I love this shot of Ken Ward’s Morgan Ford – Series IV 4/4 aluminium bodied Ford 1498cc – at Warwick Farm during the December 1969 meeting, taken by Stephen Fryer. A little later after this, the roll bar regs ruined such a pucka-racy look!
Several years ago, talented racer/car builder/historian/photographer Peter Houston very kindly gave me a copy of his photo archive, which I’ve finally got around to having a serious look at! Thanks so much, Wirra!
(S Fryer)
Some of Stephen Fryer’s shots, almost entirely at Warwick Farm, caught my eye, so I thought I’d start there. I’m sure Peter will give us Stephen’s CV once he spots this post. I’m guessing this is our man shortly after obtaining his licence and putting his P’s on a Cooper S. Not a bad first car at all!
(S Fryer)
I suspect this bunch of photographs was taken during the RAC Trophy meeting at the Farm over the May 3, 1970 weekend.
It was the second round of that year’s Australian Sports Car Championship (ASCC) won by Niel Allen’s Elfin ME5 Chev 5-litre (below) from Frank Matich’s dominant Matich SR4 Repco 760 5-litre (above), with Phil Moore’s Elfin 300C Lotus-Ford third. Dennis Uhrane follows in his Elfin 300 Lotus-Ford 1.5.
(S Fryer)
There is no way Niel beat FM on equal terms that day; Matich must have had mechanical problems with the car that toasted the opposition in the 1969 ASCC. SR4 was famously built to contest the 1968 Can-Am Cup, but the chassis, body and engine all ran late, so the car never made it stateside and instead became king of the kids at home. It was somewhat akin to taking an AK47 to a fight where the rest of the crew were armed with 303s.
Stephen’s overhead shot above, taken from the steps of the Dunlop Bridge, I suspect, shows Garrie Cooper’s edgy-wedgy for 1969 body design. This monocoque chassis big sporty had quite a short wheelbase and needed an elite-level driver such as Allen to get the best out of it.
He didn’t race it for long. With the onward march of F5000, he had Peter Molloy crank the Bartz Chevy outta the Elfin and into a ‘spankers McLaren M10B. ME5 co-design/contribution credits to Tony Alcock and John Webb.
Matich, SR4 (S Fryer)(S Fryer)
At that same meeting, there was a 100-lapper for Series Production cars, the Castrol Trophy was the second round of the Australian Manufacturers’ Championship.
The shot above shows three very capable long-time steerers: Bob Forbes in a Fiat 1600 Coupe, Allan Moffat’s works Ford Falcon GTHO, and Don Holland’s Holden Torana LC Torana GTR XU-1, the latter duo fighting for outright honours.
(S Fryer)
Moffat and Holland are monstering an Escort Twin-Cam this time, on the Northern Crossing (of the horse racing track underneath). Stephen’s panoramas of a circuit I love, despite never having been there, are fantastic, and help in my understanding of the place!
Lynton Hemer tells us that ‘The race started at 11.30am and lasted just over three hours, the longest race ever held at the Farm, a race distance never to be repeated there. The Holden Dealer Team Toranas of Colin Bond and Peter Brock were the only cars to go the distance, taking first and second, 30 seconds apart, with Moffat in third place, a lap down.’
(S Fryer)
Thankfully, the Australian G & G F’cd attitude prevails even in these, homogenised, pasteurised, sanitised and purified days. Warwick Farm c-1971.
I reckon Stephen waited for Chummy to get bored up on his fabulous perch, then jumped up and took the shot below, which appears to be the start/warm-up lap of the 1971 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round.
That’s Frank Gardner’s works Lola T192 Chev #31 peeling out on this side with Frank Matich’s McLaren M10B Repco-Holden on pole. #25 is Chris Amon’s Lotus 70 Ford, and the splash of yellow is Kevin Bartlett’s Mildren Chev. Gardner won the 45 lap 100 mile race from Amon and Bartlett. See here:https://primotipo.com/2025/06/15/warwick-farm-100-1971/
(S Fryer)(S Fryer)
Another of Stephen Fryer’s high shots, again from the Dunlop Bridge (?) this time a bunch of battling Cooper ‘Esses’.
I thought it was an improved tourer race at first glance, but the presence of John Leffler’s blue-white works sports-racing-closed/sports sedan Cooper S Lwt tells me it’s a mixed grid. Peter Manton is up the front, but who are the blue and red cars, circa-1970, how about the May 3, ’70 meeting?
(S Fryer)
It could be the same race, but Stephen has swapped lenses. This time it’s Jim McKeown’s Porsche 911S 2.4 improved tourer and below Pete Geoghegan’s immortal John Sheppard built Ford Mustang 302 carrying #1 as the reigning (1969) Australian Touring Car Champion in 1970.
(S Fryer)
And how ’bout Marvin the Marvel in the same race? Were the Minilites on that shagadelic thing in 1970? Allan Moffat, Kar-Kraft Boss 302.
(S Fryer)(S Fryer)
Lets change the pace a bit. Frank Matich giving the punters a wave during his very first race meeting with his brand new McLaren M10A Chev, again at Warwick Farm, in September 1969.
The period of Matich dominance, if not absolute domination of Australian F5000 racing started right here. It’s still two years until the class became Australia’s National F1 ‘ANF1’ but the 1970 Tasman Cup was run for Tasman 2.5s and F5000 and FM was in on the ground floor. Rothmans Team Matich wasn’t far away, soo too Repco’s F5000 program with Holden, of which FM became the works driver.
For the moment, the focus of just arrived from the UK, Derek Kneller, Peter Mabey and FM was making this car as fast as the new McLaren M10B. That’s Derek’s recently fabricated rear engine cover-wing, the Traco Chev is on Webers but was injected by the Tasman’s commencement. It’s all here:https://primotipo.com/2023/06/25/matichs-mclaren-m10c-repco-holden-v8/
(S Fryer)
Stephen has caught Jochen Rindt sliding his way around the Farm during the terribly wet February 6, 1969 Warwick Farm 100 aboard his works Lotus 49B Ford DFW 2.5. He was on another planet that dreary day providing yet another reminder to just minted teammate F1 World Champion Graham Hill that it was game-on! in ’69.
That’s Frank Gardner in Alec Mildren’s Mildren Alfa Romeo T33 2.5 V8 – soon to be dubbed the Yellow Submarine – below, while the following photo is Graham Hill, sans goggles, I think, about to gather up Niel Allen’s ex-Piers Courage McLaren M4A Ford FVA F2.
The Allan Moffat and John French works Ford Falcon GTHO Phase 2s lead away at the start of the Rothmans 3 Hour race for Series Production cars at Mount Panorama on Easter Monday, April 12, 1971.
They were first and second in the 65 lap race – the first heat in the 1971 Australian Manufacturers Championship – from the HDT LC XU1s of Peter Brock and Colin Bond.
Stephen only took only the one shot it seems, new girlfriend to attend to is my guess as to poor prioritisation…
(S Fryer)
Its got a bit of a 1969 feel about it to me…
Bob Jane, Pete Geoghegan and Peter Manton, then AN Other in the Warwick Farm Esses: Shelby Mustang, Sheppo Mustang and Skinny Cooper S.
That’s Chris Brauer in the ex-Jane ‘390 Mustang’below, he did pretty well in it until the car’s death in the Lakeside July 1970 ATCC round, so therefore he is at the Farm before then…see here:https://primotipo.com/2020/01/03/jano/
(S Fryer)
Credits…
Stephen Fryer photographs via Peter Houston, Lynton Hemer
Tailpiece…
(S Fryer)
Let’s finish with a shot from the same race as the first one.
This time, A Newby’s Jaguar XK150S FHC. It’s much too nice a car to race, much better to be taking the babe to Palmy or Bowral, surely?
Spencer Martin in the Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM, looking for an outside run on Wally Mitchell’s RM1 Climax FPF 2.5 into the Viaduct, you can see the dark, looming Water Tower at the top of the photograph, during the 1966 Australian Tourist Trophy.
This photograph, taken by Peter Duckworth from the Viaduct spectator area on the railway line, shows the sheer majesty and scale of Australia’s long-lost – 1968 was the final race meeting – Longford road circuit that ducked and dived over 4.5 miles through the local environs in and around the northern Tasmania rural hamlet southwest of Launceston.
Some of the photos taken by Peter, posted on the excellent Historic Racing Car Club of Tasmania Facebook page some years back, I retro-fitted into articles I’d already done, but I was looking through that site for the first time in a while and thought they really deserved a piece all of their own to let them breathe.
As I’ve admitted many times before, I’m completely captivated by Longford despite never visiting during the day, but I’ve made up for it since! I covered Jackie Stewart’s victory in the South Pacific Trophy nearly sixty years ago on March 7, 1966 aboard a 1.9-litre BRM P261 V8 in this piece:https://primotipo.com/2016/05/19/jackies-66-longford/
(HRCCT)
The perils of this part of Tassie and the inferior aerodynamics of the Elfin 400 are revealed in this shot of Globe Products’s Noel Hurd-driven Elfin 400 Ford 289 V8 (#BB661), which took flight at or near the top of the rise shown in the photo above, beyond the start-finish straight, the following year, 1967.
The two championship feature events of the weekend were the South Pacific Trophy and the Australian Tourist Trophy won by Frank Matich in his Elfin 400 Oldsmobile V8, a car entered by Frank as the Traco Oldsmobile for the twelve months he raced it. Otherwise, it was called by most of its owners an Elfin 400, given the car was built by Garrie Cooper’s Edwardstown, Adelaide firm, and left said establishment in late 1965 with an Elfin badge on the nose and Elfin chassis plate on the dash.
(P Duckworth)
The flag drops at the start of the 1966 Australian Tourist Trophy at Longford on March 7.
The front row cars took the podium places, poleman Frank Matich won the 23-lap 103-mile race in his two or so meetings old Elfin 400 Oldsmobile V8, by 7 seconds from Alan Hamilton’s similar vintage to him Porsche Distributors’ Porsche 904 Spyder 2-litre flat-six and then Spencer Martin in the Scuderia Veloce/David McKay Ferrari 250LM 3.3-litre V12. another 28.5 seconds further back.
That’s Lionel Ayers’ white fourth-place Lotus 23B Lotus-Ford behind Hammo. Another Lotus 23, I’m not sure which of the other three that started, while Kevin Bartlett’s white Alec Mildren Alfa Romeo GTA stands load and proud (DNF head gasket).
Frank Matich’s Laurie O’Neill funded Elfin 400 Oldsmobile – the Traco Olds in FM speak – at Longford in 1966. The blokes are, perhaps, Bruce Richardson leaning over the bonnet, Bob Holden in the sunnies, FM in the cap, and Laurie O’Neil next to Matich (P Duckworth) Alan Hamilton’s ex-works Porsche 904/8 ‘Kanguruh’ chassis #906-007 in the Longford paddock; the first of his three Porsche sports racers to be blessed with that chassis number…(P Duckworth)
Other notables in the race were Dick Thurston, who was fifth in the ex-Stillwell Cooper T49 Monaco, by then Buick V8-powered; the redoubtable local crowd pleaser, Kerry Cox, who was seventh in the Paramount Jaguar. Bob Holden was ninth in the Lolita BMC, and Alan Ling was a splendid 10th in a Lotus Super 7. Paul Bolton, Frank Demuth and Steve Holland – all the way from Hong Kong – raced 23Bs, surely one of Colin Chapman’s finest ever production racing cars?
