Posts Tagged ‘Alfredo Costanzo’

Lola T430 Chev…

Posted: July 23, 2025 in Features
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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Mike Imrie’s Ford Falcon V8 sports sedan gets the jump on Alfie Costanzo’s Porsche Cars Australia Lola T430 Chev into Shell corner, Sandown during a Formule Libre race in 1979.

Maybe not. How bout they shared an early Sunday discretionary practice session, it’s an interesting juxtaposition of car types all the same.

The trouble with building the world’s best Formula 5000 car, the Lola T330/T332/T332C, is how Eric Broadley and his band of merry men could better it!

Alan Jones, Lola T332 Chev ahead of Peter Gethin’s Chevron B37 Chev during the February 1977 Sandown Park Cup, two DNFs, with Max Stewart’s Lola T400 Chev the winner below. All of the first three shots Shell Corner (B Forsyth)
(R Steffanoni)

The 1975 Lola T400 (above) oozed smart thinking, including variable or rising-rate suspension. Initially it was labelled a dog, but by mid-1975 an update kit and setup guidance had customers who persevered with the cars on the right track: Teddy Pilette’s VDS T400 won the 1975 European F5000 Championship from his teammate, Peter Gethin, while in Australia Max Stewart’s T400 won the 1975 Australian Grand Prix and many Gold Star and Rothmans International rounds from 1975-77.

The ultimate F5000 test was of course, the US Championship, where Eppie Wietzes was the best of the T400s in 1975 with fifth place in the standings. The Americans and Australasians loved their T332s, some like the Jim Hall-Chaparral T332Cs raced by Brian Redman were very highly refined and developed, and prodigiously fast.

Frank Gardner all cocked up in the Esses during the February 1971 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round won by FG’s works Lola T192 Chev (L Hemer)
Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300 Chev, Glyn Scott Memorial Trophy Gold Star round, Surfers Paradise 1972

Broadley then took a leaf out of his own F5000 playbook. The Frank Gardner developed Lola T192 Chev was still winning races in 1971 when Broadley, Gardner and designer John Barnard went smaller by building the 1972 model-year Lola T300 Chev.

Essentially, Gardner felt a car based on an F2/FB T240 aluminium monocoque chassis would provide a lower centre of gravity and improved aerodynamics. Fitted with big radiators mounted beside the drivers shoulders, a 500 bhp Chev and Hewland DG300 five speed transaxle where a Ford FVA and FT200 five speed transaxle once lived, the T242, and a little later the renamed T300 was a luscious looking racing car!

Once refined by Gardner in the late 1971 season races the T300 won a lot of races around the world and sold like hot cakes in ’72. The 1973-74 T330/T332 refined the package into one of the most successful series of customer racing cars ever built. Probably the most successful if you account for the central-seat 5-litre Can-Am T332CS and T333 variants as well.

For 1976 Lola planned to do ‘a T192 to T300 all over again’.

Teddy Pilette testing a Lola T450 F2 chassis fitted with a Chev V8, DG300 Hewland etc at Paul Ricard. Note that a front radiator is fitted at this stage. In the later shot of Teddy below, the radiators have been moved to the rear, parallel with the radius rods (Lola)
Note the ‘brackets on brackets’ front suspension assemblies as per the text (Auto Hebdo)

Lola initially built and tested a car based on an F2 T450 tub, but ultimately, went with a monocoque based on the T360 Formula Atlantic, which was also a narrow design.

The T430 had a full-width nosecone, unlike all of the T300-series cars, but the radiators were mounted at the rear, having initially, as the photos above show, experimented with a front-mounted radiator.

The suspension was different to the T360 in that the quite conventional mix of magnesium uprights, upper and wide-based lower front wishbones, Koni/coil spring damper units and an adjustable roll-bar. were attached to brackets that in turn were attached to the tub.

The rear suspension comprised Lola magnesium uprights, a single upper link, two parallel lower links and a pair of radius rods doing fore and aft locational duties, and again Koni/coil springs and an adjustable roll bar. VDS’s chief mechanic, Steve Horne, christened the car The Flying Bracket!

In essence, as Allen Brown described it, the T430 has ‘T332-style suspension geometry. Essentially, Lola had built a smaller version of the T300/330/332 design.’ Teddy Pilette wrote cryptically on Facebook, ‘Eric Broadley wanted to make a small, narrow car to get the advantage of straight-line speed…but no good on the curve!!!!’

