Melbourne racer/raconteur/engineer/mechanic Greg Smith put these three shots up on his ‘Pre-1960 Historic Racing in Australasia’ Facebook page – very highly recommended – a while back. He is the custodian of Cec Warren’s photo archive.
The 1933 200 Mile Race aka the Australian Grand Prix. EG Mackay Bugatti T39, Cec Warren, Bugatti T37 and Mert Wreford, Bugatti T39.
Two 1.5-litre straight-eight unsupercharged, three-valve, SOHC 80-90bhp Type 39s, sandwiching a 1.5-litre four cylinder, unsupercharged, three-valve SOHC 60bhp Type 37. The race was won by Bill Thompson’s Riley Brooklands.
Interestingly, perhaps, The Argus started its coverage of the race on March 24, 1933, with the headline, ‘Australian Grand Prix’, then went on to describe it as the Victorian Light Car Clubs 200-mile race – the Fourth Australian Grand Prix. They really weren’t too sure what to call the thing.
Cec Warren, Bugatti T37, on his way to winning the Invitation Handicap on the short-lived Richmond Racecourse Speedway, Melbourne track in 1932.
For you Melburnians, the track was primarily a horse racing facility owned by the ‘colourful legendary’ John Wren, which was located on land abutting a site near the Yarra River and abutting Bridge Road.
Etcetera…
(S King Archive)
Many thanks to Steven King for these photographs and advice as to the exact location of the Richmond Racecourse.
It will mean nothing other than to those familiar with Melbourne’s inner east, that’ll be me and a few others active on this site!
The bottom left of the top shot has just the north-eastern corner of the racecourse in shot. That’s Bridge Road in the bottom left corner, go up the page, and you are heading east. This side of the Yarra River is Richmond, with light industry – textiles, clothing and footwear back then – and workers. East of the river is Kew to the left and Hawthorn to the right, then, as now ‘stockbroker-belt’ suburbs. Church Street branches diagonally to the left heading north and all of the features are still there a century on: the parklands, and Hawthorn West Primary School at the intersection of Church Street, and Burwood Road, the main road that branches to the right heading east.
There is now, and has been forever, a rowing club on the east bank of the river, beside the bridge and the Melbourne Girls College on the west bank; the parklands alongside the bridge there fuses into sporting facilities, then the school.
(S King Archive)
The shot above shows the north eastern corner of the I racecourse on the Bridge Road and Westbank Terrace corner, and the Bridge Hotel on that corner, which I highly recommend. The part of the course shown is now residential housing and ‘Officeworks.’
The shot below shows Bridge Road at the bottom, and Westbank Terrace to the left – heading up the photo is south – keep going and you hit Swan Street. The side road with the arrow on it to the right is Stawell Street.
(S King Archive)
This article in the Melbourne Argus published on January 14, 1941, answers the question on all of your lips: when did the race course site become housing?
‘RICHMOND RACECOURSE HOUSING PLAN
Erection of 138 working-men’s homes on the old Richmond racecourse will begin soon when contracts, tenders for which closed on Friday, are let by the Housing Commission.
In preparation for building, the commission has removed the high iron fence surrounding the racecourse and levelled the area. Streets and sites have been marked out.
The commission undertook the new housing plan on the suggestion of Richmond Council.
Many applications have already been made for the new houses. Tenants of dwellings condemned in Richmond are expected to receive preference.’
Fantastic Seven Mile Beach panorama at Gerringong – Gerroa – New South Wales, circa-1930, when beach racing at the seaside playground south of Sydney was very popular.
It’s the north end of the beach with Crooked River in the foreground, an often impenetrable barrier for competitors trying to get to the track on the sand; ‘tide management’ was a big issue as shown below! That’s Professors Burkitt’s – thrice AGP winner, Bill Thompson’s patron – big, white Mercedes K-Type centre pic.
(NLA)
‘Gerringong Speedway’, as it was called in the day, was in use from Saturday, May 9,1925, until the mid-1950s, for motorcycle use, with many deeds of derring-do taking place there. Don Harkness was the first in Australia to break the 100mph barrier in a 150hp Hispano Suiza Minerva V8 Spl at an average of 107.14mph set on October 17, 1925.
Don Harkness, aboard FG Colbert’s – chairman of the Penrith Speedway Co Ltd – Hispano Suiza Minerva V8 at Gerringong in 1925 (PDavis-A Half Century of Speed)Southern Cross, a Fokker FVllb/3M, on Seven Mile Beach in 1933 (Kiama Library)
No less than the great Charles Kingsford-Smith made the first commercial flight from Australia to New Zealand from Gerringong Beach aboard Southern Cross his Fokker monoplane, on January 11, 1933.
I’ve had a pretty good crack at Gerringong a couple of times before, but the pair of Gerringong panorama shots here got me looking again for other photographs – without success – but some Troving revealed a couple of great articles worth reproducing about the first meeting on the beach in 1925.
The diapason of the heavy rolling surf along the seven-mile beach at Gerringong mingled with the harsh scream or roar of racing motor engines yesterday. The white horses of Neptune flung their manes high, till, one after another, the big blue billows smashed in white foam on the beach, encroaching on the speedway which nature has made for the sport of car-racing. A storm spoiled the spectators’ sport, and many a smart car was bogged in the clay roads on the way back from the beach race track.
Reg G Potts – above and below – in the JAS Jones owned Lea Francis during the Fifty Mile Handicap during the May 1930 meeting (W Skimmings)(NLA)
ALL day at the big carnival of the Royal Automobile Club, it was a battle between the cars and the tide. Big creamy rollers flung carpets of boiling surf right onto the great semi-circle of beach which formed the speed track. Inch by inch, the sea encroached, and when a stiff wind blew straight inshore late in the afternoon, it sent clouds of spray often right over the speeding cars.
But there were plenty of thrills for those who motored down through the torturous ravines around Kiama to see the racing. In fact, Kiama buzzed with excitement over the event. A couple of hundred cars thundered down its chief streets. In the morning, the little bays around Kiama, with their fingers of crinkly surf and golden sand, were bathed in brilliant sunshine. But great banks of black clouds that came bowling over the bronze-green bluffs that rise above Gerringong, in an hour turned a day of turquoise into one of drab, ash grey.
The right crowd and no crowding is the feel!? It all seems a bit unbelievable today, but life was run to Formule Libre back then
Then, lashed by the wind, the rollers became most angry. They tossed their milky crests onto the beach so fiercely that they seemed intent on swooping the motor invaders from their domain. More than one car floundered heavily in the wash, and one or two sank inches into the sodden sand.
When the motor invasion began at noon, the bronze-green walls of ti-tree and furze, which dip down to the sea, flung back the echoes of the thundering engines in a deafening way. The moan of the surf was smothered in the crackle of the cars. It was altogether a remarkable picture. Before the speed demons stretched one of the finest beaches in Australia, hard as concrete, and with just that gentle incline that motorists relish. It swings away in a great crescent to a bold headland clothed in scrub.
