Jim Clark having some pre-race fun aboard a Lotus 25 in the Monza paddock, 4 September 1966…
I wonder if the neat little machine is pedal, battery or petrol powered?! In the race Clark raced a much more butch Lotus 43 BRM H16 from grid 3 to a gearbox induced DNF after completing 58 laps- the race was won by Ludovico Scarfiotti’s Ferrari 312 from his teammate Mike Parkes, a happy day indeed for the Tifosi- and Denny Hulme’s Brabham BT20 Repco in third.
(B Cahier)
Monza 1966 front row- Clark Lotus 43 BRM, Ludovico Scarfiotti and Mike Parkes on the far side, Ferrari 312’s pole (R Schlegelmilch)
Ferrari usually rise to the occasion at home and so it was that Mike Parkes popped his 312 on pole from Scarfiotti, aided by a bit more power. Clark was on grid 3 with John Surtees, by then firmly esconced at Cooper Maserati having started the season with Ferrari- but decamping after a series of spats within the team, on grid 4 and Lorenzo Bandini in another 312 in position 5.
Parkes below is looking fairly relaxed with a post-pole cuppa tea!
(unattributed)
In the early stages of the race Scarfiotti and Parkes led but were soon passed by Bandini before the end of lap 1- Clark was back in tenth. Bandini pitted on lap 2 with a fuel pipe problem with Stewart’s BRM P83 H16 soon out with similar dramas.
Scarfiotti led from Hulme, Parkes and Surtees- Surtees pitted on lap 32 with a fuel leak. Jack Brabham, out of the race, won the Drivers Championship as Surtees was the only driver capable of taking the championship from him. Ludovico retained his lead finishing six seconds clear of Parkes, Denny Hulme and then Jochen Rindt, Cooper T81 Maserati.
Scarfiotti from Parkes (unattributed)
Credits…
Rainer Schlegelmilch
Tailpiece: And what a tail it is! The big, fat, beefy BRM arse of the wonderful Lotus 43- the only H16 engined GP winner in the end of season US GP @ Watkins Glen…
Harry Firth, MG TC Spl, Templestowe Hillclimb, outer Melbourne in 1959…
Long before his well known period as head of the Holden Dealer Team in the late sixties/early seventies Firth was a formidable car builder/preparer/driver in sports cars and sedans on tarmac and dirt.
He won the Armstong 500 three times- twice at Phillip Island and once at Bathurst partnered with Bob Jane- in 1961 they won in a Mercedes Benz 220SE, in 1962 aboard a works Ford Falcon XL, Firth prepared the works Fords at his famous garage in Queens Avenue Auburn, out of these modest premises did some great cars emerge.
He was also victorious in 1963 in a self-prepped works Ford Cortina GT and again as the event morphed into the Bathurst (Gallaher) 500, once, partnering Fred Gibson in a works XR Falcon GT in 1967.
(B Wells)
The Bob Jane/Harry Firth Ford Falcon XK (above) DNF leading the John/Caldecoat MGA, Hell Corner, Bathurst 6 Hour, 30 September 1962. Race ‘won’ by the Geoghegan Brothers Daimler SP250, who were first across the line in a race technically of classes with no ‘outright winner’.
Firth’s Cortina GT ahead of a couple of Humpy Holdens at Lakeside in 1964 (B Williamson)
On Allan Moffat’s recommendation he was engaged to co-drive a Lotus Cortina with Moffat in endurance races at Green Valley and Riverside in 1966.
Ford were keen for him to stay but he had to return home to honour a Ford Australia rally commitment, duly winning the first Southern Cross Rally.
(J Hall)(J Hall)
In 1968 he won the inaugural Australian Rally Championship driving a Lotus Cortina, another doyen of the sport, Graham Hoinville was his navigator.
Firth and Ken Harper also prepared the Ford Australia Falcon GT ‘XT’ London-Sydney Marathon entries.
These 302 CID V8 engined sedans won the teams prize with Harry behind the wheel of the eighth placed car with his usual friend and navigator, Hoinville. The Vaughan/Forsyth car was third and Hodgson/Rutherford GT sixth.
The two photos above are at the Crystal Palace, London start on 24 November.
