Percy Hunter and Vida Jones – aka Mrs JAS Jones – aboard her Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 SS Zagato on the beach at Gerringong, New South Wales south coast in 1930. Click here for a long feature on this oh-so-famous Oz racing car; https://primotipo.com/2018/02/15/mrs-jas-jones-alfa-6c-1750-ss-zagato/
(Keith Anderson Photography)
Only in Australia…
And no, the little Angle-box isn’t blowing off Enzo’s finest, the Andy Buchanan Ferrari 250LM at Caversham during practice for the 1966 6-Hour race.
Graham Withers ‘slingshot’ Ampol GT sponsored dragster/rail at Castlereagh in 1968.
Whether the dude with the death-wish is a crew member sussing just how much air Mr Withers is taking on launch, or perhaps been ingesting tablets of a type not dispensed by suburban pharmacists is an interesting question. Do let me know if you can put all of our minds to rest. Manufacturer of the machine folks?
(B Williamson Collection)
Ron Hodgson’s Lotus 11 GT has to be Fugly Car Cup contender.
Here in the Warwick Farm paddock circa 1962. The story of how some lovely sportscars were re-purposed is told in this article about Murray Carter here; Forever Young… | primotipo…
Ken Kavanagh aboard the awesome Moto Guzzi 500 V8 GP machine during the 1956 Senigallia Grand Prix.
This wild machine made its race debut at the Belgian GP in June 1955, read about Kavanagh’s time with Moto Guzzi in this feature; Moto Guzzi… | primotipo…
(Moto Guzzi)(MotorSport)
Dave Walker and Tim Schenken during the 1971 Dutch Grand Prix weekend at Zandvoort.
Walker started the Lotus 56B Pratt & Whitney 4-WD from grid 22 and was looking good for a while in the very soggy conditions but like so much of the grid, missed his braking point – in a car in which he hadn’t done a huge number of laps – and ran off the track after completing only five laps. Quickie on DW here; https://primotipo.com/2022/01/05/walkin-on-water/
Tim Schenken’s Brabham BT33 Ford was a more competitive mount. In its second year – Brabham won the South African GP in one in 1970, and should have won two or three more – it was still competitive in the young Melburnian’s hands, third place at the Osterreichring was his best result of the year.
At Zandvoort he started from grid 19 but DNF with suspension failure in the race won by Regenmeister Jacky Ickx’ Ferrari 312B2. Short piece on Tim here; https://primotipo.com/2019/01/02/tim-schenken/
(MotorSport)(Reg Hunt Collection)
Reg Hunt dreaming about future conquests on one of his parents Nortons, aged nine, in the early 1930s in the UK, and living the dream at Albert Park in 1956 aboard his Maserati 250F below.
He and his A6GCM and 250F were Australia’s fastest combinations in 1955-56, then he retired early to focus on his family and motor dealerships, amassing a fortune. See more about Reg here; https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/
(Reg Hunt Collection)(P Miller)
Bob Jane relaxes on his Jaguar E-Type Lwt during the Australian Tourist Trophy meeting at Lakeside over the November 14, 1965 weekend.
This is a heat or support race, Bob was fourth in the ATT, while Ron Thorp – it’s his AC Cobra you can see – didn’t start. Pete Geoghegan won from Greg Cusack and Spencer Martin: Lotus 23B Ford, Lotus 23 Ford and Ferrari 250LM.
The dude in the brown shirt is longtime Bob Jane Racing chief mechanic/team manger John Sawyer, no idea who the driver is, the tiny splash of red is Bill Gates’ Lotus Elan. Jane usually raced this darlin’ of a Jag with its factory hardtop but wasn’t averse to running topless on hot days. Click here for a feature on the car; Perk and Pert… | primotipo…
Piers Courage on the hop during the Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round in January 1968.
Giving away a bit of horsepower at old-Sandown, a power track. Piers pitches his McLaren into Peters Corner with the Richard Attwood BRM P126 V12 , and, I think, Kevin Bartlett’s Brabham BT11A Climax behind. This fabulous race had an amazing dice between Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 Ford DFW and Chris Amon’s Ferrari 246T, resolved by a smidge in favour of the Scot. It was his last race, and series win.
(D Simpson)
This is the Queensland Touring Car Championship meeting at Surfers Paradise in August 1969, a round of the Australian Touring Car Championship. Dick Johnson’s EH Holden in front of Alan Hamilton’s Porsche 911
Norm Beechey’s Holden Monaro GTS327 won – taking the first ever ATCC win for a Holden – with Hamilton second and Jim McKeown third in a Lotus Cortina Mk2.
Dick Simpson recalled a funny moment related to his photo. “A couple of laps after that shot, as the EH was entering Lucas Corner, there was an almighty bang, a massive cloud of blue smoke and black engine oil and a number of red bits of metal pouring out of the engine right on the apex of the corner. The noise stopped and the EH silently trundled on around Repco Hill and disappeared.”
“We had a flag post right beside us and had been chatting with one of the flaggies who was most impressed that we were keen enough, or stupid enough to drive all night from Wollongong. So he said he had to go and clean up the mess and would we like a couple of souvenirs? He brought up a couple of bits of steel, one looked like a huge main-bearing cap and plonked them on top of the fencepost to cool off. About an hour later a young kid who looked a lot like the EH driver came along and demanded his bits back. So we had a quick chat with a young DJ!”
Alan Jones was stunningly quick in Sid Taylor/Teddy Yip Lola T332 Chevs during Australia’s 1977 Rothmans International F5000 Series.
While Warwick Brown won it in his Racing Team VDS Lola T430 Chev, Jones was the series-ace, let down by mechanical dramas and a mistake or two of his own; a jumped start at Oran Park and writing off a car in practice at Surfers Paradise.
(R Steffanoni)
Here at Sandown he grabbed the lead from the start but retired with overheating. He won the fourth, final round at Adelaide International at the start of a year in which he won his first F1 Grand Prix aboard a Shadow DN8 Ford at the Osterreichring (below).
(LAT)(I Smith)
Amazing Ian Smith pan of Allan Moffat in his legendary Trans-Am Mustang at Oran Park during the final round of the Australian Touring Car Championship on August 8, 1972.
Steve Snuggs tells us that he was wearing an oxygen mask in protest to CAMS not allowing him to remove the car’s carpets which smouldered from the hot exhausts and gave off fumes.
Incredibly rare colour shot of Pedro Rodriguez’ works-BRM P261 2.1-litre V8 during the 1968 Longford Trophy.
He is on the rise having exited the Newry right-hander in second or third gear – that line of poplars and road is still there – before an open left-kink then onto The Flying Mile.
Pedro nicked second-place from Frank Gardner’s Brabham BT23D Alfa in the final lap but fell well short of Piers Courage McLaren M4A Ford FVA F2 car in demanding wet conditions. More about BRM in the Antipodes here; https://primotipo.com/2020/02/22/1966-australian-grand-prix-lakeside/
(I Smith)
The great Ian Smith is sharing his back-catalogue of photographs in great dollops via Facebook. I enjoyed this series of shots taken in Reservoir, suburban Melbourne during a compare and contrast Wheels road-test between the then new Holden Kingswood HQ, and the original 1948 Holden 48-215 circa 1972.
(I Smith)
The reason for the strange location is probably because Campbells Motors Holden were in High Street, Preston and they didn’t want their luvverly old-Humpy being taken too far from ‘home’. See here for a piece on the 48-215; https://primotipo.com/2018/12/06/general-motors-holden-formative/ The locale is Edwards Park Lake, Reservoir.
(I Smith)(Mitsubishi)
The giant-killing Colin Bond/Brian Hope, fourth place overall Mitsubishi Colt 1000F at the end of the 1967 Southern Cross Rally at Port Macquarie.
Michael Gasking Collection, Keith Anderson Photography, Bob Williamson Collection, oldracephotos.com-Dick Simpson, Moto Guzzi, Reg Hunt Collection via David Zeunert, Peter Jones, Peter Miller, Rod Steffanoni, Bill Forsyth, Ian Smith, IC Walker Collection via Russell Garth
Tailpiece…
(oldracephotos.com/DSimpson)
Dick Simpson’s artistry catches Niel Allen on the hop in Garrie Cooper’s first monocoque sportscar, the Elfin ME5 Chev on the entry to Homestead corner at Warwick Farm in 1969. It was a twitchy beast of a thing with its short-wheelbase, arguably, only Niel got the best out of it in the short time he owned it before buying a McLaren M10B Chev F5000.
The Japanese zaibatsu (conglomerates) were exhorted by their government to build and export cars post-war after the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The Mitsubishi Corporation was happy to oblige their political masters.
The enormous transnational had a dalliance with automobiles in the early twentieth century, but they got serious with the Mitsubishi 500 – a design which drew on their wartime aircraft manufacture – which was mass-produced with the vision of becoming a ‘national car’ in 1959.
(Tetsuaki Makita)
The lure of competition was great so the company contested the 1962 Macau Grand Prix to showcase their engineering capabilities, the little cars finished 1-2-3-4 in a support race, taking the under 750cc class.
Mitsubishi raised the bar when they developed a 90bhp competition variant (cam, carbs, head/valve modifications) of the 1-litre R28 engine which was fitted into the first of a number of Brabham/Brabham copy chassis, the first car was called the 1966 Colt F3A.
In the 1960s the Japanese Grand Prix was held for Group 7 sportscars, some of which were built by local giants such as Prince/Nissan and Toyota. At the same Mount Fuji circuit meetings there were support events for other categories, including single-seaters – the blue riband of these was the J.A.F. (Japan Auto Federation) Japanese GPs – it was on these races that Mitsubishi focussed.
In later decades Mitsubishi’s competition history was celebrated with a series of calendars and posters which stimulated this article.
Ken Yamamoto’s painting depicts the Osamu Mochizuki-Osamu Masuko one-two battle aboard 1.6-litre pushrod R46 circa-160bhp engined Colt F2As in the 1967 JAF Japanese GP
The company led in domestic single-seater racing, while Honda took on the world in F1. Drivers such as Osamu Mochizuki, Tetsu Ikuzawa – the very first of the Japanese internationals who competed in F3 and F2 in Europe – Osamu Masuko, Kuniomi Nagamatsu and others competed against European and Australasian drivers, proving their ability at international level.
Single-seater engine developments spilled over into a rally program which commenced in Japan in 1965, but kicked up a couple of gears when Mitsubishi decided to enter Australia’s Southern Cross Rally off the back of a gruelling testing program to ensure the suitability of the Colt 800 (first launched in November 1965) for the country’s tough roads and vast climatic extremes.
Australian rally-driver, Doug Stewart – later appointed a Director of Ralliart along with Andrew Cowan – conducted the ‘destruction testing’ of two cars in the outback/alps and was so impressed he convinced Mitsubishi to rally the Colts in the Australian Rally Championship (from 1968) competition. Colin Bond, later Australian Rally/Touring Car Champion, also drove and helped prepare the cars.
Colt 1000F depicted during the October 1967 Southern Cross Rally. Colin Bond/Brian Hope fourth placed car (Akira Yokoyama)
Mitsubishi’s website records that, “Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Automotive Division considered his (Stewart’s) advice and concluded that rally participation would effectively promote road car sales and raise brand awareness.”
“They decided to contest the 1967 Southern Cross Rally with two Colt 1000Fs, pitting themselves against vehicles with much larger engines using high reliability and durability as their main assets. Colin Bond was fourth outright, also winning the small engine capacity class, while Stewart finished third in class. The foundations for what is referred to as ‘Mitsubishi Motors in Rallying’ were laid at that time.”
“1985 calendar illustration starting with the Mitsubishi 500 in 1962, Colt 1000, Colt F2, Colt F2000 – the 1971 Japanese GP winner – the Starion” (Dennis Brown)
Mitsubishi’s R39 1.6-litre (from 1968) and R39B 2-litre (1971) twin-cam, four-valve, fuel injected race engines won the 1971 Japanese Grand Prix in Colt F2000 chassis when Kuniomi Nagamatsu triumphed over Osamu Masuko in a great Colt F2D (F2000) 1-2 in an international field of depth.
Just as it seemed the company was poised as a possible engine supplier in the new 2-litre European F2 Championship which commenced in 1972, the company turned 180-degrees away from single-seaters into touring car racing and the forests and deserts where its competition focus has largely remained. From a cost-effective brand-building perspective with production-car spinoffs, it was doubtless the right call.
(Akira Yokoyama)
Mitsubishi’s first international rally win was in the 1972 Southern Cross Rally, the winning crew of the Colt Galant was Andrew Cowan and navigator John Bryson. The company won three more of the Oz internationals and two Safari Rallies between 1973-77. Their first Safari win was taken by a privately entered Colt driven by Joginder Singh. Lancer Turbo and Lancer Evolutions programmes followed.
It’s a bummer not to be able to read the detail of these posters found on-line, but I thought them worth sharing all the same.
Credits…
mit-cardesign-t.com – Dennis Brown, Tetsuaki Makita, Ken Yamamoto, Akira Yokoyama, rally-japan.jp
Another page from the 1985 calendar (Dennis Brown)
In the process of researching this story the only technician I have uncovered as involved in the race and rally programs is a man named Iwao Kimata, “a former Nissan rally driver, who was hired to help Mitsubishi learn about rally racing step by step” according to rally-japan.jp.
If any Japanese readers now the names of the key engineers/technicians/mechanics involved in Mitsubishi’s mid-1960s race and rally programmes, please get in touch with me on mark@bisset.com.au. I am keen to record such folks names and if possible communicate with them.
