Everything you need to know about 37 year-old Bob Muir’s skill behind the wheel is demonstrated in this shot of the grid at the start of the III Gran Premio di Mugello Euro F2 round in July 1976.
The red spec on the front row is Muiro’s Derek Kneller prepared Chevron B35 Ford BDA. Such are the dimensions of his wedding-tackle and blinding, god-given speed he has plonked a privateer Chevron with Ford BDA engine ahead of almost all the factory cars, the four Renault-Gordini V6 powered Elf 2Js (Jean-Pierre Jabouille alongside him on pole, and Michel Leclere) and Martini Mk19s (Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay). Then the works-March BMWs (Maurizio Flammini and Alex Ribeiro) and the rest including future/current GP drivers, Keke Rosberg, Vittorio Brambilla, Giancarlo Martini, Hans Binder, Ingo Hoffman and Harald Ertl. Bob’s Ford BDA was the pick of the engines in 1972 but the pecking order on this grid was Renault-Gordini V6, BMW M12/7, Hart 420R then the BDA. Jabouille won from Arnoux and Tambay. Muir was 16th.
In a different time, after tumbling out of the right womb, the likes of Bob Muir would have been funded through Karts by Daddy, funded through Formula Ford and F3 by Daddy, then picked up by one of the F1 Feeder Capital Vulture outfits (still part funded by Daddy, investment to this point circa $A6-8million) and into Grand Prix racing. And yes, I know he is not alone.
But Bob was old school, his formative years, indeed most of his years, were self funded by his motor dealership, so his appearances were usually sporadic and subject to availability of the-readies. I suspect his first real paid drive was with Bob and Marj Brown, in Australian F2 in 1974 and British Formula Atlantic in 1975 with a pair of Birrana 273s. The Browns funded this short Chevron campaign too, then it was back to Australia, where taxis beckoned.
Griffin helmeted Muir in front of Giorgio Francia’s Chevron B35 BMW. Bob had never raced at Mugello before, let alone visited Italy. It seems he rather liked the place (MotorSport)Meet the fam. Bob and Judy Muir, with Jason and Danielle at Mascot Airport, Sydney in April 1972 with third place booty from the Singapore Grand Prix. Australians 1-3 in this race; Max Stewart, Mildren Ford, Vern Schuppan, March 722 Ford and then Bob’s borrowed or leased Rennmax BN3 FordBob early in the year, 1973 US L&M Championship campaign at Riverside. Legendary engineer/mechanic/driver mentor Peter Molloy at left, John Wright in the middle? Lola T330 Chev (Muir Family Collection)
R.I.P Bob Muir, November 29, 1939-February 12, 2023, thanks so much for some wonderful memories, what a steerer…
The Muirs Sports Cars entry ahead of Teddy Pilette during the 1971 Tasman Cup Warwick Farm 100, Mildren ‘Yellow Submarine’ Waggott 2-litre TC-4V from McLaren M10B Chev. This is the battle for fifth place, resolved in Teddy’s favour. Frank Gardner won in a works-Lola T192 Chev from Chris Amon, Lotus 70 Ford and Kevin Bartlett, Mildren Chev (oldracephotos.com/D Simpson)
Credits…
MotorSport Images, Getty Images, oldracephotos.com/Dick Simpson, Muir Family Collection, Tony Glenn, oldracingcars.com, Alan Cox, Derek Kneller, oldracingcars.com
Bob about to take to Oran Park for the first time in the brand new Matich A53 Repco-Holden, Saturday February 2, 1974 (D Kneller)
Etcetera…
As is so often the case the article grows like topsy after the initial posting, in this case thanks to a long discussion with legendary engineer/mechanic Derek Kneller in the UK this morning, February 15.
“Bob was a bloody good driver, really good, he could sort a car too. He went very well in the Lola T330 Chev that he ran in the 1973 L &M (US F5000 Championship). I was over there that season running Frank’s two Matich A51 Repcos. Peter Molloy was over there for a while when Bob first arrived, and he soon hooked up with Jerry Eisert and Chuck Jones. The car was always well prepared but as the season went on they were cobbling together engines. They had a really smart rig but the engines weren’t too good, I remember Bob finishing a heat at Watkins Glen second with the thing running on only seven-cylinders.”
In an amazing run of raw pace despite the tight budget, Bob qualified fourth at Michigan International on May 20 for third in his heat and DNF final. Off to Mid Ohio for Q3 and DNS heat and final, and then to the demanding Watkins Glen, a circuit on which he hadn’t competed before. Q2 behind Jody Scheckter and ahead of Brett Lunger, Brian Redman, Peter Gethin, Mark Donohue, Tony Adamowicz, David Hobbs, Kevin Bartlett, John Walker, Vern Schuppan and Frank Matich was really something. He was fifth in his heat at Road America after qualifying poorly, DNF in the final then missed the last few rounds, out of money. While 23 year old Jody Scheckter was the L&M young star of the series, the older find was 34 years young Bob Muir.
“Bob was unlucky to destroy the A52 (Matich A52 Repco-Holden F5000 car) in later 1973 at Warwick Farm in testing, but there was no question of who we were going to turn to when Frank decided he couldn’t do the race distance at Oran Park.”
“What’s it doing Bob?” Muir and crew in the Oran Park paddock, Matich A53 Repco-Holden (D Kneller)
“The car (Matich A53 Repco-Holden) was brand new, Frank had done a few sessions and we’d attended to a few things, then Bob did three or so laps to get the feel of the thing but the oil pump drive-belt came off and that damaged the engine. We had that changed by late evening and were allowed to do some laps at about 8pm, Bob was quickly down to times in the low 40s but had to start the race from the back of the grid as he hadn’t done a flyer before the oil pump problem.”
“In the race he was soon up to eighth or ninth, doing fast, consistent times before getting stuck behind Gethin or Oxton, then the fuel pump overheated so he was out. Repco had relocated the fuel pump and we hadn’t done enough testing laps to know it needed a heat-shield. Bob did some practice laps at Surfers but FM felt he was ok to do that race, and the final two at Sandown and Adelaide International.”
“I went back to the UK in late 1974 after we had wound down Frank’s (Matich) racing business in Sydney when he retired, then worked outside racing, I didn’t realise Bob contested the British Formula Atlantic Championship in 1975.”
After some fast drives in a borrowed Rennmax early in the 1974 Australian F2 Championship, Muir was engaged by Adelaide couple, Bob and Marj Brown to drive their pair of Birrana 273 Hart-Ford 416-B 1.6-litre cars. Bob finished second in a very tight, thrilling title-chase with works-Birrana driver Leo Geoghegan who raced their latest 274 model.
Muir, Birrana 273-009 Ford BDA, Mallory Park August 24, 1975, DNF fuel surge. Jim Crawford’s Chevron B29 won
The Browns decided to expand their specialist glass-making business to the UK in 1975. Taking the Birranas with them to contest the British Formula Atlantic Championship would be an ideal way to create interest in the new venture. Bob was the driver with his family of four relocating to Bishop Auckland (in Durham, the very north of England not too far from the border with Scotland) where the equipe was based. Dean Hosking, a young Adelaide driver who had raced a Formula 3 Birrana 374 Toyota for John Blander in 1974 and did very well also went along to drive one of the cars. Importantly, Tony Alcock, the design-partner in Birrana Cars, came along to engineer the cars, he was at a loose-end when Tony and Malcolm Ramsay, his business partner, decided to cease volume production of Birranas in Adelaide at the end of 1974.
Dean picks up the threads, “Bob’s business had developed the technology to make the type of glass that enabled one to see inside hot domestic ovens. He sold the company to Pilkington Glass and was subject to the usual ten year non-compete clause. So he approached the UK Government with the idea of setting up over there, that’s why the factory was in Bishop Auckland, the incentives were provided there in an area employment opportunities were needed.”
British Formula Atlantic was at its peak then, grids of 20 cars fought for two championships in 1975, the John Player British Formula Atlantic Championship and the Southern Organs British Formula Atlantic Championship. Tony Brise and Gunnar Nilsson went head to head, Brise won the former and Ted Wenz the latter with Nilsson second. Other big hitters that year included Brian Henton, Danny Sullivan, Jim Crawford, John Nicholson, Ray Mallock and Brett Riley.
Bob Muir and Tony Alcock entered 14 of the 21 rounds with the two year old Birrana for bests a pair of third placings at Silverstone and Oulton Park. In an impressive first UK season, Muir’s raw speed was again demonstrated with six top-five qualifying performances, two on the front row, one alongside Jim Crawford’s Chevron B29 at Mallory in August, and another beside the similarly mounted Gunnar Nilsson at Oulton in October. “He led a race at Mallory until the subframe broke (June 15), that was pretty impressive,” recalls Dean. While he was fifth in his first outing at Mallory Park in March, generally the little equipe got better results from late May after they had dialled the car in to the circuits and tyres.
“The deals were that Tony and I were paid, not a lot in my case, but enough to live on, to prepare the cars and me to have an occasional drive. Bob traded in cars of course! He had some friends in the London motor trade, that’s how he supported his family while he was over there.”
Muir, Minos Ford BDA at Thruxton during the 1976 BARC 200. DNF in the race won by Maurizio Flammini’s works-March 762 BMW (MotorSport)
“The first time I drove one of the cars was at Silverstone (April 13). I could certainly feel the extra 70bhp of the BDA compared with the 135bhp Corolla motor in the 374 but soon got used to that after a few laps. In fact I got to the far side of the circuit and was pondering what was the right gear for that corner and somebody went past me – Zot – clearly it wasn’t third!” Dean quipped. Bob qualified 15th that weekend in 273-009, and Dean 18th in 273-006, both cars retired, so not a good weekend.
“Tony Brise was head and shoulders above everybody else, I was convinced he would be the next British world champion. I thought Richard Morgan was impressive up close too. Ted Wenz not so much. But we held our own in cars that were two years old. I wouldn’t have missed the experience for the world, but I wasn’t getting the drives I expected, money was perhaps a little tighter than Bob Brown may have hoped.”
It appears that Dean’s final race was at Snetterton on June 29. “Bob was great to be with, easy-going, a typical Sydney good-time guy! There was no prima-donna stuff, one one occasion we swopped cars as mine had the setup he was after. I came back and drove both contemporary cars for John Blanden, an ASP 340C Clubman, and some of his historic cars. I’ve always remained close to the scene with my involvement in the Sporting Car Club of South Australia and so on.”
At the end of 1975 Alcock took the fateful decision to join Hill Grand Prix, “I knew Tony well, he was with Matich for a while and came with us to the US when we did a couple of L&M races in the McLaren M10C Repco-Holden in early 1971. We lived close together in Sydney and saw one another quite a lot socially, both wives were Brits.” Kneller recalled affectionately.
“When Bob got in touch with me to help finish off the Minos Ford F2 car after Tony left – in essence it was a 273 rebodied and fitted with 295bhp Cosworth Ford BDX engine – it required assembly and finishing off, the hard stuff had already been done by Tony and Bob. I moved up to Bishop Auckland in this period and lived with Bob and Judy.”
“We took the car behind our little van to Thruxton (April 19) for the second round of the European F2 Championship. Bob was doing quite well in practice despite the fact that the car hadn’t turned a wheel before, 15th quickest time or thereabouts, but he only completed a lap in the race before the distributor drive failed.”
“We next set off for France to run in the Pau Grand Prix (June 7). What became clear in practice was that the Minos was flexing a lot when forced to change direction quickly, a problem not apparent at Thruxton. The Birranas had a chassis comprising an aluminium monocoque front and centre section and a tubular steel A-frame to which the engine was attached. It was built for 200bhp twin-cams not a 295bhp 2-litre BDX, the thing was twisting in the middle with the greater forces applied to it. I got some bits and pieces to brace the frame to the tub, including some radius rods Ron Dennis offered, but time ran out and we didn’t qualify.”
Derek Kneller’s shot of the Brown’s new Chevron B35 Ford (#35-76-10) after he had completed its assembly at Bolton in June 1976. B35 alongside’s owner? Chassis number of the half finished car please…? (D Kneller)
“The next thing I knew was Bob Muir asking me to go down to Bolton to assemble a new Chevron B35! Bob and Marj thought, stuff-it we need a new car.”
Derek Bennett himself helped me get the thing together, then off we set for Rouen (June 27). What should have been a good weekend quickly turned to tears, every time Bob applied the brakes at the bottom of the hill the car’s front wheels wanted to come off. The car assembly process at Chevrons involved going to the spares department to get the bits and pieces as you needed to attach to the chassis. The front suspension corners were complete sub-assemblies, all I had to do was bolt the wishbones, already attached to the upright assembly to the chassis. But left-hand hubs had gone onto right hand uprights, and vice-versa, so the wheels were trying to come undone under braking loads. What should have been an easy fix couldn’t be done in the paddock as none of the Chevron runners had the necessary parts.”
“We got the bits we needed out from England, then headed straight for Mugello which was held a fortnight later (July 11). We had heaps of time so Bob finally did lots of laps, getting himself and the car really dialled in. Don’t forget that when he got to the UK he didn’t know the circuits and the same applied in Europe of course. We had problems with the metering units of two engines, they weren’t getting the lubrication they needed from the Avgas we used.”
“We had great support from Swindons as we were the only ones running Ford engines. We needed another engine for the race so Bob Brown hired a plane, and he flew down with a Swindon works engine and one of their mechanics to look after it. When Bob put the car on the front row alongside Jabouille it was unbelievable. Our little team against the might of France complete with factory 320bhp Renault-Gordini V6s. Incredible really.”
Dicing with Alex Ribeiro’s fourth placed works-March 762 BMW early in the Mugello GP, Chevron B35 Ford BDX (MotorSport)
“Muiro led from the start of the 30 car grid, for about two laps our immaculate – Muir was fanatical about presentation – little red car led the field then he fell back a bit with clutch problems. The Aeroquip hydraulics line from stores was a fraction too short and vibrated loose, but he still ran sixth for a long while without a clutch, then slipped to ninth and eventually finished sixteenth. It was such a shame, without that who knows where he would have come.”
“And that was it. The Browns decided they had had enough and sold the Chevron. I’m not sure what became of the Minos, we sold it to a bloke from Scotland who ran it in the British Group 8 series for a while. Bob and Judy returned to Australia, I kept in touch with both of them, Judy too after they divorced, I last saw her at Frank’s (Matich) funeral in 2015. We kept in touch with Tony Alcock’s wife as well. After the plane crash (that killed most of Graham Hill’s team) she lived with her mother in Sussex for a while, she is still alive. The funny thing is, that light plane ride that Bob Brown took with the BDX from Bristol to Florence whetted his interest in flying, he and Marj took that up as another expensive hobby after they were finished with car racing!”
Three fabulous Muir Family Mugello happy-snaps, probably taken by Bob Brown as Derek Kneller is pushing the car in one shot and shirtless in another. Chevron B35 Ford BDX, the car on pole is Jean-Pierre Jabouille’s Elf 2J Renault
Tailpiece…
(T Glenn)
Super-sub. Bob Muir settles himself into Frank Matich’s brand new Matich A53 Repco-Holden at Oran Park just prior to the Tasman Cup round that in February 1974.
Matich had electrocuted himself in a near-fatal boating accident days before, FM ‘threw the keys’ to Bob after practicing the car and realising he wasn’t sufficiently well for the OP round, Q15/DNF. Frank was well enough to contest the remaining three Australian races – in which he was, as usual, very fast – his final races as events transpired.
The roll call is Peter Hughes in the white T-shirt, Lugsy Adams in yellow, then Grant O’Neill with the builders-cleavage, his woolly head obscuring Derek Kneller who is working on the left-front, all members of Frank Matich Racing. These are the machinists/fabricators/welders/mechanics who built A53-007, the very best of the Matich F5000 breed.
When I first posted an article incorporating this shot four years ago I captioned it on the basis that the fully-optioned, rather attractive young lady tending to Bob’s black helmet was his wife, a reasonable guess I thought. Not too long after, Bob’s ex-wife commented on social media that the blonde in question wasn’t her at all. There ya-go, my case rests, Muir met another of the tests of an elite level driver, the occasional away-game on the home front…’jokin of course.
Matich A53 ‘007’ front suspension detail- upper and lower wishbones, coil springs and luvverly double-adjustable alloy bodied Koni’s- de-rigueur in F1 and F5000 at the time. Cast magnesium uprights, Melmag wheels, Lockheed calipers grabbing Repco disc rotors. Note the tubular steel subframe which mounts to the aluminium Matich designed but Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation fabricated monocoque chassis- they also cast the Matich steering rack. Pretty lady behind the car on Goodyear duty is unknown, sadly. Derek Kneller is working on the left front, guy with ‘builders cleavage’ is Grant O’Neill. Around the left-rear is Peter Hughes in the white T-Shirt with ‘Lugsy’ Graham Adams in the yellow polo shirt (T Glenn)
Bob Muir settles himself into the cockpit of the new Matich A53 Repco on Friday 1 February, prior to its debut race, the Oran Park Tasman round on 3 February 1974…
Frank and his team had finished the car before the Tasman but Matich was badly hurt in a boating accident the week before the meeting in which he was electrocuted and injured badly.
Bob was chosen by Frank to race the car after he tested it- against doctors orders and satisfied himself that the rigours of a full race weekend, inclusive of the 90 lap race in summer heat were beyond him at that early stage stage of his recovery.
As things transpired Muir raced the A53 only the once at Oran Park before Frank returned to the cockpit at Surfers Paradise a week later- FM did the last three Tasman rounds and soon after retired from racing for good.
Frank Matich tests the A53 early on that Friday before OP- I wonder how many laps he did and how long the task list was after his first test laps?! (D Harvey)
The 1974 Tasman was a beauty.
By the time of the fifth round at Oran Park, there had been four different winners in New Zealand.
John Walker took the opener at Levin on 5 January in his one-of-a-kind Lola T330 Repco Holden, Peter Gethin won at Pukekohe the following weekend in his VDS Chevron B24 Chev- then John McCormack was victorious in the somewhat geriatric, but continually developed Elfin MR5 Repco at Wigram- that year the New Zealand Grand Prix. Max Stewart won the Teretonga round in his mighty fast Lola T330 Chev ‘HU-1’ the very first of the breed, Frank Gardner’s development or prototype car in fact.
