Posts Tagged ‘Longford 1968’

Don’t damage the trees 2…

Posted: April 10, 2024 in Sports Racers
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
2
Osborne/oldracephotos.com)

Peter Macrow gives a row of poplars a fright as he runs wide at Newry corner during the March 1968 Longford Tasman Cup weekend, Argo Chev V8.

The Argo is a special built from the bones of an uncompetitive Cooper T53 by Ray Gibbs, a Melbourne racer/mechanic who had a stint at Cooper in his CV, for grazier/racer/car owner Tony Osborne.

With a too-long-to-be-competitive gestation period, it was first raced by Ian Cook in 1967. When Ian bagged a drive with Bob Jane Racing, another Melbourne up and coming single seater pilot, Peter Macrow got the ride. See here: https://primotipo.com/2023/05/01/cheetahs-riverina-gold-cups/

(unattributed)

Look how those trees have grown! They were saplings when Jack Brabham and Bib Stillwell raced each other on the same stretch of road out of Newry, in the Longford Trophy eight years before.

The freshly minted World Champion won there in 1960 aboard a Cooper T51 Climax 2.5 FPF, from the similar chassis of Alec Milden and Stillwell. Alec’s car was powered by a Maserati 250S four, Bib’s by a 2.2-litre Climax FPF.

Click here for a feature on this meeting: https://primotipo.com/2015/01/20/jack-brabham-cooper-t51-climax-pub-corner-longford-tasmania-australia-1960/

(Osborne/oldracephotos.com)

Macrow eases Argo into the viaduct at Longford, not sure what day the wet race was. The aluminium body was built, very slowly, by Murray Carter in Moorabbin, a legendary racer of all manner of things, mostly touring cars.

I wrote a feature on the Argo Chev, now owned by my good friend, Pater Brennan, not so long ago. Have a read of it, its an intriguing tale of twists and turns: https://autoaction.com.au/2023/11/05/argo-chev-v8

Etcetera…

(G Fluke)

Chris Amon tips his ex-works/Scuderia Veloce Ferrari P4/350 Can Am towards the uphill apex of Newry during the 1968 weekend, Chris was the class of the sportscar events. He is about 50-75 metres behind the spot where Argo is in the first shot. Click here for an epic on this car: https://primotipo.com/2015/04/02/ferrari-p4canam-350-0858/

(G Fluke)

Pedro gives us another look at the Newry poplars and his 2.5-litre BRM P126 V12 during the very soggy South Pacific Trophy race. He nicked second from Frank Gardner’s Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo in the event’s final stages. The race was won in ballsy fashion by Piers Courage’s McLaren M4A Ford FVA F2 car. See here for the BRM P126: https://primotipo.com/2018/01/25/richard-attwood-brm-p126-longford-1968/ and the 1968 Longford meeting here: https://primotipo.com/2015/10/20/longford-tasman-south-pacific-trophy-4-march-1968-and-piers-courage/

Credits…

Osborne Family Collection via oldracephotos.com, Lin Gigney, Guy Fluke

Tailpiece…

(L Gigney)

Tony Osborne, Cooper T53 Climax leads Graham Hill’s Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT4 Climax – the race winner – off Long Bridge during the March 2, 1964 South Pacific Trophy weekend. The car following Hill is the ill-fated Tim Mayer in ‘the other’ Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Cooper T70 Climax.

This car, T53 #F2-17-60, the ex-Brabham/Lex Davison provided parts to build Argo. Both Argo and the Cooper exist and are occasionally raced in historic events. Scroll down to chassis F2-17-60 for oldracingcars.com Allen Brown’s summary: https://www.oldracingcars.com/cooper/t53/

The Tim Mayer story is here: https://primotipo.com/2016/11/18/tim-mayer-what-might-have-been/

Finito…

Clark, Hill, Amon- Longford 1968…

Posted: November 5, 2019 in F1, Sports Racers
Tags: , , , , , , ,
12

(D Cooper)

Antipodian enthusiasts can argue the toss but I think the 1968 Tasman was about as good as it ever got…

Here Clark, Amon and Hill- Lotus 49 Ford DFW, Ferrari Dino 246T and 49. Two Cosworth V8’s and a Maranello V6. There were a swag of Repco V8’s of different configurations, BRM V8’s and V12’s- Len Terry’s new P126 was blooded in the Tasman in advance of the F1 season, Alec Mildren’s Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo using a 2.5 litre variant of the Tipo 33 sports prototype V8, plus cars using the good ole Coventry Climax four cylinder FPF.

