MotorSport Legends Issue 4

MotorSport Legends T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E www.motorsportlegends.com.au

$6.95

Fast Falcon Tilley’s ‘Green Machine’ takes on Touring Car Masters Series

V8 VW BEAST Johnson: A man, a rock and Australia’s greatest race

Volume #1 Issue #4

Nov 08/Jan 09 $6.95

ISSN 1835-5544

Muscle Car Masters: All the action from The Creek

Quarterly magazine

The story of how Bryan Thomson’s unique Type 3 Fastback Sports Sedan set new engineering standards

T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E

Contents Editorial Welcome to the fourth edition of Motorsport Legends.

Volume 1 Issue 4

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News 06-09 Want to know what’s next on the historic and nostalgia scene?

Then don’t miss the news pages.

Thommo’s Tornado 10-15 This is the story of how one of the most unique racing cars in Australian motor sport came to life.

Jones and his toys 16-21 We find out how one of Australia’s most respected team owners became addicted to collecting model cars.

The man and a rock 22-26 The story of Dick Johnson is a part of Bathurst folklore, and one that should be known by all Australian racing fans.

World’s fastest Falcon 28-31 Well at least it’s the quickest XY in the Touring Car Masters Series at the moment.

Veskanda Part 2 30-37 This great car changed the face of the Australian Sportscar Championship forever, read on to find out how.

Costanzo Part 2 38-43 This issue Alfie talks about his Formula 5000 days and matching it with the Formula One guns at Calder Park.

Muscle Car Masters 44-48 All the action from The Creek, as the cars and drivers from yesteryear come out to play.

Foges’ Flashback 49-50 Where have all the Formula One personalities gone?

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Contributors in this issue Darren House Our resident nostalgia expert takes us back to the ’70s – a time when racing cars in Australia actually looked different to each other – and tells the story of Bryan Thomson’s unique V8-powered VW Sports Sedan, which was built on a McLaren F5000 chassis.

John Doig Once again John has been travelling the country to bring us his topnotch pictures.

He was like a kid in a lolly shop at the Muscle Car Masters and his enthusiasm has shone through in the quality of his work. Turn to page 44 to see his great pictures for yourself.

Garry O’Brien Garry has been writing about motor sport for more years than he would like to let on and he has a tremendous rapport with most competitors, which shows in the in-depth stories he produces. Check out his Brad Tilley feature on page 24.

T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E

Managing Editor Allan Edwards Pole Position Productions Address: PO Box 225 Keilor, Victoria, 3036 Phone: (03) 9331 2608 Fax: (03) 8080 6473 Email: admin@motorsportlegends.com.au Website: www.motorsportlegends.com.au Staff Journalist Briar Gunther Artist/Design House Natalie Delarey Raamen Pty Ltd (03) 9873 8282 Contributors Mark Fogarty, Grant Nicholas, Garry O’Brien, Craig Watson and Darren House.

Photographers Autopics.com.au John Doig/Torque Photos Advertising Manager David Brown DB Media & Marketing Phone: (03) 9762 7018 Mobile: 0408 562 962 Email: dgbmedia@bigpond.net.au Material in Motorsport Legends is protected by copyright laws and may not be reporoduced in any format.

Motorsport Legends will consider unsolicited articles and pictures; however, no responsibility will be taken for their return. While all efforts are taken to verify information in Motorsport Legends is factual, no responsibility will be taken for any material which is later found to be false or misleading.

The opinions of the contributors are not always those of the publishers.

MotorSportLegends

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CLASSIC

Lines Welcome to issue four of Motorsport Legends magazine.

Motorsport Legends includes motor racing nostalgia and historic motor sport events.

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here’s a lot of hype around at the moment about V8 Supercar street races, with one in Townsville on next year’s calendar and another mooted for Sydney. I believe the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide is an exciting event. In time, that race may even develop some tradition and character of its own. But it’s really hard to see any of those races ever matching the Bathurst 1000 for pure folklore and excitement.

By the time you read this column another chapter will have been written in the history of Australia’s greatest touring car race.

I have to admit that I love attending the Bathurst 1000. It’s such a thrill to drive into the little town each October, and when I drive up Panorama Avenue towards the track and the big white letters that spell out ‘Mount Panorama’ first come into sight, it gives me goose bumps every time.

There is nothing better than standing on the fence next to the starting grid as some official says ‘Gentlemen start your engines’ and the powerplants of 30-plus highly tuned racing cars roar into life.

The anticipation of that moment alone each year is enough to keep me excited about Australian motor racing.

Those who have won the race, from Bob Jane through to Craig Lowndes, will always be the true heroes of 4

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Top: Motorsport Legends’ Managing Editor, Allan Edwards, with six-time Bathurst winner Larry Perkins. Above: LP in his famous #11 Commodore at Mount Panorama.

Australian motor sport in my eyes.

That is why we have introduced the Bathurst Heroes features in Motorsport Legends, starting with six-time winner Larry Perkins last issue. Judging by your feedback from the LP feature, you guys also agree that Bathurst makes champions.

I have received many positive comments on the LP feature and most of you have said you want more articles on Bathurst winners. Well you’ve got it. In this issue we feature three-time winner, Dick Johnson. Most of you will know the story of Dick and the rock, but how many of you knew that Dick got on the in-car radio when Craig Lowndes passed John Bowe in 1994 at Griffin’s Elbow and wound Bowe up

by yelling something along the lines of “You are not going to let a snotty-nosed kid pass you, are you?” Well read on because it makes for some interesting reading.

Also in this issue we feature Bryan Thomson’s Chev-powered VW beast, Brad Tilley’s XY Falcon, and we talk to Kim Jones about his model car addiction.

There’s also a report from the Australian Muscle Car Masters and the second parts to our Alf Costanzo and Veskanda stories.

So there’s plenty of reading to keep you busy over the summer months.

Until next time, drive safely on and off the race track.

Allan Edwards, Managing Editor

Motorsport A4 flyer indd 1

1/5/08 12:37:34 PM

HISTORIC NEWS

TASMAN REVIVAL GEARS UP

Main: Repco Brabhams will be one of the featured marques at the 2008 Tasman Revival. Below: Kevin Bartlett will be the patron of the event.

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evin Bartlett, dual Australian Motor Racing Champion and Bathurst 1000 winner will be the patron of this year’s Tasman Revival historic race car meeting, which will be held on November 28-30.

The Tasman Revival showcases cars from the 1960s Tasman Championship era when Bartlett was one many Australians that raced wheel to wheel with visiting Grand Prix drivers including Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill.

Between 1964 and 1969 22 Tasman Series races were contested in Australia and 24 in New Zealand. The

Amongst the classics this year will be several dozen Repco-Brabham single-seater racing cars.

Tasman Revival is designed to recreate the atmosphere of a motor race meeting in the ’60s. ‘’The Historic Sports and Racing Car Association is honoured to have Kevin Bartlett agree to be our patron for this year’s Tasman Revival. As the first man to lap Mount Panorama at more than 100mph, KB certainly has

the right credentials for the job.’’ Event promoter, Peter Addison, said.

This will be the second Tasman Revival meeting run at Eastern Creek. The first in 2006 created worldwide interest. Amongst the classics this year will be several dozen RepcoBrabham single-seater racing cars.

Still thrilling to watch and to hear its memorable exhaust note, the Repco V8 engine-powered Sir Jack

RESTORING A RACE CAR?

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otorsport Legends is looking for people who are currently in the process of restoring a race car. We are keen to complete an article on your restoration project. Any race car will

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Brabham and Dennis Hulme to F1 World Championships in 1966 and 1967.

The Repco V8 F1 engine remains a brilliant example of Australian engineering and determination – qualities, which have seen the 80-year old Repco company expand to its present day position of operating 400 stores with 4000 employees in Australia and New Zealand.

Sir John Whitmore will also return to Australia for the event to race a Lotus Elite and a Lotus Cortina. Having competed at the inaugural meeting in 2006, he was keen to return to “one of the most enjoyable international race meetings anywhere”.

be considered, but cars with significant racing history and pedigree will be given preference. To let us know about your project, email us at: admin@motorsportlegends.com.au

Whitmore’s illustrious career started in a Lotus 6, and developed through Lotus Elites, until he won the British Saloon Car Championship (now the BTCC) in a Mini in 1961. His Elite drives resulted in many wins throughout the UK as well as Spa and the Nurburgring in Europe. At Le Mans he co-drove with the legendary Jim Clark to tenth place outright (which is why his Elite at Eastern Creek carries the Border Reivers club badge).

Famous for his exuberant driving in the works Lotus Cortinas, his multiple successes resulted in him winning the European Touring Car Championship in 1965.

For further information and entry registration visit www.tasmanrevival.com

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HISTORIC NEWS

F1 LEGEND TAKES OVER AUSTRALIAN MINI CHALLENGE

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he man who gave Ayrton Senna his Formula One start, Ted Toleman, has taken control of the Australian Mini Challenge series.

Since the category’s former management company, Motorsport Event Management Pty Ltd, was placed into liquidation, Toleman Motorsport has been in negotiations with Mini Australia and the Conferderation of Australian Motor

Sport (CAMS), and has been appointed the Category Management Agency for the remainder of 2008.

Chairman Ted Toleman owned Toleman Motorsport Formula One between 1981 and 1985.

He famously signed Senna from under Bernie Ecclestone’s nose (Ecclestone owned Brabham at the time and had Senna under contract).

Of course, Senna went on to become one of the greats of the sport with

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Eventually, Toleman sold out to Benetton, with the team evolving into the ING Renault F1 team of today.

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Informed readers would have noticed that an incorrect picture was published in issue #3 of Motorsport Legends (ital) on page 22 of the Alf Costanzo feature. The picture captioned as Costanzo in his McLaren M4A at Sandown was actually Henk Woelders in his Elfin 600 at Sandown. Here’s the picture that should have been published.