Wizard Smith with Don Harkness alongside, on the Anzac Rolls Royce V12 breaking the Australasian Land Speed Record at 148mph, Gerringong, December 1, 1929. The car is heading south towards Shoalhaven Heads; the return trip was the other way (NLA)
Like a Crackle of Thunderclap
They are lined up — the drivers’ grim faces with goggled eyes glued to the track in front of them, twelve ears like twelve huge tin cigars shining in the fitful sunlight. Under them, the engines thunder. The yellowish, damp track hurls itself beneath those winged tyres down past the speckled black and white flags.
They race with a crackle like thunderclaps. There is an advantage on the run closest to the sea to the man who works into that position and clings to the fringe of boiling surf with the greatest grimness. Midway, they must sweep round the gentle turn in the crescent of the beach. They do it with a biting, gritty slide of those back wheels on the wet, glistening sand that was swept by the incoming surge a moment earlier. There is a sudden puff of blue smoke, a flash of flame from straining machines, and they charge down the long, straight carpet of sand with the speed of a high explosive shell.
A couple of (rough-looking) Knights in Shining Armour attend to the ladies’ needs (NLA)
You can’t see the whole of any race at Gerringong. In fact, unless you race alongside in a car, you cannot see anything but the dazzling finishes. In a few seconds, they diminish to the size of a black beetle careering along the sand. Often, the smoke of the surf drifts across and blots them out altogether. Then they emerge smaller than tiny beetles against the background of the beach. Their roar has dwindled to a faint purr, and then they are lost to view five miles away on the same beach. But before you have time to realise it, those speed men have turned in a sirocco of sand, and they are racing back again.
It is an exhilarating spectacle. In the most novel surroundings. Round they roar with a flying of wheels, a pumping of oil, a screeching of gears, and a crunching of track grit. A trail or petrol smoke lasts like a blue mist against the green wall of scrub. Then, as they bound on towards those deciding flags, the track gets smokier, and the grim faces oilier.
The crowd – and it was a large one on the sand yesterday – bursts into a cheer, and the race is won – you come away with a feeling of awe of tho men who have such wrists, and are able to use them as they can.
Bugs galore: AV Turner, T30-4087, S Lee T23-2566 and G Meredith in an unidentified Brescia (B King Arc)
An attempt was to have been made to see if any of the cars could reach a speed of 100 miles an hour. That was to have been the main attraction of the carnival, but the drivers decided that the tide had made the beach too sodden to reach anything like that speed with their machines.
Likewise, the race between an aeroplane and a speed car was also cut out. A ‘plane circled over the beach, and made one or two flights along the semi-circular track, but because of heavy going none of the 40 cars that took part in the racing was pitted against it.Last night half a hundred speed men fought their way through the mud into Kiama. All were thrilled with the day’s work. The driving rain caused the final of the 12 miles handicap to be abandoned.
A summary of the results is as follows. The winner of the Three Miles Handicap was Boyd Edkins, Vauvhall, the Six Miles Scratch went to AV Turner’s Bugatti, the 24 Miles Scratch Race was won by HR Clarke’s Vauxhall, the two Twelve Miles Handicaps were won by RK Hormann’s Rollin, while ‘The final was abandoned owing to rain.’
It was the first time the elements intervened in Gerringong’s proceedings, but far from the last!
Hope Bartlett and passenger in his GP Sunbeam (B King Collection)
In the beginning…
When did it all end? Good question! Denis Foreman wrote on Bob Williamson’s Old Australian Motor Racing Photographs that, ‘I raced on 7 Mile Beach in 1953 with Bankstown Wiley Park Motorcycle Club,’ which must be towards the end of the Gerringong Speedway? Can anyone tell me when the ‘final race meeting’ on Gerringong beach took place?
This article was published in the Sydney Sportsman, on April 28, 1925 and seems to indicate that the first meeting on Gerringong Speedway was the one covered in the article above, on Saturday, May 9, 2025.
MOTOR RACING IN THE BOOM: Ideal Beach at Gerringong: ATTRACTING OVERSEAS CHAMPIONS
WITH the building of motordromes in various centres, and the holding of reliability trials, the boom in motoring has extended to car racing under the auspices of the Royal Automobile Club on Gerringong Beach near Kiama, on Saturday, May 9. On Sunday, May 17, the Sydney Bicycle and Motor Club will follow with events for both cars and motorcycles over a similar course.
On Gerringong Beach.
To Mr H. R. Hodgeon, the patrol officer of the Royal Automobile Club, belongs the honour of introducing motor car racing on one of its States famous benches. Mr Hodgson, who is a barrister and presides over the Railway Appeal Court, has made an exhaustive study of the beaches from a racing point of view. He has witnessed contests on Sellicks Beach (South Australia) and Muriwai Beach near Auckland. (Hodgson had years of experience as an ‘organiser of most of the biggest reliability contests in the state’).
Mr Hodgson believes that Gerringong is in the fortunate position of having the greatest beach in the world from a racing point of view, and in this respect, he is supported by Boyd Edkins and H. R. Clarke.
Hope Bartlett this time aboard his Bugatti T43-169, one of the fastest cars in Australia, flat chat with passenger on Seven Mile Beach (B King Arc)
The seven-mile beach at Gerringong is 88 1/2 miles distant from Sydney by road. At low water, a stretch of sand nearly 100 yards wide, with a straight drive of five miles, is available. The surface is remarkably solid and hard, there being no bumps of any kind, and is capable of holding together at any speed in absolute safety.
A month ago some fine performances were achieved on the beach by stock touring model, machines, with full complement of passengers. Speeds over 80 miles per hour were recorded.
As a means of helping to popularise this class of sport, a suitable trophy (£50 cup) has been offered for the first competitor driving a car at 100 miles per hour or faster over a flying mile.
Speed Only.
Several other events are to be decided. Entries for the 25-mile handicap and races for touring cars will close with the R.A.C.A. on May 4. The races will be decided on speed only. Entrants must be members of the club, but need not be the owners of the cars they nominate. One event will be a race between L Tyler’s DH 6 aeroplane and a motor car.
Credits…
National Library of Australia, Fairfax Archive, Kiama Library, Pedr Davis and Ors ‘A Half Century of Speed’, Warren Skimmings Collection, The Sun Sydney Sunday, May 10, 1925, Sydney Sportsman, April 28, 1925
Tailpiece…
(B King Arc)
Such an evocative shot from Bob King’s collection.
He reckons its Geoff Meredith in Bugatti Type 30 chassis #4087, the ex-AV Turner car in which the great man met his maker, and the car aboard which Meredith won the first Australian Grand Prix at Goulburn in January 1927.
Cec Dickason and C.V Whitta on the banking at Aspendale during a Chevrolet 24-Hour track record attempt on August 1 and 2, 1924.
‘Credit is due to Messrs. C. R. Dickason and C. V. Whitta, who, driving a standard Chevrolet chassis equipped with a ‘racing body’ last week, established an Australian ‘double-12’ hour record on the Aspendale Speedway in Victoria.
