Posts Tagged ‘Warwick Brown’

Lola T430 Chev…

Posted: July 23, 2025 in Features
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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Mike Imrie’s Ford Falcon V8 sports sedan gets the jump on Alfie Costanzo’s Porsche Cars Australia Lola T430 Chev into Shell corner, Sandown during a Formule Libre race in 1979.

Maybe not. How bout they shared an early Sunday discretionary practice session, it’s an interesting juxtaposition of car types all the same.

The trouble with building the world’s best Formula 5000 car, the Lola T330/T332/T332C, is how Eric Broadley and his band of merry men could better it!

Alan Jones, Lola T332 Chev ahead of Peter Gethin’s Chevron B37 Chev during the February 1977 Sandown Park Cup, two DNFs, with Max Stewart’s Lola T400 Chev the winner below. All of the first three shots Shell Corner (B Forsyth)
(R Steffanoni)

The 1975 Lola T400 (above) oozed smart thinking, including variable or rising-rate suspension. Initially it was labelled a dog, but by mid-1975 an update kit and setup guidance had customers who persevered with the cars on the right track: Teddy Pilette’s VDS T400 won the 1975 European F5000 Championship from his teammate, Peter Gethin, while in Australia Max Stewart’s T400 won the 1975 Australian Grand Prix and many Gold Star and Rothmans International rounds from 1975-77.

The ultimate F5000 test was of course, the US Championship, where Eppie Wietzes was the best of the T400s in 1975 with fifth place in the standings. The Americans and Australasians loved their T332s, some like the Jim Hall-Chaparral T332Cs raced by Brian Redman were very highly refined and developed, and prodigiously fast.

Frank Gardner all cocked up in the Esses during the February 1971 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman round won by FG’s works Lola T192 Chev (L Hemer)
Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300 Chev, Glyn Scott Memorial Trophy Gold Star round, Surfers Paradise 1972

Broadley then took a leaf out of his own F5000 playbook. The Frank Gardner developed Lola T192 Chev was still winning races in 1971 when Broadley, Gardner and designer John Barnard went smaller by building the 1972 model-year Lola T300 Chev.

Essentially, Gardner felt a car based on an F2/FB T240 aluminium monocoque chassis would provide a lower centre of gravity and improved aerodynamics. Fitted with big radiators mounted beside the drivers shoulders, a 500 bhp Chev and Hewland DG300 five speed transaxle where a Ford FVA and FT200 five speed transaxle once lived, the T242, and a little later the renamed T300 was a luscious looking racing car!

Once refined by Gardner in the late 1971 season races the T300 won a lot of races around the world and sold like hot cakes in ’72. The 1973-74 T330/T332 refined the package into one of the most successful series of customer racing cars ever built. Probably the most successful if you account for the central-seat 5-litre Can-Am T332CS and T333 variants as well.

For 1976 Lola planned to do ‘a T192 to T300 all over again’.

Teddy Pilette testing a Lola T450 F2 chassis fitted with a Chev V8, DG300 Hewland etc at Paul Ricard. Note that a front radiator is fitted at this stage. In the later shot of Teddy below, the radiators have been moved to the rear, parallel with the radius rods (Lola)
Note the ‘brackets on brackets’ front suspension assemblies as per the text (Auto Hebdo)

Lola initially built and tested a car based on an F2 T450 tub, but ultimately, went with a monocoque based on the T360 Formula Atlantic, which was also a narrow design.

The T430 had a full-width nosecone, unlike all of the T300-series cars, but the radiators were mounted at the rear, having initially, as the photos above show, experimented with a front-mounted radiator.

The suspension was different to the T360 in that the quite conventional mix of magnesium uprights, upper and wide-based lower front wishbones, Koni/coil spring damper units and an adjustable roll-bar. were attached to brackets that in turn were attached to the tub.

The rear suspension comprised Lola magnesium uprights, a single upper link, two parallel lower links and a pair of radius rods doing fore and aft locational duties, and again Koni/coil springs and an adjustable roll bar. VDS’s chief mechanic, Steve Horne, christened the car The Flying Bracket!

In essence, as Allen Brown described it, the T430 has ‘T332-style suspension geometry. Essentially, Lola had built a smaller version of the T300/330/332 design.’ Teddy Pilette wrote cryptically on Facebook, ‘Eric Broadley wanted to make a small, narrow car to get the advantage of straight-line speed…but no good on the curve!!!!’

Steve Horne added (in relation to a Riverside photograph) ‘The drivers swapped cars that weekend and didn’t change much. I normally looked after the B37 (see results summary below), but that weekend was demoted to the 430! The Chevron was one of the best F5000s I worked on. It didn’t really have any development done on it, and the biggest downfall for both cars (T430s and B37) were the Morand engines, which just weren’t competitive in the USA.’

SCCA-USAC Formula 5000 1976…

Three Lola T430s were sold, two to Count Rudy Van Der Straten’s Racing Team VDS, and one to Jim Hall’s. In addition to his pair of Lolas for the 1976 US F5000 Championship – the last – VDS also acquired Derek Bennett’s last F5000 design, the Chevron B37 Chev, having successfully run B24/B28s previously; Peter Gethin won the 1974 Tasman Cup aboard a VDS Chevron B24 Chev.

It must have been quite an expensive year for the beer-baron, carrying chassis spares for different makes of cars. To add to the mix, he also appears to have acquired the T332C HU55 that Warwick Brown was racing for Bay Racing until its demise. WB’s first appearance for VDS was at Road America on July 25.

Pilette raced T430 HU1 and Gethin and Brown HU2, Gethin’s preferred mount was the B37, but Teddy grabbed it once or twice too…

Teddy Pilette, Lola T430 Chev HU1 at the Pocono 1976 US F5000 season opener – the T430’s first race – in May 1976 (B Featherly)
Oil radiators mounted either side at the rear (B Featherly)
(B Featherly)

As to results: Pocono, May 9, Teddy was Q5 and third and fourth in the heats, then 12th in the final won by Redman’s T332C. At Mosport on June 20 Teddy was third from Q7 in the race won by Alan Jones’s T332. Jackie Oliver had a memorable win for Dodge at Road America on July 25, Shadow DN6B with Pilette sixth from Q11. Gethin was ninth from Q8. Redman won again at Mid Ohio on August 8 with Gethin seventh from Q11. Pilette was fifth overall, and second in his heat from Q7 in the Chevron B37…

The dominance of the Lola T332C was again confirmed with Redman’s win in the Hall-Haas entry at Road America on August 28, where Pilette was Q2 – easily the best qualifying performance of a T430 all year – and fifth, with Brown Q6 in T430 HU2 and DNF, while Peter was Q8 and fourth in the B37.

Allen Brown wrote that ‘With two rounds to go, Alan Jones and Jackie Oliver were tied for the championship lead, but when Oliver retired at Road America and Jones had to miss the race to be at the Dutch Grand Prix, Redman won and leapt into a significant points lead.’

