John Day Racing push car utes from Western Australia

[alan barton]

Hi guys, I know I am blurring the line here a bit but here goes anyway.  I figured racers would get more out of this post than truckers but if I get bumped into Light Commercial so be it.

For over 50 years now, speedways in Western Australia have been serviced by the John Day and Co Race team.  At any given track or event, up to ten bright orange John Day utes attend to do push starting, race control and recovery duties. The latest vehicle, a late model Falcon ute is Unit number 43 - that is how many John Day utes have graced the dirt since the 1960's.

The cars have always been Australian utes, mostly Holdens but decent numbers of Falcons and a few Valiants along the way.  The cars are always immaculate and often sport current customising tricks of the day such as wings, spoilers and body kits. They are stunning to look at, especially when you see a JD ute pacing the feature race and nine, yes, nine JD utes in three rows of three bringing up the rear for the start.

This is an incredibly professional team who ensure that a race meeting proceeds with a minimum of delays.  When I attended the 50th anniversary of the Knoxville Sprintcar nationals, the only disappointment was the push car team - John Day would have run rings around them in both performance and presentation.  I doubt whether there is a better pushcar team anywhere on the planet!

About twenty five years ago I built the HK Holden ute that was used by John to start all the races. Since the passing of The General, John Day,  a few years ago, and no doubt influenced by OHS laws and lawyers, the starter no longer rides in a ute. The body of the model was a Jaymar fibreglass body. Jaymar was the only source of Aussie bodies back then and due to the brittle nature of the material they are very challenging to build.  A friend obtained a can of touch up paint from the team and I used that to ensure the colour was perfect. I handpainted the complex signwriting on one side only! I modified existing figures to create the general and his driver as well as scratchbuilding his support frame in the bed of the ute.

Fast forward to 2022 and our club was approached to put on a display of speedway models at the local Classic Speedway Showcase.  It was an awesome event and we had 210 plastic scale models of speedway cars from Australia, new Zealand, Canada and USA. When I first approached about our participation, I decided I needed to build more John Day utes.  A local aftermarket manufacturer, Tony Ashton of AAA Resin Models, now produces several Aussie ute bodies so I bought four from him.  Co-incidentally a new member of our club, Jerry, is a retired signwriter and skilled at producing decals - the die was set.

The models are all curbside but with detailed interiors.  They were researched from images on the John Day Racing Facebook page, as well as some photos I had taken over the years.

The fleet now consists of

1962 EK Holden ute

1966 VC Valiant ute

1968 HK Holden ute - The General's pace car

1972 HQ Holden flat bed - Winners parade car Scratchbuilt flatbed.

1978 XC Falcon ute.

The figures on the winners ute including the driver were hand painted by my amazingly talented wife.

The reaction to these cars on our display was overwhelming! A friend had brought along his FJ Holden JD ute slotcar so in some of these photos you will see six orange utes. The models are now featured on the John Day Facebook page and the wife and daughters of the late John day have given me very heart-warming congratulations on the detail and accuracy of the models.  In future I hope to produce another five John Day utes, all different to the existing ones - not that hard when there are 43 to choose from!

A big thank you goes to Tony, Jerry, Neville and my wife Ute (a German name, not the car!) for helping bring this project to fruition and the Day family for their support.

Cheers

Alan

 

 

[cobraman]

They all look great and your pics are way cool !

[Peter Lombardo]

Very interesting subject, very well done, I love the continuous colors on all of the track equipment, clearly a lot of work went into this, excellent job.

 

[1959scudetto]

Very informative story and a nice bunch of utes, Alan - looks great!

[TonyK]

That's a lot of models and a lot of nice work done on them. Thanks for sharing your story and pics.

[Claude Thibodeau]

Hi Alan!

Quite a fleet, let's go racing! Bravo!

CT

[PappyD340]

Very cool!!

[Paul Waymouth]

Great story and some beautiful models

[ChrisR]

LOOKS GREAT!

[alan barton]

Thank you all for your interest.

Just today I acquired four of the five bodies necessary to build the next part of the fleet. The fifth one I hope will be on the Australian market next month.  A local company, DDA, is doing the first ever injected moulded styrene models of Australian cars - model builders have been waiting 70 years for this!   The first two will be an HQ Holden four door sedan and an HZ Holden Panel van.  As a panel van is basically a ute with a roof, I will be able to fabricate one of the most famous of the utes, a customized HZ with extended B pillars.  This was a sharp looking car so it is fortuitous that the model will finally become available.

I think ten will be enough!

Cheers

Alan

[Brockc]

On 11/2/2022 at 8:36 PM, alan barton said:

Thank you all for your interest.

Just today I acquired four of the five bodies necessary to build the next part of the fleet. The fifth one I hope will be on the Australian market next month.  A local company, DDA, is doing the first ever injected moulded styrene models of Australian cars - model builders have been waiting 70 years for this!   The first two will be an HQ Holden four door sedan and an HZ Holden Panel van.  As a panel van is basically a ute with a roof, I will be able to fabricate one of the most famous of the utes, a customized HZ with extended B pillars.  This was a sharp looking car so it is fortuitous that the model will finally become available.

