44 > NZ HOT ROD SEPTEMBER 2019

M

Photos by Alastair Ritchie

M ANDY Pearce is one passionate

enthusiast and has taken that

passion to the limit in her quest

for fun. Her story is best told in

her own words so here goes:

I have always had an interest in

nostalgic hot rods and drag cars. The

first memory I have of the drags is

when I was about five-years-old going

to visit my Uncle Jim Oppelt who

raced an Altered named Dam Yankee

in partnership with Kevin Dolores and

can still remember this quite clearly.

Drag racing was big part of our lives

and Dave and I crewed for our brother

in law Jeffrey Cunningham who had a

A40 Pickup, which we enjoyed helping

out on. Many years later and many Pops

later I got to race my 289-powered

Ford Pop at the ladies day drags: it

was a great day and I so much fun.

After being away from the scene

for awhile to do family stuff, I was

lucky enough to get my own drag car.

I just happened to be scrolling on

Trade Me when I noticed Stu Clifton’s

Alamo Racing Team Ford Pop was

listed for sale. I made a quick phone

call to Stu to organise viewing it and

to be honest I couldn’t get up there

fast enough. The Pop had been sitting

unraced for many years but it didn’t

take much to get me hooked. Stu had

me as soon as he fired it...up SOLD!

Two weeks later we picked it up and

once we got it home we worked out

what we would like to do with it. We

wanted to keep the running gear all

the same with just some maintenance

on motor and brakes, but it needed

some cosmetic changes. We decided to

strip it to bare metal, panel and paint

etc. Lucky Dave is an ex car painter