primotipo…

Spencer Martin in David McKay’s Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM at Longford in 1965; imagine the sound of that 3.3-litre V12 @ 7500rpm on The Flying Mile at about 160mph! More about this Ferrari here:https://primotipo.com/2014/07/03/pete-geoghegan-ferrari-250lm-6321-bathurst-easter-68/

It’s the first shot of this car I ever saw. It was in Bryan Hanrahan’s ‘Motor Racing The Australian Way’, an Xmas preso to me from good ole’ Santa in 1971 or so. Now, 50 years later, I know who took it, Peter Bakalor, the wonders of Facebook!

If my memory isn’t playing tricks, I’m sure Ray Bell told me Peter covered the Tasman for Autosport, Ray got in touch the day I posted this piece.

Here is Australian author/historian Ray Bell (right) with Peter Bakalor in a Seattle coffee shop in September 2024. Ray first caught up with him stateside in 2014, having not seen him circa 1967. ‘He was for a few years Autosport’s Australian reporter, I got to meet him frequently in those days, we discussed the fact that many we knew back then neither of us sees any more. Mostly for the usual reason…’

‘Peter was most recently Head of Global Technology Service Delivery and Security for a major media company, with earlier roles in product strategy, systems architecture and product marketing in technology and information companies. He was in New York for a long time but has been in Seattle for over 15 years.’

Rovers of different kinds!

The Duke and Duchess of York circumnavigate City Oval, Ballarat, on April 29, 1927. He was later King George VI, what model Rover is it folks? While below, Jim Smith blasts around Calder in the vice-regal Rover 3500 Sports Sedan in 1971, at this stage in pretty much ex-works UK specs.

Leo Geoghegan in his 1970 Australian Gold Star Championship winning Lotus 59B Waggott 2-litre TC-4V at Warwick Farm in 1971, and below getting to grips with the handling peculiarities of Bernie Haehnle’s Rennmax Mk1 Formula Vee at Catalina Park in 1968 below. More about the Lotus 59 here:https://primotipo.com/2018/09/17/leos-lotus-59b-waggott/

Peter Finlay wrote that Pete Geoghegan raced Peter Clarke’s Rennmax in this ‘stars in Vees race’ at Catalina, so too did Kevin Bartlett, in Frank Kleinig’s Mako.

Bernie Haehnle was a Vee Star of the era and is shown here on the grid during the 1970 Bathurst Easter meeting and winning one of the Vee races by a country mile…More on him here:https://primotipo.com/2018/11/13/bernie-haehnle-rennmax-mk1-fv/

John Cox wrote, ‘My father and Ted Gray were partners in a garage in Wangaratta after the end of World War 2 when Ted came out of the army. They were involved in midget cars before the war with Harry Shaw.’

Ted’s Alfa Romeo 6C1750 Ford V8 – the ex-JAS Jones machine – is shown below, after a rollover near Yarrawonga – it was in a state of repair. The photo was taken in Murphy St., Wangaratta, about 1947.’

‘Around 1947 Ted’s brother-in-law was driving the Alfa with my Dad as passenger and the Alfa rolled over near Yarrawonga and they were hospitalised for a short time. I have a trophy which my Dad won at one of the two Greensborough Hill Climbs in 1946 in the Alfa.’ See here:https://primotipo.com/2020/05/04/ted-gray-alfa-romeo-ford-v8-wangaratta-to-melbourne-record/

With the big Bathurst Bash in the air, here is the 1985 winning combination: John Goss/Armin Hahne and TWR-Jaguar Racing Jaguar XJ-S V12.

They won from grid 6 with the Johnny Cecotto/Roberto Ravaglia BMW 635CSi second on the same lap, and the Tom Walkinshaw/Win Percy XJ-S third, three laps in arrears. More on Gossy here:https://primotipo.com/2015/07/03/john-goss-bathurst-1000-and-australian-grand-prix-winner/

Battle of the Lola T300 Chevs during the 1972 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round; Frank Gardner in the red works-entry, and Bob Muir’s brand new concours machine prepared by Reg Papps.

