MotorSport Legends Issue 5

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

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Calling time: Skaife hangs up his helmet

Classic Ford: Restoring the Garry Rogers Escort

ALAN JONES

SPEAKS

Australia’s last world Formula One champion talks about his early days, A1GP and Webber’s chances of winning a title.

Remembering one of Australia’s greatest race tracks Quarterly magazine ISSN 1835-5544

Feb/April 09 $6.95 Volume #2 Issue #5

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 fifth edition of Motorsport Legends.

Volume 2 Issue 5

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News 06-13 Want to know what’s next on the historic and nostalgia scene?

Then don’t miss the news pages.

Adelaide Classic 14-16 Long before the Formula One circuit in its parklands, the City of Churches had another classic street track.

World Champ talks 18-22 In this rare interview, Alan Jones talks about his early days, his current position with A1GP and his thoughts on today’s F1 scene.

Exit left stage 24-28 One of Australia’s greatest touring car drivers, Mark Skaife, decides to hang up his helmet, but what’s next for the five-time Bathurst winner?

The great Tassie track 29-33 Longford has a permanent place in Australian motor racing history. Barry Oliver recalls some of his favourite memories from the circuit.

Thommo’s Tornado P2 36-39 In the second part of this great feature we see how Thommo faired in 1975 and where the little V8 VW beast ended up.

Goodwood Revival 40-44 Brian Reed was lucky enough to visit Goodwood again. He came back with a fascinating account of his experience.

Re-birthed classic Escort 47-50 In the first of our new restoration section we have uncovered the project to rebuild the ex-Garry Rogers Ford Escort Sports Sedan.

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40

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Contributors in this issue Grant Nicholas It’s not an easy feat to win the F1 World Championship, and Alan Jones is one of only two Aussies to do so. He infrequently gives interviews these days.

Grant’s yarn on page 18 is a rare insight into AJ’s early days and the 1980 champ’s thoughts on today’s F1 scene.

Briar Gunther As usual, our staff scribe has been busy this issue, not only has she brought you most of the news, we believe her interview with the retiring Mark Skaife (on page 24) on the eve of his final V8 Supercar race at Oran Park is well worth a read.

We’re sure you’ll agree!

Brian Reed Probably the luckiest of all the Motorsport Legends’ scribes, Brian has been off overseas again to Goodwood. He also drove a pre-War BMW 328 at Albert Park. However, at least he lets us enjoy the tales of his travels and triumphs.

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 Grant Nicholas, Garry O’Brien, Darren House, Brian Reed, Mark Cooper and Barry Oliver.

Photographers Autopics.com.au, Cheryl Reid, James Smith and John Doig.

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 five of Motorsport Legends magazine.

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

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ustralia can be very proud of its motor racing exports. Of course we have two world Formula One champions – Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones, MBE – but there was one driver who headed to Britain to represent Australia long before even our two world champs. I speak of course of Tony Gaze. Tony first headed to England to fly Spitfires for the RAF during WWII and became Australia’s most decorated Spitfire pilot with the Distinguished Flying Cross Double Bar. He returned to the mother land in the late ’40s and early ’50s to become a renowned racing driver.

He was one of Australia’s first motor racing exports and he once again served his country well. I met Tony (pictured) for the first time at the recent Sandown Historics and I found him a true gentleman. He was not feeling that well as he was recovering from a recent operation, but he still took the time to chat to someone who could only imagine how tough it must have been for an Aussie racing driver overseas back in the days when they didn’t have 747s or A380s.

Many people would have you believe that it was easier to break into the international motor racing ranks back in the days before the sport 4

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was so commercial and occupied by professional drivers; however, I don’t buy that theory. I reckon it would be every bit as difficult – if not more so – to leave loved ones behind, jump on a plane (or ship) and head to a strange country to take on the locals on their home turf.

I have nothing but admiration for anyone who has given it a go, at any stage in history. I would have loved to have talked to Tony for a lot longer about his racing activities and I hope that one day I am privileged enough to get that opportunity.

Jones is another who did it tough in his early days in Europe, although he doesn’t like to let on just how difficult it was for him to break into Formula One in the late ’70s. However, his thoughts in this issue on today’s Formula One scene make for great reading. He also has a real understanding of exactly how tough it is for Australia’s current F1 challenger, Mark Webber, and he has some words of hope for the Red Bull driver.

Also in this issue we start our new ‘Resto’ section where we will scour the breadth of the country to find enthusiasts who are restoring classic racing cars, and what better car to start with than the ex-Garry Rogers Ford Escort Sports Sedan?

We also remember Longford in

Tasmania and take the time to talk with a retiring legend.

This issue also marks Motorsport Legends magazine’s first birthday.

We didn’t want to make a big song and dance about it, but just quietly, we’ll let you know that we are very proud to have our first year under our belt and we are looking forward to many more successful years.

Of course, we are only too aware that none of this could have happened without your continued support, so we thank you for that.

To show our appreciation we have managed to arrange a few super deals exclusively for the readers of Motorsport Legends magazine.

In this issue we have secured a great price for you on the full set of The Golden Age of Motor Sport DVDs, which are a ‘must have’ for any fan of Australian motor racing history. We also have a discounted price on Quarter Mile – an Oral History of Australian Drag Racing, and over the coming issues we hope to secure many more great deals for you on products relevant to nostalgic and historic motor racing.

But until then, drive safely on and off the race track, and happy birthday Motorsport Legends magazine, we’ll raise our glasses to that, cheers, – Allan Edwards, Managing Editor

NEWS PHILLIP ISLAND

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER

Elfin will celebrate its 50th anniversary at Phillip Island.

As usual Group A and C cars will provide great racing.

ANNIVERSARIES GALORE AT CLASSIC FEST

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he 2009 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport in March will double as a celebration of a number of motorsport anniversaries.

The meeting, which takes place from March 13 to 15, celebrates 100 years of the Morgan car, 50 years of the Mini and Elfin and 40 years of Formula Ford racing in Australia.

Shannons, the VACC and Cooldrive are supporting the event, which is conducted by the Victorian Historic Racing Register (VHRR).

It will also be the 20th anniversary of the VHRR conducting racing at the circuit and organisers say the event is now the largest historic race meeting of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.

More than 500 touring, sports and racing cars spanning seven decades are expected to take part in the event this year.

Organisers say racing greats from Formula One, V8 Supercars and the Carrera Cup will be at the festival to open the 40th anniversary celebrations of Formula Ford racing in Australia.

Formula Ford began in the UK in 1967, with the first championship in 1968 won

by Australia’s Tim Schenken.

Richard Knight won the first Australian Formula Ford race at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway in 1969 in an Elfin 600, a precursor to his victory the following year in the inaugural Australian Formula Ford series.

Formula Ford stars have

Formula Ford will celebrate its 40th anniversary.

SUNCOAST CANCELLED

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uncoast Classic organisers have cancelled the tarmac rally, blaming the world financial crisis.

The Silverstone Events

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been invited to the Phillip Island meeting for a parade, mass autograph signing session and historic group photograph.

As well as local Formula Ford cars, containers of vehicles are also expected from the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

And to celebrate 50 years of Australia’s Elfin cars, a major display and on-track tribute is planned.

Up to 50 of the unique race and road going models originally created by the late Garrie Cooper in his suburban Adelaide workshop will be at the meeting.

management team had planned to stage the rally on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast from July 22 to 26, but it has been cancelled

because of low participant numbers.

Events Director, David Edwards, said the event was cancelled early so as not to inconvenience sponsors, registered participants and

Meanwhile, some of the household racing names who achieved success in Cooper’s cars will be seen at the wheel of a range of open-wheeler and sports car Elfins at the festival.

For those who like their muscle cars, everything from a Bathurst A9X Torana to XA GT Falcons will form a major display in the Shannons Muscle Car Muster.

One hundred special high-performance cars will be corralled in the newlycompleted Phillip Island Expo building located opposite the pits on Gardner Straight.

The Torana L34, HDT and Mustang clubs have already promised a total of about 70 cars for the muster, while iconic Group C and Group A touring cars from the 1970s and 1980s have also been ML promised.

For more information about the 2009 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport, visit the website www.vhrr.com

other parties involved.

“Contact with our peers around the world suggests they are also in the process of reviewing their scheduled events for 2009 and possibly beyond,” he said.

NEWS BROCK COLLECTION

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS

Brock’s Goodwood Holden FX (pictured with Marcos Ambrose) will be on display.

BROCK COLLECTION OPEN

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restaurant in Peter Brock’s hometown of Hurstbridge in Victoria has opened an exhibition to the late great motorsport driver.

In conjunction with the

Peter Brock Foundation, Bridges Restaurant opened the Brock Legacy collection on Friday, December 12, 2008, to celebrate the history of Brock’s racing career.

The exhibition features a collection of rare Brock

prints, memorabilia and trophies, which offers an insight into the nine-time Bathurst Champion’s racing career.

It also features the Phil Munday-owned FX Holden (48-215) Brock drove at the

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Goodwood race circuit in England a week before his untimely death during a rally in September 2006.

Bridges plans on changing the car featured every few months and the collection is open indefinitely.

All items on display are courtesy of the Peter Brock Foundation, Phil Munday and Julie Bamford.

Bridges Manager Kat Moschall said Brock was a regular at the Hurstbridge restaurant and celebrated a number of birthdays and other milestones there.

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EVENT REVIEWS

STORY BY GARRY O’BRIEN PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES SMITH

Paul Stubber won in his ex-HDT Torana.

John Bowe leads the Biante field.

BACK IN TIME

Glenn Seton had fun in his old Skyline.

The Oran Park finale was just like the old days – touring car racing with more than just two marques.