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BRYAN THOMSON PART 1

THOMMO’S

TORNADO

There have been many feats of engineering and unique racing cars in Australian motor sport history, and Bryan Thomson’s Chev-powered VW is certainly a car that fits nicely into both of those categories. Following is the story of how the McLaren Formula 5000 and VW Type 3 Fastback hybrid became a reality…

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Above Top: The VW shell suspended above the ex-Warwick Brown McLaren M10B. Main: Thomson leads Frank Gardner driving the Bob Jane Racing Team Torana at Oran Park.

f necessity is the mother of Invention then money is its likely father.

Money – or more precisely, prize-money – was certainly behind the stunning transformation of the Sports Sedan category during the early to mid-70s.

Once a battleground for backyard specials such as hotted-up FJ Holdens, Ford Zephyrs and even Peter Brock’s famous Holden-powered Austin A30, the class suddenly became host to some of the country’s most sophisticated and innovative machines.

And by 1974, none was more ‘out there’ than Bryan Thomson’s Chevroletpowered Volkswagen Type 3 Fastback.

A self-funded racer, Thomson had entered the category a couple of years earlier running a five-litre Chevrolet V8powered Holden Torana after finding the cost of racing an Improved Touring bigblock Chevrolet Camaro beyond him.

The car, built by emerging engineering talent and fellow Shepparton resident Peter Fowler, was amazingly successful, but events in 1973 convinced the pair that a new machine should be built.

At the end of 1972, CAMS abolished the Improved Touring category, forcing many high-profile machines and drivers into Sports Sedans.

When Oran Park in 1973 conducted a five-round, big prize money series sponsored by shirt manufacturer Toby Lee and department store Grace Brothers, Thomson did battle with Allan Moffat and his Trans Am Mustang, Bob Jane and his Monaro GTS 350, John Harvey in Jane’s Repco-Brabham Torana and Colin Bond in the Holden Dealer ❯ MotorSportLegends

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BRYAN THOMSON PART 1

Above: Built to a strict budget, the VW used a stock steering wheel and McLaren gauges.

Right: The only VW merchandise you could get in the ’70s.

Team Repco-Holden Torana, along with the Porsches of Leo and Ian Geoghegan, Bill Brown and Jim McKeown.

Prompted by this star-studded line-up, Jane made a jaw-dropping announcement at the end of 1973 that his Calder Raceway would host a major Sports Sedan series sponsored

by Marlboro with the then unheard of prize-money of $100,000.

“Sports sedans were evolving and taking off and it was a category that appealed to Peter Fowler and myself and we decided that we would be very much part of the new series because we had been frontrunning with the Torana,” explained Thomson.

“And as we worked on the Torana and philosophised that what we were really doing was running a front-engine Formula 5000 – the car had a F5000 engine; it had F5000-type brakes and things on it.

“Extending the F5000 concept to its logical conclusion, we theorised that no one had constructed a front-engined F5000 for a decade, and if we were to build a new car for the Marlboro series, it should ideally be rear-engined.

“The rule book at the time stated that you could run a front or rear engine but the engine had to remain in the same half of the car as the original. You could bring the engine inboard, up to the centreline of the wheelbase.

“So we looked around for the most suitable chassis to run a rear-engined sports sedan and of course it was very limited. There was a Renault Dauphine 12

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but it didn’t have the right kind of image and we spent a lot of time looking at a Lotus Europa. It didn’t matter that the original car was fragile. You could make it as strong as you like as a Sports Sedan.

(But) it was terribly small and cramped to run what we thought in those days were big engines. There wasn’t much else available. The most suitable in terms of size and availability was the Volkswagen.

“And one of the VW’s compelling factors was its 96-inch wheelbase, which while short, was the same as the Le Mans-winning Ford GT40, which ran the same configuration.

“You look at the rules and how to exploit them,” added Fowler. “That was the bodyshell that offered the most and it had reasonable shape.”

But what about the devastatinglysuccessful Chevrolet Corvair Frank Gardner debuted just two years later?

“We never considered a Corvair,

which indicates our parochial thinking,” explained Thomson. “Frank had a global appreciation for things that happened in motor sport. We were very much country boys and we looked around at what we could do off the shelf. The concept of a Corvair was obviously there but it never came on the radar at all.

(But) once you saw it you realised that’s what we should have done because it is lower and wider and longer, and there’s plenty of room to do everything.”

Thomson purchased two brand new shells from VW Australia, though sourcing them wasn’t as easy as it might seem.

“Volkswagen told us the only way they would sell a complete shell is if a new car rolled or something and the insurer authorised a new shell. But in 1974 the Type 3 came with flow-through ventilation and they had a couple of old shells without it and the parts manager sold them to us.”

Perkins made his Bathurst debut with Peter Janson in 1977.

“I was first into turn one at Calder from the back of the grid.

It was unbelievable.

It just got the power down so well.”

The plan was to build two cars – one would be a prototype run during the 1974 season and a new car incorporating everything the team learnt would be built for 1975. The second car never eventuated but the shell was still useful in case the prototype suffered substantial damage.

Having finalised the concept, the search for parts began and timing became critical.

“At the time Warwick Brown had advertised his McLaren M10B (F5000) for sale, complete with a Peter Molloy

Top right: Thommo powers to a win in the wet at Sandown Park.

Above: Thomson (left) in deep discussion with Fowler (middle) and Doug Hicks.

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MORE THAN JUST A VW MAN While Bryan Thomson is best known for his exploits behind the wheel of the ‘Volksrolet’, his impact on the sport has been much greater.

Initially a motorcycle racer, Bryan switched to cars in the ‘50s with an Austin Healey at the Barjung dirt circuit near Benalla, Victoria.

He raced the Lou Molina Monza supercharged Holden, taking 40 wins from 60 starts; in early 1962 he bought Bib Stillwell’s Cooper Climax; an Elfin Mallala fitted with the Climax engine followed.

He then raced a Mini Cooper S to six wins from nine starts.

In 1965 he bought Norm Beechey’s Mustang, sold his truck sales business and went to Europe.

Thomson represented his country well, winning 19 races from 50 starts and setting three lap records. He was always first privateer in British Saloon Car Championship races.

He returned home at the end of 1967 with his funds exhausted. The Mustang was sold to Kym Aunger

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for Peter Finch to drive and Bryan re-established his business.

Thomson then bought a big block Chevrolet Camaro from drag racer Neville Thompson for the 1969 and 1970 Improved Touring seasons.

Without factory support the car never realized its potential and it was sold to Tasmanian Don Elliot.

Bryan then raced a series production Alfa Romeo GTV but moved into Sports Sedans when the category took off, driving a Chev V8-powered Torana GTR built

by Peter Fowler.

Thomson also raced an ex-Bob Jane Series Production Torana XU-1.

After retiring at the end of 1975, Thomson made a comeback seven years later driving the Fowler-built Mercedes Benz Sports Sedan, in which he won the 1985 Australian GT Championship. He continued racing a variety of vehicles, including a Supra based on the ex-Bob Jane Chevrolet Monza and an Elfin MR8 F5000.

Chev engine and Hewland DG300 transaxle. Peter and I decided that if we bought that car we would have all the componetry that we would otherwise have to source from here and there,” said Thomson.

“We could just, more or less in concept, lower the Volkswagen body-shell over the F5000, which was a known package.”

Added Fowler, “Once you sat the two cars side by side it soon came together and you could see what would fit and what wouldn’t fit.”

Thomson said the build took six months; the pair believed it could be achieved in half that time. The project cost $20,000 including $7000 for the M10B but excluding much of the labour cost.

“Peter and a couple of other gurus we had used to work untold hours. Nobody ever got paid overtime. You couldn’t pay per hour. Peter was on a contract, which

BRYAN THOMSON PART 1

“It didn’t drift nicely like a frontengined car. We spoke to Frank Gardner about it. Frank’s mind was going around too; he could see the Volkswagen concept was the way to go. And from there evolved the Corvair. He used the Volkswagen concept to build an unbeatable Sports Sedan.”

Fowler said, “It was a very, very good car, (but) it took Thommo to drive it with absolute determination, because I think it was probably a frightening car.

Left: The ‘Volksrolet’ gets a hurry up from Pete Geoghegan’s Monaro at Calder.

Above: Rare shot of the VW’s McLaren front suspension and brakes.

Looking at it now, aerodynamically we Below: At Hume Weir with Jim McKeown, who once drew his Porsche alongside Thommo didn’t have it as stable as we would now. on the grid at Calder, stuck his head out the window and asked him, “Is yours two-story?”

And it was quite short in the wheelbase so it had a pretty dynamic reaction time. acceleration as “totally addictive”.

Chassis stiffness was fairly good but “Twice in the Marlboro series we had probably not as good as it could have problems in practice and I was first been. You would see it three-wheeling a into Repco Corner (turn one) from lot, particularly in the early days.” the back of the grid,” he said. “It was “The other issue that we never really got unbelievable. You had to wait until you on top of was instability under brakes,” got past pitlane, then you could put half added Thomson. “The heavy end always the car on the grass and go down the wanted to go first. And because of that, inside and be first into Repco. It just got it demanded a very clinical driving the power down so well. That was its technique, which caused a lot of dramas, biggest advantage. including the famous taps up the back “To capitalise on that you had to from Jane-o. In the two years that I ran place the car specifically to come out the Volkswagen I got hit from behind of corners. You’d brake hard on the 18 times. Sometimes it was just a kiss, outside, turn in and then straight-line sometimes it was more.” the corner, across the apex and pick it Once it cost the team dearly. Thomson up on the other side. It was just a rocket topped the points table going into the ship. It didn’t axle tramp. You often have final race of the ’74 Marlboro $100,000 to dial axle tramp out of a rear drive car Series and was leading the event when normally but that car didn’t tramp at all Jane ran into the back of him on the last – it just went whoomph!” lap, sending both cars spinning. Jane equated to a 40-hour week but he’d Though the car was immediately very restarted his Monaro first and went on to work 100. He was just as enthusiastic as competitive, Thomson said the team win the series. me. He wanted to be a Ross Brawn,” he had “shot itself in the foot” by using the “Jane-o’s car was the opposite of laughed.