Also worthy of note is Ross Ambrose, later co-founder of Van Diemen Racing Cars with Ralph Firman and father of Marcos, local sports car perennial, who was 17th in his Elfin Streamliner Ford, Bob Wright in a Tasma 1500 18th, and Max Brunninghausen who was classified 19th in his Alfa Romeo TZ1 despite head gasket failure. A fantastic Australian sports car grid of the era in every respect.
Longford pre-start. Jackie Stewart #3 and Graham Hill aboard BRM’s exquisite 1.9-litre P261s and Jim Clark’s Lotus 39 Climax FPF, which has resided in Tasmania for quite some while. Note the different heads fitted to Bourne’s finest (P Duckworth)
As written above, Jackie Stewart won for BRM at Longford in 1966 and also popped the Tasman Cup into his CV. While the 1964 BARC British F3 Championship was his first series win, the ’66 Tasman was his first international series triumph; a respected one at the time, given the strength of the competition and therefore the degree of difficulty in winning it!
Spencer Martin’s Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT11A Climax FPF #IC-4-64, soon to become Spencer Martin’s Bob Jane Racing car in which he won the 1966-67 Australian Drivers’ Championships. The ‘divorce’ was handled elegantly by all parties if you believe what you read; that Shell was the mutual sponsor was helpful in relation thereto (P Duckworth)
That year was a turning point, the season in which the Coventry Climax 2.5-litre FPF four-cylinder engine, which provided a key, probably the key, foundation piece, in establishing the 2.5 Tasman formula, was supplanted by V8s. The BRM V8s – 1.9-litre variants of BRM’s successful P56/P60 1.5-litre F1 engines – showed the future path to win the trophy, while Repco’s new Repco-Brabham 2.5-litre 620 V8 also showed promise.
Jack Brabham raced BT19 #F1-1-65 at Sandown and Longford powered by 2.5-litre variants of the RBE V8 on a development path that saw its first F1 win (3-litres) in the International Trophy at Silverstone on May 14, first championship win at Reims, in the French Grand Prix on July 3, and the World Drivers and International Cup for Manufacturers championships wrapped up at Monza on September 4.
Jack, BT19 2.5 620 V8 and Jack’s longtime local manager, Reg Thompson (thanks, Stephen Dalton!). Longford 1966, the car’s third race: the South African GP January 1 DNF and the Sandown Park Cup Feb 27 DNF, being the first two (P Duckworth)
Not a bad result against the might of Ferrari, Lotus, BRM, Cooper et al for a company that commenced in 1961 – Motor Racing Developments – and not bad for a company that had never built an engine before – Repco!
This weekend, during the 2026 Australian Grand Prix carnival, on Thursday, BT19 was inducted into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame. It’s the 100th member, the first, and probably the last ‘non-person’ to be accorded that honour.
BT19 at Albert Park yesterday after induction into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame. That’s David and Sam Brabham in the white/white and black shirts (M Bisset)
If memory serves, Repco restored the car with a team of Repco/ex-Repco Brabham Engines artisans led by the late Don Halpin in time for the 1978 ‘Fangio Meeting’; the ’78 AGP at Sandown where Jack ‘duelled’ in BT19 with JMF’s Mercedes Benz W196 in several events.
So the car is a familiar face for many of us, with the car pressed into regular service since Repco became the V8 Supercars Championship sponsor in recent years. A national treasure, it would be intriguing to know the sum for which it’s insured!
Etcetera…
(P Duckworth)
Rob Bartholomaeus tells me this Bolwell Mk5 Holden lookalike is Bruno Carosi’s Carosi B-Type special, resplendent, no doubt, in one of the Bolwell Brothers’ lovely bodies. Red Falcon Hardtop at left, and blue Valiant and Ross Ambrose’s Elfin Streamliner Ford to the rear.
Credits…
Photography by Peter Duckworth courtesy of the Historic Racing Car Club of Tasmania, oldracingcars.com, Google, Graham Howard
Tailpiece…
Didn’t Alan Hamilton get the jump in his Porsche! From Matich, Dick Thurston, Cooper Monaco Buick, Spencer Martin 250LM, a swarm of Lotus 23Bs: Frank Demuth #5, Paul Bolton #3 and Lionel Ayers #11 with Wally Mitchell’s RM1 Climax at left and Max Brunninghausen’s Alfa Romeo TZ1 at right, and the rest…
David and Andrew Hewison catch Neill Murdoch at the wheel of the family Lombard AL3 1.1-litre DOHC, supercharged Voiturette in North Warrandyte in Melbourne’s outer east on November 22, 2025
The occasion was a photoshoot of the uber-rare French car for an article I wrote, published in the March issue of The Automobile, which is in-store in the UK right now. Please buy it! https://www.theautomobile.co.uk
(M Bisset)(The Automobile)(B King Collection)
Bill Lowe and John Cleaver on the way to third place in Lombard AL3 #334 in the 1929 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island on March 18. That’s John Bernadou’s Bugatti T23 following; that pair were fifth in the race won by Arthur Terdich’s Bugatti T37A.
Lowe, a Melbourne engineer and industralist of note, raced a Metallurgique in the 100 Miles Road Race, later named an Australian Grand Prix, the year before and was after a more competitive mount for ’29; he raced the new Lombard AL3 and secured an agency for the eponymous marque founded by Andre Lombard, which was already, in its infancy, in financial strife.
The main man, Andre Lombard, in the Brooklands paddock, tending to his Salmson during the October 22, 1921 meeting in which he won the Light Car Derby. He made his name competing in the engineering of the Billancourt-based marque.
Chassis #334’s whole life has been in Australia, in Melbourne, actually! The Murdoch family – not Rupert’s mob – bought the car at auction in 2002 and have since very sensitively maintained the car as it was. This centenarian has never been the subject of a ‘restoration’ or ‘full rebuild’ but, rather, is an Oily Rag car that has been continually repaired over its very long life.
The small roster of owners includes Lowe into the 1950’s, Bill Leech for a similarly long stretch – many of us saw Bill race the car in historic events – and ‘Wild Bill’ Evans of Datsun touring car fame.
The article is my favourite type to do. A mix of marque and key people’s history, the CV of the individual chassis concerned since birth, and driving impressions. Believe me, the latter is easily the best bit!
I’ve done a few of them now: David and Pat Mottram’s Lotus Elite Super 95, Bob King’s AC Ace Bristol, Richard Stanley’s Sunbeam 20/60, Rob Alsop’s Bugatti T23, Hyundai Australia’s i20N, and i30N on both Hobart’s road and track (Baskerville), Adam Berryman’s Bugatti T37A, and the Murdoch’s Alta 21S 1100 s/c, Alta 55S 2-litre s/c and now Lombard. Oh, to be doing it every week, wouldn’t that be grand!
(Hewison/The Automobile)Neill Murdoch, AL3 North Warrandyte (Hewison/The Automobile)
I was talking to an enthusiast last week about how long the whole process takes; it’s about six months from pitching the idea to the article appearing on the printed page. Longer if the little minx concerned has a meltdown of some sort.
The research on this topic was a real challenge as the Murdochs didn’t have the mountain of material on Lombard that they have on Altas. My library is skinny on the topic, too, so my circle of mates dug deep. Phil Schudmak’s library of French stuff is strong, so Google Translate was set to work. Bob King, Stephen Dalton and Tony Johns all pitched in. Chris Beach came up with some fabulous period shots that eluded me on the internet, and he tidied up the fantastic AL3 drawing below, first published in the January 16, 1953 issue of Autosport. It didn’t make the cut, but here ’tis…
The perfect world with a car like this would be to trailer it to Deans Marsh, then unload it, saddle up and do Benwerrin, then Lorne to Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road, inclusive of shots. Then Skenes Creek, Forrest and back to Deans Marsh. But that ain’t ever going to happen!
In essence, the location of the car dictates the test/photo route. The AL3 lives at Neill’s place at present, in Melbourne’s inner east, very close to me. So I recce’d roads very familiar to me in Melbourne’s outer east: Warrandyte, Kangaroo Ground, Christmas Hills, with Sugarloaf Reservoir – very close to Rob Roy Hillclimb, where the little AL3 competed in the hands of all of its owners – the end point.
While I know the roads, I’m carefully choosing photo locations on the recce, static and on the move, so everybody’s use of time on the day is efficient. David Hewison, the photographer, makes the final calls on the day on the fly. I met Neill at his place at 8.30, Geoff, his brother, had the chase-car, and we went back there, having bought the client a relaxed el-cheapo meal in Eltham at about 4-ish. So, it’s a full day. In this case, Geoff trailered the car home, not that it needed it.
It’s fun. I never do any of the writing before the drive, even the corporate stuff, somehow I like the flavour of the car in my mind when I do the scribbling. There is no logic to that, just personal preference.
(Hewison/The Automobile)
No more than ten-five Neill. Scribbler and co-owner Neill Murdoch.
The cockpit is tight but comfy enough for a weekend rally. ‘Box is a four-speed crash with the shifter centrally mounted. The pedals are conventionally located, too, so the driving isn’t too challenging for an old curmudgeon, whose daily motoring is behind the wheel of manuals.
Credits…
M Bisset, Bob King Collection, David and Andrew Hewison photographers
Tailpieces…
(Hewison/The Automobile)(Hewison/The Automobile)
It was a day of smiles. Terrific photos by David Hewison and his 16-year-old son Andrew, whom I managed to leave off the credits in the magazine. Sorry, pal, my fuck up!
Thanks again, Neill and Geoff Murdoch, it’s such fun to work with you guys!
Neill Murdoch, Andrew and David Hewison, and of course the star of the show (M Bisset)
Roberto Moreno enroute to third place during the August 3, 1987 Brands Hatch, International Formula 3000 Championship round. Ralt RT21/87 Honda.
March had a mortgage on the early years of F3000, winning three titles on the trot for Christian Danner, March 85B Ford Cosworth in 1985, Ivan Capelli, 86B Ford Cosworth in ’86 and Stefano Modena – you guessed it – aboard an 87B Ford Cosworth in 1987.
There was some serious talent contesting the ’87 title in addition to the pair of factory Ralt pilots, Moreno and Mauricio Gugelmin: Jacques Villeneuve Snr, Eliseo Salazar, Pierluigi Martini, Paolo Barilla, Olivier Grouillard, Luis Perez-Sala, Yannick Dalmas, Mark Blundell, Michele Ferte, Andy Wallace, Julian Bailey, Lamberto Leoni, Gabriele Tarquini, Beppe Gabbiani, Stefano Modena and many others.
Honda commissioned a fleet of 12 3-litre F3000 engines from John Judd; the Judd-Honda BV was supplied exclusively to Ralt in 1986-87. More on John Judd’s Engine Deelopments business here: https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/how-to-be-an-ace-engineer-engine-designer-john-judd/10554927/Ron Tauranac, Mauricio Gugelmin and Roberto Moreno during 1987, circuit folks? The matching team attire is impressive (MotorSport)
The Honda V8 powered Ralts had plenty of pace that year. Moreno was on pole in four of the ten rounds and Gugelmin in two of them but that qualifying pace yielded only a win apiece, Gugelmin in the opening round at Silverstone and Moreno at Enna-Pergusa. Championship winner, Sefano Modena, March 87B Cosworth won three races and Perez-Sala and Dalmas two.
The plucky Moreno was rewarded with end of season F1 drives of the AGS JH22 Cosworth DFZ in Japan and Australia, five years after a couple of abortive qualifying attempts with Lotus in 1982. His many Australian fans – he won three AGPs at Calder aboard Ralt RT4s in the 1981-84 Formula Pacific era – cheered Roberto on to a wonderful seventh in the AGP in Adelaide, a race of great attrition, which became a point-scoring sixth after Ayrton Senna’s McLaren was disqualified from second place for oversized brake ducts.
