To keep a sponsor happy that is! Here it’s Perth racer Gordon Stephenson presenting the prizes to the winners of a department store lawnmower racing competition…
WTF you may well say?
Boans was an iconic West Australian department store for almost a century. Remember when every state or city had such emporiums of shopping pleasure for those so inclined? Myer in Victoria, Grace Brothers in New South Wales, Malcolm Reid in South Australia and so on. Now the buildings may still exist but the companies have been absorbed into a small number of conglomerates over the last forty years; Boans were chomped up by the Myer Group in 1986.
A sign of the times, competition and change is the rise in online retailing in the last decade or so. At the time of writing, mid November 2017, Amazon have just launched in Australia. The potential impact has executives of our major local retailers soiling their undergarments with fear. And rightfully so, Change is the Continuum.
Stephenson showing the kids his Tasman Cooper T70 Climax. I wonder if he fired the 2.5-litre Coventry Climax FPF and did a lap or two of the Boans, Morley carpark!? The car taken to Perth by Don O’Sullivan who bought it from Bill Patterson in Melbourne, Stephenson only raced it for 12 months
It seems that Boans organised a cross-promotion to raise their profile and flog a few lawnmowers, rolling BP into the fun. Poor BP sponsored Gordon drew the short straw that day to display his car and hand out the prizes. The local media did the rest to maximise exposure.
FTD was awarded to the kid who pushed his mower ‘for Chrissakes pick a Victa two-stroke son it will be lighter than the four-stroke Scott-Bonnar’ – across Boans carpark the fastest; Morley is 10km from central Perth.
Cooper T70 Climax…
Cooper T70 Climax #FL-1-64 is an interesting, significant car as the 2.5-litre Coventry Climax FPF engined car raced by Bruce McLaren and Tim Mayer in the 1964 Tasman Series, and then by 1961 World Champ, Phil Hill, in mildly updated form in the 1965 Tasman.
It was later purchased by Richard Berryman in the mid-1970s and was restored and is owned by his son Adam Berryman, a Melbourne mate of mine.
The history of the two T70s car is covered in the two articles below rather than restate the history of one of the ‘first real McLarens’ built.
Stephenson was a stalwart of WA racing for decades, mainly in Touring Cars. He had a busy season in 1968 racing both his ex-Alec Mildren Racing Alfa Romeo GTA and the Cooper in local circuit races at Caversham, having several wins in the T70, and hillclimbs at Mount Brown, York.
The story of the Mildren GTA’s is told here, inclusive of their extensive West Australian history;
Credits…
State Library of Western Australia, Terry Walkers Place
Tailpiece…
They are ‘racin!
Finito…
primotipo... 