Steve Horne added (in relation to a Riverside photograph) ‘The drivers swapped cars that weekend and didn’t change much. I normally looked after the B37 (see results summary below), but that weekend was demoted to the 430! The Chevron was one of the best F5000s I worked on. It didn’t really have any development done on it, and the biggest downfall for both cars (T430s and B37) were the Morand engines, which just weren’t competitive in the USA.’

SCCA-USAC Formula 5000 1976…

Three Lola T430s were sold, two to Count Rudy Van Der Straten’s Racing Team VDS, and one to Jim Hall’s. In addition to his pair of Lolas for the 1976 US F5000 Championship – the last – VDS also acquired Derek Bennett’s last F5000 design, the Chevron B37 Chev, having successfully run B24/B28s previously; Peter Gethin won the 1974 Tasman Cup aboard a VDS Chevron B24 Chev.

It must have been quite an expensive year for the beer-baron, carrying chassis spares for different makes of cars. To add to the mix, he also appears to have acquired the T332C HU55 that Warwick Brown was racing for Bay Racing until its demise. WB’s first appearance for VDS was at Road America on July 25.

Pilette raced T430 HU1 and Gethin and Brown HU2, Gethin’s preferred mount was the B37, but Teddy grabbed it once or twice too…

Teddy Pilette, Lola T430 Chev HU1 at the Pocono 1976 US F5000 season opener – the T430’s first race – in May 1976 (B Featherly)
Oil radiators mounted either side at the rear (B Featherly)
(B Featherly)

As to results: Pocono, May 9, Teddy was Q5 and third and fourth in the heats, then 12th in the final won by Redman’s T332C. At Mosport on June 20 Teddy was third from Q7 in the race won by Alan Jones’s T332. Jackie Oliver had a memorable win for Dodge at Road America on July 25, Shadow DN6B with Pilette sixth from Q11. Gethin was ninth from Q8. Redman won again at Mid Ohio on August 8 with Gethin seventh from Q11. Pilette was fifth overall, and second in his heat from Q7 in the Chevron B37…

The dominance of the Lola T332C was again confirmed with Redman’s win in the Hall-Haas entry at Road America on August 28, where Pilette was Q2 – easily the best qualifying performance of a T430 all year – and fifth, with Brown Q6 in T430 HU2 and DNF, while Peter was Q8 and fourth in the B37.

Allen Brown wrote that ‘With two rounds to go, Alan Jones and Jackie Oliver were tied for the championship lead, but when Oliver retired at Road America and Jones had to miss the race to be at the Dutch Grand Prix, Redman won and leapt into a significant points lead.’

Teddy Pilette leading the field in the wet at Watkins Glen in ? 1976 DNF on lap 14 with engine failure (Lola Heritage via T Pilette)
Warwick Brown, T430 Riverside 1976 and below (unattributed)

At Mid-Ohio on August 8, Redman won again with Gethin seventh in HU2 and Teddy fifth in the B37. In the final round at Riverside on July 17, VDS were again busy with three cars. Up front, it was Al Unser in a T332 Chev with WB sixth in HU2 from Q11, Gethin 10th from Q16 in the B37 and Teddy 12th from Q10 in HU1.

Redman won the championship from Unser, Oliver and Jones, the best of the T430 pilots was Warwick Brown in seventh, but most of WB’s points harvest was aboard the Bay Racing Lola T332C.

Lift Off: Surfers 100 1977. L>R WB T430, Peter Gethin Chevron B37, Vern Schuppan, Elfin MR8-C, with John Leffler’s white Lola T400 correcting his start slide and perhaps looking for a run between Gethin and Schuppan. The first three were Brown, Gethin, and Leffler (D Simpson)

1977 Rothmans International Series Australia…

Given the scale of the investment, and success of VDS it was a poor season, best to cut ‘yer losses, take the cars to Australia, win the series, then flog them at the end of it. Which is exactly what happened!

Warwick Brown won two of the four Rothmans International rounds – Oran Park and Surfers Paradise – and the championship from Peter Gethin, in the VDS Chevron B37 Chev and Alan Jones Lola T332 Chev.

Jones was the star of the series but a jumped start in the AGP at Oran Park and writing off a T332 at Surfers cruelled his chances. Yip’s boys leased KB’s T332 for that race.