Frank Gardner leads at the start of the Levin International, round two of the 1968 Tasman Series, won by Jim Clark’s works Lotus 49 Ford DFW, on January 13, 1968.
Clark is second, Chris Amon, Ferrari 246T third, then Pedro Rodriguez, BRM P126 and Piers Courage, McLaren M4A Ford FVA at the rear of the lead-bunch.
We have South African photographer, Brian Spurr to thank for these shots. He didn’t take them, but rather scanned them to preserve the deteriorating images given to him by a lady named Tracy Robb, then made them available through his Facebook page – via good friend, Peter Ellenbogen – for us all to enjoy. Brian has no idea who the snapper was, but clearly the man had a good eye. Many thanks to Tracy, Brian and Peter.
(B Spurr Collection)
Frank Bryan’s Mustang from, perhaps, Robert Stewart’s Cooper S at Cabbage Tree Corner during the same meeting.
(B Spurr Collection)
Graham McRae explores the limits in his Brabham BT2 Lotus-Ford 1.5. He failed to finish the 1968 race but three years later triumphed aboard the McLaren M10B Chev he took to the first of three-on-the-trot Tasman Cup victories from 1971-73. See here for an article about the amazing McRae and his cars, including his formative years; https://primotipo.com/2018/09/06/amons-talon-mcraes-gm2/
(B Spurr Collection)
Contretemps between Vince Anderson’s Brabham BT11A Climax and Bill Stone’s #24 Brabham BT6 Lotus-Ford 1.5 in practice. Stone got his car repaired for the race, finishing sixth in the International.
(B Spurr Collection)
Chris Amon on his way to victory at Levin in front of Bruce McLaren’s brand-new, Len Terry designed BRM P126 and Jim Clark. Amon won the 63 lap race from Courage and Jim Palmer in another M4A McLaren.
(B Spurr Collection)
Jim Clark and the lads push Clark’s Lotus 49 #R2 back into the incredibly picturesque Pukekohe paddock during practice. The New Zealand Grand Prix was traditionally the first Tasman round and was usually held at the Auckland circuit, this is/was the January 6 weekend.
Bruce McLaren, BRM P126-02 (B Spurr Collection )
McLaren drove the BRM in the four Kiwi rounds only with his best results fifth at Wigram and a splendid win at Teretonga, then it was back to Colnbrook to ready the new Ford Cosworth DFV powered McLaren M7 and McLaren M8A Chev for F1 and Can-Am competition respectively.
Bruce’s analytical skills kick-started BRM’s development program for their new car, he was familiar with the Type 101 V12 engine, having raced his M5A with it in the latter part of 1967. See here for an article on these cars; https://primotipo.com/2018/01/25/richard-attwood-brm-p126-longford-1968/
What was the Phil Irving line? “One more tube and you could breed from it!” BRM P126 highlighting the Hewland DG300 gearbox and 2.5-litre variant of their 3-litre F1 Type 101 V12 as first fitted to McLaren’s F1 car in 1967 (B Spurr Collection)
The undoubted stars of the show in 1968-69 were the works Lotus and Ferraris, arguably THE YEAR of Tasman competition in terms of variety was 1968.
Repco Brabham V8 engined Brabhams for Jack (in Australia) and Leo Geoghegan’s Lotus 39, BRM V8s and V12s – the P261 and new P126, the V6 Ferrari 246T and of course the Ford DFW V8 in the back of Jim Clark and Graham Hill’s Lotus 49, the 1.6-litre Ford FVA powered Brabham BT23 raced by Denny Hulme and Piers Courage’s McLaren M4A FVA. Not to forget Frank Gardner’s one-off Alec Mildren owned Brabham BT23D powered by a 2.5-litre variant of Alfa Romeo’s sportscar Tipo 33 V8. Plus the 2.5-litre FPF Climaxes, so long the backbone of the series. We never had it so good! Vive Le difference
(B Spurr Collection)
Piers Courage re-launched his career with his performances in this self-run F2 210bhp McLaren M4A Ford FVA. He drove the wheels off it, stayed on the black-stuff and capped a series of speed and consistency off with a famous win in the teeming rain at Longford in the final 1968 race.
Gardner’s Brabham at left, Amon’s Ferrari at right with Clark in the middle (B Spurr Collection)(B Spurr Collection)(B Spurr Collectionj
Les Jones’ Lotus 20B Ford 1.5 (DNS) and the spare BRM P261 raced that weekend by Pedro Rodriguez at the Shell depot in among the Puke trees.
(B Spurr Collection)
This will cause a state of excitement for Lotus historians. Peter Yock’s white Lotus 25 BRM is chassis R3, the machine used by Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor in 1962-63 before being sold to Reg Parnell racing in 1964 and fitted with BRM P56 V8s. Later, as here, R3 was fitted with a 2-litre BRM P60 V8 and sold to Yock.
This link to Allen Brown’s wonderful oldracingcars.com website tells all about the tortuous Lotus 25/33 chassis by chassis history; https://www.oldracingcars.com/lotus/25/ His records show this old-warrior contested 95! races in the hands of Clark, Taylor, Jack Brabham (Monaco 1963), Peter Arundell, Mike Spence, Pedro Rodriguez, Mike Hailwood, Chris Amon, Richard Atwood, Paul Hawkins, Giancarlo Baghetti, Jonathan Williams, Mike Spence, Rob Slotemaker, Piers Courage, Chis Irwin, Peter Yock and Peter Hughes…
Converted to Lotus 33 spec along the way, R3’s best results were wins at the 1962 US GP and Rand GP, and the ’63 Kanonloppet in all cases driven by Clark. Peter Yock’s ’68 Tasman was grim with DNF’s in all four of the Kiwi rounds he contested.
Better shots of the Lotus BRM engine installation – note the Owen Racing Organisation decal between the two front radius rod mounts. Circuit and date unknown (N Tait)(B Spurr Collection)
Piers Courage and Chris Amon await their MGB ride prior to the off at Pukekohe. Who is the BP driver at right?
(B Spurr Collection)
Clark and Amon above, and the yellow nose of the Mildren Brabham, #2 is Pedro Rodriguez’ BRM P261 Bruce in the other car beyond in the shot below. The Goodyears on Chris’ car are interesting, I thought the Scuderia were contracted to Firestone at the time? Maybe ‘freelancing’ Down South was hunky-dory?
(B Spurr Collection)(B Spurr Collection)
No works Brabham Repco V8 for the ‘68 Tasman for Denny – ’67 World F1 Championship and all – he was off to McLaren for 1968 so had to run a Brabham BT23 Ford FVA F2 to keep the fans at home and in Australian happy.
In fact he used two cars that summer. BT23-5 is shown above on the Pukekohe grid. In a very dodgy accident on lap – the blame for which was attributed to Hulme, albeit it was ‘hushed up’ at the time – Denny took Laurence Brownlie’s Brabham off the road, frustrated with his failure, as he saw it, to get out of the way, injuring him very badly and effectively ending the promising Kiwi’s career.
BT23-5, the Winkelmann Racing chassis with which Jochen Rindt won so many races in 1967, was rooted. Sold to Feo Stanton and Alec Mildren, Bob Britton made a BT23 jig with it then set it aside in his Rennmax Engineering workshop. 50 years later it’s alive and well in Europe.
BT23-2 was then shipped to New Zealand, a works car raced by Brabham and Frank Gardner in 1967. His bests in that was third place at Wigram and fifth at Warwick Farm.
(B Sergent Collection)
Clark contemplating loading-up while the shape of BRM Team Manager, Tim Parnell is to the right, a burger-boy of the nicest kind it seems.
(unattributed)
Parnell, a few moments later is amongst his lads, Bruce with his back to us is about to jump aboard his P126 while Rodriguez – centre shot – is about to board his V8 P261. Pedro was much keener to race this very well-sorted old-tool that summer, rather than the car he should have been focusing on, his V12 mount for the upcoming F1 season!
(B Spurr Collection)
The off, with someone shitting-himself mid-grid. It is not a good feeling…and what a unique Pukekohe view too. Frank Gardner is on the outside of the front row we can see, Brabham BT23D Alfa, with Jim Clark, Chris Amon and Pedro Rodriguez obscured to FG’s right.
(unattributed)
Amon has the jump with Clark right up his clacker. Gardner’s #7 Brabham Alfa is outside, then Pedro’s P261 with Bruce’s V12 on the inside and Denny’s four-cylinder Brabham #3 on the outside.
Amon Pukekohe (B Spurr Collection)
Chris Amon drove a great race to win his national Grand Prix from Frank Gardner, the Aussie was the only other driver to complete the full race distance of 58 laps. Piers Courage was third, Jim Palmer fourth in his McLaren M4A Ford FVA and Australian, Paul Bolton fifth in the Rorstan Racing Brabham BT22 Climax.
Jim Clark had engine failure after 44 laps, while Pedro Rodriguez’ old faithful BRM P261 V8 lasted only 28 laps until clutch failure, while Bruce McLaren’s P126 V12 was hors de combat with clutch failure after completing only 14 laps. More on the race here; https://primotipo.com/2017/07/21/amons-tasman-dino/
(B Spurr Collection)
Winners are grinners! ‘Sir Christopher’ Amon, Pukekohe 1968. Other dudes folks?
Etcetera…
(B Spurr Collection)
I love the look of this Pukekohe paddock, the death sentence has just been made on this place, Denny.
(B Spurr Collection)
David McKay’s – to the right of the car touching his chin – Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM was racing-royalty in this part of the world, competition Ferraris being very thin on the ground. Click here for an article about the car;
Here the machine is sharing the grid with another legendary car, the Lycoming Special – in which Jim Clark did some laps one year – with Jim Boyd at the wheel, the flash of red at right is the Stanton Corvette raced by Geoff Mardon.
The shot below is of the same three cars at Levin the week after Pukekohe at Cabbage Tree corner.
Together with Scuderia Veloce and Frank Matich Racing, Alec Mildren Racing was the only other fully-professional racing outfit in Australia at the time. See here; https://primotipo.com/2020/01/14/alec-mildren-racing/ and here on the BT23D;
Gardner finished equal fourth in the Tasman title chase, with Graham Hill, his best results were second place at Pukekohe, third at Teretonga and Longford, and fourth at Sandown, the AGP.
While the car fell short in international competition, Kevin Bartlett took BT23D over when FG returned to Europe and won the 1968 Australian Drivers Championship, the Gold Star, in it in 1968 before contesting the Australian 1969 Tasman rounds. After a chequered history, BT23D-1 is still with us.
(B Spurr Collection)
Andy Buchanan’s Elfin 400 Chev, looking superb as it did in the day, and now does! A Kiwi mate sent an image of this car very recently, the restoration is now nearly complete albeit the car is not yet running.
(B Spurr Collection)
He’s a bit anally retentive as a sculptor, but let’s give him points for creativity anyway. Those are called long-necks or depth-charges in this part of the world, unlike the little poofhouse things we mainly drink from today.
(B Spurr Collection)
Clark’s 49 R2 alongside Laurence Brownlie’s Brabham BT18/23 Lotus-Ford 1.5. Brownlie’s car – the quickest of the Kiwi 1.5s that year – was destroyed in the terrible accident with Denny Hulme mentioned earlier. More on the ’68 Tasman cars here; https://primotipo.com/2021/03/06/1968-australian-gp-sandown-2/
(B Spurr Collection)
Bruce labours on BRM P126-02, giving us another look at the DG300 Hewland – rather than one of Bourne’s own ‘trannies – and Len Terry’s signature twin-parallel-link lower rear suspension, which soon thereafter became the ‘industry standard’.
Note the local work-boots, typical attire on both sides of The Ditch (Tasman Straight). OH&S, WTF is that?
(B Spurr Collection)
Rod Coppins in Pete Geoghegan’s first Ford Mustang, ain’t she sweet.
BRM P60 V8 in the back of Peter Yock’s Lotus 25/33 (N Tait)
BRM maintenance on a shoestring.
I love this explanation by Warner Collins, one of Peter Yock’s mechanics, about repairs to the BRM V8 to keep his driver in the field. It appeared on the Old New Zealand Motor Racing Facebook page.
“The engined no compression in one front cylinder. BRM were stationed at Croydon Motors, so I went and spoke to Tim Parnell who pointed out boxes of V12 and V8 spares, nothing suited. Of course this was Wednesday/Thursday before Wigram so I told Peter Yock it couldn’t be fixed. He then went and barrelled Tim, who said they had no spares for the obsolete engine.”
“Peter said we had to try, so my brain kicked into gear, we got the car onto its side, got the sump off – there was no way the head was coming off without gaskets, 50,000 gears and no manual – so another thinking session. I managed to get the piston and rod out the bottom, the two-ring piston had a broken compression ring. After all day I managed to find a motorbike sized one, the .20th gap was a bit large but in it went. Getting it back in was a mission, I had to get around the crank and compress the rings without breaking them, and bolted the thing up, even having to make a sump gasket.”
“The BRM guys came over and said, ‘You must be joking!’ They would’ve sent the engine back to BRM. It was ok, not 100%, at least it was on 8-cylinders, well that is my story! I think Peter got tucked up a bit, a Lotus with a cobbled up, well-used V8. Peter wanted me to do the rest of the series, but it was not for me, you can’t run a car like that without spares.”
Peter Yock responded to Warner and Gary Sprague, “Well, you are both right. I probably did get tucked up, but for 3000 pounds it wasn’t overly expensive. After the Timaru meeting we went into Ernie Sprague’s garage and completely reset the ride height and suspension and the following week at Ruapuna we blew the opposition away, different handling car altogether.”
