primotipo…

Hey man, hip-cat, cool and groovy is what pops to mind!

Who said the Bell Corporation was the first to invent the fully enveloping helmet? Spencer Martin in Bob Jane’s Brabham BT11A Climax at Sandown Park during his second on-the-trot Gold Star championship winning 1967 season. More about Spencer here; https://primotipo.com/2015/04/30/spencer-martin-australian-gold-star-champion-19667/

Percy Hunter and Vida Jones – aka Mrs JAS Jones – aboard her Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 SS Zagato on the beach at Gerringong, New South Wales south coast in 1930. Click here for a long feature on this oh-so-famous Oz racing car; https://primotipo.com/2018/02/15/mrs-jas-jones-alfa-6c-1750-ss-zagato/

Only in Australia…

And no, the little Angle-box isn’t blowing off Enzo’s finest, the Andy Buchanan Ferrari 250LM at Caversham during practice for the 1966 6-Hour race.

He wasn’t able to repeat the success of Spencer Martin and David McKay in the same car the year before, failing to finish. Ron Thorp won in his AC Cobra 289. The Brockwell/Mitchell Anglia failed to go the full distance too. More about the 250LM here; https://primotipo.com/2014/07/03/pete-geoghegan-ferrari-250lm-6321-bathurst-easter-68/

Graham Withers ‘slingshot’ Ampol GT sponsored dragster/rail at Castlereagh in 1968.

Whether the dude with the death-wish is a crew member sussing just how much air Mr Withers is taking on launch, or perhaps been ingesting tablets of a type not dispensed by suburban pharmacists is an interesting question. Do let me know if you can put all of our minds to rest. Manufacturer of the machine folks?

Ron Hodgson’s Lotus 11 GT has to be Fugly Car Cup contender.

Here in the Warwick Farm paddock circa 1962. The story of how some lovely sportscars were re-purposed is told in this article about Murray Carter here; Forever Young… | primotipo…

Ken Kavanagh aboard the awesome Moto Guzzi 500 V8 GP machine during the 1956 Senigallia Grand Prix.

This wild machine made its race debut at the Belgian GP in June 1955, read about Kavanagh’s time with Moto Guzzi in this feature; Moto Guzzi… | primotipo…

Dave Walker and Tim Schenken during the 1971 Dutch Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort.

Walker started the Lotus 56B Pratt & Whitney 4-WD from grid 22 and was looking good for a while in the very soggy conditions but like so much of the grid, missed his braking point – in a car in which he hadn’t done a huge number of laps – and ran off the track after completing only five laps. Quickie on DW here; https://primotipo.com/2022/01/05/walkin-on-water/

Tim Schenken’s Brabham BT33 Ford was a more competitive mount. In its second year – Brabham won the South African GP in one in 1970, and should have won two or three more – it was still competitive in the young Melburnian’s hands, third place at the Osterreichring was his best result of the year.

At Zandvoort he started from grid 19 but DNF with suspension failure in the race won by Regenmeister Jacky Ickx’ Ferrari 312B2. Short piece on Tim here; https://primotipo.com/2019/01/02/tim-schenken/

Reg Hunt dreaming about future conquests on one of his parents Nortons, aged nine, in the early 1930s in the UK, and living the dream at Albert Park in 1956 aboard his Maserati 250F below.

He and his A6GCM and 250F were Australia’s fastest combinations in 1955-56, then he retired early to focus on his family and motor dealerships, amassing a fortune. See more about Reg here; https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/

Bob Jane relaxes on his Jaguar E-Type Lwt during the Australian Tourist Trophy meeting at Lakeside over the November 14, 1965 weekend.

This is a heat or support race, Bob was fourth in the ATT, while Ron Thorp – it’s his AC Cobra you can see – didn’t start. Pete Geoghegan won from Greg Cusack and Spencer Martin: Lotus 23B Ford, Lotus 23 Ford and Ferrari 250LM.

The dude in the brown shirt is longtime Bob Jane Racing chief mechanic/team manger John Sawyer, no idea who the driver is, the tiny splash of red is Bill Gates’ Lotus Elan. Jane usually raced this darlin’ of a Jag with its factory hardtop but wasn’t averse to running topless on hot days. Click here for a feature on the car; Perk and Pert… | primotipo…

Piers Courage on the hop during the Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round in January 1968.

He had a fabulous Tasman aboard the little F2 McLaren M4A Ford FVA, he brought home the bacon by winning the very wet final round at Longford despite giving away plenty of power to the 2.5-litre cars. See here; https://primotipo.com/2015/10/20/longford-tasman-south-pacific-trophy-4-march-1968-and-piers-courage/

Giving away a bit of horsepower at old-Sandown, a power track. Piers pitches his McLaren into Peters Corner with the Richard Attwood BRM P126 V12 , and, I think, Kevin Bartlett’s Brabham BT11A Climax behind. This fabulous race had an amazing dice between Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 Ford DFW and Chris Amon’s Ferrari 246T, resolved by a smidge in favour of the Scot. It was his last race, and series win.

This is the Queensland Touring Car Championship meeting at Surfers Paradise in August 1969, a round of the Australian Touring Car Championship. Dick Johnson’s EH Holden in front of Alan Hamilton’s Porsche 911

Norm Beechey’s Holden Monaro GTS327 won – taking the first ever ATCC win for a Holden – with Hamilton second and Jim McKeown third in a Lotus Cortina Mk2.