At the end of the series, VDS sold the two T430s to Porsche Cars Australia/Alan Hamilton, who had had one season of F5000 in 1971, and with business booming, thought he would have another crack.

Bruce Allison bought the Chevron B37 and had a fantastic year in it, contesting the British F5000/Group 8 Championship, winning many fans, some races, and the prestigious Grovewood Award.

‘Hammo’ in the Sandown pitlane during the 1978 AGP weekend (B Atkin)

Porsche Cars Australia Alan Hamilton…

Brown raced HU2 to wins in the Australian Grand Prix at Oran Park and in the Surfers Paradise 100, while Max Stewart took his final win in his Lola T400 Chev HU3 at Sandown the week later.

Alan Jones’ Sid Taylor-Teddy Yip Lola T332 Chev was the fastest combination in the 1977 Rothmans Series, with AJ redeeming himself in the final round at Adelaide International. Jones was pinged for jumping start at Oran Park, bent a Lola in practice at Surfers, then led at Sandown before retiring.

In his ’77 Gold Star campaign aboard HU2, ‘Hammo’ was second at Sandown, fourth at Calder and second at Phillip Island for fourth overall behind John McCormack’s McLaren M23 Repco-McCormack Leyland.

Hamilton also contested the 1978 Rothmans Series for fifth at Sandown, tenth at Adelaide International and sixth at Surfers Paradise before vacating the seat for Derek Bell at Oran Park, where the British all-rounder was eighth from Q11.

Warwick Brown won the series again with a VDS machine, this time a Lola T333 Chev Can-Am car (HU2) converted to a T332C F5000 car, amusing to me at least, given the number of T332s that made the conversion journey the other way…

Derek Bell ahead of Kevin Bartlett at Oran Park at Oran Park in 1978. Lola T430 Chev and Brabham BT43 Chev (C Snowden)
Alan Hamilton aboard his immaculate Lola T430 Chev during the 1978 Australian Grand Prix at Sandown before That Lap. Note the very neat T332-based nose fitted by then

While grids for the Rothmans International Series were still adequate, the domestic Gold Star was a different matter. The case for a change to Formula Pacific was being put, with F5000 hanging on. Alan Hamilton missed the opening round of the Gold Star at Oran Park but entered for the Australian Grand Prix at Sandown on September 10.

That ‘Fangio Meeting’ was mega with the great man demonstrating a 3-litre W196S-engined Mercedes-Benz W196R Grand Prix car with much brio throughout the weekend and ‘racing’ Jack Brabham in Jack’s 66 F1 Championship-winning Brabham BT19 Repco 620 V8.

The utter excitement of the sight and sound of that legendary car-driver combination was to a large extent ruined by the accidents that befell Garrie Cooper and Alan Hamilton, and to a lesser extent Vern Schuppan, in the Grand Prix won by Graham McRae, McRae GM3 Chev. 

Alan lost control of the twitchy, unforgiving Lola on the fast left-hander off The Causeway then went backwards into the Dunlop Bridge breaking the car into two and breaking a leg, his pelvis and sustaining serious head injuries.

While there that day, I was nowhere near the accident, which was in a no-spectator area on the inside of the track. The vibe of the place that day, with three big hits and limited information flow to us punters, is something I still remember.

It took a long time for Hamilton to recover, he carried maladies related to that accident for the rest of his life, not least the diabetes that prevented him from ever holding a full competition licence again.

Hamilton supported a lot of drivers along the way, it’s beyond the scope of this article. When he decided to continue to race the other T430, HU1, he chose Italian Australian Alfredo Costanzo, then 35 years old.

Costanzo in the Sandown dummy grid. Flying Bracket factor front and rear is clear (D House)
This shot shows the low frontal area presented by Costanzo’s T430 compared with Brown’s T332 further back; Perkins’ Elfin MR8 looking as slippery as the T430. Oran Park 1979 (B Forsyth)

Costanzo’s first race was at the Sandown round of the 1979 Rothmans Series on February 4, where he won, what a debut! He took the Adelaide round as well.

The shot above shows Costanzo, Lola T430 Chev, ahead of Larry Perkins, Elfin MR8C Chev, and Warwick Brown, Lola T332C Chev in the final Oran Park round on February 25, 1979.

