MotorSport Legends Issue 8 by Supercar Xtra Magazine

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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1983 Bathurst winner drives an old favourite

Paul â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Hawkeyeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Hawkins: an Aussie on a mission

Volume #2 Issue #8

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ISSN 1835-5544

100 years of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Quarterly magazine

HARVEY REUNITED

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 eighth edition of Motorsport Legends.

News Want to know what’s next on the historic and nostalgia scene? Then don’t miss the news page.

05 08

Frank Gardner tribute 06-07 Renowned journalist Mark Fogarty pays homage to one of Australian motorsport’s true characters. Harvey and HDT reunite 08-15 John Harvey steps behind the steering wheel of the car that evolved from the ﬁrst Commodore racer. Paul ‘Hawkeye’ Hawkins 18-21 We remember when an Aussie won the 1967 Targa Florio. Historic Racer 23-30 Welcome to the second edition of our historic racing section, which includes coverage of the Leyburn Sprints and the Muscle Car Masters. Race Car Collectables 32-35 We investigate the growing hobby of collecting racing car memorabilia. Murphy on that lap 36-43 The Kiwi ace recounts his super lap at Bathurst in 2003. 100 years of the Indy Our man at the track lives the centenary celebrations at this year’s Indianapolis 500. Webb of intrigue This issue Mick gives us a lesson on how to ‘read’ a rulebook.

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Volume 2 Issue 8

Contributors in this issue Darren House In this issue our regular nostalgia expert has captured John Harvey’s drive in an old favourite - the Commodore VB. He has also relived his recent trip to the Indianapolis 500 and recounted the famous track’s centenary celebrations. John Doig Our staﬀ photographer has taken some great shots at the recent Muscle Car Masters and he has also pulled on his scribe’s hat and written a full report from the event. We’re sure you’ll agree that he is as talented with the pen as he is with a camera. John Bowe Our regular Motorsport Legends’ columnist remembers a time when ‘M’ stood for milk and rubbing was racing; however, he says it was just as hard, if not harder, to break into the sport back then as it is nowadays.

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 John Bowe, Darren House, Ivan McLeod, John Doig, Mark Fogarty and Mick Webb. Photographers Autopics.com.au, Wayne Preusker and Torque Photos. Advertising Manager Jennifer Gamble Phone: 0431 451470 Email: advertising@ motorsportlegends.com.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.

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CLASSIC

Lines Welcome to issue eight of Motorsport Legends magazine. Motorsport Legends includes motor racing nostalgia and historic motor sport events.

here are great days in this job and there are some sad ones as well. During the past few months there has deﬁnitely been some highs and some lows. A recent high was watching the grin form on John Harvey’s face when he climbed behind the steering wheel of Rowan Harman’s immaculately restored VB Commodore. The car is an evolution of the original VB unveiled by the Holden Dealer Team back in 1980. Both Peter Brock and Harvey (pictured above with yours truly) raced it during 1980. With the car meticulously painted in the famous HDT colours, Harman, Harvey and the Motorsport Legends crew headed out to Sandown Raceway for what was to become a fun day. It was like we had gone through some kind of time warp as we drove into the Sandown pits. Standing on the pit apron and watching Harvey wrestle the V8 beast around the track was an awesome sight that brought back a lot of memories. Harvey slipped into the driver’s seat as if he was ﬁtting into a favourite pair of old boots and the smile on his face said it all. He may have looked and felt a little worn out as he climbed from the car 4

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Straight-shooting Frank Gardner told it like it was. He will be sadly missed.

after his 10-lap stint, but I’m sure he wouldn’t have regretted taking the opportunity to have another steer of the VB nearly 30 years after he originally raced ‘the old girl’. Regular Motorsport Legends nostalgia guru Darren House was also there to capture Harvey’s thoughts of the day and his memories of racing the VB Commodore back in 1980. You can read all about it on page eight of this issue of your favourite magazine. On the lows side, it’s been a sad time in Australian motorsport in the past couple of months. First of all news came through that Frank Gardner had passed away and

then just as we were closing for press word filtered through that 1968 Bathurst winner Bruce McPhee had lost his battle with an illness. These guys would want us to remember them as racing champions and later in this issue renowned Australian motorsport journalist, Mark Fogarty, pays homage to Frank Gardner. In the next issue we will include a tribute to Bruce McPhee. On a brighter note, we have secured another super deal exclusively for our readers. For just $60 you can purchase a 24-month subscription to Motorsport Legends and a copy of Four Seasons at Ferrari: The Lauda Years. That’s over $100 worth of value and it would make a great Christmas gift. Just visit our website or fill out the form on page 48. Also in this edition you can read about 100 years of the Indianapolis 500, Greg Murphy’s super lap at Bathurst, Paul ‘Hawkeye’ Hawkins’ feats as he took on the best the world had to offer and won, and all of the action from the Muscle Car Masters and the Leyburn Sprints. Enjoy! Until next time drive safely on the race track and on the road. Cheers, – Allan Edwards, Managing Editor

HISTORIC NEWS STORIES BY BRIAR GUNTHER

RICHO’S TWEED DRIVE

teve Richards reunited with his beast, his beloved 1971 Ford Escort, at the Speed on Tweed event held in northern New South Wales in early September. It was the ﬁrst time in two years that Richo, who normally drives the #6 Castrol Ford Performance Falcon in the V8 Supercars

series, has been able to drive the copy of the works WRC rally car after it was damaged in the 2007 Lake Mountain Sprint. He didn’t get much time in it at Speed on Tweed thanks to a suspension problem on the Saturday afternoon, but he had a hell of a good time in it. “I only had three runs and

had to call it quits but it had potential, put it that way!” he laughed. “I had a bit of a look on the ﬁrst drive and the second run was going ok and the throttle cable came out and I had to ﬁx that. “There’s a part on the track where the car goes a bit airborne and it broke a piece of the suspension on the third run.” Richo is a fan of Speed on Tweed with its laid back atmosphere. “It’s a great event because there’s a lot of people up there, it’s all very relaxed and people that come and watch love their cars and their motorsport,” he said. “Whether they love V8 Supercars, rally, or even old Bugattis, everyone has a common interest and there’s lots of chatting and getting to meet lots of people.” ML

well,” Tander said. “I’m a real student of motorsport in Australia so I know all about the car and having the honour to even sit in it let alone take it for a lap around the track is big.” Coulson saw the car during Holden’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 1998 and bought it from the previous owner of 28 years. Toll Holden Racing Team A restoration of the Monaro Coulson, the Holden was star driver and historic car nut driven in the 1969 Sandown was finished three years ago Garth Tander enjoyed a ‘rarer Three Hour by Spencer and it comes out three or four than hens’ teeth’ spin in the times a year, including for the Martin and Kevin Bartlett. original Holden Dealer Team Phillip Island Historics and Brake problems sidelined HT GTS350 Monaro. Sandown Historics. the car spectacularly when In the lead up to the V8 Tander, who owns a 1969 Martin arrived at the first Supercars’ L&H 500 at Camaro, enjoys driving old corner and flew through a Phillip Island in September, trackside sign with no brakes, cars. which he went on to win “You actually do have to backwards and on fire. with teammate Will Davison, drive them because there’s “Old cars are very, very Tander drove the Monaro no cruise control, no power cool; I find them fascinating around Calder Park Raceway and this one is an example of steering, it’s literally hold on in Melbourne. someone that has rebuilt a car to the wheel and do all the ML Currently owned by Rob and looked after it incredibly work,” he said.

TANDER DRIVES ORIGINAL HDT MONARO

TIGA FOR SALE

he whole Tiga Race Cars business has been listed for sale on the website RacecarsDirect.com Drawings, blueprints, body moulds, jigs and castings are all included in the sale, allowing the remanufacture of a range of Tiga Race Cars and spares for Formula Ford, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Atlantic/ Paciﬁc, Thundersports, Can-Am, Sports 2000, Formula K, IMSA and Group C cars. Included in the sale price of £325,000 are two Group C Tiga 286 cars (chassis numbers 325 and 321) and a Group C 289 (chassis number 371) which are all eligible for Group C racing. Tiga cars were designed and built from 1974 and supplied various formulae. The cars scored numerous wins over a 15-year period and over 400 of them were built and sold during this period. Some of the most notable championship wins were the British Sports 2000 from 1979 to 1982, European Sports 2000 from 1983 to 1985 and the 1980 SCCA US National Championship. The stock includes a signiﬁcant quantity of spare parts for a variety of cars and the sale can be viewed at www. racecarsdirect.com ML MotorSportLegends

STORY BY MARK FOGARTY PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTOPICS.COM.AU

Gardner wore his terry towelllng hat rain, hail or shine.

Frank Matich in his Repco Matich A50 leads Gardner’s Lola T300 on the first lap of the 37th AGP at Sandown in 1972.

In a Brabham Alfa V8 at Warwick Farm in 1968.