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hen the Group A and C Historic Touring Cars came to Oran Park and joined the V8 Supercars for its 2008 final fling, it was difficult to gauge who was enjoying themselves the most – the owners and drivers who were either racing or doing fast parade laps, or the adoring multitude of fans that hogged the vantage points to savour these beauties’ every track moment.

Taking in the activities were many gloriously restored race cars covering the Australian tin-top 20-year period to the end of 1992 with the one exception of the Glenn Seton 1997 title-winning Ford Falcon EL V8 Supercar which Seton himself had some fun laps in.

The array of vehicles was massive, from Holden Toranas and Commdores to Nissan Turbos, no less than three Toyota Celicas, numerous Isuzu Geminis and Ford Escorts, a couple of Jaguars, and a Volvo just to name some.

Seton was also reunited with his 1987 Australian Touring Car Championship and Bathurst second place getting Nissan Skyline DR30, but couldn’t beat a fast and flamboyant Paul Stubber in the ex-MHDT John Harvey Holden Torana A9X – that combination winning all three races.

The first of the three races was red

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flagged when Jake Williams had a horrific crash at the last corner after a brake line popped out of a front caliper.

The Frank Binding-owned ex-Bob Holden Ford Escort was destroyed yet the 17-year-old, five-time Sydney metropolitan bike trail champion and son of Steve Williams emerged with bruising only.

Stubber had Seton all over the back of him, looking for a way past. Binding’s ex-Army Reserve XD Ford Falcon was third, but relented to the persistent David Towe in his ex-JPS BMW. Gary Collins brought his ex-Phil Lyons ’81 Commodore home fifth with the former Mark Skaife Skyline HR31 of Rod Markland next.

In the second race Seton began poorly, dropping to fifth as Stubber stormed away from Binding, Collins and Norm Mogg’s ex HRT Win Percy/Neil Crompton Walkinshaw VL. Binding led when Stubber went grass cutting, but the Torana was back in front within three laps with Seton not far away.

Only when lapping slower traffic did Stubber clear out. Towe moved up to third but a brush with the wall put him out. Mogg finished third from Binding, Collins, Stephen Perrott’s former Charlie O’Brien/Garth Wigston A9X and Garry Kirwin’s ex-Jagparts Walkinshaw VL. In his off-road excursion Stubber lost a wheel arch flair and broke off most of the

front spoiler. Not surprisingly the bits were nowhere to be found – obviously souvenired – despite the lure of a reward.

Stubber had to borrow off another A9X competitor for the third event.

There were several lead changes in the final race before Stubber won narrowly from Seton. Binding was third ahead of Perrott, Mogg, Collins, the ’84 Nissan Bluebird Turbo of Adam Workman, and the former Warren Cullen Commodore of Mike West.

John Bowe took out the final round of the Biante Touring Car Masters at the same meeting. It wasn’t enough for the Chev Camaro driver and touring car legend to lift the Division One title as Gavin Bullas had already won that in his Boss Mustang, but Bowe beat Steve Mason (Camaro) for second.

Greg East had already wrapped up the Division Two crown in his Kingswood.

On the weekend Bowe won two of the three races and Brad Tilley in the green Ford Falcon GT held out Bowe to take the third.

“I didn’t think of that at all. I really enjoy racing these cars against these people,” Bowe said when asked if he was disappointed to miss out on the title.

“Gavin drove fantastic all year and we had some great races and so too this weekend… and Brad drove well in that final race and there was nothing I could ML do to get past.”

EVENT REVIEWS

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY NIGEL OWEN

Smith dominated the feature F5000 races.

REVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

N

ew Zealander Ken Smith absolutely dominated the Formula 5000 competition held at the Repco Tasman Revival at Sydney’s Eastern Creek in November.

Smith qualified his Lola T430 on pole with a time of 1:31.1880min, three seconds ahead of fellow Kiwi Tony Richards.

He then went on to win all four of the Formula 5000 races over the weekend.

The Formula 5000 entries made up 18 of the 400 open-wheelers, touring cars and sports cars, which featured at the Tasman Revival on November 28-30.

Two 1968 Tasman Championship cars, the Chris Amon-driven Ferrari Dino V6 and the Pedro Rodriguez BRM P126 V12, came all the way from the United Kingdom for the event.

David Jacons brought his classic Brabham BT4 out from the United States and seven Japanese entries were also fielded.

After hearing about the 2006 event from a fellow club member who competed in a friend’s MGB at the meeting, seven enthusiastic single seat Historic racers decided to bring their cars to the meeting.

These included Hideo Yoshikawa’s Brabham BT21 and two Lotuses along with four Formula Fords.

The NSW-based Historic Sports and Racing Car Association first held the biennial event in 2006 to recognise and represent the ‘Golden Era’ of Australian motorsport history.

In its heyday, the Tasman Series attracted famous international stars such as Sir Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme, Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, Jochen Rindt, and Chris Amon. ML

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V8X 2005

EVENT REVIEWS

SPECIAL REUNION AT SANDOWN

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urray Carter was reunited with his Corvette Special to celebrate 60 years of active motor racing at the 2008 VACC Historic Sandown in November.

The 77-year-old and his Corvette Special, which has been restored by new owner Lou Russo, teamed up for demonstration drives in his role as the patron of the event.

Carter’s famous Corvette was rebuilt in 1960 after he crashed it at Phillip Island, and for two years he held most of the lap records on Australia’s east coast.

Other highlights of the meeting included special anniversary events or displays celebrating the 60th anniversary of Holden, the 50th birthday of the MG Car Club of Victoria and the 40th anniversary of the Monaro’s first race victory.

About 120 people, including many famous

names in early Holden racing including Harry Firth, Bill Jane and Jim McKeown, attended the Davies Craig Holden Legends lunch.

The special early model Holden FX (48-215) that Peter Brock drove in his final race in September 2006 was among the significant racing Holdens on display.

Forty MGs spanning the history of the marque took part in a special display, while 35 of them were seen on track in special MGonly races.

And spectators were entertained by the huge Shannons Show and Shine, the Shannons Super Rig and a 10-minute fly-over by aircraft from the RAAF Point Cook Museum.

A late surge in entries brought the total to 360, including 60 historic touring cars and 70 competitors entered the popular Regularity (average ML speed) events.

Murray Carter was the patron of the event.

It took a little longer than expected, but Weeks was eventually declared the winner.

SPORTSMANSHIP WINS OUT

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post race tribunal has declared Porsche driver Kevin Weeks the winner of the 2008 Classic Adelaide tarmac rally.

Weeks, who won the 2007 event, and his codriver Bec Crunkhorn led throughout much of the four-day event.

But Weeks followed rallying protocol and stopped to help another competitor who had run off the road on the secondlast stage of the event (Clarendon).

Rally rules provide a formula to calculate a ‘derived’ time in those circumstances, which is representative of the driver’s performance, and that derived time put him and Crunkhorn 2.8 seconds behind original winners Bill Pye and Grant Geelan.

Weeks appealed against a decision from Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) stewards to dismiss a post-

event protest he made over the derived time.

The appeal challenged how event officials calculated the derived time, which was done to an established formula using the computer-scoring system.

The tribunal changed the original derived time, which moved Weeks and Crunkhorn in first place by 7.3 seconds over Pye and Geelan.

Tribunal members ordered event organisers to declare Weeks and Crunkhorn the winners and the revised result has been posted on the event website.

All other rally results remain unchanged, with Jim Richards and Barry Oliver still placed third in their Porsche.

Richards and Oliver were elevated after third and fourth placed finishers Ian Wilson (Triumph) and Tim Possingham (Nissan) were excluded as a result of post-event technical inspections. ML MotorSportLegends

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LOBETHAL ADELAIDE

STORY & PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS SOULIDIS

Cars like this beautiful Alfa set the standard for the weekend.

GRAND NOSTALGIA Long before Adelaide revelled in watching the F1 Grand Prix tear up the city circuit in the ‘80s the quiet little town of Lobethal cranked up its very own.

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his 1938 Grand Carnival was recreated over the weekend of October 11-12 last year with no less than 35 motor bikes and 87 cars winding their way through the 14 kilometre closed road circuit of 47 bends.

The historic settlement of Lobethal is just 33 kilometres from Adelaide with a strong presence of historic churches and buildings.

This agriculturally rich valley behind the Adelaide Hills is also a strong religious community boasting the oldest original Lutheran church. In recent years the famous ‘Lights of Lobethal’ makes for a stunning Christmas lighting display. Between 1938 and 1948 the legends of motorsport considered it to be the greatest racing circuit in the country.

Those who worshipped the ritual of all things horsepower were never disappointed as religious adulation can take on different forms.

Lobethal hosted the event for 10 years 14

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“One of the original drivers, Gavin Sandford-Morgan, was back to take on the course” and multiple winner, Doug Whiteford proclaimed it the “greatest racing circuit in Australia”.

One of the original drivers, Gavin Sandford-Morgan, was back to take on the course.

He says Lobethal and Bathurst are the best circuits in Australia.

“They are genuine road circuits with all the trees, bumps, culverts and everything,” he said. This time he was driving a green Jaguar Mark II Rapide, which first started out in 1951.

He has fond memories of the 1948 Lobethal Grand Prix. “It was pretty exciting for a 20-year-old to be out with

the real racing drivers,” he said.

The cars started to arrive on Friday and the Lutheran School’s playing fields became the parking/pits area where they were laid out in rows according to the four ‘packets’, each comprising 20 cars to make the demonstration laps controllable.

Of course, the welcome addition of three packets of historic motorcycles, were to complete the exhibit.

Saturday saw the drivers briefed and reminded that it wasn’t to be a race but more about having a good time.

The first of four packets were poised to take on the three laps, which may not sound like much but 14 kilometres per lap equates to half an hour in these treasured machines.

Behind the barricades saw the crowd of spectators amassing and excitement building as they fired up and the roar of colour took on the main road and beyond with cheers and applause almost drowning out the symphony of exhaust notes.