The distance covered in the 24 hours was 1.063 miles 8 chains. On the first day of the test, the mileage travelled in 12 hours was 584 1/2. The car was driven 600 miles in 10 hours and 21 min. 19 4-5 вес. On the following day, rain made the track slippery, necessitating great care in negotiating the turns.
The test was conducted under observation by officials of the Aspendale Park Motor Racing Club and the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria. S.A. Cheney Pty.Ltd ran the attempt. See here:https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cheney-sydney-albert-5574
The Victorians hold on to ‘the Australasian motoring record for 24 hours’, extended until Saturday, December 12, 1925, The Argus reported.
Don Harkness and Phil Harbutt covered 1236 miles and 122 yards, averaging 51 1/2 miles an hour aboard a ‘standard four seater Overland 6 from which the mudguards and rear seats were removed’ at the Olympia Speedway, Maroubra, Sydney.
(Powerhouse Museum)
Both Dickason and Harkness were prominent mechanics/engineers, racers and automotive industry executives. Google away, particularly in relation to Harkness. Cyril Dickason’s place in the Australian automotive/racing pantheon is dealt with comprehensively in my friend Tony Johns’ upcoming history of sporting/racing Austin 7s in Australia. Watch this space…
Credits…
Edwin G Adamson photographer via Cec Dickason and Tony Johns Archive, The Herald, August 4, 1924, The Argus, December 14, 1925, Powerhouse Museum
Peter Brock pops his latest victory garland on the bonnet of his famous Austin A30 Holden sports-racing-closed machine at Hume Weir circa-1969. Perhaps after winning the June 1969 Australian Sports Sedan Trophy?
The realisation that there were a few very good colour shots in circulation of the self-built machine that pitched Brock into the spotlight, and thence into the Holden Dealer Team, is the catalyst for this piece.
For our international readers, Brock was rated as one of the world’s best ever touring car drivers by MotorSport some years ago. Top-Five if memory serves?
Brock, Oran Park circa late 1969 (R Thorncraft)
By the time PB was posted to Wagga Wagga for his two years of National Service in 1965’ish he was already a car nut, having cut his teeth as a ‘racer’ in the paddocks of his parents’ Wattle Glen property on Melbourne’s north-eastern outskirts. His mount was an Austin 7 Special; three of them actually, one owned by PB, another by his mate John Lovegrove, and a third parts-car
Peter and fellow ‘Nasho’ and old friend Ken Mitchell soon located the basis of a sports-racing-closed racer – this grouping of highly modified sedans was initially raced within sports car grids – an Austin A30, a crashed Holden HD 179 and a dead Triumph Herald.
The Austin, a good, straight car sans engine and gearbox, was found by David Turnbull, another Nasho, Brock mate, and later still an Elfin Formula Vee ace.
Lynn Brown, Mini Lwt on the ‘two-foot tow rope’ behind Brock’s Austin at Hume Weir (C Neal)
Construction commenced at the Kapooka Regimental Aid Post that ‘Colonel Brock’ commanded. Happily, the establishment had roads that doubled as a military ambulance racetrack and a workshop, which was soon devoted to extensive Brock A30 modifications.
Quick A30s weren’t that uncommon then, but they were usually fitted with hot BMC B-Series fours, not a brawny Holden six. The initially standard Holden ‘Red’ OHV, two-valve, seven bearing, 179 cid six-cylinder engine was mounted way back in the Austin chassis via an extensive hole hacked in the firewall by virtue of a new welding kit acquired for the exercise. The Triumph Herald remains provided some of the steel tube to brace the chassis weakened by holes and lightning by creating a full roll cage that was welded to the body.
A Holden (Opel) four-speed box’ replaced the standard Holden three-speeder that was first fitted, and sent its power via a shortened driveshaft to the Holden HD rear axle that was way wider than the Austin original. The rear axle was located by trailing arms at the top and an A-frame below, ‘the coil springs and shock absorbers (of unknown rate) came from a highly modified street racer (Austin Lancer) belonging to Heather’s (Peter’s first wife) brother, Geoff Russell.’
Up front, the upper and lower wishbone, coil spring/shock Herald front suspension, adapted to HD ball joints and uprights, was fitted to ‘match’ the rear track. The Herald provided the front disc brake calipers and rotors, and sharp rack and pinion steering components. Rudimentary but brutally attractive guard flares gave the little rocket its most distinctive styling element.
Close to Brocky’s home – the venue that initially wetted his interest in racing via pushbike schoolboy visits – Templestowe Hillclimb (J Brock/autopics)
Back in civilian life, the partially completed car was famously finished in the chook shed at the bottom of the Brock garden!
By late 1967, the little beast was ready to rock and roll. Unable to test at Calder or Winton, given a lack of readies, several fast blasts on the outskirts of Watsonia had to suffice, giving the nuns residing in the local convent the thrills they eternally lacked.
Brock first raced it at Winton on the November 26 weekend. Fuel pick-up problems cruelled that run, but Brock soon solved the car’s problems and began an ongoing series of modifications which demonstrated mechanical flair and understanding later recognised by Ian Tate in PB’s Holden Dealer Team days.
Brock in the company of another A30 and a Cooper S under brakes – with plenty of negative but not too much – into Peters at Sandown circa-1969. The scrutineers thought the engineering of the car was rough enough for them to order Brock to take it to Harry Firth’s Queens Street, Auburn workshop for a ‘safety check’. All was good, no doubt Harry remembered the consultation…(autopics.com.au)
Brock first showed his mettle by finishing second in a scratch race at Calder in late 1968 after a race long dice against thrice Australian Grand Prix winner, Doug Whiteford – a hard man who didn’t take prisoners – aboard a works Datsun 2000 prod-sports; a quite highly modified sports car.
The Holden engine copped triple 2-inch SUs, extractors and the usual mix of top and bottom end mods to give about 200bhp; plenty for a 700kg machine. Race tyres replaced the Goodyear Grand Prix roadies! and alloy wheels supplanted the heavier, 6-inch widened steel items initially fitted.
With Peter running up front at Victorian meetings he was soon enticed north of the Murray by Allan Horsley’s Oran Park start-money to run against the Sydney hotshots; NSW was then, arguably, the capital of sports-racing-closed.
The array of talent there was strong: Lynn Brown, Don Holland, Lakis Manticas, Harry Lefoe and later Australian Gold Star Champion, John Leffler, spring to mind. Harry Firth then chose the already well-credentialled Colin Bond and Brock to join the Holden Dealer Team as drivers in the 1969 Bathurst 500, Bondy winning on his HDT debut.
The rest, for both of them, is history, as the saying goes.
PB’s final race in the A30 Holden, Oran Park, January 3, 1970 (L Hemer)
Twitchy, Demanding Little Bastard…
The net effect of the seat-of-the-pants mods made to the Austin by Brock and Ken Michell created a car that was about as wide as it was long. The short wheelbase made the car very responsive but equally unforgiving!