“I don’t know if you guys are aware, but the car ended up in Dawson-Damer’s collection in Sydney, after he was killed at Goodwood it was sold at auction for 1.2million. Mind you, it had to be completely restored to to the Jim Clark winning 25 with Climax engine.”
Credits…
Brian Spurr Collection, Bruce Sergent Collection, Naomi Tait, oldracingcars.com
Tailpiece…
Amon’s Ferrari 246T, Pukekohe (B Spurr Collection)
‘cor, dunnit look utterly lovely! Amon’s long-time mechanic, Bruce Wilson has lovingly, carefully, skilfully built up 246T/68 #004 for his longtime friend. They won two rounds in 1968 – Pukekohe and Levin – but returned the following year and went all the way; two cars for Chris and Derek Bell with logistics taken care of by Scuderia Veloce.
2.4-litre V6 is a three-valver here, the four-valve units mainly used in Australia gave very little away to anything else, Amon missed winning the Australian Grand Prix at Sandown so equipped, by only one-hundredth of a second to Clark’s flying Lotus 49 V8.
As you all know, that ’68 Tasman was Jim’s last championship win.
Chris Amon hustles his March 707 Chev around Riverside, during the weekend in 1970. Isn’t it a big, handsome brute, fast too…
The scale of March’s F1 achievement in 1970 from a standing start is unbelievable, 11 March 701 Ford DFV’s were built and won three F1 races that year. Jackie Stewart took the fiery Spanish Grand Prix and the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, while Chris Amon won the International Trophy at Silverstone.
In addition, they created the infrastructure and team to build customer Formula Ford, F3 and F2 cars, and this Group 7/Can-Am program, “credited to SCCA Pro Racing Director Jim Kaser’s trip to Europe to drum up more business” wrote Hunter Farnham. In his spare time – sic! – Robin Herd led the design of a car that was immediately competitive in Helmut Kelleners’ hands in the European Interserie, and in the much more competitive Can-Am Challenge, where McLaren remained supreme, later in 1970.
“The detail design was executed by ex-Lola man Martin Slater (a friend of one of the March founders, Graham Coaker) and John Clark, a freelance designer who was involved with most of the early Marches, while further refinements were made during its construction by John Thompson, Roger Silman and Peter Turland.” wrote Mike Lawrence in ‘The History of March’. Well aware of how thin the businesses resources were, Amon enticed his long-time mechanic, Kiwi Bruce Wilson – who had not too long before prepared and spannered the Ferrari 246T in which Chris had won the 1969 Tasman Cup – to Bicester to help complete the cars.
Chris testing 707-01 at Silverstone sans bodywork – Bruce would be proud of him! – in May 1970 (B Wilson Collection)March 707 Chev technical specifications as per text, chassis depicted is Amon’s 707-02 (Bill Bennett)
Herd was partially responsible for the McLaren dominance of course, together with Bruce McLaren he designed and drew the 1967 McLaren M6A Chev, the first of the Papaya-Steamrollers comprising the 1967-71 M6A-M8A-M8B-M8D and M8F, all of which were Chevrolet V8 powered.
As was the case with the 701, Herd designed a simple car – nothing wrong with that, McLaren’s dominance was achieved with utterly conventional superbly designed, built and prepared racing cars – given the time constraints and customer queue. No way could he afford an expensive, time consuming development program with angry customers if an innovative approach turned-turtle.
Robin’s monocoque was fabricated in 20-gauge aluminium alloy with magnesium bulkhead castings at front and rear. It housed 70 gallons of fuel located in four Firestone bladders. In a neat touch, typical of some F1 cars of the day, the tub ended at the aft cockpit bulkhead with the engine and rear suspension/transaxle assembly bolted to a steel frame that attached to the back of the tub. With the fixings undone, the whole rear of the car could be rolled away for necessary maintenance.
707-02 getting pretty close to being ready for Chris first gallop at Silverstone by the look, no belt yet fitted tho. Lots of flat sheet to minimise the compound curvature fabrication challenges. Bruce Wilson second from the right, who are the other fellas folks? (B Wilson Collection)(B Wilson Collection)Ally block, capacity quoted as 494/502ci, Lucas injection, magneto ignition, Mota-Lita steering steering, Hewland LG ‘box (B Wilson Collection)
March purchased 494/502cid/8-litre Chaparral-Chev aluminium, pushrod, fuel injected V8s giving circa 720bhp @ 6500rpm. The ubiquitous Hewland LG600 gearbox transmitted its huge power and torque through roller-spline driveshafts to mag-alloy wheels and 23-inch wide Firestones at the rear.
Front and rear suspension was period typical. Upper and lower wishbones, coil spring-Koni damper units and adjustable roll-bar and mag-alloy uprights at the front. The rear used a single top link, twin parallel lower links, and radius rods, again with an adjustable bar and attaching to big, beefy but light mag-alloy uprights.
Brakes were Girling calipers with 12-inch rotors, steering was of course rack and pinion, the whole lot less fuel weighed a claimed 1460 pounds. The wheelbase, as published, was 96 inches, front track 68, rear track 64, length 156, and width 93 inches.
Pete Lyon’s ran his tape-measure over the cars and found that “the tape across the nose-fins was no wider that 83.5 inches, while the rear wheel arches swelled to only 83.75. That years M8D taped out at 79.5 at the latter point.” Lyon quoted Chris Amon from a Karl Ludvigsen – Motor Trend article as saying the true weight of the 707 was between 1600-1800 pounds. Big cars indeed…
Bruce Wilson and Chris catching up early in-build, 707-01, maybe (B Wilson Collection)(B Wilson Collection)(B Wilson Collection)
Chassis 707-01 was ready for Chris to test at Silverstone in mid-May (above). He was excited by the prospect of racing two 707s, which were part of his retainer agreement with March. Lawrence wrote that Chris viewed this effort as potentially a first step in establishing ‘Amon Racing Team’ to give him a measure of independence, and longer term security after he’d hung up his helmet.
In the end, March retained the cars, “the books would be balanced to suit” wrote Lawrence. Ultimately, Chris was never paid what he was owed by March, not that he was alone, just one of the first…
Chris complained of front end instability when he tested the car, the cockpit was so large that Robin Herd joined him for a few laps, the mechanics joked that “he’d designed the 707 that wide so he could hitch rides in it.”
Kelleners 707-01 was ready in time for the first Interserie round at the Norisring on June 26. He led both heats but was ousted by gearbox problems, a good effort as the brakes were troublesome and the weight distribution still wasn’t quite right. Progress was swift though, he won at Croft in July and at Hockenheim in October. The six round championship was won by Jurgen Neuhaus, Porsche 917K who was also victorious twice but was more consistent throughout the short season. Kelleners was the class of the field, despite the presence of some works-assisted Porsche 917s, with more reliability he would have won the title. Importantly, the lessons learned with the car were built into Amon’s machine which was quick and finished races from the start.
Helmut Kelleners 707-01 during the 1970 Trophy of The Dunes at Zandvoort on September 20 (unattributed)Zandvoort again, the shot chosen to highlight the fabulous mix of cars; Groups 5, 6 and 7, fitted with engines ranging in capacity from 2-8-litres! Gijs Van Lennep, Porsche 917K here leads Kelleners (MotorSport)
After the Italian Grand Prix, Amon took his March 707 to round 8 of the Can-Am at Donnybrooke, McLaren had won almost all of the preceding rounds in the superb, Batmobile M8D Chev. Dan Gurney was victorious at Mosport and St Jovite until sponsor-clashes brought his McLaren F1 and Can-Am drive to an end. Denny Hulme then won at Watkins Glen, Edmonton and Mid Ohio until Peter Gethin took the Road America round in the car vacated by Gurney.
The odd-ball victory of the season was Tony Dean’s in the wet at Road Atlanta in mid-September when his nimble, light 3-litre Porsche 908 Spyder beat all of the 6-7 litre machines
When Amon appeared at Donnybrooke during the September 27 weekend he was immediately on the pace despite a lower front suspension arm pulling away from the chassis in practice.
Amon arrived in Minnesota early enough to do some mid-week practice, “but twice its practice was cut short with suspension failures,” Pete Lyons in ‘Can-Am’ wrote. The ‘Boeing’ was third on the grid, with ‘patches’ fitted to each side to rectify the suspension problem, behind Peter Revson’s Carl Haas-works Lola T220 Chev and the Hulme M8D; Chris matched Denny’s qualifying time, not bad…
In the race he ran second for a while, then, despite fuel pick up problems while running third – one tank wasn’t emptying into the other – Chris was classified fifth, having pulled off to the side of the track, behind Hulme, Gethin, Revson and Jim Adams’ Ferrari 512P.
(B Wilson Collection)Amon negotiates Laguna Seca’s corkscrew (unattributed)(B Wilson Collection)
Then it was off to Laguna Seca for another promising run on October 18. This time Q5 and fourth, coping with spongy brakes on the challenging track behind Hulme, Jackie Oliver’s Autocoast TI22 Mk2 Chev – who engaged in a long thriller of a dice with Denny – and Revson’s Lola. Clearly 707 had plenty of promise and pace despite missing the bulk of the races and the ongoing development which is a part of that process.
It was more of the same in the final round at Riverside, Q5 and fourth for Chris, third until fuel woes re-emerged and he had to pit for a splash and dash. This time the finishing order was Hulme, Oliver and Pedro Rodriguez in the BRM P154, the Bourne marque also having a crack that season but not making as much impact as March’s much shorter campaign.
At the end of 1970 both cars were returned to Bicester. 707-01 was modified by the removal of the hammerhead nose, and the front mounted radiators were moved to the chassis’ side. Dubbed the 717, Kelleners struggled with reliability in 1971 and sold the car at the season’s end to Austrian racer, Stefan Sklenar who race it sporadically without much luck.
Chris’ 707-02 was rebuilt and demonstrated occasionally. Despite the very promising start, March didn’t return to the Can-Am Challenge but rather focused mainly on volume production of single-seater categories where they were globally successful. In the later 1970s 707-03, a spare chassis, was built up and fitted with 707 bodywork, the cars live on.
Etcetera…
(unattributed)
Helmut Kelleners looking for a bit of love from his crew in the Croft pitlane, a successful July weekend for the team in that short 25 lap race. He won aboard 707-01 from Jurgen Neuhaus, Porsche 917K and John Lepp, Spectre GP6 Ford.
The photographs in this section are a mix from Bruce Wilson’s collection including some March works shots from in-period press releases, and the Getty Images’ archive. They are mixed up to get a nice visual mish-mash of monochrome and colour.
(MotorSport)
Plenty to smile about at Riverside, while Karl Ludvigsen’s shot below on the same November 1 weekend is much more moody, the shadows enhance that distinctive hammerhead nose with quite separate wing-section.
It’s such a shame that March didn’t race on with an evolved car in the 1971 Can-Am though it is hard to be critical of the commercial choices made by the March Boys, whilst noting the ever present and well documented ongoing cashflow dramas.
(K Ludvigsen)It’s clear how much influence the F1 701 had on the nose-aero of its big Can-Am March sibling in this low angle shot (B Wilson Collection)Monterey GP pits, Laguna Seca 1970. Bruce Wilson in the red shirt (H Thomas)
The sheer subtlety of Can-Am machines is what makes them so attractive to so many of us…
1970 was the last real Can-Am in the minds of many experts of the class. The Chapparral 2J Chev was such a threat to orthodoxy, it was thown out. Doubtless in accordance with FIA rules. But when Jim Hall said ‘go and get rooted’, or the Texan equivalent thereof, everything good about the unlimited, truly wild class was gone. Those of you who saw them race in-period are so lucky…
(B Wilson Collection)Amon, again 707-02 at Laguna Seca in 1970 (H Thomas)“How’s the F1 car going Bruce?” “Hmm, Ferrari have come good pal!” (B Wilson Collection)
Bruce Wilson and Chris Amon were the best of buddies. Bruce was key to Amon’s success right back to his Maserati 250F days before Reg Parnell popped him on a plane to England in early 1963.
Coopers galore in NZ circa 1961, circuit folks? Chris aboard his Cooper T41 Climax with Bruce’ hand on rear body (B Wilson Collection)
Wilson wrote a lovely book – The Master Mechanic- about his life and times in racing in the Antipodes and Europe, I’m told it’s great, it’s certainly on my list. I don’t believe the publisher has any – it was released almost as he died in 2017 – so go the online route.
(B Wilson Collection)
Credits…
Bruce Wilson Collection, cutaway by Bill Bennett, Karl Ludvigsen, Can-Am review in ‘Automobile Year 18’ by Hunter Farnham, ‘The History of March’ Mike Lawrence, ‘Can-Am’ Pete Lyons, Getty Images-Henry Thomas
Duncan Ord completes a donut out front of a Shell Servo in suburban Perth, date and place unknown…
I laughed at the sight of this oh-so-pedigreed racer being subjected to useage more often applied to ‘Humpy’ Holdens of the day!
This 3.3-litre, DOHC, straight-eight Bugatti T57T #57264 was first raced by Earl Howe in the 1935 Ulster Tourist Trophy later passing into the hands of Pierre Levegh who contested the 1937 GP des Frontieres at Chimay amongst other races. It, perhaps, passed through Jean-Pierre Wimille’s hands before being sold to visiting Perth racer Duncan Ord in the UK. He shipped it home, first racing it at Pingelly, Western Australia in January 1939, where it remained a pillar of the local scene into the dawn of the swinging-sixties.
