Ouch. Wow, that’s daffy-ducked isn’t it!? Alan Cooper’s very dead 4.8-litre, straight-eight, 1919 Ballot 5/8LC lies on the front-straight of Olympia Speedway, Maroubra, Sydney on January 2, 1926.
Behind is his brother, Harold ‘Hal’ Cooper’s 2-litre Ballot 2LS #15. In the feature that night, relative novice Alan tried an outside pass on his vastly more experienced younger brother on the last lap, snagged a hub on the fence and cartwheeled along the track at over 100mph and into the sandy area between the track edge and the spectator compound. Alan walked away – shaken and stirred – but the poor riding mechanic wasn’t so lucky, the worst of his injuries was a pair of broken thighs.
Alan Cooper aboard #1004 earlier on the fateful day (Sherwood Collection)
Alan never raced again, but chassis 1004 was repaired by racer/mechanic/engineer John Harkness using an Australian Six chassis, and appeared again at Maroubra with Harkness at the wheel that August. Whatever thoughts I had about the original chassis being repaired have been well set aside…
The Cooper boys were from a family of 11 children. They were brought up in Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens where their father was Chief Gardner. Via a familial connection, Alan Cooper met the 30-years-older Stephen Brown not long after he returned from the Great War. The Brothers Brown owned a large vertically integrated Newcastle coal mining and distribution business named J & A Brown (now part of Yancoal Australia). Stephen treated Cooper as his son and lavished stupefying levels of wealth on him including the most exotic racing cars of the time; the Ernest Henry designed Ballot’s were the best there was, the 1919 ‘Indy’ Ballot undoubtedly one of the fastest cars on the planet.
Indy 500 1919. #4 Ralph DePalma, Packard, #32 and 31 are the Albert Guyot and Rene Thomas Ballot 5/8LCs, #3 is Howdy Wilcox – the winner – Peugeot, and #33 Paul Bablot’s 5/8LC. The pace car is a Packard Twin Six V12 (IMS)Louis Wagner, Ballot 5/8LC #1004 before the off (IMS)
Louis Wagner raced 1004 at Indianapolis 1919 as part of a four-car factory assault on the race. The Ballots where the quickest cars too, but the hastily built machines were geared too-tall. The quick fix, in the absence of an alternative diff-ratio, was the use of smaller diameter locally made wheels and tyres – Goodrich instead of Michelins. These failed, Wagner was out with a broken wheel after only completing 44 of the 200 laps while running third, then Paul Ballot crashed when a wheel failed after 63 laps, so the other two 5/8LCs of Albert Guyot and Rene Thomas cruised home in fourth and 11th places.
While it was a bad day for Ballot all wasn’t lost for Ernest Henry, the winner was Indiana boy Howdy Wilcox in one of Henry’s old Peugeot GP cars. Indy was/is tough and dangerous. Of the traditional 33 cars that started, 18 didn’t finish, four of whom crashed, two fatally: Louis Le Cocq and Arthur Thurman both lost control aboard Duesenbergs. Robert Bandini, Thurman’s mechanic died as well.
As a result of the rise in pole-time speed to nearly 105mph in 1919, and one suspects, perhaps the three deaths, the Indy Formula engine size was reduced from 300cid in 1919 to 183cid for 1920. Ernest Ballot immediately had four very expensive racing cars surplus to requirements, just the thing for a bright-young-colonial with somebody else’s dosh jangling loose in his pockets.
By the time Brown and Cooper swung past Paris’ Boulevard Brune to acquire 2LS #15 – the ex-Jules Goux second-place 1922 Targa machine – Monsieur Ballot was using #1004 as a swish, speedy roadie. Fitted with Perrot brakes, mudguards and a windscreen, he cut quite a dash on the Boulevard St Germain.
Thelma – quite tidy too – at the wheel of #1004 at what became known as Safety Beach, Dromana on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula in December 1928 (B King Collection)
That’s why the car before Alan Cooper crashed (pic 2 above) it looks road-equipped, it was. When shipped to Australia it supposedly arrived with three bodies, the one shown and destroyed in the prang, a slipper body which Harkness fitted (or built) when he rebuilt it, and another, a shot of which I’d love to see…
Harold Cooper raced 5/8LC 1004 for a while south of the Murray at Aspendale, the Melbourne Motordrome and other venues. He was described as “Victoria’s best known racing driver” by the Melbourne Herald before racing on the 2-mile 163 yards rectangular gravel course at Safety Beach, Dromana in December 1928, and duly set the fastest time.
Unfortunately Harold didn’t contest the 1927 Australian Grand Prix at Goulburn, nor did he ever give the 2LS a gallop in any of the early (2-litre supercharged and under) Phillip Island Road Races/Australian Grands Prix. Had he done so he would have been a red-hot favourite, he is the most underrated and forgotten Oz driver of the period…
Melbourne racer Jim Gullan and mechanic during practice for the January 2, 1939 Australian Grand Prix at Lobethal, South Australia. The exotic eight let go at warp speed, a rod carved the block in half with expensive shrapnel being spread across the Adelaide Hills countryside. It would be 40 years before the chassis was reunited with another Ballot engine (N Howard)1004 in the Edgerton suburban garage, date unknown. Other than the Dino I’ve no idea of the identity of any of the other machines (R Edgerton Collection)
Both Ballots raced on. The 2LS’ svelte twin-cam 16-valve four was replaced by a succession of V8s and raced in Western Australia for decades, its mortal Ballot remains survived and are well cared for in Australia. The 5/8LC was restored after being tracked down to a northern Victoria farm by ‘Racing Ron’ Edgerton in the 1970s. The ‘Edgerton’ branded crankcase side covers were a tad vulgar for most but he got the car running and competed in it, a state to which it has never returned in the hands of the UK owner for the last three decades or so.
Check out the May 2021 issue of The Automobile. I wrote a never-published-before long yarn about the Coopers, Ballots, the elusive Stephen Brown and the staggering lifestyle he afforded them, and their later second lives as Captains of The Turf. See here to purchase; https://www.theautomobile.co.uk/may-2021-issue/
(R Edgerton Collection)
Ballots up. Frying tyres, rings or bearings? Ron Edgerton attacks Shell corner (Turn 1 in today’s vulgar parlance) at Sandown on one of 1004s relatively few outings – partially restored by the look of it – before the car was sold overseas. The following Ballot is Wes Southgate’s 2LS, now restored to original bodywork and owned by publisher/hotelier/renaissance-man Douglas Blain, who keeps the car in fine fettle in Victoria. Those Rothmans brake markers are circa 1978-79’ish, so a meeting about then?
Etcetera…
(AD Cook Collection)
Harold Cooper aboard #1004 at La Turbie Hillclimb in 1925. Hal did four ‘climbs: three venues near Nice including this one, and another in Monaco, before the car was shipped from Le Havre to Melbourne. Quite why this slipper-body was removed back at Ballot HQ at Boulevard Brune for the ‘Indy’ body before shipment to Australia is anybody’s guess. The body above is different to the form in which the car emerged Harkness’ workshop after Alan Cooper’s Maroubra accident.
