Looks like a typical Australian country homestead, it’s even got a tow truck ready to do some heavy lifting if the local boyos come to grief after a heavy Saturday night on the turps.
Graham Hill exits Homestead at Warwick Farm during the February 1963 100 in the unique 4WD Ferguson P99 Coventry Climax FPF 2.5.
He was sixth in the race won by Jack Brabham, Brabham BT4, from John Surtees, Lola Mk4A and Bruce McLaren, Cooper T62. The first six home were all powered by Coventry Climax ‘Indy’ 2.7 litre engines, while poor Graham coped with 2.5-litre units for the duration of his Australasian Tour. It’s such a shame we didn’t see an apples-with-apples comparison. See here:https://primotipo.com/2015/01/30/ferguson-p99-climax-graham-hill-australian-grand-prix-1963/
Who said the HDT started in 1969!?
The Holden Distributors Team Holden FJ crewed by Stan Jones, DK Thomson – yes, he of CAMS fame – and Ern Seeliger, placed sixth in the 1954 Round Australia Trial, aka the RedeX Trial, won by the Gelignite Jack Murray/Bill Murray 1948 Ford V8 from the Bill Patterson/Harry Russell Peugeot 203.
‘Stans car’ was entered, notwithstanding the HDT bonnet signage, by Melbourne Holden dealer, Preston Motors, and was the second Holden home, the ‘Duck’ Anderson/Tony Anthony/Vergel Zaccour FJ was third and first Holden home.
The other ‘works-HDT-Preston Motors entries’ were 30th – Reg Nutt/John Joyce/Lou Molina – and 56th – Lex Davison/Peter Ward/Otto Stone. Given the array of driving and mechanical talent deployed by the HDT this big-buck effort rather under-achieved.
John Partridge, Lotus 11, leads Doug Hicks’ Mini Moke and a Lotus 23, Peter Larner perhaps, at Hume Weir in 1969.
Yes folks, the Mighty Moke was a sports car according to CAMS if certain modifications were made. What mods I wonder?!
Ad-man Doug Hicks ended up being pretty handy in a Brabham BT2 Toyota F3 car in the dawn of the 1970s and a major cog in the Bob Jane Organisation. What became of him?
Andrew Miedecke eases his Ralt RT4 Ford BDA into Torana/Holden/Whatever Corner on a frigid, wet Sandown day during the September 12, Gold Star meeting in 1982. He was second behind John Bowe’s similar RT4/81.
The fabulous thing about the first few years of Formula Atlantic/Pacific in Australia is that the front-running group all were reasonably to well funded: Alf Costanzo, John Bowe, John Smith, Andrew Miedecke, Bruce Allison and Charlie O’Brien. So we saw some fantastic battles.
The early to mid-life Formula Atlantic years were ones of great technical interest around the Ford BDA/Hewland FT200 package, with March, Lola, Chevron, Modus, Ralt and others winning races. Sadly, by the time Australia got our F5000/FPacific shit together, the class was Formula Ralt in much the same way that F5000 became Formula Lola…
Never mind, it was great for the first few years with Costanzo winning the Gold Star aboard Alan Hamilton’s Tigas in 1982-83, John Bowe in Ralt RT4s in 1984-85 and Graham Watson – the Oz Ralt importer – in another RT4 as the class waned in 1986.
Jack Brabham, Cooper T53 Climax on the rise out of Newry during the March 1961 Longford Trophy. The victorious Roy Salvadori follows in one of Jack’s Cooper T51s.
Jack was out after 16 of the 24 laps with a broken driveshaft. Bill Patterson and John Youl were second and third in T51s. I did a feature on this meeting and Roy a while back:https://primotipo.com/2018/02/22/roy-salvadori/
Tim Joshua in his new Frazer Nash Gough 1.5 Monoposto, during the 1938 Australian Grand Prix weekend on the similarly new racetrack at Bathurst, on the local council’s new tourist road.
Another pommie car won that weekend, ERA R10B was steered by its owner, Peter Whitehead, to victory over 40 laps, 154 miles of the gravel track. Joshua was out with undisclosed problems.
Joshua raced it in the 1939 AGP at Lobethal (below), DNF and other major races at that time without great success. Post-war, the car was sold to ‘Racing Ron’ Edgerton, by then fitted with a Ford V8. In more recent times, the car is being restored by a fella up on the Murray. Who is it, and how is he going?
Rennmax Repco V8s at rest during the October 28, 1979, Australian Tourist Trophy meeting at Winton, Benalla.