Moreno, AGS JH22 Ford from Ivan Capelli’s March 871 Ford, AGP Adelaide 1987 (MotorSport)Roberto Moreno at the start of the Pau GP in 1988; race winner in his Reynard 88D Ford Cosworth (LAT)
The Ralt perennial, in desperate need to break into F1 with a good team full-time, Moreno raced a Bromley Motorsport Reynard 88D Ford Cosworth engineered by Gary Anderson to four wins and the F3000 title in a ‘penniless’ campaign.
This was a pretty big spin of the roulette wheel given the 88D was Reynard’s first F3000 design, Australia’s Malcolm Oastler was responsible for the carbon-fibre machine which also won the ’88 Japanese and ’89 British F3000 championships.
The F3000 win led Moreno to a Ferrari test contract, then a Ferrari influenced Coloni F1 drive, and finally a ride with Benetton in 1990 after poor Sandro Nannini’s helicopter crash almost cost him a hand. Then Michael Schumacher came along…CART success followed for Moreno in the US, particularly in 2000-01.
John Smith, Ralt RT21 Holden, notwithstanding the Lexcen promotion, Phillip Island circa 1989
In a Ralt RT21 (and RT20) postscript, these aluminium monocoque cars formed a decent chunk of the front of Australian Formula Holden – the Australian Drivers Championship/Gold Star category – for grids from the inception of the Holden V6 3.8-litre powered formula in 1989.
Rohan Onslow won the inaugural ’89 Australian Gold Star (Formula Holden) title in an RT20, and Simon Kane the 1990 championship aboard an RT21.
Credits…
MotorSport Images, LAT Photographic, an1images.com/Graeme Neander
Tailpiece…
(LAT)
Roberto Moreno, Team El Charro AGS JH22 Ford during the 1987 Japanese GP weekend at Suzuka. DNF engine failure from last on the grid, the winner was Gerhard Berger, Ferrari F187.
Fantastic Seven Mile Beach panorama at Gerringong – Gerroa – New South Wales, circa-1930, when beach racing at the seaside playground south of Sydney was very popular.
It’s the north end of the beach with Crooked River in the foreground, an often impenetrable barrier for competitors trying to get to the track on the sand; ‘tide management’ was a big issue as shown below! That’s Professors Burkitt’s – thrice AGP winner, Bill Thompson’s patron – big, white Mercedes K-Type centre pic.
(NLA)
‘Gerringong Speedway’, as it was called in the day, was in use from Saturday, May 9,1925, until the mid-1950s, for motorcycle use, with many deeds of derring-do taking place there. Don Harkness was the first in Australia to break the 100mph barrier in a 150hp Hispano Suiza Minerva V8 Spl at an average of 107.14mph set on October 17, 1925.
Don Harkness, aboard FG Colbert’s – chairman of the Penrith Speedway Co Ltd – Hispano Suiza Minerva V8 at Gerringong in 1925 (PDavis-A Half Century of Speed)Southern Cross, a Fokker FVllb/3M, on Seven Mile Beach in 1933 (Kiama Library)
No less than the great Charles Kingsford-Smith made the first commercial flight from Australia to New Zealand from Gerringong Beach aboard Southern Cross his Fokker monoplane, on January 11, 1933.
I’ve had a pretty good crack at Gerringong a couple of times before, but the pair of Gerringong panorama shots here got me looking again for other photographs – without success – but some Troving revealed a couple of great articles worth reproducing about the first meeting on the beach in 1925.
The diapason of the heavy rolling surf along the seven-mile beach at Gerringong mingled with the harsh scream or roar of racing motor engines yesterday. The white horses of Neptune flung their manes high, till, one after another, the big blue billows smashed in white foam on the beach, encroaching on the speedway which nature has made for the sport of car-racing. A storm spoiled the spectators’ sport, and many a smart car was bogged in the clay roads on the way back from the beach race track.
Reg G Potts – above and below – in the JAS Jones owned Lea Francis during the Fifty Mile Handicap during the May 1930 meeting (W Skimmings)(NLA)
ALL day at the big carnival of the Royal Automobile Club, it was a battle between the cars and the tide. Big creamy rollers flung carpets of boiling surf right onto the great semi-circle of beach which formed the speed track. Inch by inch, the sea encroached, and when a stiff wind blew straight inshore late in the afternoon, it sent clouds of spray often right over the speeding cars.
But there were plenty of thrills for those who motored down through the torturous ravines around Kiama to see the racing. In fact, Kiama buzzed with excitement over the event. A couple of hundred cars thundered down its chief streets. In the morning, the little bays around Kiama, with their fingers of crinkly surf and golden sand, were bathed in brilliant sunshine. But great banks of black clouds that came bowling over the bronze-green bluffs that rise above Gerringong, in an hour turned a day of turquoise into one of drab, ash grey.
The right crowd and no crowding is the feel!? It all seems a bit unbelievable today, but life was run to Formule Libre back then
Then, lashed by the wind, the rollers became most angry. They tossed their milky crests onto the beach so fiercely that they seemed intent on swooping the motor invaders from their domain. More than one car floundered heavily in the wash, and one or two sank inches into the sodden sand.
When the motor invasion began at noon, the bronze-green walls of ti-tree and furze, which dip down to the sea, flung back the echoes of the thundering engines in a deafening way. The moan of the surf was smothered in the crackle of the cars. It was altogether a remarkable picture. Before the speed demons stretched one of the finest beaches in Australia, hard as concrete, and with just that gentle incline that motorists relish. It swings away in a great crescent to a bold headland clothed in scrub.
Wizard Smith with Don Harkness alongside, on the Anzac Rolls Royce V12 breaking the Australasian Land Speed Record at 148mph, Gerringong, December 1, 1929. The car is heading south towards Shoalhaven Heads; the return trip was the other way (NLA)
Like a Crackle of Thunderclap
They are lined up — the drivers’ grim faces with goggled eyes glued to the track in front of them, twelve ears like twelve huge tin cigars shining in the fitful sunlight. Under them, the engines thunder. The yellowish, damp track hurls itself beneath those winged tyres down past the speckled black and white flags.
They race with a crackle like thunderclaps. There is an advantage on the run closest to the sea to the man who works into that position and clings to the fringe of boiling surf with the greatest grimness. Midway, they must sweep round the gentle turn in the crescent of the beach. They do it with a biting, gritty slide of those back wheels on the wet, glistening sand that was swept by the incoming surge a moment earlier. There is a sudden puff of blue smoke, a flash of flame from straining machines, and they charge down the long, straight carpet of sand with the speed of a high explosive shell.
A couple of (rough-looking) Knights in Shining Armour attend to the ladies’ needs (NLA)
You can’t see the whole of any race at Gerringong. In fact, unless you race alongside in a car, you cannot see anything but the dazzling finishes. In a few seconds, they diminish to the size of a black beetle careering along the sand. Often, the smoke of the surf drifts across and blots them out altogether. Then they emerge smaller than tiny beetles against the background of the beach. Their roar has dwindled to a faint purr, and then they are lost to view five miles away on the same beach. But before you have time to realise it, those speed men have turned in a sirocco of sand, and they are racing back again.
It is an exhilarating spectacle. In the most novel surroundings. Round they roar with a flying of wheels, a pumping of oil, a screeching of gears, and a crunching of track grit. A trail or petrol smoke lasts like a blue mist against the green wall of scrub. Then, as they bound on towards those deciding flags, the track gets smokier, and the grim faces oilier.
The crowd – and it was a large one on the sand yesterday – bursts into a cheer, and the race is won – you come away with a feeling of awe of tho men who have such wrists, and are able to use them as they can.
Bugs galore: AV Turner, T30-4087, S Lee T23-2566 and G Meredith in an unidentified Brescia (B King Arc)
An attempt was to have been made to see if any of the cars could reach a speed of 100 miles an hour. That was to have been the main attraction of the carnival, but the drivers decided that the tide had made the beach too sodden to reach anything like that speed with their machines.
Likewise, the race between an aeroplane and a speed car was also cut out. A ‘plane circled over the beach, and made one or two flights along the semi-circular track, but because of heavy going none of the 40 cars that took part in the racing was pitted against it.Last night half a hundred speed men fought their way through the mud into Kiama. All were thrilled with the day’s work. The driving rain caused the final of the 12 miles handicap to be abandoned.
A summary of the results is as follows. The winner of the Three Miles Handicap was Boyd Edkins, Vauvhall, the Six Miles Scratch went to AV Turner’s Bugatti, the 24 Miles Scratch Race was won by HR Clarke’s Vauxhall, the two Twelve Miles Handicaps were won by RK Hormann’s Rollin, while ‘The final was abandoned owing to rain.’
It was the first time the elements intervened in Gerringong’s proceedings, but far from the last!
Hope Bartlett and passenger in his GP Sunbeam (B King Collection)
In the beginning…
When did it all end? Good question! Denis Foreman wrote on Bob Williamson’s Old Australian Motor Racing Photographs that, ‘I raced on 7 Mile Beach in 1953 with Bankstown Wiley Park Motorcycle Club,’ which must be towards the end of the Gerringong Speedway? Can anyone tell me when the ‘final race meeting’ on Gerringong beach took place?
This article was published in the Sydney Sportsman, on April 28, 1925 and seems to indicate that the first meeting on Gerringong Speedway was the one covered in the article above, on Saturday, May 9, 2025.
MOTOR RACING IN THE BOOM: Ideal Beach at Gerringong: ATTRACTING OVERSEAS CHAMPIONS
WITH the building of motordromes in various centres, and the holding of reliability trials, the boom in motoring has extended to car racing under the auspices of the Royal Automobile Club on Gerringong Beach near Kiama, on Saturday, May 9. On Sunday, May 17, the Sydney Bicycle and Motor Club will follow with events for both cars and motorcycles over a similar course.
On Gerringong Beach.
To Mr H. R. Hodgeon, the patrol officer of the Royal Automobile Club, belongs the honour of introducing motor car racing on one of its States famous benches. Mr Hodgson, who is a barrister and presides over the Railway Appeal Court, has made an exhaustive study of the beaches from a racing point of view. He has witnessed contests on Sellicks Beach (South Australia) and Muriwai Beach near Auckland. (Hodgson had years of experience as an ‘organiser of most of the biggest reliability contests in the state’).
Mr Hodgson believes that Gerringong is in the fortunate position of having the greatest beach in the world from a racing point of view, and in this respect, he is supported by Boyd Edkins and H. R. Clarke.
Hope Bartlett this time aboard his Bugatti T43-169, one of the fastest cars in Australia, flat chat with passenger on Seven Mile Beach (B King Arc)
The seven-mile beach at Gerringong is 88 1/2 miles distant from Sydney by road. At low water, a stretch of sand nearly 100 yards wide, with a straight drive of five miles, is available. The surface is remarkably solid and hard, there being no bumps of any kind, and is capable of holding together at any speed in absolute safety.
A month ago some fine performances were achieved on the beach by stock touring model, machines, with full complement of passengers. Speeds over 80 miles per hour were recorded.
As a means of helping to popularise this class of sport, a suitable trophy (£50 cup) has been offered for the first competitor driving a car at 100 miles per hour or faster over a flying mile.
Speed Only.
Several other events are to be decided. Entries for the 25-mile handicap and races for touring cars will close with the R.A.C.A. on May 4. The races will be decided on speed only. Entrants must be members of the club, but need not be the owners of the cars they nominate. One event will be a race between L Tyler’s DH 6 aeroplane and a motor car.