While Alan Cooper makes much of his racing career in the Smiths Weekly serialisation of his life story – a grand, rollicking, bullshitty yarn it is too – in fact he did relatively few competition miles. Harold, on the other hand, competed a lot from 1922 when the 2LS arrived and was a man of great skill. He was far more competent than Alan, had competed in the 5/8LC in France already, so had a level of familiarity with it.
The car was ministered to in Sydney by Giulio Foresti, Ballot factory racer/dealer/mr-fixit who tested it at Maroubra and schooled the brothers in its use and mechanicals. We know from contemporary reports that a planned early Maroubra test by Alan was thwarted by steering problems. Harold should have raced the 5/8LC and Alan the 2LS that fateful night; letting Alan loose in it at Maroubra was akin to a modestly credentialed Formula Ford driver have a lash in Oscar’s F1 McLaren. Alan Cooper was kissed-on-the-dick-by-tinkerbell – to use vulgar Oz slang – many times during his long life, not least on that fateful 1926 evening.
The Argus December 10, 1928
“Thrilling motor-racing was witnessed at the Aspendale Speedway (Melbourne) on Saturday afternoon. The best display of driving was that given by Harold Cooper, who is shown here negotiating a corner at speed in his eight-cylinder Ballot car. He defeated Albert Edwards who drove a front-wheel-drive supercharged Alvis.”
Credits…
Peter White Scrapbook via Colin Wade, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, The Argus, AD Cook Collection, Ron Edgerton Collection, Norman Howard, Bob King Collection, John Sherwood Collection from the wonderful ‘A Half Century of Speed’ by Barry Lake
Tailpiece…
(R Edgerton Collection)
The essential element of Edgerton’s rebuild of #1004 was locating one of the very exotic, Ballot 4.8-litre DOHC, four-valve, straight eight engines or the bones thereof.
As luck would have it, Briggs Cunningham had one, and wanted a Cottin & Desgouttes, Edgerton was happy to oblige. Here is Ron’s (at right) pride and joy (with Silvio Massola) – didn’t he have a lot of those in his automotive lifetime – on a 1977 rally in Tasmania, Australia’s South Island.
The J.A ‘Lex’ Denniston owned Itala V8 Special was built by Ern Seeliger in his modest temple-of-speed in Baker Street, Richmond, early events included Rob Roy’s April and November 1946 meetings.
The cocktail of components comprised a 1930-1932 Itala chassis and steering box (later replaced by a Lancia component) and modified Ford Mercury V8 and gearbox, the talented Bob Baker built the body, his ‘shop, Baker and Tait was closeby in Church Street, Richmond.
Seeliger normally raced it, notable successes were at Rob Roy, and at the Ballarat Airfield, where Ern won the Wendouree Handicap in January 1947. After this meeting, he rebuilt it, although he was able to run it very effectively sans body at Rob Roy on April 20, 1947 achieving FTD at 30.99 seconds.
The leaner, meaner machine reappeared at Lobethal twelve months hence on the January 1, 1948 weekend. Practice passed uneventfully enough, Seeliger’s first race was the 11.05am Lobethal 100 handicap. The less powerful cars had done two laps by the time our scratch-man, Seeliger set off and gave chase.
After only one completed lap he was baulked by another car at over 100mph, the Itala slid one way, then the other before crashing through trees backwards, demolishing the front of the car enroute. Ern, fortunately escaped without injury but the svelte racer was dead. After last rites were performed, its remains were presented to a Lobethal farmer.
Legendary Adelaide engineer Harold Clisby #29, and Ron Edgerton #32, in standard and modified MG TCs respectively (R Edgerton Collection)
Etcetera…
Itala Ford V8 Spl as originally built, George McKaige took these photographs on November 23, 1946. The car was parked in Orrong Road near the Towers Road, Toorak corner, presumably close to Denniston’s residence.
(G McKaige)
Tony Johns’ research indicates that Denniston was President of the Light Car Club of Australia in 1951-52. This goes some way to explaining why a car which was destroyed in 1948 was on the cover of the program of the 1953 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, promoted by the LCCA! Perhaps one of the likely race-winning drawcards would have been more appropriate. Still, in the minds of so many, what is the point of having power if you don’t abuse it?
(Tony Johns Collection)(Tony Johns Collection)
Credits…
Ron Edgerton Collection, ‘Beyond The Lens’ Chester and George McKaige, Stephen Dalton, Tony Johns Collection, SAmotor, Dacre Stubbs
Tailpiece…
Amazing, rare colour shot of the Seeliger Itala at Lobethal in 1948.
Ron Edgerton loomed large in Victorian and Australian motor racing from the thirties to the fifties, make that eighties if one includes his restoration efforts.
He owned a staggering number of exotic road and racing cars including Alfa Romeo Monza, Alta Ford V8, Ballot 5/8 LC ‘Indy’, Bentley 4.5 s/c, Bugatti T37, Cooper T38 Jaguar, Cord, Frazer Nash, Lancia Aurelia, Lotus Cortina, MG, Willys Woody and numerous speedway cars.
The shot above is of Ron and his son Greville in a posed newspaper photograph taken in the mid-late 1950s.
Grev raced also- a Cooper T38 Jaguar and Elfin Mallala Climax. Ron died many years ago but Greville is hale and hearty, still developing commercial properties, and in the middle of restoring a 50-foot huon-pine 1930’s yacht in one of his developments in Moorabbin.
My mate Bob King knows Grev, who very kindly allowed us to scan images from his dad’s album, there are enough of them to keep us going for years. As you will see, some are pro shots he acquired, and some self or family taken happy-snaps.
This first batch are some of the family cars.
I am not going to go berserk with the descriptions throughout this and subsequent posts, together we can flesh out the history of the cars.
Ron and Ken Wylie aboard the Edgerton Bugatti T37 at Aspendale Speedway, a Melbourne southern bayside suburb pre-war.
VMCU meeting, June 8, 1941. Cashflow to fund Ron’s racing was provided by a printing business. Chassis 37104 is the ex-Russell Taylor/Advanx Tyres car raced by Charlie East. Ron bought it in March 1931 and later fitted a Hudson straight-eight when the delicate block could not be repaired after a decent blow-up at Tooronga.
Edgerton was a leading light in early speedway in Australia, research on the #4 Lycoming welcome, similarly about Reynold’s 8/80 JAP.
Bill Reynolds (the Sydney one vs. the St Kilda Wren building one) emigrated to Australia pre-war, having graduated through speedway bikes and then to cars winning World Speedcar Championships in 1939, 1941 and 1958- he won the Australian title in 1956. He also strayed onto the circuits- a good topic for another time.
Australia’s only resident supercharged 4.5-litre Bentley in-period was chassis SM3907.
