primotipo…

(R Goldfinch)

Denny Hulme acknowledges the plaudits of the crowd upon his retirement from the February 1967 Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm…

The ‘Creek Corner Mob’ were a notoriously loud, knowledgeable group of spectators, ‘the bugler’ in particular always comes up in conversations about the place with Sydney enthusiasts even now.

Denny’s Brabham BT22 Repco ‘640’ V8 retired on lap 41 of the 45 lap race with a burst radiator hose, the race was won by Jackie Stewart’s BRM P261 2.1 V8. In a troubled weekend the Brabham Repco lads started raceday further out west at Sydney’s Oran Park attempting to sort fuel injection and handling dramas before heading back to the ‘farm for the race. Jack was fourth aboard BT23A Repco ‘640’.

Love this Bruce Wells portrait of Denny on the ’67 WF grid. Note the ducting used in the hotter races of that year to get cool air into the centre of the 640 and 740 Repco’s- aimed at the fuel metering unit (B Wells/TRS)

Stewart, Clark, Hill- BRM P261, Lotus 33 Climax, Lotus 48 Ford FVA, then Jack and Leo Geoghegan- Brabham BT23A Repco and Lotus 39 Climax with Denny alongside the pit counter on the row behind, Brabham BT22 Repco (B Wells/TRS)

Its weird the way your brain works, or mine does anyway?!

The first thing which popped into my mind when I saw Denny’s salute was the famous post 200 metre Mexico ’68 Olympics medal award ceremony, brave ‘Black Power’ medal presentation dais salutes of gold and bronze medallists Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

It was ‘big news’ in Australia as Peter Norman, a great Australian athlete, was the silver medallist who bravely stood with, and in support of the Americans and their cause. Norman was punished for his actions by the Australian Olympic Committee’s ‘forces of conservative darkness’ for the rest of his life.

Denny’s pose and actions are in an entirely different context (to say the least) but its funny the stuff which sticks in a childs mind only to pop out fifty years later. The Olympics scene resonated with me at the time, no doubt meeting Norman at a school holidays athletics training camp in the early seventies added to the potency of the moment, times of great social upheaval and progress as they were.

Peter Norman’s obituary; https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/oct/05/guardianobituaries.australia

Credits…

Roger Goldfinch, Bruce Wells/The Roaring Season

Tailpiece: Peter Norman, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Mexico 1968…

Finito…