Teddy Pilette leading the field in the wet at Watkins Glen in ? 1976 DNF on lap 14 with engine failure (Lola Heritage via T Pilette)
Warwick Brown, T430 Riverside 1976 and below (unattributed)

At Mid-Ohio on August 8, Redman won again with Gethin seventh in HU2 and Teddy fifth in the B37. In the final round at Riverside on July 17, VDS were again busy with three cars. Up front, it was Al Unser in a T332 Chev with WB sixth in HU2 from Q11, Gethin 10th from Q16 in the B37 and Teddy 12th from Q10 in HU1.

Redman won the championship from Unser, Oliver and Jones, the best of the T430 pilots was Warwick Brown in seventh, but most of WB’s points harvest was aboard the Bay Racing Lola T332C.

Lift Off: Surfers 100 1977. L>R WB T430, Peter Gethin Chevron B37, Vern Schuppan, Elfin MR8-C, with John Leffler’s white Lola T400 correcting his start slide and perhaps looking for a run between Gethin and Schuppan. The first three were Brown, Gethin, and Leffler (D Simpson)

1977 Rothmans International Series Australia…

Given the scale of the investment, and success of VDS it was a poor season, best to cut ‘yer losses, take the cars to Australia, win the series, then flog them at the end of it. Which is exactly what happened!

Warwick Brown won two of the four Rothmans International rounds – Oran Park and Surfers Paradise – and the championship from Peter Gethin, in the VDS Chevron B37 Chev and Alan Jones Lola T332 Chev.

Jones was the star of the series but a jumped start in the AGP at Oran Park and writing off a T332 at Surfers cruelled his chances. Yip’s boys leased KB’s T332 for that race.

At the end of the series, VDS sold the two T430s to Porsche Cars Australia/Alan Hamilton, who had had one season of F5000 in 1971, and with business booming, thought he would have another crack.

Bruce Allison bought the Chevron B37 and had a fantastic year in it, contesting the British F5000/Group 8 Championship, winning many fans, some races, and the prestigious Grovewood Award.

‘Hammo’ in the Sandown pitlane during the 1978 AGP weekend (B Atkin)

Porsche Cars Australia Alan Hamilton…

Brown raced HU2 to wins in the Australian Grand Prix at Oran Park and in the Surfers Paradise 100, while Max Stewart took his final win in his Lola T400 Chev HU3 at Sandown the week later.

Alan Jones’ Sid Taylor-Teddy Yip Lola T332 Chev was the fastest combination in the 1977 Rothmans Series, with AJ redeeming himself in the final round at Adelaide International. Jones was pinged for jumping start at Oran Park, bent a Lola in practice at Surfers, then led at Sandown before retiring.

In his ’77 Gold Star campaign aboard HU2, ‘Hammo’ was second at Sandown, fourth at Calder and second at Phillip Island for fourth overall behind John McCormack’s McLaren M23 Repco-McCormack Leyland.

Hamilton also contested the 1978 Rothmans Series for fifth at Sandown, tenth at Adelaide International and sixth at Surfers Paradise before vacating the seat for Derek Bell at Oran Park, where the British all-rounder was eighth from Q11.

Warwick Brown won the series again with a VDS machine, this time a Lola T333 Chev Can-Am car (HU2) converted to a T332C F5000 car, amusing to me at least, given the number of T332s that made the conversion journey the other way…

Derek Bell ahead of Kevin Bartlett at Oran Park at Oran Park in 1978. Lola T430 Chev and Brabham BT43 Chev (C Snowden)
Alan Hamilton aboard his immaculate Lola T430 Chev during the 1978 Australian Grand Prix at Sandown before That Lap. Note the very neat T332-based nose fitted by then

While grids for the Rothmans International Series were still adequate, the domestic Gold Star was a different matter. The case for a change to Formula Pacific was being put, with F5000 hanging on. Alan Hamilton missed the opening round of the Gold Star at Oran Park but entered for the Australian Grand Prix at Sandown on September 10.

That ‘Fangio Meeting’ was mega with the great man demonstrating a 3-litre W196S-engined Mercedes-Benz W196R Grand Prix car with much brio throughout the weekend and ‘racing’ Jack Brabham in Jack’s 66 F1 Championship-winning Brabham BT19 Repco 620 V8.

The utter excitement of the sight and sound of that legendary car-driver combination was to a large extent ruined by the accidents that befell Garrie Cooper and Alan Hamilton, and to a lesser extent Vern Schuppan, in the Grand Prix won by Graham McRae, McRae GM3 Chev. 

Alan lost control of the twitchy, unforgiving Lola on the fast left-hander off The Causeway then went backwards into the Dunlop Bridge breaking the car into two and breaking a leg, his pelvis and sustaining serious head injuries.

While there that day, I was nowhere near the accident, which was in a no-spectator area on the inside of the track. The vibe of the place that day, with three big hits and limited information flow to us punters, is something I still remember.

It took a long time for Hamilton to recover, he carried maladies related to that accident for the rest of his life, not least the diabetes that prevented him from ever holding a full competition licence again.

Hamilton supported a lot of drivers along the way, it’s beyond the scope of this article. When he decided to continue to race the other T430, HU1, he chose Italian Australian Alfredo Costanzo, then 35 years old.

Costanzo in the Sandown dummy grid. Flying Bracket factor front and rear is clear (D House)
This shot shows the low frontal area presented by Costanzo’s T430 compared with Brown’s T332 further back; Perkins’ Elfin MR8 looking as slippery as the T430. Oran Park 1979 (B Forsyth)

Costanzo’s first race was at the Sandown round of the 1979 Rothmans Series on February 4, where he won, what a debut! He took the Adelaide round as well.

The shot above shows Costanzo, Lola T430 Chev, ahead of Larry Perkins, Elfin MR8C Chev, and Warwick Brown, Lola T332C Chev in the final Oran Park round on February 25, 1979.

Rob Newman, racer and in John Walker’s AGP and Gold Star winning 1979 year, the preparer of JW’s Lola T332, observed: ‘Poor Alfie had a driveshaft failure and lost the race and the series. Perkins went on to win the 1979 Rothmans series without winning a race, and Warwick salvaged one race win from what had been an awful 1979 Rothmans series for him, his last season as a professional driver, if I recall correctly.’

Shortly after the Rothmans, the Gold Star commenced with the Australian Grand Prix at Wanneroo Park on 11 March. Costanzo bagged pole, then he and Perkins took one another out in a first-lap, first-corner battle for victory. Another perennial battler, John Walker, won the day in Martin Sampson’s Lola T332 Chev; the duo took the Gold Star that year, too, with Alfie the winner of the Sandown round.