Rob Newman, racer and in John Walker’s AGP and Gold Star winning 1979 year, the preparer of JW’s Lola T332, observed: ‘Poor Alfie had a driveshaft failure and lost the race and the series. Perkins went on to win the 1979 Rothmans series without winning a race, and Warwick salvaged one race win from what had been an awful 1979 Rothmans series for him, his last season as a professional driver, if I recall correctly.’

Shortly after the Rothmans, the Gold Star commenced with the Australian Grand Prix at Wanneroo Park on 11 March. Costanzo bagged pole, then he and Perkins took one another out in a first-lap, first-corner battle for victory. Another perennial battler, John Walker, won the day in Martin Sampson’s Lola T332 Chev; the duo took the Gold Star that year, too, with Alfie the winner of the Sandown round.

Take No Prisoners. Classic dive and chop manoeuvre between Perkins’ Elfin MR8 and Alfie’s T430 eliminates both at the start of the 1979 AGP at Wanneroo Park. A great pity, as that joust could have been really something (unattributed)
AGP victor John Walker is licking his lips in the #25 white Lola T332 behind the Wanneroo Air Show (unattributed)

Into 1980, the Hamilton-Costanzo-T430 combination finally came good in a Gold Star season of many different winners, winning the coveted award from Jon Davison and John Bowe and taking victory in the Sandown and the Rose City 10000 at Winton in T430 HU1.

Alfie’s last hurrah in the old car was in the Australian Grand Prix at Calder on November 16. By then, the conversion of McLaren M26-4E to a ground-effects Chev-engined F5000 car in PCA’s workshops was a bit behind schedule, so Hamilton’s crew dusted off the T430 for one last time, finishing fourth in the race behind Alan Jones, Williams FW07B Ford, Bruno Giacomelli, Alfa Romeo 179 V12 and Didier Pironi’s Elfin MR8 Chev. Alfie and Didi gave one another a bit of hip-and-shoulder that day!

Bob Minogue, Lola T430 Chev, Shell Corner, Sandown 1981. From memory, the lack of airboxes at this stage was the notion of the entrants/penniless sponsor Arco Graphite to make F5000 cars look more contemporary (R Lewis)

The car didn’t move far with Brighton racer Bob Minogue, the purchaser. He had been out of racing for a while but proved very much up to the task and not intimidated at all, racing the car in the 1981 Gold Star and into the Arco Graphite Series in 1981-82 as Formula Pacific finally took over as Australia’s National F1.

All three T430s live in New Zealand with T430 HU2 rebuilt around the chassis plate, which ‘took pride of place’ on Alan Hamilton’s office pin-board for a couple of decades.

(A Mitchell)
The Costanzo T430 Chev at Surfers Paradise in 1979 and below at Sandown. Circa 520bhp in the day (M Strudwick)
(C Jewell)

More reading…

Lola Heritage information here : https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t430/t430.html and Allen Brown’s chassis by chassis history is here : https://www.oldracingcars.com/lola/t430/

Credits…

Rod Steffanoni, Chris Jewell, Bill Forsyth, Lynton Hemer, Michael Strudwick, Chris Snowden, Auto Hebdo, Lola Heritage, Teddy Pilette, Bob Featherly, Neil Laracy, Chris Parker, Robin Lewis, Alex Mitchell

Tailpieces…

(C Parker)

I was there somewhere, that day, every day over that Sandown Sunday, February 20, 1977, weekend.

Raceday wasn’t a good day for WB, he had qualified fourth but boofed the T430 into the Dandy Road fence on the warm-up or parade lap, Max Stewart won from Alfie and Garrie Cooper: Lola T400, Lola T332 and Elfin MR8-C all Chev powered.

Look at the crowd…And below? Surfers perhaps? Racing cars are like magnets for little tackers and bigger blokes alike, aren’t they!?

(N Laracy)

Finito…

Brabs gets the Jump…

Posted: September 20, 2018 in Features, Who,What,Where & When...?
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(M Bishop)

Geoff Brabham gets the jump from Grace Bros Racing team-mate Andrew Miedecke and Alfie Costanzo at the Hume Weir, Australian National F2 round on 15 June 1975…

Birrana 274 Ford Hart, Rennmax BN7 Ford Hart and Birrana 274 again- Costanzo won that day but Geoff won the series.

In the black helmet at far right on the second row is Ray Winter in the Mildren ‘Yellow Submarine’ still a winner seven years after it first raced in Frank Gardner’s hands in the summer of ’69 Tasman Series.