Muir aboard at OP. Repco Holden F5000 engine- car fitted with the ‘ultimate spec’ flat-plane crank unit giving circa 520bhp and not losing the mountain of torque for which these units were known in the quest for more power. Note the ‘Varley’ battery behind the Lucas injection unit and coil- no doubt now very well insulated from the ‘good vibrations’ of the engine which ‘shook the shitter’ out of the battery and cost the one race only A52 victory of the Glynn Scott Memorial Trophy, Gold Star race at Surfers Paradise on 2 September 1973 (T Glenn)
The photo above is of Matich Chief Mechanic Derek Kneller and Bob Muir consulting during practice at Oran Park, the one below is a fortnight later at Sandown- its FM exiting Peters/Torana Corner and blasting up the back straight in a new ‘small-window’ Bell Star.
Bell together with Goodyear were two of the racing brands for which Matich held the local commercial rights. The helmet is a “Bell 120 (Degree) Full Face Helmet- they retailed at $79.90 at the time…”, quipped Matich employee Rob McDonald.
So, by Oran Park the Matich lads were up against it with their new car- the opposition were race ready off the back of the first four intensely Tasman fought rounds. Mind you, it is fair to say that the A53 was a slightly tidied up and evolved version of the short-lived A52 which met its maker when Muir had a testing shunt in it at Warwick Farm in late September 1973.
(unattributed)
Generally the designers original intent is its most pure, don’t you think?
If i’m critical of the look of the car, a machine which to me was a real honey of a thing, maybe the only element which is not aesthetically pleasing is the way the A50-52 cockpit surround doesn’t integrate well with the nosecone.
The thing was a jet right outta the box mind you- so who gives a shit what I think!
Repco’s Ken Symes and Derek Kneller push FM’s A53 from the Sandown fork up area or dummy grid into pitlane, Shell Corner or more boringly ‘Turn One’ behind. Note the engine oil sump on near side aft of the radiator. Note brake air-scoops since OP (P Weaver)
The A53’s was first completed and wheel-aligned on the ground on 11 January 1974- ‘by that stage the Tasman was already underway but we could have had the car finished easily in time for Pukekohe. Repco didn’t want us to go given the fuel shortage dramas they expected in New Zealand’ recalled Derek Kneller. The first OPEC Oil Embargo or crisis began in October 1973 with New Zealand particularly impacted given 80% of their crude oil needs were provided by Middle Eastern countries.
With hindsight Repco over-reacted, but the net effect of their decision (despite well before renewing Matich’s annual August to August sponsorship agreement through to the end of August 1974) was that Team Matich didn’t race in New Zealand- so the final build of the car was done in relatively relaxed fashion rather than with the pressure of the 5 January first round in mind.
‘Mind you, Frank sent me to the Pukekohe first round race weekend to scout around and report back on the Tasman field on latest developments and what everybody was up’ Derek recalled. No doubt the new Warwick Brown and Graeme Lawrence Lola T332’s were of particular interest.
When back in Sydney the crew completed the car- the team at that stage comprised FM, DK, Peter Hughes, Grant O’Neill and Leon Jarvis.
A53 was first tested at Oran Park on 24 January, the driving chores shared by Matich and Enno Buesselmann.
Enno had come out of FV and FF and had a strong 1973 driving the Bob and Marj Brown owned ANF2 Birrana 273 Ford-Hart- he was third in the championship that year behind Leo Geoghegan’s dominant, similar, works car. Matich decided to give him some laps in the car.
‘Enno did two stints of 10 laps apiece’ recalls Derek. ‘We didn’t time the first ten given it was his first time in a big car but he got down to a best of 47 seconds dead in the second of his two sessions. With the same setup as Enno FM did a 44.6- and then later in the day a best of 43.6 seconds after some changes were made to the car’.
The team then left the circuit with a decent job list before the Oran Park Tasman round.
‘Frank had a visitor from Repco in Sydney- one of the senior guys, he planned to take him out in his boat, Frank had a home and boat slipway at Clareville. The boat wouldn’t start- the battery was flat. He grabbed a Honda generator and the leads for a battery charger and mistakenly pushed the lead into the 240 volt, rather than 12 volt plug- he then got a big shock from the alligator clip which attached itself to the fleshy part of his hand, burning it badly. Simultaneously he fell forward downwards and over the battery, burning his chest and losing consciousness’.
‘Kris saw some of this from the wharf and jumped into a skiff to help his Dad- who motioned not to come near the live boat- the generator stalled ending the ordeal. Frank had burns to the fleshy piece of his right hand between the thumb and forefinger and chest.’ In addition there was the mental shock related to the whole incident. Most of you are aware the gearshift in a racing car is usually on the right so FM had a considerable challenge in managing 100 miles at Oran Park a few days hence.
Despite the accident Matich had not lost his sense of humour, team machinist/fabricator Peter Hughes recalls Frank saying to him ‘that when he lost consciousness and came around again “I could hear the generator running and thought I’ve died and gone to hell and they have Honda generators here!”, He also told me that he couldn’t grasp the round knob to turn it off and pushed the choke lever up to stall it. Sense of humour and thinking all the time’ concluded Peter.
Despite that setback Matich, heavily bandaged, and no doubt against his medical advice did ten laps of Oran Park on the Friday before the meeting getting down to a best of 42.4 seconds.
The team had dramas in practice at OP, typical teething problems, including the engine, which meant that Bob started off the back of the grid, his best according to Team Matich records was a 42.8- the result in the race was a DNF after fuel-pump failure.
Max Stewart’s T330 won the ‘Oran Park 100’ race that day, but Peter Gethin again finished- its was his fifth in a row finish, this time in fifth place, ultimately he would win the title with an eight out of eight 1974 Tasman finishing record.
Derek, ‘On the Wednesday (6 February) after the race we went back to Oran Park for some further testing.’
‘We had fitted a new rear suspension crossbeam and also cured the fuel pump problem. During the Oran Park race Frank walked to several corners to observe the A53 on track, and after the race he checked his rear suspension drawing and come up with a new spec for the rear crossbeam, he stood the spring/shock unit more upright by a couple of degrees. After the Wednesday test he was pleased with the change.’
Frank drove 27 laps in total and Bob Muir drove 12. The majority of Frank’s were in the 42’s with a quickest of 41.0. Bob’s furst stint was also in the 42’s and his second stint reeled off 5 laps- 41.3, 41.1, 41.3, 41.0 and 41.0. Pole for the race was 39.9. From my working with FM i know there would have been at least 1 second being held back in testing when FM was fighting fit let alone suffering from the injuries from the accident. After this test we were given another work list to complete before setting off for Surfers on Thursday afternoon’ Kneller concluded.
Team Matich then trucked the mighty quick car up to the Gold Coast where Matich was so fast in the A52 not so many months before during the September 1973 Gold Star round.
His time was good enough for fourth on the grid, despite it being his first real go in the car and coping with a broken throttle cable and too much oversteer- he finished third behind the Teddy Pillette and Gethin VDS Chevron B24’s despite knocking off a front wing on lap 15.
FM’s was a mighty fine display of speed amongst all those highly developed cars- not to say personal grit and determination in all the circumstances.
Sandown is a power circuit, Matich put his flat-plane crank 520bhp Repco engine to good use qualifying second on the grid behind Gethin. A crowd of over 20,000 people saw Matich lead for 15 laps before water pump problems- apparent from lap 5, the resultant cooked motor ended his day.
Gethin took the win from Graham McRae’s McRae GM2 Chev- the disappointment of the series in terms of results if not in absolute pace and Walker’s T330 Repco.
A53 at rest in the Adelaide International paddock (C Bond)
Matich during his final race appearance- the ‘Adelaide 100’ at Adelaide International on 24 February 1974. FM fourth behind Warwick Brown, Peter Gethin and Graeme Lawrence- Lola T332, Chevron B24 and Lola T332, all Chev powered (D Mellonie)
And so to the final Tasman round, Adelaide International, and as it turned out FM’s final race.
Frank again popped the car second on the grid, the car was fitted with a fresh engine, a tenth shy of Stewart’s T330.
In the race he was running second before spinning on some oil and again worked his way up to second- and challenging Brown hard in the final stages, before he spun four laps from the end when his engine momentarily cut out. He finished fourth, 27 seconds behind winner Warwick Brown.
WB had the honour of taking the very first win for the Lola T332- the first of hundreds of victories for the T332/T332C/T332CS/T333 F5000/Single-Seat Can-Am family of cars! Warwick’s car, or his patron, Pat Burke’s to be more precise, chassis ‘HU-27′, was the very first of the T332’s.
The A53 was a great bit of kit- it won the the 1976 Australian Grand Prix in John Goss’ hands (in chassis A51/3 ‘005’) a couple of years after it’s birth.
If only FM had gone to the US in 1974. It would have been fascinating to see how a 520 bhp, flat-plane-crank Repco V8 powered A53 would have fared amongst a plethora of Lola T332 Chevs. With the lessons learned during the unsuccessful 1973 L&M Series campaign for sure they would have put up quite a fight…
Derek Kneller and Ken Symes fettle the A53 in the Sandown Park paddock (A Radley)
Lets come back to Frank’s retirement, Derek Kneller again picks up the story.
‘We were set up beautifully for 1974.
Repco had renewed the sponsorship arrangement in August 1973, they had allocated us four engines which were powerful, as displayed during the Tasman races we did- and the new car was quick.
Consulting with the Matich Red Books (FM used a series of red hard cover foolscap books as data logs), when he got out of the car at Adelaide he dictated a long job list for the car, all to be done before the next race. Car too low/too much brake on the rear/too much wing?/steering vibration/more roll stiffness at rear/stay with banana wing (Matich at the time had the ‘original Matich wing’ and an ‘American banana’ style)/check bump steer and shocks/rear springs harder/new brake ducts/tyre pressures too high.
When he got out of the car and we left Adelaide he planned to race on.’
Frank and Joan Matich in the Warwick Farm form up area poor to the 1973 Tasman round- Matich A50 Repco ‘001’. Note the neck brace Joan is wearing
‘In Adelaide he spun twice, once on oil and the second time he couldn’t work out why. He had constant ringing in the ears as a result of the boating incident and just felt at 39 he could not concentrate as he had always been able to before so he felt it was perhaps time. At the same time FM’s wife Joan was having severe ongoing problems with her neck including surgery. So it was a combination of factors as a consequence of the accident and the need to focus on Joan and the rest of the family that led to the decision to retire, sell the racing cars but otherwise remain in business including the racing franchises such as Goodyear and Bell’ Kneller said.
No doubt Matich indicating he wanted to retire made the decision for Repco to withdraw from racing easier given the global competitive pressures upon them in the increasingly difficult economic situation of the time- oil shocks, the progressive lowering of Australian Tariffs and global ‘stagflation’.
Derek Kneller returned to the UK (there are some great stories there to be told when his book is finished!, c’mon Derek lots of us are waiting for that little baby!) with Peter Hughes the last of the race team to leave, he ‘worked with Tony Simmons for a while then when John Goss finally bought the A53 I worked with John and Grant O’Neill until 1975- the 1975 Tasman was the last series with John before marrying and travelling around Australia for two years.’
(M Bisset Collection)
Etcetera: The closely related Matich A52 Repco ‘006’…
During 1973, as related in one of the linked articles above, Matich took two A51’s to the US to contest the American F5000 Championship, the ‘L&M Series’, the cars used were chassis ‘005’ and ‘006’- ‘005’ was tested for a day at Warwick Farm before shipping to the states, ‘006’ was not.
The team who travelled to the US were, FM, DK, Chief Mechanic, Chris Miles, Team Manager, Bob Riley, Draftsman and engineering of the car, John Anderson and Leon Jarvis, Mechanics and Ken Symes looking after four Repco V8’s
Derek Kneller recalls ‘The cars did not perform as expected we had a handling problem on the latest spec Goodyear’s and the bumpy nature of the US circuits. The tyres weren’t identical to those we tested before going to the US. FM wasn’t the only driver testing the F5000 tyres, the final production tyres we were presented were different, so we were playing catch-up. The cars were still as fast as any at the Riverside first round mind you’.
‘The biggest problem was engine related. The higher cornering speeds of the US circuits threw up a scavenge problem in the Repco engines, this seemed to get worse as the season went on and at Watkins Glen the crankshaft bearings were damaged in both cars during practice and both were withdrawn from the race after discussion with Repco management in Maidstone the night before the race. This meeting was the first at which we ran the flat-plane crank engines.’
‘If Frank had qualified on the time he did on the Friday we would have been on the front two rows at the Glen. By then Matich had the car sorted on the tyres- this involved changes to shocks/camber and toe to get the loading right. We also moved the battery to the front to load the car up front a bit more.’
‘At the start of the season the A51 was as competitive as the T330 but its development accelerated with so many drivers and teams running and experimenting with the T330’s’.
‘Straight after the race weekend at Watkins Glen chassis ‘006’ was flown back to Sydney with me so that the handling and engine problems could be sorted. Chassis ‘005’ was left in the States with the rest of the team.’
Matich A51 ‘006’ and A51 ‘005’ in the Watkins Glen pitlane, June 1973- A51 ‘006’ rebuilt as an A52 using the same ‘006’ chassis as per text (D Kneller)
‘On returning to Sydney the engine problem was overcome, an additional scavenge pump was added to scavenge oil from above the camshaft. Oil was being retained in the valley above the camshaft in the longer fast corners causing oil starvation in the oil tank, leading to bearing failure.’
After the engine problem was sorted it was decided to redesign the chassis to overcome the handling deficiencies, hence the A52 design…The A52 was built using the A51 ‘006’ chassis and rear end but with a longer engine/gearbox adaptor (bellhousing) giving a 2inch longer (50mm) wheelbase than the A51, this was in line with the Lola T330′.
‘The radiators were moved to the sides of the chassis along with modifications to the engine water pump so that each radiator cooled the opposite side cylinder head and were shrouded with aluminum ductings’.
‘The oil tank was repositioned behind the left-hand radiator (from beside the cars gearbox, outside its wheelbase) and the battery moved from the front of the car to above the bellhousing’.
At the front of the chassis the steering rack was moved from the chassis itself to a heavily redesigned front subframe. The top pick up point for the shock absorber/spring assembly was raised approx 1 1/4 inch (30mm) along with a redesigned lower wishbone and new front uprights. These mods gave an increase in front suspension movement’.
‘To complete the design a chisel shaped nose made from fibre glass was added, the complete car was about 10 Kg lighter than the A51’.
‘The A52 was tested extensively by Frank at Warwick Farm during late July/early August 1973 with a hope of returning to the US series, but a problem with the sponsors in the US prevented this happening’.
FM Matich A52 Repco, ahead of Max Stewart’s Lola T330 Chev, Glynn Scott Memorial Trophy, September 1973 (K Payne)
‘We had hoped to be back by Atlanta but we had problems with Carroll Smith and the Earley’s who owed us money. They were a father/son combination who were chiropodists operating their business and workshop in Dover, Ohio. Smith went AWOL at the Glen- non-one could get hold of him, he was bluing with the Earley’s too and then turned up a couple of races later with Graham McRae’ recalled Derek.
‘Frank sent me back to bring all of the cars, spares- the lot, Ken and Ando were still there whilst the other three had already come back to Australia.
FM side aspect at Surfers, similarity to A53 clear albeit A53 sidepods were bigger and longer to cover the fuel cells meet the new for 1974 deformable structure regulations (K Payne)
Matich off to the side of the circuit at Surfers trying to diagnose his problem- a destroyed battery internals (K Payne)
‘The A52’s only race was the Gold Star race, the ‘Glynn Scott Memorial Trophy’ at Surfers Paradise on 2 Sepember 1973 when fitted with a flat plane crank Repco F5000 engine. This gave over 520hp and sounded like a Cosworth DFV on steroids! (the best of the two-plane Repco engines gave circa 495bhp@7000rpm)
‘FM was quick straight away- he knew what the tyres needed, he led the race setting fastest lap before retiring with battery failure, the high frequency vibration from the engine shook the internals of the Varley battery apart.’
‘The car was comprehensively destroyed in a test session at Warwick Farm in late September whilst driven by Bob Muir. The chassis was beyond repair, both the outer and inner skins were damaged. The photos show damage from the car hitting the water-sprinkler system at Warwick Farm, 50mm diameter steel pipes- at great speed’.
‘Frank was not happy as he had just left the circuit after a successful session to visit his wife Joan, who was in hospital- and had let Bob have a steer to get another drivers opinion of the car, Bob had been driving a Lola T330 Chev in the US’.
As a consequence of the death of A52, A53 was born using the last remaining Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation constructed chassis.
(D Kneller)
Photos of the comprehensively damaged A52 ‘006’ back at the Matich workshop in September 1973.
‘The ‘006’ remains stayed at the Matich Military Road workshop and were then moved to the warehouse in Aartarmon and then later Darley Road and were finally junked a week or two before I rejoined Matich in 1989′ said Derek.
‘Frank knew I would want to repair and restore the car which he didn’t want to do so he got rid of it not long before I arrived back to run his Headway Helmets business- I shipped a Mondiale Formula Ford out for Kris (Matich) when I came back to Australia too’ Derek recalled.
(D Kneller)
Photo and Other Credits…
Tony Glenn, Derek Kneller, Peter Hughes, Peter Weaver, David Mellonie, Dale Harvey, Peter Weaver, Alan Radley, Ken Payne via John Payne, Curt Bond, oldracingcars.com, ‘Australian Competition Yearbook’ 1975 Edition.
Click here for Allen Brown’s great summary of the Matich F5000 cars;
Tailpiece: Muir, ready to rock n’ roll, Oran Park pit lane 1 February 1974…
(T Glenn)
Its all happening above, its the Friday before the meeting.
An obscured Bowin P6F Formula Ford is between the Matich and Brian Foley’s ‘Chesterfield Racing’ XA or XB Ford Falcon Panel Van.
The shapely form in the driving suit holding the helmet in the middle of the shot is Christine Cole/Gibson who ran a Group C ‘105 Series’ Alfa 2000 GTV from 1973 to 1975 in many races including the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship (which she gave a really good shake!) and Manufacturers Championship- its probably Foley to the left of Cole?
John Goss races his new Matich A53 Repco for the very first time, the ‘Oran Park 100’ Gold Star round on 4 August 1974…
‘007’ was the last and best F5000 the Matich team built, arguably it’s the best F5000 built in Oz. The story of Frank Matich and his cars I chronicled in a long treatise a while back, have a read if you haven’t seen it;
Goss extended himself, buying the car and some spares. Later he also bought A51 ‘005’ which he converted to A53 spec, racing both cars for years inclusive of the ’76 AGP win at Sandown, check this article out on Gossy;
This short piece is inspired by these photos posted on social media for the first time this month. They are ‘mouth-watering’ for me as i’ve always loved this car especially in its Matich original ‘mellow yellow’ Repco livery. Its just the nicest, oh-so-fast bit of beautifully integrated kit.