Take No Prisoners. Classic dive and chop manoeuvre between Perkins’ Elfin MR8 and Alfie’s T430 eliminates both at the start of the 1979 AGP at Wanneroo Park. A great pity, as that joust could have been really something (unattributed)
AGP victor John Walker is licking his lips in the #25 white Lola T332 behind the Wanneroo Air Show (unattributed)

Into 1980, the Hamilton-Costanzo-T430 combination finally came good in a Gold Star season of many different winners, winning the coveted award from Jon Davison and John Bowe and taking victory in the Sandown and the Rose City 10000 at Winton in T430 HU1.

Alfie’s last hurrah in the old car was in the Australian Grand Prix at Calder on November 16. By then, the conversion of McLaren M26-4E to a ground-effects Chev-engined F5000 car in PCA’s workshops was a bit behind schedule, so Hamilton’s crew dusted off the T430 for one last time, finishing fourth in the race behind Alan Jones, Williams FW07B Ford, Bruno Giacomelli, Alfa Romeo 179 V12 and Didier Pironi’s Elfin MR8 Chev. Alfie and Didi gave one another a bit of hip-and-shoulder that day!

Bob Minogue, Lola T430 Chev, Shell Corner, Sandown 1981. From memory, the lack of airboxes at this stage was the notion of the entrants/penniless sponsor Arco Graphite to make F5000 cars look more contemporary (R Lewis)

The car didn’t move far with Brighton racer Bob Minogue, the purchaser. He had been out of racing for a while but proved very much up to the task and not intimidated at all, racing the car in the 1981 Gold Star and into the Arco Graphite Series in 1981-82 as Formula Pacific finally took over as Australia’s National F1.

All three T430s live in New Zealand with T430 HU2 rebuilt around the chassis plate, which ‘took pride of place’ on Alan Hamilton’s office pin-board for a couple of decades.

(A Mitchell)
The Costanzo T430 Chev at Surfers Paradise in 1979 and below at Sandown. Circa 520bhp in the day (M Strudwick)
(C Jewell)

More reading…

Lola Heritage information here : https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t430/t430.html and Allen Brown’s chassis by chassis history is here : https://www.oldracingcars.com/lola/t430/

Credits…

Rod Steffanoni, Chris Jewell, Bill Forsyth, Lynton Hemer, Michael Strudwick, Chris Snowden, Auto Hebdo, Lola Heritage, Teddy Pilette, Bob Featherly, Neil Laracy, Chris Parker, Robin Lewis, Alex Mitchell

Tailpieces…

(C Parker)

I was there somewhere, that day, every day over that Sandown Sunday, February 20, 1977, weekend.

Raceday wasn’t a good day for WB, he had qualified fourth but boofed the T430 into the Dandy Road fence on the warm-up or parade lap, Max Stewart won from Alfie and Garrie Cooper: Lola T400, Lola T332 and Elfin MR8-C all Chev powered.

Look at the crowd…And below? Surfers perhaps? Racing cars are like magnets for little tackers and bigger blokes alike, aren’t they!?

(N Laracy)

Finito…

Lola T332 Factory Specification Information…

Posted: January 12, 2025 in Features
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(S Elliott)

Warwick Brown and the Wrightcars truck he used in New Zealand during his successful 1975 Tasman Cup campaign. He was the only Aussie to win the coveted series, shown here with Lola T332 Chev #HU27 at Pukekohe, where he won the NZ GP on January 12.

HU27 is the first T332 built, first racing in the opening Tasman round at Levin on January 6, 1974. Brown won the Adelaide 100 on February 24 and in so doing won the first of hundreds of in-period victories for the 332 and its many variants on every continent.

A very successful machine, Brown showed well in the US L&M F5000 championship in mid-1974 before coming home and proving the class of the AGP field before his Peter Molloy Chev broke a harmonic balancer. Then followed the Tasman in which he won two of the eight rounds in a very open year, five drivers won races.

Brown on the hop in HU27 in the 1975/Surfers Paradise Tasman round. He and mechanic/engineer/driver-whisperer Peter Molloy developed the car to a fine pitch in some US L&M races in mid-1974. Lola perves will notice the single-post supported banana-wing. Compare and contrast with the Lola factory fitment twelve months before (unattributed)
Brown during the February 1974 Oran Park Tasman round. Rear view of the early spec T332s-HU27 here. Compare and contrast with the Jones’ T332C further on. Car owned by Brown’s patron, Sydney businessman Pat Burke (D Harvey)

This article is largely an assemblage of factory/Carl Haas T332 information accumulated by Australian racer/restorer Jay Bondini who owned, restored and raced two T332s: HU43 ex-Carl Hogan and HU37 ex-Sid Taylor.

The Lola T330/T332/T332C/T332CS/T333 as a series of ‘same chassis’ related models are right up there as a contender for the title of ‘greatest production racing car’ – where greatest is defined as the most wins relative to production numbers.

Others that spring to mind are the Bugatti T35/T37/T39 series, Ralt’s RT2/3/4/5, the McLaren M7/M10 series and McLaren M8/8A/12/8B/8C/8D/8E/8F and Ford GT40 Marks 1-4 and more. Oh yeah, not to forget Lola’s own T70 series…it would be an interesting list to create and debate. One for another time.

For those unfamiliar with a T330, here is Max Stewart in HU1 ahead of Graeme Lawrence’s T332 HU28, both Chev powered, during the 1974 Sandown Tasman round won by Peter Gethin’s Chevron B24 Chev (B Keys)

Only 10 carryover parts from other model Lolas. No surprises there albeit most of the T330/332s I recall seeing in paddocks were fitted with Koni double-adjustable alloy shocks not Armstrongs.

Jongbloed 15-inch rear wheels became the-go later in ’74 from memory. So too, did the Chaparral type all-enveloping engine cowl/airbox, that turned a stunning looking car into the positively sinful: the T332C followed.

$US3,650 for a new tub in 1974 is about $US26,000 today. I wonder how much a new monocoque actually costs now from Lola’s designated chassis maker (who owns those rights these days?) or your favourite fabricator?

(C Parker Archive)

Alan Jones in Teddy Yip’s T332C HU61 Chev at Riverside in 1976, the final year of the US F5000 Championship before changing to 5-litre central-seat Can-Am in 1977…and further Lola T332 domination.

Chaparral were the first to do the enveloping engine cover/airbox on a T332. Apart from the body changes, the oil tank was moved, the roll-bar mounting changed and a central post rear-wing adopted. The later 332s also had the FIA mandated roll-hoop over the dash which had the byproduct of providing a bit more chassis stiffness.

See the letter from Chaparral‘s Jim Hall to Eric Broadley via Carl Haas explaining improvements to their car raced so successfully by Brian Redman in 1974-75 that allowed Lola to ‘productionise’ them as the T332C for 1976. Fascinating detail stuff of all the one-percenters that made a topline well funded outfit like Chaparral so successful: https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t332c/t332c.html

‘What are your three favourite racing cars Alan?’ I asked Jones at the Governor’s function before the 2023 AGP. ‘My F1 Williams FW07, the Lola T332, both the 5000 and Can-Am versions, and Alan Hamilton’s Porsche 935…’ was his response.