‘Conventional wisdom’, repeated down the decades, is that very successful prod-sports Austin Healey 3000 driver, Ross Bond, who bought the car from Brock in early 1970, never got to grips with it before the accident that killed the significant little machine. Recent research by my friend, Lynton Hemer, suggests that wasn’t the case.
‘A lot has been said over the years about the Peter Brock Austin A30, suggesting that he was the only one capable of driving it quickly. He raced the car for the last time at Oran Park on Saturday night 3rd January 1970.
‘In the 6 lap Sports Sedan and Touring Car Scratch Race, Brock was second home behind Pete Geoghegan in the Mustang, and set a new class lap record of 50.3 seconds. Later that night, in a race for Open and Closed Sports Cars started at 10.48 pm, he won from John Goss in the Tornado Ford 9mid-engined sports car), and Lynn Brown in the Mini, and set the exceptional time of 50.0.’
Ross Bond hard at it in his very successful Austin Healey 3000 at Oran Park on August 8, 1971 (L Hemer)Ross Bond, Barry Sharp, Jaguar Ford V8, John Leffler, Mini Lwt. The latter had his first Formula Ford drives in Allan Vincent’s Bowin P4A that year (L Hemer)
‘Ross Bond then ran the car, winning in late February, and then experiencing mechanical problems in his next outing. By the time he got the car where he wanted it, several other cars were vying for position at the front of the Sports Sedan fields.’
‘Barry Sharp debuted his Jaguar Ford, Wayne Rogerson the XT Falcon, John Leffler got his Mini up to speed, and Barry Seton was now running the very rapid Torana GTR. All of those cars were capable of equal or better times than the Austin, so Ross found himself in among traffic at almost every race, whereas Brock had been at the front of much less competitive fields.’
‘In September 1970, Ross Bond did a best lap of 50.4, not that far off Brock’s second-best time in the car. Perhaps history has been a little harsh on Ross Bond’s performance in the car…’
Etcetera…
(N Brock)
Childhood fun times, and important driving and engineering lessons with the Austin 7s, above in 1959. John, Peter and Lewis Brock below in 1960.
(N Brock)
Brocky looking as happy as I would after my National Service number came up! Australian Army mug shot, June 1965 (N Brock)
(R Bell)
Ray Bell’s shot at Hume Weir circa 1968, early days. And Neil Baker’s below with the car looking more like its ultimate late-1969 spec, again at the Weir.
(N Baker Coll)(D Crampton)
This batch of three shots was taken by David Crampton at the Weir in 1969. Note the Castrol decal and sponsorship I guess.
(D Crampton)(D Crampton)
Credits…
John Brock-Brock Family Archive, Chris Neal, Russell Thorncraft, Lynton Hemer, Mark Oastler’s article about the car on Shannons’ website, Ray Bell, Neil Brock Archive, Neil Baker Collection, ‘Peter Brock Road to Glory’ by Colin Fulton and Terry Russell, David Crampton
Tailpiece…
(R Thorncraft)
Last run for Brock in the car was at Oran Park on January 3, 1970. The Diamond Valley Speed Shop was Geoff Brock, Peter’s dad’s, business. Are the wheels Simmons?
Such an evocative shot of the first couple of Australian motor racing, Melburnian’s Barney and Bess Dentry in their Riley 9 Brooklands. Perhaps during the 1936 Victorian Sporting Car Club Trophy held on the triangular Phillip Island road circuit on New Year’s Day.
Most ‘Island shots of the time are from the outside of the rectangular, right-handers-only course, looking in. This beautiful Edward Trevithick photograph looks the other way, with the Western Port sea-mist creating the rest of the magic.
The sign on the fence post issued by the People’s Republik of Phillip Island is headed ‘Closing of Roads’; sadly, I can’t read the fine print. More about the Dentrys here:https://primotipo.com/2023/04/07/barney-and-bess-dentry/
(E Trevithick-SLV)
Yes, the car doesn’t look kosher. Barney continually modified the Brooklands, chassis number 8062, over its long competition life, including this self-made, slipperier, lighter aluminium body. Both these photographs make it look like a Big Banger which it was not!
Master Mechanic Geoff Smedley made a pretty fine part-time photographer while fettling racing cars for the likes of John and Gavin Youl.
The 1963 South Pacific Championship has just got underway at Longford on March 4. Bruce McLaren is on pole in his Cooper T62 Climax at left with Bib Stillwell’s new Brabham BT4 Climax in the middle and Lex Davison’s Cooper T53 Climax on the right.
McLaren won the race comfortably from Bib Stillwell after Bruce’s dice with Jack Brabham’s leading BT4 Climax 2.7 ended with engine failure on lap 14 John Youl was third in his Cooper T55
Bruce McLaren on his way to winning the 1962 Australian GP, Caversham, Western Australia, Cooper T62 Climax (K Devine)Jack Brabham debuts the BT4 Climax, Caversham AGP, November 1962. BT4 #IC-1-62 was the first in a long line of very successful, profitable ‘Intercontinental’ Brabhams from Ron Tauranac
Context…
The Cooper vs Brabham Australasian summer was set during the 1962 Australian Grand Prix, November 18 weekend at Caversham, outside Perth, when McLaren’s new Cooper T62 Climax and Jack Brabham’s equally new Brabham BT4 Climax faced off for the first time. A fantastic dice between Bruce and Jack that day was resolved in McLaren’s favour after a passing he-zigged-when-I-zagged manoeuvre between Brabham and Arnold Glass’s BRM P48 Buick V8 went awry.
Both machines were inspired by their Coventry Climax FWMV 1.5-litre V8-powered Grand Prix siblings: the Cooper T60 and Brabham BT3. By the time the eight-race Tasman Circus travelled to Warwick Farm, round five, the weight of numbers favoured Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac’s Motor Racing Developments business with BT4s in the hands of Brabham, David McKay, who had bought Jack’s ’62 AGP car’, and Bib Stillwell, who had acquired a newie.
McLaren and the business end of his Cooper T62 FPF, Caversham 1962, with David McKay, Cooper racer/writer/later Scuderia Veloce supremo, showing more than cursory interest in the car given his pending car update considerations (T Walker)BT4 Tim Wall, Jack Brabham and Repco Indy 2.7 in the Sandown paddock. By then, Repco’s Michael Gasking was preparing Jack’s Tasman FPFs, and Repco was or were soon to be the Australian importer/distributor of Coventry Climax spares (Repco)
Bruce won two of the four Kiwi rounds at Wigram and Teretonga with his Cooper T62, while John Surtees won the NZ GP at Ardmore in an ex-F1 Lola Mk4A Climax 2.7, with Jack taking a Levin win in his BT4.
The additional power and torque from 2.7-litre Coventry Climax FPF Indy four-cylinder engines were causing a great deal of driveline stress to gearboxes, clutches and driveshafts.
