Media release: 4th
March 2008
New Zealand Mini
Challenge 2007-8
Round 6
Teretonga Park -
Invercargill
Melhop Returns To His Roots
Brent Melhop may live in Wellington
these days but he knows and will never forget where his life in this
world began and will forever more hold Invercargill dear to his heart.
The fourty six year old NZ Mini Challenge driver is from the well known
Melhop family who were a stable if not iconic identity in the Southern
city through the 50s, 60s and 70s. He returns there this weekend as a
driver in the New Zealand Mini Challenge, a top level motor racing
series competing on the major circuits of the country.
His grand father Harold Eugene Melhop started an exceptionally
successful engineering company named H E Melhop Ltd which was well
known as the first importer of Datsun car into New Zealand.
"In it's heyday H E Melhop Ltd sold more Datsuns than any other company
in New Zealand. Over their time they had the dealership for Daimler and
Jaguar and all sorts of other items. They became a very successful
engineering plant which became a very good engine reconditioning
plant." says Brent Melhop. "So you can see that cars are in our blood
and it has carried on in me."
And if that was not enough for a claim to fame how about the
enterprising notion of the Melhop brothers taking potential
customers up to the Shotover River in Queenstown in order to show them
the capabilities of the Hamilton Jet which they had decided to market.
"The four Melhop boys (my father and uncles) ran the business after
their father passed away and one of my uncles figured out that the best
way to sell Hamilton Jets was to take the clients to the rivers. They
decided that if they could get prospective clients up the Shotover
River that by the time they had brought them back down they would be
guaranteed a sale!" he says.
After the success of this scheme the brothers soon realised that there
was yet another opportunity for a successful venture and hence the
"Shotover Jet" was created which to this day is an internationally
renowned tourist attraction. The business was started in 1960 and was
at that time called the Kawerau Jet Service.
Apparently the harbourmaster at the time granted the Melhops a 99 year
lease on the river effectively allowing only one boat to operate on the
river. Brent Melhop believes it was this deal which made the enterprise
the worldwide household name that it is today but cannot guarantee the
accuracy of the original agreement.
The Melhop family do not own the enterprise anymore after selling it to
set up a charitable trust and purchasing a camp site in Queenstown
which is still used to this day.
If you go to the Shotover Jet now and check out the walls there you
will see mention of the Melhops and how they were the founders of the
famous enterprise. The brothers were also well known for being
the first people to negotiate the Kawerau Falls dam in a jetboat.
The four brothers were Ray, Alan, Graham (Brent Melhop's father) and
Harold who all passed away in their seventies.
As for Brent Melhop himself, he was born in Invercargill and sent to
boarding school in Christchurch at 13 years old. He has since moved to
Wellington where he has lived for 18 years. He part owns Wilford
Motorsport Ltd, a company who has supported up and coming drivers from
the region including a younger Andrew Fawcett who is a past NZV8
champion and presently a young karting champion named Karl Wilson who
has driven the mini on two occasions this season.
Melhop along with friend Marty Hunt purchased last season's
championship winning
Mini Cooper S from driver Eddie Bell for their campaign in the NZ Mini
Challenge. The series is part of Motorsport New Zealand's Tier One
circus and travels the country with the NZV8s, Formula Fords, Formula
Toyota, Production Racing and the Porsche GT3s.
Tier One attracts the country's best drivers along with international
drivers from Australia and Europe and the Mini Challenge has well known
drivers Brent Collins, Rhys McKay and Gavin Dawson competing for the
championship.
The Moneyworks Mini Cooper S is share-driven between five racers who
take turns at their chosen rounds. Brent Melhop last appeared at the
Ruapuna round in Christchurch last November and quickly jumped at the
chance to drive the final round of the series at the world famous
Teretonga Park. The chance to drive at his family's hometown of
Invercargill was far too good for him to pass up.
"For me this is a return home and to race in Invercargill is one of
those boxes that I want to tick. I spent from 13 years old in
Christchurch but this is still my family's home town and very important
to me. I still have family here of course and anybody in their 60s and
older will be sure to know the Melhops." he says. "Anybody who
remembers when "Hotlips Houlihan" from MASH went to Invercargill in the
seventies would perhaps remember that it was my uncle who
showed her around the area."
"There is also a legend that there was a 'Melhop Cup' that was won by
Bruce McLaren at Teretonga. Unfortunately I haven't been able to locate
it yet although I have been trying for the last three years. It seems
to have
disappeared and nobody seems to be able to find it but there has been
mention of it." he says.
Brent Melhop and the entire Tier One Summer Series will be at Teretonga
Park from this Friday the 7th of March until Sunday the 9th. Practice
Friday, qualifying and
racing on Saturday with racing all day Sunday.
|
|