LOBETHAL ADELAIDE

Spectators lined the streets to watch the old classics.

The air displays added to the atmosphere.

The only female driver to tackle all four sessions over the weekend was Jennifer Drewett, in her red MercedesBenz 190SL. “I’m a bit of a petrol head,” she said. “I’ve always loved driving, I started driving tractors when I was six.”

The event was an obvious success with the public lining the streets to witness a display of motoring icons of yesteryear confirming this should become an annual event, 70 years after Lobethal Carnivals Ltd recruited the services of a fledgling Sporting Car Club of SA and the Motorcycle Club of SA to stage the race.

The winner of the 1939 Australian Grand Prix, Allan Tomlinson, is still very much with us and was the patron of the event. He remains a true icon of Australian motorsport.

One of the exhibits was the 1340cc MG K3 that raced to success in the first major event at Lobethal in 1938 and was once owned by the legendary Prince Bira of Siam. It is now owned by Philip Bradey and has been in his family for 50 years.

Great racing cars like the Alvis Silver Eagle, Allard J2, Bugatti Type 57, Riley, Aston Martin 1500, Austin Healey Sprite and even a Morgan three-

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wheeler demonstrated to a partially contemporary crowd of onlookers just what grace and poise was all about of days gone by.

Bike enthusiasts weren’t spared with an array of two-wheelers to complement the weekend.

Vintage bangers with solid suspension were a joy to watch as the riders calculated every bump in order not to damage their own body work.

The motorcycle register was an impressive one with classics of a bygone era with titles like Norton, BSA, Arial, Velocette, AJS and Indian may not ring a bell with the average person in the ❯

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LOBETHAL ADELAIDE

Motorcycles, such as this classic Indian, were also on display.

street but to the enthusiasts the exhaust note is music to the ears.

A welcome inclusion to the weekend was the screening of ‘World’s Fastest Indian’ feature movie starring Anthony Hopkins on Saturday night.The carnival atmosphere was further bolstered with market stalls, food and wine tents and live music to keep the party going.

The present day F1 Grand Prix may boast the F18 Hornet flyover to add to the spectacle, which in turn sets off most car alarms and starts every dog barking within a kilometre.

But the Lobethal event wasn’t left out with the people of Adelaide Biplanes adding a nostalgic feel with regular flyovers including a Tiger Moth, Waco and Airvan vintage biplanes, which was

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“The name Lobethal translates as the ‘Valley of Praise’ and indeed we all praise this event” a true complement to the weekend.

The humble Austin 7, which made its mark in the inaugural AGP in 1928 when Captain Arthur Waite took a modified Austin 7 to victory at Phillip Island, featured in each AGP until the war.

South Australia’s own Ron Uffindell drove his 7 to seventh place in the 1936

Victor Harbor leg of the contest. Then in 1938 he drove to the Bathurst race took eight place and then drove home again!

He backed it all up with an outstanding win at Lobethal.

The 2008 meeting came to a close when Tony Parkinson, the organiser of the event, praised local business, authorities and the great number of volunteers who made it all happen.

A booming success it was, but did Tony hint of doing it all again? Well yes!

October 2-4, 2009 will mark the 70th anniversary of the Lobethal race and it’s destined to be bigger and better.

The name Lobethal translates as the ‘Valley of Praise’ and indeed we all ML praise this event.

TRADE TALK

MORE POWERFUL EWP 115 ELECTRIC WATER PUMP

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ustralian automotive cooling manufacturer, Davies Craig has released the EWP 115 Electric Water Pump.

The new EWP 115 (115 litres per minute) is designed to replace a vehicle’s existing mechanical belt-driven water pump and is the latest in Davies Craig’s range of simple, DIY electric water pumps.

Its lightweight, compact, more powerful design is suitable for small, to large plus high-performance and 4WD vehicles. It’s a vital performance product that improves engine cooling management whilst giving more power, torque and increased fuel economy.

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It’s been nearly three decades since Australia’s last Formula One World Champion. Motorsport Legends recently caught up with 1980 Champion Alan Jones to talk about his early days, his job with Team Australia in A1GP, his thoughts on current Aussie F1 driver, Mark Webber and the contemporary F1 scene in general.

A LONG TIME BET

A

ustralian sporting icon Alan Jones, MBE, the 1980 Formula One World Drivers’ Champion grew up with motor racing flowing through his veins as his father Stan Jones won the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix in a locally constructed Maybach Special before securing the 1958 Australian Driver’s Championship Gold Star and 1959 Australian Grand Prix in an ex-factory Maserati 250F. For many Australians Jones Snr was the crowd favourite and on a number of occasions he beat New South Wales hero Jack Brabham. He was offered factory Ferrari and BRM drives; however, he resisted moving to Europe like Brabham and

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chose to remain in Melbourne to look after his young son and flourishing automotive business.

During his teenage years, Jones Jnr took part in a number of local Victorian events before heading off to Europe in 1967 as a young 20-year-old with a goal of becoming world champion. After stints with Hesketh, Hill, Surtees and Shadow F1 teams Jones moved to Williams for the 1976 season and in the latter half of ’79 he scored his first of four impressive wins at the German Grand Prix. The next year he and Nelson Piquet battled for the title, winning eight races between them as Frenchmen Rene Arnoux, Jacque Lafitte, Didier Pironi and Jean Pierre Jabouille also visited the top step of the podium.

Jones clinched the title at the penultimate round in Canada

STORY BY GRANT NICHOLAS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAT, A1GP & AUTOPICS.COM.AU

ETWEEN DRINKS

after Piquet retired – handing Williams its first constructors’ and hot young Aussie drivers, namely Ryan Briscoe, Will Davison, drivers’ championship crowns.

Marcus Marshall, Will Power, Ian Dyk, Karl Reindler, John A1GP TEAM AUSTRALIA Martin and his son Christian Jones.

Jones, now a resident on the Gold Coast for 25 years, is “I select the drivers, the race team members, I’m the team boss. delighted that the Queensland Government has entered into British-based expatriate Australian Alan Docking is in charge a five-year agreement with the A1GP motor racing series to of procuring and looking after the mechanical side of the team replace the IndyCars at the 2009 Gold Coast 300 on the streets while Adam Gotch is the team manager and he works out the of Surfers Paradise. For the past four years Jones has been the daily program, pit stop practices, team meetings and that sort of seat holder of Team Australia in the A1GP Series, which features stuff,” Jones explained. country versus country racing with all drivers competing in “I’m absolutely delighted with the news that the A1GP Series identical Ferrari-powered open wheelers. is coming to the Gold Coast in October 2009. We are going Since the start of the A1GP Series in 2005 Jones has been to gain more international exposure and participation plus the ❯ Team Australia’s leader and ambassador nurturing a string of series television coverage goes to 155 countries. The whole MotorSportLegends

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Above: Stan Jones in his Maserati (far right of front row) on the grid of the 1958 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

The kid standing at the front of the Ford Zephyr in the background is a young Alan Jones. Right: Alan Jones at Monaco in his Williams during his 1980 Championship-winning year.

idea of the race is to showcase Queensland and in particular Surfers Paradise or the Gold Coast and I think that A1 is in a far better position to do that than the Indy people were as by the time that the A1 race comes down here we will have 23 or 24 nations represented on the grid.

“There will be far larger numbers of overseas fans coming to the Gold Coast to watch the A1 races. At the end of the day you could count the amount of American (fans) that flew out to Australia to watch the race each year and how many Indy races get telecast direct into Australia during the season. We have participants in our field that represent nations which Australian companies trade with like China, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and right out the Asian Basin plus they are only a seven-anda-half to an eight hour flight away – one hopes that they will come to the Gold Coast and barrack for their nation.”

The initial three seasons of A1GP saw the drivers lining up in Lola-constructed open-wheeler chassis running Zytek engines with Cooper Avon tyres. For this season Ferrari has designed, constructed and powered the latest generation cars and will continue to do so through to 2014.

“In all honesty the new cars are probably too sophisticated for a one make series. At the end of the day you are racing one another, it seems to be fairly typical of the A1 boss, as he always wants the best possible equipment. The cars are out there; they are beautifully put together, and the engines are great with a strong braking package so they are vastly more technically advanced than the old cars.

“We are improving the car as can be seen at the recent Malaysian round at Sepang where our driver John Martin finished fourth in the feature race. One area where we have been strong is our pit stops. We were a second quicker than any other team at Sepang and that is the norm at most rounds and it is due to Adam Botch’s practice drill with the crew members.”

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LAT Photographics

THE EARLY DAYS

Alan Jones’ father’s race mechanics Otto Stone and John Sawyer would often fire up the racecar that they had been preparing and take it for a quick blast out to the Inverness Hotel near the township of Bulla (site of the North – South runway at Melbourne International Airport).

“I went out there on a couple of occasions as they run the cars up and down to make sure that they were okay before they were loaded up and headed off interstate somewhere,” Jones said of his introduction to the sport.

As a teenager, Jones first raced a Mini Cooper at the Geelong Sprints and then took in some local hill climbs before venturing out to Calder Raceway in his father’s Cooper Climax powered by a 2.2-litre Coventry Climax engine; both cars prepared at Stan Jones Motors (Holden dealership) in Essendon.

“They were both quick cars. A guy called Brian Sampson (later to become 1975 Hardie Ferodo Bathurst 1000 winner with Peter Brock in a Torana L34) built the Mini into a racecar after we got it out of a repossession yard – it had the engine in the boot when we collected it. The old man told Sampson to build a competitive race car, he nearly shit himself when he found out how much Brian charged him in those days; however, it was quite a good little car,” Jones recalled.

A short time later Jones ventured across to London, the hub of the world motor racing scene, with the goal of seeking fame and glory – some people suggesting that it was easier to break into major international categories and F1 then, compared to today.