Yes, much later others were imported. Tom Luxton brought in SM3907 from the UK, Edison Waters famously raced the gas-burner powered car at Bathurst (not for long) over the Easter 1940 weekend. Post-war owners included Lex Davison.
Ron’s caption is ‘Ron, Dawn, Hugh Stewart with blown 4 1/2 Bentley’, quite where those Californian Bungalows are is something to find out. Pre-war is my guess.
Edgerton’s Alta Ford V8 at Mitcham Hillclimb in October 1941, interesting that we were still running motorsport events in Australia this late in the war.
It doesn’t seem all that appropriate given the number of blokes having their nuts shot off by this stage – or am I just a limp-wristed-commo-bleeding heart liberal?
Mitcham is a Melbourne outer eastern suburb, housing development of which exploded from the fifties. It looks quite bucolic 15 years or so before.
This car is the ex-Alan Sinclair Alta 1,100 cc s/c chassis 21S, the MI5 Spook brought to Australia in time for the January 1938 South Australian GP at Lobethal, but by this stage Ford V8 engined.
In this form it was a race-winner in Ted Gray’s hands as the Male Special pre-war. Edgerton had rebuilt it by late February 1942 (see shot below). Ron raced it post-war, it then passed back into Gray’s hands who made it sing again, especially when fitted with Lou Abraham’s Ardun-OHV head Ford V8- the car was the immediate precursor of Ted and Lou’s Tornado 1 Ford.
Wind the clock forward another couple of decades and Mount Eliza’s Graeme Lowe reunited the car with its rightful 25S 1,100cc engine and restored it superbly- it took its first bow in 1999. No longer with us, Graeme’s wife still owns it and a 2-litre stablemate.
Edgerton jumped in amongst the big boys with the purchase of the ex-Alf Barrett Alfa Romeo Monza #2211134 from Rupert Steele in 1950
Ron’s caption says ‘Dirt track Charlie (Frank Kleinig, Kleinig Hudson Spl) chasing Racing Ron at Mount Panorama’ during the October 1951 meeting. He was fourth in the over 1500cc Championship Scratch, and third in the Redex 50 Mile Championship race- Whitefords’ Lago Talbot T26C won with Stan Jones second in Maybach 1.
Here, his Elfin Mallala Coventry Climax 2-litre FPF is at freeze-yer-nuts-orf Silverstone testing during the winter in 1964. Ron used the Lotus Cortina to get around the UK. More of Grev’s UK adventures that year soon.
Racing Ron’s ex-Louis Wagner 1919 Ballot 5/8LC ‘Indy’ at rest at home in the eighties.
The high-born French aristocrat is in pretty good company amongst Ferrari Dino 246GT, sundry bikes and a racer.
When Alan Cooper’s Ernest Henry designed 4.8-litre, DOHC, four-valve, normally aspirated straight-eight racer arrived in Australia in late 1925, it was the most advanced and one of the quickest racing cars in the country. Chassis #1004 joined a 2-litre Ballot 2LS #15 acquired for Cooper by his patron twelve months before.
It all turned to custard at Maroubra in December 1925. Alan, a relative novice to a car of this performance, ran wide passing his brother Harold in the 2LS and rolled, badly damaging the car and his riding mechanic.
1004 was repaired in Sydney by Don Harkness and then raced very successfully by Harold, a gifted driver. One of the great mighta-beens of early Phillip Island AGPs is Harold racing the 2LS, but he never did.
The 5/8LC passed through many hands before Ron found it on a farm in country Victoria in the seventies. A long, complex restoration followed, Ron enjoyed the fruits of his labours before selling to Peter Briggs as his health failed. The car has been in England for many years.
Credits…
All photographs are from the Ron Edgerton Collection, with thanks to Greville Edgerton. Steve Wood
Tailpiece…
The album is very thick. The degree of scanning difficulty is high, so let’s be thankful for what we have before some of you old women start chookin’ on about the quality of the shots- don’t spose I should say that. Oops. Finito…
Of all the places to have a motorsport event, Tooronga Park in Malvern, 12km from Melbourne’s CBD is up there with the least likely…
An Austin 7 Special at left and the Campbell McLaren/Halliday Ford A Model Special the two intrepid occupants built.
Right in the heart of Melbourne’s stockbroker belt even in September 1940, the roar of racing engines is somewhat bizarre, but the ‘Malvern Comforts Fund’ staged a five day carnival of activities to raise money to provide luxury items to supplement Australian troops normal, basic rations.
State based organisations of this type were formed during World War 1 and federated- the ‘Australian Comforts Fund’ quickly grew into a fundraising, collecting, sorting and distribution machine to rival the Red Cross- it was dissolved in 1920 but revived in 1939 to again look after the lads and lassies.
Wonder what mutt won the Ugliest Doggie Competition? (R Bell Collection)
Ray Bell sent this amazing flyer to promote the event and most of the photographs in this piece, the one below is of Ron Edgerton’s Alta V8 a Speedway Midget alongside. Is that Tooronga Station in the background of the shot?
Given the crowded nature of the large parklands it seems likely that ‘novelty’ rather than speed events were the go but if any of you have an entry list and details of the contests it would be great to hear from you.
(R Bell)
The car (at left below) is the ex-Lord Selsdon Fraser Nash TT Replica being driven by Earl Davey-Milne, who still owns it. ‘The A Ford Special Midget is not Arthur Wylie’s normal car (Ray Bell’s thought as to the machine at right), so I am not at all sure’ as to the car on the right Bob King comments.
‘Cam McLaren was a hilarious commentator at Rob Roy and Templestowe Hillclimbs keeping up a lively banter with, I believe, John Price- this was before car racing got serious and many of the cars were absurd…’
(R Bell)
‘The Malvern Groups five day carnival in September 1940 was an extravaganza in Great War style, with marches, bands, button sales, dances, recitals and a monster Town Hall finale that included the Coburg Ladies Pipe Band, the Hawaiian Club (WTF?) and pupils of Miss Greenough, danseuse (a female ballet dancer) and J King, magician…’ there is no mention of the light car racing in Lynne Strahan’s account of the carnival.
The scale of this national organisation was enormous, the Malvern Comforts Group (only a small suburb of Melbourne then) alone provided ‘food, hostels, picture units, canteens and parcels of books and games…while over 120,000 skeins (a length of yarn loosely coiled and knotted) of wool and twelve miles of flannel and drill had been consumed for garments fashioned with “motherly care”…’
(R Bell and B King Collections)
Ron Edgerton’s Bugatti T37, with Bob King thinks, Maurie Monk’s GN Special alongside.
The last serious motorsport event in Australia before competition cars were put away for the war’s duration was the ‘Patriotic Grand Prix’ held in Perth’s Applecross on 11 November 1940. The program comprised four events, the GP was a 12 lap, 30 mile race won by Harley Hammond’s Marquette Special, below.