At Warwick Farm, Brabham won in his new BT4-IC-2-62 from Surtees’ Lola Mk4A, McLaren and McKay in his first race of the ex-Jack BT4-IC-1-62 with Stilwell fifth in his new BT4-IC-1-63; all cars powered by Indy 2.7s.
At Lakeside on February 17, Surtees won from Graham Hill’s Ferguson P99 Climax 2.5 FPF and Stillwell. It was a great shame that the Ferguson went home at this point, we Victorians and Taswegians didn’t get to see it. McLaren spun and could’t restart while Jack was a no-show. It was an even greater shame the Fergy didn’t arrive in New Zealand with a pair of 2.7-litre FPFs…
Then Bruce won at Longford and at Sandown Park on March 10, so McLaren and Cooper won the 1963 Faux Tasman Cup. Jack was a DNF with engine failure with Tony Maggs in the other Bowmaker Racing Lola Mk4A Climax 2.7 second and McKay third.
Lex Davison turns into the exit of Long Bridge, closely followed by John Youl, Coopers T53 and T55. Lin Gigney, the snapper of many of these shots, was a flaggie right here… (L Gigney)
Longford…
Down in the South Island Lex Davison was having a whale of a time in the Cooper T53 John Surtees used to win at Longford in 1962! He won both the Saturday 45-mile Formula Libre preliminaries, the first from Bib Stillwell and John Youl after Bruce McLaren retired from the leadership of the race with a broken universal joint.
The second Saturday race also fell to Melbourne’s famous cobbler, from Chris Amon, Cooper T53 Climax 2.5 and John Youl, Cooper T55 Climax 2.5. McLaren didn’t start this race; Brabham did, but then had carburettor problems during lap two that caused his retirement.
Lex Davison, Ford Galaxie – what a massive bit of real estate! – from Ern Abbott Chrysler Valiant on Long Bridge (L Gigney)
On top of that, the staunch traditionalist continued his flirtation with touring cars, finishing second in the 45-mile Touring Cars Championship aboard Len Lukey’s Ford Galaxie behind Bob Jane’s then-dominant Jaguar Mk2 3.9, with Ern Abbott’s Chrysler Valiant 3.9 in third.
The Jag was timed at 142mph on The Flying Mile, the Galaxie did 141mph in an experience Davison told Autosport reporter FGN Ewence as ‘Like Driving a Haystack.’ Ewence wrote that ‘It came out of corners as though they were launching pads, but its braking and handling let it down.’
Frank Matich, Lotus 19 Climax, having just exited Kings Bridge and passed the irrigation water pumphouse (B Wright)
Bigger FPFs were fitted to Australian sports cars as well, notably Bib Stillwell’s Cooper T Monaco and Frank Matich’s Lotus 19, with FM winning the 45-mile Sports and GT Cars Championship from Stillwell and Bob Jane’s Jaguar E-Type.
Matich pushed his own lap record up to 108mph and was chuffed enough about the pace of his Lotus two-seater that he entered it in the Formula Libre feature.
Friday qualifying comprised two sessions, one in the morning and another in the afternoon. The quicks were McLaren on 2:23.3, McKay 2:27.0, Davison on 2:27.3. Of Davo, Ewence recorded that ‘Alan Ashton, got the 2.7 Climax to its bellowing best, and his wider wishbones had improved the car’s stability, and he had the brakes to a pitch which enabled Davison to rush up on his opponents as they approached corners.
Youl did a 2:27.4. Ewence noted that John’s Cooper ‘was handling much better following extensive modifications to the suspension, including widening of the track.’ Geoff Smedley was the engineer/mechanic involved.
Jack Brabham lines up his BT4 for the very strong timber Long Bridge exit clipping point! (L Gigney)
Brabham didn’t arrive from London, then Sydney, and on to Launceston until after 11am on the Friday morning and then spent most of the day chasing engine problems. Refer to the Climax twin-plug note in Etcetera.
The top three grid slots from times recorded in Saturday’s two races noted above were McLaren, Stillwell and Davison. Then came Maggs, McKay and Brabham, then Youl, Chris Amon, Jim Palmer, and the rest. The only starters from this race still alive are, I believe, Bob Holden, who raced his 1.5-litre Lynx Peugeot Formula Junior from grid 15, and Jim Palmer.
The Race…
Raceday at Longford was always on the Monday Labour Day holiday. There was no racing on the Sunday, giving plenty of time for dramas to be sorted: Jack’s engine, McLaren’s uni and driveshaft, Gardner’s clutch, Magg’s engine mount, etc. Bruce McLaren noted in his March 15, 1963 ‘From The Cockpit’ Autosport column how busy Repco Launceston and Merv Gray’s engineering shop were over that weekend.
(HRCCT)
The rear of the grid (above) before the South Pacific Championship, showing #87 Frank Matich Lotus 19 Climax, #13 Bob Holden Lynx Peugeot 1.5, on the next row is Frank Gardner’s Brabham BT2 Ford FJ, which is sandwiched by Tony Shelley’s Lotus 18/21 Climax against the pits and Peter Boyd-Squires Cooper T45 Climax. The white #9 Cooper T51 is Bill Patterson, and alongside him is the #3 Cooper T53 of Jim Palmer. Then Chris Amon in the red Cooper T51 #14 with John Youl alongside, Cooper T55 Climax and an obscured Jack Brabham in his BT4. On the second row is David McKay’s Brabham BT4 Climax and an obscured Tony Maggs’ Lola Mk4 Climax with Davison, Stillwell and obscured McLaren up the front.
(unattributed)
South Pacific Championship 3-2-3 grid, 14 starters, Longford, Monday, March 4, 1963.
Bruce McLaren Cooper T62 2.7, Bib Stillwell, Brabham BT4 2.7 and Lex Davison, Cooper T53 2.5, then on row two, Tony Maggs, Lola Mk4 2.7 and David McKay, Brabham BT4, on the third row, we can get a glimpse of Chris Amon’s Cooper T53 2.5 near the fence, and #5 John Youl’s Cooper T55 2.5 alongside.
All of the engines were Coventry Climax FPF, whether John Youl was using his Geoff Smedley-developed twin-plug, twin-Magneto 2.5, I don’t know.
David McKay, Brabham BT4 from Tony Maggs, Lola Mk4, Long Bridge (L Gigney)
F.G.N Ewence reported that it was a great first lap for the Brabham marque with the three of them leading in line astern across Long Bridge. David McKay’s run was short-lived with leaking cylinder head sealing rings; he only compltetd the first lap.
Brabham sat behind McLaren then he took the lead on lap 10, with Bib Stillwell third, but four laps later Jack’s run came to nought with the BT4 puffing plumes blue smoke of increasing volume on The Flying Mile, then through Mountford and into the pits. The ‘manifold leak’ caused a pit fire which was quickly extinguished with Jack leaving an oily calling card at Mountford that caused others some grief.