The Firth/Gibson winning works ‘XR’ Ford Falcon GT ahead of the 4th placed Mildren Racing Alfa GTV1600 of Kevin Bartlett and Laurie Stewart. Bathurst 500 1967 (unattributed)Des West, Ian Tate and Harry Firth, Bathurst 1969 i guess (D Wilson)
This unique blend of skills and experience is what bagged him, even as a ‘Ford guy’, passed over as team manager by Al Turner as ‘too old’ – the HDT job. He held this management role until 59 years of age, in 1977 when John Sheppard succeeded him.
Let’s get back to the MG, this short article does not do Harry’s career justice, I am not attempting to do so- I am getting off point!
The MG Special, chassis ‘TC4723’ commenced construction in 1951, the chassis was much modified and lightened. The engine was also heavily adapted for the demands of racing, exactly how is not disclosed in my reference sources, but included fitment of a Wade supercharger running at 22 pounds of boost which mounted in front of the radiator. If any of you have details of the full specification, ever evolving as it was, drop me a note, I will pop the details into the article.
The bodywork was ‘functional’ rather than attractive as many of the ‘single-seater’ MG specials in Australia at the time were. Its bluff nature mitigated against top speed but perhaps the cars primary purposes were hillclimbs and trials rather than top speed on Conrod Straight, Bathurst and the like.
The MG was successful on the circuits, sprints and hillclimbs only slipping down the order as more modern Coventry Climax engined cars started to appear in the second half of the fifties.
Heart of The Matter: Firth in the stripped or perhaps not yet bodied TC @ Rob Roy during the 1952 Labour Day meeting on 10 March. Fantastic photo of a hard trying Harry- by then the LCCA were paying prize money, Leon Sims wry comment is that ‘Harry on occasion drove more than one car to increase his earnings’. FTD to Reg Hunt, Hunt Spl from Charlie Dean in Maybach 1 (L Sims)
Harry eventually replaced the MG with a Triumph TR2, which was equally effective and functional until endowed with an Ausca (Maserati A6GCS) clone body but he retained the car which was stored out the back of his ‘Marne Garage’ on the corner of Burke and Toorak Roads, Camberwell.
My grandparents and uncle had the newsagent on the opposite north-east corner of that intersection in the late fifties/early sixties, Harry was famous for sipping a cup of tea and working his way through the motor magazines, never buying any of course!
Firth eventually sold the site to the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport to construct their headquarters. At that point, when he had to remove the car, it was sold to Jack Schumacher in Murray Bridge, South Australia, he didn’t use it much and resisted Harry’s regular entreaties to buy the car back until 1977.
Harry restored it and occasionally used it in Historic events, I’ve lost track of it in recent years. Firth died in 2014 aged 96.
Harry Firth and later twice Australian Touring Car Champion Norm Beechey, both driving Holden 48-215’s at Templestowe Hillclimb in Melbourne’s, then outer east, not sure when- mid fifties. Not too far from Rob Roy actually. I wonder if they are laughing about a cup or their winnings? (unattributed)(autopics.com.au)
The photo above is a decade or so later than the one at Templestowe and shows Harry driving a Holden Dealer Team Holden Monaro GTS350- perhaps one of the circuit racing cars pensioned off for much tougher duties in 1969- Calder Rallycross.
I wonder if this was Firth’s last competition appearance as a driver prior to his Historic Racing period a bit later on?
(unattributed)
Harry with all of his booty in 1964.
(Castrol)
Firth with the two Holden Dealer Team LJ XU1s of Peter Brock and Colin Bond in 1972- I think it’s brake fluid he is playing with for the camera or flogging.
(I Smith)
Relaxed in front of Ian Smith’s camera out front of Firth’s Queens Avenue, Auburn, Melbourne Holden Dealer Team workshop. Special build Holden Monaro GTS 308 circa 1974.
Bibliography…
‘Historic Racing Cars in Australia’ John Blanden, Leon Sims, autopics.com.au, Stephen Dalton
Photo Credits…
State Library of South Australia, Australian Motor Sports, Leon Sims Collection, Bob Williamson, David Wilson, John ‘Archie’ Hall, Ian Smith
Tailpiece…
(unattributed)
Harry Firth and Graham Hoinville on the way to winning the June 1964 Ampol Trial, works Ford Cortina GT. 101 cars including five works teams entered the event which was held over 7000 miles in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, start and finish at Bondi Beach
Arnold Glass blasts his Maserati 250F out of Quarry Bend, Bathurst, Easter 1960…
The Sydney motor dealer and later Datsun importer loved this machine and its forgiving nature. Arguably it was the car with which he achieved his best results even if it was becoming a little passe by the time he got his hands on it in 1959.
