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The John Raeburn/Nicholas Granville-Smith Ford GT40 during the 1968 Nurburgring 1000 km.

Melbourne-born John Raeburn – 20/10/1936-26/11/2026 – raced sports cars briefly in Europe in the mid-1960s before retiring at the ripe old age of 32 at the end of ’68. 

He inherited the bug from his father Wal who raced a Humpy Holden and operated Wal Raeburn Auto Electrics from premises on the corner of Malvern and Tooronga roads, Malvern.

John raced the Holden and then made his name with consistent winning pace in a potent Buchanan Holden from April 1960 to July 1961. Into the mix were drives in Jaywood Motors, Appendix J Holden Humpy, and FC.

He competed in the 1960-64 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island and Bathurst, sharing a Singer Gazelle with Harry Firth in 1960, and then Firth’s works Ford Cortina GT, Zephyr MkIII and Falcon. He also raced a FoMoCo Cortina GT in the first Sandown enduro, the 1964 6-Hour International, with Geoff Russell finishing a rousing third outright..

He took on the big-car challenge in 1965, finishing fifth in the one-race Australian Touring Car Championship at Sandown won by Norm Beechey’s Ford Mustang. Raeburn’s mount was the 7-litre Ford Galaxie left in Australia after the ’64 Sandown International by Sir Gawaine Baillie.

Raeburn jumped on a ship for Europe with the intention of racing the car in the UK, but Baillie had sold it before he got there. Brian Muir was third in that Sandown ATCC in his Holden EH S4; he too was soon heading off to the UK, very successfully so.

Undeterred, Raeburn started working for Graham Warner’s Chequered Flag Motors in 1966, driving their Shelby Cobra in the Zeltweg 500 km (DNF oil leak) that September. He was in the best of company, sharing the grid with GP drivers Jochen Rindt, Jo Siffert, Mike Spence, Innes Ireland, Mike Parkes, David Hobbs and Bob Bondurant.

Nick Brittan wrote about Raeburn in Motoring News during 1966, ‘Raeburn Shines in Driving Test. I don’t seem to be able to get through a month in this column without making some comment about a new Australian driver. In fact I’ve been accused of running an Antipodean news sheet.’

Johnny Raeburn is the latest of the “gday there mate” brigade that are invading our shores. Johnny, a massive, lantern-jawed Melburnian, ran Holdens and FoMoCo cars back home.

‘Bathurst class successes, three Lowood 4 hour races on the trot, second in the Sandown 6 hour, plus numerous other solid performances, are grounds for giving the bloke a trial.’

‘What shook everybody up last week was his performance at the passout at Brands with the Motor Racing Stables outfit in front of a big crowd of journalists and enthusiasts. Eight lessons in a Formula Ford with the passout in an F3 in the reverse direction on the Club circuit, Johnny equalled the time set by professional driver and instructor
Tony Lanfranchi on his fourth lap.’

‘He improved his time by a full seven tenths of a second on the remaining six laps. Tony then jumped back in the car but it took him twelve laps to equal the time Johnny had set. He should be deported or given a drive, as
this was his first time in open wheelers.’

He raced Mike de Udy’s Porsche 906 with Roy Pike in the Reims 12 Hours in 1967 (DNF), and took part in several 1968 World Sportscar Championship rounds. His car was a yellow Ford GT40, chassis #1001, owned by Andy Cox, ‘who had won money on the football pools and bought himself a GT40,’ wrote Doug Nye.

Raeburn’s driving partners were Nicholas Granville-Smith and another Australian tyro who did a stint at The Chequered Flag, Tim Schenken. 

At the Monza 1000 km in April he shared the car with Schenken, DNF engine. At the Nürburgring on May 19, he and Granville-Smith were 21st in the 1000 km.

At Spa-Francorchamps, the week after the Nurburgring, back with Tim, John had a major off on the first lap of the 1000 km enduro.

Doug Nye was there reporting the event for Motoring News and wrote on The Nostalgia Forum, ‘It absolutely widdled with rain and early in the race John dropped the car in the pack on the right hand kink coming down the hill from La Source, past the pits. The GT40 spun round and round and round in a ball of spray and only near the bottom of the hill – entering Eau Rouge – did it finally slither off onto the grass and subside into a ditch on the left side of the track. It was very spectacular, with phenomenal avoidances all round. Pity, he’d been driving it pretty well until then.’

Reaburn reported his exploits back home via Racing Car News. Amongst the unreported good times of high performance off the track was a week-long dalliance with Brigitte Bardot that was memorable enough for her to purchase him a Rolex watch inscribed, ‘To Johnny, Love BB’. ‘True story’ confirms Greg Smith, who had a lot to do with Raeburn in the modern historic era, ‘I’ve seen the watch.’

‘Don’t forget that he was instrumental in getting the David Price-written Joan Richmond book published (Joan Richmond: The Remarkable Previously Untold Story),’ chipped in Bob King.

Raeburn tested an F3 car at Brands Hatch in 1966, matching class front-runner Tony Lanfranchi’s times, and a works F2 Lotus 48 Ford FVA at Hethel in 1967, but, being a tall unit, decided to concentrate on sports car racing. 

He quit racing at the end of 1968, aged 32. In recent years John lived in retirement with his wife in Mooroolbark, Victoria. He died of a stroke on Saturday, 26 November 2016, aged 80.

Etcetera…

A Truish Story from 1965 by Clark Watson

‘Young John Raeburn, south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, six-foot-five in his socks, had come to England on the back of a Bathurst class win with Harry Firth. Europe didn’t care. Single-seater cockpits were built for midgets, so John ended up on the showroom floor of Chequered Flag Motorsport in Savile Row, selling Elans and the odd Ferrari while demonstrating Colin Chapman’s ultra-rare analogue driving simulator — one of only two ever made.’