Brabham from McLaren on Kings Bridge, circa laps 10-14. The Viaduct is some way behind them, beyond the trees, with Longford village in front (Bob Wright)
Bruce took the lead back, having done the fastest lap of the race at 114mph on lap 13 in pursuit of Jack. He then modulated his pace to keep ahead of Bib Stillwell and John Youl. Bill Patterson was fifth behind Jim Palmer’s Cooper T53, and Tony Maggs demonstrated his professionalism by bringing the Lola home sixth despite being liberally coated with engine oil that escaped from a crack in the chassis tube, which conveyed the slippery stuff to and from engine and radiator.
(P Longley)
This scrap between Kiwi, Jim Palmer, Cooper T53 Climax and local boy, John Youl, Cooper T55 Climax was over third place, an argument resolved in Youl’s favour.
Palmer was a multiple Kiwi Gold Star Champion, a Tasman Cup perennial whose best placings were fourth in 1966, ex-Clark Lotus 32B Climax and equal fourth with Phil Hill in 1965, Brabham BT7A Climax. Youl was ‘one who got away’, the incredibly gifted driver was fourth in that old T55 in the ‘ 64 Tasman before taking up family farming responsibilities at their Symmons Plains property, not too far from Longford.
(R Bell)
Bruce McLaren receives the plaudits of the Longford crowd from atop the Viaduct, he had a good summer in his Cooper T62 Climax, winning the 1963 Faux Tasman Cup, then came back in ‘64 and won the real one!
The views of experienced outsiders is always an interesting perspective. Here is Ewence’s race report Postscript in full.
‘Postscript: Despite the fact that the Longford Motor Association has no paid officials, it is limited by a lack of population. The whole State of Tasmania has only 350,000 inhabitants. To get 30,000 of them to a meeting is equivalent to an attendance of some four million at a British meeting! This makes the £20,000 budget something of a nightmare for the L.M.R.A. The two previous years’ operations had resulted in losses after necessary capital expenditure was met. This year, the hats went in the air when Treasurer Geoff Hudson’s casting of accounts revealed a small profit. Longford will be on again next year, and State Premier Reece seemed so upset about an interruption caused by a passenger train at the level crossing in Longford township that those on the inside believe that the trains will be very strictly controlled in the future.’
Etcetera…
(oldracephotos.com)
The start of one of the 45-lap preliminaries with Lex Davison on this side, then John Youl, and Tony Maggs in the yellow helmet. Davo won them both.
(Andrew Lamont)(W ‘i anson)
Bruce McLaren’s unpainted Cooper T62 Climax at Goodwood for a test session on September 26, 1962 not long before the car was shipped to Fremantle, Western Australia for the 1962 Australian GP at Caversham.
McLaren’s T62 – #CTA/BM/2 – was built on Cooper’s T60 1961-63 jig by Tommy Atkins’ team at his Chessington workshop. Harry Pearce and Wally Willmott were the artisans who built the car. The rear was designed to take a BRM P56 1.5-litre F1 V8; Bruce planned to contest the non-championship F1 races that Coopers chose to ignore. When that engine ran late, Atkins and McLaren decided to convert the car to Climax Tasman spec, gearbox, and a Colotti T32 five-speed.
Tommy Aktins, Harry Pearce, partially beheaded Wally Willmott and completed T62 at Coopers in Hollyfield Rd, Surbiton (W i’ anson))Geoff Smedley’s Coventry Climax 2.5 FPF twin-plug on the Repco Research dyno in November 1963 (G Smedley)
Bruce McLaren (Eoin Young ghosting Bruce) wrote in ‘From The Cockpit’, ‘Brabham’s car was the centre of interest, sporting an 8-plug head. This was a very impressive looking set-up, but it must have been firing the right plug at the wrong time or the wrong plug at the right time, because he had a lot of trouble getting it to run right.’
‘That was Friday. The Saturday morning practice was kind to most of us except poor Jack again. The Brabham was smoking a lot more than a young car should, and he had to rush back to Launceston to take the engine out and fit his spare 2.7 Climax for the races in the afternoon..
Those with a keen memory may recall that Geoff Smedley developed a race-winning 2.5-litre Coventry Climax twin-plug in Tasmania for John Youl. That engine, with the necessary sparks provided by twin-magnetos, was first raced by Youl fitted to his winning Cooper T55 in the October 14 1963, Gold Star round at Mallala. The engine was then used in the ’64 Tasman, in which Youl finished fourth in that ageing Cooper behind Bruce’s new Cooper T70, Brabham’s new BT7A and Hulme’s year old BT4. Youl and Smedley’s was a mighty effort!
In it, Geoff recalled that ‘Frank Hallam at Repco Research had been playing around with a twin-plug head for one of Brabham’s engines, using two distributors driven from the rear of each cam bank and couldn’t make it work through an inaccurate spark which was put down to windup in the camshafts in the high rev range.’
So it seems the Repco FPF twin-plug was tested over the Longford ’63 weekend. I wonder whether Jack tried it elsewhere? Does anybody know what became of that pair of twin-plug heads?
Credits…
Geoff Smedley, Bob Wright via Kay Wright, Andrew ‘Slim’ Lamont Collection, Historic Racing Car Club Tasmania, Ray Bell, Terry Walker, Ken Devine, Repco. The detail in this article is via Paul Cummin’s archive, specifically F.G.N Ewence meeting report and Bruce McLaren’s ‘From The Cockpit’ column published in Autosport, March 15, 1963, Willian i’anson Ltd, Geoff Smedley, Stephen Dalton
Tailpiece…
(E French)
One of the men of the weekend, Lex Davison, had gear-selector problems on his sixth lap with his Cooper T53 and is shown bumming a ride from Bruce McLaren, who is just starting the Newry ascent. Ewence reported that Davo ‘Broke down near the pub, where last year he had so spectacularly lost his first 2.7 Cooper in a 130 m.p.h skid. “Why hello, Mr Davison, back again?’ remarked the landlord’s wife as he entered the portals.’
Davo famously wore his cloth helmet under his real one throughout his career. Lex turned 40 on February 12, 1963, and was still mighty fast indeed!
David Sternberg corrects a delicate slide in his Cooper T51 Climax at the Queens Domain hillclimb, Hobart, Tasmania, early 1960s. Date folks? As the name suggests, the locale contains the Governor’s Tasmanian pad.
Its a magnificent shot, photographer unknown, of a short-lived venue in central Hobart that was used from circa-1955-65. A modern event is held there. The climb was well regarded enough to hold the November 14, 1959, Australian Hillclimb Championship, which was won by the legendary Bruce Walton in his Walton Cooper.
Government House within the Queens Domain. Where are the hillclimb roads? Good question (Australian Gardens)(G Brooks)
David Sternberg lines up the family Cooper at Penguin Hillclimb, on the island’s north coast at about the same time. That’s father Lex hanging onto the right rear.
Allan Moffat’s works GTHO being unloaded off a ship onto the Macau docks in advance of the 1971 Macau GP carnival held on the weekend of November 20.