Grant O’Neill at the back, he looked after John’s cars right thru from this point ex-Matich as he was. Peter Hughes in red and Repco’s Ken Symes at the right. John Davison in Matich A50 ‘004’ behind Oran Park, Gold Star, August 1974 (Neil Stratton)
To have seen FM race it in the US L&M Series in 1974 would have been really something, the A53 showed it could run and beat the best of the Lola T330/2’s in Goss’ hands in Oz. Frank would definitely have given a few folks some curry with all of the teams learnings from its unsuccessful 1973 American campaign.
In the Oran Park form up area with Kevin Bartlett’s Lola T332 Chev behind (autopics.com)
John Goss, Tornado Ford at Catalina Park, Katoomba in Sydney’s Blue Mountains, 1970 (oldracephotos.com)
As a young enthusiast I thought F5000 was a big step up for JG, a mere ‘touring car driver’ in my mind. I was ignorant of his pedigree in real cars though, whilst he started in tourers he quickly progressed to a largely self built, potent Falcon in-line 6 cylinder mid-engined sportscar, the ‘Tornado Ford’.
It was in that he made his name in his adopted Tasmania and later when he moved to the big smoke, Sydney, and Ford Falcon GTHO ‘Series Production’ fame. In F5000 Gossy was ‘on it’ from the start, giving the established aces plenty, he was as ‘quick as his mouth’, legend that he was for saying so little in so many, many words!
What a driver and what a car.
Goss in the McLeod Ford, Falcon GTHO Ph3 at Amaroo Park 1972 (oldracephotos.com)
Credits…
oldracephotos.com, Neil Stratton
Tailpiece…
Goss at Oran Park again in ‘007’, this time the ’75 Tasman round in February 1975, DNF with electrical problems. The first of many livery and body ‘evolutions’ over the years John raced the two A51/3 cars…
Frank Matich, Matich A50 Repco ‘#001/2’ , Shell Corner, Sandown, ‘Victoria Trophy’ April 1972. (Rennie Ellis)
Frank Matich on his way to victory during the first round of the Australian ‘Gold Star’ Series in 1972, Matich A50 Repco ‘001/2’…
The car made its stunningly successful debut at the 1971 AGP the previous November. Matich won the race in a brand new untested car, the first monocoque and first single seater his team built.
In the broader historic context it was the first time an Australian built car had won an AGP since Warwick Pratley’s George Reed Special Ford V8 victory at Narrogin, WA in 1951.
FM reclined in his ‘comfy’ monocoque chair, A50 ‘001/2’. He is talking to Carroll Smith who was to be his crew chief in the upcoming 1973 trip to contest the US L&M F5000 Championship. Here at Wigram, NZ, Tasman Series 1973. (Shane Lee)
Introduction…
This is a bit of a nutty long article.
I tripped over some photos of the 1972 ‘Victoria Trophy’ at Sandown, shots not in the immense F5000 Facebook Groups photo archives, so i thought i would whack a ‘quickie article’ together to show my F5000 FB mates there are still shots to be found.
Then i started thinking about why Matich didn’t win more Gold Stars, he only won in ’72. That led to research on his early ’60’s single seater campaigns which segued into his mid-late sixties sportscar specialism when he wasn’t eligible for the Gold Star, a single seater championship. And finally back to single seaters again in the F5000 period.
Then one needs to look at the Tasman Series as you can’t look at just the domestic Gold Star series in isolation…
Then there are the Matich cars he built and drove which are a key part of the story…and i kept on writing of course.
So! This rather long, eclectic mess comprises;
.The ’72 Victoria Trophy where i started
.A bit about FM’s 1964/5 2.5 litre Brabham single-seater Tasman formula years
.A fleeting summary of his ’66-’69 Sportscar phase, not a lot though as his Matich SR3 and SR4 campaigns deserve more detail, its a story for another time
.Then the substance of FM’s Matich F5000 cars and their racing campaigns with Matich.
In terms of the Matich F5000 detail i have drawn heavily on conversations and a manuscript provided by Derek Kneller, (DK) an Englishman who was a Team Matich engineer/mechanic for the whole of its F5000 period. He literally shipped FM’s first McLaren M10A to Oz and followed it in August 1969 and returned to the UK in 1974 after FM retired and the cars were sold.
The very articulate Derek was in Australia recently for FM’s funeral and recorded a very interesting interview with ‘Pitlane’, there is a link to it towards the end of this article, its well worth watching.
Many thanks Derek! If Australians have seen some of Derek’s material before its because it was included in Aaron Lewis’ excellent article on the Matich F5000 cars published in ‘Australian Musclecar Magazine’ some years ago. Much of the material has not been published before however.
Here we go, its long, so grab a beer, if you get lost come back here to see where you are!…
Successful partnership. Frank Matich and Chief Mechanic, Derek Kneller on the right prior to the start of the NZ GP, Pukekohe 1973. Matich A50 Repco ‘001/2’. (Derek Kneller Collection)
1972 Gold Star and Tasman Series…
Max Stewart took the 1971 Gold Star in his 2 Litre Mildren Waggott, his blend of speed and reliability ‘knocked off’ the F5000’s in the class’ first year as Australia’s National Formula 1 (ANF1).
Even Max saw the writing on the wall, he sold his faithful Mildren and replaced it with a Repco Holden powered Elfin MR5.
The ’72 Series comprised established stars; Matich, Bartlett and Stewart, coming men Muir, Walker, McCormack and Brown and some solid ‘journeymen’.
The ‘form’ drivers were Matich and Bartlett but Muir made a great F5000 debut in the just completed Tasman Series.
FM’s Tasman was disappointing having won the AGP upon the A50’s debut in November 1971. He expected to be more competitive in the Tasman only to watch his Kiwi Driver/Constructor rival Graham McRae win the series in his McLaren based Leda LT27/McRae GM1. McRae won 4 rounds and scored points in 5 of the 8 rounds.
Nice overhead shot by Terry Marshall taken from Wigram’s control tower during the ’72 ‘Lady Wigram Trophy’. FM A50 ‘001/2’ DNF engine. Frank Gardner won the race in his Lola T300. (Terry Marshall)
The Matich team continued to develop their new car, A50 ‘001/2’ throughout the Tasman series as DK recalls ‘…There were some problems in the team during the Tasman. I was homesick and returned to the UK after the ’71 AGP. Whilst Peter Mabey is a top bloke and a great Chief Mechanic most of the rest of the team were not pulling their weight in NZ, doing the all-nighters or whatever was required. So the load fell on Maybey’.
‘Peter had been with FM for 4 years including the build and racing of the SR3 in the ‘States, in fact i was to replace him as Chief Mechanic, but he stayed on once it was clear we were to build a single-seater, something he had not done before. None of that was a drama, we worked well together’.
‘The upshot of the workload and pressure was that Peter left the team after Levin, he had just had enough, as had his wife of the pressures of racing.
FM did the Christchurch and Invercargill rounds with the mechanics.’
‘I had planned and organised with Frank when he was in the UK in late 1971 on Goodyear business, i was working for Surtees, to come back to Oz in the middle of the year. After Peter left Frank rang me and asked that i come back straight away. I arrived in Sydney the Monday after Surfers, Joan (Matich) picked me up from the airport, i went straight to Brookvale and started work on Frank’s joblist for the car. It was at this time the car was given the A50 ‘002’ moniker but it was ‘001’ the same tub; the bodywork was painted in STP colors and the roll bar chrome plated, it appeared different which was a bit of gamesmanship and kept the sponsors happy but it was, and still is the same tub which Bryan Sala now owns. This caused lots of historic grief in later years.’
‘The rear suspension geometry was altered with a lighter rear subframe and raced at Surfers Paradise, where the car was more competitive. The rear suspension geometry was altered again after Surfers (rear roll centre raised) and Frank won the next race at Warwick Farm. The same chassis was used for the rest of the Tasman series, for the successful 1972 Gold Star series and the 1973 Tasman, at its end the car was put on chassis stands at the Brookvale factory’.
Matich won, as Kneller notes at Warwick Farm, his backyard and the circuit at which he primarily honed his cars setup and picked up points in 4 of the 8 Tasman rounds, despite the in team dramas.
‘C’mon Bob, i will belt them all with one of these’; John Harvey saying to Bob Jane? (in the race suit). ‘Piss-orf Harves, we’ve already got that friggin’ Bowin thing and touring cars are the go anyway!’ or words to that effect!? Bob Jane Racing team owner Bob Jane and driver Harvey checking out KB’s ‘brand spankers’ Lola T300 in the Sandown ‘Victoria Trophy’ dummy grid. (Stupix)
Bartlett also scored 4 times in the Tasman and won at Teretonga. The win was impressive, scored in the McLaren M10B previously owned by Niel Allen. 1972 was that chassis’ third Tasman Series. The reliable old beast was replaced by a brand new Lola T300 for the Gold Star Series KB having watched his friend and mentor, Frank Gardner’s progress in the car concepted by FG as a replacement for Lola’s ageing T190/2 series.
Gardner was Lola’s development driver/engineer. The prototype T300 ‘T242’ made its debut at Thruxton on 1 August 1972. By the end of the season the T300 was the fastest thing in Europe. FG took wins at Hockenheim and Oulton Park in September. In addition he won the 1971 British F5000 Championship with points accumulated in both his T192 and T300.
Mind you, the very fast, Leda LT27/McRae GM1 didn’t break cover until after the end of the British F5000 Championship and was THE CAR in 1972, McRae won the Tasman and US F5000 Championships, both with GM at the wheel.
In Australia Lola T300’s were bought by Bartlett, Bob Muir and F2 driver Gary Campbell stepped up into Gardner’s ’72 Tasman entry.
Ansett Team Elfin were represented by both driver/constructor Garrie Cooper, and John McCormack, the latter became more and more competitive with each 5 litre drive.
Elfin owner/designer/constructor/racer, the late, great Garrie Cooper in the Sandown pitlane. ‘Victoria Trophy’ 1972. Elfin MR5 Repco. The ‘Tyrrell nose’ were added to the 2 ‘works cars’ during the ’72 Tasman Series, see the pic below of John Walker’s car to show the original spec nose. (Stupix)
The Elfin MR5 Repco’s made their debut in late 1971 and were developed over the 1972 Tasman Series, new Elfins were also bought by Max Stewart and John Walker. By the seasons end Walker acquired a Matich with which to contest the ’73 US Series, the Matich had the safety fuel tanks of the spec required for the L&M Series. And was a faster car.
John Walker in his Elfin MR5 Repco, Victoria Trophy 1972. (Jay Bondini)
Warwick Brown’s mentor, businessman Pat Burke bought Alan Hamilton’s low mileage ex-Allen spare M10B and made a big impact. Warwick would be a force in F5000/CanAm through to the end of his driving career in both Australasia and the USA.
Matich prepares for practice, this is the gravel form up area. Victoria Trophy 1972. Matich A50 Repco ‘001/2’.(Stupix)
‘Victoria Trophy’ 16 April 1972…
Matich set pole on 61.5 secs nearly 1 second quicker than McRae’s Tasman pole time only 2 months before. Bob Muir was next on 61.9 and was quick with a new Chev, then came Bartlett, McCormack, Campbell, Max Stewart, Warwick Brown and John Walker. Further back were the ANF2 cars.
A crowd of 20000 in beautiful sunshine were in attendance to see 8 F5000’s and 9 F2’s.
Matich got the jump at the start and was never headed, behind him were Muir, Bartlett, McCormack , Brown, Stewart and Walker.
Stewart slipped past WB but almost immediately dropped a valve in his Repco Holden V8, Walker moved forward then Brown pitted having slowed.
Kevin Bartlett leads John Mc Cormack into Shell Corner, during their great dice, Sandown. Lola T300 Chev and Elfin MR5 Repco. (Rennie Ellis)
10 laps down Matich lead Muir by 7 seconds who was well clear of KB who was being challenged by the Elfin duo of McCormack and Cooper.
Campbell clobbered the fence at ‘Torana’ corner, Walker was through to 6th, the race came alive with Mac challenging Bartlett on lap 20.
The pair were at it for 6 laps, nose to tail before the Lola yielded to the Elfin MR5, then KB’s engine lost its edge and he retired with ignition failure.
Bob Muir rolls his immaculate, concourse, positively gorgeous and fast Lola T300 Chev into ‘Dandy Road’ during his great Victoria Trophy drive. (Jay Bondini)
Muir was driving a great race, now Mac set after him, he had maintained a good pace despite being short of water, eventually the Lola started to smoke badly but Bob was able to keep clear of the Tasmanian to maintain 2nd spot.
Behind Mac were Cooper, Walker, Brown and Malcolm Ramsay in the little Birrana 272 Hart Ford F2 car. This was the prototype of a series of cars which dominated the small bore class in Oz for the next few years.
Malcolm Ramsay’s Birrana 272 ‘002’ Ford. ‘Victoria Trophy’ Sandown 1972. It was in this chassis Oz touring car star Peter Brock made his single-seater debut in a low key campaign, largely with the assistance of his father, amongst his Holden touring car commitments in 1973. (unattributed)
‘Australian Motor Racing Annual’ noted Matich’s great win and McCormack’s strong drive in 3rd having been ill for most of the week prior.
Victorian motor trader/racer Clive Millis Elfin 600B Ford F2, ‘Victoria Trophy’ 1972. (Rennie Ellis)
For Matich it was the start of a dominant 1972 Gold Star campaign; he won the series from Kevin Bartlett with wins at Sandown, Oran Park, Surfers’ and Warwick Farm. KB won at Adelaide International and McCormack the Symmons Plains round in his native state of Tasmania.
Frank Matich and the Gold Star…
Arguably FM was Australia’s greatest resident racing driver of the sixties and seventies, certainly he was one of them, despite that he collected only one Gold Star. Why?
FM cut his racing teeth in sportscars in the mid-fifties, quickly progressing through Healeys’ to the Leaton Motors Jaguar C and D Types and Lotus 15 Climax 2.5. Then two Lotus 19’s. He first raced open-wheeler Elfins taking points in the 1963 Gold Star in an Elfin 1.5 Ford, the title won by Bib Stillwell.
First run in the just arrived Brabham BT7A Climax, Warwick Farm. Its race debut was in the ‘Hordern Trophy’ at Warwick Rarm in December 1963. Bruce Richardson by front wheel. (John Ellacott)
He became serious about his open-wheeler program in 1964, buying the latest ‘Intercontinental’ Brabham, the BT7A. He very quickly got to grips with the 2.7/2.5 litre Coventry Climax FPF engined car. Stillwell maintained his earlier model BT4 for ’64 but again won the championship, Matich took one win.
There was little doubt that FM was the quickest local, a driver who had not yet peaked, whilst Bib, having served a long apprenticeship, was atop the mountain, drove well, was well funded via his car dealerships and had well prepared cars driven with more mechanical sympathy than Matich.
FM lacked reliability which was perhaps, if you believe what was written at the time, a function of being hard on his equipment, his cars equally well prepared, but perhaps not quite as well financed as Stillwell’s.
Matich was equal 4th in the Gold Star in 1964 his speed absolutely confirmed in the 1965 Tasman Series, where his year old, well developed car gave nothing away to any of the Internationals or the latest BT11A Brabham’s driven by Graham Hill, Stillwell or Jack himself.
In the best of company, and avoiding the 2.25pm train from Launceston to Hobart…AGP Longford Tasman 1965. Graham Hill Brabham BT11A Climax from Matich in his year old BT7A Climax. (History of the AGP)
‘Frank led from pole in the 1965 ‘Warwick Farm 100’ but Hill and Clark went by on lap 1 is photographer, John Ellacott’s caption. Matich, light blue Brabham BT7A Climax, Hill in the red Brabham BT11 A Climax and Clark in Lotus 32B Climax. (John Ellacott)
He contested the 1965 Gold Star in the BT7A, his best results two 2nds, the title won again by Stillwell, who, having won 4 on the trot retired from racing.
Matich on pole in his Elfin 400/Traco Olds, Spencer Martin in the Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM at the start of the 1966 Australian Tourist Trophy, Longford, March. FM won. (Richard Blanden)
Matich refocused on sports cars, he saw greater commercial opportunities as they grew in stature and importance globally.
The Elfin 400 Olds was the first ‘sporty’ in 1966, then followed his self built ‘400 clone’ Matich SR3 Repco which swept all before it in Australia in 1967/68 and in which FM contested the 1967 Can Am series. Click here for my the article about Frank’s Elfin 400;
Early on in the Australian Tourist Trophy at the Longford 1964 Tasman meeting. Frank Gardner Lotus 23B Ford, Bib Stillwell’s #6 Cooper Monaco Climax, Matich’ victorious blue Lotus 19B Climax and Bob Jane’s Lwt Jag E type. Matich won from Stillwell and Greg Cusack’s Elfin Mallala Ford. (oldracephotos.com/Pat Ellis)
Whereas in 1964/5 he continued to race his Lotus 19B as well as the single-seater Brabham, from 1966 to 1969 FM raced sports cars to the exclusion of openwheelers. Sadly.
So Spencer Martin, Kevin Bartlett, Leo Geoghegan, John Harvey and other Australian top liners in single-seaters didn’t have FM ‘in their sandpit’ from 1966 till later in 1969.
Matich at Warwick Farm in the Repco 4.4 litre ‘620 Series’ V8 powered Matich SR3 in 1968. He raced SR3’s in the Can Am series in 1967, then back in Oz in 1968 whilst the SR4 was being built. (Dick Simpson)
His Matich SR4 powered by Repco’s quad-cam 5 litre ‘760 Series’ V8 was intended as his 1968 Can Am weapon but was finished late and didn’t contest the title won by the McLaren M8A Chevs of McLaren and Hulme.
No way was the SR4, powerful as it was, going to take that title, but it would have been interesting to see how the beautiful handling, spaceframe chassis SR4 would have gone in the ’68 Can Am all the same.
Frank in the SR4 Repco, Warwick Farm 1969. The formidable, oh-so-fast and dominant Matich. Pretty much destroyed sportscar racing in Australia for a few years such was the cars speed! Car acquired by Repco at years end and became a museum piece whilst still the fastest car in Australia regardless of class. (oldracephotos.com/Dick Simpson)
Instead he raced it in Australia in 1969 and ‘blew the rest of the field off the planet’ taking the national title in a display of absolute engineering and driving dominance. The Repco engine behaved, the valve gear resonance dramas which destroyed Jack and Jochen Rindt’s 1968 F1 season not apparent in the ‘760 Series’ 5 Litre variant of the engine which revved lower than its ‘860 Series’ 3 litre little brother.
