Fast Family – Sinclair, Urqhart, Butcher – 63

Five members of an extended family racing in one competitive class makes for serious rivalry – and some damn good fun!
A driver being supported by his or her family is a common sight at race meetings. The partner and kids in the pit area between races or sitting in the grandstand while the drivers are out strutting their stuff on the track. But a much less common sight is when several members of a family all go racing together, in their own cars, in the same class.
Back in 2004, just prior to what would be the second season of Central Muscle Cars, I got an email from Andrew Sinclair. Andrew and his brother-in-law Paul Urquhart wanted to come and do a bit of racing with CMC. They’d both been involved with the Production Muscle Car series, based in Pukekohe, but wanted to race on a few different tracks south of the Bombays.
Andrew was racing a VK Commodore at the time, painted to look like the 1986 Mobil car of Peter Brock, while Urquhart had a green XE Falcon, which carried a colour scheme replicating Dick Johnson’s infamous Bathurst livery of 1983, which blasted its way through the scenery in that year’s Top Ten Shootout.
Both Andrew’s and Paul’s cars fitted the CMC Group 2 regulations, and the 2004/’05 CMC Group 2 championship turned into a battle between these two, with Paul eventually coming out on top.
The following season Mandy Sinclair — Andrew’s wife and Paul Urquhart’s younger sister — joined CMC in a Group 2 Commodore. Also joining the CMC ranks that same year was Paul Sinclair, Andrew’s younger brother, in yet another Commodore.
Then to complete the set, Justin Butcher — husband to Kelley Sinclair, Andrew and Paul’s younger sister — arrived in the CMC paddock for the 2006/’07 season with Paul Urquhart’s XE Falcon, when Paul decided to build a new XA Falcon hardtop.
It reached the point where the extended Sinclair/Urquhart/Butcher family often made up a good portion of the grid at CMC events, with up to five cars competing between them.
But it wasn’t just on-track where they assisted the growth of CMC. Behind the scenes they helped establish CMC as the high-profile category it is today. They stepped in as an associate sponsor to GDM Group in the early years, through the Sinclairs’ family business, Wilco Pre-cast, and along with Paul Urquhart, Dave Sturrock and Greg Clarke did all the work organising the Kiwi Invasion trip to Australia in 2007, then again in 2009. They were also instrumental in getting Aussie hard-charger Paul Stubber out to New Zealand in 2008, then again this last season. Except for CMC founder Steve Hildred, the extended family has probably contributed more to the group than anyone.
As with any family there are rivalries, and in the case of this lot, it’s all about branding. Andrew and Paul Sinclair come from a long line of GM supporters, while the Urquharts, Paul and Mandy, are cemented firmly in the Ford camp. Mandy races a Commodore, but would gladly switch brands, and I was there at Taupo the day Paul Sinclair suggested to brother Andrew he planned to sell his Commodore and buy a Mustang. The look of total disappointment on Andrew’s face said it all.
The two families met through offshore powerboat racing. Peter Urquhart (Mandy and Paul’s father) and brother Glen ran some hell-scary race boats back in the ’60s, including Miss Coventry, a fire-breathing 7.0-litre Galaxie-powered monster. Glen even went on to win a world offshore title. Andrew and Paul Sinclair’s father Keith raced circuit boats a few years prior, and also offshore.
The brothers followed in their father’s footsteps, both taking up powerboat racing, and Mandy’s and Andrew’s paths crossed officially for the first time when Mandy’s brother Paul and cousin Michael borrowed and raced Andrew’s offshore boat. Mandy, despite being a highly intelligent person, took a liking to Andrew, and the pair eventually married.

Andrew Sinclair

Andrew Sinclair arrived on the CMC scene with a Group 2 Commodore. This car helped him win the Group 2 championship in 2006, before he debuted his new silver Group 1 machine, built by Mike Anderson at Sonic Race & Machine. The car was featured in NZV8 issue 36.
The new car was not without its gremlins early on, and Andrew had to revert to ‘old faithful’, his Group 2 car, when the engine in the silver bullet spat the dummy early in the 2006/’07 season. But an off-season rebuild saw the car return in full force in September 2007 in Australia, where Andrew was in the top four all weekend. His 2007/’08 campaign got off to a slow start, as he and Mandy missed the first round of the season to take in the (ill-fated) Rugby World Cup, but he quickly set about making up ground on his return.
He took round wins twice in the season, and finished fourth on points in Group 1. But he was carrying plenty of momentum heading into the 2008/’09 season, and was leading the points with two rounds remaining when he lost control of the car at Pukekohe’s daunting turn one, clipped a dirt mound on the outside of the track, and end-over-ended the once pristine Commodore into a metal ball.
Since then Andrew has taken on the role of administrator at CMC rounds, a thankless job, but one which has to be done for the class to function. The Commodore is slowly being rebuilt, but will likely have a small block Chevy fitted in place of the temperamental Holden donk, so Andrew can do some endurance racing.