About says it all really, given his career spanned the mid-1960s well into the early-2000s and hundreds of different cars.

It’s not a factory drawing but is useful to show how wide and shallow the chassis of the T332 and T330 are. Note that, unlike the T300 chassis, the 330/332 used the engine as a semi-stressed member.

The flaw in the drawing – purportedly T332 – is that the rear suspension shows an inverted rear wishbone (T330) arrangement rather than the twin-parallel link set up used on T332s.

The combination of Lola Heritage’s website: T330 here: https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t330/t330.html T332 here: https://www.lolaheritage.co.uk/type_numbers/t332/t332.html and Allen Brown’s oldracingcars will keep you going for a while: the T330 is here: https://www.oldracingcars.com/lola/t330/ and T332 here: https://www.oldracingcars.com/lola/t332/

Credits…

Steve Elliot, Jay Bondini Archive, Dale Harvey, Chris Parker Archive, oldracingcars.com, Getty Images

Tailpiece…

(S Elliott)

Graeme Lawrence in the second T332 built, HU28, from Max Stewart in T400 Chev HU2 during the 1976 Peter Stuyvesant New Zealand F5000 Championship.

Just love Steve Elliott’s shot above – a corker! – but I have no idea of the circuit, help please Kiwis!?

Lawrence, the 1970 Tasman Cup winner aboard an ex-Amon Ferrari Dino 246T, fought out the 1975 Tasman with fellow T332 exponents Lawrence, John Walker (T330 HU23 Repco-Holden was rebuilt around a T332 tub) and Brown.

The battle went down to the wire at the final Sandown round where WB prevailed after Walker lived-to-fight-another-day with a monster first lap accident and Graeme had problems. John Goss won the race in his Matich A53 Repco-Holden.

Lawrence won the 1975 NZ Gold Star in this car and was always a front-runner in Australasian F5000. You can’t mention Kiwi Lola exponents without recognising Ken Smith, who won the Peter Stuyvesant Series, NZ GP at Pukekohe, and the NZ Gold Star in 1976. A big year! His mount was an ex-Chaparral/Brian Redman Lola T330/2 HU8. He may still be having the occasional Lola steer in his eighties!

Max Stewart was pretty-handy in Lolas too. In T330 HU1 he won the Australian Grand Prix at Oran Park and the Gold Star series in 1974, then took another AGP victory in the wet at Surfers Paradise the following year in the T400.

Brian Redman in the Chaparral/Haas Lola T332 HU42 Chev at Riverside, the final round of the 1974 US championship on October 27. Mario Andretti won from Brian aboard…the Vel’s Parnelli Jones T332 HU29 (Getty Images)

Afterthought…

The fact that the first and second T332s built were sold to colonials allowed me to make this piece Australasian centric, not that I need encouragement.

But how can you write something about Lola’s T330/332 without mentioning Brian Redman, King of F5000 in its latter era? Earlier Monarchs were, arguably, Peter Gethin and Graham McRae, the latter gets bonus points for doing much of his work aboard cars of his own manufacture.

It’s not that Brian was a Lola F5000 man early on either. He had success in McLaren’s M10 and M18s and did all the early development testing of the Chevron B24 in mid-1972 together with Derek Bennett.

But when he decided F1 wasn’t for him and made US F5000 his primary programme, his partnership with the factory-Carl Haas/Chaparral team yielded a trio of championships from their 1973-76 F5000 partnership – subsequent short Can-Am programme duly recognised. He raced Lola T330s in ’73 and T332s from ’74-76.

Redman didn’t give a yard away to any of the Formula One Johnnies he raced with in Scuderia Ferrari’s 1972-73 World Sportscar Championship campaign aboard 3-litre flat-12 312PBs: Ickx, Andretti, Peterson, Schenken, Pace, Reutemann etc. Surely Brian was the best driver outside F1 at the time? Bias duly declared…

Finito…

1977 Surfers Paradise 100…

Posted: January 18, 2023 in Features
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In Australia at least, there has never been anything quite like the sphincter-puckering blend of excitement and fear as a 10,000bhp grid of 20 5-litre, fuel injected, thundering V8 missiles are launched by their intrepid pilots.

Many thanks to Michael Strudwick for his photographic artistry.

Warwick Brown, Racing Team VDS Lola T430 Chev gets the jump from pole here at the Surfers Paradise, Rothmans International Series round in February 1977. Quite where Peter Gethin and Vern Schuppan – second and third on the grid – are out of shot I’m intrigued to know. John Leffler is in the white Lola T400 Chev with the partially obscured Alfredo Costanzo’s red Lola T332 Chev behind him. The white helmeted dude behind Brown is Alan Jones aboard Kevin Bartlett’s T332. The Jones boy had crashed and written-off his newish Sid Taylor-Teddy Yip Lola T332C in practice so the pair did a lease-deal to allow AJ to race KB’s car. The blue machine to the right of Jones and back is John Goss’ Matich A51/A53 Repco-Holden.

Alan Jones blasts down Surfers main straight in Kevin Bartlett’s Lola T332 Chev HU22, fifth place (M Strudwick)
Goss’ fourth placed Matich A51/A53 Repco Holden. #005 is one of the two A51s FM took to the US in 1973, and later updated by Goss and Grant O’Neill to A53 side-radiator – and the rest – specifications. This is Goss’ ’76 AGP winning chassis (M Strudwick)
Duulling T332s; great Kiwi Graeme Lawrence HU28 in blue, tenth place, and great Italian/Australian Alfie Costanzo’s ex-Bob Evans HU36 in red, DNF engine. Lola perves will note the 332C factory engine cover come air intake on Alf’s car compared with the very neat one produced by Graeme and his crew in NZ – always distinctive on this car (M Strudwick)

Brown won the race from pole, Peter Gethin’s VDS Chevron B37 Chev was second – the budget required to maintain adequate spares for two different makes within the one team doesn’t bare thinking about – then Leffler, Goss and Jones.

It was a great Rothmans International Series, the three big international Aussies at the time were Jones, Brown and Vern Schuppan, who raced a works Elfin MR8C Chev. The strongest locals were Goss, reigning Australian GP winner, the Lolas of Bartlett, Leffler, Costanzo and Max Stewart, plus John McCormack’s fast but brittle ex-F1 McLaren M23 Leyland.

Brown won two races, Surfers and the AGP at Oran Park, the opening round on February 6. Jones – on the front row alongside poleman Brown – jumped the start at Oran Park by a fortnight, so was pinged a one-minute penalty which he could not make up, so the AGP went to Brown, from Gethin, Goss, Jones and Schuppan.

Karma ruled in that WB got the AGP win he should have had in 1974 at Oran Park, and Jones got his at Calder in 1980. That day he disappeared into the distance in the Formula Libre event aboard one of his works Williams FW07 Fords.