“I think that it has always been difficult to break into any of the major categories. What I have always said to people about F1 is once you are in it is just another form of motor racing,” Jones said.

COMPARING THE ’80S TO TODAY’S F1 MACHINES

Formula One cars were much simpler in Jones’ heyday; there

ALAN JONES

s

was certainly no thought of onboard computers and electronic driver aides.

“Obviously things like technology and computers and such have vastly changed the F1, but the cars still have wishbones, wheels, tyres and that entire sort of stuff – the major change has been electronics,” Jones said.

“We didn’t start the racecar’s engine then and leave it while it warmed itself up like today’s ones do; the only electrical piece we had fitted to the engine apart from the ignition system was the starter motor; none of the immense amount of electronic stuff that is on the cars now. We had no digital instrument readouts on the dash or steering wheel, only a few gauges and sometimes you couldn’t even read them.”

Over the past two decades the size of the Formula One teams have vastly grown in size. Recently Lewis Hamilton provided McLaren Racing with its first Formula One World Drivers Championship in nine years with around 550 staff keeping the team at the leading edge.

“I think that there was around 80 people working at Williams F1 back in the late ’70s, that’s far less than they have in their current test team, which I believe is around the 140 to 150 mark,” Jones said.

During Jones’ championship-winning season in 1980 he contested 14 World F1 Grand Prix races winning five to take the prestigious title before heading back home for the Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park Raceway in his F1 championshipwinning Williams FW07. After a spirited dice before a bumper crowd in sweltering conditions with Italian F1 youngster Bruno Giacomelli, Jones managed to take the chequered flag a lap clear of the Giacomelli’s factory Alfa Romeo 179 with F1 French driver Didier Pironi grabbing third in an Elfin MR9 Formula 5000.

“The year I won the title I had Argentinean Carlos Ruetemann

as my teammate and there was approximately 20 to 25 team people that flew to the various races and that included team boss Frank Williams, car designer Patrick Head, the mechanics and etcetera – Williams would have more than that number looking after their hospitality at the F1 race meetings these days,” Jones said.

When discussion centres on the technology advancements that F1 has experienced in recent years plus calls for cost restraint, Max Mosley, FIA President, has stated that F1 teams need to have their budgets capped and use standard engines and gearboxes in Formula One from 2010. Both he and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone believe that removing the enormous sums spent on engines could solve F1’s cost crisis, and both argue that the fans aren’t interested in the car’s technical specifications as long as the racing is good.

“At times I wonder where F1 is going, there is talk about using the same engines, that will never happen as that is not what F1 is all about,” Jones mused.

“It is about stretching the elastic the furthest before it breaks and that’s what I like about it. You don’t want another category running around with a common engine like we have at A1GP where it is country against country. I believe that F1 should always be car manufacturers running against each other, as the technology then flows on to the cars we drive on the road is immense.”

THE NEXT GENERATION

Jones’ 29-year-old son Christian commenced racing karts as a young teenager and went on to win two Australian karting titles in the mid ’90s before graduating to Formula Fords, Nations Cup and Formula Three in Australia. In 2004 he won the Asian Formula Three Championship and since then has established his own Christian Jones Motorsport operation in Asia.

“Christian is based on the Gold Coast and in Hong Kong ❯

Above left: Jones in his Falcon at Bathurst in 1994. Above right: Jones had a brief and unsuccessful comeback to F1 with Beatrice in 1986. Below left: Jones shared a Porsche with Vern Schuppan in the final round of the World Sportscar Championship at Sandown in 1984. Below right: Jones campaigned a BMW M3 in the Australian Touring Car Championship in the 1990s.

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ALAN JONES

LAT Photographics Above: Jones driving the Williams FW07 in Great Britain during the 1980 Formula One World Championship. Top right: Jones is enjoying his current role as Seat Holder of Team Australia in the A1GP Series. Right: Jones at Calder Park in 1980.

depending on how many races there are close together in the nearby Asian region, if there is a break he flies back home.

“He has been contesting the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Series successfully and he has been on the podium at just about every race. At the last race of the 2007 series he had the throttle stick full on at Macau when he had a chance of winning the championship. This year he went into the final round at Bahrain leading the series and he suffered mechanical problems there and missed winning the series once again. We were just laughing about it the other day, in future he needs to be leading the championship by a considerable margin before going into the last race or at least challenging for the title and then hopefully he can move through to gain the series stardom,” Jones said.

“Recently he had a test in a Speedcar Series car (Middle East-based form of NASCAR featuring the likes of former F1 racers Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert, Ukyo Katayama and others) at Dubai and he was very competitive there with his speed and feedback. He was 0.2 of a second quicker than recognised US racer Paul Tracy and was fourth or fifth quickest overall and that was quite impressive considering the small amount of time he has been in that type of car. I expect that Christian will continue in the Carrera Cup Series and gain a run in the Speedcar Series that runs throughout the Middle East and Asia.”

date he has managed to score two podium F1 finishes and is still striving to gain a pole position and an elusive race win.

When Jones is asked if he believes that Webber may have missed his chance of emulating him by becoming the next Australian-born Formula One World Drivers Champion he responds by saying that he doesn’t really know.

“I don’t believe that I can say that realistically, because if you say yes, he then goes and gets a drive at McLaren or Ferrari or some other team who all of a sudden becomes ultra competitive and he could be in there with a real chance,” Jones said.

Over recent times Webber has been criticised for his poor selection of teams. In late 2004 he departed the uncompetitive Jaguar Racing operation before heading to Williams after rejecting a factory Renault drive. A further two seasons at Williams then Red Bull Racing and he is still endeavouring to gain his first F1 win.

“Over the years his cars have suffered a lot of reliability problems and he has been in uncompetitive cars, so in that respect – yes there have been some poor decisions. I believe he has the pace to be a front-runner; he has proved that time and time again during qualifying and when he has a reasonably good car under him he has been a reasonably quick frontrunner. If he did get a F1 win it would be huge.”

JONES ON MARK WEBBER Questions have been raised about whether the broken right Australian driver Mark Webber grabbed the media headlines leg as a result of a nasty head-on cycling accident with a fourwhen he made his F1 debut at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix wheel-drive during the 2008 Mark Webber Pure Tasmania at Albert Park, finishing fifth in a Team Minardi PS02 owned Charity Challenge will affect Webber’s future performances

by London-based businessman Paul Stoddart (who was born in in an F1 car. Jones promptly replies, “No, God almighty if he the Melbourne suburb of Coburg). Over the past seven years was a motorbike racer it would be par for the course. He is Webber has carried the dreams and hopes of Australian sporting super fit and there is quite an amount of time before the first fans as he progressively moved from Minardi to Jaguar Racing race next season in Melbourne during March. Look at Michael then Jones’ former championship-winning team Williams Schumacher, he broke a leg and then went on to win another ML before venturing to Red Bull Racing for the past two seasons. To five championship titles.”

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STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS & AUTOPICS.COM.AU

CALLING TIM MOTORSPORT LEGENDS: When did you decide it was time to hang up your helmet?

MARK SKAIFE: I’d been considering it for a while and I had done a lot of work with a colleague of mine on what life after racing might look like and that contemplated an end of ’08 or end of ’09 sort of retirement. Both those options were explored and after 24

MotorSportLegends

probably Bathurst and Indy, and the way that I thought about how I was going and what I thought like in terms of in the car and my appraisal of how I was going and what my enjoyment levels were pretty much made up my mind after Indy that I wouldn’t do fulltime stuff anymore.

MS: Oh, look, unbelievably hard.

MSL: And how hard was that decision?

MS: Well it hasn’t really changed in

Probably one of the biggest decisions of my life and one that took a long time and a lot of thought to get to that process so to deliver the news was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.

MSL: Since you decided to retire how

has your outlook on life changed?

Skaife leads eventual winner Perkins at Bathurst in 1993.

ME

Motorsport Legends caught up with Mark Skaife in December, on the eve of his last race as a fulltime driver in the V8 Supercar Championship Series. The five-time Bathurst and Touring Car Champion gave an interesting insight into his reasons for retiring from Holden Racing Team and his future plans in motorsport.

terms of my outlook. It’s more of what is out there, what other things do I want to do and what things are going to interest me. I think of how hectic my life’s been, especially the last five years or so, and some of the things I haven’t been able to do because of workload and because of just the time pressure built into all of the things we’ve been doing. I need to have a deep breath and explore that and

make sure that I can achieve some of the things that I want to do and in some ways I also don’t want to fill my card up too much at the moment. I sort of want to pick the eyes out of some of the stuff I’ve been offered and then take a little bit of time to look at what the next phase is.

But we’re going to roll some good things out at the start of next year.

MSL: How does it feel to be one of

motorsport’s contemporary legends?

MS: Oh, I mean I’m flattered and

humbled by what has been a great journey for me. I mean it’s one of those things when you start your career you don’t really think of it like that too much and you don’t know where those things will lead and you don’t know what success you may end up achieving. So I’m very, very happy and proud that ❯ MotorSportLegends

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Skaife in the HR31 in 1988.

“I just went down and did a reccie of all the old cars down there and I love all that stuff” I’ve been with two of the best teams over that period of time and very loyal in that time. I’m conscious of some of the great people and the effort that they have put in to help me through that. I’m very fortunate to have a very strong group of friends that are special to me in that phase and it’s a time that I will never forget.

MSL: You have a plethora of Bathurst

and Championship records under your belt, but what has been one of your biggest achievements in motorsport?

MS: I suppose for me to say winning the Australian Drivers’ Championship and the Touring Car Championship on one day here (Oran Park) was very special.

Or winning Bathurst and winning the 26

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Championship in one day is also… the ability to do those things, the ability to actually get those milestones, they’re not easy. You don’t really think about it that much when it’s happening but afterwards you think ‘phew, that was pretty special’.