He finished second in the ‘Bathurst 100’ Gold Star round behind Alec Mildren’s Cooper T51 Maserati and ahead of Bill Patterson in another Coventry Climax engined T51.
This machine, chassis ‘2516’ was Jean Behra’s works car throughout 1955 before being imported to Australia by Reg Hunt as a replacement for the 250F engined A6GCM Maserati with which he achieved much in 1955. Hunt didn’t race the 250F for long before retirement at a way too an young age to take on his family responsibilities and a growing automotive empire based in Melbourne’s Elsternwick. Here is a piece about the A6GCM; https://primotipo.com/2017/12/12/hunts-gp-maser-a6gcm-2038/
Bib Stillwell raced ‘2516’ in 1957 on his inexorable rise to the top of Australian racing and then Arnold acquired it competing into ‘into the Cooper era’ when he too acquired a T51. ‘2516’ inevitably, sadly, ended up back in Europe, none of ‘our’ Maser 250F’s survived here into the modern era
Marie Jenkins, Bugatti Brescia, circa 1925, circuit unknown, but probably Maroubra, Sydney…
Jenkins first sprang to prominence with a win over Maroubra Speedway fast-men- Phil Garlick, Alvis and Hope Bartlett, Bugatti Brescia in a January 1926 Five Mile Handicap at the demanding dangerous Sydney venue.
Jenkins delighted the crowd by winning both her heat and the final ‘though she owed her victory to the generous way she had been treated by the handicappers. She is the first woman to win an event at the Speedway, and she received a great ovation from the spectators, particularly the fair sex’ The Newcastle Morning Herald reported.
Marie Jenkins at Maroubra on 5 December 1925, Brescia T13 (23) chassis ‘2135’ (C Anicet)
She raced at Maroubra’s opening meeting, the track was a daunting, dangerous venue. Jenkins second race there was only days after the deaths of two competitors killed practising at the track on the Wednesday prior, 30 December 1925.
Leo Salmon and riding mechanic Albert Vaughan, partners in Salmon Motors Ltd crashed to their deaths in a 35 HP Jowett after a fractured Kingpin failed at around 90 miles per hour. Seven fatalities occurred at the circuit between 1925 and 1936, the photograph below, taken on 2 January 1926, is of Jenkins wearing a black arm-band in memory of the two competitors.
Marie Jenkins- in front is Sam Knaggs, former Austin 7 racer of Melbourne
The Melbourne racer, ‘who lives near the Yarra’ was coming off the back of a rollover in the first Aspendale Motordrome meeting of the year at the Melbourne, bayside venue in November 1925.
I can find little written about this driver- am keen to know more if any of you have particular insights. Click here for an article on the Bugatti Brescia; https://primotipo.com/2018/07/27/country-spin/
Etcetera…
The image below is the narrative by Victor Hall about his above photograph- wonderful isn’t it, to see the unfettered observations of the man at the time in the context of the day.
Credits…
Fairfax, Christian Anicet for the photo of the car and details, AMHF Archive via Brian Caldersmith
Bob Jane, Elfin 400 Repco ‘620’ 4.4 V8 entering KLG Corner, racer Ross Burbidge tells us, 12 February 1967…
It’s a very early race for Bob in his brand new Elfin, this car notable in several ways not least for the fact that it was the first to be fitted with a customer Repco Brabham engine V8- I’ve written a feature on it so let’s not repeat ourselves;
What struck me about William Byers’s photo and the unusual angle and locale in which it is taken is the degree of difficulty in sighting these big Group 7 sportscars through the corners. Admittedly Bob was a ‘short-arse’- mind you there was plenty of bounce in every ounce- but I bet the problem was the same for tall fellas like Dan Gurney.
Who won the sportscar races that day- had Matich debuted the SR3 at this point?, it certainly raced at the Farm and Sandown Tasman rounds that summer- Frank would certainly have given Bob a run for his money if present.
(W Byers)
The top-guns of the meeting were the Tasman 2.5’s of course.
We have photos of second placed Jack Brabham, Brabham BT23A Repco ‘640’, (above and below) Denny Hulme’s similarly engined fourth placed Brabham BT22, sixth placed John Harvey in the 1.65 litre Ford twin-cam powered ex-Stillwell Brabham BT14, and Spencer Martin’s Bob Jane owned Brabham BT11A Climax but not Jim Clark’s victorious Lotus 33 Climax FWMV 2 litre V8- he won five of the eight Tasman rounds that year. A pity, but hey, let’s be thankful for some marvellous photos.