FM portrait during his 1967 Can Am campaign. Top shot, so often he is lost in his thoughts, racedays are business days after all! Here in happy mode and the going was tough Stateside! (Dave Friedman)
FM dicing with Jim Clark at Lakeside’s Kink 1965. Matich rated this race the greatest he had against the greatest driver he raced against. Dice spoiled by a misfire in the Brabham’s engine. Brabham BT7A and Lotus 32B both 2.5 Coventry Climax FPF powered. (unattributed)
Where Does Matich Fit in The Pantheon of Australian Motor Racing Greats?…
One racing’s endless pub topics of debate is ‘whom is better than whom’ both globally and in our particular countries of origin. I’ve always enjoyed these debates secure in the knowledge its pretty much impossible to compare drivers across eras even if a ‘pure statistical’ approach of races entered/won is taken.
Of more interest and perhaps accuracy are the opinions of ‘expert observers’ of the sport at a particular time commenting on drivers and cars with all relevant factors which should be considered at the time in the context of the time.
‘Australian Motor Racing Annual’, 1968 edition, which did annual driver reviews, had this to say about FM;
‘After being out of the country for 4 months campaigning in the Can Am series (in 1967) Matich came back to take…a comfortable win for his 4th Australian Tourist Trophy. He capped that by taking the outright lap record at Surfers Paradise and Warwick Farm on the heels of the Tasman cars (defeating Chris Amon in sports car races in a Ferrari P4/Can Am 350 in his Matich SR3 Repco) and clocking the fastest time of the day at Sandown. His now quite confirmed maturity has emphasised his professional approach to the sport and there is no doubt now that he is among the worlds top 6 drivers…’
The other two ‘5 star’ drivers that year were Leo Geoghegan and Kevin Bartlett.
Of Geoghegan the review said ‘Now into the young veteran class but still the most polished GP driver in the country..’
Of KB the review said ‘This extraordinarily fast driver young driver with bags of natural ability…did not have a good season. Nevertheless he established himself as a real tiger in GP racing in this country and there is no doubt in equal machinery only Matich could match him for pace…’
The analysis suits me as FM and KB are my two greatest Australian resident drivers of the 1960 to, say, 1975 period.
Who did i consider in the mix? Lex Davison, Stan Jones, Bib Stillwell, Spencer Martin (boy it would have been good to see him peak, he retired before he did in my opinion), Leo Geoghegan, John Harvey, Max Stewart, John McCormack, John Walker and John Goss.
Outside this mix are Jack and Geoff Brabham, Gardner, Schenken, Walker, Jones, Perkins, Warwick Brown and Bruce Allison who ‘took the hard road’ and left the country to seek success, fame and fortune.
‘Top 6 drivers in the world’ is a big call in relation to FM. Or not?
I am speculating, we all have our own list in early 1968 when the magazine was published before Jim Clark’s death. But a Top 6 drivers in ‘The World Best’ then maybe includes; Clark, Hill, Brabham, Stewart, Gurney and Hulme. Top 6 ‘The Worlds Fastest’ maybe includes; Clark, Stewart, Gurney, Rindt, Amon and Rodriguez.
Whichever way you cut it FM was ‘up there’, famously the only member of the Grand Prix Drivers Association who never raced in an F1 World Championship GP.
And someone who had opportunities to race GP cars in Europe but for family and business reasons chose to race Internationally from his Australian base.
The company you keep; pre 1964 AGP drivers briefing shot Sandown. L>R; Tony Shelley, Mel McEwin, Denny Hulme, FM, Jack Brabham, Bib Stillwell, Bruce McLaren, Tim Mayer, Doug Whiteford behind the radio commentator, Frank Gardner and Tony Osborne behind FG holding the helmet. (History of The AGP)
But Times They Were A Changin’…
F5000 was being mooted as Australia’s next ANF1, the 2.5 Litre Tasman Formula waning. If ever a single seater class were tailor made for Matich it was this, and so it was that Matich imported the first F5000 to Australia, his McLaren M10A Chev arrived in Sydney in August 1969. FM’s move was a big one as he imported the car before the decision by CAMS had been made, politically it was smart as it added to the pressure to go the F5000 route.
It’s an arcane point but perhaps the first competition outing of an ‘F5000 car’ in Australia was Jim Abbott’s Hillclimb of his ex-Gardner/Bartlett Brabham BT23D Traco Olds at Lakeland Hillclimb on Melbourne’s eastern outskirts on 31 May 1969?
Melbourne ‘Age’ June 4 1969.
Matich and his McLaren M10A in 1969, certainly Australia’s first ‘real F5000’…
DK recalls; ‘Frank’s first F5000 was a McLaren M10A (# 300-10), coloured pale yellow it arrived in Australia at the beginning of August 1969. I crated the chassis at Frank Williams workshop before leaving for Australia, I arrived on 11 August’.
‘The engine was a Traco Chev on carbs Frank shipped from the ‘States. The chassis arrived at Frank’s Castle Cove workshop on 13 August. Peter Mabey and I assembled it, i made and mounted the rear wing. The car had an LG600 Hewland gearbox. It was first tested at Warwick Farm the Friday before it’s first race, Frank finished 3rd to the Mildren twins, Bartlett and Max Stewart’.
Kris Matich watching dad carefully prepare himself in his new McLaren M10A Chev ‘300-10’, first race for an F5000 in Australia, Warwick Farm September 7 1969. Decals on wings are ‘Rothmans Team Matich’. (Derek Kneller)
Matich practising the M10A Chev before its first WF meeting, Saturday 6 September 1969. Decals on cars side are Repco, Bell and Firestone. (lyntonh)
Click here for YouTube footage of that race at Warwick Farm;
‘The week after the race we stripped the car down and painted the chassis two-tone blue, royal blue at the top, light blue at the bottom. The nose was reshaped to accommodate a lightweight aluminium radiator. The car’s next race was at Calder in outer Melbourne, we tested it a couple of times at Amaroo Park before changing the engine spec to fuel injection and the gearbox to the smaller, lighter Hewland DG300 before the 1970 Tasman Series in which Frank competed together with the 2.5 litre Tasman cars’.
‘The car we took to the Tasman was essentially an M10B in all but name. I built M10A’s at McLaren and built the first M10B, Peter Gethin’s car at McLaren, not Trojan before coming to Australia, so knew exactly what changes to make. Not sure why FM didn’t buy an M10B, but maybe he wasn’t aware of the updated car at the time he placed his order.’
Matich on his way to victory, NZ GP Pukekohe 1970. Flag to flag win fron pole. McLaren M10A Chev. (Garry Simkin Collection/ The Roaring Season)
1970 was a transition year in Australia, whilst that summers Tasman Series was for both Tasman 2.5 and F5000 cars the Gold Star series was for Tasman 2.5 cars onlyalbeit the Australian GP that November was for both categories. Go figure? The choice of our next ANF1 between 2 Litres (Euro F2 became 2 litres in 1972) and F5000 was fraught and so was the transition to F5000 once CAMS made that choice.
With more luck Matich could have taken the 1970 Tasman, he started in NZ with a bang; 3rd in the first round at Levin, he won the NZ GP at Pukekohe and on Wigram’s airfield circuit the following weekend. The team missed the Teretonga round to give them time to rebuild their only Chev engine which had done nearly 1000 miles, before the three Australian races. These were as bad as the Kiwi ones were good! FM was 4th at Surfers, broke an upright at his home track, Warwick Farm and then had a throttle cable break at Sandown’s final round.
Graeme Lawrence won the title, the Kiwi drove the Ferrari Dino 246 Tasman car which won in Amon’s hands in 1969.
‘Feel The Earth Move’; 5 litres of fuel injected Traco Chev blasting along Surfers main straight, FM about to tip the beast flat out in 5th into Surfers daunting right hander under Dunlop Bridge. McLaren M10A 8 Feb 1970. To all intents and purposes car is to M10B spec as per the text. 4th, race won by McRae’s similar car. (Dick Simpson)
Matich sat out the 1970 Gold Star Series, his F5000 McLaren ineligible but he was working hard with Repco to develop an F5000 variant of Holden’s then new ‘308’ V8…
This engine, designed by Phil Irving, also the designer of Repco’s ‘620 Series’ V8 which won Brabham’s 1966 World Titles, promptly won the 1970 AGP, having made its debut in Matich’s new McLaren M10B (#400-10) on 12 July at Warwick Farm.
Historic debut for FM’s very successful and tubbed at least 3 times! McLaren M10B Repco ‘400-10’ and the new Repco Holden F5000 engine. Warwick Farm 12 July 1970. (oldracingcars.com)
Matich won the AGP from pole also taking fastest lap, close to a perfect weekend. Niel Allen’s M10B Chev was 2nd and Graeme Lawrence’ Ferrari Dino 246T 3rd.
DK; ‘The Repco engines were bloody good, extremely good, the engineering precision was excellent. Everything was made by Repco, the rockers were forged steel, it had articulated rockers to resist the bending motion which breaks them, it had cast magnesium rather than aluminium manifolds. It was just a beautifully engineered and built engine. We had about 460bhp at the start, that rose to about 480-490 by Tasman ’73 and the flat plane crank engines gave about 520bhp when they came on stream in the ‘States in early ’73. Other drivers didn’t believe the power we had such was the strength of the engines, they had strong torque characteristics. The problems with Repco were around fiddly things. For example, we were forever changing head gaskets in the field, gaskets lifed to 4 hours had 3 hours use on the dyno when an engine was delivered, meaning a change in the workshop or at a meeting. Checking of valve clearances with limited time before a session or race and then having them leak, that kind of thing.’
‘We always had a Repco engineer, often Ken Symes to look after the engines at race meetings. The engines were great, Repco’s ability to solve problems was excellent but some of their procedures were a bit nutty! Despite wanting dyno-sheets and they produced them of course, we were never given them but the engines had plenty of power and torque.’
Matich in Warwick Farms Esses during his victorious 1970 AGP drive. 22 November 1970. McLaren M10B Repco ‘400-10’. (Rory McDonald)
Happy in victory of the ‘Surfers Paradise 100’; FM, team and Mc Laren M10B Repco. Surfers Tasman round Feb 1971. (unattributed)
The new Matich McLaren M10B Repco looked a good bet for the 1971 Tasman Series but Graham McRae had a very potent M10B of his ownwhich was continually modified by McRae in a successful UK F5000 campaign in 1970.
The Series was dominated by these 2 drivers and Niel Allen who showed his mettle with 2 wins in his M10B. He took the NZ GP at Pukekohe and the Teretonga round with his well developed chassis and powerful Chev, both courtesy of Peter Molloy his race engineer.
McRae took wins at Levin, Wigram and Sandown and the title by 4 points from Matich. Frank had great reliability from his new Repco, if not quite as much ultimate grunt. He won at Surfers, was second at Pukekohe, Wigram and Teretonga and took third at Sandown, he was only out of the points in two rounds.
Frank Matich on his way to 2nd at Laguna Seca, second round of the US L&M Series in May 1971, David Hobbs in another M10B won the race. Here Matich is lapping # 57 Monte Sheldon Eagle Mk5 Chev and # 86 Gregg Paterson McLaren M10A Chev. (Derek Kneller)
Matich took his McLaren, razor sharp after it’s 1971 Tasman campaign to the US L&M F5000 championship, taking in the first two rounds at Riverside on 25 April and Laguna Seca on 2 May.
DK;’ We had gradually modified the car quite a lot including fitting 13 inch front wheels to make use of tyres of the type developed in F1, before we went to the US we increased the cars wheelbase by making changes to the front suspension, the car was very quick there’
He won and finished second in this ‘hit and run campaign’ before heading home to Australia, much to the relief of the series regulars!
DK;’ We took the whole equipe to California, we shipped the car by air and the truck and trailer by sea. We based ourselves at Carroll Shelby’s workshop in LA, it was there we met Carroll Smith who team managed our campaign in the US in 1973. We only had 1 Repco engine though, it was relatively early in the Repco program remember. The engine had done the 2 US meetings and plenty of testing. That and the fact that FM had commitments to sponsors back in Australia meant we had to come home’.
Dale Harvey’s lovely portrait of FM in the newly rebuilt McLaren Repco, now designated M10C in deference to its various Matich mods. ‘Hordern Trophy’ Warwick Farm 5 Sept 1971. DNF in the race won by KB’s M10B Chev. Car has a new tub, built up by the Matich team around the cars bulkheads as part of the ‘education process’ in gaining monocoque experience, the new A50 being built at the same time this car was being rebuilt after its June accident at Oran Park with an errant Lotus 7. (Dale Harvey)
In a busy year Matich contested some rounds of the 1971 Gold Star series. He missed the first round at Lakeside, not yet back from the US, Bartlett took the win in his M10B. He crashed the car before the Oran Park meeting on the Thursday, a Lotus 7 inadvertently getting in his way and doing enough damage for the car to be retubbed.
He bounced back to win at Surfers in August in the newly rebuilt car now dubbed M10C in deference to its various Matich mods and chassis repair in Australia.
He retired at Warwick Farm and at Sandown with jammed throttle slides, Bartlett again winning. He didn’t contest the Symmons Plains and Mallala rounds.
Max Stewart took the title with one win but a mix of speed and reliability gave him a 1 point victory for the title over Bartlett, who won twice.
FM on the last victorious lap of the 1971 AGP at Warwick Farm, upon the Matich A50 Repco ‘001/2’ debut. WF Esses, car looking beautifully balanced. (lyntonh)
Design and Construction of the Matich A50 Repco…
Matich’s McLaren M10B/C was raced in both Australasia and the US, the car an amalgam of his teams ideas and feedback via a development program with Trojan Industries in the UK, the makers of customer McLaren cars.
Matich had learned all he needed to know about ‘what makes an F5000 tick in 1969 and 1970’ ‘We’d developed the McLaren as far as it would go. It was time to move on to something else’, Matich told John Smailes in an interview for ‘The Australian Motor Racing Annual’ in 1971.
In terms of the cars design principles FM’…wanted as durable and maintainable a car as possible with inbuilt strength far greater than many F5000’s being built today’.
Economy of maintenance was important, the Matich ‘triangulated monocoque’ ‘built on the same principles as a space frame-with the same comparative ease of repair and maintenance’.
DK;’ FM, Peter Mabey and designer/draftsman Henry Nehrbecki (HN) and i had endless discussions about what we wanted in the car, its design attributes. We didn’t really consider a side radiator car then. FM liked weight over the front wheels, the radiators up front helped that. He also knew what the tyres needed from his Goodyear testing contract. We went along with what we knew in terms of loadings, feel etc. The tub was neater and easier to make than the M10B, all the fuel was in the side pods, not as we sometimes had to do with the McLaren use the scuttle tanks.’
Frank’s team had the capacity to build their own cars. The very successful SR3 and SR4 spaceframe sportscars were built by Matich and a group of subcontractors in Sydney and in Melbourne for the castings.
DK; ‘Whilst the team had built spaceframes none of them had built a monocoque before. Perhaps Henry had some of that experience in the UK, i’m not sure. When FM bent the M10B at Oran Park we decided to repair the tub at Brookvale to give us some monocoque experience. We unpicked the bent tub down to its bulkheads and used it as an exercise to see how they were made. We leased an industrial riveting unit to be able to use the same type of aircraft rivets as i was familiar with at Mclarens’
The first drawings of the ‘A50’ were commenced by HN and FM in November 1970 a year before its victorious debut in the 1971 Australian Grand Prix. ‘A’ was for Formula A or 5000, ’50’ the number of years at the time the projects prime sponsor, Repco had manufactured automotive components in Australia.
Brand new A50 about to roll onto the trailer for the trip to Warwick Farm, this is the Brookvale workshop where the car was built, November 1971. Of note is the cars shape and front radiator design, the ‘trend setting’ Lotus 72 chisel nose/side rad F1 car appeared in early 1970. Still plenty of front rad competitive cars in F1 at this time mind you. Note also the wide based wishbone front suspension, magnesium CAC built uprights, shocks are alloy bodied Koni’s. (Derek Kneller)
The car comprised ‘…three sections-a detachable front, central monocoque tub and detachable rear holding the engine. Eight bolts hold the rear (A frame) section in place, six bolts secure the front. In the event of an accident or undue flexing it’s a simple matter to bolt on a replacement section’, Matich said.
DK;’ We didn’t have the necessary folders to work with sheet aluminium so John Joyce at Bowins (Bowin Racing Cars in Brookvale) did some of that work and built the unique to A50 ‘001’ front and rear bulkheads which were Tig welded. Peter and i built up the tub and HN made most of the suspension components in nickel bronze. I wanted them Tig’d and grumbled about that, the first suspension and spares were nickel bronze welded’.
The clever part of the cars design was this ‘modular concept’.
During the F5000 program the team built 6 monocoques; 3 at the Brookvale workshop behind the Brookvale Mall shopping centre 17 Km from Sydney, the other 3 were built in a batch by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) at Fishermans Bend, 6 Km from Melbourne in early 1973.
The cars remained competitive throughout the formula by the team ‘playing with’ weight distribution, track/wheelbases and aerodynamics (later cars were side-rad/chisel noses) by the use of different front and rear fabricated sheet steel detachable sections, bellhousings and of course bodywork and wings. All the while using the same tub design from 1971 to 1974. Noting the A53 won the Australian Grand Prix in John Goss’ hands in 1976 and was still competitive beyond that…that their was nothing wrong with the tubs or the underlying design philosophy is clear.
25 gallons of fuel in total, is carried in the tubs side pontoons, the fuel contained in locally made puncture proof foam cells. DK;’ Frank wanted as much of the car as possible made in Australia, he was a real patriot in that way. We could have had the fuel cells made by Goodyear free via our tyre contract but instead had them made by a Dunlop subsidiary about an hour from Melbourne. It also gave us better control of the product’.
Instruments comprised Smiths mechanical tach, oil pressure and water temperature gauges. The gear change for the ubiquitous Hewland DG300 ‘box was on the right and the steering wheel was a ‘half moon’, round at the top and flattened at the bottom, sensibly, to ease access and egress into the car.
Matich A50 ‘001/2’ and McLaren M10C Repco ‘400-10’ in the 1971 WF AGP pit. The Rothmans/Repco machines were raced by Matich with touring car star; although he had quite a bit of single seater background in his past, Colin Bond. See cockpit details referred to in text. Of note the front location points of the radius rods to the rear of the tub, front top wishbone and aluminium sheet monocoque itself, each side pontoon contained 12.5 gallons of Avgas. Valve clearances being checked, RHS rocker cover sitting between the injection trumpets. (Derek Kneller)
The challenges of building cars at the time are interesting, FM ‘…The A50 was an extremely difficult car to build or to build accurately, we went through three draftsmen before we got the car completed’. You can never build a good car from the drawing board. You can build a pretty one-but not one which is functional. You can’t draw in three dimensions, at least not successfully. It’s very much a matter of trial. You build a tub, see if you like it and if you don’t you throw it away. It’s far more expensive but you get a better car in the long run’.