VALE: FRANK GARDNER 1930-2009 Mark Fogarty remembers a driving guru who was as funny as he was fast

he hat and the humour. They were what made Frank Gardner memorable. As well as his versatility behind the wheel, that terry towelling hat and his dry wit defined Gardner. Ostensibly to cover his balding head from the sun, he wore the hat rain, hail or shine at race tracks. It was as much his trademark as his laconic one-liners. Gardner had quips for every occasion, their efficacy accentuated by his deadpan delivery. Combined with his Aussie drawl, which nearly two decades based in Britain failed to tame, his wry and earthy observations made him one of the sport’s great characters. Gardner was Chips Rafferty in a race suit. Like the iconic actor, he was an irreverent knockabout bloke who epitomised the popular image of Aussies of that era. Back in the 1960s and early ’70s, Gardner strutted the international racing stage, excelling in open-wheelers, sports cars and tin-tops. His homespun wisdom – usually expressed in colourful and robust terms – added to his legend and his reputation as a racing raconteur endured long after his retirement from race driving at the end of 1977. Gardner regaled audiences large and small with stories that were both pithy and poignant. He had an economy of words that was direct to the point of bluntness and a way with words that was beguiling. His banter also reflected the period in which he raced, and he was as fatalistic 6

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as he was funny. But his dark humour in the face of the ever-present spectre of death or serious injury highlighted his determination to survive in an era when so many of his contemporaries perished. Gardner minimised the inherent risk by rarely driving at the absolute limit of either his or his machine’s limits. His philosophy was to anticipate rather than participate in crashes, an approach that also underpinned the defensive driving techniques he championed for the road. He always maintained that his aim was never to be the fastest driver in the world – just the oldest. And except for a back injury caused by the rigours of racing brutal machinery, he survived his career unscathed and lived to the relatively ripe old age of 78. But there were times when even Gardner’s survival instincts succumbed to the lure of lucre. Money was often more important to him than glory and he was renowned for commanding fat fees for driving or team managing. One of his funniest tales recounted the sobering experience of driving an early Porsche 917, which had spooked the regular development drivers. “I got caught between greed and common sense,” admitted Gardner, who had earned a reputation as one of the best sorters in international racing and was paid handsomely to oﬀer his prognosis of the 917’s problems. It was a handful around the fearsome Nurburgring and it had too much power for its skinny tyres. “The computer had told them that nine-inch rims would do the job and

make the car very quick in a straight line – but the computer wasn’t strapped in the bloody seat up in the Eiffel Mountains, where you tend to get the odd corner,” he recalled. “It was a bloody awful thing.” He continued: “This was one of the first 917s, with an alloy chassis frame, which was gas-filled. There was a big gauge in the cockpit, measuring the gas pressure, and that was to keep you informed of the chassis’s condition. “If the gauge zeroed, they said, it meant that the chassis was broken and I should drive mit care back to the pits. “I decided that if it zeroed, I wasn’t going to drive it mit care anywhere. I was going to park the bastard there and then, pick up my Deutschmarks and get home to Mum… “Like I always said, I never wanted to be the quickest bloke in motor racing – I just wanted to be the oldest. And that car was certainly going to interfere with those plans…” Gardner deserves to be remembered for much more than homespun wisdom and hilarious homilies. His racing record and diverse skill rank him as one of the sport’s great allrounders and an ambassador for Aussie racing whose impact in his era was second only to Sir Jack Brabham. Success in F1 is the glaring omission from Gardner’s achievements, but only because he chose a more lucrative driving contract with Ford. A mere eight starts in F1 in 1964/65 weren’t representative of his ability as an open-wheeler exponent or what he might have achieved against the likes of

A young Frank Gardner in 1962.

Gardner finished second outright at the 1975 Bathurst 1000 with Bob Morris.

Gardner was always popular amongst his peers.

At Warwick Farm in a Lola T300 during 1972.

Brabham, Clark, Stewart and Hill. What was indicative was that he was their peer in F2, which in the mid-60s was where F1 stars provided a yardstick for emerging talent, and more than their match in touring cars. In an era when grand prix greats regularly guested in sedans, Gardner had the measure of even Jim Clark in roofed racers. He was a force in single-seaters outside F1, winning the F2 and F5000 titles, regularly mixed it with the F1 stars in the Tasman Cup championship in the ’60s and was among the pacesetters when the Antipodean summer series switched to F5000 in the early ’70s. But it was in British touring cars that Gardner was most accomplished, winning three titles and establishing himself as a fan favourite by taming brutish Fords and Chevs on the mostly twisting UK circuits. He also helped develop the Ford GT40 and its Mark IV successor that humbled Ferrari at Le Mans – among the many sports cars, Porsche 917 included, that he assisted in transforming from evil incarnate to benignly malevolent. Gardner returned to Australia in

1975 and after a turbulent relationship with Bob Jane, forged an alliance with cigarette and beverage giant Amatil. For more than 20 years, he guided teams backed by the company’s brands – John Player, Craven Mild, JPS, Benson & Hedges and Diet Coke – to sports sedan, touring car and Super Touring championships. His engineering aptitude and lateral thinking – not to mention his recognition of someone else’s clever idea – led him to create the ultimate sports sedan: a Chevrolet Corvair shape wrapped around Lola T332 F5000 mechanicals. It dominated, famously winning 41 out of 49 races. Under Gardner’s tutelage, Allan Grice, Jim Richards, Tony Longhurst and Paul Morris won titles, although in the case of the latter pair of rich kids, not always respect. A highlight was the unexpected victory of Longhurst and Tomas Mezera in a Ford Sierra at Bathurst in 1988. Gardner’s other legacy was driver training. He schooled many racers – and even more impostors, including me – in the arcane art of driving quickly and safely. The students didn’t always agree with

In an Alfa Romeo GTA at Sandown in February 1966.

his techniques – especially his push-pull steering method – but we appreciated his emphasis on smoothness, seating stance and situational awareness. He established what is now the Holden Performance Driving Centre at Norwell and despite the quirks in his tuition, the basic tenets of what he taught me over the years remain ingrained in me to this day. His inﬂuence goes back to two seminal books he authored on driving: the Castrol Racing Driver’s Manual, published in 1973, and 1980’s Drive To Survive. They are full of amusing anecdotes, asides and annotations that encapsulate the wit and wisdom of Frank Gardner, OAM. Gardner, who was born in Sydney on October 1, 1930, passed away on August 29, 2009. ML MotorSportLegends

Harvey reunited with the famous HDT 05 Malboro Commodore.

STORY BY DARREN HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS BY WAYNE PREUSKER, AUTOPICS.COM.AU AND THE ROWAN HARMAN COLLECTION.

JUST LIKE OLD TIMES

HDT ace and 1983 Bathurst winner John Harvey gets re-acquainted with one of his favourites.

ohn Harvey stepped on to the Sandown International Raceway pit apron and slid into the driver’s seat of Rowan Harman’s immaculately-prepared VB Commodore. Though it had been 22 years since the Australian motorsport legend had last steered a Commodore in anger, it remained familiar territory and he felt very much at home behind the wheel. The VB Commodore was the first of the iconic Commodore models and the former Holden Dealer Team driver remembers its introduction as a period of great change. In addition to the new Holden, there was also new competition from the XD Falcon and the emergence of a formidable new Ford foe, Dick Johnson. There was also a new man at the helm of the HDT following owner/manager John Sheppard’s decision to pass the operation to Brock. And to make things even more challenging, Holden had withdrawn its team funding. “1980 was a whole new era for us and it was a very busy period,” Harvey told MotorSport Legends. “We had a wonderful time with John Sheppard and the A9X but about November 1979 Peter and John had a discussion; Peter knew that he was going to take over the team. In the end I just figured John didn’t want to continue with that situation and he handed in his notice and left. “John was the Bob Jane Racing Team engineer back in the ’70s and he made a big difference to the organisation. I have always been a big admirer of John and I was very pleased when we had him through ’78/79 at the Holden Dealer Team. It was a particularly successful time; just brilliant and I was sad

to see him go”. Harvey remembers the Commodore with great affection – not surprising as the nameplate gave him two of his greatest victories - the 1983 Bathurst 1000 and the inaugural round of the first World Touring Car Championship at Monza in 1987. But given that Peter Brock had won the 1979 Bathurst 1000 in a Torana A9X by a record-breaking six laps and set a new lap record on the final lap, it’s hard to believe Harvey was looking forward to racing the Commodore as much as he did. Despite the Torana’s dominance, Harvey said the early Torana SLR 5000 and L34 models had serious flaws, which the Commodore eradicated. “The greatest improvement that I noticed, and I remember Peter talking about it, was the shock absorbers,” Harvey said. “The Toranas had the standard twin-wishbone suspension and a tiny little shock absorber compared to the Commodore’s McPherson strut. “I was looking at a race on DVD, the 1976 Sandown ATCC, and we were only about 15 laps into the race and my wife said, ‘why is your car bouncing? Was the track that bumpy?’ I said it was a little bumpy but the shock absorbers had already gone because they were so small and were filled with oil, which would overheat. “So we would run out of shock absorber and that would have an effect on the tyres and that in turn would have an effect on the brakes. At the end of the race the car was bouncing all over the place. “I remember at Bathurst you would start off with half-adegree of negative camber but the banging of the front-end ❯ on to the bump stops bent things so you ended up with a MotorSportLegends

JOHN HARVEY

Left: Brock and Harvey made the front cover of specialist motorsport publication Auto Action when they won the CRC 300 in 1980. Above: Garry Rogers was coming fourth at Bathurst before being involved in the infamous 1981 Bathurst crash. Below: Ellis and McClure finished eighth at Sandown in 1985.