John McCormack tips his one-of-a-kind ex-F1 McLaren M23 #2 Repco-Irving-McCormack Leyland into the harry-flatters-in-top big-balls right hander under Dunlop Bridge Last man standing in an open-face helmet at this level. The integration of the Leyland P76 aluminium V8 into the space usually occupied by a Cosworth DFV was superbly done, without butchery to the chassis. No matter what they did to that motor, new heads and all, it was always a Hail Mary jobbie by the mechanics as they waved J-Mac onto the circuit. He was 12th and last at Surfers. Still, he won the 1977 Gold Star with it (M Strudwick)
The business end of Max Stewart’s Lola T400 Chev, HU3. DNF dropped valve. MS probably won more races than anyone else on the planet in a T400, including the 1975 AGP – at Surfers – in HU2. Max got better and better as he aged, but died in this car at Calder a month later, March 16. The saddest day I’ve ever had at a race track (M Strudwick)
John Leffler in the gorgeous Grace Bros (chain of NSW department stores) liveried Lola T400 Chev HU15, third place. Won the 1976 Gold Star in it (M Strudwick)

Surfers was the second round, the circus then travelled 1,750km south to Sandown Park in Melbourne’s southern suburbs from the Gold Coast. During that week Sid Taylor brought a replacement T332 to Australia for Jones, who put it third on the grid behind Gethin and Schuppan. Brown shoved the nose of his Lola under the Dandenong Road fence during the warm-up lap, so the man in grid-slot four couldn’t take the start.

Jones jumped Gethin and Schuppan at the drop of the flag – remember those? – but one-by-one, in turn, each of Alan, Peter and Vern retired with overheating, fuel pressure and engine failure respectively. Max Stewart took a popular win from Costanzo, Garrie Cooper in the Elfin chief’s MR8C Chev, Dave Powell in the very first Matich A50 Repco-Holden and McCormack’s McLaren, seven laps adrift.

Off to Adelaide for the final round on February 27, Jones finally won the round he had been threatening to do from the off. He was awesome to watch in these cars, thrilling.

Other than those who had last seen him compete at Sandown in the 3-Hour Production Touring Car race in 1968 (second in a Holden Monaro GTS327 shared with Clive Millis), it was the first time Australian fans had the chance to see him in action. He had been paying his dues in the UK and Europe climbing the greasy-pole in the interim. As a kid, Jones was a silver-spoon-special but by the time he embarked on his racing career, father Stan’s money was long- gone. Jones did it the hard way.

Jones was on pole at Adelaide International, from Brown’s repaired Lola T430 by a half-second, and won the hot race from Brown, Goss, Gethin and Stewart.

Brown won the 1977 Rothmans International Series with 24 points from his team-mate Peter Gethin’s 15, and Alan Jones, third on 14 points.

Peter Gethin in the VDS Chevron B37 Chev #37-76-01, second place. Some of you may have seen it raced by Gethin and Pilette in the US, some by Gethin in Australia and some by Bruce Allison in Australia and in the UK in the 1977 UK Group 8 Championship. Bruce did so well that year he won the premier Grovewood Award (M Strudwick)
The one-off Jaime Gard built Gardos OR2 Repco Holden was built for Perth entrepreneur Don O’Sullivan. Here, Chev powered, it’s being fettled for Adelaide driver Chris Milton (M Strudwick)
Garrie Cooper, Elfin MR8C Chev #8761. Pretty much the equal of the best F5000s, the three MR8s were raced with success by Vern Schuppan, John Bowe, Larry Perkins and James Hunt (M Strudwick)

Formula 5000 was at a crossroads when it was shot in the head at the end of 1976 by the Americans. They wanted Can-Am type crowds, so they ditched F5000-Formula Lola and created…central-seat sportcar-Formula Lola. The Lola T332 had been the star of the show since 1974, and the T332 decked out in a less attractive frock remained the star of the show – as the T332CS/T333CS – into the late 1970’s.

Those other countries who had F5000 as a premier/key category therefore had decisions to make, car constructors would react accordingly and change their focus as the biggest market changed direction.

In our neck of the Tasman-woods the Kiwis jumped with Formula Atlantic as their national premier class, while Australia stuck with F5000 for waaaay too long. New Zealand got the very best of Formula Atlantic chassis diversity and young thruster drivers from the US and Europe, by the time Australia really committed to Formula Atlantic/Pacific, the chassis interest was gone, it had become Formula RT4 (Ralt).

Tasmanian racer David Powell aboard the very first F5000 Matich, A50 #001 Repco Holden. FM’s 1971 AGP and 1972 Gold Star winner (M Strudwick)
American racer Ed Polley’s Polley EP1 #76-13, Lola T332 copy. Polley had a background in big bore sports cars and sprint cars before graduating to F5000 in the US (M Strudwick)
Goss, A51/A53. Relatively light car, the flat plane crank Repco’s gave 520bhp without loss of their legendary flat-fat torque curve. Repco Engine Developments exited Australian motor racing in July 1974 so development of this engine, and then new Repco Leyland V8, stopped then. Phil Irving/John McCormack later evolution of the Leyland unit duly noted (M Strudwick)

Credits…

Michael Strudwick, oldracingcars.com

Tailpiece…

(M Strudwick)

Warwick Brown’s VDS Lola T430 Chev #HU2 in the Surfers Paradise pitlane.

VDS bought two new T430s for the 1976 US F5000 Championship. Brown raced this car twice in the US, then throughout the ’77 Rothmans before HU1 and HU2 were acquired by Australian Porsche importer/racer/team owner – and thoroughly great bloke – Alan Hamilton at the end of the series.

‘Hammo’ raced HU2 for the balance of 1977 and into 1978 – Derek Bell’s drive at Oran Park in the ’78 Rothmans round duly noted – until nearly killing himself in it in a high speed accident at Sandown’s Causeway during the ’78 AGP. While Hamilton survived, HU2 was broken in two.

HU1 (below) was then built up by the Porsche Cars Australia crew led by Jim Hardman, and raced by Alf Costanzo to many race wins, and one Gold Star for Hamilton (1980) in a long relationship which also achieved much success with a McLaren M26 Chev and several Tiga Formula Pacific chassis.

The Hamilton/Costanzo T430 HU1 being tended to at Calder circa 1979-80 (M Strudwick)

Lola returned to the brew which started their F5000 run of success when they married an F2 T240 chassis with a 5-litre Chev V8 and Hewland DG300 transaxle to create the T300 raced by Frank Gardner in later 1971. Gardner, then Lola’s development driver/engineer and works driver, and Lola’s Bob Marston concepted the T242 prototype, and T300 production models.

The 1976 T430 – nicknamed The Flying Bracket by VDS mechanics – was a blend of T360 Formula Atlantic chassis, 520bhp’ish 5-litre Chev and DG300.