McLaren parts rather than building the mine. It was exceptionally good under The first meeting was in February car from scratch. brakes and so I’d brake early and Jane-o 1974 at Calder and the car went there “What we didn’t realise would be so would brake late and you can tell what completely untested other than having negative was the McLaren’s centre of happened,” said Thomson. been started up and driven around the gravity was at about four-inches and “It was $20,000 for the win and that workshop. the VW was at about 24-inches. We was huge. Second prize was next to “On the way down to Calder we called had a lot of trouble dialling out the roll nothing. Part of the first prize was a first in at ‘Jane-o’s’ (Bob Jane’s race shop),” moment in the car. Once the car rolled class ticket to England on Singapore said Thomson. Pat Purcell was looking it became quite difficult to control. We Airlines and Jane-o graciously gave me after Jane-o’s car and we scaled the had to set the car up that hard – which that, which was very nice.”

Volkswagen there– not with the modern was quite common at the time – that But it was breaking point for four pads and electronics; we used it didn’t roll but it made the car quite the team. ML Avery scales front and back to set the skittish to drive. suspension up and we went straight out “Had Peter had the opportunity to Next issue we find out how to Calder to run it. design everything into the car he could Thommo faired in his VW Sports “It was very successful straight off the have assessed the roll centres and polar Sedan in 1975 and we explore where this unique car eventually trailer but we didn’t emulate the Torana, moments and built it into the car but ended up. which won first time out.” because of the timeframe we just put the Thomson described the VW’s McLaren straight into the Volkswagen.

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KIM JONES

STORY BY ALLAN EDWARDS PICTURES BY JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS

THE JONES BOY & HIS TOYS Kim Jones has done it all in motor sport, from racing Formula Fords to becoming a successful team owner in Auscar, Super Touring and V8 Supercars, but few people know that the 52year-old has a passion for collecting model racing cars. His collection is so enormous that he has no idea how many he actually owns, but the pride of his fleet is an amalgam Audi R10 Sportscar. Motorsport Legends caught up with Kim recently and we were privileged enough to be able to ‘play’ with some of his models.

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MSL: How did your hobby of collecting model cars start?

KJ: Probably as a little boy playing with Matchbox and Dinky toys. I wish I still had all those in boxes. I just like collecting them. You don’t do anything with them, you just collect them and have them in a box and it’s probably a growing addiction.

MSL: Are there particular types of cars that you like to collect?

KJ: I collect cars that I’ve had something to do with. I’ve got all the McLarens because at that part of my life, the McLaren Can-Am cars were big. I’m 52 years old and have been involved in motor sport all my life.

The Bentley has a special meaning. I was offered a job to go and work in England at the factory where they were built, which I declined. The Audi, that’s one of our Super Touring cars that won the Championship. The Capri, people will probably look at the Capri and go ‘well what’s that got

Main Picture: Jones lists this Auto Union as one of his favourites because of its amazing detail.

Above: Jones with his collection of Can-Am Mclarens, which remind him of watching these cars in his youth.

to do with anything’, but when I was working for Bob Jane, Allan Moffat used to race a Capri very similar to that, so I collected that. The Auto Union, that’s part of the Audi heritage ❯ and I’ve actually sat in an Auto

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Below: Jones has a huge collection of Audis based on the cars from his Super Touring days.

Right: This is the pride of the fleet, an amalgam Audi Sportscar R10.

Jones refuses to reveal how much it is worth.

cars and then my amalgam 1:8th scale (Audi) R10, which is still in the Audi vein but it’s just a fantastic model…

More Super Touring Audis as raced in the 1990s by his little bro, Brad.

Union, a proper real Auto Union in the factory in Ingolstadt. That’s just a fantastic model, when you take the body off it all the little bits and pieces (are there)… I’ve got a really good petrol engine radio controlled car that does 90 miles an hour and is more sophisticated than our race cars. It’s just all sorts of different things that I collect.

MSL: How many models are in your collection?

KJ: I haven’t actually counted them.

I’m really lucky because we’ve had a

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sponsorship deal for a long time with Biante; first with original owners Trevor and Bev (Young) and now with the company that’s bought it off Bev – that’s been a 10 to 15 year association; they help me with my collection as part of our deal. My real first serious collection was Indy Cars and there’s so many of the darn things that I was actually buying them and it was getting quite expensive, so then I started collecting Group C Mercedes Benz cars in 1:43rd (scale) and it sort of grew from there. Now I’m lucky enough to have got some 1:18th scale

MSL: So would you describe the R10 as the pride of the fleet?

KJ: They all have different meanings.

From an engineering point of view probably the Auto Union (is the pride of the fleet) because lots of stuff works on it and it’s got silly things like the copper pipe that is for the temperature sensor and things like that. The R10 is the biggest I’ve got, so much so I had to take it off its stand to put it in a display case. I have every (Audi) R8 bar one, which I’m bidding on at the moment on eBay in 1:43rd scale from Mini Champs, which is just fantastic and that’s probably the pinnacle because they don’t make R8s anymore so then I’ll have every one of those. I’ve got lots of Super Touring Audis, DTM cars, I’ve basically got all the DTM cars, and then you find funny things like when we were at Audi (headquarters ❯

M A G A Z I N E

KIM JONES COSTANZO

Jones with his glass cabinet full of model cars. These are the ones his wife lets him put on display. There are many more in the back room!

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Jones also has a huge collection of Audi R8 Sportscars.

“That’s just a fantastic model, when you take the body off it all the little bits and pieces (are there)…”

This Capri brings back memories of Jones’ youth.

The detail in this Auto Union is awesome.

in Germany) we were given some R8s in Audi boxes... so, it’s just all quirky little things that you collect. The worst thing is probably I don’t have enough places to display them because my wife’s fairly pedantic about not having too much motor sport in the house, but she has let me get a new cabinet, which has got more shelves so I can have more of them out.

I tinker around and you chase them up and the R8 that I haven’t procured yet I’ve sort of learned how to use eBay and chase things around… it fills in your time. And at the end of the day I’m a motor sport enthusiast.

MSL: So that’s the new cabinet in your lounge room?

KJ: Yeah, and I think as time goes by we’ll swap the displays around and have different cars out.

MSL: What are you going to start collecting next?

KJ: I’m sort of going down the road of the R10s, but I don’t know how long they’re going to go for. DTM cars (are another option), but the problem with them is that it started off with two teams that had the (Audi) TTs and now I think they’ve got eight or nine teams, so there’s new ones coming out all the time…

MSL: Do you see a day where you will stop collecting them?

KJ: Not at the moment.

MSL: Do you see yourself ever doing anything else with them other than having them for your own personal display?

KJ: I think my wife and my kids have got some grand plan that when I go that either the grandkids are going to play MSL: What is it that excites you so with them or they’re going to sell them, much about collecting model cars? but it gives me a lot of enjoyment and KJ: It’s just a passion for lots of people;

This Bentley reminds Jones of a job he was offered, but turned down, in Europe.

I suppose it’s the kid at heart. It all started when Mum and Dad would go and buy us a toy car, a Dinky if you were really good, but most of the time you used to get Matchbox cars... Some people go fishing; I can’t go fishing. I went fishing one day with my brother and in about two minutes we were walking home and I had a hook in my neck and Bradley spent 15 minutes trying to take it back out from the way it went in but the barb was sort of objecting to that and we went home and Mum yelled at both of us, got a pair of scissors, cut the fishing line and just pulled it straight through...

MSL: So model cars is almost an addiction for you?

KJ: It amazes me that somebody can take something that’s so big and make it into something so small and still have all the detail. It’s fantastic; I just get lots of enjoyment out of it and other people come along and get enjoyment out of the models as well. ML MotorSportLegends

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STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PICTURES BY WWW.AUTOPICS.COM.AU

A TRUE BLUE AUSSIE BATTLER Never one to let his troubles get him down, Dick Johnson explains how he overcame a devastating blow to become a three-time Bathurst Champion.

T

hree-time Bathurst Champion Dick Johnson is the epitome of a trueblue Aussie battler.

He won over the heart of the nation following the now infamous incident with a rock in 1980, which led to a public appeal

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and his first Bathurst win a year later.

“There’s a lot from 1980 that attributes to the win in 1981,” the man who is synonymous with the word Ford explains.

“We went to Bathurst in 1980 with a car that we built from a second hand ex-police car sort of thing and we had one race prior to that which

was at Amaroo.

“Amaroo was a pretty good thing for us; we were leading most of the race until right near the end the back tyre wore out and I had a spin and ended up coming second.”

In light of the good result at Amaroo the team was ready to take on the Mountain, even though a Holden had

DICK JOHNSON

won the last two races there.

“We went to Bathurst and we were fairly confident the car was going to go well there because it had been a long time before a Ford had been up front, let alone leading the race,” Johnson said.

“Anyway we went there and pole position was worth 10 grand and

second was worth nothing.

“We missed pole position by about a tenth of a second or something to Kevin Bartlett.”

Johnson’s team had plans to run the car “pretty hard” early in the race.

“Unlike today when you can run the cars flat out all day, you had to be a little conservative with these things

because they weren’t as technologically advanced as what the cars are today,” he explained.

“We ran around there at a fairly hot sort of pace and pretty much broke the field up.”

When Johnson’s two main rivals of Peter Brock and Kevin Bartlett struck trouble, his Tru-Blue Falcon ❯ MotorSportLegends

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DICK JOHNSON

appeared to be the likely winner, even though it was only 20 laps into the race.

“We were then looking really comfortable, just cruising around till about lap 12 or 14 and when I came around through The Cutting I saw the white flag out saying there’s a slow moving vehicle there,” he said.

“That was in the days when they had tilt tray trucks picking up all the broken down and crashed cars.

“And I just rounded the corner and at the crest you can’t see much but what I saw was the truck and once I really got over the top of the hill I saw there was a rock in between the truck and the bank.

“I really had nowhere to go so I tried going up the bank and ended up hitting the rock.”

With a twinkle in his eye, Johnson recalls the ensuing public appeal through Channel 7. “(The then Ford Australia manager) Edsel Ford rang up and said he would actually match everything dollar for dollar.