Among sports-racing Bugattis, the Type 57 is one of the most illustrious. Chassis 57264 is a Type 57 Tourist Trophy Torpedo, originally designated chassis 57222, this was later changed by the factory. The car is unusual in that despite a racing history of over thirty years it retains its original chassis largely intact, and original crankcase, gear-box and front and rear axles as well as other less critical components.
Detailed research by foremost French Bugatti authority Pierre Yves Laugier has confirmed this machines history, “The first mention of the car is in the August 1935 list of bodywork at the Bugatti factory which contains the entry ‘2 Voitures Course 24 Heures, moteurs 223 et 224’. While no chassis serial numbers were recorded for these two cars, on August 29 that year – in the factory’s list of cars sold – the chassis serial number 57222 Torpedo Tourist Trophy with motor number 224 is mentioned. Francis, Earl Howe, drove Bugatti Type 57 TT, engine 224, to finish third in the Ulster TT race, at Ards, Ulster (as below) on September 7, 1935.”
(MotorSport Images)Earl Howe beside his trusty steed at Ards before the off (MotorSport Images)
In its report of the race MotorSport said, “The Bugattis driven by Lord Howe and the Hon. Brian Lewis were models of light construction with their duralumin shell bodies, and weighed only 26 cwt, with driver, fuel and water. Georges de Ram shock absorbers were used and the engines were said to develop over 160hp at 5,500rpm, which sounds rather fantastic. At any rate the compression ratio was well over 8 to 1 thanks to the efficient shape of the twin (sic) combustion chambers. Lord Howe’s car did close on 120mph while Lewis’s car was somewhat slower….”.
During the first practice day Francis, Earl Howe, had in fact made fastest lap time in 10 minutes 16 seconds which was some six seconds faster than his RAC handicap time. During the race Brian Lewis – the younger man and a faster driver than Howe – led the race, before his Bugatti developed clutch slip due to an oil leak from the gearbox. This left Howe leading, only to make an immediate refuelling stop. He subsequently fought his way back onto the leader board, MotorSport commenting “Howe had been making splendid progress on the Bugatti, and on the 33rd lap caught the two Aston Martins to secure third place…” – behind winner Freddie Dixon’s fleet Riley and Eddie Hall’s very special 3.6-litre Bentley.
By January 1936, the car was listed for sale with dealer Dominique Lamberjack back in Paris at 60,0000 Francs. The car was also referred to in period as chassis serial 57264/moteur 224 Torpedo TT as the factory had re-allocated serial 57222 to a new Competition Torpedo with its gondola shaped Type 57S chassis.
57264 was possibly entered at Le Mans in 1936 but the event was cancelled due to the political unrest throughout France. On June 11, 1936 the car was co-driven by Yves Giraud-Cabantous and Bugatti company salesman Roger Labric in the Spa 24-Hours. Labric, a friend of Bugatti, managed the marque’s showroom on the Avenue Montaigne, Paris. Unfortunately he overshot at the Stavelot Hairpin and burst the car’s radiator. When repaired it was offered for sale at the Avenue Montaigne showroom.
The car pictured in France during Pierre Levegh’s ownership (Bonhams Collection)
It found a buyer on April 8, 1937 in talented French gentleman/sportsman – talented cyclist, skier, ice hockey and tennis player – owner/driver Pierre Bouillin. Born in Paris on December 22, 1905, he was the son of an antiques dealer and had become the director of a brush factory in Trie Châ-teau in the Oise region. The Type 57 was his first Bugatti.
Bouillin idolized his uncle – Alfred Velghe – a pre-war pioneer racing driver. Bouillin shuffled the letters of that surname to adopt the anagram nom de guerre ‘Levegh’ for his racing exploits.
Pierre became obsessed with winning Le Mans and in 1952 came close – over-revving his Talbot-Lago and blowing the engine after 23 hours of a solo drive – while well-established in a probably uncatchable lead. His misfortune gifted the race to the works Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwings which finished first and second.
When Mercedes returned to Le Mans with a team of 300SLRs in 1955 they invited 49 year old Levegh to drive for them. It was aboard an SLR that he became innocently involved in the terrible collision which claimed the lives of over 80 spectators, in addition to the luckless Bouillin himself.
57264 perhaps at Miramas, Marseilles with Levegh in June 1937 (Bonhams Collection)
In happier times during 1937 he paid 32,500 Francs in instalments to purchase 57264 for his competition debut. On May 15, 1937, he raced the T57 in the Grand Prix des Frontieres at Chimay, Belgium finishing third, running sans mudguards. On June 6 he contested the Marseilles 3-Hours, finishing eighth, then on September 19 at Montlhery, Levegh entered the the Autumn Cup sports car race, the machine by then fitted with larger Delahaye-style mudguards, but failed to finish.
Pierre then advertised the car for sale in the L’Auto March 15,1938 issue, describing it as a “Type 57, unique car, capable of 190km/h. Write to owner at 54 Avenue de Choisy”.The car was spotted at Brooklands during that period and clocked at 192km/h. It had already been modified with the addition of a 40-gallon riveted aluminium fuel tank behind the driver’s seat, different doors, an additional oil cooler ahead of the radiator and further modified mudguards. It also featured cable-adjustable Repesseau shock absorbers.’
Contemporary references are confusing but it’s possible Levegh sold it to French Ace Jean-Pierre Wimille who used it as his roadie before passing it on to an unknown purchaser, who shipped it to Brooklands, but died before he could compete there. It then passed to London based sports car specialist J.H. Bartlett who advertised it in the May 1938 issue of Speed, “Bugatti special 3.3-litre 120 m.p.h. competition 2 seater, fitted late series 57S engine, special electron body, special streamlined wings, spare tanks, etc…£450.” It was acquired by visiting Australian racer Duncan Ord.
Ord, Pingelly Speed Classic, on the cars race debut in Australia, January 30, 1939 (J Krajancich Collection)
Another Pingelly shot, year unknown, note the oil cooler up-front (K Devine Collection)
On arrival in Australia the car was unloaded from the ship at Fremantle where it created considerable local interest as a contemporary machine described in the press as a “1934 Le Mans model two-seater fitted with long range 60 gallon fuel tanks and had been refurbished at Molsheim before being clocked at 120 mph at Brooklands.”
Ord entered the Great Southern Speed Classic at Pingelly on 30 January, no doubt the step up in performance of the Bugatti compared to the P-Type MG he started racing in 1936 was deeply impressive. Ord’s handling of the car was noted as being particularly good but he was slowed by clutch troubles and a spin on the last lap which dropped him to fourth.
Interestingly this handicap race was won by the supercharged MG TA Spl driven by the very young Alan Tomlinson. On 2 January 1939, three weeks before, ‘The Three Kids from Perth’ (Tomlinson, Minder- Bill Smallwood, Manager- Clem Dwyer both of these latter fellows no slouches as drivers themselves) won a famous Australian Grand Prix victory on the daunting Lobethal which confounds historians to this day. Confounds in the sense that the sustained speed of the little MG beat some serious heavy-metal including the Jano Alfas of Alf Barrett, Jack Saywell and John Crouch, the Delahaye 135CS of John Snow and others on a track regarded as Australia’s greatest ever motor racing challenge.
The racing fraternity in Western Australia had a great relationship with the authorities which was reflected in a vast number of Round The Houses racing on closed public roads of small towns they secured over many decades, the first of which was at Albany in 1936.
The venues were away from Perth, to its south east was Pingelly 150km away, and Cannington 10km. Narrogin was-is 200km to the north east, Goomalling 130 km and Dowerin 160km. Byford Hillclimb was 45km south of Perth whereas Albany was a very long tow, 420km south to the edge of the continent’s coast. Busselton is 225km ‘down south’ as the Perthies say, too, on a magic stretch of coast. Bunbury was and is an important port on the west coast, it too is south of Perth, 175km from the state capital. This is by no means a complete list, I’ve just covered the towns in which the Bugatti raced.
Duncan Ord pressing on, place and date unknown (J Krajancich Collection)Ord again at Pingelly, uncertain of the year – he raced there from 1939-41 carrying #9 on each occasion – at the Review Street corner (K Devine Collection)
Pre-War the West Australians did more racing miles than racers in any other state on tar or bitumen. On the odd occasion they competed on the east coast – a cut-lunch and a camel ride away – given the transport network and roads of the day, the best of them could be prodigiously fast, Alan Tomlinson being the prime example.
As the war clouds gathered in Europe Ord raced the car in the June Dowerin winter meeting, finishing second in the open championship to Jack Nelson’s Ballot Ford V8 Spl. A fortnight later he was at Cannington for the Quarter Mile Trials where the Bug did a 17.2 second standing quarter and a flying quarter mile pass at 94.73 mph. He was second in each event again to Nelson’s Ballot which achieved 16.5/104.64 mph.
Whilst Australia was at war in 1940, Ord competed three times for a second place to Bob Lee’s Riley in the (handicap) Great Southern Speed Classic at Pingelly, and second in the Albany Tourist Trophy. Of his performances Bob King reported in his ‘Bugattis of Australasia’ that Ord “thrilled many thousands of spectators at Albany and Pingelly by the skilful and dashing manner in which he was handling the big, blue Bugatti. Ord demonstrated at Albany this year when he broke the course record that he had mastered the car.”
Ord, Patriotic Grand Prix, Applecross 1940. What was that about Motor Racing is Dangerous bit on the entry-ticket?! (P Partridge Collection)Jack Nelson, White Mouse Ford 10 Spl from Duncan Ord, Bugatti T57, Applecross 1940 (K Devine Collection)
Let’s not forget the Patriotic Grand Prix, a four event race meeting held through the then outer suburban streets of Applecross 8km from Perth’s CBD to raise money for various charities which looked after returned serviceman and their families.
Between 20,000 and 40,000 spectators turned up, appropriately on Armistice Day, November 11, and paid a shilling to enter with a program a further sixpence. The feature event was a handicap for racing cars and won by Harley Hammond’s Marquette Spl with the big Bug setting a lap record but retiring with engine trouble. “Oddly one race was held for cars fitted with gas producers, perhaps as a sop to those who felt motor racing was wasteful during a war,” Bob King wrote.
While in his ownership Ord fitted hydraulic brakes and moved the radiator forward to lower the bodywork, perhaps improving cooling, exactly when these changes were made is unclear.
Ord was first in the January 1941 Great Southern Speed Classic 5 lap scratch race at Pingelly before laying the car up for the balance of the war years. This carnival was literally the last race meeting in Australia until the conflict ended.
Victory shot at Pingelly in 1940. Duncan Ord, third at left, Bob Lee (Riley Brooklands) the winner in the middle and second placed Bill Smallwood (MG TA) at right (K Devine Collection)Duncan Ord – with goggles around his neck in the middle of the group of three – lines the T57T for a standing-quarter competition behind the very neat MG TA Spl of Norm Kestrel, at Nicholson Road, Forrestdale in 1946 (MG Specials – Aust – Pre-War and T Type Collection)
The Bunbury Flying 50 in November 1946 was Duncan’s first competitive post-war run, perhaps the big beast was unhappy about being disturbed after such a long slumber as it failed to finish. In January 1947 the WA Speed Championships were run on the RAAF Airfield at Caversham – a venue close to Perth which remained the home of motor racing in WA until the late-sixties – when Wanneroo Park was built. Ord was second in the 50 Mile Handicap,
He returned twelve months later and shared the car with prospective purchaser, South Australian Durrie Turner, who had placed a deposit on it pending a race in it. Fuel feed problems prevented Turner taking the start in his event with Ord then winning a 6 mile scratch.In the Airforce Trophy 25 lapper, Turner broke the lap record, but pitted with an overheating engine. Ord took over but on the following lap left the road, travelling through the boonies at great speed, before coming to rest too badly damaged to continue. The corner was subsequently known as ‘Bugatti Corner’!, to add to Ord’s woes Turner didn’t proceed the purchase.
AD ‘Durrie’ Turner is flagged away in the 25 lap Air Force Trophy handicap, Caversham on 13 March, 1948 (T Walker Collection)
Six years elapsed before the car reappeared at the Great Southern Flying 50 at Narrogin in March 1954 when it was driven by MG and Morgan driver and photographer David Van Dal to eighth, and last place last in a 3 lap scratch. He didn’t race in the feature won by Sid Taylor’s TS Special so perhaps had dramas in the earlier race. I’m not sure who owned the car by this stage, it’s said David Van Dal, but Phil Hind raced the Bug to twelfth in a preliminary and a DNF in the June 1954 Goomalling Classic.
In October Hind contested the Byford Hillclimb on the south-eastern Perth fringe but was unplaced. In this period Van Dal raced the BRM Morgan. It’s said at some time that Phil Hind bought the car, and in an effort to keep it competitive modified the chassis by shortening it 2 feet 6 inches between the rear kick-up and the cockpit. In addition, the original body was discarded and replaced by a contemporary style slender monoposto racing version, coil-springs were fitted at the front.
The T57 returned to Byford hill in October 1956 this time raced by R Annear to equal fourth place, or was it V Smith racing the car?
(K Devine Collection)T57T, Busselton in ‘monoposto’ form 1957, David Van Dal up (B King Collection)
By 1957 the Bugatti was back in David Van Dal’s hands, running in the Busselton Derby at the towns airstrip in January 1957, prior to the ’57 Australian Grand Prix held at Caversham in March. He was fourth in a 5 lap racing car scratch but failed to finish the Busselton Derby.
In a full field of the best cars of the day at Caversham for the AGP – Lex Davison’s Ferrari 500/625, Stan Jones Maserati 250F, Len Lukey’s and Tom Hawkes’ Cooper T23 Bristols, Jack Brabham’s Cooper T41 Climax and many others – the monoposto Bugatti was an also-ran but that was hardly the point, Van Dal was out there competing.
