Sydney born, ‘Dave’ Walker died aged 82 last week in Queensland (June 10, 1941-May 24, 2024).
The very gifted Walker raced two revolutionary Grand Prix Lotuses in 1971-72: the four-wheel-drive, gas-turbine powered Lotus 56B Pratt & Whitney and epochal, edgy-wedge, side radiator, torsion-bar sprung Lotus 72 Ford.
He cut his competition teeth in club competition aboard an MGA Twin-cam, soon progressing to a Brabham BT2 Ford with support from David McKay’s Scuderia Veloce. Walker had an Australian Grand Prix (Sandown 1964) and Bathurst 500s (1963-65) under his belt before jumping on a ship at Circular Quay to take on the world’s best in Europe.
Armed with a Merlyn Mk10 Ford he became a Formula 3 Gypsy, racing across Europe for start and prizemoney throughout 1967, winning the Adriatic GP at Opatija, Yugoslavia in June.
He then figured he needed to go backwards to go forwards so did a deal to race a Russell-Alexis Formula Ford in 1968, doing well enough to bag a quasi-works Jim Russell Race Drivers School Lotus 61 FF ride in 1969.
He won the Les Leston Championship with it and was then picked up by Gold Leaf Team Lotus to race their F3 Lotus 59 and Lotus 69 Fords throughout 1970-71. In 1971, a year of unparalleled dominance, Walker won 25 of 32 F3 race starts including the prestigious Monaco and British GP rounds and two of the three British titles.
Lotus boss, Colin Chapman rewarded him with his first F1 drives that year, Walker having had his first big-car experience in some F5000 races in the UK and a quick trip home to Sydney in November 1970 to contest the AGP at Warwick Farm in an uncompetitive F5000 Lotus 70 Ford.
In 1972 Dave was Emerson Fittipaldi’s #2. Like Fittipaldi in 1971, Walker struggled with a car that took some learning, unfamiliar circuits and not a lot-of-love from the team. Emmo won the title and Dave got the flick in favour of Ronnie Peterson at the seasons end with seven DNFs from 10 starts, all due to mechanical failure.
It wasn’t quite as bad as many would have you believe though, he was fifth in the non-championship Brazilian Grand Prix and in the running for points in South Africa, Monaco and Spain.
In the following years Walker had sporadic F2, F5000, F Atlantic and sportscar drives but two road car crashes in 1973 – he broke a leg in one and almost severed his left arm in the other – sealed his competition fate, a few Canadian Formula Atlantic drives in 1975 were his last – the GP de Trois-Rivieres on August 31 perhaps the very last – before hanging up his helmet.
Walker worked in Canada for a while, getting involved in a boat chartering business. He and his wife Jan returned to Australia and have parlayed those skills in a successful business on the Whitsunday Coast since.
I had several phone calls with the beautifully spoken and sharp-as Dave in 2021-21, keep an eye out for a primotipo or Auto Action feature on Walker soon.
Etcetera…
1964 Bathurst 500, with the Walker/Brian Hilton VW1200 – seventh place – ahead of the Bolton/Schroeder Hillman Imp and Weldon/Needham Studebaker Lark.
Reader, Laurie Mason owns “the 1968 Vauxhall Ventora that David drove in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon. He was an engaging and welcoming man and we had many discussions about the car and their eventful journey across the world in 1968. I spoke with David only last month so this news is very sad.”
A Grand Prix racing car of the finest type: bold, innovative, on the edge. The exact opposite of highly regulated, restricted modern F1, let’s not call it Grand Prix Racing because there is nothing Grand about it. Lotus 56B Pratt & Whitney, Zandvoort, 1971.
Credits…
MotorSport Images, Dick Simpson-oldracephotos.com, Rainer Schlegelmilch, J Wilds-Getty, R Donaldson-State Library of New South Wales, Dave Munroe
Tailpiece…
Superb shot of Dave attacking the Warwick Farm Esses aboard the Lotus Components Lotus 70 Ford during the November 1970 AGP. It was no M10B McLaren, with which Frank Matich won the race. Walker was Q7 and fifth. The brave snapper is Lance Ruting, one of the stars of the era.
Finito…
primotipo... 
Walker holds the unusual record of being the only driver in the history of the Formula 1 World Championship who failed to score a point in the same year that their team mate was crowned Drivers Champion.