Fantastic shot of Max Stewart in his Rennmax BN2, Hell Corner, Bathurst Easter 1968 (raSimmo TNF)
Max Stewart enroute to second place in his little Rennmax 1.5 against the big 2.5 ‘Tasman Cars’, Easter Bathurst Gold Star round, April 1968…
Phil West won the race of attrition in a Brabham BT23A Repco, many of the 2.5’s sidelined by one drama or another. But it was a wonderful result all the same.
At the time Australia’s ‘F2’ was ‘ANF 1.5’ and our premier class ‘ANF1’ was the 2.5 litre ‘Tasman’ category.
Many of us think of Max Stewart as an F5000 star, winning the ‘Gold Star’, then our most prestigious driving honour in 1971 and 1974 and the Australian Grand Prix in 1974 and 1975. But his career started in ‘small-bore’ single seaters, his tall, lanky frame always poking out of the cockpit of the cars he raced..
Rennmax BN2 Ford…
Bob Britton, built many great cars in the 60’s and 70’s, and named them Rennmax.
This car was built from a jig he created when converting John Harvey’s Brabham BT14 from Ford Lotus 1.5, to Repco 2.5 V8 power. Stewart also bought Harvey’s engine and gearbox for the Rennmax, winning his second ANF 1.5 Championships in it in 1968. (a joint win together with Garrie Cooper in an Elfin Mono)
A motor-dealer living in Orange, in the Central West of NSW, not too far from Mount Panorama, Maxs’ performances in this car resulted in his recruitment by former Australian Gold Star Champion/Australian Grand Prix winner/Motor-dealer and prominent team owner, Alec Mildren to join a 2 car assault on Australasias’ premier class together with Kevin Bartlett in the following years.
The success of Bartlett and Stewart over that time is another story but Max was incredibly competitive in the ‘Mildren Waggott’, another car built by Bob Britton, this time on a jig created when repairing a Brabham BT23 destroyed by Denny Hulme during the 1967 Tasman Series. This series of cars are the BN3 Rennmax models.
Stewart won the Gold Star Series in 1971 in the Mildren Waggott, with a series of performances against the then relatively new F5000 cars, similar to his efforts at Bathurst in a small car against the ‘big guys’ in April 1968…
MS self preps the Rennmax in early 1968…12 months later he was a member of Alec Mildren Racing, with a bit more support!, still driving a Rennmax nee Mildren (Bob Williamson Collection)
Stewart races the BN2 at Calder later in 1968, still half out of the cockpit but ‘full harness’ fitted by this stage .
Short Outline of Rennmax…
http://www.oldracingcars.com/rennmax/
Photo Credits…
raSimmo, The Nostalgia Forum, Autopics, Bob Williamson Collection
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