MSL: We’ve touched on it, but what

are your plans for your future? Is there anything you want to concentrate on outside of motorsport?

MS: Yeah, there’s a few things and I’m probably going to do a book and I know I’m going to go on the Australian Motorsport Foundation Board and do some other industry consulting work which is wide ranging but I’m also going to do some more road safety work over

and above where we’re at, which needs to be well done for me to feel like I’m sort of putting some things back into the community. I’ve spoken to the government about that, I’ve certainly spoken to Holden about that and there’s a lot of work to be done for us to hopefully achieve a gain there in terms of road safety.

MSL: Is that Victorian Government or

Federal Government?

MS: Both.

MSL: And would you be more of an

ambassador or at the coalface?

MS: It’s quite detailed but it’s a matter of

using some of my branding to help in a couple of different areas that we have

MARK SKAIFE RETIRES

Skaife retired from driving duties at the end of last season.

Skaife proudly displays the #1 champion’s prize as he leads the pack.

Skaife had many good years with Gibson Motor Sport before joining Holden Racing Team, sadly 1996 wasn’t one of them.

focused on but as I said, I’ll roll that out in the next six months.

MSL: Can Motorsport Legends readers expect to see you in any of the Classic categories in the near future?

MS: Yeah, maybe, I mean Jimmy Richards is desperate for me… he keeps saying ‘come and have a drive, come and have a drive’. I just went down and did a reccie of all the old cars down there and I love all that stuff. But I will only do that if I want to go and have a little bit of fun.

I won’t be doing it all the time and I also won’t be committing to anything until I really get my brain around how much I miss it. That’s basically where it’s at.

MSL: So it might be a while yet?

MS: Yep.

Skaife in the all-conquering GTR during in 1991.

MSL: And you personally have been involved for about a quarter of a decade now, so from a driver’s perspective how has Australia’s motorsport changed and evolved?

MS: Oh, just massively. If you walk down and you look at those cars and you see what they’re like, they are comparatively crude. The GT-R for instance is the first car that we had with proper data acquisition and you look at that and you say ‘wow, hasn’t that come a long way’. There’s so much in every area of car development plus the evolution of the Series in the way that the races are now run and what the landscape looks like, it’s just dramatically different. Once upon a time you would never have considered a Clipsal, for

example, as being a race of ours. Some races have still got the tradition like Bathurst, other races have come on and arguably have really become signature events that we would have never forecast possible so it’s certainly changed a lot.

MSL: Going back to your retirement, what pressure did you feel under to retire?

MS: Oh look, I was obviously feeling some, not necessarily pressure, but some of the speculation and things through the year that were being touted… I wasn’t angry about it, I was frustrated because it was one of those things where it was clearly a personal decision for me and I didn’t like some of the ❯ misinformation and some of the MotorSportLegends

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MARK SKAIFE RETIRES

Skaife took his last Bathurst victory with Todd Kelly in 2005.

Skaife was well respected by other drivers. Here he jokes with Tony Longhurst, Russell Ingall and Jason Bargwanna.

Skaife still wants to stay involved in motorsport.

industry stuff that was happening that really in the end, I can promise you, had no bearing on me retiring. I’ve been pretty thick-skinned enough through my career that if it was just that that was part of me retiring then it wouldn’t have had an effect, so that was not the reason why I retired.

got to. I think I made the comment before that it hasn’t really been the real Mark Skaife in the car which is not a situation that I’m happy with.

I don’t want to not be absolutely at the pinnacle of this sport. If I can’t be then… certainly if you’re in the factory team for Holden you shouldn’t be there.

sort of more leaving the door open and probably by March or April I will have a good feel for where I’m at. I’ve certainly had plenty of offers; I just want to get my brain around what I feel like I should do.

MSL: Will we still see you around tracks in your managerial role at HRT or in MSL: And why is now the right time? some other role?

Some say you could have gone on for a MSL: And what’s the likelihood of you MS: You will still see me at race tracks few more years and Jim Richards won a racing in the enduros, particularly with and there will be some things I will be involved with in the industry and some Championship when he was in his 40s. Glenn Seton?

MS: Yeah, it’s a little bit of horses MS: Oh that’s a lovely thing to think of that will be via Holden and some for courses and how much I’ve been about driving together but it’s one of of it will be functions and things that enjoying it. I’ve been saying all the those ones where as I said, I don’t know I’ll do for HRT. There’s absolutely no time that if I’m not performing as good yet how much I’m going to miss it and doubt at the race meetings I’ll be here as I should be or I didn’t feel like I was I really don’t know where I’m going to but until I make my decisions as to enjoying it as much then I wouldn’t do it so it’s no for me as yet. But I’m what I want to do I can’t tell you what ML do it and that’s basically where I have not saying ‘definitely not’ so I’m just that will be.

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STORY BY BARRY OLIVER PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTOPIC.COM.AU & ROBBIE KNOTT

Stan Jones in his 250F.

MEMORIES

OF LONGFORD Tasmania’s Longford, near Launceston, has a rich Australian motor racing history. Barry Oliver remembers his favourite races at his home circuit.

T

he narrow strip of bitumen that sliced its way through farmland at Longford in northern Tasmania was the home to one of the fastest race circuits in the world. It was raced on by some of the all-time greats in cars and on motorcycles.

From 1953 to 1968 there were 14 race meetings conducted on the 7.2-

kilometre circuit and at the last meeting New Zealander Chris Amon, in his V12 Ferrari P4 sports car, recorded the fastest lap of 2:12.6 at an average speed of 196 kph.

Amon recorded a top speed of 291kph on what was called the ‘flying mile’ which was remarkable given that the road was only six-and-a-half metres wide with a line of unprotected trees down the right-hand side and a barbed wire

fence on the other side.

From the start there was a short straight to a very fast right sweeper at the water tower and then the track immediately swept steep downhill where Greg Cusack miraculously survived a huge crash in the Scuderia Veloce Brabham in 1968 during a short familiarisation session prior to the wet main race.

The Canberra driver, who many believed could have made the grade to ❯ MotorSportLegends

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MEMORIES OF LONGFORD

Formula One, immediately announced his retirement.

The cars then plunged into the narrow left and right turns under the railway viaduct where Launceston hairdresser Alan Hale finished upside down and suspended in a willow tree in his Standard 10 in 1958 and it was at this location that local rider Dennis Wing died in 1965 when he inexplicably went off the road on the exit of the viaduct.

From there it was a fast run to the Kings Bridge, which saboteurs set fire to early on the Monday morning in 1968 causing a delay in proceedings.

From the bridge there was a fast section over a hump to the 90-degree right hander at the Longford Pub. It was on this section of track in 1964 that promising American driver Timmy Mayer was killed when his Cooper Climax landed awkwardly after the hump before slamming sideways into a tree and was torn in half.

Incredibly, up until 1960 it was possible to spectate on the inside of the pub corner with the only protection being a single line of hay bales and a temporary cyclone wire fence with the cars literally only a metre away.

As the cars accelerated away from the 30

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pub they approached a raised railway line that caused the quicker cars to become airborne and it was at this point that Doug Whiteford’s quest for Grand Prix glory in 1959 came to an end.

While in third place on the opening lap the 300S Maserati sports car landed heavily tearing out the tailshaft and spraying debris at following drivers with a piece hitting Alec Mildren on the crown of his helmet.

It was also at this point that Allan Moffat was forced to stop on his out lap in Friday practice in 1965 when he found an official standing on the road with a red flag. The reason. To allow the Tasman Limited train to pass through.

Moffat was clearly not impressed, which probably explains why moments after he came off Long Bridge far too fast and crashed the ex-team Lotus Cortina into the bank at Newry corner.

After the railway line was Tannery Straight, which led into a 90-degree right hander and then to a short straight and a very fast right hander onto the six metre wide Long Bridge.

It was on this bridge that local driver Kerry Cox managed to spin his homebuilt Paramount Ford 1966 without major damage and still finished third.

Not surprisingly frogmen were positioned in the river at both bridge locations to rescue a driver or rider who got it wrong.

There was a very fast left hander off the bridge up to the very tight right at Newry corner named after the local property and this was the scene of a multiple pile up one year on the first lap of Friday practice, which involved Australian Grand Prix and two time Bathurst winner John Goss.

From there it was flat out up hill on to the flying mile where incredible speeds were attained despite cross winds which on occasions forced cars and bikes to move sideways more than a metre.

It was on the straight that Frank Matich had a front suspension failure in his Brabham Climax at 270kph in 1965 and Bill Burns rolled his 3.4 Jaguar several times on the approach to the very acute Mountford Corner.

This was one of the best locations on the track for passing, but at the same time many drivers and riders over the years finished up going down the escape road towards the suburb of Perth.

As you left Mountford Corner on to pit straight the road widened to form the grid, but immediately after the start line

Stan Jones and Len Lukey coming onto Tannery Straight.

Tim Mayer was killed at Longford in 1964 when his Cooper Climax was ripped in half after hitting a tree.

Allan Moffat crashed his Lotus Cortina (pictured here at Calder Park) at Longford in 1965.

Jim Clark was a regular in the Tasman Series.

The start of the Longford Tasman round in 1964.

“What followed was a superb David versus Goliath battle with Jones and Lukey swapping the lead several times”

the road narrowed and it was at this point at the end of lap one of the Australian Grand Prix in 1965 that Rocky Tresise got two wheels on the gravel verge before crashing through a fence and rolling.

Sadly the Cooper Climax also hit photographer Robin D’Abrera and both were killed to make it one of the most tragic race meetings in history.

I attended all but the first meeting in 1953 and have vivid memories of some great racing over the years involving both Australian and overseas drivers.

In 1958 Longford had been included for the first time as a round of the prestigious Gold Star championship, but the circuit really came of age in 1959 with the right to conduct the Australian Grand Prix.