The days of CADCAM were still a long way off in 1971!
The new A50 coming together in the teams Brookvale workshop and about to be wheel aligned for the first time. Sans wings obviously. Car alongside is the teams McLaren M10C Repco, recently repaired and to be driven by Colin Bond in the 1971 AGP. (Shane Lee)
The cars wheels were cast by the CAC in Melbourne; the rears in both 13 and 15 inch diameters and widths of between 15 and 17 inches. The fronts were 13 inches in diameter with widths of between 10 to 11.5 inches.
Front suspension was identical in layout to the SR4; FM ‘unequal length wishbones with the bottom arms reaching forward to the bottom of the radiator and the top arms swinging backwards to the chassis bulkhead’.
The rear suspension used, typically for the day, a single top link, twin parallel links at the bottom, twin radius rods for fore and aft location and coil spring damper units. Shocks were Koni double adjustable alloys and adjustable sway bars were fitted front and rear.
Steering was by Matich rack and pinion, again cast by CAC in Melbourne.
The cars engine was the Repco Holden F5000 unit, designed by Phil Irving, based on Holden’s then new production ‘308’ V8, the engine a story in itself. Matich was Repco’s factory driver, the engines also available for sale or lease to customers, and gave ‘460-470 horsepower at 7200 revs’ at the time.
Rear suspension detail shot in the 1971 Warwick Farm AGP paddock. Of note is the wing design, ‘banana wings’ still a year or so away. Oil reservoir is beside the Hewland DG300 gearbox. Suspension; single upper link, two lower parallel links clear as are coil spring inside which are Koni shocks. 2 Radius rods provide fore and aft location. ‘Butch’ splined driveshafts and big exhausts, Repco engine giving circa 460-470 bhp @ this stage of its development. (Derek Kneller)
Hi-ho, hi-ho its orf to the ‘farm we go. Peter Mabey rolls A50 ‘001/2’ onto the elaborate! Matich Team trailer enroute to a 1971 AGP victory. (Derek Kneller)
1971 Australian Grand Prix, Warwick Farm…
DK;’ The A50 was finished on the Thursday before WF. We did 25 laps bedding in brakes, tyres and the engine and FM simply ran away with the race’.
Graham Howard’s ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix’; ‘If the pundits thought that Frank Matich’s efforts in getting a brand new car to run faultlessly (and fastest) in practice was a remarkable effort, they-along with everyone else at Warwick Farm-were stunned with what he and his A50 did in the race. And that was to lead flag to flag, have no-one seriously challenge him, set the fastest lap, slow by up to two seconds a lap in the later stages and still beat his nearest rival home by a fraction of a second less than 1 minute, or 2/3’s of a lap’.
Bartlett and Alan Hamilton were 2nd and 3rd in their M10B Chev’s. Gardner’s Lola T300 didn’t contest the race after a jammed throttle and ensuing prang in practice damaged the car. John Surtees competed in his own TS8 Chev in a field of depth comprising both F5000 and 2 litre cars which were always quick on the tight, technical, testing WF layout.
The Thursday of the AGP 1971 weekend- posed for the press perhaps (D Kneller)
FM on the way to an historic 1971 AGP victory upon the debut of A50 ‘001/2’. Warwick Farm. (History of The AGP)
Youtube footage of 1971 AGP…
The 1972 Tasman Series I covered in brief earlier in this article. Ditto the 1972 Gold Star. Therefore the A50’s performance in those Championships we have already covered way back at the start of this epic….
The top cars of the 1973 Tasman series here shot at Sandown ‘on the fast gallop’ towards ‘The Causeway’. Matich in A50 Repco, McCormack’s continually developed Elfin MR5 Repco, McRae’s new GM1 Chev and Max Stewart’s new Lola T330 Chev. The only missing car from ‘The Class of ’73’ is a Chevron B24 Chev. (Robert Davies)
Equally good bets for the 1973 Tasman Series were Matich and McRae, the former fresh from his ’72 Gold Star win and continually developed A50 chassis.
McRae took victory in the ultra competitive 1972 US F5000 ‘L&M Championship’ and was armed with a new GM1, an update of the prior years Leda LT27.
And so it proved that McRae took his third Tasman title on the trot, Graham finished with 40 points, John McCormack 2nd on 29 points in the ageing but fast Elfin MR5 Repco with Matich, the ‘factory Repco’ driver 3rd on 27 points in his A50.
FM’s A50 leads Graham McRae’s GM1 on his outside, John McCormack Elfin MR5 and Max Stewart’s Lola T330 into the chicane ‘rumble strip’ on lap one of the 1973 NZGP at Pukekohe. He is in tight as GM has made a lunge on the outside. FM is about to hit the the strip and damage the steering arm, out of the race. (Derek Kneller Collection)
The ’73 Tasman was the most open for years and demonstrated the depth of F5000 fields and plethora of competitive chassis; Allan Rollinson won in a customer McRae at Teretonga, Steve Thompson in a Firestone shod Chevron B24 at a very wet Warwick Farm. Wins for Matich at Surfers Paradise, McRae at Levin, Wigram and Sandown and McCormacks two Elfin MR5 wins at Pukekohe and Adelaide, the first and last races of the series showed no one chassis was dominant.
Max Stewart made a strong debut for the very first Lola T330. ‘HU1’ was Frank Gradner’s prototype, was works entered and supervised by FM during the series. Max was quick, it was a Lola T330 and Jody Scheckter onslaught Matich would encounter in the US in 1973.
Derek Kneller and John Anderson fuel the A50 at Wigram 1973. Ken Symes of Repco. Good shot of the ‘blown diffuser’! and related bracketry to locate it. (Derek Kneller)
DK; ‘At Pukekohe FM was on pole and lead but then had an accident. He put a wheel onto the makeshift chicane, and bent the steering arm, it was a race we should have won. At Levin we were 2nd. At Wigram 4th with an engine misfire. At Teretonga we started on wets, the weather improved, we changed to dry tyres then it rained and FM spun. At Surfers we won from flag to flag. At Warwick Farm Steve Thomson’s Firestone wets won the day, FM was 2nd. At Sandown the car was 4th with a puncture and in Adelaide he retired with fuel pump failure’.
Matich A51 ‘005’ in the Mid Ohio paddock 1973. FM 13th, in chassis ‘006’ in the race won by Jody Scheckter, John Walker 11th in his A50 ‘004’. Notice the dual rear wing setup, inspection holes in side of monocoque, long swept back top front suspension link (compared with the later A52/3). Above the airbox on the other side of the paddock is Walker’s A50 complete with dual rear wing setup. (Terry Capps)
Frank Matich ignored the domestic Gold Star Series in 1973 to mount an onslaught on the US L&M F5000 Championship in two new cars, Matich A51 Repco’s…
The new cars incorporated all of the teams knowledge racing the A50, FM’s role as a tester for Goodyear racing tyres, for whom he was the Australian distributor and the market intelligence gained in the ’73 Tasman Series.
He knew the relative strengths of the Chevron B24/8, Lola T330 and McRae GM1, his primary competitors stateside that year. The challenge was to build a car to beat them and ship it to California before the first round on 23 April at Riverside.
Kneller recalls the build of the A51’s;
‘In later 1972/early 1973 the Commonweath Aircraft Corporation (CAC) in Melbourne built 3 new chassis’ using drawings supplied by Matich. The CAC had spare capacity as the Vietnam War was over, they did a lot of aircraft maintenance work during the conflict. We knew them well from the castings they had made for us back to the SR3 days. After the ’72 Tasman the A50 was in Melbourne for the motor show. We then took the car to CAC at Fishermans Bend for them to look at, they quoted a price about a third of what it would cost us inhouse so we had them make the tubs for us’.
‘The first arrived in November ’72. We started to build up a new car for the ’73 Tasman, FM even got a logbook for ‘005’ from CAMS but the project ran late mainly due to fuel cell delays so we used A50 ‘001/2′ again in the ’73 Tasman, which still had done maybe 15 meetings. No car was faster in Australia at the time’.
‘The tubs were basically identical to the A50 chassis (all 3 of which were built at the Matich, Brookvale, Sydney workshop) apart from a different riveting system; the skins were dimpled with a countersunk hole and countersunk rivets used to give a stronger joint and also a flush finish’.
‘These chassis were also lighter and torsionally stiffer than the previous ‘Brookvale’ monocoques, and came with a grey anodised finish to the inside skins’. Two of the three new tubs were built into A51’s, leaving one spare.
A51’s in build early 1973 in Matich ‘shop Military Road, Cremorne, Sydney. You can feel the intensity just looking at this shot, there is so much going on! Cars from front to back; A51 ‘006’, A51 ‘005’ and the much raced A50 ‘001/2’, still in its post Tasman ’73 ‘warpaint’. Note CAC built A51 tubs, inspection hatches open awaiting fuel cells. Note also rear ‘A frames’ to support 5 litre ‘flat plane crank’ Repco Holden 520bhp V8. Hewland DG300 ‘box. (Derek Kneller)
Derek continues’ A51 Repco ‘005’was built in early 1973 in the Matich Racing Cremorne workshop in Military Road. It had a chrome roll hoop, the radius of the bend was smaller than the A50, (making the car easy to pick in relation to an A50 to the trained eye).
There were changes to the front and rear suspension geometry and a redesigned rear lower suspension mounting frame compared to the A50.
The radiators were the same light weight aluminium GM rads previously used on the A50. Onboard fire extinguishers were fitted.
All suspension components were finished black by a chemical process in house, there was a slightly different shape nose with a larger radiator inlet at the front. The car also had a lower rear wing mounted behind the gearbox approx 150mm off the ground with the exhaust blowing over its top surface.’
‘A new brand of wheel was used in the USA, these ‘Mel Mag’s’ were English and were delivered to the Riverside first round of the series, they were lighter than the Matich cast magnesium wheels as used on the A50.’ The Matich wheels and uprights were cast by CAC in Melbourne. ‘A51 ‘006’was built alongside ‘005’, it had a black roll hoop and was of identical spec to ‘005.’
‘Both chassis’ were taken to the USA. ‘005’ was shaken down for a few laps at Warwick Farm before going to the US, ‘006 was not. ‘005’ was used in the first 2 races but after Laguna we raced ‘006’ as well.’
‘We were the only team in the series that had a spare car. Both cars were prepared for FM’s use at all 5 races. Frank set up and practiced both cars at all meetings, Vern Schuppan drove chassis ‘006’ in practice at Watkins Glen’.
Riverside ’73 pits. ‘Both cars stripped of their crown wheel and pinion assy’s so a ‘high tech treatment’ could be applied by an aerospace company in LA, the cars back together by the next day’. (Derek Kneller)
Riverside ’73 garage again. John Anderson behind the rear wheel of ‘006’ Derek on the front of ‘005’. (Derek Kneller)
The 2 brand spanking new A51’s ready to roll in the Riverside pitlane. ‘006’ closest has never run, ‘005’ did a few laps of Warwick Farm before leaving Oz. (Derek Kneller)
Gordon Kirby made the following observations about the Australian onslaught in his ‘Autosport’ Riverside race report; ‘Frank Matich’s capacious Early Racing Enterprises transporter contained two completed, brand new Matich Repco A51’s and like Brian Redman went equally well with each car…The A51’s have a couple of extra inches in the wheelbase as well as an engine which is half an inch lower than in the A50. With Carroll Smith directing the Penfolds Wine sponsored team, there was a lot of experimentation going on throughout the week. The cars went from brand new to fully race worthy in an incredibly short space of time; so much that Matich didn’t select which of the equally competitive cars to race until Sunday morning’.
A51 ‘005’ behind the Riverside pit wall 1973. (Derek Kneller)
In fact Matich’s ability to choose between 2 cars of which to race, FM wanting to compete in each of the 2 heats with different cars, and then make his chassis choice for the final, lead to ‘The Matich Rule’ to disallow just what FM proposed!
The A51’s were fast, but the ‘game changing’ Lola T330 (and it’s 1974 T332 successor) was the greatest F5000 car ever. Full stop.
Coupled with the speed of the Lola’s and the individual genius of Jody Scheckter in Ron Tauranac’s Trojan T101, Team Matich ran into engine problems, the Repco Holden engined cars oil systems not scavenging properly on the fast, long radius turns not encountered in Australasia.
Matich A51’s ‘006’ and ‘005’ in the Watkins Glen pitlane. A Chevron B24 behind. ‘On ‘006’ the lower rear wing was removed and an extra oil coller added to try to sort the engine problems’. DK in yellow t-shirt. (Derek Kneller)
Pre race prep in the Watkins Glen garages, lower rear wing being removed from ‘006’ in front. Flat plane crank engine fitted.(Derek Kneller)
‘006’ at Watkins Glen from above sans lower rear wing. June 1973. (Derek Kneller)
A51 ‘006’ and ‘005’ in the Watkins Glen pitlane. (Derek Kneller)
Derek Kneller well recalls long nights coping with the dramas in the US;
‘The cars did not perform as expected we had a handling problem on the latest spec Goodyear’s and the bumpy nature of the US circuits. The tyres weren’t identical to those we tested before going to the US. FM wasn’t the only driver testing the F5000 tyres, the final production tyres we were presented were different, so we were playing catch-up. The cars were still as fast as any at Riverside’.
‘The biggest problem was engine related; the higher cornering speeds of the US circuits threw up a scavenge problem in the Repco engines, this seemed to get worse as the season went on and at Watkins Glen the crankshaft bearings were damaged in both cars during practice and both were withdrawn from the race.’
‘We never actually blew an engine, the bearing wear was detected in routine checks by dropping the oil pans off the engines at the end of each day. It was important we didn’t blow engines given Repco’s push into the US at the time. Frank could feel the loss of power through the corners and then a surge of power ‘like a handbrake being released’ FM said as the car came off some corners. He compensated to save the engines by using less rpm’s, 7000 rather than 8000 which of course reflected in the lap times. To save the engines we also did less testing.’
‘At the start of the season the A51 was as competitive as the T330 but its development accelerated with so many drivers and teams running and experimenting with the T330’s’.
‘Straight after the race weekend at Watkins Glen chassis ‘006’ was flown back to Sydney with me so that the handling and engine problems could be sorted. Chassis ‘005’ was left in the States with the rest of the team.’
‘On returning to Sydney the engine problem was overcome, an additional scavenge pump was added to scavenge oil from above the camshaft. Oil was being retained in the valley above the camshaft in the longer fast corners causing oil starvation in the oil tank, leading to bearing failure.’
After the engine problem was sorted it was decided to redesign the chassis to overcome the handling deficiencies, hence the A52 design’.
‘The best A51 result was 5th at Michigan although Frank ran in the first 3 at the Riverside first round until he had gear shift problems’.
Brian Redman opened the T330’s account at the season opening Riverside round, Matich was 17th. The team entered the Michigan, Mid Ohio and Watkins Glen rounds, in the latter the cars did not start as Kneller related. Jody Scheckter took the series driving the Trojan T101, he also drove a T330 in two rounds. The Trojan was good but Jody was better, he made his GP debut in a Mclaren M23 later in 1973.
That year Aussies John Walker, Matich A50, Bob Muir, Kevin Bartlett and Max Stewart all Lola T330 mounted contested some L&M rounds. Their results and experiences would be an interesting story in itself, perhaps one Kevin Bartlett would be prepared to relate in a later article. Its a tangent too far for this already long piece.
Matich A52 Repco ‘006’ on test at Warwick Farm in September 1973. First Matich F5000 with side rads and chisel nose. Repco ‘flat plane’ crank 520bhp engine. Melmag wheels. The thing that struck me about this car when i saw it race at Surfers in 1973 was just how small a car it was. It had the same wheelbase as a T330 but it was beautifully packaged. (Derek Kneller)
The Short Life of Matich A52 Repco ‘006’, late 1973…
As DK relates above apart from the engine dramas, there were improvements to the chassis needed to remain competitive, the game had quickly moved on from the early Tasman months of 1973 as the US teams developed their cars from the production spec delivered by their English makers.
DK; ‘The A52 was built using the A51 ‘006’ chassis and rear end but with a longer engine/gearbox adaptor (bellhousing) giving a 2inch longer (50mm) wheelbase than the A51, this was in line with the Lola T330′.
‘The radiators were moved to the sides of the chassis along with modifications to the engine water pump so that each radiator cooled the opposite side cylinder head and were shrouded with aluminum ductings’.
‘The oil tank was repositioned behind the lefthand radiator (from beside the cars gearbox, outside its wheelbase) and the battery moved from the front of the car to above the bellhousing’.
At the front of the chassis the steering rack was moved from the chassis itself to a heavily redesigned front subframe. The top pick up point for the shock absorber/spring assembly was raised approx 1 1/4 inch (30mm) along with a redesigned lower wishbone and new front uprights. These mods gave an increase in front suspension movement’.
‘To complete the design a chisel shaped nose made from fibre glass was added, the complete car was about 10 Kg lighter than the A51’.
‘The A52 was tested extensively by Frank at Warwick Farm during late July/early August 1973 with a hope of returning to the US series, but a problem with the sponsors in the US prevented this happening’.
Matich in A52 ‘006’ from Bruce Allison’s Bowin P6 Ford Hart ANF2 car during the Glynn Scott Memorial Trophy Gold Star round at Surfers Paradise in September 1973. DNF and 4th with Bruce soon an F5000 star (D Kneller)
‘The A52’s only race was the Gold Star race, the ‘Glynn Scott Memorial Trophy’ at Surfers Paradise on 2 Sepember 1973 when fitted with a flat plane crank Repco F5000 engine. This gave over 520hp and sounded like a Cosworth DFV on steroids! (The two-plane Repco engine gave circa 495bhp@7000rpm)
FM led the race setting fastest lap before retiring with battery failure, the high frequency vibration from the engine shook the internals of the Varley battery apart.’
‘The car was comprehensively destroyed in a test session at Warwick Farm in late September whilst driven by Bob Muir. The chassis was beyond repair, both outer and inner skins were damaged. The photos show damage from the car hitting the water-sprinkler system at Warwick Farm, 50mm diameter steel pipes at great speed’.
‘Frank was not happy as he had just left the circuit after a successful session and had let Bob have a drive to get another drivers opinion of the car, Bob had been driving a Lola T330 Chev in the US’.
