Combining passion and career
Richard Field, the owner of Hastings-based Lodge Auto Centre, has been making a living from fixing vehicles for almost 40 years.
“With my love of motor sports, there was never any other career path for me. So when the opportunity arose to open a garage that specialised in motor sport and turbocharger conversions, I jumped at it,” says Richard.
That was in 1981 and these days, Richard employs four staff at his Queen Street HQ, including two apprentices, Brad Flowers and Michael Paaymans.
Long a supporter of industry training, Richard has overseen the careers of around eight top apprentices. His strategy to picking consistent winners, he says, is to find them via word-of-mouth.
“I don’t think advertising in the paper is necessarily the best way to go. With Brad, for example, he was working as a builder’s labourer on our new workshop, so we got to know him and his attitude long before we got him on the floor.”
Around 30% of the Lodge Auto Centre’s work is generic automotive work such as WOFs and repair work.
The rest is a combination of specialist motor sport work, including fuel injector and dyno work, as well as turbo charge conversions and repairs.
And, of course, there’s the favourite area for all staff: building a car from scratch into a fully competitive motor sport vehicle.
“We provide services that aren’t widely available in New Zealand, plus we’ve made quite a significant capital investment in the latest technology such as the rolling road and the injector servicing bench. Taking on this kind of work keeps us all engaged and interested.”
Lodge Auto Centre apprentice Brad Flowers agrees.
The 21-year-old, who aims to complete his apprenticeship by the end of the year, says one of the reasons he loves his job is because it provides the opportunity to follow his love of motor sport.
“I’ve always competed in carting and motor sport. To now work on these vehicles is fantastic,” says Brad.
”The quality of work I get to do is a definite selling point, plus we get to know the cars we work on back to front.”
Brad has worked on vehicles such as John McIntyre’s winning V8, as well as the BMW Mini Cooper S raced by Gavin Yortt and the two KTN Honda touring cars that race in Germany each year. This work has taken Brad to tracks all over New Zealand.
“We rebuild these touring cars from top to bottom, which has taught me so much.”
Richard is keen to see New Zealand’s amazing automotive knowledge passed onto the next generation. His aim is to turn out better technicians than himself.
“If I can’t make my apprentices better than me, then I’ve failed at their training…”
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