The high water mark of Australian National Formula 2 racing (1.6 litre, DOHC, 2 valve- which effectively mandated the Lotus Ford twin-cam engine- the ducks guts version was the Hart 416B circa 205bhp injected variants) was in 1974 when an infusion of sponsorship dollars from shirt manufacturer Van Heusen resulted in an influx of drivers stepping up into the class and/or acquiring new cars.

Geoff Brabham during wet Oran Park practice in 1975. Birrana 274 Ford/Hart. No F2 championship round that year held at OP (oldracephotos.com.au)

Guys like Leo Geoghegan, Enno Buesselmann, Bruce Allison, Ken Shirvington, John Leffler, Chas Talbot, Wolfgang Prejawa with Sonny Rajah jetting in from Malaysia and Graeme Lawrence did a round or two from NZ. In some cases drivers ‘stepped down’ from F5000- Bob Muir, John Walker, Kevin Bartlett and Max Stewart to name a swag. For the sake of clarity Leo was an established ace- having finally won the Gold Star, the national drivers championship he deserved in 1970, he retired and then did a ‘Nellie Melba’ and returned to drive Malcolm Ramsay and Tony Alcock’s new Birrana 272 in mid-1972.

An absolute corker of a 1974 series was won by Leo in the ‘works’ Grace Bros sponsored Birrana 274 Ford-Hart in a closely fought battle with the Bob and Marj Brown owned Birrana 273 raced by Bob Muir and Leffler’s ‘tricky-dicky’, superb, variable rate suspension Bowin P8.

Sex on Wheels. John Leffler’s John Joyce designed Bowin P8 Ford-Hart at Sandown’s Dandy Road during the 1975 Tasman meeting, DNF suspension (B Keys)

Predictably in some ways the Van Heusen money ended up supporting ‘taxis’ in 1975 despite the great show put on by the F2’s in 1974. All the same, the 1975 championship was a good one given all the newish cars about.

Into late 1974 or early 1975 Costanzo bought Leo’s championship winning car- and in that ’75 season gave his career the shot in the arm it needed after running around in an old Elfin 100 Mono F2 for way too long. I think Alfie did travel to Italy seeking a drive in the late sixties, without success- imagine if he had popped his bum into the right car back then rather than a decade later at the end of the seventies when Alan Hamilton’s Porsche Cars Australia finally gave him the drive he deserved- the ex-VDS/Brown Lola T430 Chev F5000 and subsequently the McLaren M26 Chev and Tiga Formula Pacifics into the early eighties.

Miedecke, Rennmax BN7 Ford/Hart in the Calder paddock 1975. It was a small, neat bit of kit- conventional but for the chassis as per text. Uncertain if this is the first or second of the two Calder rounds won by Miedecke and Costanzo respectively (oldracephotos.com.au)

Miedecke at Oran Park during 1975. Note the Griffin helmet, a rare beast in Australia (J Bondini)

Brabham and Miedecke stepped up from Formula Ford- a Bowin P6F and Birrana F73 respectively, retaining their Grace Bros support which helped fund far more sophisticated and expensive cars than their FF’s. Geoff took the obvious choice in acquiring a Birrana 274- a low mileage, late build car from Neil Rear in WA whilst Andrew sought the ‘unfair advantage’ with a new Rennmax- the BN7 from Bob Brittan’s Sydney workshop.

In fact it wasn’t that edgy a choice really as his car was a refinement of Doug Heasman’s BN6 which hit the track about 12 months before- the speed of which was proven by Bob Muir in one or two races in the car before he got the Brown’s Birrana ride at Enno Buesselmann’s expense.

This photograph shows clearly the middle monocoque and front spaceframe sections of the ex-Miedecke BN7 recently (via R Bell)

Apropos the above- chassis front section (via R Bell)

The BN7 design was different to the paradigm of the era in having a monocoque centre-cockpit section and spaceframes both front and rear- the more usual approach was an ally mono from the front ending in a bulkhead aft of the drivers shoulders with an ‘A-frame’ at the rear to carry the engine and suspension.

Both the P8 Bowin and Rennmax were wedge nosed designs with side radiators whereas the Birranas and Elfins (works 622 as raced by Walker and 630) followed the ‘Tyrrell’ bluff nosed approach with a front radiator.

