beach races, but this soon made way for a car with which he is still most associated to this day. This car was an R.A. special, which had been built in Christchurch for Pat Hoare by the famous Hec Green stable. Initially fitted with a supercharged Vauxhall engine, the car was raced at such places as Lake Bryndwyr and Birdlings Flat. The engine proved over-stressed and unreliable, however, so it was replaced by a Ford Zephyr unit, which utilised a special Raymond Mays cylinder head obtained from England. In this guise, the car was raced as the 260M Zephyr. An attractive single seater, the car brought Rutherford considerable success and was continually developed over a period of around 10 years so that, in the end, all that remained from the original car was the tubular chassis. His next car was a Lotus 23B sportscar, which he bought from Frank Williams in England, who is now famous as boss of the Formula One team. The car proved to have peculiar handling characteristics and Rutherford sought the advice of works Lotus driver Jim Clark on one of his New Zealand forays. Clark was not able to assist other than to tell him that all the 23Bs handled like that. The Lotus connection continued with a Lotus Cortina, which was owned by Ran McDonald Rutherford worked on the car in return for a shared drive, but when the car rolled heavily at Wigram in McDonald's hands, he bought what was left of it and transferred the mechanicals into an A40 Farina Ron Rutherford in the fameus 260M Zephyr. bodyshell. It was with this car that he held the saloo lap record at Ruapuna for several years. After a spell away from rac E49 Chrysler Charger, which what he now regards as his gr was at the Wigram meeting il Australian ace Alan Moffat combat the dominant Charg series. Moffat qualified al cing, he returned with an was to provide him with reatest race. The occasion in 1972. Ford brought out • in a GTHO Falcon to gers in the Castrol GTX longside Leo Leonard's Charger at the front of the grid, with Rutherford just behind. In the race Rutherford took up second place behind Leonard, under pressure from Moffat. By observing Leonard he found that the Timaru driver was braking over the bump at the loop, which caused a tyre to burst eventually. Rutherford preserved his tyres by braking, lifting for the bump, then braking again, and won the race from Moffat. He eventually finished second in the GTX series to Leonard. Other cars followed, but his competition career included a time spent rallying a Holden Monaro and then a Ford Escort. His business interests at his service station/garage in Yaldhurst Road, and then Kelford Kams, which he established with Norm Kelly, began to take priority. In 1975, after being unable to reach agreement with the Christchurch Speedway Association over the use of Ruapuna, he and Errol Inwood built up Woodford Glen from scratch. The pair also promoted races at Ruapuna Raceway and the Masport Cup boat races for a number of years. Woodford Glen nearly proved a disaster for Rutherford and Inwood, as an error by the consulting engineers resulted in the track's straights being laid out too long. The resulting extra costs in materials, lighting, barriers, fencing and sundries boosted the cost of the speedway from an estimated cost of $70,000 to an eventual $150,000. The most successful meeting promoted by the pair, under the name of Auto Promotions Limited, matched a Ferrari and a Lamborghini at Ruapuna in 1974 and drew a tremendous crowd. Other administrative duties have included time spent as a Motorsport Association steward and track inspector. Rutherford is, and will remain, a driving force behind the yearly Lady Wigram Trophy meeting and is a past president of the organising Motor Racing Club. while working at Hutchinson Motors, kutneriora set up his own workshop in Barbadoes Street and aiso worked for a time in the Bealey Avenue service station. This led to an introduction to Cran Hearn and Jim Benyon of Atlantic Oil. After building a garage on a site in Yaidhurst Road, pumps were eventually allowed to flow and a car yard ws set up alongside. In partnership with his son, Mark, who also achieved considerable racing success, he set up another car yard in Manchester Street, which Mark will continue to run. In 1989 Rutherford set up Kelford Kams (Australia) in Nerang, Queensland, and recently has spent much of his time there. The sale of Kelford Kams in Christchurch to Grant Hart has enabled him to move to Australia, where he will retain his motorsport interest by driving a Commodore turbo in club events at Lakeside. He has not entirely severed his links with Christchurch, however. He remains a technical adviser to Kelford Kams here and will continue to help with the Wigram meeting.