Dick Simpson recalled a funny moment related to his photo. “A couple of laps after that shot, as the EH was entering Lucas Corner, there was an almighty bang, a massive cloud of blue smoke and black engine oil and a number of red bits of metal pouring out of the engine right on the apex of the corner. The noise stopped and the EH silently trundled on around Repco Hill and disappeared.”

“We had a flag post right beside us and had been chatting with one of the flaggies who was most impressed that we were keen enough, or stupid enough to drive all night from Wollongong. So he said he had to go and clean up the mess and would we like a couple of souvenirs? He brought up a couple of bits of steel, one looked like a huge main-bearing cap and plonked them on top of the fencepost to cool off. About an hour later a young kid who looked a lot like the EH driver came along and demanded his bits back. So we had a quick chat with a young DJ!”

Click here for a piece on the 1969 ATCC; https://primotipo.com/2018/02/01/1969-australian-touring-car-championship/

Jochen Rindt and Graham Hill in the Warwick Farm pitlane during Saturday practice for the 1969 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round.

Rindt famously drove off into the distance during the incredibly wet race day: https://primotipo.com/2018/01/19/rindt-tasman-random/ and; https://primotipo.com/2022/02/26/lotus-49b-ford-chassis-r8/

Alan Jones was stunningly quick in Sid Taylor/Teddy Yip Lola T332 Chevs during Australia’s 1977 Rothmans International F5000 Series.

While Warwick Brown won it in his Racing Team VDS Lola T430 Chev, Jones was the series-ace, let down by mechanical dramas and a mistake or two of his own; a jumped start at Oran Park and writing off a car in practice at Surfers Paradise.

Here at Sandown he grabbed the lead from the start but retired with overheating. He won the fourth, final round at Adelaide International at the start of a year in which he won his first F1 Grand Prix aboard a Shadow DN8 Ford at the Osterreichring (below).

Amazing Ian Smith pan of Allan Moffat in his legendary Trans-Am Mustang at Oran Park during the final round of the Australian Touring Car Championship on August 8, 1972.

Steve Snuggs tells us that he was wearing an oxygen mask in protest to CAMS not allowing him to remove the car’s carpets which smouldered from the hot exhausts and gave off fumes.

Moffat lost a nail-biter of a race, and the title, to Bob Jane’s Chev Camaro ZL1. More about Moffat’s cars here; https://primotipo.com/2020/03/06/moffats-shelby-brabham-elfin-and-trans-am/

Incredibly rare colour shot of Pedro Rodriguez’ works-BRM P261 2.1-litre V8 during the 1968 Longford Trophy.

He is on the rise having exited the Newry right-hander in second or third gear – that line of poplars and road is still there – before an open left-kink then onto The Flying Mile.

Pedro nicked second-place from Frank Gardner’s Brabham BT23D Alfa in the final lap but fell well short of Piers Courage McLaren M4A Ford FVA F2 car in demanding wet conditions. More about BRM in the Antipodes here; https://primotipo.com/2020/02/22/1966-australian-grand-prix-lakeside/

The great Ian Smith is sharing his back-catalogue of photographs in great dollops via Facebook. I enjoyed this series of shots taken in Reservoir, suburban Melbourne during a compare and contrast Wheels road-test between the then new Holden Kingswood HQ, and the original 1948 Holden 48-215 circa 1972.

The reason for the strange location is probably because Campbells Motors Holden were in High Street, Preston and they didn’t want their luvverly old-Humpy being taken too far from ‘home’. See here for a piece on the 48-215; https://primotipo.com/2018/12/06/general-motors-holden-formative/ The locale is Edwards Park Lake, Reservoir.

The giant-killing Colin Bond/Brian Hope, fourth place overall Mitsubishi Colt 1000F at the end of the 1967 Southern Cross Rally at Port Macquarie.

It was the very start of the Japanese company’s international rallying programme, see here; https://primotipo.com/2023/05/28/mitsubishi-competition-formative-days/

The Charlie Dean-Repco Research built Repco Record at Mallala during the AGP meeting in 1961. It was the Clerk of the Course’ car no less.

The Repco-Holden engined research machine is looking fairly well used at this point, but it did have to sing for its supper testing all manner of Repco group subsidiaries components! See here; https://primotipo.com/2015/06/26/repco-record-car-and-repco-hi-power-head/

Credits…

Michael Gasking Collection, Keith Anderson Photography, Bob Williamson Collection, oldracephotos.com-Dick Simpson, Moto Guzzi, Reg Hunt Collection via David Zeunert, Peter Jones, Peter Miller, Rod Steffanoni, Bill Forsyth, Ian Smith, IC Walker Collection via Russell Garth

Tailpiece…

Dick Simpson’s artistry catches Niel Allen on the hop in Garrie Cooper’s first monocoque sportscar, the Elfin ME5 Chev on the entry to Homestead corner at Warwick Farm in 1969. It was a twitchy beast of a thing with its short-wheelbase, arguably, only Niel got the best out of it in the short time he owned it before buying a McLaren M10B Chev F5000.

Finito…