Amaroo Park 1975. Brabham Birrana 274, Winter Mildren Sub, Miedecke Rennmax BN7 and Hong Kong’s John McDonald Brabham BT40. Brabham won from McDonald and Winter (unattributed)

Paul King in the foreground beside his Birrana 374 Toyota F3, whilst Ray Winter strides across the track. His car is the famous Mildren ‘Yellow Submarine’ Ford-Hart ex-Gardner/Bartlett/Muir. The guys had a territorial dispute after Paul got a blinder of a start and Ray attempted to assert F2 superiority into the first corner. Hume Weir 1975 (M Bishop)

In a year of strong competition between Brabham, Costanzo and Miedecke Geoff took the title with three wins at Amaroo, Symmons and Phillip Island from Alfie with two wins- Hume Weir and Calder and Andrew, who won the first Calder round in May. Arguably the quickest of the trio was Costanzo but reliability was a little lacking on both his and Miedecke’s part.

With my new drivers licence I no longer had to rely on my reluctant dad to cart me around to race meetings- I saw the Calder, Sandown and Phillip Island rounds that season and well recall a chat with Geoff and Peter Nightingale, his mechanic/engine builder, after the final ‘Island round in late November which Brabs won in fine style.

He had his ‘tail up’ in his modest way and was looking forward to taking on the world in Europe.

Doug Heasman, Rennmax BN6 Ford from Peter Macrow, Cheetah Mk6 Toyota, Hume Weir, date uncertain (M Bishop)

Interest was added to the series with lady racer Sue Ransom doing some events in Leffo’s Bowin P8 Ford/Hart- I pissed myself with laughter watching him pop her Willans six-pointer on at Calder, he was far more judicious with the crutch straps than he would have been with a fella. In those days the two lady-quicks were Ransom and Christine Cole/Gibson, I always thought it a shame Sue didn’t race the Bowin for longer than she did. Leffler himself did a round or two in Paul England’s Brabham BT36/Dolphin in amongst his Bowin P8 Chev F5000 commitments- the Brabham/Dolphin was also raced a couple of times by Tony Stewart- a talent lost.

Other drivers who added colour were Ken Shirvington, Chris Farrell, Enno Buesselmann, Doug MacArthur in the Lola T360 Bartlett and Lawrence had ‘guested in’ the year before when it was imported and owned by Glenn Abbey- and Ray Winter still pluggin’ away in The Yellow Sub, albeit substantially modified by Mawer Engineering.

Brian Shead, Cheetah Mk5 Toyota ANF3- Mk5 the prettiest and one of the most successful Cheetahs of all- amazing what Shead produced from that little ‘shop in Mordialloc (M Bishop)

The quicker of the 135bhp ANF3 cars (1.3 litre, SOHC or pushrod engines on carbs) could always give an average driven 205bhp F2 a run for its money, dudes like the two Brians- Shead and Sampson, Paul King, Peter Macrow and Dean Hosking to name several who extracted all these little cars had to give.

(M Bishop)

I’ve no idea who the ace felling a ‘pine plantation’ at Hume Weir is, I’m intrigued to know? Ditto the car.

(M Bishop)

What about the career trajectory of the 1975 F2 protagonists you ask?

Miedecke did another F2 year in the BN7 in 1976, Costanzo acquired a Lola T332 F5000 and was immediately quick in it against the established 5 litre aces whilst Brabham headed off to Europe for a couple of Ralt RT1 Toyota F3 seasons before launching his pro-career in the US.

Etcetera…

Geoff Brabham Birrana 274 leads a group of cars up the Calder return to the paddock road- remember that setup? Peter Macrow’s Mk5 Cheetah and Paul King’s Birrana 374 behind. Geoff’s chassis, ex-Neil Rear was ‘274-018’, it was then bought by Ray Winter to replace the Sub but if memory serves he had a huge accident in it, Lakeside maybe? Now in the Holmes family collection (oldracephotos.com.au)

Ray Winter in the Mildren Ford Hart ‘Yellow Submarine’ at Oran Park circa 1975 (B Williamson)

Photo Credits…

Mark Bishop, oldracephotos.com.au, Bruce Keys, Ray Bell on The Nostalgia Forum, Bob Williamson, Jay Bondini

Tailpiece: Graeme Crawford, Birrana 273 Ford F2- he won the national title in this car in 1976- from Brian Shead’s self built Cheetah Mk5 Toyota F3, Hume Weir 1975…

(M Bishop)

Finito…

Alfa Owners Club Spettacolo Concorso: Melbourne 29/30 November 2014…

Posted: December 3, 2014 in News/Events
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Wesley

Alfa Club of Victoria Concorso…300 Alfa Romeos’ dropping olio onto the Wesley First XI Turf…

The Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Victorias’ annual Concourse and preceding dinner… has become ‘Bigger Than Ben Hur’ in terms of quality of organisation, cars, location, attendance and guest speakers.