Credits…
National Library of Australia, Fairfax Archive, Kiama Library, Pedr Davis and Ors ‘A Half Century of Speed’, Warren Skimmings Collection, The Sun Sydney Sunday, May 10, 1925, Sydney Sportsman, April 28, 1925
Tailpiece…
(B King Arc)
Such an evocative shot from Bob King’s collection.
He reckons its Geoff Meredith in Bugatti Type 30 chassis #4087, the ex-AV Turner car in which the great man met his maker, and the car aboard which Meredith won the first Australian Grand Prix at Goulburn in January 1927.
Pop McLaren and another helper about to bump-start Bruce’s Cooper T45 Climax FPF 2.5 at the Wigram RNZAF track on the January 23, 1960 weekend.
That’s Ian Burgess’ third-placed Cooper T51 Climax behind, then Pat Hoare’s Ferrari 256 V12 a little further back; he was fifth. Jack Brabham won the race in a T51 2.5-FPF with David Piper’s Lotus 16 Climax FPF 2.5 second. Bruce was fourth in the Lycoming Special; more of that soon.
New Zealand’s Summer Internationals commenced with the NZ GP, then held on the Ardmore Airfield circuit outside Auckland, with the Lady Wigram Trophy the other round most visiting internationals did. Sometimes they also entered the Dunedin Road Race and Teretonga International, held on a permanent racetrack near Invercargill, both venues on the South Island.
That year the visitors were headlined by Stirling Moss, twice-on-the-trot World Champion Brabham, and Burgess, Piper, while the Australian contingent included Bib Stillwell and Stan Jones in Cooper T51s, and Len Lukey in a T45. Similarly mounted was Kiwi youngsters Denny Hulme and George Lawton, both Driver to Europe exports; Lawton’s a sad one…
(T Marshall)
Coopers to the fore on the first lap at of the New Zealand GP at Ardmore: McLaren, Moss, Brabham, #6 Australian Bib Stillwell and then Ian Burgess. One T45 and four T51s. In the middle of the road is David Pipers Lotus 16 Climax, car #17 Johnny Mansel’s Maserati 250F, while #88 is Ron Roycroft’s positively historic but very well driven ex-Ascari Ferrari 375 4.5-litre V12. Behind Mansel is perhaps Pat Hoare, Ferrari 256 V12 – a Dino 246 fitted with a 3-litre V12 – then Arnold Glass in his Maserati 250F #12. Close to the oil drum is 1954 NZ GP winner Stan Jones, Cooper T51 Climax, and finally the big front-engined car is Ted Gray in his last drive of Australian Land Speed record holder, Ted Gray in Tornado 2 Chev V8.
At this time of technological change, it was certainly a grid lacking variety! Coopers were of course right up there: Brabham and McLaren finished one-two in their 2.5-litre FPF-powered cars from the 2.2s of Stillwell and Jones. The best placed front-engined cars were the pair of 2.5-litre six-cylinder Maserati 250Fs raced by Kiwi Johnny Mansel and Aussie Arnold Glass.
Stirling, Bruce and Jack all ears during the Ardmore drivers briefing – not necessarily in 1960 mind you (R Stuart)Brabham on the way to victory at Wigram in 1960, Cooper T51 Climax (T Marshall)
That summer, Jack Brabham won both the NZ GP and Wigram, while Syd Jensen’s nimble Cooper T45 Climax 1.5 won on the Dunedin city roads, and Ian Burgess triumphed at Teretonga, Cooper T51 Climax FPF 2.2-litre.
On the other side of The Ditch Brabham won at Longford and Phillip Island against local opposition; it was a great summer for him. It wasn’t until 1961 – and really 1962 – that the Australians had the tracks to cut it with the Kiwis to attract the internationals with the first Tasman Cup held and won by Bruce McLaren’s Cooper T70 Climax in 1964.
(G Woods Collection)McLaren, with ‘nomex’ jumper and long sleeved shirt on to deal with the summer chill, Burgess and Pat Hoare’s Ferrari 256 V12 (R Stuart)
While Bruce McLaren started the Lady Wigram Trophy in his Cooper, he retired the car and then took over the famous aircraft-engined Lycoming Special, finishing the race in fourth place (below).
Jim Clark did a few laps in one of the Kiwis’ most loved specials during practice during the Tasman Series a couple of years later.
Bruce McLaren in the Lycoming here and below (M Knowles)(BMcL Trust)(M Fistonic)
McLaren ran out of brakes in the Lycoming during the race; the car ran four-wheel drums sourced from an Austin road car. Bruce found the car’s handling so forgiving that he was able to make up for the lack of stoppers, in part, by throwing the it sideways into the corners.
Never one to forget a favour, when he returned to England, Bruce sent a set of Dunlop rotors and calipers to New Zealand, the Lycoming raced on so equipped!
The shot above shows the Lycoming in the Levin paddock in January 1960. Note the road-rego and Michelin radial tyres. Clearly, (pic above) Bruce raced it on Dunlop racing tyres, but the 4.7-litre four cylinder engines car was originally built by oh-so-talented Kiwi engineer Ralph Watson as a road-going racer. At the time Bruce borrowed the car, it was being raced by Malcolm Gill and later Jim Boyd, happily it is extant, alive and well.
(Nat Lib NZ)
Ian Burgess’s Cooper T51 Climax at Wigram above, and the 2.5-litre Climax in Stirling Moss’ car being fettled in the Ardmore paddock below.
(Nat Lib NZ)
David Piper (below) pushing his Lotus 16 Climax 2.5 #368 to the start line at Dunedin on January 30, where he withdrew with gearbox problems after 22 of the 36 laps.
Piper coaxed local boy Arnold Stafford into the hot-seat of his 1.5-litre FPF-engined Lotus 16 #353 ‘renter’ at Wigram (below), but Stafford thought the better of it after a big-spin in practice, having not raced for three years and didn’t start.
(K Brown)(unattributed)
Both cars weren’t particularly old in years but were technically passé by early 1960, even in the colonies where Coopers had been rather popular from the early 1950s.
Lotus 16 Climax cutaway (Lofthouse)(R Stuart)
Etcetera…
McLaren at Wigram in 1962, where he was fourth in his 2.7-litre Cooper T53 behind Stirling Moss’ Rob Walker Lotus 21 Climax 2.5 and the 2.7-powered Coopers of Brabham, T55, and John Surtees, T53…Happy Patty below.
(R Stuart)(R Stuart)
Pop McLaren and who folks?
Credits…
Rosalie Stuart, Graham Woods Collection, Merv Knowles, Bruce McLaren Trust via Jim Bennett, Kelvin Brown, Milan Fistonic, National Library of New Zealand
Master Mechanic Geoff Smedley made a pretty fine part-time photographer while fettling racing cars for the likes of John and Gavin Youl.
The 1963 South Pacific Championship has just got underway at Longford on March 4. Bruce McLaren is on pole in his Cooper T62 Climax at left with Bib Stillwell’s new Brabham BT4 Climax in the middle and Lex Davison’s Cooper T53 Climax on the right.
McLaren won the race comfortably from Bib Stillwell after Bruce’s dice with Jack Brabham’s leading BT4 Climax 2.7 ended with engine failure on lap 14 John Youl was third in his Cooper T55
Bruce McLaren on his way to winning the 1962 Australian GP, Caversham, Western Australia, Cooper T62 Climax (K Devine)Jack Brabham debuts the BT4 Climax, Caversham AGP, November 1962. BT4 #IC-1-62 was the first in a long line of very successful, profitable ‘Intercontinental’ Brabhams from Ron Tauranac
Context…
The Cooper vs Brabham Australasian summer was set during the 1962 Australian Grand Prix, November 18 weekend at Caversham, outside Perth, when McLaren’s new Cooper T62 Climax and Jack Brabham’s equally new Brabham BT4 Climax faced off for the first time. A fantastic dice between Bruce and Jack that day was resolved in McLaren’s favour after a passing he-zigged-when-I-zagged manoeuvre between Brabham and Arnold Glass’s BRM P48 Buick V8 went awry.
Both machines were inspired by their Coventry Climax FWMV 1.5-litre V8-powered Grand Prix siblings: the Cooper T60 and Brabham BT3. By the time the eight-race Tasman Circus travelled to Warwick Farm, round five, the weight of numbers favoured Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac’s Motor Racing Developments business with BT4s in the hands of Brabham, David McKay, who had bought Jack’s ’62 AGP car’, and Bib Stillwell, who had acquired a newie.
McLaren and the business end of his Cooper T62 FPF, Caversham 1962, with David McKay, Cooper racer/writer/later Scuderia Veloce supremo, showing more than cursory interest in the car given his pending car update considerations (T Walker)BT4 Tim Wall, Jack Brabham and Repco Indy 2.7 in the Sandown paddock. By then, Repco’s Michael Gasking was preparing Jack’s Tasman FPFs, and Repco was or were soon to be the Australian importer/distributor of Coventry Climax spares (Repco)
Bruce won two of the four Kiwi rounds at Wigram and Teretonga with his Cooper T62, while John Surtees won the NZ GP at Ardmore in an ex-F1 Lola Mk4A Climax 2.7, with Jack taking a Levin win in his BT4.
The additional power and torque from 2.7-litre Coventry Climax FPF Indy four-cylinder engines were causing a great deal of driveline stress to gearboxes, clutches and driveshafts.
At Warwick Farm, Brabham won in his new BT4-IC-2-62 from Surtees’ Lola Mk4A, McLaren and McKay in his first race of the ex-Jack BT4-IC-1-62 with Stilwell fifth in his new BT4-IC-1-63; all cars powered by Indy 2.7s.
At Lakeside on February 17, Surtees won from Graham Hill’s Ferguson P99 Climax 2.5 FPF and Stillwell. It was a great shame that the Ferguson went home at this point, we Victorians and Taswegians didn’t get to see it. McLaren spun and could’t restart while Jack was a no-show. It was an even greater shame the Fergy didn’t arrive in New Zealand with a pair of 2.7-litre FPFs…
Then Bruce won at Longford and at Sandown Park on March 10, so McLaren and Cooper won the 1963 Faux Tasman Cup. Jack was a DNF with engine failure with Tony Maggs in the other Bowmaker Racing Lola Mk4A Climax 2.7 second and McKay third.
Lex Davison turns into the exit of Long Bridge, closely followed by John Youl, Coopers T53 and T55. Lin Gigney, the snapper of many of these shots, was a flaggie right here… (L Gigney)
Longford…
Down in the South Island Lex Davison was having a whale of a time in the Cooper T53 John Surtees used to win at Longford in 1962! He won both the Saturday 45-mile Formula Libre preliminaries, the first from Bib Stillwell and John Youl after Bruce McLaren retired from the leadership of the race with a broken universal joint.
The second Saturday race also fell to Melbourne’s famous cobbler, from Chris Amon, Cooper T53 Climax 2.5 and John Youl, Cooper T55 Climax 2.5. McLaren didn’t start this race; Brabham did, but then had carburettor problems during lap two that caused his retirement.
Lex Davison, Ford Galaxie – what a massive bit of real estate! – from Ern Abbott Chrysler Valiant on Long Bridge (L Gigney)
On top of that, the staunch traditionalist continued his flirtation with touring cars, finishing second in the 45-mile Touring Cars Championship aboard Len Lukey’s Ford Galaxie behind Bob Jane’s then-dominant Jaguar Mk2 3.9, with Ern Abbott’s Chrysler Valiant 3.9 in third.