“And maybe Edsel thought he’d be up for four or five grand, but 70 grand later Despite later becoming synonymous with Ford, Johnson actually started his career in Holdens.

it was a different story, you know?

“But true to his word he came good and that really set us up.”

Fast forward to 1981 and Johnson had a brand new car and won the first of five Australian Touring Car Championships.

“It was an absolute blinder of a Championship because it was one that came down to the last race between (Peter) Brock and myself and there was only one point in it,” he recalls.

“It was a race around Lakeside and we were wheel-to-wheel for the entire duration of the event.

“And fortunately I won, which meant it was the first Championship and then to go to Bathurst that year was really something special.”

Johnson was again confident of winning the Great Race but this time it was with the public wholeheartedly backing him.

“We had a really good strong car; we had a good combination in (John French) Frenchy and myself, and the car was really strong leading the race quite easily,” he said.

“And it just so happened that we did

“And maybe Edsel thought he’d be up for four or five grand but 70 grand later it was a different story, you know?”

Johnson chats with Peter Brock in 1980.

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everything right during the day and I think it was about lap 121 where there was a big shunt on top of the Mountain and it was between Bob Morris and Christine Gibson and that sort of blocked the track a fair bit because a lot of cars came around unaware of what was in front of them and completely blocked the track.

“So they red flagged the race and because the race had done more than 75 per cent they declared us the winners.

“They went back a lap and actually Bob Morris, who was second at the time, ended up coming second even though his car had crashed, so that’s obviously what the rules were all about.

“It was a hell of a relief for me because all those people had really stuck their faith behind us back in 1980 and to come back the following year and not only win the Championship but win the race (Bathurst) which was pretty cruel to us the year before was special.”

Johnson believes he still would have won the 1981 race even without the fateful rock incident the year before, which in turn led to him driving the brand new car in the race.

“The same as 1980, I had no doubt our car was more than capable of winning the event even though a lot of people said ‘oh but in ’81 it was leaking oil’.

“It was only when the engine was turned off because it was on a suction pipe that the oil was leaking.

“When the engine was running it wasn’t leaking oil at all. And that engine went in another car for Surfers Paradise and it would have well and truly done Bathurst (had the race not been called) without any problems at all.”

Johnson described his next win in 1989 with John Bowe as “really special” because of his “trick” Ford Sierra.

“We led every single lap of the race which was something that is pretty much unheard of these days,” he said.

“That was a real awesome motor car.

“We made all the right decisions at the right time and made the right calls as far as strategy goes and put the right tyres on etcetera, etcetera and it just worked out very well for us.

“Bowie and I just trucked around there and it was just a pleasure to drive.”

But Johnson said his favourite car to drive around the Mountain was the EB Falcon, which won him and Bowe the

Johnson ran a Ford Capri at Bathurst with Graham Moore in 1976.

race in 1994.

“We’d been battling the car during practice earlier in the week and it was a bit of a dog to drive,” he observed.

“It wouldn’t respond to what we were trying to achieve and it was very nervous.

“And then we made one change to the rear of the car with the shock absorbers and all of a sudden this car, without a doubt, was the nicest thing to drive and you could do anything with it.

“When you get in a car that’s like that it’s just so easy to drive because you can drive it at 110 per cent and it wouldn’t

really matter because it’s not going to bite you. It was very predictable and it just did everything right.

“I think it would have had to have been one of the best cars I have driven around there.”

Johnson said his team made all the right strategy calls, but a certain rookie driver in a Holden Racing Team Commodore nearly derailed his third Bathurst win.

“We were almost 30 metres from putting a lap on Brad Jones and Craig Lowndes before they had a safety car and caught back up,” Johnson said.

“And bugger me dead, with about 12 laps to go Lowndes passes John Bowe and I got on the radio to John and I said ‘you are kidding me, you’re not going to let some snotty-nosed kid beat you, for crying out loud’.

“That sort of hyped Bowie up a bit more and he put his head down and really dug deep and got back.”

Johnson said Bowe had to really fight to ensure the EB crossed the line first.

“Brad Jones was in the car when I was doing my stints and I didn’t have any trouble with Brad.

“He was driving his backside off to ❯

Johnson on his way to victory in 1989.

Johnson raced an XC Falcon in 1978 at Bathurst with Vern Schuppan.

Victory is sweet: Johnson and French in 1981.

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DICK JOHNSON

try to nail me, but he couldn’t get near me and Bowie got in for the last stint against Craig and it was a bit of a nailbiter.

“And our car was really, really strong and it went to the end of the race and it was fantastic; it was a really good win.”

Johnson said he has plenty of memorable Bathursts.

“I can assure you,” he laughed.

“Especially in 1983 when we went through the trees in qualifying in the top 10 shootout and getting the car ready overnight and starting the next day.

“It was just the spirit of the team.

We’ve always had a good team and the backbone of any race team is its people.”

But Johnson’s most memorable moment was also a career low.

Johnson believes Bathurst is one of the best race tracks in the world.

“The most disappointing result I’ve ever, ever had in my entire career was at Bathurst in ’92 when we had the Sierra and we were up against the might of the Nissan GT-Rs and the weather was just changing like you wouldn’t believe it.

“It went from wet to dry to intermediate.

“And if you have to say have you ever done a perfect race that would have been it,” Johnson, who put his Sierra on pole that weekend, recalled.

“Then the weather sort of changed.

“You only had to be one lap out to come in and put certain tyres on for the conditions and it was history.

“And that’s what actually happened to the Nissan and a lot of other cars too.”

Johnson remembers what are some of his most painful motorsport moments.

“We came in and actually put wet tyres on right at the right time and went back out and the Nissan (driven by Jim Richards and Mark Skaife) crashed going up the hill and then ran across the Mountain with one wheel hanging off.

“It got to Forest’s Elbow and it fired off the road and crashed into a bunch of

other cars that were crashing too while we kept plonking on and they were very difficult, very trying conditions because it was so wet.

“You had to actually look out the side window to see where the side of the road was going down the straight because the spray was horrendous.

“Anyway we crossed the finish line and we thought we had sort of won it and they put the red flag out, but they went back two laps not one, which put us second so that was in itself very, very disappointing to be beaten in that way after we’d fought so god-damn hard.

“But they’re the rules... ” Johnson cannot talk highly enough of the circuit which has given him both the most devastating career lows and yet exhilarating career highs.

“For anyone who’s driven around Bathurst to say they don’t enjoy it doesn’t deserve to be there,” he frankly states.

“I would even say that a lot of the overseas drivers would class Bathurst in the top three in the world.

“It is the most awesome piece ML of road.”

“To come back the following year and not only win the Championship but win the race which was pretty cruel to us the year before was something special.”

Below: Johnson describes the EB Falcon he drove to victory with John Bowe in 1994 as the best race car he has driven at Bathurst.

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he National Motor Racing Museum is the place to go if you want to celebrate the careers of the legends of Australian motor racing. The Museum has 50 cars and 50 bikes covering all eras and categories of racing at all circuits in Australia. The memorabilia includes photos, films, trophies, race suits and leathers – the list goes on.

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The Museum is a cultural service provided by Bathurst Regional Council

STORY BY GARRY O’BRIEN PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED BY JAMES SMITH & JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS

THE WORLD’S FASTEST FALCON While the New Zealanders may have the world’s fastest Indian, it is the Tilley family in Australia that has the world’s fastest Falcon, at least in Historic Touring Cars ranks anyway.

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BRAD TILLEY

T

here is no doubt that in NSW Appendix J races, the Australian Historic Touring Car Association’s national Biante series and the Biante Touring Car Masters series, nothing has touched this Aussiesourced and built Ford, which has held more than its own against the American based Mustangs and Camaros.

The Tilley family have always been into Valiants starting out in a white S series that was written off at Amaroo Park in the ’80s. The mechanicals of that car went into a blue car replacement that has still been racing in recent times with brother Cameron at the helm – becoming one of the most raced cars in any category in Australia. There was an AP5 for the youngest brother Jason. It too unfortunately came to a sad demise

– on its roof at Bathurst.

Also along the way came a Plymouth Barracuda and several customer cars that had to be sorted.

But with the rules as they are there with no Chrysler V8 options (with a Charger in Group Nc), they elected for a Ford as Brad had prepped and raced various Ford Mustangs for Ross Donnelley, Bob Cox and others.

The car they bought was an XW Falcon as a rolling shell which had ❯ MotorSportLegends

29

“What it lost in handling it certainly made up for in sheer grunt.”

been raced by Stephen Bradley with a Windsor engine. The car had been originally built by Cam Worner and the XW specially chosen because under the rules, Windsor and Cleveland powerplants can be used – it was specced up to XY, and fitted with a Cleveland engine.

After racing Donnelley’s Boss Mustang, the Falcon wasn’t what he and brother Jason expected when they did the first shakedown run in the car. “It was a shock to the system,” Brad said, “especially after experiencing some of the sweet Mustangs, particularly the 65-66 model.”

“It was like a truck – cumbersome and imbalanced over the wheels in its handling. Really the Falcon just wanted to fall over itself,” he recalled. “Those early Mustangs were the best!”

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But time has reaped its rewards and its track behaviour has shown remarkable improvement – to the point that they can now offset body roll at various tracks with the use of wheel spacers. “We have come a long way in getting the handling better and improving the power down,” Brad said.

But if the handling needed a lot of work to get right, there was nothing wrong in the engine the department. “What it lost in handling it certainly made up for in sheer grunt,” he counted with more than a gleam in the eye. “While it’s not big on torque, it loves to rev.

“It is not an engine you would want in a road car that is for sure,” Brad added. The one thing the Tilleys have mastered has been the consistency with the number of races to the number of finishes.

Picking out the most memorable races in the green Ford is pretty easy too, for the most experienced of the Tilley brothers.

“Bathurst without a doubt! At the Supercar event of 2006 I had the best race of my life. I had to give it everything against Chris Stillwell’s Mustang,” Brad said.

