ABOUT OUR TEAM

WINNING IN MOTORSPORT FOR OVER 40 YEARS

INTERNATIONAL MOTOR SPORT GROUP

The IMS story has its genesis in 1960 when Lyall Williamson’s career as a Automotive Mechanic was in its formative stages.

Based in Christchurch at the time, Lyall had the opportunity to work on some amazing cars and drivers at Archibald’s Garage in Christchurch NZ. Such cars as the Mark ll Jaguar taught him so much about the technical side of race car preparation that he and the IMS racing team still draw upon today.

Encouraged by Kiwi motor racing legend Denny Hulme, Lyall started IMS racing and went on to enjoy stellar success both at home, in Australia, Asia, South Africa and the USA.

Today, from its base in Central Auckland, International Motorsport continues to carve out an enviable reputation for quality and competitiveness.

International Performance Classics (IPC).

After decades of custom building high performance classic cars from the ground up, IPC now offers classic car connoisseurs the opportunity to purchase one of their much -admired vehicles off the showroom floor.

IPC is a division of International Motorsport Ltd (IMS), which is best known as a professional motorsport and car-building company. They have nearly half a century of experience supporting one of the world’s largest and most successful professional race teams. In numbers, this translates to a remarkable 21 National Championship wins. An impressive array of race trophies on display in their entrance and reception areas bear testament to this. Add to these photos of their Bathurst win and race memorabilia adorning the walls, and you know you have arrived somewhere special.

Despite their high-profile achievements, the whole team is extremely modest when talking about their motorsport, vehicle building and mechanical engineering credentials. They have prepared racecars for world-class drivers to local heroes, some of whom have gone on to Formula One and Australian V8 Supercar teams. For Team IMS this is just everyday business, which they live and breathe.

What Lyall Williamson doesn’t know about cars is not worth knowing.’

Behind every successful motorsport team is a well-oiled machine, literally! The engineering and coach-building skills that exist within International Motorsport are utilised to custom-build high performance race and classic cars. The team that works on vehicles at IMS is known for their precision and meticulous attention to detail.

Lyall Williamson, founder and managing director of International Motorsport is a man of few words, but ask him about his family business and you can’t help but be swept up in the pride and passion in his voice. While reaching 50 years in the business is a milestone he is extremely proud of, what currently excites him is their evolution into retailing classic cars alongside their custom builds

Their growing collection of classic cars and the increasing demand for them, have prompted the Williamson family to include a retail sales arm.

‘We appreciate that classic car owners are a discerning and passionate group of people, but not everyone is in a position to build their own car, so retailing classics is a great way of making them available to a wider market,’ Williamson says.

General manager Nick Williamson states they are well-placed to focus on selling classic cars alongside their own automotive repair facility, IMS Panel & Paint who are known for their rigorous pursuit of perfection when it comes to repair work.

‘We are able to repair common steel panels as well as aluminium and plastic composites, which means we can assist people with their own restoration projects as well as completing our custom builds.’

‘And of course at IMS Panel and Paint we offer services from small touch-ups to complete repaints and smash repairs,’ he adds.

Nick also mentioned ‘We are also looking at developing a hands-on seminar on ‘How to Care for your Classic’. So often we are contacted for advice around repairs, servicing and cosmetic maintenance of classic cars; it makes sense for us to share our knowledge and help people keep them in top condition in between services.’

Meet our team

International Motorsport is renowned for being New Zealand’s and one of the world’s largest professional race teams.  From our list of achievements it is evident that we have a proven track record of winning a wide range of motorsport championships during our years of racing.

Racing successfully requires a unique collaboration between team and driver.  Preparing a fast car is only possible if the feedback from the driver is correctly translated into the set-up of the car itself.  The team at International Motorsport pride themselves on achieving this by providing world class service that delivers the performance needed to be on the front of the grid.

After more than 50 years in the motorsport industry, International Motorsport recently also expanded into the market of restoration and customization. International Performance Classics now takes up much of the space at the IMS premises in Pollen Street, Ponsonby.

With their expertise and skill, the IPC team can take a customer’s dream or idea and turn it into reality.