The Americans were very attached to their T332s, even moreso after the initial lack of speed of Lola’s 1975 variable rate suspension T400, so they stuck with, or bought new T332/T332Cs rather than the T430, only three of which were sold – to VDS and Carl Haas. Lola’s T400 update kit worked, the two VDS cars were quick in Europe, as were Max Stewart’s and John Leffler’s in Australia, but the Americans weren’t convinced.

All three T430s are extant in New Zealand, where HU2 was reconstructed around its chassis plate which for many years was on the pinboard in Hamiltons’ Church Street Richmond office!

More F5000 to keep you going for an hour or so; Which was the quicker, F5000 or F1? https://primotipo.com/2020/09/15/which-was-quicker-f1-or-f5000/ the ex-Revson/Charlton John McCormack McLaren M23 Leyland https://primotipo.com/2014/07/24/macs-mclaren-peter-revson-dave-charlton-and-john-mccormacks-mclaren-m232/ Frank Matich’ A50-A53 F5000 cars https://primotipo.com/2015/09/11/frank-matich-matich-f5000-cars-etcetera/ Garrie Cooper’s Elfin MR8s https://primotipo.com/2014/10/15/james-hunt-rose-city-10000-winton-raceway-australia1978-elfin-mr8-chev/ and Vern Schuppan’s Elfin MR8 Can-Am https://primotipo.com/2018/10/02/hit-with-the-fugly-stick/ not to forget the Lola T300 https://primotipo.com/2021/05/15/angus-and-cootes-lola-t300s/. Then there is Warwick Brown https://primotipo.com/2017/03/09/wb-for-73/ and a bit on Max Stewart https://primotipo.com/2017/10/24/maxwells-silver-hammer/

Finito…

Its All Happening…

Posted: February 8, 2018 in Features, Who,What,Where & When...?
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(Smith)

I love pit row scenes. Its where it all used to happen before the activities and those allowed to perform them were policed. Occupational health and safety etc…

Here its Saturday practice during the 1972 Sandown Tasman Round, the Australian Grand Prix that year on 19 January. I’ve written an article about this meeting, see the link here;

My First Race Meeting, Sandown Tasman F5000 1972, Bartlett, Lola and Raquel…

Boy, there is some talent focussed in and around Max Stewart’s Mildren Waggott 2 litre.

Big Maxxie towers over the top- its his car, he raced it for Alec Mildren for several years then bought it upon Alec’s retirement from the sport and won the ’71 Gold Star, the Australian Drivers Championship in it. Max knows every centimetre of that liddl baby.

Up the pitrow is Stewart’s Elfin MR5 Repco. I wrote about this car a short while ago-here; https://primotipo.com/2017/10/24/maxwells-silver-hammer/

Max retired the MR5 with engine problems in the AGP the following day.

The short fella with the big arse leaning over the Mildren on the other side is Paul England, a legend. Ex-Repco Research in the Charlie Dean Maybach days, builder of the Ausca Holden Repco sportscar, Cooper T41 competitor in the 1957 German GP, multiple Australian Hillclimb Champion and proprietor of Paul England Engineering in Moonee Ponds- Dame Edna’s Melbourne home suburb of course.

I wonder who the ‘Firestone’ driver is leaning against the (unsighted) pit counter. Fourteen year old me is somehere on that pit counter at this  very moment. I’ve got my eyes on both the cars and marauding Light Car Club officials looking for prats like me who are not ‘sposed to be there.

One of the ‘works’ Elfin MR5 Repco’s with its new Tyrrell nose is blasting past on circuit in 3rd gear making a glorious fuel-injected 90 degree V8 basso-profundo bellow. Not sure if its Garrie Cooper or John McCormack.

The stocky little dude in the blue T-shirt behind Max’s MR5 rear wing is ‘Lugsy’ Adams- then a top mechanic but very soon to be a quick touring car driver, and several years after that an F5000 constructor/driver. Remember the Adams GA1 Chev? Its his driver Warwick Brown he is talking to- WB is in his formative McLaren M10B Chev F5000 days but is soon to be one of its enduring talents in both Australasia and the US.

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Tony Stewart tells the crowd how it was after winning the ’71 Examiner 1000 at Symmons Plains. I think that is his well known engine-builder and father in law Jack Godbehear alongside? (oldracephotos/Harrison)

And the fellow aboard the Mildren Waggott? Its Tony Stewart, no relation to Max…

He was a shooting star, out of Formula Vee, he funded his racing with a series of car yards in the Box Hill area of Melbourne. He progressed to an Elfin 600 Ford F2 car, notably winning a very wet Gold Star event at Symmons Plains in September 1971 ahead of a field of sodden F5000’s and ANF2 cars.

Tony had some races in Paul England’s Dolphin Ford- a BT30/36 Brabham copy and several races circa 1973/4 in an F2 Birrana 273 Ford Hart before disappearing from the scene.

He was one of those guys who had the makings of a champion, I’m intrigued to hear from any of you who know the ‘Tony Stewart Story’. He didn’t stray from the used car trade though. He established ‘Car City’ a massive emporium of competing dealers on a huge former apple orchard site on the Maroondah Highway, Ringwood. He saw the new auto retail approach on a trip to the US and applied it in Melbourne’s outer east. Bumma really, he made his money AFTER his racing stage rather than when he needed it to feed his passion most!?

Tony raced the Mildren Waggott in the all of the Australian Tasman Rounds- Surfers Paradise Q15 13th, Warwick Farm Q12 8th, Sandown Q19 12th and Adelaide Q16, non-classified. It was tough in a 2 litre car by then amongst the 5 litre heavy metal but was still valuable experience in longer races for the young driver.

The more ya look, the more you see in these pitlane shots…

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Paul England makes final adjustments to Tony Stewart’s Elfin 600 Ford before the off at Symmons- he is about to have a great day at the office! (oldracephotos/Harrison)

The 1971 Symmons Plains Gold Star ‘Examiner Trophy’ Round won by Tony Stewart on 26 September…

1971 was a bit of a transitional year between the old 2.5 litre Tasman Formula and F5000. The 5 litre beasties were quicker than the smaller cars but in a year of speed and reliability Max Stewart won the championship with one win and plenty of consistency from to Kevin Bartlett’s three victories in his McLaren M10B Chev.

The Series went down to the wire, to the last round October at Mallala, South Australia. Any of Kevin Bartlett, Max Stewart or Gold Star debutant Alan Hamilton could have taken the title, in the end Max did it with third place behind McCormack and Hamilton. KB looked the goods until engine failure intervened late in the race.

In a strange turn of events and happy circumstances for him, Tony Stewart won at a very wet Symmons Plains, the penultimate ’71 Gold Star round.

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Kevin Bartlett aboard his ex-Niel Allen McLaren M10B ‘400-02’, a very successful car in the hands of both top drivers. KB looks thoughtful- he is contemplating the challenge of 500bhp in the wet on slick tyres (oldracephotos/Harrison)

A good field of 17 cars entered for the race at the ‘Apple Isle’ but a grid of only 8 cars started as a consequence of non-appearances and accidents in practice.

