Peter Macrow, clad in fireproof woollen brown jumper, on his way to victory in the Riverina Gold Cup aboard his Brian Shead built Cheetah Mk3 Ford at Hume Weir on September 3, 1967.
It was his third Riverina Gold Cup on-the-trot! He won from a 17 car field varying in performance from future prominent Clubman and Tourer competitor Tom Naughton’s MG TC and equally capable single-seater driver/engineers Ivan Tighe, Lynx and Peter Larner, Lotus.
Shead first competed in his road-going Austin A40 in 1960, progressing to his own Cooper influenced Cheetah Mk1 in 1962. Brian regularly diced with Peter who was then racing the ex-Garrie Cooper, Cooper Austin. The evolved Cheetah Mk2 followed and all new spaceframe Mk3 in 1963.
Macrow was so impressed by the Mk3 he convinced Shead to sell it and help with its development. Brian picks up the story, “I succumbed to pressure from Macrow and sold him the car less engine, and assisted in installation of a pushrod Ford 1100cc engine. I retired from racing and helped with the running of the car and its preparation. Peter raced it extensively with considerable success in Victoria and New South Wales.”
“We continually upgraded the specifications of the car until it was running 7″ and 9″ wide wheels with disc brakes all around and fitment of a Lotus twin-cam engine. The Macrow/Cheetah combination became most successful at Hume Weir and Winton.”
Shead returned to racing when he built his first production cars, the Mk4, which was also raced successfully by Macrow, more on that here; https://primotipo.com/2021/11/16/cheetah-mk4/
Credits…
Tim and Mick Emery
Finito…
primotipo... 
[…] With a too-long-to-be-competitive gestation period, it was first raced by Ian Cook in 1967. When Ian bagged a drive with Bob Jane Racing, another Melbourne up and coming single seater pilot, Peter Macrow got the ride. See here: https://primotipo.com/2023/05/01/cheetahs-riverina-gold-cups/ […]