While it looked like a Boss Mustang, the Stillwell car was actually a oneoff (in its original interpretation of the then new Group Nc rules) Boss Mustang fitted with a 351 cu Cleveland – therefore it eventually was tagged as a Mach 1.

But just one day later came Brad’s scariest moment – out in front and running flat out, the bonnet flies up and smashes the windscreen. Apart from the initial shock of being blinded he

BRAD TILLEY

“The Ford Falcon is an evolution and now very much a sophisticated race car.”

was able to keep the car on track and managed to get back to the pits – by peering out through the shaker hole.

Another big moment came at Eastern Creek when the car stalled on the front row of the grid in a race where nearly 50 cars started. Luckily he was not hit by any of the ensuing hoard.

“I managed to fire it up as the last car passed me and from there I drove through the field to finish second. That was pretty satisfying in just eight laps.”

At the end of 2006 the Biante series organisers put into effect what the interested parties had been striving to do for some time – they wanted to remove the reliability issues that had been plaguing these old historic touring cars for some time – by allowing the use of more modern components strictly for “reliability” purposes only.

To achieve this, the group had to move outside the Fifth Category and have the cars relogged as Group 3D Historic Sports Sedans – and there was good and bad in that.

“We lost some of the advantages the Falcon had over the Camaros. We are not making any more horsepower where despite the aluminium heads, we actually drop revs, down 500 from the 8000 we used to run at.

“The Camaros are still a little better handler and probably have a little more at the top end,” he added. But on the positive the Falcon which used to be fairly hard on front tyres has benefitted there. “It used to rip them to pieces, but now with a wider footprint it is much better,” he added.

The green Ford is still very much a work in progress. “Before every single

meeting we put it on the chassis dyno and do brakes, tappets etc as well as a general going over and anything that comes to mind that might improve it,” Brad said.

Then yearly, comes the major engine strip downs and rebuilds – and even then there may be a mid-season peek.

The Ford Falcon is an evolution and now very much a sophisticated race car, together with the best of locally developed engines, robust gearboxes that are filled with Jericho internals and customary Ford nine inch diff.

“You know when you run a car like this for several years in a popular class, it gets a following,” Brad said.

So it looks like the green machine will be around for a while yet, and we expect it to just get faster and faster as the ML Tilleys continue to develop it.

MotorSportLegends

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STORY BY CRAIG WATSON PHOTOGRAPHS BY CRAIG WATSON & JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS

VESKANDA LIVES ON In the last issue of Motorsport Legends we revealed how Australia’s favourite sportscar, the Veskanda, started life as one man’s dream and became a reality. Following is the story of its on-track success, where it is today, and what the future holds for this super-fast beast from the past…

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VESKANDA PART TWO

T

he 1986 Sportscar Championship season began at Sydney’s Oran Park on March 23, but there was still one change to be made to the car, as Harry Aust reveals.

“The rear wing originally was just supported by end-plates, but (owner of the car) Bernie (Van Elsen) noticed in one of his photographs, when it was travelling at speed there was a really significant bow in the middle. So we put an auxiliary plate in the middle. We did that at Oran Park, in the middle of a race meeting, as a sort of a makeshift thing, but I don’t think it was ever changed in the life of the car.”

That first round was a bit of an anticlimax in a way, but the Veskanda still set the standard for the rest of the season. The season had originally been planned for seven rounds, but low

entries for Sandown and Lakeside saw the first two rounds cancelled.

Meanwhile, the most competitive drivers all either didn’t turn up to Oran Park, or were having troubles coming to grips with changes to their cars.

But the success of the Veskanda at its first full-series outing shouldn’t be seen as any the less for the lack of real competition on the day. In the first practice session Bowe knocked three seconds off Terry Hook’s standing class record, and took another second off in the next session.

Starting from pole, by lap four Bowe had a 10-second lead on 1984 Champion Bap Romano, before accidentally knocking the ignition switch off. By the time he got going again, he was in fourth place, but he only took eight laps to again take the lead, winning the 16-lap heat by 3.2 seconds. The second heat left no

doubt about the Veskanda, with Bowe winning by over 30 seconds from Romano.

The second round in Adelaide was more of the same, with John Bowe and the Veskanda completely dominating the weekend. Bowe took just 14 laps in practice to topple Terry Hook’s Sportscar lap record of 51.4 sec, bringing it to 49.73 sec. In the race he beat Hook by over half a lap and set a fastest time of 49.85 sec. It is even more remarkable when considering the outright lap record then stood at 49.50 – set by Alan Jones in a Lola T332 Formula 5000.

The rest of the season saw the same pattern repeated over and over.

Sportscar records tumbled at every track, while outright records were given a nudge. With virtually no competition to speak of, and the ❯ Veskanda running with faultless MotorSportLegends

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VESKANDA PART TWO

BOWE: I WANT TO DRIVE IT AGAIN John Bowe has admitted that he would love to have another drive of the Veskanda in historic racing.

And he believes it would “hold its own” in the historic Group C races in Europe.

“They do two driver Group C racing overseas; it would be great if (current owner) John Briggs took it overseas and I went with him,” Bowe cheekily suggested.

JB said back in the mid-80s taking the car to Europe “didn’t come into our minds”.

“You have to understand that it was financed by one bloke; 1986 was a different time to now, commercial money in motor sport was not that easy to find,” he explained.

However, he is convinced it would have been a match for the European Group C cars of the day if they ever had taken it overseas.

“It was certainly ahead of its time in Australia,” he said.

“Harry (Aust) as a designer is certainly very practical and he calculates all of the things in the correct manner, so it never had anything that was underdesigned.

“It was a shame that the car was here rather than in Europe because at the time it was probably as good a chassis and as good an aero package as there was (in the world).”

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reliability, the challenge became to try and break outright records.

Perhaps the most impressive outing for the car was at Surfers Paradise, where the outright lap record of 1:04.7 had stood for seven years – being set by David Kennedy in a DFV Cosworth Fordpowered Wolf Formula One car. In only his first flying lap of the race, Bowe set a new record of 1:04.3.

However, the outright record at Sandown, set two years earlier by Stefan Bellof in a Rothmans Porsche 956, at 1:34.4, was just out of reach, due to a vibration caused by out-of-balance rear wheels. Bowe managed to get within a second of the record in qualifying, and still put a fastest race time of 1:37.2, taking the round, and the Championship with one round to go.

In the final round at Calder Park, Bowe was in an unbeatable position, but didn’t let up on the pace – setting a new outright record during the race, of 52.69sec. The 1986 Motor Racing

Yearbook reported; “When his team took the average lap time for their driver for the entire race, including the first standing start lap, it worked out to 55.1 seconds! The quickest lap time second-placed Hook recorded was 55.03 seconds.”

The Yearbook made the optimistic prediction that the domination of the series by the Veskanda was actually a good thing, citing the development of a second Kanda, the sale of the first to a new owner in Queensland, and the improvement of a number of other cars to make them more competitive, as being positive signs for the 1987 season.

Unfortunately, the reality was a great disappointment. The 1987 series was reduced from six rounds to only three because of a lack of entries, the sale of the first Veskanda fell through, the second didn’t make it onto the track, and Paul Keating’s ‘recession we had to have’ put a hold on motor sport expenditure in general.

Bernie Van Elsen had secured muchneeded sponsorship for the final round of the 1986 season, from Adelaide’s West End brewery. John Bowe was again in the driver’s seat of the Veskanda for 1987 but, despite being by far the quickest combination at all three rounds, was unable to retain his Championship – due to another near disaster, and a skewed point-scoring system that favoured smaller-engined cars.

At round one, the Veskanda was untouchable in the wet two days of practice. However, during the warm-up session on the dry and warm Sunday, the car suddenly caught fire.

That cost Bernie his West End sponsorship, as he reveals: “West End was one of our (photography) clients.

They paid for repainting the car. They gave us product, as much as we could drink, and they were going to sponsor us to the tune of $52,000 (for 1987). That was the day the car caught on fire.

“West End apparently pulled its sponsorship from the car, due to a lack of showing of its brand on TV at the race.”

Thankfully, the damage to the Veskanda wasn’t as bad as first appeared, and it was repaired for the next round at Sydney’s Amaroo Park. Bowe had set the outright lap record there a couple of years earlier, in a Ralt RT4, and was able to knock another 0.3sec off it in

Unfortunately, the Championship had already been decided, and few top-line cars made the journey.

Those that did come included newly-crowned Drivers’ Champion, Martin Brundle, with the Tom Walkinshaw Silk Cut Jaguar team, and the Sauber-Mercedes team with series runner-up Jean-Louis Schlesser.

Porsche stayed away, as did most of the other serious contenders.

Bernie Van Elsen knew this would probably be the only chance for the Veskanda to compete against the world’s best sportscars. However, Despite winning despite the success of the team in the two of the three two previous years, and signing Dick rounds, Bowe lost his Johnson to partner Bowe, getting sponsorship to contest the race was Championship to proving a major problem.

“We put an ad in the paper,” Bernie Andy Roberts. explains, “saying it’s a sad day when Dick Johnson and John Bowe have to go cap in hand to get the money to Despite winning two of the three rounds, Bowe lost his Championship to go to Sandown – and I did this photo Queenslander Andy Roberts. Sadly, the of two helmets being held out, like Sportscar Championship was in disarray, beggars’ caps.”

“The Barnard Corporation gave us 26 and the 1988 title was a non-event. grand, and we had other people, like the The Veskanda did get one more Victoria Hotel which gave us $1200. We chance to show its mettle, and to be got money from individuals, and I think compared on the world stage, when we ended up with 60 or 70 grand. Then the World Sportscar Championship we got some appearance money from the returned to Australia.

Sandown people.

The date was November 20, ❯ “Dick Johnson…never charged us 1988 and the venue was Sandown. the Veskanda – dropping the Sportscar record by 3.66sec.

So dominant was the car at Amaroo, that Bowe even made an unscheduled pitstop – “to check that all the wheels were there” – and rejoined in third place, before running home with a twolap win.

No such risks were taken in the final round at Sandown, where he again just missed out on Belhoff’s outright record, but won the race by just over a minute.