(K Devine)
Etcetera…
(R Bell)
(R Bell)
Campbell McLaren and Mr Halliday at Mitcham Hillclimb, circa 1941, and in the photo above that, building their racer, a project they commenced whilst still at school.
Mitcham is a suburb 17km directly east of Malvern, very much in the sticks then but could almost be categorised as an inner-suburb these days if Melbourne’s eastern outskirts end at Healesville, which it sorta does…
I’d love to know where the ‘climb was, I had an aunt who lived at Mitcham in the sixties and seventies, a bit of cursory research shows the venue was in use from at least 1936- sixty entries raced there that October, but did it survive post-war?
(SLV)
A trip down memory lane for Melbourne’s eastern-suburbanites.
The Glen Waverley line rail-crossing- not even a boom-gate, as long as the operator in the little hut doesn’t go to sleep all is good, at the ‘bottom’ of the Toorak Road plunge down from Glenferrie Road looking east in 1955, this spot is a long drop-kick to Tooronga Park.
By the time i was an ankle-biter visiting my uncle/grandfather’s newsagency on the corner of Burke and Toorak Roads in the early sixties that stand of trees at the top of the hill had become a drive-in theatre. In addition to the gasometers there was a brickworks in this area of flat land, so it was quite industrial for a residential area- the gasometers were removed circa 1980 as natural gas replaced the coal-fired variety.
Its funny the stuff which pops back into yer head. The two ‘clutch-fucker’ hill starts which terrorised me as an 18 year old ‘P-Plater’ in me Mum’s Morrie 1100 was that one at the top of the hill where the trees are- the corner of Tooronga and Toorak Roads, when traffic lights emerged and the Warrigal Road/Riversdale Road muvva in Burwood…i got there eventually!
Into the sixties the first small shopping centre emerged, then re-zoning removed the extractive industries and Coles headquarters moved in, then circa 2010 a bigger shopping centre and shedloads of apartments. Oh yes, there is now a freeway (the Monash) near the railway lines and at present, finally, the powers that be are creating an overpass for the railway line.
Gardiners Creek is there somewhere but maybe its behind where the snapper took his shot, no doubt some folks who attended the Malvern Comforts Fund event fished in that creek all those years ago…
Credits…
Ray Bell and Bob King
Ray Bell Collection (from Campbell McLaren’s photo album), Museums Victoria, ‘A History of The City of Malvern’ Lynne Strahan, Bob King Collection, State Library of Victoria, Ken Devine Collection
Yes, there is such a place, and a good deal of carnage seems to have befallen this Nar Nar Goon race competitor…
It is a small hamlet of a little over one thousand people 65km east of Melbourne in Gippsland- the name is an Aboriginal expression meaning ‘native bear’ or ‘water rat’ the degree of certainty implied is hardly reassuring on a government website!
The Light Car Club ‘ran a surprisingly successful race meeting on a nine furlong grass track at Nar Nar Goon, 40 miles from Melbourne on Sunday 23 November 1947’ MotorSport reported in its February 1948 issue. It covered both this meeting and the 1947 Australian Hillclimb Championship won by Arthur Wylie’s Ford A Model Special ‘Wyliecar’ at Rob Roy, 75km from Nar Nar Goon on 2 November.
Arthur Wylie in his Ford A Spl, ‘Wyliecar’ at Rob Roy, whether these two shots are during the 1947 Oz Title meeting I’m not sure (L Sims)
(L Sims)
Owing to doubtful weather, practically no publicity was given to the Nar Nar Goon meeting, but about 3000 spectators turned up to see thirty competitors. At that time, the local population would have been tiny in an area focussed on timber growing, felling and milling. Ideal for motor racing really- out of harms way and the scrutiny of officialdom!
I’m not suggesting the LCCA were ‘hackers’ in any way at all- they were for decades, lets say 70 or so years, one of the continuously premier motor racing clubs in Australia. At one time or other they owned or operated venues such as Rob Roy, Albert Park, Sandown, Balcombe, Ballarat Airfield and others, including the little known Nar Nar Goon.
It isn’t clear to me how many meetings were run at the villages racecourse but cursory research shows LCCA/Junior Car Club/Light Junior Car Club competitions dated back to at least April 1932 when it appears the owner of the course, a Mr Coombes, first gave consent for cars to use his horse racing facility. By November 1933 a range of cars from the pedestrian to Brescia Bugatti’s were being put to the test.
On the wet grass many of the 1947 entrants had incidents during the time trials which preceded the races, ‘spinning with great abandon on one corner in particular’. No damage occurred and by race-time the track had dried out.
Arthur Wylie, racer and founder of Australian Motor Sports magazine at Nar Nar Goon in a Bugatti T37 ‘#37145’. Easter 1934 meeting (A Wylie via L Sims)
‘It was decided to run (love the organisation on the fly, can you imagine that today?) four handicaps, each of two or three heats and a final. At first four competitors were on track at a time, but it was found six was safe, so some events were run with six starters. Finishes were close and spectators were treated to eighteen 5 lap events.
‘The LCCA prides itself on organisation, at this meeting the average period between finishing one race and starting the next was less than five minutes’. Happy days indeed.
The LCCA should rightly be proud of its history of race organisation, I can attest to it as a competitor and spectator during the ‘glory years’ which all came crashing down as a consequence of the financially crippling burden of the two World Endurance Championship events the club ran very unsuccessfully in 1984 and 1985.
Sandown lived on of course thanks to the tenacity and entrepreneurship of racer Jon Davison but the LCCA sadly, was no more. A story for another time, not one I really want to tell when I think about it!
‘Racing Ron’ Edgerton in his ex-Charlie East/Advanx Tyres Bugatti T37 ‘#37104’ at Nar Nar Goon (B King)
Etcetera…
(JO Sherwood)
The car above is Les Jenning’s MG Magna L-Type contesting a handicap during the Easter Monday meeting in 1934- 1087cc six, four speed non-synchro box, less than 600 built in 1933 and 1934.
He achieved some great results with this car in the Australian GP- finishing third outright and setting fastest time behind Bill Thompson’s Riley and Harold Drake-Richmond’s Bugatti in the 1933 AGP at Phillip Island. The following year he was fourth outright and set second fastest time behind Thompson’s MG K3 and in 1935 he was third outright and again set second fastest time to Thompson’s MG K3.
Before he raced the MG he ran a Morris Cowley in the 1928 race supported by his employers, Lanes Motors (who were still Morris dealers in the sixties, my Dads Morris 1100 was supplied by them) but he failed to finish as he did also in 1930 and 1931 in Morrises.
‘The Car’ 16 April 1934 issue covered the meeting above and brings the flavour of the times to life, ‘Houdaille’ wrote that ‘The track was in excellent condition for cornering, albeit exceedingly dusty. The great rolling clouds must have been a nightmare to following drivers, but it thrilled the spectators tremendously.
The sight of the leader hurling his car into a corner and tearing up a walloping cloud of multi-coloured dust brought acclamation from the men and shrieks from the ladies. These gurgles and shrieks grew or decreased in intensity according to the ferocity with which other begrimed and determined pilots flung their machines at the leader.’