the engineers to use more caster and that is a good thing for steering and turn-in. If you use too much caster with a nonpower steer car it is heavier again to steer. Some people looked at power steering as something else to go wrong and they were reluctant to use it but they eventually realised it was the way to degree-and-a-half of camber. go because we could get the car to work better as well. “And of course the braking started to go away because the “This car has the high-ratio steering rack fitted, without brakes were moving on the hub and the brake pedal would be power steer it should have the lower ratio. The result of this on the floor; one always had to pump the brakes between each situation is if one miscued on turn-in at speed and hit the curb application just to make sure you still had a pedal. And that there is a real possibility of lost control, therefore there was no had an effect on the tyres, too.” way I could drive this car fast. The more sophisticated Commodore, with a design based on “But today was just fun. The tyres on the car don’t have the German Opel Rekord, offered a better solution. much grip so it would be easy to lose it and I don’t want to “When we went to the Commodores we had the McPherson crash it, obviously. The car is prepared nicely but it is not race strut, which is a very long shock absorber and it had terrific prepared. It would take some time to sort it out and get it to performance,” said Harvey. “It was just beautiful to be able to work properly.” go through a long distance race, including Bathurst, without While the Commodore had valuable improvements, Harvey the front-end collapsing on you. It was just brilliant.” said drivers still had to nurse the cars in long-distance events. Not so good was the manual rack and pinion, which Harvey “Essentially they were production cars off the showroom found a little harder to manage this time around than in 1980. floor with some modifications allowed under the regulations. “The first thing I noticed with this car today here at The beauty of that style of racing, that era, was the general Sandown was just how heavy it was to steer through the slower public could look at the race car and they could recognise corners. I think back and wonder how we did it,” said the 71- their own car because it was basically the same. year-old. “We were much younger and stronger but 1000-kay “The race cars might have had a nice seat for the driver and around Bathurst with non-power steering - bloody hard work! full-harness seat belts and if you looked under the bonnet, “The first time I drove with power steering, which was about okay it might have had a different carburetor but the basic 1984 or ‘85, I just could not believe how good it was and how engine was still the same. The transmission was still the same. much easier it was to drive the car. These developed over the years but they were still the basic “We were younger, braver, stronger but even in those days production cars. I always thought that was important. once power steering was introduced we said, ‘how long has “To make a very long story shorter, the FIA announced this been going on? Why have we been putting up with this?’ a new Formula i.e. Group A commencing in 1985, which ❯ “And it wasn’t just for driver comfort; power steering allows promised much. A World Formula in which competing 10

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JOHN HARVEY

Rowan Harman bought the Commodore six years ago and, with the help of Gary O’Brien and his staff at Panels and Performance in Bendigo, set about restoring it to its former glory.

“The first thing I noticed when I drove this car was just how heavy it was to steer through the slower corners. I think back and wonder how we did it” countries would share a common set of regulations. Hmmm! Included in the regs was provision for an evolution model with a variety of modifications to powertrain, suspension, chassis, brakes and aero etc. The manufacturer was required to build 500 identical units able to be registered for road use. “For Aussie manufacturer Holden to do an evolution car every 12 or even 18 months was a massive task. These were cars that had to be road registered and covered by warranty so for engineering departments of major motor companies, that was a big deal and a huge burden on their resources. In the end they just couldn’t do it. “Australia then introduced V8 Supercars, which is what we have today and unlike their predecessors, the benefit of V8 Supercars is they are technically bullet proof. They have absolutely nothing in common with the production version they represent apart from perhaps, the door handles.” Despite his fair share of success at Bathurst, the 1000s were rarely kind to Harvey and he had to fight for every result. “In a way, I guess you could say I had bad luck there but everybody has their good runs and bad runs. In 1976 I was sharing with Colin Bond in the HDT car and whilst we were awarded second place we had in fact won. “The rest of the ’70s wasn’t too flash but then it came good again in the ’80s with a third in ’82, a win in ’83, second in ’84 and second again in ’86. I think I did 17 500s/1000s with something like six really strong finishes. It wasn’t a bad strike rate. When I left HDT and joined Allan Moffat racing in Europe we had a lot of success, too.” Luck was against Harvey in 1981 when he crashed-out coming down the Mountain. Showing his sense of humour,

Harvey jokingly told journalists that like Dick Johnson the previous year he had hit a rock, adding, “it was only a small one”. In reality, a leaking wheel caused the crash. “We had three-piece wheels and discovered on the Friday, or even the Saturday, that they were leaking air. We decided to put larger bolts in the wheel so they had to be drilled out. On the Saturday night we had a lot of helpers, some of whom were not engineering or mechanically-minded people, drilling holes, fitting new bolts, washers and nuts, and torquing them. “In some cases the bolts were picking up alloy in the threads as they were being pushed through the wheel with the result that when tightened, the torque reading was incorrect. On Sunday in the race, the wheels would leak and tyre pressure would reduce. “During the race, I would have to say Peter and Jim Richards were incredibly lucky, for each time they realised a wheel was leaking they were either on their scheduled pit stop lap or at the end of Conrod Straight and therefore close to pit lane entry. “My first and only failure gave no warning at all and as I turned left into the Dipper and loaded the right front, the wheel collapsed sending me into the barriers and out of the race. The thought crossed my mind that had the wheel failed at either Reid Park or McPhillamy Park where the front right is on sustained maximum load, the outcome could have been much worse, so I guess also I was extremely lucky.” Perhaps the most controversial part of the Commodore era was the defection of arch rival, Allan Moffat from Ford to Holden. Harvey played a pivotal role in the move. “Allan and I had been friends since the Bob Jane Racing Team days back in the mid-’60s and I was instrumental in ❯ MotorSportLegends

JOHN HARVEY

THE ORIGINS The origins of Rowan Harman’s Commodore go back to late 1979. In November of that year, the Marlboro Holden Dealer Team (MHDT), under the guidance of John Sheppard, commenced work on the prototype VB racer. The car was first seen testing at Calder Raceway in mid-December 1979. The vehicle ran without guard flares and had a makeshift front air dam fitted, along with an A9X bonnet scoop. As the first Group C Commodore built, the car was used to develop and produce the race and homologation specification for CAMS. The HDT passed to Peter Brock’s ownership in early January 1980. Brock took over the entire team assets including the prototype Commodore and its homologation duties to all other Commodore teams. The prototype was then to become the first MHDT racing Commodore. Peter Brock’s ‘new’ HDT was announced on Tuesday February, 28, 1980 and the car was revealed alongside lead driver Peter Brock, newly appointed MHDT Team Manager, Noel Richards and Chief Mechanic, Bruce Nowacki. In its first season, Brock and the car won the Australian Touring Car Championship and posted eight straight pole positions (every round of the ATCC) to create a record that will possibly never be broken. It is also the only Commodore to take an ATCC title in the Group C. The car was also on pole

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position and then driven to victory in the 1980 CRC 300 at Amaroo Park when, for the first time, Brock and John Harvey co-drove together. In its history, the car was campaigned by an impressive list of drivers including some of the greats of Touring Car racing. Peter Brock (1980 ATCC) John Harvey, Allan Moffat, Ron Harrop, Clive Benson-Brown (1981 Bathurst “Rookie of the Year”), Larry Perkins, Captain Peter Janson, Garry Rogers, Charlie O’Brien, Jim Keogh (1985 STP “Rookie of the Year”), Bernie Stack, Wayne Clift, Terry Shiel, Ray Ellis, Bernie McClure, Geoff Munday and Kerry Baily. During its competition history, the car carried the #05 (ATCC 1980) and 1980 CRC 300, then as #76 for Harvey’s first MHDT Commodore drive at the Adelaide International Raceway Endurance Championship round. It was the first MHDT Commodore to carry the #25 Marlboro ‘Special Mild’ livery for the Sandown and Bathurst races in 1980. MHDT sold the car to Clive Benson-Brown in early 1981 and it contested 1981 ATCC and Enduro events with Larry Perkins, Benson-Brown, Captain Peter Janson and Garry Rogers as drivers. In the 1981 Bathurst 1000, with Garry Rogers in the car, it was coming fourth outright, when it was involved in the race-stopping crash at McPhillamy Park. The Commodore was badly damaged, suffering hits to both the front and rear ends. As the race was declared at the previous lap, Rogers and Benson-Brown were still credited with fourth place.