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THE OTHER KANDAS While the Veskanda was the first of its type built by K&A, there were two others, as Dale Koennecke recalls. “The second one we built for another Adelaide bloke.

It’s almost the same. The same moulds, but it’s our better effort, in that the tubs are a couple of inches on either side narrower, which increases the ground effects at the back. It’s got our own uprights, bigger brakes, bigger gearbox, bigger driveshafts. All in all it’s a better package, but it’s never really been fired in anger.

But again, it got the same problem with the tyres.

“We went to Mallala and tested it. As soon as we finished, we broke it back into two bits, put it in a couple of boxes and it was flown to America. It’s back here now. We built it for Group C or IMSA, and I think (the owner) took it to America thinking he was going to run it in IMSA, but he wasn’t allowed to drive it. You can’t just rock up to IMSA and start driving. You’ve got to have some fairly good credentials to drive there. I could never understand it, even to this day.

You’ll see it again one day. It’s complete, and it’s the better car.

“Then we built a third one, and it was a road car. I couldn’t even

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explain what happened to that one. We virtually had it finished, then the bloke ran out of money.

Being a road car, it ran into a bit more work. We got Bowe to test it, because he was adamant that he wanted to test it. To go on the road it has to be soft enough not to get someone into trouble, which is hard to do.”

“It didn’t have the ground effects. We took all that off, but it’s still got the same wings.

The bodywork is a bit different, because it had to have headlights in it, at the right height.

Into it went just a 308ci Holden, the gearbox was Porsche, and apart from that the rest was as we do it. It was quite a nice car.

It had all the body on it. It was rollable, startable, and I suppose it was around a quarter of a million (dollars) by then – because he’d spent around $230,000, and we probably needed another 10 to 20 to finish it. Then he went all strange on us, and took it away. It will never see the light of day, but he’d paid every cent.”

While we are on the trail of the second Kanda, and hope to bring you more on it in a later issue, we would love to hear from anyone with news of what happened to the road car.

a cent. Neither did John Bowe. In fact John never charged me to drive the Veskanda.”

Bowe put the Veskanda eighth on the grid, with a best time of 1:35.51, compared with Schlesser’s pole time of 1:28.62. It was obvious the Aussie car was not going to be competitive on speed, but it was hoped it would prove reliable enough to still be in the running at the end of the 360km Lucas Supersprint.

The Veskanda was suffering from a minor problem with the handling, due to changes to the underbody, to meet the International Group C rules.

The car was also considerably down on power, compared with the competition, due mainly to a lack of funds to really develop the engine to its full potential.

The engine was effectively the same as it came from the Lola F5000, although stroked slightly to nearly six litres.

“It never had the horsepower,” Dale explains. “I think the best we saw was 580, while the Jags were running 750, and the Merc had 1000 for qualifying, so there was no comparison. If the Mercedes had gone hard they could have lapped us 10 times, but probably wouldn’t have gone the distance. We didn’t have the money to chase that, and we were still running mechanical injection.”

Under the Group C rules of the time, fuel economy played a critical role. Given a set amount of fuel, meant the cars had to be driven fairly conservatively to make the distance.

That proved crucial for the Aussie crew, who found the Veskanda didn’t seem to be getting the economy it needed.

But there were other factors too, as Bernie recalls, “We hadn’t done a race of anything like the length of this before.

We didn’t know how much juice we were going to use, so John filled up at about lap 20, so we could work it out.

“Then about three or four laps from

VESKANDA PART TWO

the end, Dick was weaving the car up and down. We had a little reservoir underneath the tank, with a little float valve in it, which came loose and was floating on top of the petrol. So, it was coughing and farting… so we pulled him in, put 20 litres in it.”

The car had been running in fifth place for most of the race, but it was immediately disqualified for using more than its allowance of fuel.

Harry confirms the car could have finished on the fuel it had. “We put in about an extra 20 litres, and it had more than 25 litres in it. So, in fact we hadn’t used any more than the allotted amount…

Sadly, that was the last time the Veskanda competed at the national level.

Bernie had plans to take it to Europe, maybe even Le Mans, and see if, with a bit more development, it could be competitive, but the funds were never available and sponsorship was non-

existent. Then John Bowe called me one day and said, ‘why don’t we bring the old girl out again one day?’ It cost about 30 to 40 grand to get it to that historical race, and John had a ball in it. He said it was like visiting an old girlfriend.”

That was the Phillip Island historic

“It cost about 30 to 40 grand to get it to that historical race, and John had a ball in it.” meeting back in 2000, and the car was sold shortly afterwards.

The car was bought by business partners, and long-time Sportscar fans, Chris Singleton and Doug Gendry from Perth, and was run in regular

events at Wannaroo.

Although both have raced a variety of cars over the years.

Chris and Doug had the car stripped back and re-painted in blue, though considerably lighter than its original colour, and gave the body a complete freshen up. They also looked at taking it to Europe for the Group C Revival Series – for which it was accepted – but the expense involved prevented that from happening.

Although very happy with the car, with few events to compete in it, particularly in WA, the pair decided to sell it on, and in 2006 it was bought by John Briggs from Brisbane.

John’s involvement with the car goes back, loosely, to its gestation, having discussed the original idea at dinner with Bernie.

John has only driven the Veskanda on a couple of occasions, including Phillip ML Island this year.

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ALFREDO COST THE ITALIAN AUSTRALIAN OPEN W As revealed in the past issue of Motorsport Legends Alfredo Costanzo arrived in Australia during 1957 as a Italian teenager and through hard labour, sometimes working three different jobs, he managed to pursue his motor racing dream of becoming the best openwheeler driver in the country – he achieved that goal by becoming four time Australian Gold Star winner. In part two of this enthralling feature Costanzo tells of his major openwheeler successes as well as driving in selected touring car and sports car endurance events.

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STANZO N WHEELER CHAMPION PART 2 STORY BY GRANT NICHOLAS PICTURES BY AUTOPICS.COM.AU & DARREN HOUSE

1979 ROTHMANS INTERNATIONAL SERIES AND GOLD STAR SERIES The 1979 Rothmans International Series saw me in Alan Hamilton’s Lola T430 Formula 5000 and I won the first round at Sandown Park then the next one at Adelaide followed by a third at Surfers Paradise. The series final was at Sydney’s Oran Park and I led the race until the 23rd lap then I came across Chas Talbot who I had

passed three times earlier, I was cautious as I only had to finish in the top eight to win the title. I was leading Larry Perkins and Warwick Brown, but as Talbot and I came across the bridge he moved to the left and invited me to go past – then he veered across to the right. My left rear wheel collected his front right, resulting in a cut tyre and damaged CV (constant velocity) joint. I managed to get ❯ back to the pits and had a new wheel fitted – then 200

ALFREDO COSTANZO PART 2

“I won the 1980 Gold Star Series in the same car before moving across to an ex-James Hunt Formula One McLaren M26.”

metres down the track the CV joint broke and that was the end of that. As my original deal with Alan was only for the Rothmans Series, he was happy with my results so he said I could drive his cars all of the time with the prize money being shared 50-50 and I could keep any sponsorship monies. It was very good for me as I was like a fulltime driver with the Porsche Distributors Australia team and I really enjoyed that as we had spare engines, transmissions and a host of parts for the car. I finished second in the Australian Gold Star Series to Adelaide driver John Walker (Lola T332) after crashing out at Perth’s Wanneroo Park.

FOUR GOLD STAR CHAMPIONSHIP WINS IN 1980, ’81, ’82 AND ’83 I won the 1980 Australian Gold Star Series in the same car before moving across to an ex-James Hunt Formula One McLaren M26 powered by a five-litre Chevrolet V8 engine and back-to-back Formula 5000 championships before moving across to the Formula Pacific category for 1982. For 1982, Alan had purchased a 1.6-litre Ford BDD powered Tiga FA81 Formula Pacific race car and I was running 40

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against a nearly full field of Ralt RT4s and some other older cars. With that little car we went on to win another two championships after some really hard dices with a number of extremely quick young drivers.

BEATING THE FORMULA PACIFIC YOUNGSTERS 1982 was the toughest season that I ever raced and probably the best year as I was racing other drivers and they had the latest cars from the factory. The journalists at that time were writing that Alfie is approaching 40 years of age and he is going to miss the big horsepower that he had in the F5000s and in these smaller and lighter cars the up and coming young bloods (would be better). On paper many thought that the likes of John Smith, John Bowe and Andrew Miedecke would be ahead of me – Alfie will not be able to cope with the pressure. At the start of the season the Tiga was a bit of a handicap, it didn’t handle particularly well but the team got it working better as the series progressed, so I was able to apply more pressure on them and after plenty of close dices and good races we came away with the title. The toughest race was the penultimate round at Winton, and I don’t mind saying

Left: Alfie prepares himself for a hot qualifying lap in the Lola T430 Formula 5000 at Sandown.

Below: The open-wheeler ace joined Colin Bond in an Alfa Romeo at Bathurst in 1984.

Bottom: Costanzo in a Tiga during the 1983 Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park.

this as it is the truth, Bowe had enough points in the bag to take the title providing I didn’t win the round. Adding extra pressure was ex-Formula One Champion Alan Jones; he was running a new Ralt in preparation for the Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park Raceway a fortnight later. I arrived at the track on Thursday and Jones was very, very quick and then we went out on Friday for some practice before Saturday’s qualifying. Jones once again was quick in the early session and I couldn’t get anywhere near my fast times, I was mentally buggered. I told my crew that I was going to have a walk around the track whilst qualifying was on and they were to show me the board when 10 minutes was to go before the end. They showed me the board and I climbed into the car and after two laps I had pole over Jones, Bowe and Smith. The next challenge was to win both of Sunday’s races and that is what happened even after Jones made it pretty hard for me – we both wanted to win badly and I eventually stood at the top of the podium with Jones and Bowe below me.

champions and drivers consisting of Alan Jones (1980 titleholder), Nelson Piquet (1981, ’83 and ’87), Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89 and ’93), Frenchman Jacques Laffite, Brazilian Roberto Moreno plus some quick Kiwi drivers. I qualified third behind the French duo of Prost and Laffite, and then got stuck behind Laffite in the early part of the 100-lap race and that allowed Prost to get away from the field. I knew that I could go quicker once I got in front of him, but I had been told by the team that I only had to beat the local drivers and not the internationals. I was pushing Laffite quite hard then after about 15 laps, on the lefthanders my car started to give trouble due to a hole in one of the carburettor floats and that affected the fuel mixture and I had to back off in case a cylinder became lean and burned a piston. I was able to maintain a steady pace during the race but towards the end I got a little bit tired and had a small spin and that allowed New Zealander David McMillan to slip past. I finished fourth behind Prost, Laffite, Moreno and McMillan, so I was the first local home and we were 1982 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX AT CALDER PARK very happy with our performance considering the car’s Circuit owner Bob Jane imported several Formula One ❯ drop in power.