I think ten will be enough!

Cheers

Alan

Mean this one 

plus I do like the hk ute one were they resin bodies cause I have resin bodied hk ute  model but don’t know what chassis to get for it

[alan barton]

On 8/15/2023 at 5:31 AM, Brockc said:

Mean this one 

plus I do like the hk ute one were they resin bodies cause I have resin bodied hk ute  model but don’t know what chassis to get for it

Hi Brock,

No, it wasn't that one but it was very similar in proportion -  the B pillar extensions were not quite as dramatic as the ones on Blowback.' 

The HK ute was an old Jaymar fibreglass body.  There is no nice way to say this - these are incredibly hard to build.  The fibreglass will shatter and crack if you so much as look at it. You cant see it in the photos but the last thing I had to do to the HK was to use five minute epoxy to glue the dashboard in place.  While holding it between my finger and thumb til it set, the bonnet split straight down the middle!  I dont know if any Aussie caster does the HK ute these days but if at all possible get a resin one, not a fibreglass one. I have now built seven Jaymar models and they all caused a massive amount of grief because of the inherent brittleness of fibreglass and the extraordinary amount of clean-up required. Every single one of them split or cracked at some stage of construction and I would not call myself a heavy handed model builder.

For my ute I made a vacformed copy of an original HK promo chassis - a very rare piece.  thepartsbox.com makes a resin chassis and I think this would be your most economical choice.  The chassis out of any AMT 67-68-69 Camaro should work as well.  Alternatively, FullBore Models do a highly detailed 3D printed HT Ute if my memory is correct but it is a lot more expensive - they may sell the chassis unit separately as I have bought their excellent Holden independent front ends off them as stand alone parts.  Hope that helps!

Cheers

Alan

[Brockc]

1 hour ago, alan barton said:

Hi Brock,

No, it wasn't that one but it was very similar in proportion -  the B pillar extensions were not quite as dramatic as the ones on Blowback.' 

The HK ute was an old Jaymar fibreglass body.  There is no nice way to say this - these are incredibly hard to build.  The fibreglass will shatter and crack if you so much as look at it. You cant see it in the photos but the last thing I had to do to the HK was to use five minute epoxy to glue the dashboard in place.  While holding it between my finger and thumb til it set, the bonnet split straight down the middle!  I dont know if any Aussie caster does the HK ute these days but if at all possible get a resin one, not a fibreglass one. I have now built seven Jaymar models and they all caused a massive amount of grief because of the inherent brittleness of fibreglass and the extraordinary amount of clean-up required. Every single one of them split or cracked at some stage of construction and I would not call myself a heavy handed model builder.

For my ute I made a vacformed copy of an original HK promo chassis - a very rare piece.  thepartsbox.com makes a resin chassis and I think this would be your most economical choice.  The chassis out of any AMT 67-68-69 Camaro should work as well.  Alternatively, FullBore Models do a highly detailed 3D printed HT Ute if my memory is correct but it is a lot more expensive - they may sell the chassis unit separately as I have bought their excellent Holden independent front ends off them as stand alone parts.  Hope that helps!

Cheers

Alan

Thank you very much

[Holdon Coupe]

Welshpool I love the  EK Holden ute Nice diorama Alan. I am thinking that you have raced in Rosdale Gippsland, im a local 

Edited August 20, 2023 by Holdon Coupe

[Rattlecan Dan]

Nice job. That looks like you did a tremendous amount of work. And put a lot of effort into your love of the subject.

[Thedragsterdude]

OK, this might be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Gotta love Holdens!

 

[alan barton]

Thank you Zack!  Unfortunately I am a long way off finishing the second five cars - a lot of interruptions to life lately, plus my dear friend Jerry passed away earlier this year so I now have to source a new supplier of decals.  But it will happen!

Cheers

Alan

On 8/20/2023 at 11:50 AM, Holdon Coupe said:

Welshpool I love the  EK Holden ute Nice diorama Alan. I am thinking that you have raced in Rosdale Gippsland, im a local 

Sorry, mate, I have friends in Gippsland but have never raced there - I live in W.A. and forty plus years ago I drove in two mechanic's races - one in Paraburdoo, one in Tom Price in the Pilbara region of WA.  That is my entire speedway racing history!

Cheers

Alan

[Thedragsterdude]

On 10/11/2024 at 8:16 AM, alan barton said:

Thank you Zack!  Unfortunately I am a long way off finishing the second five cars - a lot of interruptions to life lately, plus my dear friend Jerry passed away earlier this year so I now have to source a new supplier of decals.  But it will happen!

Cheers

Sorry he passed, but what kit did you use. resin or plastic 

[alan barton]

The HK Ute was a fibreglass body by Jaymar Models

The XC Falcon, EK Holden, HQ one tonner and VC Valiant  are by Tony Ashton of AAA Resin models but he has retired recently and sold all his stock. You may be able to get some of these bodies (sorry, I am not sure what he has) from Stewie at Dinki-Di Resin Models. This is a small business in Western Australia.

Cheers

Alan

[slusher]

 Beautifly done'