Posts Tagged ‘Lotus 72D Ford’

Dave Walker Obituary…

Posted: June 1, 2024 in F1
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Lotus 72D 1972 (MotorSport)

Sydney born, ‘Dave’ Walker died aged 82 last week in Queensland (June 10, 1941-May 24, 2024).

The very gifted Walker raced two revolutionary Grand Prix Lotuses in 1971-72: the four-wheel-drive, gas-turbine powered Lotus 56B Pratt & Whitney and epochal, edgy-wedge, side radiator, torsion-bar sprung Lotus 72 Ford.

He cut his competition teeth in club competition aboard an MGA Twin-cam, soon progressing to a Brabham BT2 Ford with support from David McKay’s Scuderia Veloce. Walker had an Australian Grand Prix (Sandown 1964) and Bathurst 500s (1963-65) under his belt before jumping on a ship at Circular Quay to take on the world’s best in Europe.

Armed with a Merlyn Mk10 Ford he became a Formula 3 Gypsy, racing across Europe for start and prizemoney throughout 1967, winning the Adriatic GP at Opatija, Yugoslavia in June.

He then figured he needed to go backwards to go forwards so did a deal to race a Russell-Alexis Formula Ford in 1968, doing well enough to bag a quasi-works Jim Russell Race Drivers School Lotus 61 FF ride in 1969. 

Heathrow, February 27, 1971 with his trophy for winning one of the four F3 Torneio Brasiliero rounds aboard his works Lotus 59A Ford-Holbay
Walker awaits the start of the Monaco F3 GP from pole in 1971, he won. Lotus 69 Ford-Novamotor (R Schlegelmilch)

He won the Les Leston Championship with it and was then picked up by Gold Leaf Team Lotus to race their F3 Lotus 59 and Lotus 69 Fords throughout 1970-71. In 1971, a year of unparalleled dominance, Walker won 25 of 32 F3 race starts including the prestigious Monaco and British GP rounds and two of the three British titles.

Lotus boss, Colin Chapman rewarded him with his first F1 drives that year, Walker having had his first big-car experience in some F5000 races in the UK and a quick trip home to Sydney in November 1970 to contest the AGP at Warwick Farm in an uncompetitive F5000 Lotus 70 Ford.

Walker during dry practice, 1971 Dutch GP, Zandvoort. Q22, he was looking good for a points finish early in the wet race, but with limited experience of the unusual car Dave ran off into the dunes on lap six, as did many others. Lotus 56B Pratt & Whitney (MotorSport)
Walker, Lotus 72D Ford at Brands during the 1972 British GP weekend. Q15 and DNF suspension (MotorSport)

In 1972 Dave was Emerson Fittipaldi’s #2. Like Fittipaldi in 1971, Walker struggled with a car that took some learning, unfamiliar circuits and not a lot-of-love from the team. Emmo won the title and Dave got the flick in favour of Ronnie Peterson at the seasons end with seven DNFs from 10 starts, all due to mechanical failure. 

It wasn’t quite as bad as many would have you believe though, he was fifth in the non-championship Brazilian Grand Prix and in the running for points in South Africa, Monaco and Spain.

Canadian Formula Atlantic. Walker on the left, Lola T360, with Gilles Villeneuve, March 75B alongside at Halifax on July 7, 1975. Tom Klausler, T360 and Tom Bagley, Chevron B27 following. Bill Brack won from Klauser, Howdy Holmes and Walker (D Munroe)

In the following years Walker had sporadic F2, F5000, F Atlantic and sportscar drives but two road car crashes in 1973 – he broke a leg in one and almost severed his left arm in the other – sealed his competition fate, a few Canadian Formula Atlantic drives in 1975 were his last – the GP de Trois-Rivieres on August 31 perhaps the very last – before hanging up his helmet.

Walker worked in Canada for a while, getting involved in a boat chartering business. He and his wife Jan returned to Australia and have parlayed those skills in a successful business on the Whitsunday Coast since.

I had several phone calls with the beautifully spoken and sharp-as Dave in 2021-22, keep an eye out for a primotipo or Auto Action feature on Walker soon.

Etcetera…

(R Donaldson-SLNSW)

1964 Bathurst 500, with the Walker/Brian Hilton VW1200 – seventh place – ahead of the Bolton/Schroeder Hillman Imp and Weldon/Needham Studebaker Lark.

(L Mason Collection)

Reader, Laurie Mason owns “the 1968 Vauxhall Ventora that David drove in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon. He was an engaging and welcoming man and we had many discussions about the car and their eventful journey across the world in 1968. I spoke with David only last month so this news is very sad.”

(L Mason Collection)

A Grand Prix racing car of the finest type: bold, innovative, on the edge. The exact opposite of highly regulated, restricted modern F1, let’s not call it Grand Prix Racing because there is nothing Grand about it. Lotus 56B Pratt & Whitney, Zandvoort, 1971.

Credits…

MotorSport Images, Dick Simpson-oldracephotos.com, Rainer Schlegelmilch, J Wilds-Getty, R Donaldson-State Library of New South Wales, Dave Munroe

Tailpiece…

(D Simpson/oldracephotos.com)

Superb shot of Dave attacking the Warwick Farm Esses aboard the Lotus Components Lotus 70 Ford during the November 1970 AGP. It was no M10B McLaren, with which Frank Matich won the race. Walker was Q7 and fifth. The brave snapper is Lance Ruting, one of the stars of the era.