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1983 AND ’84 GOLD STAR SERIES AND AUSTRALIAN GP RACES For me 1983 was much easier as I won all of the Gold Star rounds except at Lakeside Raceway where I finished second to Miedecke after colliding with Smith early in the race. By the time that the Australian Grand Prix was once again at Calder Park I had won the series. So this time I went into the race against the internationals being allowed to run for race win after qualifying in second place on the front row next to Moreno. I got the lead and easily pulled away from Moreno and established a three-second gap, then on lap 25 the driveline to the differential broke and I was out and he went on to win ahead of Smith, Laffite, Geoffrey Brabham and Alan Jones. The next year Alan sent me to Germany to do a Porsche driving training course so I could return to Melbourne and would be able to train their local customers here, so that meant that I missed two Gold Star races which Bowe won on both occasions. When I returned he had a bit more power than me; we didn’t wake up to that until it was too late and he won the series. At the ’84 Grand Prix I qualified third behind Moreno and Bowe but ahead of a lot of current Formula One stars like Keke Rosberg, Niki Lauda, Andrea de Cesaris and Francois Hesnault. Moreno grabbed a back-to-back win with

Rosberg and de Cesaris next as I grabbed fourth and once again the leading local driver. After that Alan moved away from the openwheelers as he was losing interest and this type of racing was directly connected to Porsche cars.

1979 HARDIE FERODO 1000 NOT A HAPPY EXPERIENCE I ran with Allan Grice in a Craven Mild Racing Holden Torana SS A9X hatchback and that was not a happy experience. When you are the guest driver, you don’t have any say whatsoever, and I learnt then that if you are too fast they will start to slow you down. If you are not fast enough they say that you are no good, so it was where if you are too quick you are not good if you are slow you are no good. I can understand that the number one driver is the product that the sponsor is investing in, so if the second driver comes in and goes quicker their product is now secondhand. At the time I was a little pissed off, however Grice went on to qualify third and we finished fourth behind Peter Brock and Jim Richards in a similar car.

Right: The Lola T430 took Costanzo to victory in the opening round of the Rothmans Series at Sandown in 1979.

Below: Alfie shared a Commodore VL with Graham Lusty at Bathurst in 1989.

Bottom: Costanzo in a Tiga at Oran Park in 1985.

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ALFREDO COSTANZO PART 2

1986 JAMES HARDIE 1000 IN A VOLVO 242 TURBO I tested the factory Volvo 242 Turbo at Calder Park and it went very well as I was really quick, so I joined Bowe for the James Hardie Bathurst 1000 and did another half dozen laps and didn’t get back into the car again before the race as the team manager John Sheppard said I was going too fast. Just over five hours into the race I pitted with engine down on power and fuming badly – we were out. I enjoyed putting in the really quick times in that car as it showed to others and especially myself that I could drive a touring car competitively.

1988 TOOHEYS 1000 WITH DJR During 1988 I was invited to Oran Park to test a Dick Johnson Racing Ford Sierra RS500 with the view of running with them in the long distance races; in fact it was John Bowe that convinced them to give me a drive in the car. I did about eight laps on the short track and then did some laps on the long circuit – on my fourth lap I was quicker than both John and Dick’s best times. After I got out of the car John smiled as he said ‘you should have seen Dick’s face when he looked at your lap times, what is happening here, look at this and his times’. I was used to driving turbocharged Porsche road cars

so it was quite pleasing to be fast in one of his Sierras. I was running second to Dick at the Sandown 500 race when a drive shaft broke, and it could have been my fault as I was used to long distance racing and I was braking late and putting the power down a little bit hard and causing wheel-spin. At Bathurst John started the car, then after 22 laps Dick and John’s car broke its differential and they moved across into our car and went on to finish second behind Tony Longhurst and Tomas Mezera – I didn’t get in the car that day.

1998 OAMPS INSURANCE CLASSIC WIN IN MASERATI SPORTSCAR There were a number of drivers being considered to drive with me in the very fast Maserati Ghibli Cup car in the GTP Series race at Sandown Park. I picked Dean Canto, at that time he was driving a Subaru WRX and I had watched him on television racing in Adelaide and he impressed me. He got the drive in the Maserati for Sandown, I was the oldest driver (55) in the race and he was the youngest (17). He did the last stint and brought the car home nine seconds clear of the John Bowe and Neil Crompton pairing in a Ferrari F355 Challenge. It was most satisfying for me to help an up-andcoming driver to score his first major motor racing victory. ML

“If you are too fast they will start to slow you down... if you are not fast enough they say that you are no good.”

STORY BY GARRY O’BRIEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS

John Bowe in his Biante Series Chev Camaro.

THE OLDIES COME OUT TO PLAY The Muscle Car Masters has become the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the Australian historic scene.

I

t was all that it promised and more, despite an indifferent lead up on the weather front.

The fourth running of the Australian Muscle Car Masters at Eastern Creek on Fathers’ Day was another outstanding success not only for the purist motor sport fan, but for competitors and owners alike.

Among a host of attractions this time around, the highlight for most was the gathering of five of Australia’s greatest Improved Production muscle cars – Allan Moffat’s Trans-Am Mustang, Norm Beechey’s Holden Monaro GTS The Biante Series cars added to the flavour of the event.

350, Pete Geoghegan’s Ford Falcon XY GTHO and his ’67 Mustang, and Bob Jane’s ZL1 Chev Camaro.

Even though they didn’t blast around the west Sydney circuit at race pace, their reduced pace was treated with an honoured respect, the general crowd buzz subdued as history passed by and everyone sucked in the nostalgic noises.

Luckily it was marketed as a Sunday September 7 event only, rather than a two day show although the previous day featured much ontrack and in pit happenings – but it rained all day. Yet many still ventured there despite the

constant Saturday deluge.

Spectator attendance overall at the 2008 MCM was up on the previous three years. “Each year spectator numbers have steadily grown,” said the Australian Racing Drivers Club’s Phil Harrison.

“This year’s crowd numbers were higher than the Sunday crowd at last year’s Eastern Creek V8 Supercar round,” he added – not missing the opportunity to score one on that group’s decision not to hold a round there this year.

“The ongoing success of the Muscle ❯ Car Masters proves the ARDC

Bob Jane and his Camaro.

Norm Beechey’s Monaro.

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can conceive, produce, market and run a world class event. It also shows the raceway can attract large spectator numbers to a well marketed, entertaining motor sport event,” he further offered.

Harrison added that acceptable spectator admission prices also add to the attraction of attending the event rather than just watching it on TV or DVD and drew competitors from every state and territory in Australia plus a number of tour groups came from interstate and New Zealand.

The old remembered, the more youthful marvelled and the very young simply wondered because there was more happening than just the Fantastic Five. There were many races for the Historic Touring Cars spanning 40 odd years as well as Heritage Hot Laps involving old race cars that didn’t want to go full out plus some pretty damn fine replicas.

If that wasn’t enough there was a host of great names from the past as well and included Moffat, Jane, Kevin Bartlett, John Harvey, Dick Johnson, Allan Grice and many more.

As was the case last year, the Biante Touring Car Masters were also an integral part of the program. The once 5th Category, now Group 3D Historic Sports Sedan log booked cars had grown in 12 months – in terms of numbers and professionalism.

A warm favourite was master touring car driver (and a deft hand in real racing cars as well) John Bowe in a A host of Falcon Cobras were on display at The Creek.

Glenn Seton in his Ford Capri.

Chev Camaro. But in the early wet race, after a forced pit drive through, he had to follow home Eddie Abelnica’s Boss Mustang, Brett Youlden in his series debut aboard Graham Alexander’s Holden Monaro and Greg East who appeared to relish the wet in a Holden Kingswood. Next was Gavin Bullas ahead of another touring car vet in Charlie O’Brien (Mustang).

In the second outing it was again a Boss Mustang victory. But this time it was Bullas who took the fight up to Bowe. They exchanged the lead on several occasions in a thriller that resulted in just a hundredth of a second between the pair at the flag.

Abelnica and reigning champion Steve Mason (Camaro) were similarly matched in their duel for third with the former getting the nod by three tenths while Brad Tilley was homing in after

starting rear of grid in his Falcon GT. In the third and last, Bowe led before another penalty meant a pit visit. In the meantime Bullas seized the opportunity to punch out a second victory from Mason and Drew Marget’s Mustang.

Tilley was forced to start from the pitlane and stormed to fourth ahead of Youlden, O’Brien and Alistair MacLean (Camaro). Bowe set off after the leaders again but his endeavours fell three laps shy as he limped to the pits permanently this time.

The wet weather and lack of available suitable rubber falsely determined the split of cars in the ’65 to ’72 Group Nc era between Division One and Two with some strong runners in the latter group.

Yet overall it produced two top-notch fields for Sunday’s dry races.

On the Division One victory dais touring car veteran Glenn Seton said ❯ Brad Tilley in his XY Falcon.

Allan Moffat’s 302 Trans-Am Mustang.

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Dick Johnson in his old Mustang Group A.

he had one of the hardest races of his career in his Ford Capri. In each race he battled Simon Phillips’ Holden Torana XU-1 and even had to concede a win on one occasion but narrowly won the other three.

