Heritage Saloon Cars NZ

Racing is one thing with Gilligans Tours Heritage Saloon Cars NZ but the social side is the glue to this group.

Another great BBQ lunch to get everyone together and then our ping pong draw for points and some spot prizes given out.

A big thanks to all our sponsors who donated prizes at this round and to Tricky Angel Nick Kacouris for all the chocolate fish.

It was great to see some many people stick around after racing and have a drink and laugh to conclude another great day.

What a fantastic day it turned out to be for round 1 of Gilligans Tours Heritage Saloon Cars NZ at Manfeild today.

Our first 4 rounds of the season we combine with the Manawatu Car Club classic class.

A combined grid of 17 cars for qualifying of which 13 cars / members were from Heritage Saloons, what a great turn out.

A few mechanical issues and a bit of lawnmowing by Ray Hartley otherwise all cars are unscrapped and be ready for round two next month.

Sponsor Appreciation

We welcome Gilligans Tours (Sam Murray) back for a second season as naming rights sponsor of Heritage Saloon Cars NZ.

Sam runs exceptional Tours around the USA and NZ. Specialising in genuine Route 66 Tours and Motorsport Tours.

Sam was present last month to award Nick Kacouris his prize from last season which was a self drive Route 66 Tour valued at $10,000.00 nzd

We can now announce as part of this seasons sponsorship package Gilligans Tours is providing a NASCAR trip to the USA where you'll get to support in person our very own SVG 🏆🏁

The grid is building for round 1 of Gilligans Tours Heritage Saloon Cars NZ for rd1 of the Manawatu Car Club winter series.

Heritage Saloon Cars have cars from nearly every continent (Antarctica doesn't count). Northern and Southern hemisphere built cars. V8 muscle cars from Aussie and USA, Australian and Sweedish taxis, European cars galore, some nippy little escorts and even a couple Japanese examples as well.

Here's just a taste of some of the cars entered for Sunday.

How many female racers are we going see on track this season with Gilligans Tours Heritage Saloon Cars NZ???

Tammie Boyden is entered for round 1. Will we see Louise Wall get the keys from Chris Wall for the rx3 this season????

Who else might we see this season?

Get those entries in now, not many more days till Rd1 and the 1st round on the Manawatu Car Club winter series.

One week till the start of season two of Gilligans Tours Heritage Saloon Cars NZ at mighty Manfeild on Sunday 7th June for the first round of the Manawatu Car Club winter series and the entries are rolling in with a couple of drivers back in different machinary.

Firstly MikeandNic James is back in the trusty HQ after a season in the 05 Holden.

Nick Kacouris after debuting the mustang at the last round will back in the trusty Laser as he goes for double duties through the first 4 rounds of the season.

The biggest question at this stage is what cars are Team Lucas Darryl Lucas & Brendan Lucas driving - you'll all have to wait and see Sunday.

Although we belong to Gilligans Tours Heritage Saloon Cars NZ to go motor racing with like minded members we put a large importance in the social side and the camaraderie so it was fantastic to see almost 40 members and crew from all over the country come to our first annual prize giving on Saturday evening.

Season Superstars @ Prize Giving

Everyone who is part of Gilligans Tours Heritage Saloon Cars NZ is a superstar but some special awards were presented on Saturday night to cap off the season

Our first award was the Volvo Pete Memorial Trophy.

Pete was a very well known compeitor in the Manawatu and Manawatu Car Club who lost his health battle just prior to Christmas 2025.

It was fantastic to have Ollie (Pete's son) there on the evening to present the inaugural winner and Pete's good mate Kolin Yannakis with this prestigious award.

Although we dont race for points when we tallied them all up it was good to acknowledge 2nd and 3rd place getters who pulled the 2nd and 3rd highest ping pong points over the season.

2nd place - Layton Hammond
3rd place - Brendan Lucas

The highest points collected from a competitor who didn't compete at all 8 rounds was presented the typical chocolate fish to Ray Hartley.

The Gardners Club was awarded the the driver who either went off track the most over the season or the most spectacular off course excursion.

The award was fitting and presented to Mike de Malmanche.

The Gold Card Racer award is presented to the highest over 66 gold card holder who competed over 50% of the season and showed progress over the season.

Due to the age of some members this was a very hard fought trophy to win.

Well done to Ian Humphrey being the inaugural winner.

The Most Damage Award as it states goes to the competitor/s who have had the most damage / incidents over the season.

This trophy ended up being jointly won
by Darryl Lucas & Brendan Lucas (Team Lucas).

Over the season the two of them manage to use 5 cars through the season but also manage to brake trailers and loose wheels off tow vehicles during the season.

The Heritage Saloon Cars NZ Racers Cup was donated by Gary Rountree of Manawatu Pothole Maintenance to be presented to the most enthusiastic member of the season.

Thank you to Gary for donating the trophy and being able to present it to Tom Delhaunty.

The Team Spirit Award

This trophy was easy to decide on the winner.

It's a team effort with these boys. They didn't miss a round all season. If one brother isn't able to attend the meeting whether it be the driver or crew chief then the other doesn't enter.

Unfortunately neither were able to be present on the evening but the trophy goes to James Bros Racing Stevie James & MikeandNic James.

Crew Chief of the year

This award shows the dedication by this crew member. None of us can recall a time they haven't been beside their driver.

It was a privilege to provide Layton Hammonds #1 team member Bev Andrews crew Chief of the year.

The overal winner of the season was won by Nick Kacouris and we were lucky to have Sam Murray of Gilligans Tours present to be able to present the prize / award on the night.

We can't run a successful series like Heritage Saloon Cars NZ has without the help and assistance of sponsors and supportes.

We can't thank each and everyone of them enough, but at prize giving we were able to give some of our sponsors a framed print and little gift to help thank them in some way.

Gilligans Tours has been our naming rights sponsor all season and provided a prize package of a 20+ day self drive route 66 tour in USA valued at over $10,000.00nzd. Thank you Sam Murray.

Manawatu Pothole Maintenance has been a category sponsor since day one. Thank you Gary Rountree.

Likewise Supreme Blast and Paint has also been a category sponsor since day one. Thank you Darryl Lucas.

Mike James Plumbing saw the value to become a category sponsor after competing at a few events. Thank you MikeandNic James.

We would also like to thank some of our spot prize supporters who were also supplied framed prints. Thank you TWL & Central Auto Parts.

If you can see the benefit to you or your company to become a category or spot prize sponsor for our next season, we'd love to here from you.

As we continue on with more photos from prize giving on Saturday night for Gilligans Tours Heritage Saloon Cars NZ we congratulate our competitors who competed all 8 rounds of the season. These 8 competitors completed the full season which equated to approximately 1000km of combined practice, qualifying and race laps over the season. These competitors were presented with a framed picture from the season taken by Jarod Carruthers Photography.