FG is at the very end of his single-seater racing career with Muir at the start of his 5-litre adventure. Gardner was third on the grid, Muir fourth, with Frank second behind Frank Matich’s victorious Matich A50 Repco-Holden; Bob was out thanks to battery failure.

Here is a closer look at Muir’s car in the Sandown AGP pitlane a week later, notionally, but not quite!, FG’s final single-seater race. More about the Lola T300 here:https://primotipo.com/2021/05/15/angus-and-cootes-lola-t300s/

The lanky chap behind Bob’s left-rear is Max Stewart, the yellow wing belongs to Max’s Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden, #60 is later Australian Touring Car Championship winner, Kiwi, Robbie Francevic’s McLaren M10A Chev.

Hope Bartlett was one of the stars of Australian motor racing in the Maroubra and Phillip Island Australian Grand Prix era.

His prodigious thirst for expensive and exotic racing cars and boats was funded by his bus line, two of which are shown here. I’ll take your advice as to make.

‘Bartlett is shown below at Ballarat. Leaning over the ex-Allan Tomlinson MG TA Spl s/c 1939 AGP winning car is Frank Gardner’s brother, and that’s Frank standing behind. It’s 1949. I got all that from Frank when I did a bio story,’ wrote Les Hughes. A bit more about Hope here:https://primotipo.com/2020/11/27/australian-racing-random-5/

It’s not often you see Frank Matich engineering a car for another driver but here he is attending to Bob Muir’s needs in FM’s brand new Matich A53 Repco-Holden at Oran Park in the Summer of ‘74.

Frank had electrocuted himself in a boating accident not long before. More about that and the A53 Repco-Holden here:https://primotipo.com/2019/05/06/matich-a53-repco/

The same car – A53-007 – with John Goss at the wheel during his first race weekend with it during the August 1974 Gold Star weekend, again at Oran Park.

Sticking with the Muir Theme a bit longer…Here Bob Muir is chasing Bob Beasley’s Lotus 47 at Surfers Paradise in 1969 aboard his Lotus 23B Ford, both of Graham Ruckert’s shots were taken at Repco Hill. More about Bob M here:https://primotipo.com/2019/12/09/bob-muir/

Great colourised shot of Ern Seeliger during the Victoria Trophy weekend at Ballarat Airfield in January 1947.

Ern raced Lex Denniston’s Itala Ford V8 Spl at that meeting, the car and driver are shown below at Lobethal in January 1948 during the South Australian 100 weekend during which the local geography smote the car, but not Ern, a fatal blow. See here:https://primotipo.com/2021/03/24/itala-v8-special/

The 1946 Grand Prix Ampol banner refers to the New South Wales Grand Prix won by Alf Najar’s MG TB Spl, there was no ’46 AGP.

Engineer/driver Seeliger and Stan Jones after Jones victory in the 1953 Victoria Trophy at Fisherman’s Bend aboard Maybach 1, with Stan aboard that car below at Parramatta Park in 1952 ahead of David McKay‘s MG TC Spl. More on Maybach 1 here:https://primotipo.com/2024/01/15/maybach-1-technical-specifications/

Darryl Pearsall racing the one-off Cheetah Mk4E Lotus-Ford 1.6 ANF2 (chassis 42-1) at Hume Weir on December 28, 1974.

This machine lives on in wonderfully restored and prepared form in the hands of current custodian, John Ellery. More about the Cheetah Mk4 here: https://primotipo.com/2021/11/16/cheetah-mk4/

Studebaker V8s seem to have been popular both with Australian wallopers and racers in the 1960s

Above is First Constable Mal Waterhouse of the Ballarat Mobile Traffic Section with a 1962 Lark, and below, the Warren Weldon/Bill Slattery Lark contests the Sandown International 6 Hour Touring Car Race won by Frank Gardner/Kevin Bartlett’s Alec Mildren Racing Alfa Romeo Ti Super.