The car was then repaired in November ‘81 – January 1982; presented in a new white livery and as a VH model (though later again as a VC). Benson-Brown contested most 1982 ATCC rounds and enlisted Charlie O’Brien to co-drive in the enduros, (the car now back to a VH), and its third Bathurst start finishing in 15th place. For 1983 the car received a full rebuild (possibly using a new VH shell) and update including a new roll cage, fuel tank and a change back to the Soundwaves black livery. Benson-Brown and Rogers ran the car in rounds of the 1983 ATCC and again co-drove at Sandown and Bathurst with a DNF at Sandown but a 12th place on the Mountain. In 1984 Benson-Brown closed his team down and the Soundwaves Commodore was for sale. The car was purchased by Jim Keogh in late August. Keogh had put together a two car team under the Visit Northern Territory – Fox FM banner running both his original Commodore (also an ex-MHDT car) and the ex-Benson-Brown car. The team drivers were Terry Sheil sharing with Keogh in his original car and Bernie Stack and Wayne Clift in the exBenson-Brown car. At Sandown Keogh/Sheil retired early and Keogh then joined Stack/Clift to bring the car home in fifth place. At Bathurst, Keogh’s lead car retired on lap 17 and Stack/Clift endured gearbox problems to bring the car home in 19th place. For 1985, the Group A category was introduced

for the Australian Touring Car Championships and Keogh converted the car to the new Group A - VK specification. Keogh contested all but the first round of the 1985 ATCC, scoring good results and winning the ATCC STP Rookie of the Year Award. The Commodore was then put on the market and purchased by Victorian Sports Sedan racer, Ray Ellis. Ellis teamed with experienced Bathurst campaigner Bernie McClure to prepare the car for the 1985 Sandown and Bathurst enduros. A steady run at Sandown netted an eighth place finish. At Bathurst, Ellis and McClure had the car in 20th position when four laps from the flag the engine broke a valve and the car DNFed. Ellis and co-driver Geoff Munday contested the last enduro for 1985 at Surfers Paradise, coming home sixth. Ellis ran the car in Victorian ATCC rounds in 1986 before having the car updated at Roadways for the enduro races. Co-driver for 1986 was Kerry Baily. Twelfth place at Sandown was followed up with a 16th at Bathurst. Ellis and Baily also fronted for the Calder Park Endurance round finishing 16th and Ellis then ran the car at the AGP supports in Adelaide for a DNF. In 1987, Ellis competed in the Calder and Sandown rounds of the ATCC but plans were underway to convert the VK to VL. As the 1988 season came to a close, Ellis retired from driving. The car was sold and was then moved to storage and virtually forgotten. After 15 years, the car was sold as an old Group A racer but its history came to light. Harman became the new owner and he enlisted Gary O’Brien and his staff at Panels and Performance in Bendigo, to restore the car back to its former glory as the 1980 Australian Touring Car Championship winning MHDT VB Group C Commodore. The car competed in seven Sandown and Bathurst enduros (1980 – 1986) and 63 race meetings.

Above: Harvey enjoyed his stint in ‘the old girl’ at Sandown earlier this year some 30 years after he first drove the car. Right: The Auto Action article when the car was first unveiled to the press in 1980.

getting Allan to come to us. “At the time Allan was at the crossroads of his career, so I just called him up one day and said, ‘why don’t you come and have morning tea with us, we have got a proposal to put to you’. And he said, ‘when you say ‘we’, who is that?’ and I said, ‘Peter and I’. So down he came, we had morning tea and put the oﬀer to him and he said, ‘yes’. “I looked after him while he was there and he appreciated that. He thought he was pushing me out of the team; that the idea for him to join the operation had come from elsewhere and he wouldn’t have done it if that had have been the case.

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But I explained the situation to him and he was quite happy. “Allan adapted straight away. Peter normally did the set-up to suit himself, which he had always done but they were touring cars, not Formula One cars. Allan never had a problem. He was quite quick, as quick as Peter. The team really worked well together, Allan just slotted in and did his job, and did it very well as usual. “After the HDT thing fell over Allan and I got together and went to Europe where we won at Monza and were fourth in the Spa 24-hour and won our class, so we had a fair amount of ML success.”

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STORY AS TOLD TO ALLAN EDWARDS PHOTOS BY AUTOPICS.COM.AU AND THE SCHENKEN COLLECTION.

BIRTH OF TIGA

RACE CARS Australian racing driver and engineer Tim Schenken has had many careers over the years from Formula One driver to CAMS administrator. Another interesting chapter in his life is when he founded Tiga Race Cars with Kiwi Howden Ganley. Here he tells how the race car manufacturer came to fruition.

im Schenken: Someone came to me in 1976 with a plan to build Formula Ford cars and gave me a plan and all the ﬁnances, and how it would work. I looked at it and thought ‘that looks interesting’, so I took it to a friend of mine, Howden Ganley, and said ‘what do you think about this?’ He had a look at it and came back a few days later and 16

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said ‘that looks really good and I reckon that would work, but rather than going with this other chap, why don’t you and I just do it ourselves?’ So we decided yes, and we went and actually bought another company called MRE. It was called Motor Racing Enterprises. We bought all the drawings and moulds and all the bits and pieces from MRE and then formed a company called Tim Schenken and Howden

Ganley Racing Proprietary Limited and the name of the car was Tiga – ‘ti’ from Tim and ‘ga’ from Ganley. Because we were quite well known, people were immediately interested. We had sales straight away and when I left the company, I think we’d built some 450 cars. So we were building Formula Ford, Formula Ford 2000, we built some Formula Atlantic cars Formula 3 and 2 cars; we built some cars for LeMans. Sports 2000 was a big thing; we had a very successful Sports 2000 car. We just had a small production line of race cars. At the end of the ﬁrst year, I had a sort of falling out with Howden as to how we were going to run this production shop. We somehow came up with the idea, ‘well why don’t we run a race team’. We knew enough people who were involved with companies that could sponsor a team. It sounded like a good idea. It was decided that Howden would run the production shop and that I would run the race team. I rang up some people I knew. One of them was John Hogan of Marlboro and said we were looking at running a race team.

Left: The Tiga team workshop in 1972. Above: A Tiga Sports 2000 at Zandvoort Holland in 1979. Above right: Alfie Costanzo in a Tiga FA81 at Calder in 1981. Right: Tim Schenken knew his way around a Tiga car, lapping five seconds quicker than the regular driver.

Later John rang back and said that Andrea likes your ideas and would like to drive for you, can you give me an idea about the budget? I hadn’t even thought that far. So quick as a flash I said, ‘well our accountant is working on the figures now, and I’ll come back to you later’. He advised that he had a number of drivers he was sponsoring. I had known John Hogan for some time, because he used to work for Ron Dennis. A couple of days later he arrived with a young Italian boy. His name was Andrea de Cesaris. We rushed around to sort of try and make a corner in the workshop and say this is where we are going to run this and whatever and told John and Andrea what our plans were, and they went away to think about it. Later John rang back and said ‘Andrea likes your ideas and would like to drive for you, can you give me an idea about the budget?’ I hadn’t even thought that far. So quick as a flash I said, ‘well our accountant is working on the figures now, and I’ll come back to you later’. So I hung up and rang Derek Bennett at Chevron cars and asked ‘what do you charge for Formula Three’, ‘cos we were going to do the British Formula Three Championship. He told me the figure. I ran Max Mosely at March and asked Max. He told me his figure. I split the difference and rang John Hogan back and said ‘I just heard from the

accountant, the figure is this’. John said, “OK, I’ll send you a contract”. So that’s the way it started. It was very frustrating, because we had a lot of drivers come through us who had lots of money, but no talent and that was depressing because we also had drivers who were interested in trying who had lots of talent but no money. James Weaver was one of them. So we were trying to help James and juggle our finances with the racing so we could help him and yet honour our commitments with the drivers who had paid. It’s depressing when you give people good equipment, a good team and all they do is complain, and they are just not good enough. Today you would see that they were no good, because you have just so much data. You would be able to analyse that and show them where it’s all going wrong. I mean, I had a situation once, where we went to Silverstone and we’d sold some Sports 2000 cars. The drivers were complaining that they were difficult to drive. So we went there to Silverstone and I got in the car; I went five or seven seconds a lap quicker than the regular driver of the car, which is unheard of. I

TIGA RACE CARS AT A GLANCE Australian Tim Schenken and New Zealander Howden Ganley founded Tiga Race Cars in 1974. The Tiga name was derived from the first two letters of Schenken’s Christian name and the first two letters of Ganley’s surname. Over 400 chassis were made over the 15 years the company existed. Tiga Race Cars made chassis for Formula Ford, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Atlanic/Pacific/3/2, Can-Am, Sports 2000, IMSA and Group C. Tiga Race Cars had many race and series victories, including a host of Sports 2000 championships around the world and had class wins at both the 24 Hour LeMans and the 24 Hour Daytona classics.

remember nights that I could not get to sleep because I was 2/10ths of a second off pole and worrying where am I going to find 2/10ths, but here they were five seconds off. You have to learn to live with that I guess. Then it comes to a point where you are no longer racing and you just ML move on… MotorSportLegends

The Hawkins/Stommelen 910 was going to finish, no matter what.

naugurated in 1906, the Targa Florio was the sole survivor of the great Italian road races, its position as a round of the 1967 Sports Car Title as anachronistic as a Model T in a Ferrari shop. Set amongst circuit based events, its 10 laps and 900 corners of spaghetti tarmac were more akin to a round of today’s World Rally Championship than a Sports Car endurance race as cars skittered over crumbling surfaces and became airborne over the ‘yumps’. Yet its place was maintained by virtue of its 18

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blood red Sicilian heartland - and the half a million ‘Tifosi’ who thronged its 44 mountainous miles. Unsurprisingly, the list of winners displayed something of an Italian preponderance – though recent years had seen considerable incursions by Porsche, for the Targa was the Stuttgart ﬁrm’s best opportunity to maximise championship points; more readily achieved on twisting Sicilian roads with their nimble, smaller engined cars. For 1967, Porsche Team Manager Baron Huschke von Hanstein had every

intension of ensuring the German marque would once again top the podium, and set about his task with typical thoroughness. He needed to prepare for an event which presented not only the challenges of an endurance race but which also, like some exuberant Italian gelato, combined the speed of a grand prix with the toughness of a rally. Von Hanstein knew it was imperative the whole team remember every bend, every camber, and every surface of the torturous route and a month before the race took his drivers down for a week of

STORY BY IVAN MCLEOD PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED BY PORSCHE CARS

THE BARON AND THE BOY FROM OZ

Paul ‘Hawkeye’ Hawkins is seldom the first name that springs to most people’s mind when they think of Australians racing overseas, but there is little doubt that his name should be right up there alongside those of Jack Brabham and Alan Jones… familiarisation. Nor was this attention to detail over the top, for Ferrari drivers like Sicilian born Le Mans Winner Nino Vaccarella had almost daily opportunity to practice and competition would again be ﬁerce. Ferrari P3 and P4s were supported by four new Alfa Romeo T33s, which had already shown themselves to be faster than the Porsches at Sebring; and that was before any consideration was given to the previous year’s championship winning Ford GT40’s or Hap Sharp’s innovative seven-litre Chaparral.