(W Byers)
(B Thomas)
1967 was the Tasman Series Repco had a red-hot go to win, two cars, one each for Denny and Jack with both drivers contesting all eight rounds- but the might of the F1 World Championship winning team did not triumph over Jim Clark and the very reliable, fast, special 2 litre FWMV Coventry Climax engined Lotus 33 of the Scottish ace.
In 1966, 1968 and 1969 Repco had limited Tasman campaigns, 1967 was the one they should have won, you might say, I’ve covered this series before, so no point repeating the many problems which cost the Maidstone outfit dearly.
Arguably the most important aspect of the Tasman for Repco was to blood their new for 1967 F1 engine- the 740 Series V8- in advance of the GP season, than win the series itself. In the event Repco’s Norm Wilson designed 700 Series block was not quite ready so Jack and Denny raced with ‘640 Series’ motors- the new 40 Series exhaust between the Vee two-valve heads and 600 Series (Oldsmobile F85 modified) blocks.
(W Byers)
Denny had a rather successful 1967 season didn’t he!, taking the F1 drivers title and finishing second to Bruce in the Can-Am Championship aboard one of McLaren’s M6A Chev papaya coloured machines.
The car above, a BT22, is essentially a BT11 frame fitted with BT19 suspension- Allen Brown writes that ‘F1-1-64’ was used by BRO until Denny’s F1 car for 1966 BT20 was ready. Fitted with a Repco-Brabham V8, it was raced by Denny in the Tasman and then sold to Rorstan Racing, who fitted a Coventry Climax FPF 2.5 and ran Aussie Paul Bolton in it, it’s present whereabouts is unknown.
Jack’s BT23A was built on the redoubtable BT23 F2 jig/frame.
BT23A has never left Australia thank goodness, and been very much in the news in the last twelve months with its acquisition by the National Motor Museum from Peter Simms who restored and then raced the car for decades.
It’s post Brabham race record was with Scuderia Veloce, the car driven by Greg Cusack and Phil West before being sold to Brian Page.
(W Byers)
John Harvey (above) drove the wheels off this ex-Bib Stillwell car, the first BT14 raced ‘FL-1-65’, then owned by Sydney car dealer Ron Phillips in 1966.
Prepared by Peter Molloy, the Brabham BT14’s Lotus-Ford twin-cam engine progressively got bigger and not too long after this shot the car was given ‘a birthday’, it was the recipient of a Repco-Brabham 640 Series 2.5 litre V8 fitted with the assistance of Rennmax’s Bob Britton, allowing Harves to run with the ‘big boys’.
In fact the combination is sorta related to Spencer Martin’s Brabham BT11A shown below.
(W Byers)
The very gifted Sydneysider won both the 1966 and 1967 Gold Stars aboard this Bob Jane owned Brabham BT11A ‘IC-4-64’ Coventry Climax FPF- his dices with the similarly mounted Kevin Bartlett in Alec Mildren’s car were highlights of racing for enthusiasts of the period.
When Spencer decided to retire at the end of the 1967 Gold Star campaign Jane offered Harves the ride, and acquired the Brabham BT14 from Phillips. It’s 640 engine was fitted into the BT11A- like the BT14 it was not designed for a V8 motor, and raced by John in the 1968 Australian Tasman rounds.
Harvey in the Bob Jane Racing Brabham BT11A Repco during the 1968 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round (unattributed)
Nice overhead shot from the Longford pits of the Repco 640 or 740 Series V8 installation in the BT11A
Jane then bought Jack’s 1968 Tasman mount, the BT23E at the series end for John to race in ’68 with Harvey very lucky to survive a huge shunt at Easter Bathurst in that car after a rear upright failure.
Harvey and Molloy had largely sorted the BT14 Repco by the end of the ’67 Gold Star, he had won a feature race in it at Oran Park. It does make you wonder why Bob didn’t race that car as it was rather than do the engine swap they did and develop the BT11A afresh- no doubt it all made sense at the time?!
The Jane Estate owns BT11A, the BT14, re-engined with a Ford/Lotus twin-cam is i think still in Peter Harburg’s hands in Australia.
William’s camera also captured some other interesting cars during that meeting.
(W Byers)
Bill Gates superb Lotus Elan 26R, Ross Burbidge tells us Gates raced both this car and an Elan Series 1, both of which are still alive and well in Australia. Ex-Geoghegan car originally?