‘ How those racing behind managed to see the corners through the soupy pall astonished everyone. Their guiding sense must be naturally developed, for surely their eyes could have been of little use. Their were no accidents, which proves the ability of the drivers, to fly blind.’
‘It is not the intention of the article to detail events but rather give some impression of an enjoyable programme. The test trials were pursued with remarkable vigour, for it be known that no man shall exceed his test time by more than ten-percent lest he incur the displeasure of the organising committee which could mean disqualification should he win a race.’
‘Competitors drove all manner of makes, powers and vintages of cars. Posh MG’s sang around. Bugattis, some quite venerable in years, boomed along at high speeds. George Pocket, of course, brought the deceptive Ford A of his. That very long, very snaky and most odouriferous Ballot of Fred Bray’s did the fifteenth-shall act many times…’
And so the report went on- a good time was had by all. The article pronounced the end of Victorian Junior Car Club meetings at the venue but clearly satisfactory arrangements were entered into by them or other club(s) later.
(The Car 16 April 1934)
Bibliography…
MotorSport magazine February 1948, Trove, Leon Sims Collection, Bob King Collection, Arthur Wylie Collection, ‘Half a Century of Speed’ Barry Lake, John O Sherwood Collection, ‘The Car’ 16 April 1934 via Bob King
Tailpiece…
Competitor names and cars folks? The leading car is the one which come to grief in the opening shot.
Alf Barrett leads Frank Kleinig, Alfa 8C2300 Monza and Kleinig Hudson Spl, Australian Grand Prix, Mount Panorama, Bathurst 1947…
This was the race within the race, these quite different cars were outright contenders but the AGP was a handicap Formula Libre event in those days, the race was won by Bill Murray in an MG TC, neither Barrett nor Kleinig finished.
Alf Barrett and the Monza were the fastest combination in the immediate pre and post-war periods in Australia, he was and is regarded as one of the country’s greatest drivers.
Noted motoring writer and journalist Mike Kable wrote in 1998 upon Barretts’ death, ‘Alf Barrett was known as the maestro. It was an appropriate nickname because of his achievements between and after World War 2 in a supercharged straight 8 Alfa Romeo 2300 Monza at his favourite circuit – Mount Panorama at Bathurst, New South Wales.’
‘The dapper Barrett drove the thoroughbred Italian car with world class finesse and flair with exceptional physical and mental coordination and intense concentration that enabled him to control sliding the car at its absolute limits with a calm smooth flick-of-the-wrist precision. Seeing the black-helmeted Barrett in action, sitting high in the cockpit, wearing his trademark dark blue short sleeved shirt was a never-to-be forgotten treat.’
‘In an era of self funded amateurs who drove for token prize money, the challenging 6.2 mile Mount Panorama circuit was the standard setter by which the best drivers were judged. Barrett became the master in 1940 with an against-the-odds victory in the New South Wales Grand Prix. The classic race was a handicap with Barrett starting from scratch position, many of his rivals had already covered several laps before he started. He went on with a stunning performance where he set a new outright lap record that made the ‘King of the Mountain’. He had started last and finished first’.
This quite stunning, evocative shot was taken by racer/specials builder George Reed at Bathurst during the 1947 AGP weekend. Barrett is in the car, Alan Ashton being passed ‘plugs by Gib Barrett during a pitstop. Its a wonderful juxtaposition of the ‘high technology’ of the day with the rural NSW backdrop (George Reed/Dacre Stubbs Collection)
Barrett was born in 1908 to a well to do family in the affluent Melbourne suburb of Armadale. He and his brother Julian or ‘Gib’ inherited their father’s passion for cars. Before too long the boys were experimenting with all kinds of petrol powered devices in the large grounds of their home.
Not too far away a young mechanic, Alan Ashton, was serving his time as an apprentice at AF Hollins Motors, the three of them met and were messing around with cars and bikes which they tested at Aspendale Speedway. Alf and Alan built their first racing car, a Morris Bullnose Special in 1933, initially entering hillclimbs, it was competitive too, winning the Junior 50 and Winter 100 at Phillip Island in 1934.
Ad for AF Hollins, Australian Motor Sports 1947
Barrett then bought the ex-Jack Day Lombard AL3 in late 1935, and raced the car in his first Australian Grand Prix at Victor Harbor (correct spelling), in South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula on December 26, 1936.
It was the first AGP held outside Victoria and has been known over time as the 1937 AGP despite being held on Saturday 26 December 1936…and named when held as the South Australian Centenary Grand Prix. It seems this ‘corruption of history’ as historian John Medley called it, commenced in the 1950s, whence it originated nobody seems to know.
The Sporting Car Club of South Australia was formed in 1934 and played an active part in the celebration of 100 years of European settlement of South Australia, the piece de resistance of the organising South Australian Centenary Committee was SA’s first real road race held 50 miles from Adelaide on the Fleurieu Peninsula, only a few miles from the mouth of the mighty Murray River on public roads between Port Elliott and Victor Harbor, then as now a summer playground. The event was run over 32 laps, 240 miles.
The race attracted the best cars and drivers from all around Australia, the limit men of the handicap race drove MG K3s and Bugatti Types 37 and 43 and over 50,000 paying customers came to an event then a long way from Adelaide.
Barrett entered the Morris for Colin Anderson, his MG P type for Tim Joshua, driving the Lombard himself. He had a handicap of 21 minutes but lost a supercharger pop-off valve and failed to finish, Anderson’s Morris was delayed by overheating problems and was flagged off. Tim Joshua drove an exceptional race in the P-Type and was leading the event for some laps before a seven minute stop in the pits for unidentified maladies, he finished the race second behind the winning MG P-Type of Les Murphy.
The Victor Harbour road circuit used for ‘the 1937 AGP’ used public roads as the map shows close to the Southern Ocean, joining Port Elliott and Victor Harbour (The Advertiser)Barrett racing his Morris Cowley Spl in the 1938 Kings Birthday Grand Prix, Wirlinga road circuit on the outskirts of Albury, NSW (unattributed)
In the 1938 AGP Barrett again raced the 1927 Lombard but the Cozette supercharged car, running off 22 minutes, retired from the race held at Mount Panorama. Visiting Englishman Peter Whitehead won in his ERA Type-B off a very favourable handicap winning from Les Burrows’ Terraplane Spl.
As part of the Albury 150th anniversary celebrations a new 4.2-mile circuit was laid out on public roads at Wirlinga, an Albury suburb. Albury is a town on the Murray River on the New South Wales/Victoria border.
Barrett contested the Kings Birthday Grand Prix or Interstate Grand Prix – the event seems to have been attributed a variety of names – in the Cowley on 19 March 1938, it was won by local Wangaratta boy Jack Phillips in his self built Phillips Ford V8 Spl.
