The victorious Nissan R380A-3 #6 awaits the arrival of Kunimitsu Takahashi before the start of the Surfers paradise 6-Hour enduro on November 2, 1969.
Takahashi shared the car with Yoshikayo Sunago, the other Nissan Motor Co R380A of Moto Kitano/Motoharu Kurosawa is alongside, and was the runner up.
That’s Frank Matich’s #1 Matich SR3 Repco RB620 4.4-litre V8 alongside. The pole car, co-driven by Don O’Sullivan – who was by then the car owner – was disqualified fairly early in the race for sports and touring cars after being illegally push-started when the starter motor failed to meet O’Sullivans commands after the car’s first pit-stop.
See here for an article on these fantastic Prince/Nissans:https://primotipo.com/2017/12/08/prince-datsun-make-that-nissan-r380/ It’s a great shame these cars weren’t campaigned internationally in World Endurance Championship events beyond this solitary race outside Australia, which makes the successful weekend for the Japanese giant an important race marker in their inexorable rise in global motorsport.
The flag has dropped for the Le Mans start, and O’Sullivan is head-down-bum-up bolting Frank into place as Kitano launches the #5 R380A into the fray. The Lotus 47 #7 was raced by Bob Beasley/Brian Davies into fifth outright; outside Beasley is David Seldon’s Volvo 142. I’m not sure which of the pair of Porsche 911S the car shown is.
In a race in which the winners covered 257 laps, 514 miles, Matich’s pole was 1:13.3; his fastest lap of 1:13 was the quickest of the race. The team car alongside FM is O’Sullivan’s Lola T70 Mk 2 Chev raced by Howie Sangster and Henk Woelders; in a bad day for the WA Equipe, they were out after only 11 laps!
I snitched screenshots of this short ABC piece focused on the SR3 during the meeting and particularly the mechanics: Jaime Gard and Graeme ‘Lugsy’ Adams, both of whom were very handy drivers. See here:https://youtu.be/nxQILr8mgUE?si=ovPcpppjTuS7opMU See this one too, the first of the SR3s which was fitted with a Traco-built aluminium F85 Oldsmobile V8: https://youtu.be/IYJOnQZGJzA?si=Gl1P9zLzG0UC3D-5
Lugs is no longer with us, but Jaime still is; he may even have turned 90 since the feature I did about him appeared in Australian Muscle Car last year; an absolutely mega bloke!
Third outright and impressive winner of the 2-litre Improved Production Sports Car class was the Glyn Scott/Joe Camilleri/Ann Thompson Lotus Elan 26R on 236 laps. Circuit owner Keith Williams tested his product together with David McKay and Alan Hamilton, winning the 2-litre Series Production Sports Cars category in a Porsche 911S (228 laps,sixth outright). Rising star John Goss and Denis Cribbin proved the reliability and adaptability of Gossy’s self-built Tornado Ford Falcon 2.9 in winning the over 2-litre Sports Car class (225 laps, seventh outright).
This Ford Falcon GTHO 351 raced by Leo Geoghegan/Jim Bertram won the over 2-litre Improved Production Touring Cars class (216 laps, 10th outright), while the Bill Fanning/Bob Holden Lotus Cortina was the sub 2-litre victor (223 laps, eighth outright).
Context is everything. There is quite a difference between a 2-litre sports prototype and a 2-litre family sedan! Here, David Seldon’s Digby Cooke co-driven Volvo 142 Improved Tourer towers over the winning Nissan – Datsun for the day, actually – R380A-3, through Datsun corner by the look of it…IRA BERK isn’t a piss-take or AI fuck-up either, but rather was a large Brisbane/Toowoomba Datsun/Nissan dealer.
Let’s stick with the theme below…three works Datsuns in shot: the winning R380A being chased by the Datsun Racing Team 1600 crewed by thrice Australian Grand Prix winner Doug Whiteford, John Roxburgh, and Barry Tapsall, while in the distance is the fifth outright DRT Datsun 2000 driven by the same mix-and-match trio of drivers. The Datto (1600) didn’t finish.
Credits…
Australian Broadcasting Commission, Brian Coffey Collection, Dale Harvey, Historic Japanese Racing Cars Facebook page
Tailpiece…
Nissan’s Surfers Paradise-winning R380A-3 is still in its Australian warpaint at a car show in Japan shortly thereafter, I guess. Note the Nissan Racing School Skyline 2000 GTR.
Finito…
primotipo... 