The Jag was timed at 142mph on The Flying Mile, the Galaxie did 141mph in an experience Davison told Autosport reporter FGN Ewence as ‘Like Driving a Haystack.’ Ewence wrote that ‘It came out of corners as though they were launching pads, but its braking and handling let it down.’
Frank Matich, Lotus 19 Climax, having just exited Kings Bridge and passed the irrigation water pumphouse (B Wright)
Bigger FPFs were fitted to Australian sports cars as well, notably Bib Stillwell’s Cooper T Monaco and Frank Matich’s Lotus 19, with FM winning the 45-mile Sports and GT Cars Championship from Stillwell and Bob Jane’s Jaguar E-Type.
Matich pushed his own lap record up to 108mph and was chuffed enough about the pace of his Lotus two-seater that he entered it in the Formula Libre feature.
Friday qualifying comprised two sessions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. The quicks were McLaren on 2:23.3, McKay 2:27.0, Davison on 2:27.3. Of Davo, Ewence recorded that ‘Alan Ashton, got the 2.7 Climax to its bellowing best, and his wider wishbones had improved the car’s stability, and he had the brakes to a pitch which enabled Davison to rush up on his opponents as they approached corners.
Youl did a 2:27.4. Ewence noted that John’s Cooper ‘was handling much better following extensive modifications to the suspension, including widening of the track.’ Geoff Smedley was the engineer/mechanic involved.
Jack Brabham lines up his BT4 for the very strong timber Long Bridge exit clipping point! (L Gigney)
Brabham didn’t arrive from London, then Sydney, and on to Launceston until after 11am on the Friday morning and then spent most of the day chasing engine problems. Refer to the Climax twin-plug note in Etcetera.
The top three grid slots from times recorded in Saturday’s two races noted above were McLaren, Stillwell and Davison. Then came Maggs, McKay and Brabham, then Youl, Chris Amon, Jim Palmer, and the rest. The only starters from this race still alive are, I believe, Bob Holden, who raced his 1.5-litre Lynx Peugeot Formula Junior from grid 15, and Jim Palmer.
The Race…
Raceday at Longford was always on the Monday Labour Day holiday. There was no racing on the Sunday, giving plenty of time for dramas to be sorted: Jack’s engine, McLaren’s uni and driveshaft, Gardner’s clutch, Magg’s engine mount, etc. Bruce McLaren noted in his March 15, 1963 ‘From The Cockpit’ Autosport column how busy Repco Launceston and Merv Gray’s engineering shop were over that weekend.
(HRCCT)
The rear of the grid (above) before the South Pacific Championship, showing #87 Frank Matich Lotus 19 Climax, #13 Bob Holden Lynx Peugeot 1.5, on the next row is Frank Gardner’s Brabham BT2 Ford FJ, which is sandwiched by Tony Shelley’s Lotus 18/21 Climax against the pits and Peter Boyd-Squires Cooper T45 Climax. The white #9 Cooper T51 is Bill Patterson, and alongside him is the #3 Cooper T53 of Jim Palmer. Then Chris Amon in the red Cooper T51 #14 with John Youl alongside, Cooper T55 Climax and an obscured Jack Brabham in his BT4. On the second row is David McKay’s Brabham BT4 Climax and an obscured Tony Maggs’ Lola Mk4 Climax with Davison, Stillwell and obscured McLaren up the front.
(unattributed)
South Pacific Championship 3-2-3 grid, 14 starters, Longford, Monday, March 4, 1963.
Bruce McLaren Cooper T62 2.7, Bib Stillwell, Brabham BT4 2.7 and Lex Davison, Cooper T53 2.5, then on row two, Tony Maggs, Lola Mk4 2.7 and David McKay, Brabham BT4, on the third row, we can get a glimpse of Chris Amon’s Cooper T53 2.5 near the fence, and #5 John Youl’s Cooper T55 2.5 alongside.
All of the engines were Coventry Climax FPF, whether John Youl was using his Geoff Smedley-developed twin-plug, twin-Magneto 2.5, I don’t know.
David McKay, Brabham BT4 from Tony Maggs, Lola Mk4, Long Bridge (L Gigney)
F.G.N Ewence reported that it was a great first lap for the Brabham marque with the three of them leading in line astern across Long Bridge. David McKay’s run was short-lived with leaking cylinder head sealing rings; he only compltetd the first lap.
Brabham sat behind McLaren then he took the lead on lap 10, with Bib Stillwell third, but four laps later Jack’s run came to nought with the BT4 puffing plumes blue smoke of increasing volume on The Flying Mile, then through Mountford and into the pits. The ‘manifold leak’ caused a pit fire which was quickly extinguished with Jack leaving an oily calling card at Mountford that caused others some grief.
Brabham from McLaren on Kings Bridge, circa laps 10-14. The Viaduct is some way behind them, beyond the trees, with Longford village in front (Bob Wright)
Bruce took the lead back, having done the fastest lap of the race at 114mph on lap 13 in pursuit of Jack. He then modulated his pace to keep ahead of Bib Stillwell and John Youl. Bill Patterson was fifth behind Jim Palmer’s Cooper T53, and Tony Maggs demonstrated his professionalism by bringing the Lola home sixth despite being liberally coated with engine oil that escaped from a crack in the chassis tube, which conveyed the slippery stuff to and from engine and radiator.
(P Longley)
This scrap between Kiwi, Jim Palmer, Cooper T53 Climax and local boy, John Youl, Cooper T55 Climax was over third place, an argument resolved in Youl’s favour.
Palmer was a multiple Kiwi Gold Star Champion, a Tasman Cup perennial whose best placings were fourth in 1966, ex-Clark Lotus 32B Climax and equal fourth with Phil Hill in 1965, Brabham BT7A Climax. Youl was ‘one who got away’, the incredibly gifted driver was fourth in that old T55 in the ‘ 64 Tasman before taking up family farming responsibilities at their Symmons Plains property, not too far from Longford.
(R Bell)
Bruce McLaren receives the plaudits of the Longford crowd from atop the Viaduct, he had a good summer in his Cooper T62 Climax, winning the 1963 Faux Tasman Cup, then came back in ‘64 and won the real one!
The views of experienced outsiders is always an interesting perspective. Here is Ewence’s race report Postscript in full.
‘Postscript: Despite the fact that the Longford Motor Association has no paid officials, it is limited by a lack of population. The whole State of Tasmania has only 350,000 inhabitants. To get 30,000 of them to a meeting is equivalent to an attendance of some four million at a British meeting! This makes the £20,000 budget something of a nightmare for the L.M.R.A. The two previous years’ operations had resulted in losses after necessary capital expenditure was met. This year, the hats went in the air when Treasurer Geoff Hudson’s casting of accounts revealed a small profit. Longford will be on again next year, and State Premier Reece seemed so upset about an interruption caused by a passenger train at the level crossing in Longford township that those on the inside believe that the trains will be very strictly controlled in the future.’
Etcetera…
(oldracephotos.com)
The start of one of the 45-lap preliminaries with Lex Davison on this side, then John Youl, and Tony Maggs in the yellow helmet. Davo won them both.
(Andrew Lamont)(W ‘i anson)
Bruce McLaren’s unpainted Cooper T62 Climax at Goodwood for a test session on September 26, 1962 not long before the car was shipped to Fremantle, Western Australia for the 1962 Australian GP at Caversham.
McLaren’s T62 – #CTA/BM/2 – was built on Cooper’s T60 1961-63 jig by Tommy Atkins’ team at his Chessington workshop. Harry Pearce and Wally Willmott were the artisans who built the car. The rear was designed to take a BRM P56 1.5-litre F1 V8; Bruce planned to contest the non-championship F1 races that Coopers chose to ignore. When that engine ran late, Atkins and McLaren decided to convert the car to Climax Tasman spec, gearbox, and a Colotti T32 five-speed.
Tommy Aktins, Harry Pearce, partially beheaded Wally Willmott and completed T62 at Coopers in Hollyfield Rd, Surbiton (W i’ anson))Geoff Smedley’s Coventry Climax 2.5 FPF twin-plug on the Repco Research dyno in November 1963 (G Smedley)
Bruce McLaren (Eoin Young ghosting Bruce) wrote in ‘From The Cockpit’, ‘Brabham’s car was the centre of interest, sporting an 8-plug head. This was a very impressive looking set-up, but it must have been firing the right plug at the wrong time or the wrong plug at the right time, because he had a lot of trouble getting it to run right.’
‘That was Friday. The Saturday morning practice was kind to most of us except poor Jack again. The Brabham was smoking a lot more than a young car should, and he had to rush back to Launceston to take the engine out and fit his spare 2.7 Climax for the races in the afternoon..
Those with a keen memory may recall that Geoff Smedley developed a race-winning 2.5-litre Coventry Climax twin-plug in Tasmania for John Youl. That engine, with the necessary sparks provided by twin-magnetos, was first raced by Youl fitted to his winning Cooper T55 in the October 14 1963, Gold Star round at Mallala. The engine was then used in the ’64 Tasman, in which Youl finished fourth in that ageing Cooper behind Bruce’s new Cooper T70, Brabham’s new BT7A and Hulme’s year old BT4. Youl and Smedley’s was a mighty effort!
In it, Geoff recalled that ‘Frank Hallam at Repco Research had been playing around with a twin-plug head for one of Brabham’s engines, using two distributors driven from the rear of each cam bank and couldn’t make it work through an inaccurate spark which was put down to windup in the camshafts in the high rev range.’
So it seems the Repco FPF twin-plug was tested over the Longford ’63 weekend. I wonder whether Jack tried it elsewhere? Does anybody know what became of that pair of twin-plug heads?
Credits…
Geoff Smedley, Bob Wright via Kay Wright, Andrew ‘Slim’ Lamont Collection, Historic Racing Car Club Tasmania, Ray Bell, Terry Walker, Ken Devine, Repco. The detail in this article is via Paul Cummin’s archive, specifically F.G.N Ewence meeting report and Bruce McLaren’s ‘From The Cockpit’ column published in Autosport, March 15, 1963, Willian i’anson Ltd, Geoff Smedley, Stephen Dalton
Tailpiece…
(E French)
One of the men of the weekend, Lex Davison, had gear-selector problems on his sixth lap with his Cooper T53 and is shown bumming a ride from Bruce McLaren, who is just starting the Newry ascent. Ewence reported that Davo ‘Broke down near the pub, where last year he had so spectacularly lost his first 2.7 Cooper in a 130 m.p.h skid. “Why hello, Mr Davison, back again?’ remarked the landlord’s wife as he entered the portals.’
Davo famously wore his cloth helmet under his real one throughout his career. Lex turned 40 on February 12, 1963, and was still mighty fast indeed!
Sighting an apex, Brian Hart, Protos 16 Ford FVA, German Grand Prix, Nurburgring 1967
Brian Hart raced a Lotus F2 and F3 cars for Ron Harris in 1964-66 and was looking for opportunities in the 1.6-litre F2 that had been announced for commencement in 1967. He was after an Unfair Advantage as an innovative engineer.
At the January 1966 London Racing Car Show, Hart sought out aerodynamicist/engineer Frank Costin – both were De Havilland Aircraft graduates – about the coming season. Costin was there to sell his new, very light Hillman Imp-powered wooden chassis Costin-Nathan sports car (below). Hart knew of Frank via his younger brother, Mike, who co-founded Cosworth Engineering together with Keith Duckworth, where Brian was an employee.