Duplicating the steamroller tactics Ford adopted when they ran no fewer than 13 cars at Le Mans, von Hanstein opted for seven entries. Three 910s fitted with the usual flat six-cylinders would contest the two-litre class, while a further three using eight-cylinder engines were entered in the prototype category. He then selected an eclectic range of drivers. Some were rally men like newcomers Vic Elford and Rolf Stommelen, others such as Hans Hermann and Jo Siffert brought F1 experience, while Mitter and previous

Targa winner Maggioli were already familiar with the powerful prototypes that would constitute the major interest of the ﬁeld. Finally he entered the GT category placing skiing champion JeanClaude Killy at the wheel of Porsche’s newly released road car - a solitary 911 on the way to developing its reputation as a motoring icon. Aussie Paul Hawkins ﬁtted von Hanstein’s broad requirements very nicely indeed. He had rally and race experience from his early days in Sprites, ❯ a class win at Le Mans, and had MotorSportLegends

PAUL HAWKINS

Herbert Linge holds a model Porsche 906.

Crew and officials watch on at the 1967 Targa Florio.

Herbert Muller and Willy Mairesse were the overall victors in 1966.

competed in both Formula One and Can-Am. Perhaps more importantly however, he had driven the Targa twice before and could quickly relearn the complicated route. Two years earlier on his ﬁrst attempt, Hawkins had driven an Austin Healey with Timo Makinen to second place in the GT category when, but for a faulty distributor, they came close to embarrassing the vaunted Ferrari GTOs in their own back yard. For the 1967 race ‘Hawkeye’ was paired with Rolf Stommelen in one of the eight-cylinder cars. This was a development of the previous year’s winning 906 ﬁtted with redesigned suspension to enable the use of smaller but wider 13-inch wheels. The lighter, lower chassis was now powered by a 2195cc engine derived from the grand prix car of the early ’60s, it having the advantage of being both more powerful than its smaller engined brethren, and 20

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The 226 car of Gerhard Mitter and Colin Davis and the 166 car of Jochen Neerpasch and Vic Elford.

much quieter – for drivers of the sixcylinder machines tended to shout for some time after a race. Practice however, held something of a coronary threat for Stommelen as the experienced Australian showed him the way round. “I’d done all my laps until then with no incidents at all,” Hawkeye would later say, “but on this one lap with Rolf in the car we had ﬁve or six narrow escapes.” If nearly totalling a spanking new Porsche against an oncoming truck, two cars, and a donkey at 120mph on the still open public roads was an indication, it was hardly surprising the young German ﬂatly refused to get into a car with him ever again! Porsche now faced problems as the drive shafts broke on the rough circuit, necessitating urgent delivery of heavy duty replacements from Germany. Nor was it plain sailing for others, for as the Chaparral team

concerned themselves with their wide car on narrow Sicilian bridges, Alfa Romeo were discovering their T33s had developed a penchant for breaking front suspension and shedding wheels. For the race both Hawkins and Stommelen were ﬁrmly advised to take it easy, the experienced von Hanstein, having won the Targa himself in 1956, knowing full well the attrition rate would be high – or perhaps he was already conscious of the Hawkins propensity for enthusiasm, both in and out of a car. Either way, theirs was to be the ‘tortoise’ - the car that would ﬁnish no matter what. As race day dawned, roads were closed and spectators scoured the hillsides for comfortable seat-sized rocks as the sun beat down from a cloudless sky. Once the usual excitement surrounding the start had subsided, the cars got away at their staggered 20-second intervals,

Baron Huschke von Hanstein ran seven Porsche 910 entries in the 1967 Targa Florio.

and by the end of the first lap the Ferrari of Vaccarella led to the immense satisfaction of the partisan crowd. On lap two however, within crying view of the hundreds lining the road in the village of Collesano, Vaccarella uncharacteristically got it wrong, sliding his Ferrari P4 into a wall at a mere 30mph, and was out of contention. Now it was the P3 of Muller and Guichet which led the Siffert/Herrmann Porsche, as Hawkeye began to up the pace. More than two-and-a-half minutes behind the leading Ferrari on lap two, three laps later he had closed the gap to a mere five seconds. Now they were in second place as teammates Siffert and Herrmann suffered mechanical gremlins and the Alfas began a process of self destruction; broken suspension and drunken wheels again becoming evident as their courageous drivers continued to race at ten tenths, fully aware of

the dangerous potential on mountain littered terrain. When the P3 Ferrari expired on lap six, the Hawkins/Stommelen 910 took a lead they would maintain for the remainder of the race. And while Hawkeye would later say it was an uneventful drive, those who knew him better also thought this newsworthy comment something of a slight understatement. For as soon as the locals saw ‘their’ car was no longer leading, the road miraculously began growing rocks and boulders in the most unlikely places. Then on the last lap, with victory almost in sight, as Hawkeye thundered into Collesano he found himself confronted by a youth standing ﬁrmly, if suicidally, in the middle of the road. All the drivers were aware locals sometimes played ‘chicken’ with competitors in a demonstration of bravado, but now, as he hurtled toward the intrepid

youngster, he must have fervently hoped the driver’s mantra of ‘just drive at ‘em’ would stand the test of reality. At 120mph they flashed past each other, mere inches apart in a joust of nerve, as Paul Hawkins swept on his way toward a rapturous victory celebration. Porsche made a clean sweep that day, winning outright in the Prototype, Two Litre and GT classes, virtually monopolising the podium to glean maximum championship points. At years end however, despite topping the table with 41 points to Ferrari’s 37, it was the best five events which mattered, and Ferrari would win the World Championship of Makes by just two points. Von Hanstein must have wept! But he had given Robert Paul Hawkins the opportunity to strut his stuff, awarding him the now unrepeatable title of the only Australian to win Italy’s last, ML true, road race – the Targa Florio. MotorSportLegends

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27/01/2009 1:09:43 PM

HISTORIC RACER

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

MUSCLE POWER! All the action from a day out at The Creek

Stop Press: The news from Goodwood

Old boys come out to play at Leyburn Sprints

STORY BY BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL REID STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY FRED BERGE

Mike Collins takes his 1937 Ford Special around the track.

JOHNSON RETURNS TO ROOTS Sixty years on Leyburn Sprints is still going strong

his year’s historic Leyburn Sprints held on August 15 and 16 marked the 14th time the event had run, but this year was a bit more special than most. It also marked the 60th anniversary of Leyburn hosting the 1949 Australian Grand Prix on a disused wartime airstrip, the first ever held in Queensland. Leyburn picked up the race by default after the town of Lowood rejected the event because it took place at the same time as church mass. And so the small town of Leyburn, about 75km south west of Toowoomba with a then usual population of 150, swelled to 30,000 on Sunday, September 18, 1949. To complement such a significant time for Queensland motoring, the historic Leyburn Sprints recaptures that sense of achievement annually. The Sprints concept caters to competition in 14 historic classes and an array of open-wheelers. Retired Toowoomba plumber Colin

HistoricRacer

Davy, 81, was the official starter for the 1949 Grand Prix and he was in attendance at Leyburn for the 60th anniversary celebrations. He was a motor racing official for decades at Darling Downs events and won the privilege of being the 1949 Grand Prix starter after the regular official failed to show up on the important day. And Eric Worner of Mittagong, New South Wales, took his 1947 So Cal Ford V8 Special back to Leyburn for the first time since that 1949 race. The So Cal, in those days called a Ford V8 Special, was one of 28 cars on the starting grid but driver Dick Bland withdrew when the car suffered tyre problems after 26 laps. Worner had more luck 60 years later, finishing first out of two in the Historic Racing Cars – Group Lb (log book) category and 125th overall. He beat Peter Gostelow of Melbourne, who was driving the 1949 MG TC Special that finished the 1949 Grand Prix in second when it was driven by Ray ‘Laddie’ Gordon. About 190 competitors in racing,

Eric Worner drives the 1947 So Cal Special.