Third in the feature was the Ford Falcon GT of Jack Elsegood (his second) while Jason Humble (Mazda RX2) and initially Scott Bargwanna (Torana) also scored third place finishes.

The latter failed to finish race three but charged through the last for sixth behind Darren Pearce (Ford Mustang), Robert Braune (Valiant Charger) and ahead of Mick Donaher (Chev Camaro) and Cameron Tilley (Valiant Pacer).

In Division Two there was four different winners as Paul Axiak’s Holden Monaro pipped Greg Young initially.

The latter turned the tables in appalling conditions later in an event only a BMW 2002 could swim in. But by the sunny warm conditions of Sunday, the fast cars were back on top with Greg

Luca (Torana) taking line honours in race three and Des Wall completed his two race charge from the back in the Geoghegan Mustang to score a win in the last, beating the Falcons of early leader Allan Reid and Peter O’Brien.

In Group Nb (cars built up to the end of 1964), one had to feel for Scott Fleming who won three races and in control of the fourth until the Lotus Cortina expired and left Bill Meeke (Falcon Sprint) to pick up the laurels ahead of the Mustangs of Greg Toepfer and Max Ullrich. Toepfer was then pinged a minute which elevated Gary Brown’s Chev Nova to third ahead of Andrew Clempson (Mustang) and the EH of Ben Wilkinson.

The contrast in weather over the two days was never more evident than in the Group C and Group A races.

In the earlier Group which represented the 1973 to 1984 era of touring car racing in this country was pretty much the realm of Paul Stubber in the exJohn Harvey’s Marlboro HDT Torana A9X.

Legendary Holden Dealer Team boss Harry Firth.

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John Harvey MHDT Holden Torana A9X but the latter group or generation (Group A, 1985 to 1992) had several star performers.

Initially it was Brett Maddren in an ex-Anderson Brothers (NZ) Ford Mustang that looked to be the man to beat but David Towe (BMW M3) put in a sterling effort to be across the line first in race one only to incur a two minute penalty, handing victory to Stubber who looked in the box seat until a last corner off track excursion.

Stubber started the Group C Trophy off the back and failed to peg back all the way winner Gary Collins (Holden Commodore) by 2.4 secs while Maddren won the Group A Trophy from Norm Mogg’s HRT Walkinshaw Commodore.

In Sunday’s two combined races, the ex-Glenn Seton Ford Sierra of Rob Tweedie came into its own, beating Stubber, Collins, Towe, Maddren, David Holc (ex-GIO Walkinshaw) and John Smith in his Toyota Supra Turbo.

In the last it was Tweedie again but this time he had to weather a late charge from Holc to win by two tenths of a second.

Among a host of old race cars parading or racing were two real Dick Johnson Green Tuff Mustangs, a replica True Blu XD Falcon that came with replica DJ helmet and suit . . . and replica rock. There was a real Garry Rogers A9X and several other hot Toranas, two door Falcons from the ’70s and a couple of Jags thrown in for good measure – yet somehow it mattered little whether they were real or replicas. Who could tell the ML difference anyway?

FOGES’

Flashback Seasoned scribe Mark Fogarty laments the lack of larger-than-life characters among the modern breed of F1 drivers

T

he problem with modern Formula One drivers is that they’re not interesting. At all! Where are the characters, the daredevils, the racing rakes who used to make F1 drivers exciting, glamourous and envied?

I’ll tell you where. They’re either six feet under or six feet from the fire at home, the latter thanking god that they survived ‘the good old days’.

Up until the mid-1980s, F1 drivers were larger than life, representing the epitome of jet-setting, risk-taking bon vivants. Like World War Two fighter pilots, they were swashbucklers whose deeds were heroic and whose bravery was a large part of their appeal.

In those days, racing drivers generally, and grand prix aces in particular, laughed in the face of death and behaved with refreshing abandon.

Sure, times change, and the commercial and societal pressures on modern F1 ‘heroes’, not to mention the scrutiny that now accompanies the cult of celebrity, act to stultify individuality.

But increased accountability and engaging personalities shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. There’s not only room for rebels, mavericks and iconoclasts in F1, the sport desperately needs colourful characters.

Goodness knows, the absence of regular wheel-to-wheel combat in living memory demands that the protagonists

at least have charisma out of the cockpit.

Chance would be a fine thing with the current lot. Hamilton, Raikkonen, Massa, Alonso and the like may be gods behind the wheel, but they present as angels in public.

Always saying the right thing or, worse still, nothing. Never could I have imagined a more boring persona than Mika Hakkinen, whose verbal repertoire amounted to a blank sheet.

“Always saying the right thing or, worse still, nothing.

Never could I have imagined a more boring persona...”

And then along came Kimi Raikkonen.

Oh. My. God. The poker face that launched a thousand snores.

The irony is that, when he bothers, Raikkonen is an exceptionally exciting racer. Adding to the dichotomy, away from the track he is a hell-raiser.

Gets fall-down drunk, plays practical jokes on his mates and delights in dangerous activities. Where is that free radical when the microphones and cameras are turned on?

Lewis Hamilton may be the most exciting new prospect since Ayrton Senna, but he’s just too nice.

Felipe Massa may as well be invisible and Fernando Alonso’s talent has been tainted by his petulance.

Away from the public gaze, they’re also good-time guys. If their public personalities matched their on-the-edge driving, they’d be fascinating.

Robert Kubica is one of the few bucking the trend. He seems to have a mind of his own and doesn’t mind speaking out. Sort of.

Another is overnight sensation Sebastian Vettel, whose mastery at Monza was perhaps the most uplifting achievement in F1 in 30 years. He’s a personable, outgoing young man who, so far, hasn’t been afraid to express himself.

Sport thrives on characters, combat and controversy, and F1 really only delivers the latter ingredient. Even then, it’s almost always political controversies that make the headlines, not racing rivalries of the kind that have real edge and animosity like Senna versus Prost.

Now that was a war of wheels and words for the ages. Hasn’t been a better or more bitter rivalry in F1 since and a lot of that was because Senna and Prost were passionate and pugnacious, although in very different ways.

In my book, champions who don’t speak up do their profession an injustice.

The late Senna didn’t mind getting in hot water if he felt strongly about an issue. He regularly railed against authority and wasn’t afraid to address ❯ MotorSportLegends

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MARK FOGARTY THEN AND NOW

political issues or poverty, which he campaigned to alleviate in Brazil.

Ayrton had the courage to converse about his convictions – one of the many reasons why I rate him as F1’s all-time greatest.

Schumacher does much good work, but he hides his principles behind a veil of privacy.

Turn back the clock 25-30 years and there were characters, rivalries, indiscreet behaviour and bad blood to burn.

Who wouldn’t be captivated by real men like James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg or Alan Jones, to name a few.

Hard-living and hard-driving were what Hunt, Rosberg and Jones were all about. You had James the antiestablishment playboy; Rosberg the sultan of slide who lit up a smoke after lighting up the track; and Jonesy the belligerent battler who didn’t cop crap from anyone.

And then there was Niki, the biggest hero of them all. Back behind the wheel just weeks after almost dying in that fiery wreck at the Nurburgring, shrugging off agonising pain and disfigurement to take Hunt down to the

wire for the ’76 title.

Talk about hard. Never gave a fat rat’s about his looks – plastic surgery is for big girlie boys in his book – and to this day says exactly what he thinks.

Hunt expired quietly at home after years of entertaining TV viewers with his acerbic and unfiltered opinions, while Rosberg, Jones and Lauda remain outspoken observers of the sport, shaking their heads at the big girls’ blouses that F1 drivers have become.

They’re among the old guard F1 warriors that when they’re not counting their blessings, they’re counting money.

They can also often be relied upon to utter the sort of crusty comments that would make the curmudgeons on Grumpy Old Men cringe.

Of course, they can afford to speak their minds and lead interesting lives in retirement. But many of them were brutally blunt and outrageous during their racing careers, during which they were colourful cavaliers who routinely cheated death.

Those that survived the dangerous and debauched days of F1, when fast cars and fast women made for a heady mix

Above left: Drivers like Schumacher, Alonzo and Raikkonen have been brain-washed by the ‘politically correct’ PR machines. Above right: The likes of Hill and Stewart weren’t scared to say what they thought. Below: It was great when racing between personalities such as Senna and Mansell was matched by interesting off-track happenings.

of characters who lived for the moment by necessity as much as sheer hedonism, are much more interesting than their cosseted successors.

Even a namby-pamby like Sir Jackie Stewart, who led the campaign to transform circuits from killing fields into calculated risks, has more personality in one of his little fingers than the colourless conformists of the past decade-and-a-half.

Although supremely diplomatic, Stewart has never shied away from speaking his mind. His opinions, even when he was racing and then as an ambassador and spokesperson for a highpowered portfolio of image-conscious brands, have always been forthright.

He still manages to balance courtesy and frankness without resorting to politically correct mumbo jumbo. PCspeak is a blight on society, not just F1, but spin-laden puffery has stolen almost all the oxygen of unvarnished opinion in the sport.

Truth, they say, is the first casualty of war, but F1 is also the victim of propaganda merchants.

Virtually all the colour has been drained from the sport and the most anodyne are the drivers. Lifestyles of the rich and famous? More like lifestyles of the rich and gormless if you went by their carefully crafted public images.

The last playboy drivers were Gerhard Berger and Eddie Irvine. They lived life in the fast lane on and off the track, and I venture that it is no coincidence that their notoriety and popularity exceeded their achievements.

The ‘good old days’ of F1 weren’t so good on many levels, but when it comes to drivers who inspired awe and allegiance, the past beats the present.

Of course, in 35 or so years from now, today’s newcomers to motor sport scribbling may well be lauding a yetto-born superstar whose ability, results and personal magnetism exceeds our established greats.

For the sake of F1, I certainly hope so.

Mark Fogarty has covered the sport at the highest levels during a varied international media career.

Foges still actively agitates modern day racers as Editor-At-Large of Auto Action magazine.

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