Easter 1956…
The blue riband event that weekend was the Bathurst 100 handicap won by Lex Davison’s 3-litre Ferrari 500/625 in its first Mount Panorama appearance.
Davison bought the car from Tony Gaze at the end of that summer’s Australasian Internationals at Albert Park; the duo became the classiest in the field after Reg Hunt retired until the end of 1958, before Lex did a Nellie Melba and retired for a bit before returning to racing with quite a bang. More about the Ferrari here:https://primotipo.com/2019/06/24/1956-bathurst-100-lex-davison/
Equally, if not more impressive was the scratch win taken by Reg Hunt’s new 2.5-litre Maserati 250F above. He was the star of Australian racing in 1955-56 before his untimely retirement from the sport at the end of ‘56 after winning the ‘Gold Star’ that year, see here: https://primotipo.com/2024/02/10/australian-gold-star-championship-1956/
Another new car was Bib Stillwell’s Jaguar D-Type which the Kew motor trader drove to third place in the 100. He did the third fastest race time, that is, the sportscar finished the race third outright. Davison was second outright in his 3-litre Ferrari 600/625.
Curly Brydon in the ex-Whitehead/Cobden Ferrari 125, see here:https://primotipo.com/2020/04/09/1955-south-pacific-championship-gnoo-blas/
Jim Johnson’s neat fibreglass-bodied MG TC Spl battled with John Martin’s standard-bodied TC in the sports car race.
Paul England’s Ausca Repco-Holden created huge interest with its Maserati A6GCS inspired/stolen looks and the performance of its Repco Hi-power crossflow headed Holden Grey-Six engine.
He was second in the B-Grade Scratch, then fourth in the Bathurst 100 which capped off a great weekend for the Repco Research mechanic-engineer.
Etcetera…
October 1956…
The big race of the October 1, 1956, Labour Day long weekend was the New South Wales Road Racing Championship for Racing Cars, a Formula Libre 26-lap, 100-mile event, notwithstanding the name.
While the race used a handicap format, the race winner was the car/driver with the fastest time, which was Stan Jones in his not-long-in-Australia Maserati 250F #2520 (above). Bill Pitt aboard Geordie Anderson’s Jaguar D-Type was second, Jack Robinson’s Jaguar Special was third, and John Archibald’s MG TC Spl was fourth.
Jones ‘settled down well in his new 250F Maserati, his smooth, relaxed progress in great contrast to his former somewhat wild but certainly forceful standover driving of his Maybach. After several adjustments, he reeled off a series of laps well under the lap record, his fastest being 2:46,’ wrote John Medley.
By October 1956, Mark Arnold advised his Dad, Ian Arnold, had bought an Exakta (35mm, manual focus, single lens reflex by Ihagee, Dresden, Germany) camera and a Leica lens. The colour slides have suffered a bit of damage, but CoPilot has done a reasonable job of restoring some of them. A couple of before shots are included to allow you to do the before-and-after caper.
Stan Coffey’s Dowidat Spanners Ferrari 750 Monza Spyder chassis #0462M created huge interest as ‘Coffey had just collected it off the boat in Adelaide, driven it to Sydney, had it resprayed, given it a quick Clive Adams checkover in the week before the meeting,’ Medley wrote.
The Ferrari was no threat to the Jaguar D-Types of Stillwell or Bill Pitt, below, the Geordie Anderson-owned car, ‘given Coffey’s Port Wakefield rollover the previous year, nevertheless recording 145mph on Conrod and spinning in the Esses.’
More about XKD526 here:https://primotipo.com/2016/03/18/lowood-courier-mail-tt-1957-jaguar-d-type-xkd526-and-bill-pitt/
The main race for sports cars was the 50-Mile NSW Road Racing Championship. The fastest times went to Bib Stillwell’s D-Type, 39 min 19 secs, ahead of Tom Sulman’s Aston Martin DB3S and Paul England’s Ausca Repco-Holden. The handicap win went to G Simpson’s MG TC from Paul England and Mary Seed’s AC Ace Bristol.
Bib Stillwell aims his Jaguar D-Type up Mountain Straight. In some ways, the car looks too good in this enhanced image; on the other hand, Gerry Brown’s standard of preparation and presentation was too good…more about XKD520 here:https://primotipo.com/2020/04/17/stillwells-d-type/
Let’s finish with the Aston Martin DB3S that Tom Sulman raced for many years after first taking delivery of chassis #103 as part of the Kangaroo Stable, three DB3S 1955 European Tour, see here for that and more:https://primotipo.com/2018/04/19/tom-sulman/
Credits…
Ian Arnold photographs by courtesy of his son, Mark Arnold, ‘Bathurst: Cradle of Australian Motor Racing’ John Medley
Finito…
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