Queenslanders will know the story better than I but its said that race promoter Bill Goode had the Bee Gees, the Gibbs brothers, performing between events at his Redcliffe Speedway and introduced them to Bill who promoted them on his radio show on 4BH Brisbane thereby assisting them in their climb to global success.
(W Byers)
Ross Burbidge says this is the last time Pete Geoghegan ran his first Mustang at Lakeside.
He won the 1967 one-race Australian Touring Car Championship in the Australian, John Sheppard built, Mustang ‘GTA’ back at Lakeside on 30 July 1967 from the Brian Foley and Peter Manton Cooper S’s after various of the other V8’s fell by the wayside with mechanical dramas. The shot above is on the entry to ‘Hungry’ or then KLG corner.
Great Scots: Lakeside 1967, winner Clark Lotus 33 Climax chases Stewart BRM P261 (Tasman Book)
William Byers, oldracephotos.com.au, ‘Tasman Cup’ Tony Loxley and Others, Brier Thomas
References…
Ross Burbidge, oldracingcars.com.au
Tailpiece: Bob Holden, Improved Touring Morris Cooper S…
(W Byers)
Bob Holden won the 1966 Bathurst 500 in a Series Production Cooper S, co-driving the works BMC Australia car with rally-ace Rauno Aaltonen.
In a year of dominance the Cooper S took the first nine placings in the race! This car, not the same machine, is built to Improved Touring rules, the category to which the Australian Touring Car Championship was held at the time- mind you Bob didn’t return that July to contest the title race. He is still racing…
In the background Denny’s Brabham BT22 is being pushed past with perhaps the light coloured car Frank Gardner’s Mildren Racing Brabham BT16 Climax?
Jack Brabham, Bowin P4X Formula Ford, Calder August 1971…
Here is another Fairfax image of Jack after his victorious ‘Race Of Champions’ weekend. I wrote about this event a short while ago, and led the feature article with the final image below, this recent discovery is too good to ignore though- gotta put it up, there are no such things as too much Jack or too much Formula Ford, click here for the article; https://primotipo.com/2018/10/30/calder-formula-ford-race-of-champions-august-1971/
The Fairfax caption reads ‘Jack Brabham, Australian race car driver, 1971: Brabham in the cockpit of a 100 hp Formula Ford for a brief comeback at Calder- in the Calder Race of Champions. Driving a car built at his British racing car factory’. (actually a Bowin P4 built by John Joyce and his team at Bowin Designs in Brookvale, Sydney- owned by Jack Brabham Ford and raced by Bob Beasley in the ‘Driver to Europe’ Oz FF Championship).
JB, Bowin P4X, Oran Park parade lap 1972 (L Hemer)
Its an irrelevant tangent really but Motor Racing Developments (Brabham) never built a Formula Ford, Ron and Jack kept away from the rough and tumble of that market- mind you there were a few converted Brabham F3 cars which went well in the early years of the class in the UK.
‘Brabham raced home a clear winner after taking the lead in the third lap of the 10 lap event’.
Its a big year for Formula Fordsters in Australia- 50 years of FF in Australia is being celebrated during 2019.
Credits…
Alan Lambert- Fairfax Publications, Lynton Hemer, National Archives of Australia
Felipe Massa on the way to fourth place in his Ferrari F2012. Yeongam, Korean GP, 14 October 2012…
It’s a relatively simple panned-shot made striking by its composition in terms of background. The lines of the car are shown to rather good effect.
The class of the 2012 grid was the Red Bull RB8 Renault which took five wins in World Champ Sebastian Vettel’s hands, and two in Mark Webber’s. Vettel and Red Bull won the drivers and manufacturers titles respectively.
The F2012 was a competitive tool though. Fernando Alonso won in Sepang, Valencia and Hockenheim. It was powered by the mandated 2.4-litre V8 which developed about 750bhp at the mandated rev limit of 18,000rpm.
Lotsa mandateds in F1 these days.
Too many.
Ugly as a hatful. The F2012, not Massa and Alonso- Fiorano launch (Ferrari)
The CMS VW buggy of George Geshopoulis in this group of four cars has been rounded up by one of the fastest cars in Australia at the time, Bob Jane’s 4.4 litre Repco-Brabham V8 engined Elfin 400, a racer I wrote about a while back;
Its a typically varied country race meeting grid of the day, 1968, on this occasion at Hume Weir close to the Victorian/New South Wales border towns of Wodonga and Albury. Here is the Hume Weir story;
The other cars shown are the Warwick De Rose Lotus 11, having difficulties with one of his doors, and the John Sheehan Geneer Outlaw VW at the rear of the group.
