By John Hawk packed into his motorsport career is enough to make the average person tired. Race driver, rally driver, businessman with interests associated with motorsport, and co founder of Woodford Gien. All his achievements will ensure the name Ron Rutherford remains 1-02 etched as part of local motorport folkiore. Rons interest in motorsport was kindled by Frank Shuter wi worked as an app Hutchinsor Motors He many Jarrel, bur mov which he competed w the tim • Vauxhall was tor sale a ar yard. With encourag rather and Frank sed the car. He keen, but eventually around. The supercharged Vauxhall 12 motor was unreliable, so working with Fords at the time, he replaced it with a Zephyr engine. This car was modified and developed over a number of years to become the 260M Zephyr. The 260 part of the designation came from the 2.6 fitres, while the M stood for Mays after the Raymond Mays head which Ron purchased. This alloy head had six ports, and provided a huge increase in horsepower, firstly through twin SU carbs and later triple SU carbs. Manifolds were especially cast. In the final phase of that car's development a Mk 3 Zephyr engine was installed, and the SU carbs replaced with Webers. 1 its final development only the hassis rails from the original car dy shape modified to look like a DF Maserati. For the most part. car used a MG gearbox, which describes as lovely to use. iberfor the circuit on the and the end of the day, ime was running short to get back to the ferry was stopped twice on the way friepdly traffic cons. who both e 260M was soid and R Ived building a Lot with Ran McDonald. It wa then to import parts so t ak and rods to take th 10 Come the United States with friendly serviceman. R were to share the car, but at Pukekohe the flywheel bolts came loose. At Levin Ron was delighted to take two seconds of Paul Fahey's Ran rolled the car at Bombay bend at Wigram in practice, virtually totaling the car. He decided to give the sport away. Ron purchased the bits and built up a Cortina GT from a two door shell. An A40 Farina race car was built up with the 1800cc twin cam engine laying slightly on its side and dry sumped. The car featured rack and pinion steering and the front disc brakes off a Brabham. It was fast a Ruapuna, but with it's beam axie didn't handle the bumps at Pukekohe well. He then purchased a Lotus 23B sports racer via Bert Hawthorne from a certain Frank Williams in England and fitted it out with the twin car Lotus engine. Ron was disappointed w He tun a man that Jim blark for advice, bu all Jim could tell him was that "the are funny cars to handie." His bes success in the Lotus 23B was beat TALE OTORSPORT CAREER Ron Rutherford as many still remember him with the 260M Zephyr. Photo: Merv Knowles. ing Andy Buchanan's big Elfin in the wet at Teretonga. With his business and family commitments increasing, Ron turned to Production type cars, racing a Mustang, and a Monaro. The carhe remembers best from this era, though, was a E49 Charger, one of six imported into New Zealand by Todd Motors. After finishing third in Auckland and second at Levin, he came to Wigram, where the Chargers faced the threat of the Falcon GTHO raced by Australian Allan Moffat. Ron had noticed the inside wheels of the Chargers became airborne over the bump by the control tower, and on landing it was easy to lock up a wheel and destroy a tyre. in the race, Leo Leonard biew his tyre, while Ron was careful to make sure he brakes after the wheel had landed and went on to win, chased by anothe Charger driven by Rod The following year NE W series, but because of the reg tions the car was not competitiv He tured his hand to railying taking part in a Silver Fern rally with a Monaro. Leading after the sealed stages at Pukekohe, he was going well on shingle, until the car went off the road and became bogged. It was too big to push out! Other rallying outings included with the Ford team, alongside Blair Robson and Mike Marshall in a Heatway Rally. The Escort was going well until and exhaust snapped off. Errol inwood had been alongside him in the Escort and together with Errol Ron went on to start Auto ions. Iney successiully pro moted meetings at Ruapuna Raceway, as well as power boat races for the Masport Cup at New Brighton. The pair then decided that there could be an opening to speedway saloons in Christchurch Ron had had an interest in speed way through his business's spon sorship of Eddie Murray and Royc Clive. Inwood and Rutherford pu the idea of leasing the stadium t the Speedway Association, but th Speedway Association felt ine was hampered by a bad winter. A firm of consulting engineers was empioyed to design the track. Ron and Errol had already tried the surface at Addington Raceway with their ute, and determined this was the type of surface they required. They had originaily allowed a budget of $75,000 for the Gien project, but everywhere it seemed things were taking longer than planned and costing more than budgeted for. Ron remembers driving the marked out track and thinking "God this is fast." It is now a matter of history that the track had been marked out 50 metres too long. It wasn't until Farrier Waimak laid down the base material, which was supposed to be up to 4 inches deep and found it would only stretch to 2 inches that the error was found. The eventual cost stretched to $125,000. It was a worrying time, and court action was taken to recoup some of the money from the consulting engi- neers. When the track opened inwood and Rutherford were relying to a great d to the track with the water truck ake sure conditions w ve years. mon round mar aken at Woodiord Glen w Woodtoro Glen to ti a power of work Looking a: Ruapuna Raceway he was impressed by the work achieved by the club. "it 10ok i, im so glad they planted rees," he said. For five years Ron looked after the track hire at Ruapuna. For the past few years, Ron has been living in Surfers Paradise, but pops back frequently. Sons Mark and Ross are still invoved in racing here. While in Australia, Ran operated a cam business and competed in various motorsport events with a Commodore and a Subaru WRIX. With the cam business sold, he still likes to keep active and runs a small business called "Ronald's Odd Jobs."