Paul Gibson won the 40 lap 58 mile race (start below) in car #3, the ex-Lionel Ayers 5-litre 740 Series powered car, then owned by Jim Phillips, with younger brother Grant third in the #11 2.5-litre and a bit 740 powered machine in third place. The interloper was Stuart Kostera, who slipped over from the west and finished second in the 5-litre Elfin MS7 Repco-Holden.
I was at this meeting either racing my Vee or going up for a look. It was a very happy, tear-jerking occasion as the Gibsons are local boys, an Oz racing multi-generation family with some tragedy thrown into the mix, so it was a wonderful result, the significance of which wasn’t lost on anyone present!
Don Collier in his Chrysler Special ‘Silverwings’, ahead of Allan Tomlinson MG TA Spl s/c – the victorious 1939 Australian GP combination – during what is said to be during the 1937 Albany Grand Prix.
I can’t make the car numbers work at that meeting. Thoughts folks? See here for more on Tomlinson and that ‘39 AGP victory:https://primotipo.com/2020/12/04/tomlinsons-1939-lobethal-australian-grand-prix/
The Bob Jane Racing Holden Torana SLR5000 L34 rounds Tin Shed at Calder in late 1974, I guess with Bob at the wheel. It was Frank’s first full year back at home, wasn’t it? So it could be he.
I loved Chequered Flag during the brief period that Barry Lake was involved, it was pretty much dunny-roll after that.
Scuderia Stillwell at Mallala during the Advertiser Trophy weekend on October 8, 1962.
Chief Mechanic, Jerry Brown, looking pretty chilled, Cooper T53 and Cooper Monaco. Bib won the Trophy from John Youl, Cooper T55 Climax, and David McKay, Cooper T51 Climax. I’m not sure how he went in the sports car. More here:https://primotipo.com/2015/03/10/bib-stillwell-cooper-t49-monaco-warwick-farm-sydney-december-1961/
Rub-a-dub-dub, a bloke in a tub. Always loved Stonie’s – John Stoneham’s – work. Is he still with us?
I wonder if Jim Richards inspired the mechanic behind, not that Richo smoked…There he is below with his slightly second hand Murray Bunn built Ford Mustang 351 at Hume Weir circa-1976.
Leo Geoghegan aboard the works Valiant Charger R/T E49, he shared with Peter Brown in the October 1, 1972 Bathurst 500. Q6 and fourth. Peter Brock won in a Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1. See my Valiant Charger feature here:https://primotipo.com/2023/12/18/valiant-charger-r-t-1971-73/
The late, great, racer/restorer/historian/author Graham Howard asks KB what it was like out there on what appears to have been a happy occasion for the Curl Curl Kid, as Bill Tuckey anointed him.
Where and when, folks, it feels like 1971 or 1972 to me!?
Bartlett did look the goods for his third Gold Star, he was certainly the quickest of the F5000s but Max Stewart’s 2-litre Mildren Waggott TC-4V had the mix of reliability and speed the McLaren M10Bs of Bartlett, Matich and Hamilton lacked. See here:https://primotipo.com/2018/02/08/its-all-happening/
Bob Ilich in his Brabham BT21B Cosworth SCB, no doubt on the way to another win at Wanneroo Park, Western Australia in 1971.
Ilich was one of the Brabham Racing Organisation’s very small team that won F1 World Championships for Jack, Denny, Motor Racing Developments and Repco Brabham Engines in 1966-67.
He bought the car, #AM283, at mates’ rates from MRD, when he left to come home, and Jack gave him/or negotiated the gift of a rare 1.5-litre Cosworth SCB SOHC engine; a variant of Cosworth’s 1-litre SCA F2 engine.
Bob put the combo to very good use, winning a Western Australian Road Racing title or two, ultimately selling it. In recent times, he’s acquired and built up another BT21B to similar specs, I’m not sure if it’s run yet?
Look at the tyre distortion Ian Smith’s magic shot of the John Goss/Kevin Bartlett Ford Falcon GT Hardtop coming down the Dipper at Mount Panorama during their victorious Bathurst 1000 run in 1975.
A real tear-jerker it was too, with my favourite KB doing the final stint still recovering from his nasty, leg-breaking Lola T330 Chev shunt at Pukekohe that summer. See here:https://primotipo.com/2015/07/03/john-goss-bathurst-1000-and-australian-grand-prix-winner/
Larry Perkins and Garrie Cooper smile for the dickie-bird with a brand spankers Elfin 620 Formula Ford, out front of Elfin Sports Cars, Conmurra Road, Edwardstown, circa-July 1972.