This years concourse was held at Wesley College, St Kilda Road, Melbourne on 30 November, the guest speakers at the nearby Parkview Hotel dinner the evening before were former Australian Racing Champions Kevin Bartlett and Alfredo Costanzo.

The ‘dialogue’ with the drivers was ably conducted by Melbourne longtime Alfista and racer John Emery, it wasn’t ‘hard core’ given the audience, too many road car types present for that sadly!, but the following are a few snippets from their comments or quick chats with each of them separately.

Parkview Hotel St Kilda Road

Crappy iPhone shot of Kevin Bartlett left, and Alf Costanzo, right being ‘interviewed’ by John Emery, Parkview Hotel 29 November

I covered KB’s early history in the Alfa GTA article of last week, see https://primotipo.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1037&action=edit …he spoke fondly of his mentor Alec Mildren and the way Alec extracted the best from him which was around advice and encouragement, not actually how to drive, Mildren himself was the Australian Gold Star winner in 1960.

‘I was really lucky he gave me the chance to test, Glenn Abbey gave me the call, I don’t even remember the circuit but there were three or four other guys who also had similar credentials. But I guess they saw potential and a willingness to work hard and learn’.

Bartlett spoke of the evolution of the Lola F5000 cars from the T240 F2 based, twitchy, torsionally floppy T300 through to the T400 and ultimate variant of the T332, the 332C and what a competitive car it was. Costanzo chipped in about that cars understeer and said he, having also owned a T332, preferred the ‘twitchy and slightly more nervous’ T430, the ex-VDS/Brown car Alfie raced for Alan Hamilton so successfully in 1979/80.

Both noted that Warwick Brown happily went back to a T332 after the 430’s were sold despite his success in that model. (Rothmans Series 1977).

Bartlett related a funny anecdote about building a twin-turbo Jaguar XJS for Australian media magnate, the late Kerry Packer.

Kerry wanted to drive the ‘weapon’ from Sydney to Canberra, KB confessed that the gearbox whilst up for sprint meetings wouldn’t survive that journey…so Packer had his ‘chopper shadow the car on the trip, as you do!

Inevitably the car ‘cacked itself’ near Bowral, the chopper scooping up the legendary KP and delivering him to the capital on time. KB organising for his most wealthy clients car to be returned to Sydney…the silver lining in this relationship the very successful ‘Nine Network’ sponsorship of Bartlett’s Camaro in Touring Car Racing after his second F5000 ‘Big One’ when his Brabham BT43’s rear wheel failed at Sandown in 1979 made continued single seater racing not such a good idea.

Bartlett Sandown 1979 Brabham BT43 Chev

Bartlett in the Sandown pitlane 8 September 1979. Saturday practice, the following day KB had a rear wheel failure cause another big accident going thru ‘The Causeway’ breaking his legs, hospitalising him, destroying the car and ending his cherished single seater career…there were, however, touring cars to conquer. Car now has rear/side, rather than front mounted water rads’, Lola airbox, a variant of the nosecone used on KB’s T400 Lola and later rear wing. Jim Hardman in black anorak listening to KB’s issues and together working out the necessary tweaks! (Mark Bisset)

I asked KB whether Alec considered commercial sponsorship of his team to assist with the budget, as an alternative to ‘Alec Mildren Racing’ withdrawal from the sport but ‘it simply wasn’t his style’ so KB and Max Stewart were ‘on their own’ from 1971 both continuing to be successful but clearly the ‘Mildren Family Team’ was special in every way not least it’s competitiveness and influence on the professional teams which followed its lead.

Bartlett and Alfie are 3 years apart in age, KB born in 1940, Alf 1943. Their careers have ‘reverse parallels’ in some ways, KB a paid professional at 25, and on his own at 30, Alf on his own until 1979, when at 36 he became a paid professional…Unsurprisingly the ‘sweet spots’ in their careers were as paid professionals able to focus on just the driving rather than the more difficult commercial and organisational elements necessary in running your own team.