He shared the drive on an excruciatingly hot Perth summers day with John Cummins, a Sydney racer/mechanic/raconteur and fellow Bugatti driver, Cummins usually raced a Bugatti T37A Holden. The pair didn’t finish the race won in somewhat controversial circumstances by Davison who shared his car with fellow Melbourne driver/Holden Dealer Bill Patterson, whereas burly, rough and tough Stan Jones raced solo, and in the minds of some, won in disputes over lap counts. It was not the first time this occurred at elite level, nor the last!
Again, the ownership of the car isn’t clear throughout this period with Don Hall racing it in the state championships at Caversham in September, he was unplaced in the 7 lap scratch. David Van Dal raced a Morgan at the state championship meeting. Is it the case that David owned it from 1954 with others also having a race during this continuing period of ownership?
The Type 57T again in monoposto form, circa 1956 (K Devine Collection)(K Devine Collection)
In 1958 Van Dal sold it to Jim Krajancich, a Perth motor engineer. He had spotted 57264 advertised for £600 in Australian Motor Sport and offered Van Dal £400 payable in instalments. Van Dal had already been offered £400 by Melbourne-based Bugatti Type 51 owner Peter Menere, but since this would cost him a good deal more in transport he accepted Jim’s offer.
Krajancich then entered the car in the WA State Championships at Caversham in September 1958. He was sixth in both the first and second heats and DNF the third heat, a 10 lap race. N Rossiter won all three events in the TS Special with John Cummins second in the BRM Morgan raced previously by Van Dal.
The old beast’s final race before a very long hibernation was the Christmas Cup meeting at Caversham on November 22, 1958. In an ignominious end to such a long period of racing in Europe and Australia Jim was unplaced in the 5 lap scratch and the 15 lap Chrismas Cup, no doubt the machine needed a major ‘pull through’!
Jim decided to rebuild it in Maserati 300S style, but time passed and upon marriage in 1962, Bugatti T57T 57264 was mothballed as he bought it.
(Bonhams)(Bonhams)(Bonhams)
Bonhams picks up the story “Restoration work to original 1935 form finally commenced in 1973 and the work continued until 2010, Krajancich completing almost all the work himself. This included re-lengthening the chassis using works T57 drawings and painstakingly re-making the body and road equipment from archive photos. The brakes were re-converted to mechanical operation, the original radiator was acquired from Van Dal while the car’s original starter motor, dynamo and radiator shutters were reacquired from Ord. The radiator shell came via Wolf Zeuner and had come from Australia, it is in fact believed to be the car’s original. Original Type 57 rear springs came from Barry Swann in Malaysia, replacement original cylinder block and crankshaft were also sourced from Malaysia (the cars originals included with sale of the car), the spring hangers came from Zeuner, while the rear torque arm is old stock Molsheim spares.“
“Original pedal pads were obtained from Henry Posner, and when Gavin Sandford-Morgan re-bodied the sister 57627 he sold numerous original parts to Krajancich including the fuel tank, cast aluminium dashboard brackets and bonnet catches. The Repesseau adjustable friction shock absorbers now fitted at the rear were the fronts when the car arrived in Australia in 1938, the vendor having fitted original de Ram dampers on the front (sold to Krajancich by Bob King who obtained the ‘very heavy!’ units ex-Lex Davison’s Alfa Romeo P3 from Diana Davison) as fitted for the 1935 TT.”
(Bonhams)(Bonhams)(Bonhams)
The only replica mechanical parts used in 57264’s rebuild are the rear-brake back plates, the brake cross shafts and the dashboard instruments while original parts being sold with the car but not used in the rebuild include gearbox internals, crankshaft, cylinder block, steering wheel, steering drag link, oil pump, Stromberg carburettor – two SUs are mounted presently on the original manifold – while in addition there is a spare radiator ex-Sandford-Morgan.”
Bugatti authority Pierre Yves Laugier has personally inspected the car, “From this we can confirm correct number stampings identify the engine crankcase, gearbox, chassis, front and back axles as being original to this car.”
(Bonhams)(Bonhams)
Credits…
‘Bugattis in Australasia’ Bob King, MotorSport Images, Bonhams sale description/car history, Terry Walker Collection, Jim Krajancich Collection, Ken Devine Collection, Peter Partridge Collection, Tony Johns Collection
Etcetera…
(K Devine Collection)
Fantastic sharp shot of Duncan Ord at Pingelly in 1940.
(unattributed)
Huge crowd awaits the start of the Patriotic Grand Prix at Applecross in 1940. Clem Dwyer’s very successful Plymouth Special in front of Duncan’s T57T.
(J Krajancich Collection)
No address or date for this shot but it’s still in Duncan Ord’s ownership, given the presence of #9, but looking decidedly tatty.
(T Johns Collection)
Really interesting contemporary newspaper article, especially on Duncan Ord’s pre-Bugatti racing phase and where the T57T sat in the contemporary WA racing pantheon.
(J Krajancich Collection)
Applecross ladies in their finery dodging the noisy, smelly racing cars…
Tailpiece…
One look at this magnificent Bugatti after it had been tampered with – I’ve got no issue with racers trying to remain competitive mind you – made me think of Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girls…
57264 very late in its competitive life at Caversham in ‘comfy monoposto or tight bi-posto’ form. Ken Devine tells me the driver is Don Hall, the meeting is the 1957 WA Championship. “The car in this form was also driven by Peter Nichol of motorcycle scramble fame.”
The first Pingelly Speed Classic was held on a 2.5-mile round-the-houses course in the West Australian town 160km south-east of Perth on January 30, 1939.
The five event programme consisted of the handicap Great Southern Speed Classic, run concurrently with a scratch race, two five lap handicaps – one each for racing and sports cars – and a four lap handicap and relay race for stock (standard production) cars.
(K Devine Collection)
The Clem Dwyer Plymouth Special and Duncan Ord Bugatti T57T take the chequered flag during the inaugural Great Southern Speed Classic on a fabulous Wellington Street panorama.
The very successful Plymouth, powered by a side-valve straight-six was based on a damaged sedan which was heavily lightened and modified, whereas Ord’s blue-blood 3.3-litre straight-eight twin-cam Bugatti (chassis 57264, originally 57222) was an ex-Lord Howe machine. It was the race debut of the Plymouth and first Australian event for the Bugatti which had arrived from France not long before.
Alan Tomlinson MG TA Spl S/c won from Bill Smallman, MG TA with Roy Sojan third in his Chrysler Special ‘Silverwings’. Duncan Ord was fourth.
(K Devine Collection)
The round-the-houses racing tradition – unique to Western Australia and the envy of the other states – commenced when the good-burghers of Albany decided on a Back To Albany Festival in 1936. With that, three entrepreneurs of the West Australian Sporting Car Club – Eric Armstrong, Clem Dwyer and J Warburton – motored down from Perth and successfully pitched the notion of a Monaco style street race around their fair city to the Council.
The race became the highlight of the festival and spawned similar races at Applecross, Bunbury, Dowerin, Narrogin – at which the 1951 Australian Grand Prix was held – Pingelly and others until the gruesome 1955 Le Mans disaster frightened local councils and led to a clampdown on racing on public roads. Not that they eliminated it completely, the WASCC had a tremendous relationship with the WA cops and ran events in a variety of places right into the 1960s.
(K Devine Collection)(P Narducci Collection)
Two shots of Bill Smallwood’s MG TA Spl during the 1939 race. Smallwood and Clem Dwyer had been Tomlinson’s pit-crew in a staggering win for the young West Australian in the Australian Grand Prix held on the daunting Lobethal road circuit three weeks before.
Clem Dwyer aboard the Bartlett Special in 1939. He bought this machine, built around an 1100cc twin-cam Salmson engine on a trip to the UK. Modified with Brooklands in mind, it was fitted with a Cozette supercharger and was said to be good for 120mph.
Raced at Lake Perkolilli, he gave Ossie Cranston’s Ford V8 Spl a run for his money in 1936, but the car never achieved the success hoped, the demands of the Brooklands bowl and round-the-houses West Australian tracks being quite different.
Unattributed and unknown, perhaps Jack Nelson, Ballot Ford V8 Spl
(W Duffy Collection)
Bob Lee won the five-lap handicap aboard this Riley Brooklands in 1939, and went one better as shown here in 1940, when he won the Great Southern Flying Fifty – the race had been increased from 5 to 10 laps, 25 to 50 miles.
(K Devine Collection)
During the 1940 race. “Park Street Hospital Hill with the old nurses home in the background behind the chook-yard” quipped Jennie Narducci. It’s Harley Hammond in the Marquette Special from Barry Ranford’s Ranford Special. In a long successful career through until 1958, the latter built four specials.
The 1940 programme comprised five events: a 10 lap Tourist Trophy for under 1500cc stock machines, a 5 lap handicap for racing cars, 4 lapper for stock cars plus the 15 lap classic.
(unattributed)
Harry Squires MG PB Spl S/c – looks more like a T-Type to me?
(unattributed)
The intersection of Park and Parade Streets with Jack Nelson’s Ballot Ford V8 Spl in shot, 1940.
The bones of this car – #15 – were those of the ex-Jules Goux, Cooper brothers Ballot 2LS which met its death at Phillip Island in 1935. Les Cramp had just acquired the car and was killed. This machine raced on well into the 1950s – with no Ballot left – before Mick Geneve died at its wheel, by then Chev powered, at Caversham in 1959. A tribute car exists.
This local footbridge lasted into the 1960s, while one of the local ‘cockies tells us there are two Gilchrist sheep feeders “built by the dozen on a site between the present police station and Shire Office.” Love the power of FB! (K Devine Collection)
Harley Hammond again aboard the Marquette Special. The serving RAAF man did well in this immediate pre-war period with this attractive Buick 3.5-litre sidevalve six-cylinder powered special; Marquette was a shortlived Buick sub-brand.
He won the Great Southern Speed Classic in 1941 – the last race meeting in Australia before the lights went out – and the Patriotic Grand Prix held on the Applecross round-the-houses course 10km from the Perth CBD, several months before.
In fact the November 11, 1940 Applecross races were to have been the final event but the Pingelly organisers slipped in one final meeting on the Australia Day weekend, January 27 with funds raised from the five event programme for cars and ‘bikes in aid of the British Air Raid Relief Fund.
Credits…
Ken Devine Collection, Peter Narducci Collection, Eddy Ring Collection, Warren Duffy Collection, ‘Around The Houses’ Terry Walker
What an incredibly talented photographer Robin Lewis is!
Thanks to social media his archive is accessible. If you are a Facebooker just key in Robin Lewis and have a look for yourself. A serial motor cycle racer/historian/fan the Hahndorf based professional has an immense body of work from his days in Melbourne as a freelancer, staff-snapper with the Herald & Weekly Times and ten-year reign as Head of Visual & Graphic Arts with ad-agency USP Needham.
Rather than choke on his work, I figure bite-sized consumption is better, the texture and flavours can be appreciated so much better that way. It isn’t all racing either, there are some marvellous observations of Australian life too.
The first shot shows Robin in the passenger seat of David ‘Chocolates’ Robertson’s Elfin 300 at Sandown during filming of an episode of ‘Homicide’ a very popular prime-time weekly cop show produced at Crawford Productions, based in the Olderfleet Building in Collins Street, Melbourne from the mid-1960s.
“We used mostly an Arriflex ‘S’, all 16mm…we played a very fast game, there was none of this three-take bullshit. Two takes at most and it’s in the can! We shot an episode a week with only one up the sleeve.”
David Lee, Homicide director sussing Robin’s shot (R Lewis Collection)
“Having shot nearly a years worth of Homicide there was never a dull moment. Dave Robertson is driving his Elfin, but the eye-opener was being in the other ‘camera-car’ Ted Brewster’s 1310cc Cooper S, it was the first time I’d experienced ‘hitting a brick wall’ under brakes!”Robin’s self-deprecating comment is wearing two different cravats on the one Sandown day.
“Having shot nearly a year’s worth of Homicide there was never a dull moment, long hours, hard work, non-stop! Particularly going to the Tok H (Toorak Hotel) or any pub with George (Mallaby, the young actor who played Detective Peter Barnes obscured by the camera in mission-brown) who was a pussy-magnet. Len Teale (‘Detective David Mackay’ raced Toyota Corollas in the early 1970s) was less colourful in many ways.”
(R Lewis)
Got him in one, the money shot! Classic Allan Moffat cockpit shot captures the ‘Canadian’ young professional in intense concentration in the Calder form-up area in 1970.
Marvin the Marvel was famous for his ‘don’t f’kin talk to me’ mode at race meetings. Most of his competition were businessmen at play on weekends, AM was one of the few true full-time driving professionals in Australia at the time and he needed the cash-register to ring on the weekends to fund his Malvern Road, Toorak operation. Works Ford drives duly noted.
Here is the BP magazine ad derived from Robin’s in-car shot above (R Lewis Collection)(R Lewis)
Lewis said of this work for BP, “it was my introduction to ad-agencies while working at the newspaper, I never had to do shift work again…”
(R Lewis)The tribal nature of taxi fans (shot above) is something we open-wheeler wally-woofdas can only dream of; Beechey and Geoghegan circa 1970 (R Lewis) (R Lewis)Yes it is a different number, noted (R Lewis)(R Lewis)
In the best of company here. Robin as cinematographer for legendary Australian/Hollywood film director Fred Schepisi, then in his formative days directing a documentary for Kodak. See here; https://fredschepisi.com/
(R Lewis)
The whole country went crazy – especially the huge local Italian community – when Giacomo Agostini turned up to race a works MV Agusta 500/3 for the first time in Australia in 1971.