Peter Gostelow in the MG TC Special.

sports and touring cars dating from 1934 to present-day took part in the 14th annual Sprints and thousands of spectators attended. Motorsport legend, Dick Johnson, came out of retirement to be part of the action.

LAYBURN SPRINTS 09

Unusually warm weather drew the crowds to front-yard parties around the track and the packed forecourt of the 1863-licensed Royal Hotel. In a succession of tyre-smoking demonstrations, Johnson drove a classic 1971 Ford Falcon XY GT powered by an American NASCAR engine and a 1971 Escort, then abandoned his Ford loyalties for an impromptu turn in a 1951 Morris Minor – with a 5.0 litre V8 engine under the bonnet. “I don’t know if this is the height of my career, but I’m having fun,” Johnson said. “This is the kind of event where motorsport started.” Johnson finished sixth out of nine entrants in the Touring Cars PreDarren Duffield was the outright winner.

1973 5101cc and Over in the Falcon, while his son Steve finished eighth in the same category. Meanwhile, Brisbane driver Darren Duffield wrapped up his first visit by claiming the outright fastest time at the historic Leyburn Sprints at the weekend. Driving a Mazda Rotary-powered RPV hillclimb special, Duffield set a time of 50.21 seconds yesterday afternoon on the last of seven runs around the 1.1 kilometre temporary street course. He was comfortably ahead of second finisher and former winner Ray Vandersee and his Toowoomba-built Skelta G-Force SC sports car, while Robert Haines was third in an HRC single-seater. Eric Worner in the 1947 So Cal Special.

FASTEST TIMES Outright: Darren Duffield (RPV-Mazda) 50.21 sec. Ray Vandersee (Skelta G-Force SC) 51.94 Robert Haines (HRC) 52.58

Historic: Keith Carling (1980 Tiga SC80) 55.41

Fastest lady driver: Yve Stocks (Cobra DRB) 57.67

Colin Davy and Eric Worner.

Keith Carling in the 1980 Tiga SC80.

BIANTE SERIES UPDATE

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER

The Biante Touring Car Masters put on as good a show as their new counterparts, the V8 Supercars, at Queensland Raceway.

BULLAS CONTINUES STREAK

ictorian Gavin Bullas has retained a healthy championship lead heading into the closing stages of the 2009 Biante Touring Car Masters season. Bullas along with Australian motorsport legends Jim Richards and John Bowe led the Touring Car Masters pack, both ﬁguratively and literally, at the last two rounds. Richards won his ﬁrst Masters round at Queensland Raceway in August and he, Bullas and Bowe won a race

apiece at round five of the championship, which took place at the Muscle Car Masters at Eastern Creek in September. Bullas, who steers the Rain City Mustang, took the round win at Eastern Creek to make it four out of five and he now has a 119point lead on Bowe and his WesTrac Camaro. In the Tilleys Automotive XY GT Falcon, Brad Tilley stayed at the pointy end of the field at Queensland and finished the Eastern Creek

races in fourth, second and third respectively to sit third on the championship points table heading into round six at Mount Panorama, Bathurst. Richards, who drives the Shannons Insurance Ford Falcon Sprint, is ﬁfth in the standings behind Steve Mason who has also been battling with the best. In the Group 2 standings, Trevor Talbot and his Dukes Body Works Torana XU-1 missed the Queensland round but clawed back the

championship lead from Rory O’Neill at Eastern Creek. The Biante Touring Car Masters is a support category to the V8 Supercars at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 from October 8-11 and then ﬁnishes the year at Historic Sandown, which takes place from November 6-9. Biante Model Cars, Rare Spares, Shannons Insurance and Hoosier Tires proudly support the Biante Touring Car Masters and the oﬃcial charity is RSPCA Australia. ML

Two oldies – Jim Richards and the Falcon Sprint – but goodies.

Three abreast at the Muscle Car Masters.

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GOODWOOD NEWS STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER

St Mary’s Trophy was held exclusively as a Mini-only race to celebrate the car’s 50th anniversary.

GOODWOOD GOES BACK IN TIME

record number of motor racing enthusiasts ﬂocked to this year’s Goodwood Revival, held from September 18-20, to join in the celebrations at the world’s largest historic motor race meeting. Visitors from all over the world attended the event, with the vast majority of the record 134,000-plus spectators dressing in their

ﬁnest 1950s and 1960s fashions. Sir Stirling Moss, who turned 80 a day before the Revival started, was honoured with a moving tribute by Lord March and many of Stirling’s old friends. A collection of 80 cars associated with his career paraded in his honour, led by the great man in the Aston Martin DBR1 which he used to win the Sports Car World

Championship at Goodwood in 1959. The 50th anniversary of Britain’s most-loved car was also marked on the circuit with a parade of 50 Minis of all shapes and sizes. The quality of motor racing was exceptional throughout the Revival weekend, with many nail-biting races and some thrills and spills along the way. Racing highlights included

the thrilling St Mary’s race for saloon cars, which this year was held exclusively as a Minionly race. Oliver Gavin and Nick Swift won the race. The £150 million car grid for the RAC Tourist Trophy Race also made for an exciting race, with Bobby Rahal and chief Red Bull Formula One team engineer Adrian Newey taking the chequered ﬂag. Frank Stippler was named the Rolex Driver of the Meeting, Julian Bronson recorded the fasted lap of the meeting of 1:24.470 and Michael Schryver and his mechanic Steve Harris were bestowed with the Spirit of Goodwood Award. For Australian enthusiasts considering making the trip to England next year, tickets to the 2010 Goodwood Revival and Festival of Speed go on sale in November. A full report from our man at the track will be in the next issue of MSL. ML

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STORY BY BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL REID STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS

Rod Markland in the ex-factory Nissan Skyline HR31.

David Towe in the JPS BMW. The ex-Ford Credit Seton Falcon.

The Bowden collection Falcon GT-HOs.

Allan Moffat.

The 1986 Bathurst winning Chickadee VK Commodore.

MASTERS AT THE CREEK In four short years The Muscle Car Masters meeting, a celebration of the golden era in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s when home-bred Toranas, Monaros and Falcons alongside the American imports, Camaro and Mustang ruled the tracks, has cemented its place as one of the premier events on the Oz motorsport calendar.

he 2009 stanza of the event at Eastern Creek Raceway on September 5-6 played host to what veteran track watchers considered to be one of the finest collection of Muscle Car power yet assembled in the history of the event. The meeting was also bolstered by a 29strong Kiwi invasion of Central Muscle Cars that crossed the Tasman to take on their Anzac brethren in the Trans Tasman Challenge. Off-track highlights included a superb display of historic cars including the iconic Allan Moffat XY Falcon GTHO

HistoricRacer

Phase III from the Bowden collection alongside the rare appearance of several of the lesser known cars from the halcyon days in the ’70s. A major attraction also was the obligatory signing of memorabilia from motorsport legends headed by Allan Moﬀat and Harry Firth. The meeting also served as host to round ﬁve of the Biante Touring Car Masters and included a strong card of support events catering for followers of tin-top racing. With a jam-packed schedule of 26 races over two days, categories were limited to a single 20minute practice and qualifying session.

The Biante Touring Car Masters this season has developed into a battle between race legends Jim Richards and John Bowe and the hard charging trio of Gavin Bullas, Steve Mason and Brad Tilley. Three races with three diﬀerent winners was the scoreboard at the end of the weekend. Pole-sitter Bowe was untroubled claiming the spoils in race one from Bullas and Mason while Richards, with electrical gremlins, slipped down to eighth spot. Richards then bounced back to score a comfortable win in the reverse grid race ahead of Tilley and Bullas. The

MUSCLE CAR MASTERS 09

The MHDT 1979 A9X Torana.

David Holc in the GIO VL Walkinshaw Commodore.

finale was a thriller. Bowe’s chances disappeared after a drive-through penalty for jumping the start while an ice cool Bullas fended off the pack led by Richards and Tilley; Bowe with a virtuoso performance charged through the field to claim fifth spot. Group Nc was heavily over-subscribed and the organisers decided to split racing into two classes. The fastest group was headed by ex-Supercar ace Glenn Seton who claimed pole and three runaway victories. Division two was a triumph for veteran Bill Attard with a hat trick of wins in his recently built Mazda RX-2. For the baby boomer generation the highlight of the weekend was aptly titled Heritage Hot Laps and Master Blaster session and to the motorsport afficionado the standout car was the 1979 Torana A9X steered by the Peter Brock and Jim Richards combo to a stunning victory in the 1979 Bathurst 1000. The dynamic duo smashed the opposition to win the classic event by a massive six laps in a performance

arguably the finest witnessed at Mount Panorama, and one that is not likely to be repeated due to the use of the safety car in the modern era. The New Zealand Central Muscle Cars, so named because most of their members are from the central region of the north island, was created in 2003 to cater for an eclectic range of six and eight cylinder Australian and American production and sports cars built before 1984. Top qualifying Shane Wigston steered his HQ Holden to pole and was untroubled to lead home the field in race one ahead of Supercar ace Jason Richards behind the wheel of the Paul Stubber Camaro followed by the VK Commodore of Paul Sinclair. In race two the NZ Muscle Cars ranks were dramatically thinned courtesy of a multi-car crash when the Mandy Sinclair Commodore got tangled up with the Shane Johnson Mustang and Bruce Kit’s Camaro and the race was red flagged. Jason Richards starred with a win in race three as well as claiming victory in