The rooted A52 ‘006’ back at the Matich workshop. (Derek Kneller)
Another angle, tub clearly beyond economic repair. This tub at some stage was sent back to CAC in Melbourne, having sat at the back of the Matich workshop in Cremorne until 1977/8, but was never seen again. (Derek Kneller)
The death of the A52 was a bummer to say the least. Muir was happy to have had the prang in the strong Matich tub not a T330! Clearly the team were heading in the right direction with a car that was as fast or faster than the the best in Australia at the time; both Bartlett and Stewart were racing their T330 Chevs at Surfers on the day FM was running away with the ‘Glynn Scott Memorial Trophy’ and both were razor sharp having, like Matich, been racing in the US L&M.
The A52 was undeniably fast, but the team now needed to build another car and again had the chance to make further changes from the A52 to a 1974 Tasman Championship contender, the series commencement only a few short months away at Levin, NZ on January 5 1974.
Frank Matich testing his brand new car in considerable pain, at Oran Park on 1 February 1974. Matich A53 Repco ‘007’. Compact dimensions, beautiful contemporary lines, side rads and oil tank behind LH side radiator duct clear to see. (unattributed)
The 1974 Tasman Series Competition and Frank’s contender, the Matich A53 Repco ‘007’…
John Mc Cormack won the first of his Gold Star’s in 1973 with fast, consistent performances in his evergreen, cleverly developed Elfin MR5 Repco. Garrie Cooper had built a new car, the Repco Leyland powered MR6, a superb, small car styled in the mould of the Tyrrell 006. The aluminium block V8 was around 100 pounds lighter than the Holden but, as was later to be revealed the weight reduction was offset by the inherent deficiencies of the engine itself. The MR6 would find success in 1975, but Repco Holden engined. In the meantime Mac’s old Elfin was a race winner in NZ in 1974.
Bartlett, Walker and Stewart returned with their Lola T330’s. Unfortunately KB’s campaign was cut short by a Pukekohe shunt which broke his ankle, leg and hip. KB’s return to racing and his win at Bathurst with John Goss the following October was as heroic as Warwick Brown’s return to racing in the first production Lola T332 ‘HU27’ that summer of ’74.
Warwick was hobbling around the Surfers paddock at the Gold Star meeting in September ’73, no way did i think he would be back in harness in January given his physical state then. But he was and won the final Tasman round in Adelaide. Former Kiwi Tasman champ Graeme Lawrence was back in another new T332 having run a 2 Litre Surtees in 1973, and himself survived an horrific accident in his then new Lola T300 in 1972.
Lawrence, Bartlett and Brown were all foundation members of the ‘Lola Limpers Club’ and fortunately all are well and truly still with us!
Graham McRae was back in the GM2, a superb ‘McLarenesque’ chisel nosed, side radiator car, which convincingly won the 1973 AGP at Sandown on 4 November. FM didn’t contest the ’73 AGP as Bob Muir had destroyed his mount, the A52.
Count Rudi van der Straten was back again with Teddy Pilette and Peter Gethin in Chevron B24’s, both cars were converted to the latest B28 spec during the Tasman.
Perhaps the Series was slightly ‘skinnier’ in terms of international representation than 1973 but there was still a formidable field of top class drivers in the best F5000’s of the day.
Again Derek Kneller provides his firsthand account of building the Matich A53…
‘The car was built using the final CAC tub and was a refinement of the A52.
Both the front and rear suspension geometry was changed having longer wishbones to smooth out roll and bump conditions. The front subframe was redesigned to accomodate an improved steering rack mount and another inch was added to the bellhousing to give a longer wheelbase.
Matich A53 ‘007’ front suspension and subframe detail, Oran Park Feb 1974. Suspension upper and lower wishbones, coil spring/Koni dampers, adjustable roll bar. Cast magnesium uprights, Melmag wheels. Lockheed calipers grabbing Repco discs. Front subframe referred to in the text clear, note the front lower forward wishbone mount to the frame. Quality of fabrication and build of all these cars superb. (Dale Harvey)
New radiators to improve engine cooling along with new, longer radiator ducts were fitted.
The car was fitted with Repcos’ latest flat plane crank engine. (giving circa 520bhp and the big, solid midrange torque which always differentiated the Repco Holden engines characteristics from the Chevs)
Oran Park, practice before the Tasman round. Lots of people in attendance for the cars first public run. Derek Kneller by the RF Goodyear. Fuel vaporisation on this test covered in text. Rear suspension; single upper link, twin parallel lower links, twin radius rods and coil spring/Koni dampers, adjustable sway bar. You can just see the top of the inboard mounted disc. Hewland DG300 ‘box. Matich A53 Repco ‘007’. (Dale Harvey)
The fuel system was redesigned, the mechanical fuel pump was moved from its original position behind the distributor drive to a position similar to a Cosworth DFV, low down on the front of the engine driven by a narrow toothed belt from the front of the crankshaft.
The A53 weighed 1361lbs (618 kilos) with oil, water and 1 gallon of fuel.
It was a superb looking racing car, as good as any F1/F5000 in the world at that time, a testament to Frank Matich’s engineering prowess and all built in Australia.’
The 1974 Tasman Series and Frank Matich’ Retirement…
DK; ‘Frank had been thinking about retirement during the last couple of months of 1973 whilst his wife, Joan was ill, he had placed ads in Racing Car News to sell all of the cars. The A53 was extensively tested by Frank in the run up to the 1974 Tasman series, but was not raced in New Zealand due to Joan’s illness. FM sent me to Pukekohe to check out the opposition’.
The Kiwi Tasman rounds were won by John Walker, he took the season opener at Levin in his Lola T330 Repco, Gethin then won at Pukekohe in the VDS Chevron. McCormack’s Elfin MR5 Repco won the NZ GP at on the Wigram airfield circuit and Max Stewart won at Teretonga in his Lola T330 Chev. The series was wide open when the cars arrived in Sydney for the fifth round at Western Sydney’s Oran Park circuit. Warwick Farm, very sadly ran its last Tasman meeting the year before and had ceased to be used for motor racing.
The A53’s race debut was the first Australian Tasman round at Oran Park on 3 February.
Kneller…’Early in the week before the race Frank had an accident with a small Honda generator on his boat, burning his left hand and his chest. He was electrocuted and was lucky not to have been killed, only the generator stalling prevented that. He practiced the car at Oran Park on the Friday but decided not to race as he was having trouble effectively driving the car and concentrating, although his times would have put him towards the front of the grid’.
Matich tests his brand new car in considerable pain at Oran Park. Matich A53 Repco ‘007’. He was quick despite the pain he was in from a boating accident. (Dale Harvey)
‘Bob Muir was offered the drive, his times in free practice were very competitive. During official practice the engine suffered from fuel vaporisation. During pit stops the mechanical fuel pump was absorbing heat from the circuit tarmac causing a vapour lock in the fuel system. There was also an oil pump problem, Bob qualified at the back of the grid 5.5 seconds slower than his best time on Friday’.
Another Oran Park test shot this time the front of the luvverly new Matich. Matich in towelling hat with Kneller behind RR wheel. (Dale Harvey)
‘The engine was changed overnight and a heat shield added around the fuel pump. Bob’s times in the Sunday morning warm up were on the pace of the front runners (low 40seconds). He started the race well and was up to eighth by lap 6 but retired around lap 70 with fuel pressure problems again’.
The following week Frank had recovered enough to race at Surfers Paradise although he was still suffering from the burns to his hands. In a strong, gritty performance, he qualified and finished third behind the two Chevron B24/28’s of Pilette and Gethin.
Matich cruising thru the Sandown paddock in his tractable Repco engined device, February 1974. He is wearing the latest ‘small window’ Bell ‘Star’ helmet, he was Australian distributor for Bell as well as Goodyear race tyres. Matich A53 ‘007’. (oldracephotos.com/Hammond)
‘For the third round at Sandown a new flat plane crank Repco engine was installed. Frank qualified second to Gethin and led the race for 15 laps. He was leading by over 6 seconds when the water pump pulley worked loose and the engine overheated. Frank pitted and retired to save the engine’.
‘The last ’74 Tasman race was at Adelaide International Raceway. A fresh flat plane engine was installed and in practice Frank was behind Max Stewart (FM 49.8 to MS 49.7). Frank ran second for the first 10 laps before spinning on some oil and falling back to seventh, he drove back up to second by lap 51 but a misfire set in when he was only 2.5 seconds off the lead, he then spun again while lapping a slower car, eventually finishing fourth’.
Start of the Adelaide International Tasman round. Matich on the outside of John Walkers T330, Stewart’s T33o behind FM, a VDS Chevron on the far outside and Brown’s T332 behind that car. (lyntonh)
‘That was Frank Matich’s last race in his own make of car. About 2 weeks after the end of the Tasman he called me to his house and told me that he was going to retire from racing and was going to close down Matich Racing. He said since the boat accident he had been suffering from bad headaches and lack of concentration and thats why he spun both in practice and the race in Adelaide. Along with other matters he thought it was time to retire from racing’.
‘The A53 with the latest Repco engines were as competitive as any other F5000 car at the time and we had not scratched the surface with its development. We had the car and enough spares to race the A53 in any series in the world, these spares were made in December ’73/January ’74 so i don’t think FM had made up his mind to retire until after the ’74 Tasman ended. Repco was not the main cause, their announcement to withdraw was not made until April, long after the discussion FM and i had’.
Melbourne newspaper announcement of Repco’s April 1974 withdrawal from racing. (Derek Kneller Collection)
‘All the cars were put up for sale in the May 1974 edition of the ‘Racing Car News’, the A50 ‘001/2’ Gold Star/Australian GP winning car was advertised as a rolling chassis for $A3950. The A51 ‘005’ rolling chassis $5950 and the A53 ‘007’ rolling chassis $9750.
Matich the racer; he has the ‘faraway eyes’ on, pondering setup changes to get more speed from A50 ‘001/2’, McRae is setting the pace and their is a need to find more speed. Wigram, NZ 1973. (Shane Lee)
Conclusion…
When Frank Matich retired he was 39 years old and still at the peak of his powers as both a racer and constructor of racing cars. He was without doubt and objectively showed he was as quick as the world best in the sixties when he raced against them in equivalent cars.
His sportscars were the fastest in Australia and his F5000’s as fast if not in some years faster than the worlds best.
In that context he retired too early, Derek Kneller says the A54 was being concepted when FM retired.
Personally i like my heroes to retire at their peak rather than the back ‘of the curve’. If FM had not peaked he was perhaps close to it.
The family business was motor racing, FM’s wife Joan was very much involved from start to finish. Always very much a family man as well as ‘obsessively focussed’ as ‘successful racers’ are in any field of life, it was time to give his family of six the time now they needed and deserved, whilst continuing the businesses involved in motor racing if not the actual building and racing of the cars themselves.
FM was never far from the scene and Matich cars remained successful particularly in John Goss’ hands, he won the 1976 AGP at Sandown in A51/3 ‘005’ against much younger cars.
No longer with us, Frank Matich died on 11 May 2015. FM was a man of immense achievement, not without his faults mind you, and a great Australian.
I hope i have conveyed some of that.
Somehow this seems an appropriate photo to end this article. Very much a devoted couple, Joan and Frank Matich, car the McLaren M10B, here promoting their sponsors and the family business in Australian ‘Womans Day’ magazine in 1970. (Derek Kneller Collection: Australian ‘Womans Day’ 1970)
Etcetera…
‘Pitlane’ Interviews with Derek Kneller.
More Photos.
‘Winners are Grinners’, FM in 1972. (unattributed)
Matich A50 ‘003’, March 1972 before export to the US and the team which built it L>R; Jim Hunter mech, Scott McNaughton mech, Charlie Munro machinist, Henry Nehrbechi designer, Arcadia mech/fabricator, Bob Riley manager/mech, Derek Kneller chief mech, John Bug machinist. Missing is Bob Kube machinist. (Derek Kneller)
‘Council of War’ during the 1971 Tasman. L>R; Don O’Sullivan, John Cannon, FM and an unidentified fella. Car is Mclaren M10B Repco. (unattributed)
FM in his Brookvale workshop with A50 ‘001/2’. Nice detail of cars cockpit, dash full of Smith’s instruments and distinctive ‘half’ steering wheel. (Derek Kneller Collection)
Bibliography…
Australian Motor Racing Annual 1973, Manuscript from Derek Kneller, The Nostalgia Forum, John Smailes article in ‘Australian Motor Racing Annual 1972’, Graham Howard ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix’, oldracingcars.com
Photo Credits…
Graham Howard ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix’, Rennie Ellis, Stupix, Robert Davies, Jay Bondini, lyntonh, Derek Kneller Collection, Dale Harvey, Dick Simpson, oldracephotos.com, Facebook F5000 Group photo archives, Derek Kneller Collection, Shane Lee, Terry Marshall, John Ellacott, Wirra
Tailpiece…
FM atop both his tool of trade and ‘trading stock’. Both distributor and tester of Firestone and later Goodyear race tyres in Australia. Circa 1968. (wirra)
John Goss and pit crew 1974, Amaroo Park. Aunger Wheels, a Goss sponsor photo shoot. Car is Ford Falcon XA GT351 Coupe ‘Sports Sedan’.(unattributed)
Australia has had quite a few drivers who have been stars in both open-wheelers and touring cars at the elite level; Kevin Bartlett, John Bowe, Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes and John Goss spring to mind…
Gossy left his adopted Tasmania with guts, determination, self built Tornado Ford sportscar and made his way to Sydney. Before long his speed and ‘gift of the gab’ secured support from Rockdale, Ford dealer Max McLeod. This took him all the way to the top of Australian motor racing, he and Kevin Bartlett won the Bathurst 1000 in 1974 in a Ford Falcon XA GT. Goss also won the F5000 Australian Grand Prix at Sandown in 1976.
He is the only man to have won both events.
John Goss, Matich A53 Repco, Sandown Tasman 1975 . Goss won the race from John McCormack Elfin MR6 Holden and Max Stewart Lola T330 Chev. Fencing behind destroyed by the lap 1 crash of John Walkers Lola T332. (Robert Davies)
Three Vignettes of John Goss, all at Sandown Park stick in my mind…
The first was at the Sandown Tasman meeting, my very first motor race in January 1972. I was there for the F5000’s the ‘Taxis’ of no great interest to me but i happened upon John Goss near his Falcon GTHO Series Production car in the paddock, he was holding fort with a group of supporters or sponsors.
They were enthralled by his experiences. At 14 i was amazed at the atrocities he performed on the Queens English, it would have been impossible to use more words to describe the simplest of things, all delivered with the most nasal-‘strine accent. Imagine Paul Hogan on steroids, but more nasal and you have nailed the Gossy accent! As one wag put it after a JG Bathurst win; his victory speech was longer than the race itself!
He won the South Pacific Touring Car Championship, the touring car series support of the 1972 Australian Tasman Rounds, the plucky privateer beat the works teams. Takeouts; he was quick and gifted on the commercial side of the sport.
Goss doing his thing in the Phase 3 ‘XY’ Falcon GTHO with its brand new for Bathurst 1972 ‘Globe’ alloy wheels. Oran Park 1972. No front spoiler. (Vic Hughes)
The second was at the same meeting the following year when he blazed a trail with the Ford Falcon XA GT ‘Superbird’ or 2 door coupe variant of Fords new series of cars.
Pretty much everyone else stuck with the previous model, ‘XY’ Falcon GTHO’s for one more year, including the Broadmeadows factory until the Manufacturers Championship in the second half of the year. Ford and Holden, the latter with their Torana V8 SLR5000 and L34, had big oil surge problems with their engines; a function of greater grip with the wider tyres allowed and inadequate wet sump arrangements. (dry sumps stupidly not allowed by the regs).
Goss’ big yellow fat tyred car looked and sounded sensational. He was showing the way with it and getting lots of publicity, but he and long-suffering mechanics were up to their armpits in alligators with mechanical mayhem. Takeouts; he was prepared to make his own calls and not follow ‘the herd’ and had good developmental and mechanical skills.
The final impression was of his absolute competitiveness as a driver, his win in the 1976 AGP at Sandown.
I was one of 38000 people enthralled by his battle with Vern Schuppan in Garrie Cooper’s latest Elfin MR8 Chev. Vern broke a valve spring early in the race, John was in one of two Matich’s he acquired when Frank Matich retired from the sport in 1974. John’s A53 was actually the older of the two cars he bought, an updated A51 chassis # ‘005’, the car Lella Lombardi raced in two Gold Star rounds in 1974, Goss acquired it in 1975.
The car wasn’t in the first flush of youth by then, Goss drove superbly to take the win by half a second from Schuppan, then a driver of world class. In my mind Vern’s slightly down on power engine was compensation of JG not having the latest of equipment.
Goss in his Matich A51/53 ‘005’ Repco during his wonderful 1976 AGP winning drive at Sandown. He is turning into ‘Dandenong Road’, Marlboro Hill in the background. (unattributed)
Many saw Goss, born in the South Eastern Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris on 2 May 1943 as a Touring car driver. Whilst he started his career after qualifying as a mechanical engineer, in the Island state, he moved to Tasmania whilst a child, in a Holden FJ and Ford Customline he soon progressed to the self built Tornado Ford sportscar.
The car was powered by a Ford Falcon 170cid 6 cylinder engine which was harnessed via a VW gearbox. oldracephotos Lindsay Ross recalls ‘A Falcon XL sedan provided the motor, triple Webers were fitted in 1967, the steering wheel was fashioned out of a yacht centreboard. The Lotus 32B wheels were purchased from the Sternbergs who ran the ex Clark car in Tasmania in 68-69’.
John Goss makes the race debut of his Tornado Ford, Baskerville, Tasmania 1966. Car sans the attractive body which came later, Ford straight 6 on single carb, steel wheels. Natty race-suit doubled as post race pub attire! (David Keep/oldracephotos.com)
‘First outing for the Tornado was at Baskerville in 1966. One of my first motorsport memories is a handicap race there in 1967 which only had 2 cars start. Goss in the Tornado off scratch and Lyn Archer in the Elfin Catalina 1.5 pushrod. Both drivers absolutely flat stick from the start over 6 laps and less than half a car length across the line at the finish with Goss just ahead. Great stuff from two very good drivers.’
John Goss in his Tornado Ford, Longford 1968. Proudly Tasmanian by the look of the decal on the cars rear…despite being born in Melbourne! Probably the Monday and coming down from the Water Tower. (Stephen Dalton Collection)
Hoping to progress in racing Goss took the Tornado to Sydney, with some success scoring points in the Australian Sports Car Championship in 1969 and 1970 (10th in both years).
He sought support from various sponsors Max Mcleod initially provided some money to help run the Tornado, Goss convinced McLeod to enter Series Production racing in 1969, this class exploding in public consciousness at the time with some phenomenal road cars built by Holden, Ford and Chrysler.