1959 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

After the two six lap heats on the Saturday of the traditional long weekend meeting it was Stan Jones who lined up on pole position in his 250F Maserati by virtue of winning his heat and recording the fastest heat time.

Alongside was Len Lukey in the 2.0 litre Cooper Climax with three time GP winner Doug Whiteford next in his 300S Maserati alongside Arnold Glass in his 250F Maserati while on the third row it was it was Alec Mildren in the 2.0 litre Cooper Climax and Ron Phillips in the Cooper Jaguar.

Based on performances in the heats it looked to be Jones’ benefit but that certainly proved to be not the case.

Jones made a brilliant start to lead

Lukey, Whiteford, Glass and Mildren down to the Longford township for the first time, but moments later Whiteford was out and Mildren was driving in a dazed condition after being struck by debris from the Whiteford Maserati when it dropped the tailshaft after landing heavily from the railway line.

What followed was a superb David versus Goliath battle with Jones and Lukey swapping the lead several times and touching wheels on occasions.

As Glass became more familiar with the big Maserati, which he drove for the first time on the Saturday, he started to close the gap and the race for the lead became a three-way battle.

On the 17th lap Glass, who had more ❯ top speed than the other two, made MotorSportLegends

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Jim Clark in his Lotus during the Trans-Tasman Series round at Longford in 1966.

Graham Hill was a regular in the Tasman Series.

Chris Amon (pictured here at Sandown) recorded the fastest lap at Longford in his Ferrari P4.

Piers Courage won the final Tasman Series race at Longford in 1968.

his move under brakes into Mountford Corner, but it was obvious to spectators it wasn’t going to work.

Jones obviously saw Glass coming and realizing he was going to overshoot the corner, delayed his turn momentarily to allow Glass to go down the escape road.

On the next lap Jones regained the lead and started to pull away with Lukey unable to answer the challenge despite a superb drive.

The gap at the finish was just over two seconds with Glass a distant third having realised that he didn’t have the speed in the remaining laps to challenge for the lead.

For Jones, who celebrated his 36th birthday the following day, it was indeed a sweet victory at his seventh attempt.

1968 TRANS-TASMAN SERIES ROUND

The eight-round Trans-Tasman series was introduced in 1964 consisting of four meetings in New Zealand and four in Australia with Longford staging the final 32

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Englishman Graham Hill (middle) went on to win the Tasman round at Longford in 1964.

round each year.

For Tasmanian fans it was a wonderful opportunity to witness some very special cars, many of which were specifically built for the unique series, and some of the world’s best drivers such as Jack Brabham, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Denny Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Jackie Stewart, Chris Amon, Richard Attwood, Chris Irwin, Pedro Rodriguez, Piers Courage and Frank Gardner.

Going into the final round in 1968, Jim Clark in the Ford DFV powered Lotus 49 led Chris Amon in the 2.4-litre Dino Ferrari by just six points (42 to 36) so to win the title Amon had to win Monday’s 28 lap race and hope Clark finished outside the top four.

1964 race winner Graham Hill was in the second Lotus 49 with the V12 BRMs in the hands of Richard Attwood and Pedro Rodriguez, Greg Cusack and John Harvey both in the Brabham Repco V8s, Frank Gardner in the Brabham Alfa Romeo V8, Leo Geoghegan in his Lotus

39 Repco V8 with Kevin Bartlett and John McCormack both in four cylinder Climax powered Brabhams.

World champion Denny Hulme had to make do with his little FVA powered Brabham Ford while Piers Courage, who had put in a giant killing performance to be third in the series, was in his similar powered McLaren.

On what was the fastest circuit in the series both were expected to struggle.

Overcast conditions prevailed on Monday morning followed by heavy rain, which caused major flooding on Tannery Straight and shortly after 2:00pm it was announced the race start would be delayed.

Initially the drivers felt the conditions were far to dangerous to race but to try and gauge how bad the conditions were, shortly before 3:00pm drivers were given the opportunity to do two laps.

It was during this session that Cusack crashed and was lucky to survive.

The drivers met again and decided

MEMORIES OF LONGFORD

“Coming into Mountford Corner... Rodriguez went for a big move down the inside with wheels locked, forcing Gardner to take avoiding action” they would race but from memory Geoghegan and Bartlett elected not to start what had now been reduced to a 15-lap race.

Clark led from the start with everyone else virtually driving blind in the spray and then Amon went down the escape road at Newry to effectively hand Clark his third consecutive Tasman Cup. While everyone was struggling in the appalling conditions Courage, with some special hand cut wet weather Dunlops, ,was relishing the wet in the M4A McLaren.

This was one time when power was a disadvantage as the more powerful 2.5 litre cars were battling wheel spin especially out of the slower corners.

In the space of four laps Courage passed Hill, Gardner, Rodriguez and then race leader Clark.

As Courage disappeared into the murk Gardner passed Clark who was then passed by Rodriguez and it seemed that would be the final podium positions.

Rodriguez was closing on Gardner who had driven a superb race and it seemed the only way for the Mexican to gain second spot would be to completely throw caution to the wind and that’s exactly what he did.

Coming into Mountford Corner for the last time Rodriguez went for a big move down the inside with wheels locked, forcing Gardner to take avoiding action.

Rodriguez scampered through to take second almost a minute behind Piers Courage with an unhappy Gardner third followed by Attwood and Clark who wrapped up the Tasman Cup series on what was his 32nd birthday.

Sadly Clark was to die just one month later at Hockenhiem and Courage perished at Zandvoort two years later.

As I left the circuit I couldn’t help feeling that this was going to be the last time this awesome track would play host to racing and so it was no great surprise when the Longford Motor Racing

Association announced in November that the end had come.

There were many factors in the decision almost all of which revolved around cost.

Over the years the meetings had run on a very limited budget and it was becoming increasingly difficult to cover the cost of bringing the best in the world to Tasmania.

Safety had become a major issue and the circuit urgently needed significant improvements to meet the new standards that were required.

The association needed to secure sponsors to try to offset costs but when the Tasmanian Government had permanent roadside advertising banned the association had nothing to offer a potential sponsor in return.

And just to add to the problem South Africa was allocated the same traditional March long weekend date for their Grand Prix in 1969 which obviously meant that no contracted GP drivers ML would available.

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STORY BY BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL REID

THIRTEENTH AGP

UNLUCKY FOR SOME, BUT N

G

rand Prix racing has traditionally been the domain of openwheelers, so it may come as a surprise to know a sports car once won took the honours in the Australian Grand Prix.

Sixty years ago when motorsport was just regaining some momentum after World War II, the event was staged at the Point Cook RAAF base near Melbourne, and the surprise winner was a pre-war BMW 328 driven by an equally surprised motorcycle dealer and racer from Geelong, Mr. L.F. Pratt.

BMW 328s were no newcomers to success. Another motorcyclist, seven times world motorcycle speed record holder, Ernst Henne, made his four-

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wheel debut at the Nurburgring in 1936 and won the two-litre class against pure racing cars. By 1939 the starting grid at the Nurburgring saw BMW 328s occupying the first four rows of the grid.

Sterling performances indeed, but the 328s greatest achievements were in endurance sports car races at Le Mans, Spa, and outright victory in the 1940 Brescia Mille Miglia.

After WWII there was a shortage of both cars and facilities in Australia, and the Light Car Club of Australia, generally regarded as the leading motor sports club of the day, was given the task of organising an Australian Grand Prix in Victoria. The LCCA allocated the 1948 AGP to a course mapped out on the Point Cook airfield.

It was to be the 13th Australian Grand Prix, and turned out to be unlucky for the organisers. The over 40-degree temperature was accompanied by a blustering north wind, and only 17,000 spectators braved the conditions.

The day was described by veteran Australian motor racer Graham Hoinville as “a stinker. It was a shocker of a day with a hot wind blowing and not a tree in sight,” he said. “There were many retirements from the race due to over-heating, and several drivers had to be assisted from their cars suffering from heat exhaustion.”

In fact, only 10 of the 26 starters made it to the finish line, and Pratt earned 800 pounds for his one hour, 30 minutes and 22 seconds of sheer

Brian ‘Brique’ Reed gets to drive the BMW 328 at last year’s Australian Grand Prix.

T NOT BMW driving hell.

Although not experienced as a car racer – he was described by Hoinville as “a motorcycle type” – Pratt drove a heady race in a car that wasn’t overdeveloped. Another Australian motor racing icon, Harry Firth helped get Pratt’s car ready and suggested how Pratt should drive it. “I knew how to prepare for heat after two years of war service in the Western Desert,” said the man who went on to mastermind so many other winning cars and be the mentor for Peter Brock and others.

A spectator on the day was a dashing young chap around Melbourne, Bill Fleming. At a time when his contemporaries were driving Chevs. and A-model Fords, Fleming was out to impress his new girlfriend in his

Reliving the 1948 Australian Grand Prix 60 years later.

1926 Brescia Bugatti, but things didn’t quite go according to plan. “Apart from no shade, the organisers had burned all the grass around the perimeter of the airfield,” Fleming recalled. “There was ash everywhere – everything was black including my girlfriend when I returned her home.” When asked what sort of a reception he received, Bill well remembers the reaction. “The parents said: ‘What a strange fellow’.”

However, the episode had a happy ending – Dawn Ponting later became Bill’s wife.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1948 Australian Grand Prix, a number of the original cars including the Penrite Oils BMW 328 (a similar car to Pratt’s) were invited to participate as part of the 2008 air pageant at Point

Cook. The BMW 328 was also driven in the Historic Demonstrations at the 2008 Australian Formula One Grand Prix meeting at Albert Park with an intercom hook-up to the on-course big screen television coverage.

They say ‘history repeats itself ’, sixty years on from that memorable day in 1948 the Australian Grand Prix was held in similar hot conditions at a circuit not far from Point Cook. And it was almost another memorable day for BMW when Robert Kubica came close to winning his maiden Grand Prix for BMW Sauber.