Ronnie Peterson, March 711 Ford, Nurburgring 1971 (R Schlegelmilch)
Earlier, Frank Costin had started Marcos with Jem Marsh. The first Marcos had a wooden chassis too, but Costin’s reputation came from 20 years in aviation, where he developed vast knowledge of the use of wooden structures and aerodynamic theory and practice, to wit, the De Havilland Mosquito
Post war Frank had been summoned by Mike to assist Colin Chapman on the Lotus Mk 8 sports car. Costin improved the car and worked on several more of Chapman’s designs, including Vanwall VW5, the 1958 F1 Manufacturers Championship (then called the International Cup) winning car.
Frank’s Grand Prix involvement extended to the body design of the March 711 Ford Ronnie Peterson drove to second place in the 1971 F1 Drivers World Championship.
Protos 16 Ford FVA and spare monocoque on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2017 (V & A Museum)
Protos Design and Construction…
Ron Harris (24/12/1905-18/9/1975), hailed from Maidenhead, Surrey, and was a motorcycle racer/dealer who made his name on Manx Nortons and other machines from the early 1930s until the war. Post conflict, he was involved in film distribution, the cash flow from that business initially funded his return to motorsport, the Ron Harris Racing Division, which ran a pair of Lotus 20 Ford FJs in 1961 (John Turner/Mike Ledbrook).
Success with them attracted Lola’s Eric Broadley’s attention in 1962 (John Fenning/John Rhodes in Lola Mk5s) and the Team Lotus F2 machines from 1963 – Lotus 35/44 – where the driving roster included Peter Revson, Brian Hart, Peter Arundell, Francisco Godia, Piers Courage, Picko Troberg, Eric Offenstadt, Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark etc.
Harris’ Lotus gig came to an end in 1966; it was time to become a manufacturer in 1967!
Ron Harris, Jim Clark and Mike Spence with the works Ron Harris Racing Division Lotus 35 Cosworth SCA. Gold Cup Oulton Park, September 18, 1965Frank Costin in Costin Research & Development’s first factory in North Wales (Wales Library)
Set in his ways, Costin built the prototype at his home in North Wales with Brian Hart doing the legwork, over 40,000 miles of fetch and carry of component purchase and sub-contracting between London and Wales in the early months of 1967. ‘Frank was a fascinating chap and spoke with such enthusiasm: he was adamant that he could build an F2 car way ahead of its time.’ Brian Hart told Paul Fearnley in a MotorSport 2009 interview.
There was huge excitement among drivers and racing car manufacturers for the new 1.6 F2 with monocoque designs, including the Matra MS5/7, McLaren M4A, and Lola T100, as well as spaceframes, with the dominant car of the year in a variety of hands, Ron Tauranac’s new, spaceframe Brabham BT23.
What became the ubiquitous engine/gearbox combination for the duration of 1967-71 1.6-litre F2, was the Ford Cosworth circa 220bhp @ 9000rpm twin-cam, four-valve, Lucas injected four, and the Hewland FT200 five-speed transaxle, was used by most. BMW, Alfa Romeo four-valve engines, the Ferrari Dino 166 and several others duly noted.
Into that environment of competitive activity, the Costin and Harris team – based in Maidenhead, Hertfordshire – designed and built two strong, light, aerodynamically advanced Protos 16 Ford FVA timber-skinned monocoques in 128 days.
Hart, ‘We were making everything apart from the engine and gearbox; there was no template like there was on a privateer Brabham.’
Brian Hart with his Brabham BT30 Ford FVA at Mallory Park in 1970 (LAT)(L Ghys)
Ed McDonough wrote of the chassis that, ‘Costin’s original intention was to have one set of plywood panels bonded to elliptical plywood end panels and bulkheads with adhesives and further stress-bearing panels of spruce made to form strong box shapes on both sides of the cockpit area. Then, further layers of overlapping strips would form the outer skin. Much like modern carbon-fibre construction, Costin intended for the whole monocoque unit to be placed into a rubber tube to clamp the adhesive and form the proper shape, with the air being sucked out by vacuum. The outcome, Costin reasoned, would be very high levels of strength and low weight in a smooth shape.’
‘Unfortunately, the old spectre of time rushing by meant this elaborate process wouldn’t be possible. So birch plies were used for the outer skin, and the whole thing was clamped conventionally, and the finished wooden structure was smooth-sanded when the glue was dry.’ While this process added weight, after painting, it was hard to tell the difference between this and a steel or alloy unit.’
A tub with a difference, note the diagonal banding of the birchwood plies (Blain Motorsports Foundation)
With the prototype finished in Wales, the other cars were built in Harris’s Maidenhead workshop. Given its unusual construction, Harris coined it ‘Protos’, first in Greek.
With inherent fire risk, Costin designed neoprene-coated alloy fuel tanks, housed in fragile wooden bearers within the chassis. In the event of a big one, the tanks were designed to break away from the car, an element that was tested all too soon…
A magnesium bulkhead was mounted across the front of the car, and together with a light tubular subframe, located top-rockers which actuated vertically mounted, inboard Armstrong shockers, wide-based lower wishbones and an adjustable roll-bar. Front and rear uprights were magnesium.
Brian Hart’s Protos 16 HCP-1 BARC 200 Wills Trophy Silverstone March 27, 1967
At the rear, a complex steel tubular spaceframe structure supported the FVA/FT200 combo with six bolts attaching the mechanicals to the tub with the load spread through the wooden monocoque via clever internally glued metal spreaders.
The rear suspension was a combination of magnesium uprights, twin top links, a wide-based wishbone with a pair of radius rods doing fore and aft locational duties, Armstrong shocks and an adjustable roll-bar. Brakes were Girling and tyres Firestone: 9 x 13 inches at the front and 11 x 13 at the rear, with wheels also magnesium.
The car looked the goods when it was launched with some fanfare at Selfridges London store’s ‘Grand Prix Exhibition’ on March 3, 1967.
1967 European F2 Championship…
Harris’s outfit built four tubs (it’s not clear to me if the four build number includes the prototype made in Wales or not), two of which were built up into complete racers with Brian Hart testing HCP1 – Harris Costin Protos – at Goodwood, putting in some competitive times despite the bodywork snagging Hart’s right-hand gear shifting gears, a ‘bubble’ alleviated the problem. Excessive front understeer was cured with changes to the ‘bars and springs.
The cars were entered in the first round of the European F2 Championship on March 24, but failed to appear. All of the other new cars were present with the heats going to Jochen Rindt and Denny Hulme, in Winkelmann and works Brabham BT23 FVAs, with Rindt – the King of F2 – taking the final from Graham Hill, works Lotus 48 FVA and Alan Rees in the other Winkelmann Brabham.
Rees took the Euro F2 Championship points as an ungraded driver. The FIA cleverly created a two-class system. Graded drivers were those who had achieved/won in F1, Can-Am, WSC etc. Ungraded drivers were up-and-comers who had not. Graded drivers could win the races and prize money but were ineligible for Euro F2 Championship points.
Hart raced the car at Silverstone three days later, on March 27, in the BARC Wills Trophy. From grid 16 alongside the Lola T100 BMW of Jo Siffert, Hart and HCP-1 retired in heat 1 when a fuel pump belt broke, while a misfire cruelled his second heat, a recurrent problem throughout the season. Rindt won again.
Eric Offenstadt, Montjuïc Parc, Barcelona 1967 (H Fohr Collection)Pomp and ceremony as Offenstadt’s car is rolled onto the Magic Montjuïc grid (J Arch)
Harris entered two cars in the Pau Grand Prix (Rindt, Brabham BT23) on April 4 but the machines weren’t ready, with only Offenstadt contesting the GP de Barcelona at Montjuïc Parc on April 9. After several off-course excursions, he retired with brake and misfiring problems, having done only 12 of the 60 laps completed by Jim Clark’s winning Lotus 48 FVA.
The team missed the Spring Trophy at Oulton Park where many of their competitors raced against Grand Prix cars. Up front the Brabham BT20 Repco V8s of Brabham and Hulme were first and second, with the first F2 home Jackie Oliver’s Lotus 41B FVA.
Just two weeks later, the F2 Circus were off to the Nurburgring for the Eifelrennen and there Offenstadt took Graham Hill off in practice and non-started HCP-1.
HCP-2, was finally finished and tested by Hart. Engine misfires continued to come and go, but the team were optimistic as they headed for the RAC Autocar Trophy at Mallory Park on May 14, a British F2 Championship round. Hart qualified a good fifth, but both cars were withdrawn from the race after Costin found a crack in an upright following another shunt by Offenstadt.
New uprights were cast but the team missed the May 21, Limborg GP at Zolder, where John Surtees’ Lola T100 FVA won.
Hart tested HCP-2 at Brands Hatch, where the misfire appeared to have been cured. He then raced it in the London Trophy British F2 Championship round at Crystal Palace on May 29. Offenstadt was allocated HCP-1.
Both did well in practice and in their heat until the misfire returned: Eric was sixth and Brian seventh. On a track he knew well, Hart ran as high as third in the final before troubles dropped him back to tenth. Offenstadt’s troubles continued; this time, he retired with a broken engine mount, while up front was Jacky Ickx in a Ken Tyrrell Matra MS5 FVA.
The next championship round wasn’t until Hockenheim on July 9, so the team set to with some strengthening modifications while noting that both drivers reported the chassis itself to be immensely stiff.
(M Stegmann Arc)
With the work completed the Ron Harris Racing trucks headed for Dover to contest the non-championship Rhein-Pokalrennen on June 11.
Offenstadt demonstrated the promise he showed in 1965 and Hart was in the leading group when he lost fuel pressure.
‘I thought I could win. The car was capable of 180mph, and I was cruising. I could pick up five to six places a lap,’ before the dreaded misfire returned. Brian eventually finished tenth with Offenstadt in a personally rousing fourth. Post-race calculations indicated a top speed of 163 mph without a tow and 172 with one! The customer car favourite Brabham BT23 Ford FVA indicated its user friendliness in that Chris Lambert won the race in a privateer BT23.
Costin observed of his Hockenheim handiwork in 1975, ‘The Protos was approximately 9mph faster at maximum speed than the slowest opposition, and 3-4mph faster than the quicker opposition. This means, given all cars were using the same engine (Cosworth FVA giving 218-220bhp), the aerodynamic advantage of the Protos was about 15bhp over the faster rivals and 40bhp over its slowest competitors at maximum speed.’
Brian Hart was the class of the field during the June 25, 1967 Reims Grand Prix (unattributed)
With the high-speed Reims Grand Prix coming up on June 25 the team continued to refine the Protos aero, including the extension of the cockpit canopy back to the roll bar.
Practice was again marred by problems, not least Offenstadt crashing again. ‘Some of these problems stemmed from the fact that one of the sponsors hadn’t paid some bills, so there wasn’t the funding for bigger brakes, a real limitation at Reims’, McDonough wrote.
‘Hart and the Protos amazed everyone with the car’s speed, catching and passing Jim Clark and Jackie Oliver (Lotus 48/41B) after a spin. The French crowds cheered as Hart would drop back under braking and then catch and retake the leaders. Unfortunately, the swirlpot cracked on lap 37, and the overheated engine quit, but the car was clearly the fastest of all the F2 machines on the day.’ Despite not finishing, Brian was classified ninth…
Pedro is bubbled-up by Ron Harris before heading out at Hockenheim on the July 9, 1967 weekend for his Protos race debut (Blain Motorsports Foundation)
The team elected to miss the non-championship GP de Rouen-les-Essarts (Rindt, Brabham BT23 FVA) on July 9 to contest the Deutschland Trophäe Preis Von Baden on high-speed Hockenheim, on the same day.
