Neil’s introduction to Waiwakaiho speedway when the Go-karts were invited to go along and do Kart racing demonstrations during the interval. “Well I only knew one way to drive and that’s flat out so after the “demo” the officials came over and said I had to slow down and stay with the others and make it look like a race!” “I will always remember that introduction”

In about 1969 when Stratford Speedway got going he teamed up with Henry Plowright and built a 100E Ford saloon car. A number of different saloon cars followed in which he did quite well. One season he left Stratford, much to their disgust, and raced regularly at Hamilton Forrest Lake Stadium in a 105E Anglia. His next car was an ex-Max Pennington Twin Cam Escort.

When Modifieds started at Stratford he built an “Edmonds” style car with tube chassis, and torsion bar suspension, and the following year, another car was built, with improved suspension, new body style, and powered with a 377 cubic inch Chev. This car he used to win the NZ championship at Twizel, in 1984, followed by the South Island champs in Blenheim, and the North Island champs in the same year.

By 1987 sprint cars were starting to get a hold, and there was strong interest from local competitors. So Neil and John Rae made a trip to the States and returned with a couple of containers of sprint cars and parts. Neil ended up with an ex. Jeff Gordon sprint car from 1988.

This was the first of the high-bar Gambler cars. So this local group ended up with a team of good competitive cars and raced at Western Springs. Each Xmas they would do a tour around various tracks with the Auckland Sprint Cars, and ran a series of races, which proved to be very popular with competitors and fans alike. Included was some racing at the ½ mile trotting track at Kumu run by Barry Butterworth and his Circle Track Racing group.

Neil continued racing Saloons at Stratford in the early 1990’s with a Corvette, and retiring from racing in 1992. Neil is one of only a few competitors who in the NZ Speedway Championships, has placed in the top three, in three different classes, Super Saloons, Modified and Sprintcars.

Neil has since restored a couple of Historic Midgets and also a Sprintcar #61, which he has enjoyed running at various tracks.

In 2014 Neil built a track on his property and this has been used over the years with Historic runs for our members enjoying a great day out on this eighth mile track.

   In 2023, Neil was awarded Life Membership to the Taranaki Historic Speedway Association.