Barrett competing in the Morris Bullnose Spl, Lobethal 50 Mile Handicap in 1938. Kayannie Corner. The practice would be put to good use the following year (Norman Howard)This is the fabulous cover of John Blanden’s seminal book ‘Historic Racing Cars in Australia’. The fact that Barrett and the Monza, of the hundreds of cars and drivers written about in the publication made the cover says everything about the noted late historian’s opinion of Barrett and his place in the pantheon of Australian drivers…the scene depicted is at Bathurst 1938. Alan Ashton and Alf changing a wheel on the Monza.‘The Maestro, Alf Barrett, with the Alfa Romeo Monza at Rob Roy on 30 January 1939. The Black Friday fires preceded this photo by just sixteen days’ wrote Bob. Barrett right on the limit, glorious shot (Bob King)
In late 1938 Barrett acquired and imported the Monza from the UK, it had been raced successfully there by AP ‘Ginger’ Hamilton.
Chassis #2211134 was built in 1932 and sold to Raymond Somner. He won the Marseilles Grand Prix at Miramas in September 1932 and several other events selling the car back to the factory, having acquired a Maserati for 1933. Hamilton bought it in late 1933 and raced the car extensively in the ensuing five years, there is a comprehensive record of the car’s competition record in Europe in at the end of this article.
When the Monza arrived in Australia it was prepared by Alan Ashton, he acquired a reputation as one of the most talented engineers in the country, fettling cars for Barrett until the end of his career and later Tony Gaze and then Lex Davison throughout his reign in the 1950s and 1960s as well as various international drivers who sought his talents.
The Alfa arrived in time for the last pre-war AGP held on the fast, daunting road course at Lobethal in South Australia’s Barossa Valley.
Barrett Lobethal 1939 AGP, superb Norman Howard shot. Sandbags, barb wire fences, eucalypts, crowd on the hill, wonderful. Dangerous but wonderful…Bucolic Lobethal in the late 1930s. The race progressed into, through and out of the main road shown in this aerial shot (State Library of SA)Barrett during practice with a passenger, a fearsomely quick ride on this roller-coaster, technically difficult circuit of the brave, skilled and committed. Kayannie Corner, Lobethal AGP 1939. Railway line to Adelaide behind, bucolic delights of Lobethal clear to see (Norman Howard)Barrett sorts himself and his new Monza out at the start of the 1939 AGP at Lobethal SA. He stalled the car and was well behind the field by the time he cleared fouled plugs (Norman Howard)
South Australian, Patrick Atherton in his website ‘Lagler Racing’ paints a vivid picture of the circuit, these are still public roads upon which you can drive thus…
‘From the old start-finish and grandstand area north of Charleston you could be forgiven for thinking it’s nothing special. No really challenging corners just sweeping curves. But put it into context; these cars had spindly wires and tyres, cart springs and beam axles and near useless drum brakes. These ‘curves’ are all blind. There are crests preceding all of them, particularly the bridges, which funnel into chutes. Think of these machines dropping on to their suspension in mid-air whilst turning at 100mph.
Through the little town of Charleston, with it’s pub (still there) the crowds were thick. Stories abound of drivers stopping, mid practice sessions for a pint or two.Out past here are frightening kinks, all blind, all crests and dips. Then a blind right hand kink sucks you into Kayannie corner, the tight right hander leaving Woodside Road and heading towards the township of Lobethal. Here the spectators got off the train from Adelaide straight into spectator areas at the side of the track, driver’s left.
The climb up the hill is significant, mostly straight for almost two km, but at the top, this track steals straight from the soul of Nurburgring. Lined by trees, the blind crest plummets away left, bottoms out right, drops away again, into a rollercoaster left. Then it flattens, raises slightly, then another drop into the braking area for the hard right hander (Mill corner) into Lobethal’s main street. Even the main street isn’t straight. Past the pub on the right there’s now a little ribbon of paving (Indianapolis-style) across the road and a plaque to commemorate the racing era.
Up the hill it funnels between shops and houses and then there is the blind, off-camber Gumeracha Corner, which claimed lives. The stretch from here to the start-finish hairpin has to be experienced. 5 km of crests, blind curves, feature changes and major undulation. Here is where the truly great drivers would have made up time on nothing more than sheer bravery. Indeed they did, and one in particular, winner Alan Tomlinson.’
Wonderful high speed pan of the 8C2300 Monza, and its dark blue shirted driver, Lobethal 1939 (Norman Howard)AGP Meeting crowd scene, Lobethal 1939…captures the atmosphere and undulatig nature of the roads. (State Library of SA)
Jack Saywell had the car with the most potential, an Alfa P3 fitted with a 2.9-litre supercharged straight-eight, Barrett’s Monza, also designed by Vittorio Jano, had a less sophisticated 2.3-litre supercharged straight-eight. A big incident in practice involved Barrett’s avoidance of a slow moving MG, the Monza ran off the road at high speed, a rear wheel hitting a gutter and throwing the car high into the air before landing 20 metres down the road. Alf brought the car back under control, but the incident caused a bent back axle and buckled wheel, both of which were fixed by Ashton overnight. However, the wheelbase was two inches shorter on one side of the car than the other.
60,000 people attended the event, Barrett stalled at the start, losing five minutes in the process. He finished eighth, the handicap event was won in legendary fashion by Alan Tomlinson in a supercharged MG TA Spl.
Despite his handicap Tomlinson ‘punched way above his weight’, his preparation for the race was meticulous. He walked the circuit in the weeks prior to the event and drove around it in another TC practicing each section patrticularly the 5Km stretch from Gumeracha Corner to the Start-Finish hairpin, he knew that section would be key for a driver in a notionally slower car, if you were brave enough…Tomlinson was to say after the race that Saywell’s Alfa held him up on that stretch! Tomlinson returned to Lobethal in 1940 for the SA Trophy and almost lost his life in an horrific accident after colliding with another car, careering off the road through a wire fence, lucky not to be decapitated, and hit a tree. The young WA driver did not race again but lived into his 90s.
Check out this fabulous documentary on the short but sweet history of Lobethal road circuit…https://vimeo.com/83756140
The Monza quickly established lap records at Lobethal, Bathurst, Albury Wirlinga, Nowra, Ballarat and Point Cook. It’s last pre-war start was at Wirlinga in 1939, winning a short handicap and setting a lap record of over 90mph on the gravel course.
During WW2 Alf and Gib served in the RAAF, returning to racing after hostilities ceased, in late 1946 the Monza was again race prepared.
Barrett showing the deftness of touch and relaxed driving style for which he was famous. Monza, Bathurst AGP 1947 (John Blanden Collection)
The first race meeting organised by the LCCA in Victoria was at Ballarat Airfield in February 1947, the RAAF made the facility available for creation of a road circuit.