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    NICK WILLIAMSON
    General MANAGER
    Nick, Lyall’s youngest son has been around race cars and classic cars all his life. He has been going to race meetings with his father since he was born and now runs the day to day operations of the IMS group.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    LYALL WILLIAMSON
    MANAGING DIRECTOR & Founder
    Lyall founded International Motorsport in 1960 with the support of Denny Hulme. Since then Lyall has been the driving force ensuring IMS has become the most successful team in New Zealand motorsport.
    SKILL LEVEL
  • Corran Kain
    Corran Kain
    Workshop Manager/Senior Racecar Mechanic
    Corran joined IMS in 2019 and has been trained in all aspects of motor racing, from running the race shop, building race cars, engines, and gearboxes. Corran is our Senior Race car mechanic, responsible for training and leadership at our race events.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Raymond West
    Panel & Paint Manager
    Ray has been working with Lyall for over 25 years, and is responsible for running our paint & panel and vehicle detailing units.
    SKILL LEVEL
  • Johnny Williamson
    Johnny Williamson
    Classic Car Sales
    Johnny is our Classic car sales guru, and also a Williamson, Lyall’s oldest son lets his love of classic cars shine thru and everyday sees him engrossed in buying, selling and appraising used classics.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Alex Sharman
    Apprentice Painter/Bodyshop Technician
    Alex is our Apprentice Painter, however he came to us  with previous experience in smash repair and auto body restoration. Alex’s  skills are invaluable and his knowledge is put to good use in the restoration side of the business while he learns the paint side.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Cameron Rydon
    Team Tyre & Data Engineer
    Cameron has been an integral member of our motorsport team for the last two years, developing his skills as a data engineer and also engineering the tyres for our Aston Martin and Audi GT3 programs.

     

    SKILL LEVEL
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    Mike Gibson
    Vehicle Refinishing/Detailing
    Mike is our senior Vehicle Refinishing & Detailing expert, his skills and talents around grooming and detailing high end road and classic cars are unrivaled. Mike’s attention to detail and high skill level make him a valuable asset to the company.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Grant Lyons
    Transport Manager/Mechanic
    Grant is our Transport and logistics manager and one of our highly skilled Race Mechanics.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Connor Adam
    IMS Race driver/Race Mechanic
    Connor is our Team Race driver and IMS Driving instructor for the Toyota 86 Championship, and works on the team as a Race Mechanic when he’s not competing in the drivers seat.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Owen Kingsley-Smith
    Master Automotive Re-finisher
    Owen is our senior Automotive Re-finisher at IMS Panel and Paint, responsible for custom paint work, colour effects and finishing of our restoration work, the quality and final presentation of his paint work finishes is amazing.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Micheal Savage
    Senior Automovtive Detailer
    Micheal is one of our senior groomer/detailer’s responsible for maintaining our fleet of classic sales car as well as grooming new and used cars for many high end importers such as Bentley, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Porsche.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Evy Halim
    Accounts & Office Administrator
    Evy runs our accounts and office systems like a well oiled machine, skilled in all aspects of our unique business, and an expert on all of our different software packages used across the IMS Group.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Klaus Schosser
    Automovtive Repair & Restoration
    Klaus has many years of experience in the Panel & Paint industry mainly in crash repair. Kluas has recently joined our restorations team to apply his skill to classic car restoration and will be a valuable member of our special project team.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Oleksiy (Alex) Syedykh
    Euro Repair specialist
    Alex has many years of experience in the euro car industry mainly with diagnostics and repair. Alex has recently joined our workshop team to apply his skill to modern and classic car repairs and servicing. Alex is a self confessed Porscheaholic and is also a factory trained Mercedes Benz technician.
    SKILL LEVEL
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    Jason Carter
    Master Fabricator/Restoration specialist
    Jason has been our Senior Fabricator for many years, he’s trusted with our highest priority customer projects. Jason’s knowledge of the VIRM and LVVT rules coupled with a passion for design and engineering leave us the the front of field on custom hot-rod and restomod vehicles.
    SKILL LEVEL

History

With all my time spent working on cars during the day at Archibald’s Garage in Christchurch and the evenings spent preparing speedway cars, I was involved with a lot of people who were very passionate about Motor Racing. We all wanted to go faster but sometimes our lack of preparation let us down.

The opportunity to work with some amazing cars and drivers at such a young age was a great training ground. Cars such as the Mark II Jaguar taught me so much about the technical side of race car preparation. This era also taught me so much of the attention to detail that was required in order to be successful. I had a belief that if a company focused on absolute detailed preparation of a race car and matched this with driver talent that would be successful in winning races. That was the founding principle of International Motorsport and remains our commitment to drivers and sponsors today.

So with the encouragement of the late Formula One champion Denny Hulme, I started International Motorsport. Denny stayed actively involved with this team until his untimely death at Bathurst in 1992. I have been fortunate enough to work with some of the world’s greatest drivers and top car brands; from the golden era of Motor Racing in the 60’s and 70’s until today, where we are currently experiencing a wonderful resurgence in Motor Racing in New Zealand. We have prepared cars and teams to race in Australia, Asia, South Africa and America, and we will always strive to remain the top team in New Zealand.

Lyall Williamson
Founder and Managing Director