Chassis #72418 was the first of the 620 series of cars built – 620 FF, 623 F3 and 622 F2 – and was Larry’s mount in the 1972 Formula Ford Festival at Snetterton that launched his international career. See here for the FF Festival and related:https://primotipo.com/2014/07/08/buzz-buzaglo-australian-international-racing-driver-and-the-eternal-racing-story-of-talent-luck/
Elfins were kind to Larry – and Larry to Elfin – he won the 1971 TAA Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series (DTE) in one of Bib Stillwell’s Elfin 600s, then raced Garry Campbell’s Elfin 600B/E Lotus-Ford to victory in the 1972 Australian F2 Championship in between Holden Dealer Team commitments.
At the end of 1972, having gathered another season of experience, Larry took his DTE prize and did rather well in the Formula Ford Festival as the article above relates.
Perkins’s final ‘Elfin Championship’ was the four-round 1979 Rothmans International F5000 Series. He’s shown above at Oran Park in a works Ansett Team Elfin Elfin MR8C Chev in front of Warwick Brown’s VDS Racing, Lola T333/T332C Chev. Larry won the title, but not a round, from Alf Costanzo’s Lola T430 Chev (two wins) and Brown (one win).
More about Larry, and Terry Perkins’ formative years here: https://primotipo.com/2023/01/28/terry-and-larry-perkins/
John Surtees in the Sandown paddock during the February 1982 Australian Touring Car Championship meeting that had a fantastic ‘Tribute to The Champions’ that included Denny Hulme, Curly Brydon, Larry Perkins, Alan Hamilton and others.
Big John is aboard Brabham BT19 Repco 620 V8, Jack Brabham’s primary weapon of war in his successful quest for World Championship honours in 1966, 60 years ago. See here:https://primotipo.com/2014/11/13/winning-the-1966-world-f1-championships-rodways-repco-recollections-episode-3/
BT19 was the Belle of the Ball during the 2026 AGP carnival; indeed, Brabham was the featured marque in the historic demonstrations this year.
In period – 1966-67 – chassis F1-1-65 was raced by Brabham, Denny Hulme and Frank Gardner. In those years Surtees raced for Ferrari, Cooper and Honda. The reason Surtees ran the Brabham is that the Honda he brought to Australia to demo, didn’t play ball!
Tom Sulman, Aston Martin DB3S, Doug Whiteford, Maserati 300S, Alan Jack, Cooper T39 Climax exiting Long Bridge at Longford during the 1960 Australian Tourist Trophy won by Derek Jolly’s Lotus 15 Climax.
Feature on the 1960 Australian Tourist Trophy here:https://primotipo.com/2018/05/17/1960-australian-tourist-trophy/
This Elfin MS8 Clubman isn’t a racing car but I figured it may be of interest to some of you.
The shy retiring little minx weighs 875kg, even the poverty-level Sportster variant totes a 330bhp Chev Gen 3 5.7-litre V8.
I spotted this one – the only other MS8 I’ve seen on the road was Bryan Thompson’s Streamliner at a function at Alan Hamilton’s home not far away in Dromana – outside DOC, a popular restaurant in Main Street, Mornington between Christmas and the New Year.
Bruce Newton wrote this fantastic article about the cars just after they broke cover in 2004: https://autotrader.co.nz/news/2005-elfin-ms8-clubman
Most Aussie enthusiasts will remember that Melbourne-born and educated Designer Mike Simcoe styled the car during his long ascent at General Motors, all the way from a graduate at GM Holden, Port Melbourne, to GM’s Vice President of Global Design at Detroit, Michigan.
I’m a fan of the genre, having owned an ASP Toyota 340 30 years ago, and a month or so ago, I took delivery of a 1999 3800-mile-old Caterham Super 7 Lightweight 1.6. That’s lively with 135bhp and 470kg, 330bhp plus and 875kg would certainly focus yer attention on a wet strop along the Great Ocean Road!
Credits…
Bob Williamson Archive, Ross Cammick, Kay Wright, John Partridge/Ed Holly Collection, Chequered Flag, Australian Motor Racing, Ian Smith, Ken Devine, Lynton Hemer, Jim Stratmann, Women’s Weekly, Ian Smith, Pitt Family Archive via Lawrie Pitt, Mark Bishop, Chris Munday
Tailpiece…
The Australian Women’s Weekly lead-up article to the 1948 Australian Grand Prix held at Point Cook in Melbourne’s west.
Not noted members of the Horsepower Press I’ll grant you, the cars shown are Tony Gaze’s Alta and Hope Bartlett’s MG , not to forget Mr and Mrs Davidson and their MG Ford V8
Finito…
primotipo... 