‘One day, a Scottish Lord named Andy walked in — heir to half the Highlands, banned from racing by his mother until he produced heirs of his own. Instead, he spent the family’s millions running sports-car teams and collecting rogues like McLaren, Amon, Rindt, Surtees, and Bondurant. He took one look at the giant Australian and decided he liked him. Soon, John was testing for Andy’s private outfit and sharing a flat in Clapham with Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon.’

‘What happened in that flat stayed in that flat — except one story that finally slipped out. One winter evening, Andy dropped John home after a test day and said only, “Midnight. Sofa. Helmet. I’ll pick you up.” Over dinner, Bruce and Chris just sniggered. When John reached for the wine, they pushed water at him and told him to sleep. Just after midnight, a rattly old lorry reversed down the lane. Andy was directing mechanics who whipped a sheet off the load to reveal a gleaming silver Shelby Daytona Cobra, already thudding and rocking on its springs. Andy climbed into the passenger seat. “You drive.” They ghosted through sleeping London, turned right into Hyde Park itself — gates closed, lights out — pure madness.’ 

‘Fifty metres from disaster, the park blazed into light and the gates swung wide. Men in bowlers closed them again behind the Cobra. Andy grinned. “Foot flat, Johnno. The gates always open if you’re quick enough.”

‘The Midnight Stakes – the exact course. Horse Guards Parade → up the Mall → full slide around the Victoria Memorial (“the cake top”) → hard left into Hyde Park along South Carriage Drive → blast out at Marble Arch → down Park Lane → left into Constitution Hill → long, long opposite-lock slide back into Horse Guards Parade forecourt. Roughly 2.9 miles door-to-door. They did a slow reconnaissance lap first, just to let the oil warm and the tyres scrub in. Then they lined up again on the gravel.Top hats, tails, cigars, brandy, chalkboards, bowls of £100 notes. Tradition since the Napoleonic Wars on horseback, motorised by the Bentley Boys in 1929. Tonight it was John’s turn.’

‘Andy smacked the quarter panel. “Helmet on. The clock starts the moment you leave the forecourt. Don’t lift for the park — the gates will open.” John tightened the belts until they bit, clicked first, and dropped the hammer. Out of Horse Guards flat in second up the Mall, braked as late as he dared for the right into the park — 150 mph showing — then flat again. Lights flared, gates flew open, the Cobra thundered through the empty park like a silver bullet. Hard left at Marble Arch, 152 mph down Park Lane, police Pandas with blues twinkling, blocking every side street. One huge four-wheel drift around the Victoria Memorial — two perfect black doughnuts for the tourists to puzzle over next morning — then flat out down Constitution Hill and a long opposite-lock slide back into Horse Guards 1 minute 58.4 seconds dead.’

‘New outright record. John was dragged from the ticking Cobra, bundled into a waiting black cab and whisked home while the toffs threw top hats in the air and settled their bets. The record stood exactly thirteen nights. Then Chris Amon took the same 2.9-mile loop in a full Le Mans-spec GT40, big Ford V8 spitting blue flame, touching 198 mph past the Dorchester, and stopped the clocks at 1 minute 47 seconds flat. That night, the birds left every tree in Hyde Park in one black cloud, and half the palace windows rattled in their frames.’

‘The next morning, a humourless new Assistant Commissioner killed the game stone dead. The Cobra disappeared onto a ferry for Ireland before lunch, the chalkboard vanished, and the Horse Guards Midnight Stakes were declared finished “for the duration”.

‘Or so they say. Because if you’re ever in central London on a moonless night and you hear a big American V8 or a Le Mans Ford bark just once after the clocks strike twelve, sending the birds flying from the trees……you’ll know the gates are still opening for someone.’

Outside Rootes HQ in Melbourne (?) 1960. Seventh in Class C 1960 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island, up front of the class was the Geoff Russell/David Anderson/Tony Loxton Peugeot 403.

The word according to Harry…’Now listen here cock, just do this, this, and that, and we’ll win the class’, date and place unknown, yes, Harry is leaning on a Cortina.

Bathurst 500 1964, the Bill Buckle/Brian Foley Citroen inside the Firth/Raeburn FoMoCo Cortina GT. Third in Class D and Class C respectively.

Firth or Raeburn during the 1965 FoMoCo You Yangs Durability Run, Ford Falcon XP Hardtop, see here:https://primotipo.com/2022/03/18/ford-falcon-70000-mile-9-day-reliability-trial/

Zeltweg 500km grid on September 11, 1966. Johannes Ortner, Abarth 1300 GT, John Raeburn, Shelby Cobra and David Hobbs in Bernard White’s Ferrari 250LM.

In the Monza pits during the 1968 1000km weekend, that’s Tim Schenken in the sunglasses awaiting his turn at the wheel.

Schenken was a prudent co-driver choice, being the man on every team manager’s list. That year, he won the British Formula Ford Championship, Merlyn Mk11, the BRSCC-MCD British F3 Championship, Chevron B9 Ford/Brabham BT21X Ford/Brabham BT28 Ford and the Grovewood Award. Not bad…

Credits…

John Raeburn Archive via Greg Smith, Ebay, LAT, Ron Simmonds Archive, Leon Sims Archive, Peter Reynell, Brier Thomas, Graham Edney Collection, Bruce Wells, Ford Motor Company, Zdjecie on Historia jakiej nie znacie

Finito…