Melbourne entrepreneur/racer Bob Jane brought him out to put bums on seats at Calder for the Melbourne GP Cup and secured the Australian distribution rights for the marque in the process. ‘Jano’ is looking uncharacteristically grumpy at Calder below.
(R Lewis)(R Lewis)(R Lewis)
Alf Costanzo frying the front brakes of Alan Hamilton’s Lola T430 Chev F5000 car on the entry to Peters/Torana at Sandown in 1980.
One of our greatest ever, the little Italo/Australian won the Gold Star with this car in 1979, then with the succeeding McLaren M26 Chev in 1980 and two more with Hamilton/Porsche Cars Australia Tiga Formula Pacific cars in 1982-83.
(R Lewis)
When Costanzo graduated to Hamilton’s McLaren M26 Chev ground-effect F5000 Melbourne’s Bob Minogue bought the Lola and took to the old beast like a duck to water.
The shot above has the feel of Calder’s November 8, 1981 AGP support race in which Minogue was fourth behind John Wright, Lola T400 Chev, Rob Butcher, Lola T332 Chev and Garrie Cooper’s Elfin MR9 Chev. Here’s Minogue at Calder below a good few years earlier in an Elfin Mono Lotus-Ford twin-cam.
(R Lewis)
Robin’s quip, “Hey Bernie, how’s your memory?”…
(R Lewis)
XW Ford Falcon and sheep near Dunkeld in Victoria’s Western District circa 1969. The sheep dogs are sizing up the baa-baa’s with the intent of a Kiwi shepherd, where, for an optimist, “there is always a pretty-one to be found…”
(R Lewis)
Having a go in his Austin Healey 100S (chassis 3907) at Rob Roy circa 1963. Doug Whiteford’s mechanic, Bob Kitchen “had drilled most things on the 100S and lightened and balanced the rockers, rods and crank, polishing all to a shiny finish like chrome.” Chassis number folks?
And below, getting stuck into the slops after a Templestowe meeting in a manner most unacceptable to officialdom these days. Such wowdy-wascal behaviour would result in some sort of “bringing the sport into disrepute” charge from the blue-blazer mob.
(R Lewis)Robin in the 100S at Fishermans Bend circa 1963 “with Herbert Johnson helmet, a gift from my mentor, Doug Whiteford.” (R Lewis)(R Lewis)
Talk about livin’ the dream…
Austin Healey 100S roadie, road and race bikes, surrounded by spunk-muffins in adland with all of the associated fringe benefits…and being paid to photograph chicks without too much on. I’m trying to work out the problems of being Robin Lewis in that particular era! At Narrapumelap Homestead, Wickliffe, Victoria 1980.
(R Lewis)(R Lewis Collection)
This one of Doug Whiteford in Black Bess has me tossed as to place.
Dicer Doug won the 1950 Australian Grand Prix in the Ford V8 Ute based special in 1950 and later sold it. Not one of Robin’s, but probably given to him by Doug, he dates it as 1955. Where and when in Melbourne is this? It’s an unmistakable Mexican winter’s foggy day; Albert Park and Richmond Boulevard are both possibilities? The vapours from the exhaust suggest a freshly started engine, so some sort of promo-shoot perhaps?
A very youthful Ken Blake being interviewed by ‘Freddy Mercury’ at Bathurst, circa 1975. More on this great Australian rider in Lewis 2.
(R Lewis)
Big Dick.
The Dick Johnson Ford Falcon XD 351 V8 during the Sandown 400 Endurance Championship round during the wonderful Group C period of taxi-diversity, September 13, 1981.
The Ford frontrunner – successor to Allan Moffat – was always a crowd-pleaser but yielded to Holden’s favourite son that weekend, Peter Brock won the 119 lap race in a VC Commodore from Johnson.
Johnson and John French triumphed at the Mountain three weeks later, Dick also won the Australian Touring Car Championship that year in this car built from the TV-crowd-funding contributions of race-fans when Johnson’s previous Falcon XD was felled while in the lead of the Bathurst 1000 by an errant-on circuit-rock in 1980.
(R Lewis)
A couple of wonderful portraits of touring car icons of the earlier golden-era.
Ivan Tighe, perhaps, Tighe Vincent s/c at Templestowe circa 1959. Not so sure about that…Peter Holinger maybe, all bids taken…
(R Lewis)
I love this moody portrait of London born American Suzuki TR750 star Ron Grant who is lost in setup change thoughts at Calder in 1972. He won the Pan Pacific Series that year.
Not much moves the corpuscles of an Oz FoMoCo fan more than the two fabulous Lot 6 built, works-Super Falcon GTHO 351s.
Robin’s shot captures Moffat’s Improved Production car with XY look – FFS don’t write to me and bore me shitless with the differences of the XW and XY clips on these cars – barrelling onto Calder’s back straight during the March 1971 ATCC meeting.
Jack Brabham presenting the Tasman Cup to Kiwi great Graham McRae at Sandown after he took the first of three such wins on the trot -1971-73 – that year aboard a McLaren M10B Chev. See here; https://primotipo.com/2018/09/06/amons-talon-mcraes-gm2/
(R Lewis)
The inherent beauty of Australian (Melbourne) 1970s streetscapes.
(R Lewis)
Mind the post. The perils of Bathurst in 1974, this is Gringo apparently. Who is he and what is he riding? Magic shot.
(R Lewis)
A couple of world class touring car drivers hard at it at Calder circa 1978.
Jim Richards has the inside line aboard his Murray Bunn built, 351 injected Gurney-Weslake headed powered Ford Falcon Coupe Sports Sedan (Australia’s anything-goes tourers) from Peter Brock in Bob Jane’s 350 Chev engined Holden Monaro GTS. The Munro is still with us, is that Kiwi built Ford?
Hmmm, clipping an apex, nah, more creating an apex. I wonder if Bobby invoiced them for damage inflicted on the real estate!? (R Lewis)(R Lewis)
Jimmy Watsons in Lygon Street, Carlton is a Melbourne wine bar-noshery institution.
An age old ritual is being played out here in the late 1960s, with the old bugger – younger than me I might add – thinking of conquests past as he assesses the beauty of the twenty-somethings.
Credits…
Robin Lewis
Tailpiece…
(R Lewis)
Robin fizzes up a cardiologist’s-nightmare roadside enroute to Bathurst in 1974. These days of course the glitterati would get Maccas delivered to their Valiant on the Hume via Uber-eats app.
Many, many thanks for your work Robin, if one of you has his email or mobile number please send him a link to this homage to his greatness and a life being lived well!
The definitive article(s) on Stan Jones are still to be written. I like this piece on the great Australian’s early pre-Maserati 250F phase which helps plug some of the early gaps of timing and circumstances, forwarded on by my racer/historian/author buddy Tony Johns.
It’s from the June 1954 issue of CARS magazine, a 70 year-old long deceased title published in Melbourne by Larry Cleland Pty Ltd and edited by Bruce Kneale. It comes to us from the Darren Overend Collection via Tony – grazia. As Tony points out, the author of the article was not disclosed, a bumma given its quality.
Click on the links at the end of the piece for more on Stan…
Ad published in The Referee, Sydney on March 22, 1933
I’ve always had a soft-spot for Wolseleys, Nana and Pa Bisset had three of them from the mid 1950s to the early 1970s. Some of my earliest motoring memories are of sitting in the back seat with the wonderful smell of leather in the last of these cars (no idea what model) with Nana at the wheel behind a lovely wood dash, she had the period granny blue-rinse of course, and all topped off by a hat.
Jim Gullan’s Wolseley Hornet Special was a car of much greater performance. Gullan had built up a good reputation racing a 1.1-litre Grand Prix Salmson and was offered the six-cylinder SOHC Hornet Special which is the subject of this piece at a good price to help promote the marque in Australia. “It had been specially built by the MG Racing Department and competed in a team event at Brooklands, lapping at over 100mph.” Gullan wrote in his autobiography.
The FS Hutchens and BH Wickens Hornet Spl Daytonas, and at right EJ Erith’s Hornet International
Stanley Hutchens entered the winning team of cars in the The Light Car Relay Race held at Brooklands on July 16, 1932. Hutchens was Sales Manager of London Wolseley dealer Eustace Watkins Ltd. The cars comprised two new ‘Eustace Watkins Daytonas’ built on Hornet Special chassis – one of which was the Gullan car – and one 1931 ‘EW International’ built on a standard Hornet chassis. Hutchens, Bertram Wickens and Edward Erith won the 90 lap handicap event from 29 other three-car teams on at an average of 77.57mph, the quickest team member averaged 82mph.
MotorSport noted that “No one could catch the EW Hornet Special and at 5pm Erith crossed the line after a trouble free run. These cars, intended as fast and comfortable road vehicles, showed a turn of speed and stamina which even their keenest supporters hardly expected, and entitles them to rank amongst our most successful small cars.”
Hutchens told MotorSport after the race that “the car felt good for an unlimited number of laps. The engine was held at a steady 5200rpm, doing several laps at 86mph.”
When the Hornet was launched by Wolseley in April 1930 Eustace Watkins turned to Kings Road, Chelsea coachbuilder Whittingham & Mitchel for the first of many Wolseley Hornet EW Daytona Specials. This first handsome cycle-wing car – the photo was published in The Autocar in April 1931 – “became a visual template adopted by many other coachbuilders when bodying both Hornets and chassis from other marques.” (prewarminor.com)
Although its image in later BMC (British Motor Corporation) years became difficult to differentiate from others within the empire, in the early 1930s Wolseley was up-there in the ranks of sportscars. The Nuffield group of companies – Wolseley, Riley, Morris and MG – produced a great array of sportscars and while there was some standardisation of engines and other components, each car was distinctive in appearance and character and was built in a different factory with all of the cultural differences that implies.
The Hornet, based on a lengthened Morris Minor chassis, was released in April 1930 and was built in two and four-seat open and closed body configurations. The Hornet Special – sold only in chassis form and priced at 175 pounds from April 1932 – was initially fitted with the ‘short’ 1271cc (57x83mm bore/stroke) version of the Wolseley SOHC, two-valve straight-six. Fitted with twin-SU carbs and an oil cooler it was good for about 45bhp and a top speed of 75mph, depending on coachwork. With 12-inch hydraulic drum brakes, a remote shift-four speed ‘box, semi-elliptic springs and Luvax hydraulic shocks (some were fitted with Andre Hartford friction dampers) all-round, and of light weight overall, the Hornet Special was spritely for its day.
Wolseley Hornet Special as built and sold in its original – pre-crossflow engine and underslung chassis – form. This is the chassis spec of the car Jim Gullan raced while noting the engine differences (Wolseley)
For 1934 the Hornet Special chassis was strengthened and changed to an underslung axle arrangement at the rear. A new block was fitted and a crossflow cylinder head adopted, the 1378cc engine developed 47bhp. In addition, synchromesh was fitted on 3rd/4th gears.
In 1935 the ‘New Fourteen’ 1604cc (61.6x90mm bore/stroke) 50bhp @ 4500rpm engine was fitted to maintain performance as coachwork became porkier. Sadly, the model was dropped when Wolseley passed from the personal control of Lord Nuffield to Morris Motors Ltd late in 1935, ending the era of sporting Wolseleys.
Referee Sydney, December 12, 1935. NSW rego #30-183“Specially built Wolseley engine. Three carburettors, extra exhaust pipe from centre of cylinder head” (Gullan)Gullan and Wolseley at Rob Roy in 1937. Under 1500cc record. Victorian rego #228-334 (Gullan)
Jim Gullan outlined the specifications of his machine, car and chassis number unknown, but engine number 108A/127. “It was fitted with a Laystall crankshaft, high-compression Bartlett pistons and engine modifications included optional two or three SU carburettor inlet manifolds. There were two cast iron exhaust manifolds leading into separate exhaust pipes on the left hand side of the engine. On the right hand side a single exhaust pipe came out of the centre of the cylinder head, this to obviate head gasket failure through overheating of the cylinder head in the centre.”
Driven by Sydney racer, Noel Spark – who had competed in a standard Hornet in preceding years – in 1934-35. “It set class records of 18.5 seconds and 102mph for the standing and flying quarter mile and the combination won the Light Car Club’s coveted Castrol Trophy for success in a series of different competitive events in 1935.”
The car was then despatched to the Victorian Wolseley agents, Kellow Falkiner’s showrooms in St Kilda Road, Melbourne for display. “Looking out of place amongst the Rolls Royce and Wolseley sedans, it was disposed of to my advantage,” Gullan quipped. See this post for some background on this under-rated Australian racer;
Equipped with “an incredibly smooth” four-main-bearing six-cylinder engine, P80 Lucas headlights, Lockheed hydraulic brakes, an oil radiator and selective Free-Wheel, it was very much an upmarket car which cost nearly half as much again as an equivalent MG.”
“With the car came a type-written folder which gave the top speed of the car as 102mph at 6200rpm, with an allowable limit of 6500rpm through the gears. Different individual valve clearances were given for each valve and included were optional carburettor needles. There was a warning not to exceed 2000rpm until the oil pressure had dropped from 150 to 100psi, when starting from cold. This abnormally high oil pressure foretelling future lubrication troubles.”