the Trans Tasman Trophy race ahead of Wigston and ex-pat Jim Richards. A highlight of the Kiwi-only events was the glorious sight and sounds of the Murray Brown and Steve Malam pair of Z28 Camaro’s circulating in formation. The Bathurst winners’ parade included a sedate tour of the circuit in a fleet of Cobras by racing royalty that included luminaries such as Fred Gibson, Colin Bond, evergreen Harry Firth and the Seton clan, Bo and Glenn. In the combined Group A and C races category David Holc scored a trio of wins ahead of the BMW M3 of Glenn Seton and the Terry Ashwood Nissan Skyline GTR. The Group C brigade was headed by Paul Stubber behind the wheel of his Torana A9X. In the Group A trophy race Seton turned the tables to down Holc and Ashwood, while the Group C race delivered an all Torana A9X podium. Jason Richards upstaged team owner Stubber to score a photo finish victory and Stephen Perrott claimed third spot. The final of Group Nb shaped up as an intriguing battle between the Mustang pair of Greg Toepfer and Bill Trengrove and the Lotus Cortina of Scott Fleming. Toepfer, with two wins over the weekend, was heading for an easy victory until spinning on the last lap, allowing Fleming to the win from Trengrove and the luckless Toepfer who still managed to finish in third spot.

Motor Trades Diary Promotion The first five people to subscribe to Motorsport Legends using the form on page 48 will be entitled to a free 2010 Motor Trades Diary valued at $19.78. This Collectors’ Series N0. 2 features artwork from renowned auto artist Mike Harbar. To take part in this promotion you must clearly mark your completed subscription form with the words: “I wish to take part in the special Motor Trades Diary Promotion”.

These diaries can also be ordered from www.vaccstore.com.au

HistoricRacer

V8X 2005

BOWE TO A

Legend Touring car great John Bowe remembers a time when ‘M’ stood for milk and not money and when rubbing was racing.

earing about the HDT Commodores elsewhere in this issue of MotorSport Legends reminded me of my first foray into touring car racing. As most readers will know, I started out as an open-wheeler driver, but like any Australian who has wanted to make a career of racing, I eventually realised I had to get into touring cars. My first tin-top drive came at the 1980 Australian Grand Prix meeting, run at Calder Raceway. There was a tremendous buzz around at the time because newly-crowned Australian World Formula One champion, Alan Jones, was driving his Williams FW07 in the AGP. There was also Bruno Giacomelli in an Alfa Romeo and Frenchman Didier Pironi who, as Peter Fowler wrote in the last issue of MSL, made a one-off appearance in an Ansett Tem Elfin MR8. In the best overseas tradition of the time, there was also a Race of Champions. But instead of using Chevrolet Camaros, like they did in the US, or the exotic BMW M1s raced in Europe, the newly released VC HDT Commodore was the car of choice. Naturally it was a star-studded event, with Pironi, Jack Brabham, Kevin Bartlett, Jim Richards, Colin Bond and Peter Brock competing, just to

Even after winning the Race of Champions, Bowe had to wait another five years to get a drive.

name a few. I was lucky enough to also be invited to drive after Jones and Giacomelli both declined. I don’t recall the races in detail, but I do remember very few of the cars had headlights in them when it was over. The carnage was unbelievable. There was no respect for the cars at all. Pironi went oﬀ at the end of the straight and came back on doing about 160kmh, T-boning Jack Brabham in the door. He made a hell of a mess of it. I asked him, “what did you do that for?” and he said, “because he was there!” In other words, I was going through and it didn’t matter whether there was anyone in the way or not. Afterwards, the cars went on to Holden used car lots somewhere. I don’t know where the one I drove went. At that time I had never driven anything with doors on a racetrack. It was diﬀerent to what I had been used to but I ended up winning the event on a count-back after scoring equal

highest-points with Bartlett . I remember thinking, “this is going to open up some doors in touring car racing”. Bob Morris, who was in his prime back then but overlooked for a drive, thought the same, writing so in his Auto Action column the following week. But it never did – it took something like ﬁve years for me to get a touring car drive. It is hard for young guys to break into the sport now but it was hard back then, too. It has never been easy. There are only so many seats and there were a lot less seats then than there is now. The HDT Commodores were quite nice to drive. At the time, taken in context with what else was around, they were pretty special cars. They had a nice V8 engine and a four-speed gearbox, four-wheel discs and all that stuﬀ. They were pretty nicely specced inside. I wouldn’t have minded one at the time. I won a trophy but I would have rather had the car. The trophy was presented by Jackie Stewart, now Sir Jackie Stewart, so I thought that was pretty special. Th event was sponsored by Big M and I got this huge trophy that has a big ‘M’ carved out of resin. It’s not a bad looking thing. Some of the trophies I’ve won are pretty crook but this one is artistic and unusual. I’ve still got it, gathering dust somewhere. – John Bowe MotorSportLegends

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY NATALIE DELAREY

AUTOMOBILIA MANIA Posters, programs, team merchandise and maybe the odd diecast model or two are the general make up of any motorsport fan’s memorabilia collection. But there are plenty of other motorsport enthusiasts out there who aren’t afraid to pay top dollar for more rare items.

ollecting motorsport memorabilia involves parting with a lot of hard-earned, but then again not so much as buying a real racing car. So maybe that is why motorsport fans are turning to owning their own piece of motorsport history with a racing car panel, driver’s gloves or even a race suit.

Above: There are often waitlists before the ‘special’ models are released, such as this TeamVodafone Bathurst Falcon. Top right: Which motorsport fan doesn’t have some old auto magazines or programs stored away at home?

MotorSportLegends

Like with any type of memorabilia – whether it be sport, music, or movies – the rarer the item, the higher the price you pay for it. The term for collecting generic automotive memorabilia is automobilia and then there are specialist terms for collecting items that fall under it. For example, anything sold or given away by petrol stations is called

garageanalia and then there is petrolonia and oilanalia. A term for motorsport memorabilia is yet to be coined (spautomobilia, anyone?) so Motorsport Legends will stick with automobilia. Shannons mainly auctions classic cars; however, there are a few pieces of motorsport automobilia that come up in each of the company’s auctions.

At the Shannons Sydney Autumn Classic auction held in May this year, a limited edition print – the ﬁrst of only 100 – of Juan Manuel Fangio sold for $400, while a print promoting the 1994 Tooheys 1000 at Bathust signed by a number of drivers including Peter Brock sold for the same price. A set of vintage Triumph Everoak helmet, gloves and goggles which were

“They are people who sometimes don’t want to spend thousands on race cars.”

made in England sold for $625 at the Shannons Melbourne Summer Classic auction in November last year National Auction Manager, Christophe Boribon, said prints are the most common items of motorsport automobilia that are sold at the auctions. He said the value of a piece and its collectability depends on how rare it is and who it is connected to. “What we are finding is if the piece is special, it will generate good interest and if it’s limited it will bring a higher dollar,” he said. “It depends on how oddball the piece of memorabilia is. “If you can get oddball things like driving gloves or race panels signed by the drivers they then become a fairly one-off piece and it all leads to collectability.” Boribon said items connected to local Touring Car ace Peter Brock and Formula One great Ayrton Senna, who are now both deceased, along with Australian Formula One champion Jack Brabham were all highly sought after. “You’d have to say obviously now that Peter Brock is now deceased, that puts him in legend status, given the success he has had in motor racing,” Boribon explained. “It’s the same as Ayrton Senna, any Ayrton Senna piece is worth thousands these days given he was only out here once a year (for the Australian Grand Prix). “Both were top of their sport so their pieces will always bring significant interest.”