The big difference today is Albert Park, a far cry from the one-off, temporary arrangement at Point Cook 60 years ago – and the technology has ML also advanced a tad!

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STORY BY DARREN HOUSE .AU & DARREN HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTOPICS.COM

ced the origins of how a VW tra s nd ge Le t or rsp to Mo ue iss Last McLaren Formula 5000 to d te ma me ca be k ac stb Fa Type 3 s great tale, we look at how running gear, in part two of thi ere this little beast ended up.

Thommo faired in 1975 and wh

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V8 VW Thomson never had a huge budget to run the y. beast, in fact he used to run it on start mone

THOMMO’S TORNADO PART 2 ❯ MotorSportLegends

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F

unding had always been an issue for Bryan Thomson Racing.

However the crowdpleasing Volkswagen could be run on ‘start money’, which was fortunate as initially that was the team’s only funding. Later, Bryan secured some limited funding from Kleber tyres.

“Racing was always a struggle,” said Thomson. “Peter’s (Fowler) immediate counterpart in motorsport was Pat Purcell. When Bob (Jane) decided to do a project money wasn’t an issue. Peter was equally as talented but didn’t have the resources. If you could get a part second-hand, it was second-hand.

“We were running out of our league, really. But that’s what’s so addictive about Sports Sedans – you can build a better mousetrap. That’s the only way we achieved the level of success that we did.

We were always innovative.”

Thomson said the Chevy engine put

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out around 480hp, the upper limit that the powerplant could reliably produce.

“If you ported the heads for 500hp they would only last a race. We tried to weld them up but as soon as they got hot they leaked again.”

Added Fowler: “Norm Beechey used to go through small block Chevs like they were bits of butter.

“He would just destroy them. We could never get enough horsepower to where that would happen as we were limited to five-litres, whereas Norm and Bob had 350s.

“We needed more power and as we used to do, Bryan and I broke different ground. We weren’t conventional with any of the cars we built.

“We were country kids and always wanted something different.

“So for 1975 we developed the aluminium quad-valve head.”

Against his better judgement, Thomson ran the quad-valve engine during the final round of the 1975 Marlboro Series

but admits it was a mistake.

“We should never have run those heads in the car under-developed,” he said. “But in ’75 I bought a big property in Shepparton and decided this was my last year and in deference to all the enthusiasts who had put so much of their own time and effort into building these heads we elected to run it. “(But) the engine was good on the dyno, it was making the numbers and it had been reliable so we went to the final round and put the car on pole for the two 20-lap races.

“The second race carried twice as many points as the first race and I won the first race in front of Jane-O, and was winning the series at the final 20-lapper. We led 18 of the 20 laps and then the engine went off-song and started billowing smoke. A rocker had cut a valve spring retainer in half and it had dropped a valve.

“Jane-O passed us on the way into the last corner and finished three or

BRYAN THOMSON PART 2

Top far left: Thomson picked up some small sponsorship from Kleber.

Bottom far left: The V8 VW Beast missing a front guard after some close racing at Oran Park in 1975.

Left: Thomson racing at Calder Park in his final season in the V8 VW Type 3 Fastback Sports Sedan.

Below: Thommo in battle with Ron Harrop’s EH Holden at Sandown in 1974.

four car lengths in front. It was heartbreaking.”

Fowler recalled that a huge crowd gathered around the car to say farewell.

“There were women with their arms around Bryan in tears and saying ‘Don’t go. We love you’. Thommo couldn’t handle it and locked himself in the caravan. They just wanted him to keep racing.”

But it wasn’t to be and Thomson sold the car (with an iron-head Chev) to Vince Gregory.

“He was an enthusiastic young driver at the time and he bought the car and ran it for maybe the next two years but he didn’t have the resources to run it, either,” said Thomson.

“The car was sold to a New Zealander who had a collection of Begg F5000s.

Beggs were built out of McLaren componetry so he took out all of the McLaren suspension, uprights, steering and instruments to restore a Begg. The Volkswagen was left as an empty shell.

“He rang Peter and said he was going to dump the shell at the tip, so we brought it home and we stored it in the barn from ’79 until ’99.

“Then when we moved to Melbourne in late-’99. I asked Peter what he wanted to do with it and he said we couldn’t rebuild the car as it had been.

Added Fowler: “We don’t want a ‘replica’ VW made out of whatever is now available and have enthusiasts look at it for years in the future thinking it was really the Thomson-Fowler creation.”

Time had run out for the VW, and this time it couldn’t avoid becoming landfill.

“Even then it would have been salvageable except once a year we burned the tip,” explained Thomson. “The car was pushed into the middle of the tip with a front-end loader and the whole tip was burnt and the thing just melted.”

Fate was kinder to the donor McLaren; the car was rebuilt by Paul Trevethan and is now in the hands of Lyndon Reithmuller

The second (unprepared) VW shell is owned by a museum operator in Marysville, Victoria who has the doors, bonnet and guards on display.

Though the car is indelibly etched on the minds of those who saw it race, Thomson is somewhat bemused by it all considering the VW would barely show up as a blip on the Thomson racing timeline.

“We only raced it for two years. It wasn’t a long time,” he said. “I have been in motor racing 50 years. In fact, motor racing has just had its 100th anniversary and I have been there half the time,” he said with that characteristic ML Thommo smile.

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STORY BY BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL REID

MEMORY Martin Brundle scores fastest lap.

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LANE T

Goodwood comes alive to the sounds of yesteryear here were lots of landmarks at the 2008 Goodwood Revival meeting, and a record crowd of 124,000 was on hand to celebrate.

Three days of perfect weather helped as motorsport fans from all parts of the world gathered for the 10th annual Revival and to acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the first race meeting at the famous West Sussex circuit.

Being a key air force base during World War II it was appropriate that 90 years of the RAF was also celebrated, and some spectacular flying displays of WWII combat planes complemented the action at ground level. Added to this was the Freddie March Spirit of Aviation concours, and a new attraction this year – the Earls Court Motor Show that attracted hordes of spectators during the three-day carnival.

There’s something for everyone at the

Goodwood Revival and most people dress up in the fashions of yesteryear – even Dad’s Army was on hand, and as they marched past the Sergeant Major turned to a US visitor in GI uniform and said “Hullo American, late again!”

It’s all good fun with so much to enjoy apart from the trackside action.

This year’s special guest was British ace Tony Brookes, and there were daily parades to honour “the racing dentist” ❯ who, in 1955, became the British MotorSportLegends

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The boys line up.

Trafic jam at the chicane.

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driver to win a GP in a British car since 1923. Sir Stirling Moss paid special tribute to his contemporary by saying if he had to choose a co-driver, Brookes would be at the top of his list because of his smooth and consistently fast driving skills. The two teamed together to win the ďŹ rst Goodwood TT race in an Aston Martin DBR 1 in 1957. The evergreen Moss won at Goodwood in 1948 in a Cooper, and 60 years later drove a Cooper Mk 5, a Ferrari 250 GT SWB and the Aston Martin DBR 1.

Another driver who competed at the meeting in 1948 and who returned this year as a spectator was Tony Crook.

But it was Tony Brookes who stole the limelight, and wearing his old brown crash helmet, Brookes drove demonstration laps in a front engine Ferrari and a distinctive green Vanwall

GOODWOOD REVIVAL

Three-wheel Morgan.

Jochen Mass before the mess – 1956 Lancia Ferrari D50A replica.

“It was special having Win Percy at Goodwood as the Driving Standards Advisor” – the marque that carried him to several of his GP victories in the 1950s.

How good it was to welcome a frail but cheery Sir Jack Brabham on the Saturday and to see him alongside his old adversary, Stirling Moss. Other racing legends included Sir Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittapaldi, Jack Ickx, Brian Redman, Martin Brundle, Vern Schuppan, David Piper and Jochen Mass. A former F1 driver and world sports car champion, Mass had a lucky escape from serious injury when he flipped over Sir Anthony Bamford’s 1956-type Lancia Ferrari D50A at the chicane and was trapped underneath for several minutes. In a display of true sportsmanship, veteran open wheeler driver Barrie Baxter stopped his own car and ran to aid the stricken driver who fortunately suffered only minor

cuts and bruises in the accident. Baxter was a deserved winner of the Spirit of Goodwood award for his act of valour.

Then came the Saint Mary’s Trophy, two 25 minute races for production saloon cars of a type that raced between 1950 and 1959 and add in names like Jackie Oliver, David Hobbs, Sir John Whitmore, John Fitzpatrick, Emanuele Pirro, Marc Surer, Stefan Johansson, Rauno Aaltonen, Arturo Mezario, Tony Dron, Bobby Rahal, Henri Pescarolo, Jean-Marc Gounon, Andy Rouse, Patrick Tambay, John Cleland, and the very quick lady driver, Desiree Wilson and you have a real “who’s who” of motor sport. And let’s not overlook the celebrity drivers such as Rowan Atkinson, Nick Mason and others who bring a special dimension to the Goodwood Revival.

Although we didn’t see him because he was tucked away in a building for most of the time glued to a television monitor, it was special having Win Percy at Goodwood as the Driving Standards Advisor. Who better to carry out this function than the amiable former British touring car champion and Bathurst winner who describes himself as “Wobbly Win” these days? Let’s hope he can achieve his goal to visit Australia for next year’s Classic Adelaide Rally.