Finito…

Charlie’s Brabham Repco…

Posted: December 2, 2016 in F1, Rodways Repco Recollections
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charlton

Dave Charlton fettling his Brabham BT11 to which he has just bolted a ‘brand spankers’ 3 litre Repco F1 RB620 V8…

I must admit this shot as a ‘who, what, where and when’ had me tossed! I thought the face was familiar, but given it was from Nigel Tait’s Repco Photographic Archive I figured it was an RBE technician installing the little V8 into one of Jack’s Tasman cars in Melbourne. Completely wrong! The installation of engine to chassis was done in South Africa, exactly where I am intrigued to know.

But at the back of my brain I did recognise the driver although its Charlton’s Lotus 72 days which resonate with me most. This Brabham, the BT11 was a very successful ‘Intercontinental’ model in Tasman racing and in South African National Formula racing. Bought for Charlton by South African enthusiast Aldo Scribante, it was originally delivered with the ubiquitous 2.5 litre Coventry Climax FPF 4 cylinder engine.

charlton bt 11 cliamx color

Charlton in the Climax engined Brabham BT11, Q8 and unclassified. Pedro Rodriguez won the race in a Cooper T81 Maserati, South African GP 1967 (Dave Kent)

Dave did the full South African season in it in 1966, not really challenging local rival John Love’s Brabham BT20 Repco. After cranking in the Repco V8 he won the ’67 Rand Autumn Trophy race. Into 1968 he raced on in the BT11, Love updated to an ex-works Lotus 49, the rivalry between the two drivers over the years intense and fair.

charlton sa gp 68

1968 South African GP, Dave in Scribante’s Brabham BT11 Repco. Q14 and DNF gearbox, the race won by Jim Clark’s Lotus 49 Ford, the great Scots last GP win (Doug Brown)

Charlton was a South African citizen but was born in Yorkshire in 1936, migrating to SA with his mother in his early teens.

He first rose to prominence after winning the 1960 SA GP sportscar supporting race in an Austin Healey 100/6. He later raced an ex-Whitmore Lotus 22 in Europe without much success and returned to SA with a depleted bank balance. Some great drives in a Lotus 20 Ford twin-cam bought him to Scribante’s notice and the rest as they say is history; South African F1 champion from 1970-75, 13 championship Grands Prix appearances. He died in February 2013.

After claiming a number of wins in the Brabham over the following season Charlton upgraded to a Lotus 49C Ford taking the 1970 South African F1 title (and 12th place in the South African GP). In a renta-drive he drove a factory Brabham BT33 in the ’71 South African GP, his engine failed mid-race.

charlton lotus

The two great rivals in South Africa for over a decade; John Love March 701 Ford 2nd and Charlton Lotus 49C Ford 1st, Leeukop Corner, Highveld 100, 1971 Kyalami (Brian Watson)

He went to to the UK to collect a Lotus 72D, racing it in the 1972 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, in spite of losing practice time to mechanical issues he qualified 13th.  His engine dropped on to seven cylinders on the warm-up lap, but the car won him the domestic SA championship for three consecutive seasons.

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1972 British GP, Charlton leading one of the McLarens into Druids Hill, Lotus 72D Ford, DNF gearbox, the race won by Fittipaldi’s works 72D (Brian Watson)

For 1974 Charlton’s Scuderia Scribante team acquired McLaren M23/2, which Peter Revson had driven to victory in the 1973 British Grand Prix. Charlton dominated the domestic scene to a new level despite Ian Scheckter’s pace in a Lotus 72. Charlton took six wins and won a fifth consecutive championship.

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Kyalami 1972, perhaps the Highveld 100 but help welcomes from South African enthusiasts. #2 John Love Surtees TS9, #1 Charlton Lotus 72D and #3 Willie Ferguson Brbham BT33, the blue McLaren M10B Chev perhaps Kipp Ackerman (Brian Watson)

The following year Scheckter raced a Tyrrell 007 and Charlton won twice but eight podiums in a year of consistency won him the title again. He sold the M23 on to Aussie John McCormack, who converted it to Formula 5000 spec and notched up further successes in the domestic Gold Star championship, while Charlton switched to Formula Pacific and won that for four consecutive seasons.

Click here for my article on McLaren M23/2 which has some material on Charlton’s racing of that great car; https://primotipo.com/2014/07/24/macs-mclaren-peter-revson-dave-charlton-and-john-mccormacks-mclaren-m232/

Charlton died in February 2013 aged 77.

dc lot 72 sidways

Charlton during the 1973 South African GP @ Kyalami with his Lotus 72D all nicely balanced on the throttle (Stuart Dent)

Etcetera…

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Charlton at Kyalami in the BT11 still Climax engined in 1967 (Ken Stewart)

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Charlton this side in the BT11 Repco with John Love in his BT20 Repco in 1968 (Dave Kent)

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Carlton again in the BT11 Repco (Deon Smit)

dc with hulme

Paid guest drive of the works Brbham BT33, inside Denny Hulme’s McLaren M19, SA GP 1971 (Deon Smit)

dc lot 72 in cock

Charlton at the wheel of a factory Lotus 72, 1971 British GP (unattributed)

Credits…

Nigel Tait Collection, Repco Ltd Archive

Tailpiece: The flag drops-Luki Botha Brabham Repco, John Love Cooper Climax and on the far side Dave Charlton Brabham BT11 Repco, 1967 Coronation 100 …

charlton burnout

(Deon Smit)