KB had an opportunity to test F1 for Brabham in 1970, ‘yes we should give him a run’ Ron Tauranac said but the fee was $60000 even then, as KB said, ‘I didn’t have $6k let alone $60k back then’ it’s a shame as the BT33 was a rocket in 1970 and still ok in 1971.

Bartlett Oran Park 1978

Bartlett in the one of a kind Brabham BT43 Chev ahead of Alf and John Walker at Oran Park , Rothmans Series 1978, both in Lola T332’s, Walker in KB’s old car. Warwick Brown won in another T332C, or rather a T333 Single-Seat CanAm car converted to F5000 for our Series before returning to the US whence it was converted back. See this shot of the Brabham in its original form here, mind you the nose had already been changed at this point…with the car in its final form above. (Glenn Moulds)

Two blokes who took to F5000 in Australia, having come out of smaller single-seaters like ‘ducks to water’ were Alf and Bruce Allison, immediately competitive…and both in Lola T332’s, Allison in the car KB sold to buy his T400, ‘HU22’. (KB’s T330 ‘HU22′ rebuilt after its Pukekohe early ’74 shunt around a 332 tub)

Not everybody who drove these animals of cars, mastered them…’it always focussed my mind the day before wherever I raced these cars because they could always bite you’, said KB.

One wag at the Parkview Hotel after listening to Alf speak, very amusing he was too, and who watched many of his early racing efforts said that ‘he bounced that Mono (Elfin Mono) off every fence in Victoria, he didn’t even book overnight accommodation at the country circuits as he never expected to race on Sunday!’

By 1975 he had the car in which to strut his stuff finishing second in the AF2 Championship that year in the Birrana 274 Ford Leo Geoghegan drove to the series win in 1974. Geoff Brabham won the title in a similar 274.

‘At the end of the year I sold the car and bought the ex-Bob Evans 1974 European F5000 Championship winning T332 ‘HU36′ for a lot less than I sold the Birrana! Brian McGuire had a good season in it in the UK in 1975 and was to race it again and then the Brits admitted F1 cars to their series so he bought one of those and sold the Lola cheap, all race prepared and ready to go. I even won a couple of KLM tickets late in the season so got a trip to the UK as well’

In a sad ending for Aussie McGuire, he died in the Williams FW04 he bought instead due to a component failure at Brands in 1977.

‘The T332 was a great car, I did well in it but I preferred the T430 which was a bit more nervous, the turn in was better. The McLaren was better again, no quicker than the Lola in a straight line but it put its power down much better, it was quicker through the corners.’

Costanzo, McLaren M26 Chev Sandown 1981

Costanzo at the old Sandown pit counter 1981. Mclaren M26 Chev, Jim Hardman in the white top. A talented engineer, his self designed and built Hardman JH1 Ford victorious in the 1980 AF2 Championship in Richard Davisons’ hands. Car @ rear is the Bryan Thomson owned Mercedes Fowler/Chev sports sedan then driven by John Bowe.

The McLaren Costanzo spoke of was the M26 F1 car converted to ground effect F5000 specification by Tiga Cars and raced by Alan Hamiltons’ Porsche Cars Australia Team in the dying days of F5000 in Australia.

These are a few vignettes in two phenomenal careers, it was a pleasure to meet them both and watch them work an audience in the same way they used to work the spectators on race day!

Racers both and great blokes to boot…

TZ1 and 6C 1750

All the fun of the fair..big crowds, this is early in the day. Alfa TZ1 Replica beside 6C 1750 Zagato. ‘Lola Limper’ Bartlett checking out the cars in brown shirt and cap.

Lawson and Little Alfa

John Lawsons’ Alfa 6C 2300 Spl left, with the ex-Lex Davison ‘Little Alfa’, shortened 6C1750 ‘Normale’ chassis’ , supercharged. Successful and famous Aussie special raced by Davo from circa 1946 to 1952. car originally Davisons’ fathers road car.

St Kilda Road

Giuliettas’, St Kilda Road buildings at rear

Park scene Wesley

Swag of ‘105’s…a very pleasant Concourse location, Wesley College, Melbourne…

Photo Credits…

oldracephotos.com, Glenn Moulds