As good as it gets in terms of variety of cars and drivers- in addition to the fellas on the front row of the dry, preliminary, Saturday race we had Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren (in NZ), Frank Gardner, Pedro Rodriguez, Piers Courage, Richard Attwood…apart from the local hotshots.

Clark and Hill raced 49’s ‘R2’ and ‘R1’ during their 1968 tour down south.

Hill had mainly raced ‘R1’ since the 49’s race debut at Zandvoort on 4 June 1967. He joined Team Lotus in Australia whereas Jim did the full eight weeks and had almost exclusively raced ‘R2’ from his first up win in the chassis amongst the Dutch dunes. Motors fitted for the Tasman were Cosworth’s 2.5 litre variant of the 3 litre Ford DFV dubbed ‘DFW’.

(D Cooper)

Jimmy has a tyre issue he is sorting with the Firestone man.

The fag packet Gold Leaf Players livery is new- the cars were green and gold at Pukekohe and Levin and red, white and gold at Wigram only a month or so before Longford, as shown in the Wigram front row photograph below. That’s Denny’s F2 Brabham BT23 Ford FVA behind Jim in the Longford pitlane.

(B Wilson)

Clark has won his last championship GP by this stage, the South African at Kyalami on New Years Day, 1 January 1968, he won at Sandown the week before Longford on 25 February taking the Australian Grand Prix, his last, from Chris in a ‘thriller-driller’ of a race which could have gone either way right to the finish line.

Racing’s tectonic plates shifted with his Lotus 48 Ford FVA F2 death in Hockenheim only months hence.

(D Cooper)

In a tour de force of leadership Graham Hill picked up Team Lotus lock, stock and barrel and drove the team forward as Colin Chapman regained his composure and focus after the death of his great colleague and friend.

No seatbelt in Graham’s car above, there would be by seasons end.

No wings either, there would be by mid-season, 1968 was a year of change in so many ways.

Wings here; https://primotipo.com/2015/07/12/wings-clipped-lotus-49-monaco-grand-prix-1969/, and in more detail, here; https://primotipo.com/2016/08/19/angle-on-the-dangle/

Chris loads up in the Longford paddock. That’s Denny’s Brabham BT23 Ford FVA F2 atop the Alec Mildren Racing transporter behind (D Cooper)

The Scuderia Ferrari presence, or more precisely Chris Amon’s single Ferrari 246T raced under his own banner raised enormous interest, the great Kiwi did not disappoint either- and of course came back the following year with a two car squad and won.

In Australia we got a double 1968 whammy in that David McKay acquired one of the P4/Can-Am 350 Group 7 cars for Chris to drive in the sports car support races.

Frank Matich served it up to him big-time in one of his Matich SR3 Repco 4.4 litre V8’s, disappointingly Matich did not cross Bass Straight for this meeting so Chris set the fastest ever lap of Longford despite not being pushed by the oh-so-fast Sydneysider.

(D Cooper)

The gleaming Ferrari Can-Am 350 Scuderia Veloce raced all too briefly throughout Australia in 1968 by Chris Amon, and Bill Brown upon the Kiwis departure back to Italy and all points beyond.

(D Cooper)

Auto-erotica.

With the 1967 Manufacturers Championship over Ferrari modified two of the P4’s, this car, chassis ‘0858’ and ‘0860’ to better compete in the Can-Am Championship and naming them ‘350 Can-Am’ to contest the prestigious series in their most important market.

The cars were lightened considerably becoming curvaceous Spiders instead of even more curvaceous Coupes! Weight was reduced from 792Kg wet to 700Kg wet, engine capacity was increased to 4176cc raising the engines power to 480bhp @ 8500rpm.

It wasn’t enough to compete with the McLaren M6A Chevs of Bruce and Denny, that story is told in this article about the Ferrari P4/Can-Am 350 and ‘0858’ specifically; https://primotipo.com/2015/04/02/ferrari-p4canam-350-0858/

Credits…

Dennis Cooper, Historic Racing Car Club of Tasmania, Bruce Wilson

Tailpiece: Look at the crowd…

(D Cooper)

Talk about missing out…

Finito…