Offenstadt was replaced by Pedro Rodriguez from this meeting. Mechanical changes included new front and rear subframes, bigger brakes, and on Rodriguez’s rebuilt HCP-1, a more enclosed rear body section.
Rodriguez turned Q3 into the lead of heat 1, but he spun the Protos in the stadium section when it jumped out of gear and ultimately finished fourth in front of Hart. The Mexican again led heat 2, spun again, and then retired with a bent wishbone while Brian was third. Better was to come in the final, where Hart drove an inspired race, battling with Jackie Ickx and Frank Gardner, and ultimately finished third and bagged fastest lap. Gardner won the round on aggregate in a works BT23 FVA from Hart, with Piers Courage’s McLaren M4A FVA third.
Johnny Servoz-Gavin’s works Matra MS5 FVA from Hart’s UFO Protos (fifth) at Zandvoort July 30, 1967 (LAT)
Ron Tauranac watched Protos progress closely and figured Costin’s something-for-nothing aerodynamic lessons were worth pursuing. Brabham was battling for F1 World Championship honours with Team Lotus and their Ford Cosworth-powered Lotus 49s, so Ron developed his own canopy cover and bodywork to the very rear of his Brabham BT24 Repco’s Hewland gearbox to buy critical RPMs at Monza. Brabham had trouble sighting apexes so equipped, and didn’t race the car in that form. The point is that Costin had some of the competition thinking…
Rodriguez, Jarama, July 23, 1967 (Whittlesea Collection)
The team missed the Tulln-Langenlebarn aerodrome race in Vienna on July 16 for undisclosed reasons but rejoined the fray in Spain, where Hart and Rodriguez contested the GP de Madrid at Jarama on July 23. Hart retired his car due to overheating, and Rodriguez was seventh in the race won by Clark’s Lotus 48 FVA.
Zandvoort hosted an F2 Championship round on July 30 that year; the race in Holland was won by Ickx’s Matra MS5 FVA. Hart was sixth, with Rob Slotemaker a DNF due to gearbox problems after only eight of the 30 laps. The Dutchman stood in for Rodriguez, who was racing a JW Automotive Mirage M1 Ford in the Brands Hatch 6-Hours.
Kurt Ahrens from Brian Hart during the August 1967 German GP, Nurburgring (LAT)Ahrens landing at Flugplatz? DNF radiator (K Tweddel)
Talented German, Kurt Ahrens, raced HCP-1 in the F2 class of the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring on August 6 and retired, while Hart finished fourth in class with Jackie Oliver the first of the F2s in this non-championship Euro F2 round. Ahrens was an F3 and F2 Brabham veteran of some years, his opinions of the Protos would have been interesting.
The Harris equipe missed the non-championship Kanonloppet, the Swedish Grand Prix, at Karlskoga on August 11, where Jackie Stewart prevailed in a Tyrrell Matra MS7 FVA. The F1 championship aspirant added his name to a long list of F2 race winners (in all championships) in 1967: Rindt, Clark, Brabham, Surtees, Ickx, Widdows, Gardner and Oliver.
The long haul to the wilds of Sicily for the GP del Mediterraneo at Enna-Pergusa on August 20 followed, a day on which Rodriguez put Costin’s woodie to the ultimate test!
Luc Ghys was there. ‘The track, similar to Hockenheim with long straights, led to fierce slipstream battles. On lap 10, Jackie Stewart’s Matra had Pedro on his tail, and both were passing Beltoise’s leading Matra. The Frenchman gave way to Stewart but immediately tucked in behind, touching Pedro’s car at high speed.’
Beltoise told Ed McDonough decades later how he had been surprised by the speed of the Protos. When Rodriguez attempted to pass the Frenchman’s Matra, Beltoise admitted not being ready for the move and didn’t give Pedro enough room as a consequence.
Enna-Pergusa August 1967. Stewart Matra MS7 in the middle has just jumped out of Beltoise’s MS7 slipstream on the right, JYS then passes JPB, who immediately pulls in behind JYS and collects Pedro the Innocent at left, who was in the process of making his own run in the slippery Protos (Blain Motorsports Foundation)One careful lady owner…Protos wooden, aluminium and rubber remains at Enna (J Gleave)
The car careered out of control, hit the guardrails and broke in half, jettisoning the fuel cells as intended. The tub bore the impact as designed and protected the Mexican from serious nasties: he was still in second place as the Protos-in-bits blasted past the finishing line! Said components were then deposited into Enna’s famous snake-infested lake! Hart had a weekend of consistency, finishing eighth in both heats and the final; both Protos did 165 mph on Enna’s straights.
Pedro, interviewed not long after the race, said philosophically, ‘If it wasn’t for that Protos, I wouldn’t be here talking to you now. It has a wooden monocoque body, you see, and at about 150 miles an hour, it absorbed the impact completely. The car starts to disintegrate, and I went out of the car with the seat on in the middle of the road! The only thing that happened to me was that my right heel was what they call a poolverise fracture.’ Pedro also suffered a small fracture in his left ankle.
‘Ron called us into his hotel room (after the race),’ says Hart, ‘and not only did he say that there wouldn’t be a next year, he also said that he wouldn’t be able to pay off Frank for the remainder of this year.’ Hart’s eighth at Enna was the programme’s denouement. ‘I don’t think we would have won in our second year, but we would have been closer to the front; I think Frank could see that some compromises were needed. But we never got the chance. But what a project. I’ve got a soft spot for that car.’
Despite making four tubs, no more than two complete cars ever existed; HCP-1 was rebuilt over the winter, consuming one of the spare monocoques. Harris and Costin had initially intended to run an evolved Protos in 1968; the same decision was made by most of the major manufacturers to run evolutions of their ’67 cars, but the year had been so expensive that Harris decided to run Tecnos instead.
The Carnival is Over. Rodriguez prepares to saddle up at the Nurburgring on April 21, 1968 while Ron Harris waits, and below on track. The last Protos in-period race (Blain Motorsports Foundation)(Blain Motorsports Foundation)
When the Pederzanis delivered the Tecnos hopelessly late, Rodriguez, clearly fond of the Woodies, asked Harris to enter a Protos for the non-F2 Championship Eifelrennen at the Nurburgring on April 21.
Pedro raced HCP-1 and Vic Elford HCP-2 on his single-seater debut. Rodriguez retired out of fuel while Vic finished a splendid seventh. Man On The Rise Chris Irwin won in a works Lola T100 FVA, his next visit to the Eifel didn’t end quite so well.
Sadly, that was it, Rodriguez raced the first of Harris’ Tecno PA68 FVAs at Crystal Palace on June 3 1968, then added insult to Ron Harris’ injury by crashing it on the first lap of the final, having placed fifth in his heat…the Protos never raced again.
The 1968 season was so expensive and difficult for Harris that it ended his active involvement in racing. Much of his equipment disappeared or was damaged on the late-season Temporada tour in South America, so ultimately everything was sold off.
Vic Elford and Pedro Rodriguez in the final race weekend for the Protos 16 Ford FVA during the April 21, 1968 Eifelrennen weekend
Hindsight…
Brian Hart told Paul Fearnley, ‘It was incredibly fast in a straight line (a useful asset in those slipstreaming days), but it had shortcomings. The engine was carried in a metal subframe, and where this was affixed to the wooden tub was a weak point. And because the car had a rounded shape, the side fuel tanks were carried quite high, giving a bad CoG. It was heavy, too – about 25kg more than the rest – and when this was coupled with an initial lack of anti-roll bars (Costin had yet to be convinced of their necessity), it was a bit of a handful in the corners. One of our biggest failings was our inability to engineer the car once the season had started: money was tight, and we had no baseline from which to work.’
Eric Offenstadt said of the car to Michael Dawson, ‘I had a picture of my pole position at Hockenheim in front of Jochen Rindt with the Protos…but I lost it. The roadholding was “peculiar”, not because of the wooden chassis, but because of “rare suspension geometry”.
Firestone funded the project, which explains in part why Ron Harris was adventurous. The challenge to design, build, develop, prepare and race a new car was a far more complex and costly process than racing works-Lotuses that were competitive outta the box.
That the designer was reluctant to leave Wales must have made the development of the car a challenge!
Despite the design’s shortcomings, it was clearly competitive on faster tracks, with suspension geometry the area that required focus over the 1967-68 winter, had the Harris team raced on with the Protos.
The Ford Cosworth FVA engine problems the Harris team experienced in 1967 are somewhat ironic given Brian Hart Engines Ltd’s capabilities in preparing and developing these engines by 1969!…
What extraordinary racing cars those Protos were/are.
Historic Era…
Englishman Richard Whittlesea bought the two cars, HCP-1 complete and HCP-2 as a rolling chassis, restoring and racing HCP-1 and displaying it at Donington, before selling the cars to American Norbert McNamara, then later he sold them to Californian Brian Blain/Blain Motorsports Foundation, who retains them.
Etcetera…
(Getty Images-GP Library)
The Protos Ford FVA of Eric Offenstadt on the Montuic Park grid, April 9, 1967. Nice shot of the swept-back rockers and cast-mag upright
Credits…
Getty Images, Hans Fohr Collection, Steve Wilkinson Archive, Ed McDonough article on supercars.net, Pete Austin, Les Thacker, Josef Arch, ‘Aerodynamics of the modern car’, Frank Costin in Automotive Engineer magazine in 1975, ‘Ply in The Ointment’ Paul Fearnley, MotorSport November 2003, Formula 2 Racing and Frank Costin Autos Facebook pages, Mike Stegmann, Rafael Calatayud Collection, Blain Motorsport Foundation, Jim Gleave
Tailpiece…
(R Calatayud)
Hmmm…which cars are the Protos’ I wonder?
Reims June 25, 1967. DNF’s for both Hart and Offenstadt. Jochen Rindt’s Winkelmann BT23 FVA won from Graham Hill, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme, World Champions all! In its heyday(s) F2 was absolutely marvellous.
Surely the most exotic rally machine to ever come to Australia was Ric ‘Skid’ Marks’ Lancia Stratos which contested the 1976 Castrol International and other local events before seemingly disappearing…
I really know SFA about this car, but shall make good in the next few weeks and assemble some details. In the meantime, the photos will have to suffice. Not still here, I guess?
(J Lloyd)(J Lloyd)
David McKay’s Aston Martin DB3S with trick Rice trailer behind, Fisherman’s Bend 1958.
Jack Godbehear, Ringwood orchardist, racer and great engine builder in his JGS-JAP 298cc (Jack Godbehear Spl) at Rob Roy on November 3, 1959.
Jack came up most recently in conversation with Alan Hamilton (gee, I drafted this a while back!). Jack rebuilt the engine of Norman Hamilton’s Porsche 550 Spyder after Harry Firth got into a bit of strife! Jack’s motorcycle experience with bevel-gears meant he was familiar with the complexities of the German engine.
I know of Jack as a Formula Ford and Lotus-Ford twin-cam engine builder. Someone who taught Larry Perkins plenty of engine tricks. If anybody has a document about Jack, or can spend a few minutes on the phone and give me the gen, I’d love to hear from you. He was behind many a race win, not least his son-in-law, Tony Stewart’s.
(D Friedman)
Jack Brabham, Peter Revson and Ron Tauranac at Indianapolis in 1969.
Revvie finished fifth in a good run in the Brabham BT25 760 Repco 4.2 V8 whilst Jack retired.
A couple of months later, Peter won the Indianapolis Racing Park 200, an event comprsing two 100 mile heats on a road course. He won one heat and was second in the other taking a great win for the much-maligned four-valve Repco motor.