As for the cars, they are mouth watering. You can only gaze at them in awe and wonder if they are real! Take, for instance, the grid for the TT race, a one-hour, two-driver event for 196064 GT cars – Ferraris, Aston Martins, Cobras, Chev. Stingrays, Jaguar E-Types and others with a combined value of around 85 million pounds (that’s about ❯ MotorSportLegends

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GOODWOOD REVIVAL

210 million Australian dollars). As the commentator said “If it was good, it’s out there now”. Put some of the greatest names behind the wheel and you have the makings of an epic race with no holds barred. Victory went to the superb 1963 Ferrari 330 LMB of Peter Hardman and Bobby Verdon-Roe, but the star of the show was Martin Brundle who charged through to finish third and score fastest lap in a 1963 Jaguar E-Type lightweight he shared with owner Adrian Newey. It was Ferrari’s first TT win in the 10-year history of the Revival, and

Tony Brookes.

Brookes on track in his Vanwall.

Hardman and Verdon-Roe finished just 2.5s ahead of Justin Law and Anthony Reid in their Lister Jaguar Coupe – a tight finish after 60 minutes of racing.

Thirty air-cooled cars contested the Earl of March Trophy Race, and victory went to Simon Frost in his 1957 Cooper Norton Mk.11. Drinks were served to the drivers as they returned to the pits – well deserved after 12 hot laps.

The meeting is organised by the British Automobile Racing Club in association with the Classic Racing Motorcycle Club and the bikes were out there in force. The popular Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy had a new format this year featuring machines of the 1950s and a Le Mans sprint start.

Many of the great British, Italian and German marques contested two 25 minute two-rider races in the spirit of the original “Goodwood Saturday” meetings, and Australia’s former world champion Wayne Gardner and his teammate Mark Sharrock took the honours on their 1954 BSA Gold Star.

Gardner has dominated at Goodwood for the past couple of years – he loves the place!

Sixty years of Goodwood also Stirling Moss’ Cooper.

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provided the opportunity to remember other famous drivers of the past who competed there with distinction, and a moving tribute was paid by Lord March himself to those greats of the sport who are longer with us. The ceremony was telecast around the circuit and concluded with the singing of “Jerusalem” by Lord March’s sister.

Special mention was made of America’s first Formula One world champion Phil Hill who passed away only a few days before the Goodwood meeting.

But overall the Revival meeting is an upbeat occasion, a wonderful celebration of the rich and exciting heritage of motor sport, and as usual there were a number of happy Australians on hand to soak up the atmosphere. We were also represented on the track by Peter Strauss (Brabham BT6) in the Chichester Cup for Formula Juniors, and Scotty Taylor in a Lotus 22 Climax formerly campaigned

by Innes Ireland and Masten Gregory.

One famous Australian who sadly wasn’t able to be present was highly decorated WWII Spitfire pilot Squadron Leader Tony Gaze, the man who first suggested to Freddie March, the Duke of Richmond, that Goodwood would make an ideal motor racing circuit. Lord March’s grandfather, himself an aviator and motoring enthusiast, warmed to the idea, and Freddie March opened the circuit 60 years ago in 1948.

One British newspaper journalist summed up the Goodwood Revival by describing it as “a celebration of a particular type of Englishness; slightly eccentric but very civilised.”

The proposed dates for this year’s Goodwood Revival Meeting are ML September 18-20.

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Calling time: Skaife hangs up his helmet

Classic Ford: Restoring the Garry Rogers Escort

ALAN JONES

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GARRY ROGERS ESCORT STORY

BY BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOGRAPHS BY

BY MARK CHERYL REID STORY

BY MARK COOPER; COOPER & AUTOPICS.COM.AU

Rob Davies ran the ex-Rogers Escort for a number of years in Tasmania.

RE-BIRTHING A CLASSIC ESCORT Garry Rogers’ Ford BDA Escort Sports Sedan is a favourite of the 1970s and, thanks to one determined historic restorer and racer, it will soon be back on Australia’s race tracks

M

ost of us who are old enough to recollect motor racing in the 1970s probably have great memories of the halcyon days of Sports Sedans in this country. Almost all states had big dollar series running and drivers like Allan Moffat, Allan Grice and Jim Richards either made their name in, or moonlighted in Sports Sedans. Add into the mix that teams often ran cars in both the Touring Car and Sport Sedan championships and you start to get the picture about how big they were back then.

The bigger V8-engined cars tended to dominate, but there were a number of smaller capacity cars that gave the front-runners a major hurry up, and landed a number of wins along the

way. One such giant-killer was the Cosworth-powered Escort of current V8 Supercar team owner Garry Rogers.

Rogers started his racing career in a early model Holden in 1964 and actually won his first ever race. In the years between his initial victory and his last Garry competed in a wide variety of quality Sports Sedans and Touring Cars, from EH Holdens through to Toranas and Monaros, but the Escort remains his only dalliance with the Ford product. It’s one though that he remembers with great fondness.

“I had sold my ex-Bob Muir EH Holden and had sat out racing for a while, but business picked up and I started looking for another car to race,” he said.

“We got the magazines out and there it was in the classifieds.”

Rogers purchased the car in early 1975 ❯ from Bill Fanning.

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GARRY ROGERS ESCORT COOPERS

“It’s little wonder that until recently it still held the under two-litre Sports Sedan record there.”

“It was originally fitted with a Waggot 1850 engine but it was an old design and it didn’t really work that well,” he explained.

“John Rushford had a similar car fitted with a Cosworth BDG and five-speed Hollinger and I struck up a deal to buy his car and transplanted the engine and ’box into my car.

“My car had a ZF diff in it that was very good and the whole package worked really well together.”

One thing that Rogers remembers fondly about the car is how hard the Cosworth revved.

“Coming from early model Holdens that only revved ’til 6500 before

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breaking in half it took a little getting used to,” he said.

“At Sandown for instance we constantly used to rev it to 11,000 in fifth!”

It’s little wonder that until recently it still held the under two-litre Sports Sedan record there.

The original BDG finally came to grief, breaking a big-end main cap and Rogers, while looking for another engine to buy struck up a relationship with Jack Fields from Cosworth, going as far as jumping on a plane to England to purchase a new motor.

With the new BDG in place more drama ensued when on a trip to

Adelaide the gearbox let go during Saturday practice.

“All I wanted to do was race, but in those days we didn’t even contemplate carrying a spare gearbox,” Rogers said.

“I got onto John Bassett who had a similar car with the same box and ended up buying the car and his Ford D-series truck off him that afternoon just so we could finish the meeting.”

The Bassett car was mechanically more advanced than Rogers’ vehicle, having double wishbone front-end, independent rear and a mid-mount engine.

“Everybody told me I should ditch my car and run the Globe Wheels (Bassett) car so I did a back-to-back at Calder

one day to see which was better,” Rogers explained.

“Whether it was just that we didn’t know how to set it up or something else, my own car was still about a second quicker so I sold off the Globe car and kept racing mine.”

Rogers still remembers the car with great affection, making special mention of his battles with the similar Escort of Phil Ward.

“There were a few similar cars around, but Phil was such a hard nut on the track, he really had a go and I used to love going to Amaroo Park to race against him,” Rogers said.

Amaroo Park brings up another

interesting chapter in the Escort’s history.

“We’d spent endless hours building exhausts to get it to run underneath the noise restriction levels, but then we got pinged there for being over. It wasn’t until we’d done some pretty lengthy tests that we realised it was actually the induction noise that they were registering as being too loud,” Rogers recalled with a hearty chuckle.

While racing in the 1977 Tasmanian Ten Thousand the car was noticed by local racer Tony Watts, who put down the appropriate money and collected it after a meeting at Sandown later that year.

Top: Hadden has collected many of the ex-Rogers Escort’s original parts, including the cam gears, conrods and suspension. Parts were found as far away as New Zealand.

While Rogers moved on to the exGeoghan Monaro, Watts used the Escort sparingly and it was quickly dispatched to Launceston-based driver Rob Davies.

Davies used it to good effect, hunting the bigger capacity cars at Baskerville and Symmons Plains for a number of years.

The car was in its element at the tight and twisty Baskerville circuit, but at Symmons Plains the larger capacity cars tended to eat up the long straights with a little more gusto than the Cosworth could manage.

When Davies scaled back his racing activities the car made its way back ❯ to Victoria and was dismantled,

Above: The original BDA engine reconditioning is now well under way. Left: In its day the Rogers Escort was quite competitive. Here he is chased by the Mustang of Jim Richards at Sydney’s Oran Park.

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GARRY ROGERS ESCORT COOPERS

The rejuvenated Cosworth block ready for reassembly.

the running gear finding its way into another project, the rest gathering dust, the car a shadow of its former self until the remnants were purchased as a job lot.

Current owner John Hadden bought the car a couple of years ago and promptly set out to reunite it with all the missing pieces.

It was a big task, with pieces ending up as far away as New Zealand, but Hadden soldiered on.

A keen tarmac rally competitor, Hadden has built quite a collection of rare Escorts and is looking forward to the day when the little terror is in pristine condition again.

The engine work is well underway, 50

MotorSportLegends

“Hadden has already spent countless hours preparing what at the moment is a very second -hand shell” The head needed a lot of work.

with the head being remanufactured and new valves being produced.

The head had seen the cutting blade of one too many milling machines so it was basically built up with weld before being machined back to a level suitable for the planned rebuild. The pistons and Hbeam rods that came with the car were fine and were pretty much ready to fit.

The 10” Globe magnesium wheels have had a birthday too, with a dichromatic coating being applied to stop any erosion, the bane of magnesium rims.

The original Hollinger five-speed ‘box has been stripped and is being carefully restored, while the Hilborn mechanical fuel injection system has had a complete re-fit and now looks as good as new.

The only item that Hadden has had no luck locating is the 12,000rpm Smiths tachometer.

The state of the bodywork is of concern though, and Hadden has already spent countless hours preparing what is at the moment a very second-hand shell.

“Obviously it’s not the original car without the shell so I’ve been spending time unstitching the whole thing.

“When it’s all in pieces we’ll straighten it all out and then get it all back together,” Hadden said with a determined tone in his voice.

So keep your eyes peeled at historic meetings because this little Escort beast is likely to be on a race track again very soon! ML

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