Over 30,000 people attended the meeting which featured all of the stars of the day. Barrett thrilled the crowds with his driving and the sight and sound of the fabulous supercharged straight-eight engine. Alf didn’t beat the handicappers though, off scratch, he gave away 22 minutes to the limitman, Hollinshead’s MG J2, victory in the feature race, the Victorian Trophy went to Doug Whiteford in ‘Black Bess’, the Ford V8 Spl later to win the 1950 AGP.
This fantastic bit of footage shows both the Ballarat 1947 event and 1961 international meeting contested by Dan Gurney, Graham Hill and many others. Don’t be put off by the commentary, Barrett is driving his Monza not an Alfa P3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2uwd7m6UGo
At Nowra, a new airstrip venue in June, Barrett won both the over 1500cc event and 110 mile NSW Championship in the Monza achieving both the fastest lap at 93mph and time, despite a pitstop.
Whilst motor racing recommenced post-war in Paris on September 9, 1945 the first post-war Australian event seems to be a hillclimb at Foleys Hill out of Sydney, whilst the AGP was not held until 1947 at Bathurst.
Despite problems with the police in getting the requisite permit and dissension in the ranks of the drivers, there were 29 acceptances and 22 race starters.
The caption of this photo is of ‘Alf Barrett receives the chequered flag October 1947’, he DNF’d the AGP so perhaps this is the finish of a preliminary race. Wonderful shot all the same (unattributed)
Barrett’s Monza was off scratch due to the absence of Saywell’s faster P3, it’s engine was dispatched by sea prewar to Italy for a rebuild, never to survive the voyage. Lex Davison entered a Mercedes SSK 38/250, the first of many successful AGPs for the Victorian, other fast cars included the Kleinig Hudson Spl of Frank Kleinig, Hope Bartlett’s Dixon Riley and Ewing’s Buick Spl.
Lex Davison leads Alf Barrett AGP 1947. Mercedes 38/250 and Alfa Monza respectively…it would not be long till Lex imported a Jano designed Alfa of his own – a P3 in 1948 – Davison set the fastest overall race time in the fearsome 7.6-litre SSK but was classified third under the handicap system (Byron Gunther)
Practice was on the preceding Thursday and Sunday, Barrett enlivened proceedings by taking all and sundry for rides around Mount Panorama in the Monza, as did Lex Davison in his Merc complete with linen helmet, goggles, coat and tie!
Barrett gave away 37 minutes to the first car away, Alf lapping at 3:08 and 124mph down the ‘narrow, bumpy and spooky Conrod Straight between the trees’ but retired on lap 27 with valve insert trouble – he really didn’t ever have a surplus of AGP luck!, the race was won by Bill Murray’s MG TC.
‘Alf in his 8C2300 was the fastest driver in Australia in 1947’ according to John Medley but for 1948 the level of competition increased with Tony Gaze and Lex Davison importing a 2-litre supercharged Alta and Alfa Romeo P3/Tipo B respectively.
Barrett with a passenger sans helmet…before the 1947 AGP at Mount Panorama. What a wild ride it must have been (Byron Gunther)
The 1948 AGP was held at Point Cook, it’s easy to forget the context of the post war times in a low key year for motor racing in Australia, John Medley in Cars and Drivers #3 wrote ‘The post war age of austerity with its restrictions and ration books still prevailed with a shortage of fuel, oil, paper, steel, food and power.’
’In fact fuel rations were tightened during the year which placed a limit on the number of events…The mainstay of Australian motor racing still remained the homebuilt sprecial, a few of them single-seaters but most two seaters used on the road with number plates and lights, and for racing.’
With ‘B24 Liberator’ and one Bristol Beaufighter aircraft as a backdrop Barrett leads Bill Ford’s Hudson Spl (seventh) and Dennis Curran’s Willys Ford V8 Spl (fifth) during his brief race in conditions which were amongst the hottest of any AGP. Fantastic evocative shot (George Thomas)
Point Cook is in Melbourne’s inner western suburbs, it was the first time the AGP was held at an airforce base and the first AGP not held on a course using public roads.
26 cars entered the event held on Australia Day, 26 January. It was over 42 laps of a 3.85 km circuit comprising airfield runways, taxiways and service roads, a total distance of 100 miles. Only 10 cars completed the race which was held in excruciating hot conditions, no shade was to be had on the desolate airfield. The handicap event, AGPs were not held as scratch events until 1951, was won by Frank Pratt a Geelong, Victoria motorcycle racer/dealer in a BMW 328.
Barrett started the race poorly having some issues which slowed him down then was the fastest car in the race for a while before withdrawing from the event with heat exhaustion on lap 22. He was far from alone, only 10 cars finished as stated above.
Alf contested the Easter Bathurst meeting which comprised some short handicap races, he didn’t win but set fastest lap in his Alfa, Gaze blew the Alta’s 2-litre engine and Davison retired early after troubles arising from a spectacular practice crash. The feature, handicap race, the NSW 100 was won by John Barraclough’s MG NE with a fine battle between the Barrett and Davison Alfas. Barrett in the older car broke the lap record at 3m 01 seconds with Davo recording 144mph down Conrod in the P3, a new straight line speed record at Mount Panorama.
Melbourne Cup Weekend in November seems to have been Alf’s final race with the Monza, winning his class at Rob Roy Hillclimb at the Australian Hillclimb Championship.
With a growing family and a business to run Barrett sold the Monza and retired from racing, not entirely though! He retired at the top, John Medley commenting about 1948 as follows…’Cars new to the scene included Lex Davison’s Alfa P3 and Tony Gaze’s two Altas with Alf Barrett’s Monza Alfa Romeo still the car to beat in major races’
The Monza passed into the hands of Rupert Steele in late 1949.
A Victorian, he was very quickly on the pace, his previous experience in a Bentley, practising the Alfa on the back roads between Beaconsfield and Dandenong to help get the feel of the fabulous machine.
He raced at Fishermans Bend, was sixth in the SA Championship at Nuriootpa in 1949 and put that practice to good effect in the 1950 AGP, which was also held on that quick road course in the Barossa Valley.
The race was still a handicap event, Steele finished second to Doug Whiteford’s Ford V8 Spl ‘Black Bess’ and shared the fastest lap with Whiteford who was a formidable driver with vastly more experience than Steele, albeit driving a much less sophisticated car. Black Bess was famously based on an ex-Victorian Forestry Commission Ute!
Steele didn’t own the Monza for long, later in life he became a notable Victorian in business and horse racing, the car was advertised again for sale.
Rupert Steele in the Monza contesting the 1950 AGP at Nuriootpa in the SA Barossa Valley. He finished second and shared fastest lap with Doug Whiteford, the winner (John Blanden Collection)(Tony Johns Collection)
The next owner was Victorian ‘Racing Ron’, a very experienced driver who was very competitive in the Monza racing it around the country, an initial win at Ballarat Airfield in the 1950 Victorian Trophy against strong opposition was impressive.
The car raced at the Bathurst October meeting in 1951, finishing fourth in the ‘100’ and third in the 50 Mile Redex Championship, Edgerton’s year was capped with a fourth in class at the Australian Hillclimb Championship at Rob Roy, in Melbourne’s Christmas Hills.