‘Be careful, blokes, if we drop it, they’ll shove us on the other side of the border! I couldn’t give a toss about Mao or his Little Red Book’. There is something rather surreal about the whole scene.
Ford entered this car, while the Holden Dealer Team – the works team – took an LC Torana GTR XU-1 up for Peter Brock. Both were Group E Series Production machines, whereas that Guia 200/ACP Cup was a Group 2 event, run to more liberal modification rules.
Brock’s LC XU-1, local signage probably the car’s entrant, Far East Motors. Wheels Globe Rallymasters or Sprintmasters (unattributed)Glemser and RS2600 are on the way to a record breaking pole of 2 min 56 sec (unattributed)
The star car/driver combo was recently minted European Touring Car Champion, Dieter Glemser aboard a 2.9-litre Ford Cologne entered ETCC Ford Capri RS2600 V6; 265-286bhp/ZF 5-speed/940kg/disc-disc/10×13 and 11.5×13 wheels. A weapon.
Brock’s XU-1 was ‘lightly modified’ from Series Production specifications, the only obvious external mod being fitment of a set of Globe Rallymaster aluminium wheels.
Moffat’s HO, upon closer inspection than most shots of this race in circulation allow – generally screen grabs of a video – is the more interesting as the machine is an XW HO gussied up to look a bit like an XY with its bonnet and shaker-air scoop. Is that attached to a 351 Windsor or Clevo?
Given the proximity of the late-season Australian enduros: Sandown, Bathurst, Surfers and Phillip Island, Howard Marsden shipped up an XW XY-HO Development Mule rather than the Real McCoy, it seems. Moffat won the last Manchamp round at Surfers on November 7. His and John French’s XY HOs finished in one piece, but maybe there wasn’t the time to prep and ship one of these cars to Macau. More likely, it just didn’t matter. Did FoMoCo Oz export any Falcons?
What are the VINs/names of the HO and XU-1 folks??
Moffat’s XW-XY HO Bitza. Team Harper, aka Wallace Harper & Co, the Hong Kong Ford distributorsBrock and Moffat on the first lap with Moffat about to exit stage right into the run-off area having messed up his Lisboa corner braking point in the bulky HO . Poon’s Alfa behind Brock with a BMW 2002 Tii looming as well (P Bennett)
The touring car events that weekend comprised two heats and a final. Brock qualified third in his Far East Motors-entered car behind Glemser and Albert Poon, who raced an Alfa Romeo 2000 GTAm lookalike; Autodelta engine and ‘Poon suspension. Neither Moffat nor Jim Smith – he of Cooper S and Camel Rover Repco-Holden fame – who raced a Teddy Yip-owned BMW 2002, cop a qualifying mention in my reference material, but the video indicates a row three start or thereabouts for Moff.
Poon ? Glemser and Brock before the off (P Bennett)Stature and stance of Glemser’s Group 2 Capris contrasts with Brock’s Series Torana (P Bennett)
The final comprised two events run concurrently: the Guia 200 was 20 laps of the demanding, unforgiving 6.115-mile track, and the ACP Cup 15 laps.
The perils of Macau were demonstrated all too sadly during practice when David Ma lost control of his Lotus 47 Ford FVA under braking for Statue Corner, while trying in the final session to qualify for the Grand Prix, and crashed fatally into a lamp post .
Glemser was an easy winner of the Guia from Poon and Brock, who diced throughout. Note that some references – all of the Australian ones – have Brock in second place having finished ahead of Poon who ran low on fuel in his last lap. Moffat went up the escape road on the first lap in the Big Henry and recovered to finish fifth.
The ACP Cup was taken by Ted Morrat’s BMW 2002 Tii from P Ramirez Toyota Corolla and Xie Dewen’s Cooper S. I don’t have a full list of competitors, but the videos show far more starters than my list of finishers, meaning my finishers list is incomplete.
Ted Morrat, BMW 2002 Tii, 1971 ACP Cup winner (J Santos)Moffat enroute to winning the Guia in 1973 aboard a works- Team Harper Ford Capri RS2600 (Getty)
Etcetera…
Allan Moffat was very impressed by Dieter Glemser and his Capri. Allan shared his Falcon XB GT Hardtop with the German in Moff’s unsuccessful 1974 Bathurst 1000 challenge.
Moffat returned to Macau. In 1973, he won the Guia in a 3-litre Ford RS2600. He was impressed enough to get FoMoCo Oz to buy him one of the Ducks Guts ultimate spec Capri’s in late 1974. Moff’s ex-works 3.4-litre Ford Cosworth GAA-powered RS3100 first raced in Australia in the Sandown Tasman meeting in February 1975, and at Macau that November, DNF.
Moffat’s FoMoCo Oz Capril RS3100 at Macau in 1975 (unattributed)
In the 1981 Guia, he was 11th in an RX-7. His final visit – his final ever race – was in 1989, when he finished third in the ‘Teddy Yip Mazda (MX5) Race of Champions’ on November 26 (below).
(Official Allan Moffat)
Harry Firth felt that Brock’s performance that ’71 Macau weekend, when he was very quick, changed him. Frankly, other than Glemser, who would hardly have extended his car more than he needed, it was not a field of great depth.
‘Peter came back from that a totally different person. He realised what international racing was all about. Totally different world. And he realised he was as good as any of them.’ Less than twelve months later, he bagged his first Bathurst crown.
Credits…
touringcarracing.net, Harry Firth quote from V8Sleuth, Getty Images, Official Allan Moffat FB page, Jose Santos, Paul Bennett Video
Bill Pitt, Jaguar D-Type, leads Doug Whiteford, Maserati 300S and race winner David McKay heading up Mountain Straight during the early stages of the 31-lap, 100-mile Australian Tourist Trophy at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, on October 6, 1958.
That weekend was an incredible double-header combining the Australian Grand Prix won by Lex Davison’s Ferrari 500/625, and the Australian Tourist Trophy.
It was the second running of an event first won by Stirling Moss in a Maserati 300S during the 1956 AGP carnival at Albert Park.
McKay, Whiteford, Phillips and Kiwi, Frank Cantwell’s Tojeiro Jaguar (unattributed)
By then, we had a good grid of outright current sports cars, including: Aston Martin DB3S – ex-works car for David McKay, and Warren Blomfeld’s Tom Sulman-owned customer machine, Maserati 300S – Doug Whiteford’s ex-works car, Derek Jolly’s ex-works Lotus 15 Climax FPF 1.5, Ron Phillips’ ex-Peter Whitehead Cooper T38 Jaguar, customer Jaguar D-Types for Bill Pitt and Jack Murray, plus a C-Type for young thruster Frank Matich. The quickest of the local cars was Gavan Sandford Morgan in Derek Jolly’s Decca Mk 2 Climax FWA.
