primotipo…

Hector Jenkins, Fronty Ford, Penrith Speedway, New South Wales, practice in December 1927/January 1928…

Ronald Taylor took these wonderful, evocative photographs of a much more relaxed time and place, getting on for a century ago. Above is quite possibly Peter White testing the Fronty before winning the Unlimited Scratch Race on 2 January 1928.

The car above is the Alert Special, whilst it had an Alvis radiator it was a modified Ford. It appears more of a road-racer in specification than a dirt-track machine but the racers of the day often used the same car to do road trials, dirt events and race on the concrete saucer at Maroubra. The times of specialisation are still a way off in Australia.

Penrith is 60 Km west of Sydney, a long way then but now a soda, depending upon traffic traversing the Western Motorway to the Blue Mountains and beyond, I wrote an article about the place a while back which provides plenty of background; https://primotipo.com/2017/06/08/penriths-world-championship-race-1930/

David Manson has researched the photographs in this piece and wrote that ‘Bridget Wynne (photo further below in the article) claimed to be an experienced racing driver in England but she never drove in or raced in this country as far as can be established’ despite that he suspects it may be her at the wheel. I am intrigued to learn more about this lady.

It’s all happening above- capped mechanics fuelling the cars and plenty of envious onlookers, amidst the Friday practice perhaps?

T Poole contested the Unlimited Car Scratch Race run over 3 miles on 2 January 1928 in the Flint and won by Peter White’s Fronty Ford, his average speed 67 mph.

The Thomas Special, Fronty Ford and the Flint ran at Penrith Speedway at a meeting which was split between 26 December 1927 and 2 January 1928- New Years Day was on a Sunday which partially explains the odd dates.

Hector Jenkins was the New South Wales agent for Frontenac hotting-up parts for Fords, operating out of the Saunders Chambers premises at 247 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, he and his family used to camp at the Penrith  Speedway for race meetings. There are hints in the photos that not much racing was going on, so maybe they were taken on practice days before the Christmas/New Year meeting.

And we have ‘lift off’ below- a practice race start for Ms Wynne.

Etcetera…

Here is the Hector Jenkins team/family campsite, come workshop at Penrith with banner proclaiming the Australian Track Record and Dirt Track Championship of NSW held by Fronty Fords. Hector is second from the right.

Peter White’s personal Fronty Ford had the Maroubra record at 101.3 mph whilst Hector’s DO Fronty had the dirt track record at Penrith. The cars above are the R, DO and SR Fronty.

Credits…

Ronald Vernon Taylor- all but one photo, David Manson, mfca.com, various newspaper articles via Trove

Tailpiece: Yep! He is the guy we have to beat: The Jenkins Fronty Ford crew watching the action…

 

Finito…