Ron Edgerton in the Monza #2211134 ahead of Frank Kleinig’s Kleinig Hudson Spl, Hell Corner, Bathurst in the 50 Mile Redex Championship in October 1951 (WJ Farncourt)With the inside front wheel pawing the air, Edgerton drives the Monza hard up Rob Roy, January 29, 1951 (unattributed)Alf Barrett hadn’t entirely retired, here he is at Bathurst in 1950 driving Tony Gaze’ 2-litre Alta Monoposto #56S, whilst the latter was overseas (John Blanden)
The Winter 2012 issue of Loose Fillings the wonderful Australian Newsletter about air-cooled racing cars had an article by the late lamented Australian Historian/Enthusiast/Racer Graham Howard.
‘He (Barrett) was at Bathurst in October 1951 as a spectator when offered a drive in Misha Ravdell’s Firth-prepared Mk4 Cooper Vincent… after Ravdell himself had been injured in a local road accident. Not having driven a racing car of any kind for more than a year and with no experience whatever of a Cooper-style car, he won a six-lap under 1500cc handicap and was well placed in the main event when he ran over a displaced sandbag and broke a driveshaft universal joint. He vividly remembered the Cooper’s vibration. ‘It was like driving a lawnmower– dreadful. You’d get out of it as if you’d been driving a lawn-mower.’ But everything else compared to his beloved Alfa was a revelation.
‘The Cooper made my hair stand on end. It ran so straight and it stopped straight. The brakes were like running into cotton wool. With the Alfa you always felt you were a foot off the ground and it would get such dreadful brake tramp. ‘The thing I noticed with the Cooper, it held on until all four wheels went together. You could go too far with the Alfa and cars like that, and they’d still hang on, the Cooper would just go snap. ‘But that little Cooper – it just went straight, it stopped straight. So when I say the Alfa was good, it was good-until the Cooper’.
Barrett in the borrowed Cooper Mk4 Vincent, Bathurst October 1951, he finished first in a race despite not having sat in the car before! He is in his civvies – collar and tie…and with a noticeable smile on his face! (John Medley)
Its fascinating to get the insights of the day from a top driver of the comparison between ‘the old and new paradigms’ of front and mid engined cars…Cooper won their first Grand Prix in Argentina 1958, in Stirling Moss’ hands, himself a former Cooper 500 exponent.
The Monza was offered for sale by Edgerton in Australian Motor Sports in April 1951 and was bought by Toorak, Melbourne enthusiast Earl Davey Milne, it is still owned by the family and whilst in good hands and complete it remains disassembled and unrestored.
Alf racing and sharing brother Gibs BWA, in the early laps of the 1953 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. The car was a fusion of MG TC Chassis, Lancia front end and steering box, Lancia wheels, brakes and 1935 Chev truck driveshafts powered by a 1.5 litre supercharged Meadows four cylinder engine from a Frazer Nash! (unattributed)
Alf made a comeback of sorts in the 1953 Australian Grand Prix, the first held at Albert Park.
Gib built a two-seater sports car called BWA, colloquially the ‘Bloody Work of Art’ pre-War but actually named after the car’s builders, Messrs Barrett/Ashton/White. The BWA was converted into a single-seater post war, the 1953 AGP regs allowed two drivers so Alf started the race and handed over to Gib.
It wasn’t their best of events, the pair lost 15 minutes at the start with fouled ‘plugs and then managed to set fire to it after a fuel spill at a pitstop. Still, they finished twelth, Doug Whiteford won the race in his first Talbot Lago T26C, it was his third and final AGP win. The Lago was as aristocratic as Black Bess, his 1950 AGP winner, was proletariat, having won the AGP at Bathurst in 1952 in the Lago as well.
The BWA ablaze at the Albert Park pits. This was the end of the conflagration, the BBQ was immense at the point of ignition…the Barretts got the car going and finished the event (Youtube)
Barrett remained a motor racing enthusiast and in a neat bookend to his career commencement also finished it in a Morris.
He contested the 1969 Bathurst 500 in a Morris 1500 shared with Kyneton, Victoria motor dealer/racer Mel Mollison, they finished 37th. Barrett drove the car with the same verve and flair for which he was famous if not wearing the blue T-Shirt for which he was also renowned, he died in 1998.
Etcetera…
Alf Barrett racing brother Gib’s BWA in early unbodied form. The car was a fusion of MG TC chassis, mainly Lancia componentry and supercharged 1.5 litre Meadows engine. 16th Rob Roy Hillclimb (State Library of Victoria)A close up of Alf Barrett and his Morris ‘Bullnose’ Cowley Spl, Wirlinga, Albury 1938. Car built together with brother ‘Gib’ and Alan Ashton. Historian John Medley noted that this car was destroyed in a bushfire, only the engine survived (unattributed)Alf giving his new Monza plenty at Rob Roy on 30 January 1939 (B King)Barrett AGP Lobethal 1939 (Norman Howard)Yet another stunning Norman Howard AGP Lobethal 1939 Barrett shot.Monza in the Lobethal paddock 1940. To the left is the Jack Phillip’s Ford V8 Spl which won the main event at that meeting, the South Australian 100 and at far left a Bentley Ute used as a tender vehicle. Barrett DNF with rear axle failure but set fastest lap at 5m 48sec, 92mph average (Ean McDowell)Barrett and the Monza at Ballarat Airfield in February 1947 (John Blanden Collection)Barrett, Monza, Bathurst AGP 1947…the fastest car driver combination again that year (Byron Gunther)Doug Whiteford’s Talbot Lago in front of the Monza, then owned by Ron Edgerton at Bathurst in 1951… a happy hunting ground for both cars (unattributed)
Monza # 2211134 History…
The following article was published in Motor Sport by Denis Jenkinson in 1976 with input from Earl Davey-Milne, a Melburnian who still owns the car.
Bibliography and Credits…
John Medley in Graham Howard’s ‘History of The Australian Grand Prix’, John Blanden ‘Historic Racing Cars in Australia’, ‘Loose Fillings’ Winter 2012, Motor Sport, MotorMarque, Patrick Atherton Lagler Racing, ‘Cars and Drivers’, John Medley
John Blanden, George Reed, Dacre Stubbs Collection, John Blanden Collection, Ean McDowell, John Medley, autopics, State Library of Victoria, W J Farncourt, George Thomas, Byron Gunther, Norman Howard, Allan Griffin Collection, Bob King Collection, Tony Johns Collection
Tailpiece…
Barrett and Monza, descending the mountain thru The Dipper, Bathurst 1939 (unattributed)
Seeliger normally raced it, notable successes were at Rob Roy, and at the Ballarat Airfield, where Ern won the Wendouree Handicap in January 1947. After this meeting, he rebuilt it, although he was able to run it very effectively sans body at Rob Roy on April 20, 1947 achieving FTD at 30.99 seconds. 
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