Australian Formula Vee enthusiasts will recognise CMS and Geneer as Melbourne constructors of Vees. I was aware of the Outlaw sporties, attractive little cars, but not that CMS made beach-buggies- which were big at the time constructed on shortened VW chassis’.
Maybe Janey, with a short set of ratios in his Hewland DG300 would have seen 130 mph at the Weir but no way the CMS would do 80, so the closing speeds and differential of pace are not to be sneezed at.
In any event, it’s a cracker of an amusing shot of a time and place long ago.
Credits…
Dick Simpson/oldracephotos.com.au – Lindsay Ross, Duane De Gruchy
Tailpiece: Geneer Outlaw…
The Geneer’s were built by Barry Coutts in East Burwood, not too far from where I used to live, about 15km to Melbourne’s east. About 30 are thought to have been constructed between 1960 and 1967 with a range of VW, and the occasional Porsche engine inserted in the rear of the multi-tubular spaceframe chassis. Very interested to hear from an owner.
‘Brian Foley in the Alfa Romeo GTAm nicely on line as he exits The Karrussell, Lakeside 18 April 1971’ wrote photographer Graham Ruckert…
This is about as natural a setting, devoid of signage and the visual clutter typical of racetracks by the early seventies you could hope for to capture surely one of the most beautifully proportioned and delicately toned Touring Car racers ever?
Foley’s ex-works car in its various incarnations is very well known to Oz enthusiasts, I’ll get around to writing about it again one day- I first did so in an Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Australia magazine circa 1978! About time to do so again, thankfully the car is still in Australia, in Melbourne’s east and in the very best of Alfista hands too.
Tim Schenken, Merlyn Mk11 Formula Ford and his rivals at Brands Hatch, 20 September 1968…
Chris Steele, Tim’s tuner/entrant dispenses advice to the Formula Ford ‘flock’ comprising Ray Allen, Brian Smith, Dave Morgan and Tony Trimmer. No doubt it’s a press shot to promote an upcoming race meeting; two of these fellows made it through to Formula 1- Schenken and Trimmer, the well of talent in Formula Ford has been deep in every season including its first couple.
Schenken cut his racing teeth in Australia, initially with an Austin A30 and later a Lotus 18 Ford FJ. By the time he contested some F3 races in an old Lotus in the UK in 1967 he had plenty of experience- the step ‘back’ into the new Formula Ford class paid off in spades with wins in both the 1968 British Formula Ford and Lombank F3 Championship- as a consequence he carried away the main 1968 Grovewood Award.
Tetsu Ikuzawa Brabham BT21B from Tim Schenken Chevron B9 Ford, Martini International Meeting Silverstone 1968 (M Hayward)
In 1970 he broke into Grand Prix Racing with Frank William’s De Tomaso 505 Ford, that ride arose as a result of Piers Courage’ death during the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix.
His promise was confirmed with drives in the year old Brabham BT33 Ford for Ron Tauranac in 1971, his first career mistake was jumping out of Brabham as BC Ecclestone acquired it at the end of ’71. Surtees was far from the worst place to be at the time but staying put would have been better.
Tim was as quick as Mike Hailwood at Surtees but the slip down the F1 totem pole was quick once he left and the climb back up is even harder.
I don’t think we ever saw his best in Grand Prix racing but point scoring races and an F1 podium, not to forget his F2, European GT Championship and works Ferrari 312PB sportscar wins form part of a CV any of us would be rather happy to have.
Schenken, Brabham BT33 Ford, Canadian GP 1971 DNF (unattributed)
Tim’s best results in F1 were sixth and third placings for Brabham in 1971 at Hockenheim and the Osterreichring and fifth, seventh and eighth for Surtees in 1972 at Argentina, Mosport and Spain. In non-championship F1 he was third in the BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone and third in the 1972 International Gold Cup at Oulton Park.
Schenken aboard his Merlyn Mk11 FF in 1968
Credits…
Getty Images, Mike Hayward Collection, Victor Blackman, LAT Images
Schenken testing the Merlyn at Brands during 1968 (LAT)
Tailpiece: Ron Tauranac, Tim and Hill G with Hill’s Brabham BT34 Ford, Silverstone, British GP weekend July 1971- note the rig to attach a camera, the GoPro is still a while away…
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