After early plug and carburettor maladies were solved Gullan contested an event on Mitcham hill, placing second behind Lyster Jackson’s MG K3. This performance led to an invitation to contest the Boxing Day 1936 South Australian Centenary Grand Prix on a new rectangular course of roads between Victor Harbor and Port Elliott on Adelaide’s Fleurieu Peninsula. Aged 21, he was one of the youngest to contest an event appropriated as an Australian Grand Prix.
Awaiting the off, Gullan and Mick O’Neill, Wolseley Hornet Spl, Australian GP, Victor Harbor, December 1936. Tim Joshua’s MG alongside (Gullan)
The car was prepared by split-pinning “various nuts and bolts that had been disregarded in England”, removing the ‘Brooklands’ aluminium undertray, fitting an auxiliary fuel tank, “wheels were balanced with lead wire around the spokes. My motorcycle crash helmet was exchanged for two white polo-type helmets with peaks, their adequacy in an accident may have been doubtful, but at least they looked the part.”
Gullan provides valuable period context, “In 1936 the average person didn’t own a car, let alone have a garage to put it in. Most who owned cars were wealthy or used them for business purposes. The only member of the team who had a car was Tom Broadhurst who used it in his family business. He offered his new Ford V8 as transport to Victor Harbor and I could then drive the Wolseley back to Melbourne. There was no continuous road between Melbourne and Adelaide then. The route through Mount Gambier was three days, the alternative through Bordertown impractical.”
“With equipment and enthusiasm the team set off for Victor, the road to the South Australian border was good, but it deteriorated and finally disappeared after leaving Millicent and became a series of tracks across the salt lakes, all heading in the same direction. By the time we reached Meningie we had not seen another car, finally we reached Lake Alexandria and crossed by ferry to continue on to Victor Harbor.”
The Wolseley was entered for both the 250 mile GP and 50 mile Olympic Handicap in the three day carnival. Gullan deemed “the track a safe one, most of the accidents which occurred were due to misjudging stopping distances and ending up among the sandbags, most being able to stop and continue on.”
On the way to fourth place in the 50 Mile Olympic Handicap at Nangawooka Hairpin, Victor 1936 (Gullan)
Accompanied by Mick O’Neill as mechanic, car #30 started 38 minutes from scratch and held station behind the winning Les Murphy MG P-Type until being consistently out cornered by it, and he drove away. After 147 miles the boy’s race was over after leaving the road on sand deposited by a spinner on the track, then hitting a small, hidden tree-stump while returning onto the track. The front axle and track rod were bent, with their race over, the offending parts were sent to Adelaide for repair, then re-installed before the Olympic Handicap. There the car was fourth behind the Barney Dentry Riley Brooklands, Lord Waleran in John Snow’s MG K3 and Les Burrows’ Terraplane Spl.
Over the following two years Gullan had good results in the car at Phillip Island, Rob Roy hillclimb and elsewhere, even using it in a Treasure Hunt. This became a full-blown rally starting from Brighton Beach and then went around the suburbs. After a Morris landed in a golf course, a Salmson became airborne and an MG ran into a lightpole it was the end of Treasure Hunts!
Phillip Island Trophy race in 1937, Wolseley here ahead of Alf Barrett’s Morris Bullnose Spl (Gullan)
“If I’d been asked if the Wolseley was reliable by the standards of the day I’d have said yes. But looking back (in 1993) cars were anything but reliable with blown head-gaskets and failed crankshaft bearings the main problems.”
“On two occasions the Wolseley lost power when the head gasket failed between the two centre cylinders caused by exhaust gases passing from one side of the overheated cylinder head to the other, and the reason for the extra exhaust pipe.”
“Gaskets then were made of two sheets of copper with a layer of asbestos in between. In time the thickness of the asbestos was reduced with beneficial results. Soaking the gasket in water showed little confidence in the product, and it was necessary to examine the gasket before fitment to ensure any overlapping edges were correctly aligned. Supercharged cars were fitted with solid copper or steel gaskets, the supercharger pressure would just blow the asbestos out off a normal gasket,” vastly experienced racer/engineer Gullan wrote. “It was one reason why early Bugatti, Bentley, Maserati and Salmson engines were fitted with non-detachable heads.”
“The other major problem pre-war involved crankshaft bearings. Before steel-backed shells, white metal was cast into the connecting rods and crankshaft bearing caps then machined to size. Although white metal bearings had excellent wear properties, the load carrying capacity of the soft metal was poor. To compensate, a number of shims were placed between the the parting faces of the bearings. As the running clearance increased, shims were removed to bring back the clearance to minimum size, one reason engines were required to be run-in.”
“It was not unusual, with a run-bearing, when stranded out on the road, to remove the connecting rod and piston, together with the spark plug lead, as there were stories of sumps being blown off by a firing spark plug.”
“For any high-speed work everyone used castor oil or Castrol R, it may have been a way to stop run-bearings, but the gummy sludge it created caused a lot of other problems. When high viscosity mineral oils came into vogue, they were really welcomed.”
The Ballot 5/8 LC #1004 in suburban Melbourne (Gullan)
The Wolseley’s fate was determined when Jim Gullan walked into Alan Male’s Latrobe Street, Melbourne car showroom and fell-in-lust with the 1919 ex-Louis Wagner/Alan and Hal Cooper/Fred Bray Indy Ballot 5/8 LC, a fast, complex 4.8-litre twin-cam, four-valve straight-eight racer. “An enormous trade-in price on the Wolseley sealed the deal.”
Melbourne solicitor Adrian Akhurst was the next owner, he fitted a circa 2.5-litre Durant engine and ran it in the Victorian Light Car Club Reliability Trial. It then faded from view in the war years to reappear at a 1947 Rob Roy meeting driven by Bill Whitchurch. Fitted with a Willys-Jeep 2195cc engine, he competed body-less while building up a new body. Peter Thomas, of later Aviation Welding fame, was involved in the engine installation, the car was then registered GV410.
Sold to Eltham’s Richard Ham in 1948, then to Walter Nowell who offered it for sale from Hawthorn and Windsor addresses in 1953-54. In the final advertisement the car was dismantled, what was unsold was scrapped. And that rather special engine? One Gordon Opie advertised it for sale, “perfect, complete to flywheel” from a Gardenvale address in April 1948, its whereabouts unknown.
A sad end for this Wolseley Hornet Special. About 31686 Hornets were built, 2300 of which were Hornet Special chassis, of those about 100 came to Australia.
(Ferguson/LAT)
Etcetera…
1932 Wolseley Hornet Spl clad in Eustace Watkins Daytona coachwork. EW were the London Wolseley dealers in the 1930s and contributed hugely to the growth of the brand with their special bodies, the majority of which were sportscars.
The bodies weren’t made by Eustace Watkins but rather contracted from coach builders Whittingham & Mitchel and Abbey Coachworks in Merton, later Acton. Other Hornet body builders included Swallow, Jensen, Maltby, Holbrook & Trinity and Hardy.
The chassis number of the Gullan car is a mystery to me, doubtless one of you Hornet perves will know it. On identification numbers, Graham Whitaker wrote, “For cars before 1934 models – those with inlet and exhaust on the nearside, Wolseley did not stamp the number on the chassis. It was on the axles but usually cannot be read. The numbers were on brass plates fastened to the bulkhead, thus easy to fake. From 1934 onward the same brass plates were used, plus the chassis number was on the nearside of the chassis, as well as the axles.”
Check out this wonderful article about the history of Wolseley, the origins of which are the Wolseley Sheep-Shearing Company established by Frederick Wolseley in Sydney in 1887; https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/wolseley/marques-wolseley/
Obiter…
(P Partridge Collection)
Some photographs of the Wolseley Hornet Special owned by the Cato family in Perth, the local Wolseley dealers.
The car was owned by Frank Cato and driven by his son Fred and was raced on the Round the Houses tracks laid out on the public roads of country towns, and at Lake Perkolilli. Note the enthusiasm of the co-pilot below!
(P Partridge Collection)(P Partridge Collection)
Frank Cato prepared this ageing Wolseley for the 1931 Lake Perkolilli event but had a troublesome weekend with front axle failure.
(G Thomas/SLV)
Wolseley Hornet contesting the Rob Roy hillclimb meeting on April 20, 1947. Rob Roy is in the Christmas Hills to Melbourne’s east. Victorian rego – 200-777 – of this car should make the owner of this car possible to work out?
(B Gunther via C Devaney)
These two photographs were taken during the Light Car Club’s team really race held at Olympia Speedway, Maroubra, an inner oceanside suburb south of Sydney on January 26, 1933; Australia Day.
Wolseley and an Austin above, an Alvis 12.50 driven by Bill Oxley below…lookout for the cars kids!
Tim Shellshear advises both the date of this meeting and that the team of Wolseleys was captained by JO Sherwood. More information appreciated.
(B Gunther via C Devaney)
Credits…
‘As Long as It Has Wheels’ Jim Gullan, Graham Whitaker on the wolseleyregister.co.uk, MotorSport August 1932, MotorSport Images, LAT, ‘Wolseley Hornet Specials in Australia and New Zealand’ by Russell, Santin and Clucas via Cummins Family Collection – many thanks Paul Cummins, Peter Partridge Collection, George Thomas via the State Library of Victoria, Byron Gunther via Col Devaney’s Collection on Bill Williamson’s FB page
(MotorSport Images)
Tailpiece…
Bubbles or beer? Beer I think, ah, they are proper chaps! Hutchens, Erith and Wickens celebrate their Brooklands first placing. Car is a 1931 Wolseley Hornet fitted with Watkins Eustace International body.
Barney Dentry and unknown passenger aboard the Dentry modified Riley 9 Brooklands, giving the Bill Thompson Bugatti T37A a wide berth at Heaven Corner, Phillip Island 100, January 1, 1934. The Bugatti is about to spin, possibly distracted by the Riley’s change in trajectory, DNF valve, Barney was third (Dentry Family)
Melburnians Gordon Henry Scott ‘Barney’ and Bess Dentry were stalwarts of Australian motor racing from 1925 until the outbreak of World War 2 when the perils of both parents of two young boys (Charlie born 1929 and John 1933) racing together as driver and co-pilot-cum-mechanic became all too clear and untenable.
Bess and Barney Dentry reunited with Riley Brooklands during the 1978 Phillip Island 50 Year AGP celebrations (Dentry Family)Bess and Barney with their ever-evolving Riley at Wirlinga, Albury in March 1938 (John Blanden claims Victor Harbor 1936) (Dentry Family)
Barney, a returned soldier, built a special he named St Omer about 1920 vintage as his first car. He assembled the machine during his courting Bess Wheeler days incorporating various components including an 1100cc air-cooled 10hp Precision cyclical engine. The Senechal that followed as a roadie was progressively modified into a competitive racer.
Beanpole Barney and Ted Major during the Victorian Light Car Club’s 1928 100 Miles Road Race – aka 1928 AGP – at Phillip Island, Senechal (Dentry Family)“A Riley Specialist. This is George Dentry, one of the best known and most successful competition drivers in Victoria. He has the fastest Riley in Australia. But he is not satisfied, he is working on a supercharger of his own design” (The Referee, March 13, 1931)Barney, Senechal, on Wheelers Hill c-1927. Now an outer east Melbourne suburb of the same name – this road and hill is now a six-lane arterial (Dentry Family)
Wildwood Hillclimb and the 50-Mile Championship on the Aspendale Speedway, and Flinders Hillclimb in 1925 were the the car’s first events; with first/FTD, second place and first in the 1100cc class and second outright the results. Bess won the ladies event at Flinders.
Outings at Aspendale in 1926 and Wheelers Hill in 1927 and 1928 were followed by an entry in the 100 Miles Road Race – later appropriated by the Victorian Light Car Club as an Australian Grand Prix, the first AGP having being run at Goulburn Racecourse in 1927 – at Phillip Island in March 1928. Bess was heavily pregnant with first son Charles at the time so Barney was co-driven by Ted Major to first in class and fifth overall. Captain Arthur Waite was victorious in his diminutive, quick and robust Austin 7 s/c.
Robert Marie Georges Senechal (5/5 1892 – 30/7 1985) was a French aviation pioneer, racing driver, industrialist and winner of the first RAC British Grand Prix at Brooklands in 1926 aboard a Delage.
At the end of the war, the heavily decorated Senechal directed the sale of French Government owned surplus stocks of cars and trucks, together with Pierre Delage, son of Delage founder Pierre Louis Delage. Senechal then evolved the Eclair cycle-car manufacturer, in which he was an investor, into carmaker ‘Cyclecars Robert Senechal’ in Courbevoie, Paris in 1921.
Robert Senechal aboard one of his cars (BNF)
While continuing to race successfully – 1923 Champion of France, twice Bol d’Or winner, Spa 24-hour victor etc – he did a deal with Chenard & Walcker to produce his cars. 5000 were built in their Gennevilliers, Paris factory until 1929 when Senechal left the business to establish a successful Chenard & Walcker, Delage and Bugatti dealership in Paris.
By the 1924 Paris show the product range comprised cyclecars of 972cc and 1100cc in capacity, such power units provided by outside specialists, Ruby (mainly) Trains and Chapuis-Dornier. By 1928 the company built Chenard & Walcker voiturettes of 1100 and 1500cc capacity.
Barney’s notes on the specifications of his car are as follows: “1100cc ohv engine (which perhaps implies the car was originally fitted with a 972cc Ruby manufactured engine) first used at Wildwood in 1925. The car first used a fabric body, later a metal body and later still was fitted with a hood. Bore/stroke 58x100mm, max rpm 4900, 7:1 compression ratio, wet-cone clutch, three-speed and reverse gearbox, open tail shaft, no-diff. CWP straight-tooth, ratio 4:1 and Barney made a 4.25:1 unit for Aspendale. Rear brakes only were six-inch drums with a five-inch transmission brake. Steering was rack and pinion 1:1 ratio. Carburettor was a 30mm Solex with Bosch 60 electrics.”