Paul Urquhart

Paul’s driving style appeared already set in stone when he arrived on the CMC scene in his green Falcon. He’d never done any speedway racing, but his sideways driving style suggested otherwise. The XE Falcon was a car he’d purchased already built from Clive Shewiery, and it ran hard. Paul ended the 2004/’05 season, his first with CMC, as Group 2 champion. He followed that up the next season by claiming runner-up spot behind Andrew Sinclair.
Paul sold the Falcon to Justin Butcher, and began building a new XA Falcon hardtop, which debuted at the 2007 Australian Muscle Car Masters. The magnificent Falcon was built as a replica of Allan Moffat’s 1973 Ford works machine, which won Bathurst that year and no longer exists.
Paul may have done an amazing job with his Moffat replica, and Aussie soil seemed the most appropriate place for the car to debut, but the weekend was a miserable one for Paul and his crew. Over the course of the weekend the Falcon suffered clutch failure, a broken bellhousing, and a broken driveshaft that punched a hole in the floor, knocked off the fire extinguisher, burned out all the dash switches and broke the gearbox in half. Finally, the oil-pump drive snapped. Paul got in just one race.
However, his season came good after the Aussie nightmare, and despite being moved up into Group 1 due to a rule change that deemed his new rear wheels too wide for Group 2, the big Falcon ran hard all season. The 2009 season was even better. With new narrower rear wheels to fit the Group 2 maximum, Paul finished the season second behind the flying Bruce Kett Commodore, topping the points at two rounds.

Justin Butcher

Justin is the most recent of the Sinclair/ Urquhart/Butcher clan to go motor racing. He purchased the very quick and well-developed XE Falcon off Paul Urquhart, and hit the ground running in his debut season, 2006/’07. In fact, such a natural talent was he behind the wheel that Justin almost beat Billy Dunn’s ’68 Camaro to the Group 2 championship in his first season. After six rounds, and with one remaining, he led the Group 2 championship by one point, and had won three rounds. The battle between he and Billy went down to the wire, with the Camaro driver just scraping through, winning the title by two points.
The much anticipated rematch in 2007/’08 never eventuated; Justin suffered a series of mechanical problems stemming from a new, more powerful engine, and he wound up back in eighth, while Billy skipped away to a second consecutive title.
Despite getting his 2008/’09 campaign off to a storming start, Justin parked the Falcon after the first two rounds and took the rest of the season off. When he returned, he did so with the exciting Northern Muscle Car series, and went on to win this last season against some tough opposition.

Mandy Sinclair

Mandy Sinclair began racing the same year as brother-in-law Paul Sinclair. Mandy runs a VK Commodore in Group 2, which she purchased from Bruce Miller. Her approach to racing was somewhat less alarming than Paul’s. She’d take her time to learn each track, then progressively build up speed as her confidence and familiarity with car and circuit grew. She generously loaned her car to husband Andrew at the Ruapuna round of the CMC series back in 2005/’06 when his own car failed, and he was able to win the Group 2 Championship as a result.
Mandy gave the Commodore a make-over prior to the 2007 Muscle Car Masters, when it was stickered in a replica colour scheme of the Alan Grice/Graeme Bailey Chickadee Commodore that famously won Bathurst in 1986. The new colour scheme proved a huge hit with the Aussies, and Mandy took out the Group 2 points at Eastern Creek. She followed up Australia with an impressive 2007/’08 season in which she finished third in the Group 2 championship, winning two rounds. She took a year out the following season before returning in 2009 at the Muscle Car Masters, though she probably wishes she hadn’t, as she was one of the victims of the big race two pile-up which destroyed her car, along with Shane Johnson’s Mustang and Bruce Kett’s brand new ’68 Camaro.
However, thanks to some unbelievable generosity from Moselle Panel & Paint, which repaired the Commodore free of charge, Mandy was back in action for round one of the 2010 CMC season. Despite the car suffering a hangover from its Eastern Creek shunt, which caused some reliability issues during the season, she rounded out 2009/’10 third in Group 2 points.

Paul Sinclair

Paul Sinclair arrived on the scene in 2005. Like brother Andrew, he came from an offshore powerboat racing background, and appeared completely fearless. His ride was a VK Commodore. The Holden had a bit of history to it, being built by Bruce Robb as a back-up for the late Ashley Stitchbury’s main steed in the NZV8 Touring Car championship (or TraNZam Lites, as it was known at the time).
The pristine blue Commodore ran in CMC Group 1, although Paul also did double-duty in the Northern Muscle Car series. His no-holds-barred approach to car racing saw the Commodore take to the scenery on several occasions, but behind the assassin-style driving, this former boat racer possessed some talent. Paul was one of the leading runners throughout the 2006/’07 season, and proved a real contender at the 2007 Australian Muscle Car Masters, where he was really only outpaced by brother Andrew, and Richard Gatward’s flying Mustang.
Back home, Paul became the driver to beat at many rounds throughout the 2007/’08 season, but the Holden’s Achilles heel was its stock engine block, which would crack with alarming regularity. With Mike Anderson at Sonic Race & Machine fettling the Commodore, Paul won the 2008/’09 Northern Muscle Car Championship, taking a season away from CMC. He returned to Central this last season, and was one of only a handful of drivers capable of taking it to the Paul Stubber steamroller that won the championship in 2010.
Where to now?
These folks all know how to have fun on and off the track. Their big red transporter has provided the backdrop to many a hard night on the turps at races over the years, with many a hangover the next morning. Sadly this season will see less of the Sinclair/Urquhart/Butcher show at CMC events.
Paul Sinclair has his Commodore for sale, as does Mandy, while Justin looks likely to run another season with Northern Muscle Cars, where he’s enjoying his racing.
There are future racing plans in store, but for now, more time will be spent with family.
These racers couldn’t have done it without the backing of their sponsors, so thanks go to Reid Construction Systems, Reoco Reinforcing, Machinery Movers, Bridgeman Concrete, The Bog Irish bar, Albany Timber, and Coventry Motors.
Central Muscle Cars has been fortunate to have had the family in its camp for the last seven years. Most classes would kill for this kind of support.