To be clear, these results and Matich’s win aboard the 4.8-litre V8 760-powered Matich SR4 in the 1969 Australian Sportscar Championship proved there was nothing wrong with the design, development could not have fixed.
Racer Reg in the Elsternwick, Melbourne, back streets.
Not going for a suburban blast but Reg Hunt posing for a ‘paper shoot in his just arrived 2.5-litre, Maserati 250F engined Maserati A6GCM, what a car! Click here for a feature on it:https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/
And below, with Bira before the start of the 1956 AGP at Albert Park. Graham Hunt outta focus at the right rear, I suspect.
(NatLib)(oldracingcars.com)
Garrie Cooper, Elfin MR9 Chev from Bob Minogue in the ex-Brown/Costanzo Lola T430 Chev at Calder on February 28, 1982, in the dying ‘Arco Graphite Days’ days of F5000, and not too long before Garrie’s sad, untimely passing. A bit about the Elfin MR9 here:https://primotipo.com/2016/06/10/elfin-light-aircraft/
John Wright won the 25-lap race in his Lola T400 from Bruce Allison in Reg Orr’s Elfin MR8B-C and Cooper, all cars Chev-engined. Minogue was fifth.
(D Foster)
Arnold Glass in the cookie-cutter or bacon-slicer braked ex-works BRM P48 at Lakeside in 1961 or 1962.
The car was still at this stage powered by the original 2.5-litre BRM four-cylinder GP engine rather than the aluminium Traco-Buick V8 which followed. See here for the gen; ‘Bourne to Ballarat’- BRM P48 Part 2… | primotipo…
(S5000)
I was very much looking forward to S5000 making a splash this year and regaining the Gold Star awards credibility, hopefully they will be on circuit soon!
I must have drafted that line during Covid. It’s one of Garry Rogers Ligier JSF3-S5000 Fords, I don’t recall the locale.
Chris Lambden is a close mate, I must invite him to do an article on how the CAMS/Supercar Junta and related Vested Interests fucked S5000 to a standstill and destroyed what could and should have been easily Australia’s most spectacular racing category. Watch this space.
(An1images.com)
Bob Morris was a goer wasn’t he!
Here he is doing the Light Car Club of Australia a favour by cutting the grass on the inside of Dandy Road. He is running, or trying to, up the inside of the A9X Torana driven by Pete Geoghegan, Geoghegan won his last ATCC race that April 1978 day. Pete won from Morris and Allan Grice, also Torana A9X mounted.
I loved the way the Ron Hodgson boys stuck it up the ‘factory team’ for so long.
(W Reid)
Budgie Smugglers, Stirl? Close, but not quite.
Stirling Moss catches up with Roger Bailey during preparation of the Ferrari Dino 246T, which Chris Amon drove to within a bees-dick of beating Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 Ford in the following day’s 1968 Australian GP at Sandown Park. See here for more Dino: Amon’s Tasman Dino… | primotipo…
Ah…the old Sandown paddock was as tight as, but a wonderful place for spectators at least! F Vees in close attendance to Chris (W Reid)(unattributed)
Marvin the Marvel’s Mustang leads the field at the start of the 1968 Sebring 12 Hour. Not quite. Jo Siffert’s Porsche 907 is to the left and off-screen, the winning car Jo shared with the very recently departed Hans Hermann.
#50 is the Ludovico Scarfiotti Porsche 907, #29 Paul Hawkins, Ford GT40 – note his JW Automotive teammate #28 Jacky Ickx is still belting-up and has not yet dropped the clutch – #9 is Scooter Patrick’s Lola T70 Mk3 GT Chev, with Jo Bonnier’s yellow similar car standing out further back. #42 is the Lucien Bianchi blue with taped up lights Alpine A211 Renault , the white #56 Porsche 910 was started by Foitec. A Chev Corvette is well forward but I’m not sure which one, so too is one of Roger Penske’s Chev Camaros, probably the car started by Mark Donohue. And the rest…
(unattributed)
Lorraine Hill’s Swallow Doretti at Warwick Farm in the early 1960s, a mighty fine racer at a time women behind the wheel were a rare thing. Later married to racer Brique Reed, of course, a speedy couple indeed. Who are the MGA racers folks?
Reigning J.A.F. Japanese Grand Prix winner Leo Geoghegan during practice of the May 1970 event at uber-fast, daunting Fuji International Speedway.
Leo is chasing more straight-line speed in his Lotus 59B Waggott 2-litre by running wingless. Jackie Stewart won the race in a Brabham BT30 Ford FVC, from his namesake, Max Stewart’s Mildren Waggott, with Leo sixth. See here for Leo’s ’69 victory; Leo Geoghegan: Australian Driving Champion RIP… | primotipo…
(Cummins Archive)
Lex Davison’s high born Alfa Romeo Tipo B being chased through Forrest’s Elbow by Doug Whiteford’s more utilitarian but very fast Ford V8 Spl ‘Black Bess’ at Mount Panorama during the Over 1500cc Handicap race, October 1950.
This dice up front lasted for most of the race until Lex locked a brake with two laps to go; Whiteford won on scratch, but ’51 AGP winner, Warwick Pratley took the handicap win, the money and cup with Dicer Doug behind him. See here for more on Bess; Doug Whiteford: ‘Black Bess’: Woodside, South Australia 1949… | primotipo…
Mark Webber cruising the streets of London in his Porsche 919 Hybrid in 2016, the PR perks of the job! See here; Le Mans Arty Farty… | primotipo…
(K Devine)
From the state of the sportscar art in 2016 to the equivalent in the late 1950s, the Lotus 15 Climax raced by owner Derek Jolly and John Roxburgh to victory in the Caversham 6 Hour in 1962 from the Dave Sullivan and George Wakelin Holdens.
One of my favourite categories in one of my favourite years.
Leo Geoghegan’s works-Birrana 273 Lotus-Hart-Ford 416-B leads the field in the September 1973 Symmons Plains, Tasmania, round of the Australian F2 Championship, which he won.
In line astern is the similarly powered Bob Skelton’s Bowin P6, Enno Buesselmann’s Birrana 273, Chris Farrell’s Dolphin 732 and Bruce Allison’s Bowin P6. See here for more ’73 ANF2; Testing Times… | primotipo…
Don O’Sullivan in his Matich SR3 Repco 4.4 V8 at Surfers Paradise in May 1969.
This is one of the two SR3s FM raced in the 1967 Can-Am Cup, and then ‘belted’ Chris Amon’s Ferrari Can-Am 350 with in the 1968 Tasman Cup support races, here in hi-winged form.
And below blasting down the Surfers Paradise main straight, what meeting given his regular use of #7, who knows, but 1976-77.
(T Garbett)(G Jamieson)
George Jamieson, Lotus 11 Climax FWA, chassis 358 on the grid above (and with fag below) during the 1960 Lowood, Australian Grand Prix weekend. See here for Mildren and the 1960 AGP:https://primotipo.com/2018/06/08/mildrens-unfair-advantage/
Car #135, an AC Ace, is not listed in the race program. I’m intrigued to know who it is. Jamieson DNF the race won by Alec Mildren’s Cooper T51 Maserati.
Dave Walker, Lotus 72D Ford during the 1972 Austrian Grand Prix weekend at the Osterreichring. DNF after engine failure in the race won by his teammate Emerson Fittipaldi. See more on Dave here:https://primotipo.com/2024/06/01/dave-walker-obituary/
(B Anstee)
Multiple Australian Hillclimb Champion Bruce Walton gives the Norman Hamilton crew a lift through the Fisherman’s Bend paddock in 1958, Porsche 550 Spyder. See here for a feature on this car; Hamilton’s Porsche 550 Spyder… | primotipo…
Credits…
John Lloyd, Leon Sims Collection, David Friedman, David Zeunert Collection, oldracingcars.com, Trevor Garbett, Darren Foster, S5000, An1images.com, Warren Reid, Cummins Archive, Ken Devine Collection, Graham Ruckert, Ian Smith, George Jamieson via Janice Jamieson, Barry Anstee
Tailpiece…
oldracingcars.com
Battle of the Queenslander Lotus 23 racers at Longford in 1968. Glyn Scott’s Lotus 23B Ford from Lionel Ayers MRC Lotus 23B Ford diving into The Viaduct. See here for Glyn; Glyn Scott… | primotipo… and here for Lionel; Sportscar Stalwarts… | primotipo…
Bill Pitt, Jaguar D-Type, leads Doug Whiteford, Maserati 300S and race winner David McKay heading up Mountain Straight during the early stages of the 31-lap, 100-mile Australian Tourist Trophy at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, on October 6, 1958.
That weekend was an incredible double-header combining the Australian Grand Prix won by Lex Davison’s Ferrari 500/625, and the Australian Tourist Trophy.
It was the second running of an event first won by Stirling Moss in a Maserati 300S during the 1956 AGP carnival at Albert Park.
McKay, Whiteford, Phillips and Kiwi, Frank Cantwell’s Tojeiro Jaguar (unattributed)
By then, we had a good grid of outright current sports cars, including: Aston Martin DB3S – ex-works car for David McKay, and Warren Blomfeld’s Tom Sulman-owned customer machine, Maserati 300S – Doug Whiteford’s ex-works car, Derek Jolly’s ex-works Lotus 15 Climax FPF 1.5, Ron Phillips’ ex-Peter Whitehead Cooper T38 Jaguar, customer Jaguar D-Types for Bill Pitt and Jack Murray, plus a C-Type for young thruster Frank Matich. The quickest of the local cars was Gavan Sandford Morgan in Derek Jolly’s Decca Mk 2 Climax FWA.
Pitt and McKay head up Mountain Straight, while Whiteford, Phillips and Jolly negotiate Hell Corner (P Longley)
McKay won with Jolly’s 1.5-litre Lotus second – first in class – then Ron Phillips’ Cooper T38, Frank Matich in the Leaton Motors C-Type, Gavan Sandford Morgan, Decca MK2 Climax then Warren Blomfield’s Aston Martin DB3S in sixth.
(Edgerton Family Arc)
Etcetera…
(R Reid)
Early laps I suspect with Bill Pitt in the Geordie Anderson D-Type from the obscured Jolly Lotus 15 and distinctive blue flash of Ron Phillip’s Cooper Jag.
(K Devine Arc)Cooper T38 Jag, Bathurst paddock (P Kelly)
Not to forget Derek Jolly of course. He took ATT honours in the second of his Lotus 15s at Longford in March 1960, on that occasion Doug Whiteford’s Maserati 300S was second and Frank Matich third in a D-Type.
McKay in DB3S/9 and Warren Blomfeld in DB3S/103 below.
The Leaton C-Type was Frank Matich’s first Big Car and he handled it rather well in a career that stretched all the way to the end of the 1974 Tasman Cup.
He won the Australian Tourist Trophy four times: 1964, Lotus 19B Climax, 1966, Elfin 400 Oldsmobile, and 1967-68 in his Matich SR3: Oldsmobile powered in ’67, Repco-Brabham 4.4 powered in 1968. Not to forget the Australian Sports Car Championship aboard the 4.8-litre Matich SR4 Repco in 1969.
(K Devine Arc)
Educated guess territory…Jim Wright’s Buchanan TR2 from Harry Capes’ Jaguar XK120. 14th and 19th respectively. And below, Phillip’s Cooper Jag again, in front of I’m not sure who.
(K Devine Arc)
Credits…
Des Lawrence, Peter Longley, Edgerton Family Archive, Bob Ross Collection, Ron Reid, David Medley, Paul Kelly Collection, Ken Devine Archive
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