John McCormack, Elfin MR5 Repco snatched pole late in the second session ahead of Alan Hamilton, McLaren M10B Chev, the similarly mounted Kevin Bartlett and on equal fourth quickest Max Stewart’s Mildren Waggott 2 litre and Colin Hyams Lola T192 Chev.

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No shortage of helpers to get Warwick Brown’s Pat Burke owned McLaren M4A Ford Cosworth FVC 1.8 to the grid. Famous car- Piers Courage’ ’68 Tasman mount, he won the final Longford round in it. Then to Niel Allen who raced it successfully before a huge Lakeside prang. Re-tubbed by Bowin in Sydney- then to Pat Burke. Left Australia many years ago, who owns it now? (oldracingcars/Harrison)

Then came Warwick Brown, McLaren M4A Ford Cosworth FVC 1.8, then Tony Stewart, Henk Woelders Elfin 600E Ford, Jack Bono and Garrie Cooper Elfin 600D Ford who did not practice. The latter three cars were all ANF2 cars- 1.6 litre Lotus/Ford twin-cams.

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Colin Hyams, Lola T192 Chev, before his warm-up off. Ex works/Gardner car purchased by the Melbourne businessman after the ’71 Tasman. He had the car repaired, after its Symmons off, in time for the final Gold Star round at Mallala in October, in which he was 4th (oldracephotos/Harrison)

The start of the race was delayed by heavy rain which had practically flooded the circuit. The weather was so poor the drivers were given a warm-up session to get used to the conditions before the off. KB spun his McLaren on the main straight on dry tyres, he had no wets. Colin Hyams also spun his Lola T192 Chev, down a slope into a clump of trees, bending the ex-Frank Gardner ’71 Tasman Series mounts chassis.

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Start of the very wet ‘Examiner 1000’, Symmons Plains: car at the rear the Cooper Elfin- no sign of Bartlett. At far right is Ross Ambrose’s Elfin 600 Ford who DNP having run bearings on the Friday but clearly started. To Ambrose left is winner Stewart’s Elfin 600 (oldracephotos/Harrison)

Eight cars started the ‘Examiner Trophy’ Gold Star round…

McCormack, Elfin MR5, Bartlett, McLaren M10B, severely hampered without wets but in search of valuable points, Max Stewart, Mildren Waggott, Tony Stewart Elfin 600 Ford, Warwick Brown McLaren M4A Ford FVC, Garrie Cooper Elfin 600D Ford, Jack Bono Elfin 600B Ford and Alan Hamilton’s McLaren. KB elected to start from the back of the grid given the 500bhp/slicks/wet track phenomena he was dealing with.

From the flag Hamilton led, Max Stewart, Brown, Tony Stewart, McCormack, Bono, Cooper with the hapless Bartlett last. Hamilton lapped KB for the first time in two laps.

The Melbourne Porsche importer/dealer drove a strong race in his new McLaren M10B Chev, the chassis was Niel Allen’s spare tub which was assembled and sold upon his retirement from the sport and used by Hamilton in his first single-seater season very effectively.

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Alan Hamilton’s McLaren M10B Chev- the Melbourne businessman jumped out the Porsche 906 Spyder and 911’s he was racing and very quickly adapted to the rigours of 5 litre cars. He came back to the class 6 years later but its a pity he didn’t stay in the category longer when he was younger and as another strong contender at a time Gold Star grids were skinny. Warwick Brown progressed to this chassis in 1972. Hamilton now owns both this car ‘400-19’ and Bartlett’s ex-Allen ‘400-02’ (oldracehotos/Harrison)

With a third of the race completed Hamilton lapped second placed Brown for the second time. Tony Stewart moved into third place as his namesake Max wrestled with a sticking throttle slide- he pitted early, went out again and nearly demolished the car with another spin. With the conditions not improving Bartlett was hamstrung by inappropriate tyres for the races duration.

On lap 38 the races drama continued with Hamilton having an off, drowning his injected Chevy in the process and losing five laps. He pitted, but was out of the running three laps later the engine soaked.

This left Warwick Brown 20 seconds ahead of Tony Stewart but the McLaren was overheating, it was losing water, ironic given the conditions. So, Tony Stewart was in the lead.

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John McCormack ahead of his Elfin teammate, Garrie Cooper. Mac’s MR5 ‘5711’ is the first MR5 completed, Coopers 600D ‘7012’ started life as his Repco ‘730/830’ V8 engined 2.5 litre 1970 Gold Star mount and was, with the ANF1 formula change, converted to an ANF2 car- he raced it in Asia in ’71 then sold it to Bruce Allison- an important stepping stone for the speedy Queenslander (oldracephotos/Harrison)

Tasmanian, John McCormack adapted steadily to the conditions and started putting on the pressure in his new Elfin MR5- a combination which proved very competitive over the following three or so years, and took 2nd place as Brown spun in the final stages, Warwick recovered quickly to fill 3rd place.

So, in a drive of speed and consistency Tony Stewart’s ANF2 Elfin 600 Ford won from McCormack’s Elfin MR5 Repco, Brown, McLaren M4A Ford Cosworth FVC, Elfin boss Garrie Cooper’s Elfin 600D ANF2, Jack Bono, Elfin 600 Ford ANF2 and Max Stewart Mildren Waggott. Max had only completed 55 of the 68 laps but the soggy one point gained won him the Gold Star!

It was the last time an ANF2 car won a Gold Star round- a splendid drive by a driver of considerable finesse in the most trying of conditions.

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Tony Stewart on the way to a speedy but lucky win, Elfin 600 chassis ‘6806’ an early build 600, I wonder who owns it now? (oldracephotos/Harrison)

Photo Credits…

Ian Smith, oldracephotos.com/Geoff Harrison

Bibliography…

oldracingcars.com, Australian Motor Racing Year 1972

Tailpiece: Max Stewart in the soggy, Symmons pits…

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The famous Mildren Waggott soon to win the ’71 Gold Star, that’s Bartlett’s McLaren M10B behind (oldracephotos/Harrison)

‘WB for ’73’…

Posted: March 9, 2017 in Features, Who,What,Where & When...?
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Warwick Brown, Lola T332 Chev, Riverside 1974 (TEN)

‘WB for 73’ was the T-Shirt catch phrase of Warwick Brown’s team during the 1973 Tasman Series…

The good looking, well heeled young bloke from Wahroonga on Sydney’s North Shore had graduated from the relatively forgiving McLaren M10B Chev in which he cut his F5000 teeth in 1972 Australian Gold Star competition to an altogether more demanding mistress for the Tasman  Series, a Lola T300 Chev.

His ex-Niel Allen/Bob Muir car, chassis ‘HU4’ was a very good one, but the T300 was a fast, albeit flexy, twitchy little bugger. With guidance from mentor and engineer Peter Molloy, Warwick quickly adapted well to his new mount.