The Lark was 15th with 207 laps; the winners did 231. Were the trick alloy wheels kosher, or did CAMS do the Sergeant Schultz thing!? They were popular outright ‘Series Production’ cars with Weldon/Bert Needham winning their class at Bathurst in 1964

A feel the vibe shot rather than whinge about the quality one OCDers…

Great post on Bob Williamson’s Old Motor Racing – Australia Facebook page by former Lola T330 F5000 racer, Ian Adams in 2019.

‘The late Stan Brown’s Cremorne Junction workshop in the early 1960s. In the foreground is a Sterling racer (Lotus 23 copy), Stan, wheeling a panel, and me, an apprentice working on a Daimler SP250.

Terry Hook (later too a Lola F5000 exponent), also an apprentice, is at the rear. Terry was a great mate. I got him off the beach and into the workshop. He joined my pit crew for the Lotus Super 7. I’m proud to have planned his racing career with him, starting in touring cars, then sports cars and finally F5000.

Both of us raced together in Formula 5000’s. Terry passed away, I still miss him.’

The Repco Record Holden on tour in South Australia, at Port Wakefield racetrack in the late 1950s.

This was Charlie Dean’s Repco Research project after the Maybach adventure ended at Gnoo Blas when the final Maybach six went kaboomba while Stan Jones tried to keep up with Reg Hunt’s new Maserati 250F. See here:https://primotipo.com/2024/02/10/australian-gold-star-championship-1956/

The Record has been back in Repco’s ownership for quite a few years now. It was one of the star exhibits at their centenary at Jeff’s Shed in Melbourne a few years back. Since then, the Repco Hi-Power headed engine has been rebuilt and is awaiting installation. Tim Fergus is its guardian angel and fettler. See here:https://primotipo.com/2015/06/26/repco-record-car-and-repco-hi-power-head/

I had a great time a couple of months back writing a long Auto Action feature on Jim Richards’ Murray Bunn built Ford Falcon Hardtop XC 351 sports sedan. He is wonderful to work with, no doubt someone has a list of all of the cars he raced in his 60-year, or thereabouts, career.

Perhaps one of the lesser-known is his two races in a Jaguar XJR-15 6-litre V12 in the 1991 Jaguar Intercontinental Challenge.

Pitted against some of the GP stars of the day, Jim was Q3! and eighth at Monaco, then Q14 and tenth at Spa three months later; both races were F1 GP support events. Armin Hahne won at Spa and the title, while Derek Warwick was victorious at Monaco and Juan Manuel Fangio 2 at Silverstone, the other round.

16 of the 53 cars built were prepared for the race series. See here for more about a great machine! https://www.octane-magazine.com/articles/features/jaguar-xjr-15-the-first-hypercar/

Credits…

Peter Bakalor, Ray Bell, Museums Victoria, Richard Taylor, Lance Ruting, Bill Forsyth, Adrian Patterson, Richard Townley Collection, Dean Oliver, oldracephotos.com, Graham Ruckert, SA Motor, Fairfax Publications, Doug Eagar, Police Victoria Historical Society, Stephen Dalton Archive, Ian Adams, Phil Mahon, Teddy Webber, Peter Finlay-Colin Piper

Tailpiece…

‘Boys Just Want To Have Fun’ to grab and twist a Cyndi Lauper line!

Peter Finlay wrote, ‘Colin Piper, who worked with Peter Windsor at the Australian Automobile Racing Club office and at the (Warwick Farm) circuit, looked after the two club Nota Vees which were housed in the garage at the homestead at Warwick Farm.

Mary Packard asked me to supervise the lively pair for a private run in the cars on the Creek Corner section of the track. This is probably my photo with Colin’s camera, of the pair that day. Piper at left, Windsor right and Cortina Mk2 GT in the middle. Photo via Colin Piper.’

Finito…