Goss made his Bathurst 500 debut in 1969 driving a Ford Falcon GTHO, co-driver Dennis Cribbin crashed the Falcon at Forrest Elbow. In 1970 Goss set the fastest lap during the event in his XW Falcon GTHO Phase II.
The following year he won two rounds of the Toby Lee Series at Oran Park against strong opposition such as Colin Bond and Fred Gibson.
Goss exiting Murray’s Corner Bathurst 500 1973. His Ford Falcon XA GT, shared with Kevin Bartlett is about to swallow the Leo Leonard/Gary Sprague Valiant Charger. (Vic Hughes)
John gained open-wheeler experience in 1971 at the wheel of the very first Birrana. Tony Alcock returned from a stint in Europe and designed and built the first Birrana, the F71 Formula Ford in Sydney and enlisted John’s help to develop and race the car.
Later Alcock moved to Adelaide and built over 25 cars in partnership with Malcolm Ramsay which won multiple championships in FF and F2, a story for another time.
John Goss in the very first Birrana, the F71 FF ahead of 2 Bowin P4a FF’s, Oran Park 1971. (lyntonh)
Goss won the 1972 South Pacific Touring Car Series and the 1972 Sandown 250 endurance race,both in Series Production Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III’s. He also put his Falcon on the front row of the grid at the 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500, qualifying second fastest behind the Works GTHO of Allan Moffat. Engine failure after splashing around for 24 wet laps ended his race
Goss in his Ford Falcon XY GTHO Ph3, Hell Corner Bathurst 1972. Peter Brock won that year in a Holden Torana LJ XU-1. (Rod MacKenzie)
The Series Production class was replaced by Group C for 1973,it allowed greater modifications than before. Commercially, Goss had ongoing sponsorship from Shell, Max McLeod as well as factory assistance from Ford Australia who provided purpose-built XA racing chassis’.
As noted above, Goss was the first to race the XA Hardtop in the 1973 ATCC, before the Works team who used a modified Phase III GTHO during the Australian Touring Car Championship which Allan Moffat won for them. They switched to the Hardtop for the Endurance races, the ‘Manufacturers Championship’ later in the year.
Goss and open-wheeler/touring car ace Kevin Bartlett teamed up for the 1973 Bathurst and qualified on pole. Goss started and built up a good lead which was kept until he was involved in a crash, not of his making, at The Cutting, damaging the front end and causing radiator damage which finished their race.
The pair returned to Bathurst for the 1974 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 in the same car, repainted blue after losing Shell sponsorship winning a race marred by driving rain. To celebrate the victory, Ford Australia released a limited edition XB Falcon Hardtop in 1975 called the ‘John Goss Special’. Around 250 cars were built.
Goss/Kevin Bartlett victorious Ford Falcon XA GT. Bathurst 1974. (unattributed)
Goss surprised the racing world when he snaffled the best of Frank Matich’s F5000 equipe when he retired at the end of the 1974 Tasman Series.FM had been badly hurt in a boating incident in which he was electrocuted, he decided it was time to quit to focus on his family and business interests which then comprised the distribution of Goodyear race tyres and Bell helmets in Australia. His cars were advertised in the May edition of ‘Racing Car News’.
Goss gained some support from ‘Scotch’ brand adhesives and was immediately competitive in the Matich A53 Repco, the last and best of Matich’s world class designs. His first race was at the Oran Park 1974 Gold Star round on 4 August.
Over the coming years Goss, chief mechanic Grant O’Neill and their small team continued to develop the two chassis ‘A51 005’ and ‘A53 007’ remaining competitive against the best the world had to offer in the F5000 categories peak period.
1976 AGP finish at Sandown. Goss from Vern Schuppan by 5/10 second. Matich A51/53 Repco and Elfin MR8 Chev. (Graham ‘Howard History of The Australian GP’)
1974 Gold Star Series…
The first series Goss contested was the domestic single seater championship the then very prestigious ‘Gold Star’.
For most of its life the Championship lacked quantity but not quality. The costs of fielding an ANF1 car, whatever the formula has been, has always been high. Australia’s obsession with Touring Cars has meant that funds have generally not been flush in open-wheeler racing, the early years of Formula Pacific, 1981-2 arguably the exception.
In 1974 Gossy faced Australian Champions Kevin Bartlett, Max Stewart and John McCormack in Lola T332, T330 and Elfin MR5 respectively. Later champions John Walker and Warwick Brown also contested the series in their Lola T332’s albeit Warwick took in some races in the US in his Pat Burke owned car, the very first production T332.
Frank Matich, whose last and best car Goss owned had retired. This created an opportunity for the rest of the field as Matich was arguably the ‘first among equals’ as a driver and the best funded, courtesy of Repco and Goodyear. I always figured ‘Cranky Franky’ had an actual and psychological advantage over the competition; he pounded around Warwick Farm getting his cars to a fine pitch and was always well prepared whenever he arrived at a meeting, his actual advantage. The psychological advantage was the fact his fellow competitors knew that he was well prepared! Whereas they, without similar fiscal support were not as much so.
Brittle things F5000’s; the Hewland DG300 box was originally designed for Gurney’s 400bhp F1 Eagle, not a 500bhp Chev. Crown wheel and pinions needed to be in the full flush of youth to be problem free. Engines too, with all drivers chasing the edge, were far from reliable especially if the engine-builders maintenance cycles were not followed, a temptation if you were not flush with cash. Despite the big corporate names which adorned the Matich cockpit over the years JG was not well-funded, in common with most of his fellow local competitors.
John’s first meeting was at one of his home tracks, Oran Park on 4 August, finishing 4th for the weekend. He was 9th at Surfers, 4th in the first heat and had an accident in the second. He didn’t contest the Calder and Sandown rounds in Victoria but was back for the AGP at Oran Park although by this stage Max Stewart had the ‘Gold Star’ in the bag. John had his tail up, he and Kevin Bartlett won the Bathurst 1000 in October the pair driving brilliantly to win the race held in difficult conditions that year.
The AGP field was buoyed by the addition of Internationals Graeme Lawrence, the former Tasman Champ Lola T332 mounted and Signorina Lella Lombardi. ‘A Sheila in a F5000’ got the tabloids interested in the race, which was good as only nine cars started, she drove a Matich A51 (the car Goss was to later acquire as noted above) very well, scoring equal second fastest race lap, despite the unfamiliar car. The car she drove in Europe which brought her to the local promoters attention, her Lola T330 (HU18) is owned by Peter Brennan in Australia, it’s restoration well covered in primotipo.
Gossy ran a bearing so didn’t start the race, Brown cantered off into the distance, quickly mastering Oran Park’s new layout, Stewart took the win when Warwick retired on lap 49 with a harmonic balancer kaput.
Goss in his Matich A53 Repco ‘007’. Oran park during practice for the opening 1975 Australian Tasman round, the ‘Oran Park 100’. Car just painted but devoid of sponsors decals. Jon Davison looking for divine inspiration in the background, his car an earlier Matich A50 Repco ‘004’. Warwick Brown won the race in his Lola T332 Chev, Goss DNF with electrical maladies. (Andrew Lynch)
The 1975 Tasman Series started in New Zealand on January 5 at Levinbut John’s funding didn’t allow him to contest the four Kiwi rounds, he was up against opposition which had already had four consecutive weekends to get their cars to a fine pitch.
In addition to the leading drivers covered above, other frontliners in the series that year were Kiwis Graham McRae in his McRae GM2 and Chris Amon in the Talon MR1, an identical car to the GM2, the design acquired from GM by American Jack McCormack, the cars built in the ‘States. Another Kiwi was Ken Smith in an ex-Brian Redman Lola T332.
Oran Park Handling Lesson; Goss’ mildly understeering Matich A53 Repco being given a bit of hurry up by Kevin Bartlett’s new and somewhat recalcitrant, grass cutting oversteering Lola T400 Chev. (unattributed)
He had a DNF the at Oran Park with electrical failure, was 3rd the following weekend at Surfers, had another DNF at Adelaide, a water hose came loose on lap 3 and then things all came together at Sandown in the final round.
I have covered this meeting in another story, click on the link here;
Suffice it to say, depending upon results, any of Lola drivers, Brown, Lawrence or Walker could take the title…Walker crashed on lap 1, Lawrence retired with fuel metering unit failure late in the race, Brown got the necessary point and Goss won the race in a fast, controlled drive. A strong win against opposition of depth.
Goss eases his Matich A53 ‘007’ through Torana Corner Sandown on the way to his first F5000 victory in the Tasman round ‘Sandown Park Cup’ on 23 February 1975. (unattributed)
By the time Goss commenced his 1975 Gold Star campaign he also owned the earlier Matich A51 Repco which was updated to later A53 specs.
JG continued his good form in the ‘Toby Lee’ sponsored F5000 Series held over 6 rounds, 5 at Oran Park and 1 at Sandown. Max Stewart won the series in his new for Tasman ’75, Lola T400. Goss took 4 of the 12 heats which comprised the series before being ‘pinged’ by CAMS for a black flag incident which almost cost him his AGP start.
Bruce Allison also starred in the Series, the 22 year old jumped out of his Birrana 274 F2 car and took to the ex-Bartlett Lola T332, prepared and guided by the very experienced Peter Molloy, like a ‘duck to water’.
And ducks they needed to be at Surfers Paradise Gold Star season opener held in torrential conditions. The AGP was the first round of the Gold Star that year, Goss matched local boy, Bruce Allison’s pole time but withdrew from the race early with a rough engine and visibility problems. Max Stewart had a lucky win when John Leffler, leading well and as comfortably as you can be devoid of vision!, in the radical, under-developed,tricky to drive but utterly wonderful Bowin P8 Chev, slowed with drowning electrics.
At Sandown he was 6th and then didn’t start at Oran Park, Calder and Phillip Island.
By 1976 the Tasman Series was over, the Kiwis had the ‘Peter Stuyvesant Series’ and we ‘Skips’ the ‘Rothmans Series’, still 4 rounds each. Internationals for the Australian Rounds were Aussie Vern Schuppan and the UK’s David Purley, Lola’s T332/T330 mounted and American John Cannon adding some interest with a March 73A/751 Chev.
At the ‘Oran Park 100′ Goss was 5th, in Adelaide he crashed, at Sandown he was 3rd in the race won by Cannons’ March, the final round at Surfers was washed out. As in the circuit was under the flooded Nerang River, Schuppan took the trophy, the presentation in waist deep water, the promoters gaining a shot for the tabloids despite the lack of a race!
Ian Smith’s great shot of the start of the 1976 AGP at Sandown. Taken from the outside of Shell Corner, turn 1. L>R; Max Stewart Lola T400 Chev, Vern Schuppan Elfin MR8 Chev and Goss to the right, Matich A5153 Repco. (Ian Smith)
Goss’ domestic 1976 Gold Star campaign started well with his AGP win at Sandown in September,he didn’t finish at Oran Park with gearbox failure, at Calder he had an exhaust problem and didn’t contest the one off ‘Rose City 10000’ at Winton nor the final Phillip Island Gold Star round. John Leffler took the title in a new Lola T400 Chev, consistent finishes but no wins bagged the Championship.
There was nothing quite like seeing F5000’s raced by top line Pro’s and look at the Oran Park 1977 AGP crowd! Front running group; Goss, Gethin, Schuppan and Bartlett. Matich A51/3 Repco ‘005’, Chevron B37 Chev, Elfin MR8 Chev and Lola T332 Chev. (‘History of the AGP’)
The 1977 Rothmans International Series of 4 races in Australia had good prizemoney, Count Rudy Van der Straten’s Team made a welcome return to Australia with a Lola T430 and Chevron B37 for Warwick Brown and Peter Gethin respectively, nuts from a spares point of view but both interesting cars, and critically not more Lola T332’s, wonderful devices that they are.
Alan Jones returned to Oz, to race a Teddy Yip, Theodore Racing Lola T332C, he was ‘on the rise’ well and truly by this stage, he drove for the Surtees F1 team in ’76, and took his first F1 win in Austria later in the year.
The development of the Lola T332 was ongoing, the T430 and Chevron B37 were new designs, Garrie Cooper’s Elfin MR8 was also the state of the art. In that context John Goss’ grid place (4th) and strong race performance in the season opening AGP at Oran Park, he ran in 2nd and 3rd for much of the race, in a car which dated to 1974 and an engine which had no development, Repco having withdrawn from racing in 1974, very creditable.
Jones jumped the start, depriving the spectators a duel at the front but all eyes were on him as he sought to make up the 1 minute penalty incurred. Brown won the race with teammate Gethin 2nd and Goss 3rd.
‘Surfers Paradise 100’ Rothmans Series 1977. L>R In the distance Alan Jones in Kevin Bartlett’s loaned Lola T332 Chev, Jones boofed his in practice. Warwick Brown Lola T430 Chev, Peter Gethin in the lead, Chevron B37 Chev, John Leffler in the white Lola T400 Chev and on the outside Goss, Matich A53 Repco. Finishing order, Brown, Gethin, Leffler and Goss. (Bill Forsyth)
Brown and Gethin repeated the performance at Surfers the following weekend, Goss 4th. Max Stewart won in his Lola T400 at Sandown, his last race win before his tragic death at Calder in the one off Kleber 40000 race at Calder. Goss DNF with engine failure.
‘Sandown Park Cup’ February 1977. Goss leads from Garrie Cooper Elfin MR8 Chev 3rd and Alf Costanzo Lola T332 Chev 2nd. Goss had an engine failure, the race was won by Max Stewart’s Lola T400 Chev. (Ian Smith)
In Adelaide, the last Series Round he was 4th and lapped as was the rest of the field, Jones dominant in his Lola T332. Brown took the Series win in the VDS Lola T430 Chev, both T430 chassis’ owned by VDS were sold to Alan Hamilton at the series end and would be an important part of the F5000 scene going forward in both Hamilton’s and especially Alfredo Costanzo’s hands.
Gossy having his mirrors fitted in the clearly just finished Matich A53/55 Ford ‘007’. Thats Grant O’Neill doing the adjusting, Sandown paddock, 1978. Ford engine of note! (Ian Smith)
Goss’ had been developing a Ford F5000 enginebased on the 302, cross bolted ‘Boss’ block, fitted to his newer Matich chassis ‘007’ it was entered in the first 3 Rothmans rounds but failed to appear in any of them.
Development of the Ford engine made sense given his Ford connections and whilst there were some Ford engines in the category in its formative years, he and his small team were giving away decades of development to the small block Chev. A smarter move, hindsight a brilliant thing, would have been a more up to date chassis…and a strong Chev engine.
The Matich Ford, the engine comprised a 4 main bearing bolt Windsor ‘Boss’ block with Cleveland heads, the latter to address the shortcomings of the Windsors ports, was tested but it does not appear to have ever been raced. He qualified the Ford car at the Sandown 1978 Rothmans with a 64.6 second lap but raced the Repco chassis. At Oran Park he practiced the Ford engined chassis on Friday and Saturday but again elected to race ‘old faithful’ A51/53 Repco ‘005’.
During this period the team were developing the Ford engine, Goss raced his other, earlier chassis with Repco power; A51/53 ‘005’, the chassis he used to win the AGP.
Chris Jewell’s shot of the Matich A53/55 Ford ‘007’ at Sandown 1978. Car practiced but not raced. Same tub as 1974, in fact the chassis were to the same 1971 design for all 6 chassis’ built. (Chris Jewell)
Goss didn’t contest the 1977 Gold Star Series but ran Bathurst Teammate Henri Pescarolo in the one off ‘Kleber 40000’ event referred to above on 20 March, Alf Costanzo won the 2 heat event.
Henri Pescarolo cruising the Calder paddock in Goss’ Matich A51/3 Repco ‘005’ during the February 1977 ‘Kleber 40000’ meeting. (oldracephotos.com)
JG reappeared in the Matich for the 1978 Rothmans, Warwick Brown was dominant winning all 4 rounds of the series in his Lola T333/332.
Goss was 6th at Sandown and in Adelaide and 5th at Oran Park. He tested the Ford engined chassis ‘007’ at Oran Park but chose to race his usual Repco engined car ‘005’.
Goss testing his Matich A53/55 Ford at Oran Park during the Rothmans series in February 1978. Neat evolution of the A53 ‘007’ tub. Ferrari 312T-esque front wing, neat deformable structure and rear ‘flush’ mounted’ radiators, no airbox. Neat. (Doug Eagar)
At Surfers he failed to finish with oil scavenge pump problems.
With the costs of F5000 rising, and the Formula Pacific push for ANF1 underway Goss wound down his F5000 activities and sold both cars; the much raced A51/53 ‘005’ to touring car star Jim Richards who contested the ’79 Rothmans Series in it and A53 ‘007’ to Mel McEwin who converted it back to Repco form, and raced it towards the end of the category in Australia. Both cars still exist.
John Cannon 3rd ahead of John Goss 6th ,1978 ‘Sandown Park Cup’. March 73A/751 Chev and Matich A51/53 Repco. (Anthony Loxley)
Formula 1 Ensign MN05 Ford Cosworth…
With interest in F5000 waning in the late 1970’s the ‘Rothmans Series’ rules were changed to allow F1 cars to compete in the 1979 Internationals. The F1’s were ‘brought back to the field’ by the hard Goodyears they were mandated to run. All the same the cars were great to watch, for many of us the first modern GP cars we had seen and heard.
Goss was keen to have a drive, Theodore Racing had 3 cars; 2 Wolf WR4 Ford’s and an Ensign MN05 raced by Scot David Kennedy and Brit, Geoff Lees. Keen to run a car at Oran Park, Goss wasn’t so happy to stump up the $10K for the weekend but late on the Saturday the team gave him a run in the Ensign anyway.
He did 7 laps, brushed the wall on the out lap keeping out of the way of another car which moved over on him, he managed a 1:10.4 compared with Warwick Browns Lola T332 Chev pole of 1:5.4. It was not enough time for John to find the limits of the car , sadly he didnt race it. An interesting ‘mighta been’ had he raced the car.
John Goss, Oran Park 1979. Theodore Racing F1 Ensign MN05 Ford. A few laps in practice, no race sadly. (Dick Simpson)
In 1980 Goss began campaigning a V12 Jaguar XJS at Bathurst. His 3 previous Bathurst starts with Henri Pescarolo in Falcons were all DNF’s.
He started essentially a standard Jag from 58th on the grid, but lasted only 14 laps before retiring with gearbox failure. In 1981, he teamed with 1965 winner Barry Seton and after an improved qualifying effort (19th), they weren’t classified as finishers of the crash shortened race.
Goss returned with a better prepared effort in 1982, sharing the drive with American IMSA Jaguar sports car driver/team owner Bob Tullius who also assisted with technical info for the car and engine. Goss qualified 14th but after a strong run, once again the big cat failed to finish following suspension failure on lap 119.