He didn’t finish the first Tasman round at Pukekohe, the Lola out of fuel but was third behind Graham McRae and Frank Matich in their own designed and built cars, two very hardened professionals at Levin. He was second the following round at Wigram behind McRae. Warwick then went to Australia feeling great despite a poor seventh at Teretonga with undisclosed car dramas.

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WB, Team Target (retail stores) Lola T300 Chev, New Zealand, Tasman 1973

At Surfers Paradise though he became a ‘Lola Limper’ bigtime…

His car got away from him on the fast, demanding circuit spreading bits of aluminium and fibreglass over the undulations of the Nerang countryside and broke both of  Warwick’s legs. He got wide onto the marbles on the entry to the flat out in fifth right-hander under Dunlop Bridge and bounced across the grass into the dirt embankment surrounding the circuit. The light aluminium tub folded back, in the process doing horrible things to Warwick’s feet and lower limbs. He had a very long recovery, made somewhat easier by the promise of a new car from his near neighbour patron, mining millionaire Pat Burke.

That September 2nd in 1973 i attended the ‘Glynn Scott Memorial Trophy’, the F5000 Surfers Paradise Gold Star round in 1973, and hobbling around on crutches was Warwick talking to his fellow F5000 competitors and the fans.

He really was struggling just to get about and obviously in pain. Unbelievably, I couldn’t believe it when I saw the race report, he contested the next Gold Star round on October 7, one month later in Adelaide. No way could he get in and out of the car unaided.

To me it was madness, given his state, but to Warwick it was everything. He withdrew his old M10B after 8 laps and spent the following months getting properly fit for the 1974 Tasman but he had put down a marker as one determined, tough hombre!

Pat Burke bought him a new Lola T332 Chev, chassis ‘HU27’, the first production T332 and WB had a very consistent Tasman series in it…

He never finished worse than seventh, only failing to complete the NZ GP at Wigram, and won the final round, the Adelaide International. The ’74 Tasman had depth, the field included Teddy Pilette, Graeme Lawrence, John Walker, Max Stewart, Kevin Bartlett, John McCormack and Graham McRae- Peter Gethin won it in a VDS Chevron B24 Chev.

Warwick, Pat and Peter Molloy had plans to take on the best in the US by taking their Lola to the ‘States, ‘match fit’ as it was after the rigours of the eight race Tasman program.

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WB in ’73 (John Lemm)

In 1974 the SCCA/USAC F5000 field included Mario Andretti, Brian Redman, Jackie Oliver, Sam Posey, Graham McRae, Brett Lunger, David Hobbs, Al Unser, Lella Lombardi, Vern Schuppan, James Hunt, John Cannon and others.

By the time Warwick and his crew got to the Ontario round on 1 September it was ‘Formula T332’- Mario Andretti had won two rounds, Brian Redman a couple and David Hobbs one, all in Lola T332’s, the greatest F5000 car ever.

Brown was eleventh at Ontario and then fifth at Monterey in mid-October behind Redman, James Hunt in an Eagle 755, Andretti, and Eppie Wietzes in another T332. In the series final round, the Riverside GP, he was third behind Andretti and Redman.

As a WB fan reading about these performances in Australian weekly ‘Auto Action’ I remember being blown away by his speed in such august company viewed through the prism of just how badly hurt he was- and would be again, he had three ‘Big Ones’ in his pro career. I could see his pain getting around at Surfers.

It takes extraordinary guts to get back into these things after big accidents in which you are hurt.

The mind management and sheer courage involved has always intrigued me. Not that he was the only ‘Lola Limper’ in Australasia, Graeme Lawrence and Kevin Bartlett spring readily to mind.

But those three US races in ’74 made him really, he proved to himself he could do it. The crew came back to Oz later in 1974 and Warwick was running away with the AGP at Oran Park until mechanical problems intervened. He then won the ’75 Tasman in a close fought battle with fellow T332 drivers Graeme Lawrence and John Walker and set up a US pro-career for the next few years with Jack McCormack’s Talon nee McRae cars in 1975 and then Team VDS.

It’s not an article about the entirety of WB’s career rather a reflection on mind over matter, toughness, passion, resilience and the fierce desire to compete and win that separates elite drivers like Brown, Lawrence and Bartlett from we mere mortals…

(unattributed)

Etcetera…

Pat Burke acquired the ex-Niel Allen (spare tub) /Allan Hamilton McLaren M10B Chev chassis ‘400-19’ in time for the 1972 Australian Tasman Cup rounds.

As I wrote above, under the tutelage and guidance of Peter Molloy- and using Mighty-Molloy Chevs, Warwick quickly adapted to these savage beasts- he was seventh at Surfers Paradise, ninth at home at Warwick Farm, fifth at Sandown and failed to finish at Adelaide International.

The photograph above is of Warwick with the dominant 1972 Gold Star combo of Frank Matich and his Matich A50 Repco at Oran Park during practice for the ‘Belle Magazine Trophy’ in June- they were fifth and first respectively.

He was equal fourth, together with John Walker, Matich A50 Repco in the 1972 Gold Star series with Matich, Kevin Bartlett, Lola T300 Chev and John McCormack, Elfin MR5 Repco in front of him- but he was well and truly on his way.

Credits…

oldracingcars.com, Bob Harmeyer, The Enthusiast Network, John Lemm

Tailpiece: Brown winning in the Lola T333CS Chev, Watkins Glen 1978…

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(Bob Harmeyer)

Warwick Brown’s VDS Racing Lola T333CS Chev enroute to a single-seat Can Am win at Watkins Glen on 9 July 1978.

He won from Al Holbert and Rocky Moran both also Lola T333CS mounted. The car following WB is George Follmer’s Prophet Chev. Brown was second in the championship that year but the class of the field was his countryman, the three years older Alan Jones who took five victories and the title in the ‘works’ Carl Haas T333CS.

Jones was ‘moonlighting’ in 5 litre cars having gained a toehold in F1 which he was in the process of capitalising upon with Williams Grand Prix engineering.

Finito…

The Mother and Father of Lucky Escapes…John Walker, Sandown Tasman 1975…

Posted: March 12, 2015 in Features, Who,What,Where & When...?
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walker sandown

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.

lcca shot

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!

wb sandown 75 pits taright

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.

lawrence sandown 75

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.

jw sandown practice

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.

matich watkins gelen walker

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.

walker mid ohio

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.

old Sandown circuit map

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 February the 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.

brown marlboro country

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.

goss sandown matich 1975

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!

jw with lola lcca

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…

walker paper 2

john walker paper article

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.

Lella’s Lola…Peter Brennan’s Restoration of the Ex-Lella Lombardi Lola T330 Chev ‘HU18’…Episode # 1

Photo and Other Credits…

Robert Davies- check out Roberts’ other amazing shots on Flickr

Charles Leclerc , Scuderia Ferrari . Australian Grand Prix 2022

Ian Smith, Terry Capps, Chris Parker

Thanks to Rob Newman for reading the draft and correcting some facts

Finito…