Pitt and McKay head up Mountain Straight, while Whiteford, Phillips and Jolly negotiate Hell Corner (P Longley)
McKay won with Jolly’s 1.5-litre Lotus second – first in class – then Ron Phillips’ Cooper T38, Frank Matich in the Leaton Motors C-Type, Gavan Sandford Morgan, Decca MK2 Climax then Warren Blomfield’s Aston Martin DB3S in sixth.
(Edgerton Family Arc)
Etcetera…
(R Reid)
Early laps I suspect with Bill Pitt in the Geordie Anderson D-Type from the obscured Jolly Lotus 15 and distinctive blue flash of Ron Phillip’s Cooper Jag.
(K Devine Arc)Cooper T38 Jag, Bathurst paddock (P Kelly)
Not to forget Derek Jolly of course. He took ATT honours in the second of his Lotus 15s at Longford in March 1960, on that occasion Doug Whiteford’s Maserati 300S was second and Frank Matich third in a D-Type.
McKay in DB3S/9 and Warren Blomfeld in DB3S/103 below.
The Leaton C-Type was Frank Matich’s first Big Car and he handled it rather well in a career that stretched all the way to the end of the 1974 Tasman Cup.
He won the Australian Tourist Trophy four times: 1964, Lotus 19B Climax, 1966, Elfin 400 Oldsmobile, and 1967-68 in his Matich SR3: Oldsmobile powered in ’67, Repco-Brabham 4.4 powered in 1968. Not to forget the Australian Sports Car Championship aboard the 4.8-litre Matich SR4 Repco in 1969.
(K Devine Arc)
Educated guess territory…Jim Wright’s Buchanan TR2 from Harry Capes’ Jaguar XK120. 14th and 19th respectively. And below, Phillip’s Cooper Jag again, in front of I’m not sure who.
(K Devine Arc)
Credits…
Des Lawrence, Peter Longley, Edgerton Family Archive, Bob Ross Collection, Ron Reid, David Medley, Paul Kelly Collection, Ken Devine Archive
Alan Jones was a formidable weapon in anything; it took him four or so years to clear F3, but it was whammo after that as he stepped into more powerful cars: Formula Atlantic, F5000 and F1.
He raced F5000 on most continents, here in an F5000 in drag, a 5-litre central-seat Can-Am car, Carl Haas Lola T333CS Chev, at Riverside on October 15, 1978, where he won from fellow Aussie, Warwick Brown’s similar VDS Racing machine.
(R Deming)
Jones won five of the 1978 championships’ ten rounds, gathering 2712 points and the title from Brown, on 2548 then Al Holbert in another T333 on 1674 points.
Watkins Glen 1978 (P Goesina)
Jones is swapping notes in the Watkins Glen pits above with Jean-Pierre Jarier who raced a works Shadow DN10 Dodge, Q6/DNF gearbox. Brown won that round from Al Holbert and Rocky Moran, all three raced Lola T333CS, with Jones a DNF.
Jones at Watkins Glen (P Goesina)(P Goesina)
The rear of Jones’ T333CS Chev in the Watkins Glen paddock, essential elements at this end of the car are a 5-litre 525bhp or so Chev V8 and Hewland DG300 five-speed transaxle.
In the US, many Lola T332 Chev F5000 cars became Lola T332CS Chev Can-Am cars by buying the requisite body kit from Lola. You could buy a T332CS from the factory as well. The mildly updated Lola T333CS could be converted back the other way. The VDS Racing Lolas that Warwick Brown raced in the 1978-79 Rothmans F5000 internationals were T333 HU1 and HU2 fitted with good ‘ole T332C bodywork.
Despite missing half the season, Jones was equal seventh in the 1975 Shellsport British F5000 Championship 1975, together with Bob Evans. He won two rounds in RAM Racing cars, here at Brands Hatch on August 25, aboard a March 75A powered by the Ford Cosworth GAA 3.4-litre twin-cam, four-valve V6 fitted to Ford’s Cologne Capri RS3100 touring cars. Tony Brise and Guy Edwards were second and third aboard T332 Chevs.
Redman, Lola T332C Chev, Jones, Lola T332 Chev, Ongais, Lola T332 Chev, Oliver, Shadow DN6B Dodge and the rest #4 Pilette, Lola T430 Chev and #7 Sam Posey Talon MR-1A Chev (Getty)
Brian Redman and Alan Jones on the front row of the rolling start Mosport Park round of the 1976 US F5000 Championship on June 20, 1976.
Jones won here and at Watkins Glen later in a season where Jones mixed his Surtees F1 and F5000 programs, finding the latter much more satisfying!
Allan Brown wrote, ‘With two rounds to go, Jones (2 round wins) and Oliver (1 win Shadow DN6B Dodge) 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 GP, Redman (3 wins) won and leapt into a significant points lead. Third place in the last round secured the Lancastrian his third successive title, while Al Unser’s win (1 win Lola T332) propelled him into second place in the final points table.’
Grids of great depth that year, in addition to the above, competitors included Warwick Brown, Vern Schuppan, Teddy Pillette, Peter Gethin, Graham McRae, John Cannon, Brett Lunger, Danny Ongais, and occasionals/one-offs David Purley, Bruce Allison, Derek Bell, Maurizio Flammini and Patrick Tambay.
Jones, Sid Taylor/Teddy Yip Lola T332 Chev leads Peter Gethin, VDS Racing Chevron B37 Chev early in the 1977 Sandown International won by Max Stewart, his final race win (B Forsyth)
Jones was far and away the quickest bloke on the grid in Australia’s four-round Rothmans F5000 Championship in 1977. Still, he jumped the start in the Oran Park AGP, boofed a car in Surfers Paradise, then had overheating at Sandown and DNFd. Still, he won in Adelaide and made it awfully clear to his countrymen – having not raced in Australia since finishing second in the September 1968 Sandown 3-Hour touring car race in a Holden Monaro GTS327 shared with Clive Millis – just how blindingly quick he was!
Sandown pits (R Steffanoni)
The Jones/Millis second place Holden HK Monaro GTS327 at Shell Corner, Sandown during the September 3-Hour ‘Bathurst warm up’.
While entered by Jones, the car has Lloyd Holyoak Holden signage on it. Holyoak – still with us – was one of Stan Jones’ oldest friends/employees/confidants/supporters, so for sure Lloyd will have pulled the car off his Warrandyte dealership forecourt. One little old lady owner etc…
(M Bisset)
Melbourne enthusiast/historian David Zeunert (second from right) organised a small gathering of Stan Jones Nutters to pay our respects on the centenary of Stans birthday, March 16, 2023, at Springvale Cemetery, a stone’s throw from Sandown.
That’s Lloyd Holyoak sharing his recollections of all things Stan. Some Melburnian Aussie Rules fans may recall Holyoak, a very handy cricketer and football player in his youth, as the North Melbourne Football Club President when North won the VFL ’77 Flag.
(M Bisset)
Credits…
Kurt Oblinger, Richard Deming, Peter Goesina, Lola Heritage, Rod Steffanoni, autopics.com.au
primotipo... 