Goss missed the 1983 James Hardie 1000, but returned in 1984 for the last year of Australia’s Group C racing sharing a drive with Tom Walkinshaw. Walkinshaw ran three factory backed Group A XJS’ in the ETCC, won that title in 1984, and added a lot of technical assistance to Goss’ team with revised suspension and the use of one of TWR’s V12 engines.
Despite trouble in qualifying with no suitable rear tyres arriving in time to use, the Scot qualified the car 8th before falling to 10th in the Hardies Heroes top ten run-off . Walkinshaw also started the race but never left the line.
The Jags clutch had gone leaving Walkinshaw stranded with his arm out the window warning other drivers he was stationary. Unfortunately in the dust kicked up off the start, the Kevin Bartlett owned Chevrolet Camaro of John Tesoriero was coming through at speed and could not avoid the Jag, a multiple crash ensued.
Goss/ Armin Hahne Jaguar XJS. Bathurst winner in 1985. (unattributed)
Australian Touring Car racing changed to International Group A rules in 1985, and Goss scored his second and last outright Bathurst win with West German co-driver Armin Hahne in one of a three-car assault by Tom Walkinshaw’s TWR team using the 1984 ETCC-winning V12 Jaguar XJS’
Goss, installed by Walkinshaw as lead driver of the team’s third car, qualified fastest going into Hardies Heroes, giving lie to those who believed he was past his best as a driver. He ended up 6th in the Top Ten run-off after mistakes on both laps.
Goss made a good start and for the opening laps was in a dice for 2nd with Allan Grice (Commodore), Robbie Francevic (Volvo), Dick Johnson (Ford Mustang), Jim Richards (BMW 635 CSi) and Peter Brock (Commodore). First Francevic, then Goss, broke free of the dice. Goss chased down the Volvo in less than 10 laps, giving Jaguar a 1-2 on the road for the first time since the early laps before the team’s second car driven by Jeff Allam retired with engine failure. From then on, the Goss/Hahne Jaguar was in second place for most of the race behind the Walkinshaw/Win Percy car.
Goss and Hahne’s job was made more difficult by the driver’s seat of their car having completely broken at the base of the back. The car took the lead on about lap 120 following a split oil line on the Walkinshaw/Percy car with both Peter Brock and Roberto Ravaglia (BMW) closing the gap to within 30 seconds.
The chase effectively ended with Brock’s engine allowing Goss to back off over the last 3 laps. Walkinshaw finished third with Win Percy, the pair crossing the finish line together.
After Jaguar Rover Australia declined to help fund a return effort by TWR in 1986 Goss returned with his own privately entered XJ-S backed by Citibank Australia and co-driven by veteran Bob Muir. Electrical troubles in the race resulting in a flat battery saw them complete 140 laps and finish 24th outright.
Goss missed the 1987 World Touring Car Championship round as well as the 1988 race but returned to drive for Glenn Seton Racing in 1989in a Ford Sierra RS500. He paired with Seton for a fourth placed finish at the Sandown 500. At Bathurst Goss was teamed with Tony Noske in the second car, they were joined during the race by Seton after his own car failed. After a troubled run the trio went finished 20th outright.
Goss’ final Bathurst 1000 came in 1990 when he paired with fellow Sydney based veteran Phil Ward in Ward’s Mercedes-Benz 190E to finish 12th outright and a Division 2 class win after starting 38th.
Where Does Goss fit in the Pantheon of Australian Drivers…
Former Racing Car News journalist, Ray Bell saw most of Goss’ big races and had this to say on ‘The Nostalgia Forum some years back…’But to return to the main question, the reality of his ability, let’s just look at his AGP win, which was one of very few wins he had in F5000.
He diced through that race with Vern Schuppan, who was acknowledged as a F5000 pilot world wide at that time. John drove the three year old Matich A53, based on the 5 year old A50. Vern was in the almost new MR8. John’s car was no longer a ‘work in progress’, its designer had retired. Vern’s was under the care of Garrie Cooper who raced that model himself.
I think you would have to say that he demonstrated in that race all the qualities that are necessary, the skill to do the job; the determination to be there, overcoming whatever hurdles might have been put in his way along the path he followed; the recognition of openwheelers as the pinnacle, despite having already won the biggest race in Australia. And Sandown was never a place for the limp of wrist or small of heart in these cars…’
In retirement Goss is a businessman and maintains a couple of yachts for wealthy owners…
Etcetera…
The following images are from Graham Howard’s ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix’, and describe Frank Matich’s F5000 cars generally and John Goss’ pair specifically.
Bibliography…
Graham Howard ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix, Wikipedia for touring car stuff, The Nostalgia Forum, Facebook Australian F5000 Group, Stephen Dalton Collection
Photo Credits…
oldracephotos.com, David Keep, Lyntonh, Dick Simpson, Rod MacKenzie, Robert Davies, Vic Hughes, Andrew Lynch, Ian Smith, Bill Forsyth, Chris Jewell, Doug Eagar, Anthony Loxley
Robert Davies took this amazing shot of John Walkers’ F5000 Lola T332 scything at very high speed the Sandown Park horserailing on lap 1 of the Tasman Round, 23 February 1975…
Walker survived the accident and lived to fight another day, eventually winning both the Australian Grand Prix and ‘Gold Star’ the national championship for drivers in 1979 in another Lola T332.
The other cars in shot are also Lola’s ; Max Stewarts’ T330 left, Graeme Lawrences’ T332 centre and Kevin Bartletts’ similar car on the right. In fact it was in Bartletts’ T332 ‘HU22′, later owned and raced successfully by Bruce Allison before passing into Martin Sampsons’ hands in which Walker won the AGP and Gold Star in 1979.
The battle for the ’75 Tasman was decided in this race.
Going into the Sandown final round Walker, Warwick Brown and Kiwi 1970 Tasman Champion, Graeme Lawrence all Lola T332 mounted could all win the series depending upon how ‘the cards fell’, with 30 points apiece from 7 prior rounds.
Sandown in February was typically hot throughout practice, Walker took pole from Brown, Max Stewart third and Lawrence 4th, their was nothing between the title protagonists, it was anybody’s race.
John Walker, Warwick Brown and Graeme Lawrence pictured at the Light Car Club, then the Sandown promoters, a day or so before the race. The Melbourne ‘Sun’ was a good paper in which to wrap yer fish n’ chips but had no merit otherwise, much as the Herald-Sun does now. The article rabbits on about Alan Moffats new ‘Cologne’ RS3400 Capri, indicative of the Aussie fixation with ‘taxis’ (touring cars), making no mention of the Tasman finale…nice shot tho!
Warwick Brown, razor sharp after a series of races in the US in 1974 in ‘HU27’. He had been racing the car a full year, he and engineer Peter Molloy understood all of the cars nuances, this chassis the very first of the T332’s, made its debut in the ’74 Tasman. This shot is on the old Pit Straight, the car ‘nose up’ under acceleration in 3rd gear. (Robert Davies)
Brown was perhaps the ‘form driver’…he broke into F5000 in the ex-Alan Hamilton McLaren M10B which was engineered by the very experienced Peter Molloy, Molloy having prepared the sister M10B to this when owned by Niel Allen.
Molloy knew the car intimately and was equally adept as a driver mentor/coach. Brown was immediately on the pace in what was an old car in 1972. He then jumped into the ex Allen/Muir Lola T300, a quicker but twitcher, more challenging conveyance than the M10B and was very competitive in the ’73 Tasman but became a ‘Lola Limper’ in an horrific high speed accident at Surfers which could have taken his life. It was not the last Lola ‘big one’ in Warwicks’ career either.
When he recovered his Patron, Pat Burke, bought the very first T332 which he ran in the 1974 Tasman Series doing well enough to win the final Adelaide round, he competed in the first round of the domestic 1974 Gold Star series, which Lawrence and Walker also contested. Browns’ team then shipped ‘HU27’ to the US successfully competing in several rounds of the ’74 Series before returning for the AGP at Oran Park in mid-November. Warwick ran the final US round in the Talon nee McRae GM2, he would contest the ’75 US Series in. Brown was well and truly ‘match fit’ by the start of the series , his confidence buoyed by his competitiveness in the ‘States.
Max Stewart won the ’74 AGP from Kevin Bartlett, KB also a ‘Lola Limper’ by virtue of his awful leg-breaking Pukekohe Tasman ’74 shunt. Graeme Lawrence was 3rd in his T332 ‘HU28’ which he also raced in the ’74 Tasman and the whole Australian Gold Star series, he was well familiar with the car by the commencement of the ’75 Tasman.
Graeme Lawrence in his T332 Chev ‘HU28’. GL raced this car successfully over several seasons. (Robert Davies)
Graeme Lawrence won the Tasman Series in 1970 in the Ferrari Dino 246T ‘0008’, also Chris Amons’ 1969 Tasman winner…1970 was the first year F5000’s were eligible to compete for the title. He started in F5000 in a Lola T300, that car short lived after Lawrence was involved in an horrific high speed, ‘nobody’s fault’ accident with countryman Bryan Faloon in the ’72 NZ GP at Pukekohe, Faloon losing his life and Graeme breaking both legs and sustaining other serious injuries. Like the other ‘Lola Limpers’ described herein he continued his passion for the sport. After he recovered long time sponsor Air New Zealand supported a Surtees TS15 Ford F2 car he ran in the ’73 Tasman and in South East Asia, before returning to F5000 with the T332 for 1974.
Bartlett and his great friend Max Stewart were not as competitive ’75 Tasman contenders as they hoped.The great friends were the first customers of Lola’s F5000 latest- the trick, schmick but not ultimately quick, rising rate suspension T400.
Bartlett’s 3rd at Levin in the opening round flattered only to deceive, the cars were reasonably reliable throughout the series but not as quick as the T332’s. So unimpressed with the T400 were they, that both contested the Adelaide and Sandown rounds in their old cars. Bartlett his T332, his T330 rebuilt around a new 332 tub after his Pukekohe prang and Max the very first, very fast, very successful T330, ‘HU1’, the prototype tested and raced in the UK in late 1972 and honed to a fine pitch before handover by Frank Gardner to Stewart prior to the ’73 Tasman commencement. It would have been very interesting to see how this pair would have faired had they run their well proven older cars, but there was no reason to believe the T400 would not be a quicker car than the successful previous Lola F5000’s had been. Each one quicker than the previous model.
The T400’s ended up being winners in the hands of Count Rudy Van der Straatens ‘Team VDS’ in Teddy Pilette’s and Peter Gethin’s hands in Europe and by Max Stewart in Australia but were otherwise shunned by most Lola customers who continued to modify and develop their T330/2’s- the T332C was surely THE definitive F5000 car.
John Walker in his Lola T332 Repco in Shell Corner or turn 1 onto the old Pit Straight in practice, Saturday 22 February. Lola T330 ‘HU23’ B, rebuilt as a T332 after the first of its numerous shunts, unique in fitment of Repco Holden F5000 engines. These were ‘carry-overs’ from JW’s previous Elfin MR5 and Matich A50 both cars designed for the Repcos’. Repco withdrew from racing in 1974 but continued to provide parts support to their many customers. JW car fitted for Sandown ’75 with the last specially prepared ‘flat plane crank’ Repco engine developing circa 520bhp in addition to the Repcos’ legendary ‘truckload’ of mid range torque. (Robert Davies)
In many ways the least well prepared of the ‘Tasman Finalists’, at the Series commencement was John Walker.
The Adelaide crash repair business proprietor came into F5000 from F2, swapping his Elfin 600 for an MR5 Repco, the first of Garrie Coopers’ Elfin 5 litre single seaters.
John hadn’t raced the car for long before deciding to compete in the ’73 US F5000 ‘L&M Series’, and bought a Matich A50 to do so, the Elfin lacking the ‘bag tanks’ required for that series and the ultimate competitiveness Walker sought.
Walker and team on the Watkins Glen grid. Matich A50 Repco ‘004’. JW finished 8th in the race won by Jody Scheckters’ Lola T330, T330’s filling the first 6 places, such was their dominance that year. Mind you Scheckter won the L&M US title that year mainly driving a Trojan T101. Mechanic clearly has had a shopping trip to San Francisco…(Chris Parker)
He did well in the US, finishing 8th at Michigan and Watkins Glen in the limited campaign returning to Oz for the ’73 Gold Star series a notably faster driver- and with a Lola T330 he bought from Carl Haas to which he fitted the Repco Holden F5000 engines which had nestled in the back of both the Elfin and Matich. Both cars were designed for the Repco engine, the Lola was not and whilst JW was not at the top of the ‘Repco food-chain’ initially, sponsored driver Frank Matich was- the Lola was always a ‘jet’ with the lighter, torquier, albeit slightly less powerful than the best Chevs, Repco donks.
John Walker looking longingly at fellow Aussie Bob Muirs’ Lola T330 ‘HU4′ in the Mid Ohio paddock on 3 June 1973. He was mightily impressed by the T330s’ he had been chasing around the US circuits…by 24 July Lola had invoiced him for ‘HU23’ in ‘Viking Orange’, the car delivered in the US, the Repco fitted there, but first raced in Australia at the Adelaide Gold Star round in October 1973. (Terry Capps)
JW contested the ’74 Tasman in the T330 winning at Levin and in the first rounds of the ’74 Gold Star series but pranged the car in the second heat at Surfers Paradise doing sufficient damage to require a new chassis. This car had ‘more hits than Elvis’ over the years, as the oldracingcars.com history shows!
T330 ‘HU23’ was then rebuilt around a T332 tub, whilst Walker didn’t do any of the remaining ’74 Gold Star rounds he had done enough test miles around Adelaide International in his new car to be competitive from the start of the ’75 Tasman.
Circuit map of Sandown in its original guise. JW accident occurred at the fast, downhill lefthand kink after ‘Mobil’, the approach top speed in 5th gear, before braking…
By the time the ‘Tasman Circus’ arrived at Sandown in Februarythe 7 rounds had been won by Lawrence (Levin and Adelaide), Brown (Pukekohe and Oran Park), Walker (Surfers Paradise) with Chris Amon winning at Teretonga in his Talon MR1 Chev and Graham McRae Wigram in the Talons cousin, McRae GM2 Chev. (the Talons were cars built in the US by Jack McCormack to the GM2 design sold by McRae to McCormack)
And so the scene was set. There was much excitement in Melbourne with the mainstream media, usually only interested in Aussie Rules, Cricket and Donkeys (horse racing), providing substantial coverage to the cars and drivers for a wonderful showdown of ‘local drivers’ Graeme Lawrence a Kiwi but much admired and respected by local fans as a driver ‘from over the ditch’.
The day dawned bright and sunny, it was with a great deal of anticipation and interest that we fans ventured out to the circuit. I jumped the pit fence gaining my ‘students discount’ to the paddock and took in pre-race preparations and watched the start from the pit counter, JW went past in 2nd behind Brown, John Goss taking 2nd from Walker on the run uphill…
Photographer, Robert Davies described the bellowing field of cars heading up the back straight …’I was pre-focussed on the track at my favorite vantage point at ‘Marlboro Country’ (the top of the back straight on the outside of the corner) ready for my usual shot of the leading cars on the opening lap. JW lost control of the Lola and slid at very high speed along about 100 metres of the fencing that separates the horse racing track from the motor racing circuit. He was very lucky, the fence posts snapped like matchsticks and the water pipe that ran along the top of the fence (to water the horse racing grass, you can actually see the water pipe atop the rail) passed over the top of his helmet’.
Walker was unconscious and was removed from the car and taken to nearby Dandenong Hospital, discharging himself shortly after arrival.He escaped serious injury from what was a very nasty accident with the best of outcomes, some years later Garrie Cooper went off after a wing-post failure at a similar spot in his Elfin MR8, he broke limbs but again was lucky to survive, Sandown is not without its perils.
The reason for the accident has never been clear, mechanical failure ruled unlikely by post race inspection of the wreck.
WB on the downhill plunge from ‘Marlboro Country’ to Dandenong Road in his T332 Chev, past the orange colored remains of Walkers’ car on the way to 6th place in the race and the Tasman Series win. The only occasion on which an Australian won the Tasman title. (Robert Davies)
A good deal of interest in the race was removed with JW’s demise but it was tempered with the knowledge that he was ok, and the subject of mass media coverage in the days which followed as a consequence.
Graeme Lawrence had fuel metering unit dramas and Warwick Brown slowed and had a quick ‘splash and dash’ with low fuel and finished 6th, gaining the vital point to win the title, it was a fitting victory for a driver who jumped back into these awesome cars after an accident as horrific as the one shown above but with far more dire consequences 2 years before…
John Goss won the race, his first F5000 victory in the Matich A53 Repco, the last of Franks’ superb cars…It was to be the last Tasman Series, the Kiwis and Aussies ran F5000 Series in 1976 of 4 races each back to back but the New Zealanders then changed their National Formula to Formula Atlantic/Pacific from 1977 Australia soldiering on with F5000.
John Goss on the way to Sandown victory in his Matich A53 Repco (007). Sandown was a happy F5000 hunting ground for JG, in addition to this, his first F5000 win, he also won the 1976 AGP in a very close race with Vern Schuppans’ Elfin MR8 Chev, Goss victorious in his other Matich, A51/3 ‘005’. Goss started racing in his native Tasmania in sedans and then the ‘Tornado Ford’ a self-built sportscar. But for some FF races in the first Birrana F71 he made his name as a touring car driver in Ford Falcon GT’s…but he became an awesomely quick F5000 driver, immediately on the pace in Matichs’ fantastic cars from mid-’74. Here he is descending the hill below ‘Marlboro Country’, the horse railing mown down by Walker, and the destroyed Lolas’ orange airbox clear to see. (Robert Davies)
So that was that, a wonderful series of 8 races in the Australasian Summer which started in 1964 and had seen the best in the world compete in the Southern Hemisphere annually was at an end.
Both countries continued with summer International Series but the magic of the Tasman was forever lost…the Australian Grand Prix is superb but it isn’t 8 wonderful races in 2 months!
John Walker pictured in Roy Street Melbourne behind the old Light Car Club of Australia premises during a pre-Sandown promotional shoot in 1978. Car is the Martin Sampson/Magnum Wheels owned Lola T332 Chev ‘HU22’ in which Walker won both the 1979 Wanneroo Park, WA, AGP and Gold Star Series. (Ian Smith)
Etcetera…
Lola T330 Chev…
Those with an interest in what makes these cars tick may find this series of articles on Peter Brennans’ restoration of the ex-Lella lombadi T330 ‘HU18’ of interest.
primotipo... 