Dentry Senechal engine bay circa 1924 (Dentry Family)“Barney’s section of Duponts” c-1924 (Dentry Family)
During his Senechal phase, Barney was employed by LF Dupont Pty Ltd at 26 Toorak Road, South Yarra, the agents for Senechal, Chenard & Walcker and Calcott, “a sturdy little English car.”
The Senechal became a regular drawcard at Aspendale throughout 1929, the speedway had by then had its concrete surface replaced “with the original white granite”, no doubt to create more action for the punters. Six meetings yielded 4 first, 2 second, 2 third and 1 fourth placing.
Barney and Bess contested an AGP for the first time together in 1929 when they were second in class and sixth overall in the 206 mile, 3 hour 51 mins race at Phillip Island won by Arthur Terdich’s Bugatti T37A. After 10 laps the Dentrys were in a group of six cars contesting the lead, John Blanden wrote that “The best cornering was shown by Arthur Terdich who was now well clear in the lead, and by Barney Dentry who was driving the Senechal superbly, aided by his wife as mechanic.” The Great Southern Advocate reported that “Thousands of women showed great interest in the race, and greatly admired Mrs Dentry for accompanying her husband throughout in his Senechal car.”
Demonstrating its versatility – this GP car was road-registered throughout its life – the couple entered the November 1929 Herald Rally and Reliability Trial where it was first in Class-B.
With purchase of a Riley Brooklands it was time to sell the faithful Senechal, Barney’s The Car November 15, 1929 ad invited “you speedsters and all who appreciate a first-class car, here’s the chance of a lifetime, get in touch with Barney today” at 22 Rankin’s Road, Newmarket. Do get in touch with me if you know what became of this significant car.
Barney and Bess aboard their Riley 9 Brooklands during the 1930 AGP weekend at Phillip Island. Somehow the photographer has managed to make the small Riley look like a big-banger! Shot is probably in the garage area behind the Isle of Wight Hotel in Cowes (R Brownrigg Collection)
For the balance of their racing careers the couple mainly – speedway midgets duly noted – raced this Riley 9 Brooklands, chassis number 8062, competing in the Australian Grand Prix almost every year until 1938.
The pair were seventh outright and first in class B (1100cc) in 1930, where Jack Edwards was eighth outright and second in class B aboard their old-faithful Senechal. Four Brooklands Rileys were entered with the Dentry car expected to be, and was, the quickest, but they also had dramas. While running second, Barney was rammed by Harold Drake-Richmond’s Bugatti T37 in the heavy dust, then – still second outright – the Dentrys pitted with valve troubles, costing them five laps.
In 1931 the pair were fourth outright and again first in class B off a handicap of 11 minutes, with only the five Bugattis behind the Riley at the start. Carl Junker’s Bugatti T39 won from Cyril Dickason’s Austin 7 and Howard Drake-Richmond’s Bugatti T37.
In 1932 they were tenth, last of the finishers off a handicap of six minutes, with only the Bugattis of Carl Junker and winner Bill Thompson behind them at the start. It was the first AGP appearance with Barney’s slinky aluminium body. Dentry modified the body of the Riley by replacement of the fabric standard coachwork with a light, slipper-type aluminium body which placed Bess more behind, rather than beside Barney. Initially stub exhausts were used but these were replaced by a tuned length pipe which exited atop the passenger-side rear wheel.
The Riley factory was so impressed with his performances they gave him one one of only six very special Ulster engines free of charge,” wrote Blanden. Unfortunately Barney had problems with enormous oil-feed problems. “Despite having obtained a response from England as to a likely cure to the problem it was not successful and he had a number of pitstops in an endeavour to lessen the trouble. Even with those, Barney and his wife still finished tenth.” wrote Blanden.
Come 1933 they missed the race as Bess was ill, in fact it appears she was pregnant. “My wife has been my mechanic for eight years. When she drops out of the race, both the car and I do likewise,” Barney told the Barrier Miner.
“As a combination we do fairly well, but without her I would lose a certain amount of confidence. She is very cool and thinks hard during the race. I do nothing but keep the car on the road and get all I can out of the engine. Her job takes concentration, an alert brain and quick decisions. And she does it really well.”
Bess picks up the thread, “We have only had one accident, when we ran into a fence at Nar-nar-goon. I was thrown out but not hurt. It had no effect on my nerve, thankfully. A mechanic never looks ahead during a race. I watch the other cars, and touch my husband on the shoulder when one is overtaking us. With the left hand I work the fuel pump and I cast frequent glances at the gauges.”
“Along the track we have friends stationed, and I watch for their signals. The first 30-miles of this long race are the worst. Sometimes I wonder how I will manage to last the remaining 170. But the miles and minutes move so fast, there is so much to do and think about, that the end comes quickly.”
The handicapper had well and truly caught up with the Dentrys years before. In 1934, of 20 AGP starters, only three competitors had tougher handicaps: Cec Warren’s MG J2, Arthur Terdich’s Bugatti T37A and scratch-man Bill Thompson, MG K3. The Dentrys were unclassified, doing 29 of the 31 laps, but lost 14 1/2 minutes pitting to rectify a loose bonnet on their 20th lap. Bob Lea-Wright won aboard a Singer 9 from the flying Bill Thompson’s MG K3, and Jack Clements’ MG J2.
Later in the year, in a stellar field, the Dentrys led the field in the 230-Mile Victorian Centenary Grand Prix – the longest race held in Australia to that point – with three laps to go, but the usually reliable Riley had fuel-air feed problems which lost them much time and again precluded the pair from taking their long-awaited first big-win. Mick Smith and Lin Terry won aboard a Ford V8.
1935 AGP collage – note the Dentry family at top left (The Referee)
For the last of the Phillip Island AGPs in April 1935 the bar was raised again, the Dentrys and Bill Williamson’s Riley Imp had handicaps of 8 minutes 47 sec with only Thompson’s MG K3 off scratch behind them. In a strong result they were fifth in the race won by Les Murphy’s MG P-Type, despite losing four minutes with a dead engine and taking to the Gentle Anne escape road.
Ron McCallum puts some of Dentry Riley reliability down to the fitment of a taller-geared back end from a Rugby. “He just welded the pinion to the Riley tailshaft. This would have saved him a lot of revs, aiding his incredible AGP reliability,” Ron said.
In May 1935 Dentry thrilled the Phillip Island crowds during the Jubilee meeting, “One of the most consistent of Victoria’s racing motorists, was the unluckiest man on the track. Although he recorded fastest time, and fastest lap with his Riley in the two events in which he competed, his handicap in each case was too great to allow him to reap the rewards of his superior skill and speed.”
In the 50 Mile Handicap he was second to Alf Barrett’s Morris Cowley Spl, it was Barrett’s first race at the Island, “driving with superb judgement and cornering in a manner to earn the envy of veteran racers.” The Argus reported. It was very much a portent of what was to come from the wealthy, gifted Victorian who came to be regarded as one of Australia’s greats aboard an Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza immediately pre and post-war.
Riley on the hop at Victor Harbor in December 1936, 1936 AGP. The aluminium body was styled and made by Barney (Dentry Family)
On Boxing Day 1936 the South Australian Centenary Grand Prix was held, a race later appropriated as an AGP. The Dentrys were again fifth in this contest run on a rectangular 7.8-mile public road course between Victor Harbour and Port Elliott on SA’s Fleurieu Peninsula. Les Murphy won again in his MG P-Type. That year the Riley was said to be equipped with an ex-George Eyston 1935 factory motor, but as John Medley wryly observed, the car “was perhaps never as quick as the handicappers expected.” Better was to come in the support Olympic 50-mile Handicap though, when the fast Dentry duo finally took the chequered flag from Lord Waleran in John Snow’s MG K3 and Les Burrows’ Hudson Eight Spl.
The first road-race in Victoria – the publicists of the day somehow forgot that Phillip Island is part of Victoria, separated from the mainland by only about 750 metres! – was the Benalla Centenary 100 mile race held on the outskirts of the north-eastern Victorian town in April. After a neck and neck struggle with Les Murphy’s P-type in front of a crowd of 20000 people, Barney and Bess had seemingly won, got the garland and the plaudits of the crowd but then lost the race after a lap-counting error. It was far from the first or last lap-counting squabble in Australian major events, Vin Maloney won in an MG Magna from the Dentrys.
The happy couple at Benalla in 1936, another big-win opportunity which eluded the Riley duo (Dentry Family)
No AGP was held during 1937, but 1938 was a biggee with the opening of Mount Panorama, Bathurst. Prominent Brit Peter Whitehead spent the better part of a year in Australia mixing duties for the family W & J Whitehead woollen mill enterprise and racing his ERA B-Type, R10B. Whitehead disappeared into the distance off scratch, winning by 1.5-minutes from Les Burrows. The Dentrys were 16th and last of the finishers off a handicap of 12-minutes, eight cars started behind them in the 30 car field.
And that, it seems was the end of the Dentry’s racing career. By then Charles Dentry would have been 8/9 and younger brother John 4/5 years old so the sensible thing to do was to quit while they were ahead. Ron McCallum recalls a race accident as the catalyst for retirement, but I can’t find an accident in which the couple were involved at this stage.
(John Mole Collection)
By 1939 the Dentry business premises were located at 2 Peel Street, Windsor (above) on St Kilda Junction, where he positioned himself as a specialist Riley, MG and sportscar repairer.
Retirement from racing wasn’t a catalyst for sale of the Brooklands Riley which was retained until 1946, then sold to Ken Wylie. The car later passed through the hands of Bill Clymer and Bill Blewett before being acquired by Ron Brownrigg in 1964. He restored it amidst his own business commitments, the car first appeared at Phillip Island in 2005.
Barney’s services were much in demand given his success as a driver and motor engineer. Both the Senechal and Riley were continually modified throughout their lives, the Riley was Cozette-supercharged for a while when used it in Aspendale Speedway competition. One example of his skills being deployed post-war was the mechanical work turning the Lex Davison owned Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 ‘Little Alfa’ into its current monoposto specifications way back when.
‘St Omer’ at Hampton, Port Phillip Bay in 1948 (Dentry Family)
The couple lived at 3 Villeroy Street, Hampton from 1925, then 69 Holyrood Street, Hampton from 1937 to 1957 and finally at number 19 Coronet Grove, Beaumaris where Bess lived after Barney’s death in 1987, aged 88. Bess died in 2000, are either of the sons still with us?
Living bayside, during 1946-48 Barney built a motor-yacht the couple named ‘St Omer’ to a US design. Initially powered by an Essex four-cylinder car engine, later a JAP marine engine enabled a top-whack, need-for-speed 24mph.
The boat was sold to release capital to build new business premises on the southwest corner of Bay Road and George Street, Sandringham in 1957. Barney operated that motor service and repair operation until 1972 when he retired and sold the building, which still exists as a tyre sales business.
AGP 1931 collage, that’s Barney at the far left (The Referee)
Let’s not forget Barney and Bess Dentry, very competitive stalwarts of Australian motorsport in the pre-war era. Until doing my research I’d not realised just how much at the pointy-end they usually raced, with only luck and the handicapper between them and greater success.
I’m happy to add to this article if any of you can help flesh out the story.
Etcetera…
(Dentry Family)
Barney Dentry and Bess Wheeler at Hampton Beach in 1924.
(Dentry Family)
The Dentry Senechal in its final form circa 1924. The diminutive machine is fitted with aluminium body, siren, ‘guards, hood, spare wheel and luggage carrier in the tail. “Total weight 8 1/2 CWT, 7 CWT in racing trim.”
(Dentry Family)
Barney perhaps giving some lucky bloke a joyride in the Dentry Riley circa 1932. Riley 9 Brooklands. Chassis 8062 was variously described in-period as a Brooklands Riley, Ulster Riley and Dentry Riley, all of which are correct depending upon the specs at the time.
(Dentry Family)
Rear of the Riley after being rammed by Harold Drake-Richmond’s Bugatti at Phillip Island on New Years Day 1934.
(Dentry Family)
Barney wrote on the reverse of this photo, “Assorted patterns I made for the St Omer car (GD Special) the St Omer launch. Note the mag alloy Riley diff using for the Ulster, special oil pumps and special gearbox units etc.”
(J Runciman Collection)
Barney, Bess, Charles and John Dentry at Phillip Island.
(J Runciman Collection)Dentry Family)
The Bay Road Sandringham workshop built by Barney Dentry in 1957, in more recent times, and fondly remembered by older Melbourne bayside resident/enthusiasts.
(D Trunfull Collection)
The Riley connection was there until the end, this sign was on the wall of the Bay Road garage well after the time of the premises’ sale.
Credits…
Tony Johns Collection, Jim Runciman Collection, Motorsport Memorial, Sandringham & District Historical Society via a David Zeunert tip-off, Barrier Miner March 11, 1933, Ron McCallum discussion with Bob King, BNF-Bibliotheque National de France, Ron Brownrigg Collection, John Medley in ‘The Australian Grand Prix:Fifty Year History’, ‘History of Australian Grand Prix 1928-1939’ John Blanden, Rob Bartholomaeus, John Mole Collection, David Trunfull Collection
Tailpiece…
(Dentry Family)
Bess Dentry aboard the Senechal with its brand new aluminium body, circa 1924.
primotipo... 