Model cars are also highly sought after. A 1:18 scale Mercedes W196R Streamliner 1954/55 model car and a 1:12 model of Senna’s 1985 Portugal Grand Prix-winning 97T Renault are expected to sell between $450 and $600 each at upcoming auctions. Allan Moffat fans can purchase a 1:18 scale of his XC Falcon Cobra Coupe for $395. Enthusiasts who want to upsize can expect to pay between $84,000 and $94,000 for a real road-going XC Cobra. Motorsport Legends also found a number of models of Brock’s Bathurst winning cars for sale on the internet with asking prices upwards of $1000. A 1:18 scale of the 1972 Bathurst winning XU-1 Torana and signed by Brock had a price tag of $1100 and another autographed model was $1300. “It (the price) comes down to the history of (the piece) and what it represents in his career and I think that probably applies to every piece of motorsport memorabilia that we have come through,” Boribon explained. “I think (the value) depends on how successful that driver was.” He said helmets or a panel off a Formula One car could fetch thousands of dollars. “You find that a lot of the collectors of those items are people that are generally into motor racing,” Boribon said. “They are people who sometimes don’t want to spend thousands on race cars and it is more suitable to collect memorabilia and it’s also cheaper to do it that way.” ❯ For those who are prepared to MotorSportLegends

MOTORSPORT MEMORIBILLIA

biggest market is the United States of America. Edscer, 62, started in the plastics industry at the age of 15 and later moved on to selling machinery. After a longstanding interest in motor racing, he could finally afford to race when he was 40 and at the same time started a small collection of memorabilia including posters, badges, pins, and enamel signs. Above and right: Automobilia, and in particular “I had the idea to try and make a model cars, record moments in motorsport history business of it and turned away from for posterity such at this 1999 Bathurst edition car. industry on January 1, 1990,” he said. “I deal in all things motor racing and rallying, other than the cars themselves, spend a few thousand dollars for a rare although I did own Ayrton Senna’s road International Motorshow Auction held item, the Canadian-based web shop going Mercedes 500 SEC for a couple of earlier this year, a pair of John Bowe’s Formulaworldshop.com sells replica years. gloves and a model Ozemail race car in a Fomula One helmets between $900 and “This includes posters, car badges and display case sold for $900. $7800AUD while the originals sell for pins, trophies, helmets, driver suits, rally And a 1:18 scale model of the upwards of $7800AUD. plates, artwork and other driver related ‘Red Dust’ indigenous livery which Replica race suits cost between $1500 items.” TeamVodafone ran at the Darwin round and $2600AUD and the real deal starts at only last year goes for around the $500 Edscer said posters, pins and rally plates a whopping $22,500AUD. are the most popular items but he doesn’t mark on ebay. The website was selling a 2008 deal in books because they are too heavy. The motorsport automobilia market Australian Grand Prix program signed by overseas is similar to that in Australia. Some of the items he has for sale include all 22 drivers for $760 and a chequered Personal items of drivers and trophies are a pre-war pennant from Nurburgring flag signed by 30 F1 drivers, including for $450AUD and a Nurburgring lapel the most expensive pieces of motorsport Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button, automobilia you can buy, according to badge for $170AUD. sells for almost $2000. An original poster of the British Grand Laurence Edscer. And even contemporary V8 Supercar Prix at Aintree featuring Brabham is He runs the www.autosportcollector. automobilia is highly collectable. for sale for $600AUD and a trophy com and www.rallymemorabilia.com At the Shannons Melbourne reportedly won by Stirling Moss is almost websites from England, however his $2500. “There are few female collectors, but everyone has a special thing that they enjoy most,” Edscer said. Unsigned non-motorsport but rare automobilia fetches decent prices. Classic petrol bowsers sell for about $5000 while earlier manual models attract up to $20,000. If you think Australian automobilia is expensive, check out the F1 stuff.

“Everyone has a special thing that they enjoy most.”

MotorSportLegends

Motor racing memorabilia can come from all categories, including now defunct ones like Champ Car.

Boribon said private individuals, businesses and collectors creating garage themes buy up these items to put in cafes, showrooms and homes. And three number registration plates usually sell now for $10,000 with Victorian and New South Wales ones being the most popular. “A lot of those plates have been passed down from grandfather to father to son and only in the last 25 years some of these plates have come up,” Boribon said. “The price is not the physical plates, it’s the right to display and it’s also become a bit of a status thing. “The majority of people can buy a

“Like with any type of memorabilia, whether it be sport, music, or movies, the rarer the item, the higher the price you pay for it.” BMW or Mercedes Benz, what sets them apart is that three digit plate.” But the ultimate piece of motorsport automobilia would have to be an actual race car, regardless of how expensive it is.

Quarter Mile

And once again, more success equates to more a lighter hip pocket. “The most signiﬁcant race car we sold was four years ago and it was the 1967 Geoghan Mustang at the Sydney Motor Show which did extra well and nearly set the benchmark for old historic touring cars in Australia,” Boribon said. The Mustang, which had won the 1967, 1968 and 1969 Australian Touring Car Championship, was restored to its Castrol racing livery and sold for $320,000. But as any motorsport automobilia collector will tell you, it’s not about how much the piece is worth, but how much ML enjoyment you get out of owning it.

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2:06.859 ❯

Murph blitzed them all with his ‘Lap of the Gods’ in 2003.

594

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTOPICS.COM.AU.

A GODLY FEAT

He is the fastest man around Mount Panorama and on top of that has four wins there to his name. In the lead up to this year’s Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Greg Murphy shares a couple of his Great Race experiences.

reg Murphy is the fastest Kiwi around Mount Panorama. In fact, he is the fastest man, period, around what is Australia’s most famous piece of bitumen located in the rural town of Bathurst, NSW. Six years after setting the 2:06.8594 ‘Lap of the Gods’ as it is known as, it still stands. It might get challenged at this year’s Bathurst 1000; then again it might not. The Mount has been rather kind to Murph, who has four wins to his name there when some drivers try many times and can’t notch up one. “I love Bathurst and that maybe stems back to when I was a kid growing up watching it on TV,” he explained. “The ﬁrst one I really remember being blown away by and being completely and utterly mesmerized by was ‘84 with Peter Brock and the Marlboro Group C Day-Glo Orange VK Commodore and that was just a sit back and take notice

time for me. “It was like ‘wow that’s amazing’ and from that day, in the lead up to the ﬁrst weekend of October every year, I was counting the days to Bathurst.” From across the Tasman, New Zealand-born and bred Murphy would watch the race with his father, Kevin. “I used to sit there with the old man and his mates and just be completely and utterly focused on it, never thinking I’d have the opportunity to go there let alone race there. “To get to Bathurst the ﬁrst time and walk and drive around it, I was in disbelief because it just didn’t look the same as it did on TV.” From day dot Murph has always respected the Mount, which is maybe why she has paid him back in spades. “It certainly has been very kind, also very hard, but I just can’t get enough of it,” he enthuses. “I love the piece of road; I think it’s very, very special.” And it is a special place which holds ❯ MotorSportLegends

GREG MURPHY

A number of skilled steerers have paired up with Murph at Bathurst, including Rick Kelly.

“You should have a lot of experience racing before you go racing at Bathurst because it demands a lot of respect.

It was raw talent rather than Spidey senses that won Murph and Rick the 2004 race.

many memories for Murph, including one moment in 1997, the year after Murphy and Craig Lowndes won their ﬁrst Bathurst together. It was one of the ‘ones that got away’, but he clearly recalls a conversation he had with the late, great Brock in what was Brock’s oﬃcial last Bathurst race (for the record Brocky raced twice at Bathurst after 1997). Murph spent the year with him as teammates in the championship and described it as “out of control”. “Going to appearances, there were thousands of people everywhere we

went after his autograph because it was his retirement year,” Murphy explained. “We went to Bathurst and he teamed up with Mark (Skaife). The two cars were very fast up there and we were running at the front of the field. “Brock started in the 05 car and I started in car 15 (with Lowndes) and we finished our first stint. “I think we got out of the cars first and second and we were out the back having a breather and having a drink and Bev was with Brock giving him all his stuff, his green tea and whatever, and I was out there and we were having

a bit of a chat.” By then Murph had got to know Brocky well given their time together as teammates. “Not as well as some but I got to know him pretty well, and he was quite upbeat and positive as he always is because he never came across as negative,” Murphy said. “But he was quite confident and feeling really good. I’m pretty sure he finished the first stint leading the race and I was right behind him. And I mean that man, when he had the eyes on he was focused, so he was focused at Bathurst that year and what a dream it would have been for him to be on the podium and win his last official Bathurst. “But we were sitting there and (commentator) Barry Oliver comes on over the loudspeaker system, which

“I love the piece of road; I think it’s very, very special.” we could hear in the shed out the back at that time, that one of the Holden Racing Team cars was in the fence.” The only problem was, it was not announced which one of the HRT Commodores had crashed out. “And he’s looked over at me, and I’ve looked at him,” Murphy recalls. “And I could see in his eyes, he was just thinking ‘I hope that’s your car’ and next minute Barry Oliver goes ‘oh it’s the number 15 car in the fence’. “And Brocky’s got up in his way and he’s come over and put his arm around me and said ‘oh you know Murph, these things, you know, they just happen, they’re here to test us’ and he gave me the big long Brock speech, a massive long Brock speech about ‘oh it’s a shame’ but it was all these clichés and positive thinking stuﬀ and he turns around and walks away.

“I thought you… you bastard because you could see it in his eyes ‘I hope it’s your car’ and he was relieved when he found out it was the 15 car and not the 05 car that he comes over and gives me the big pat and the big speech about life and all that kind of stuﬀ,” Murph laughs. “I will never forget it because it was almost patronising but understandably with it being his last Bathurst, he wanted to win and it didn’t matter what it took or how it was going to happen, he wanted to win so that was another car out of the way. “Unfortunately, not long after that the 05 car was out of the race as well so that was disappointing for them and everyone at the team having two cars out.” Murph describes himself as “bloody lucky” to have his name in the record

books for the qualifying lap he set in the top 10 Shootout in 2003. “It’s still pretty special to be associated with that place in a special way and that was an incredibly special weekend and amazing time,” he said. “That Saturday was just the most incredible day and it took ages to really register and it’s amazing still today how many people still come up and talk about it and want to know about it. I still get congratulated for it which is very cool.” Murph is still amazed at the eﬀect it still had to this day on fans. “They say ‘I was there that day’ and that’s the special part about it that I’ll remember and treasure more than just having that statistic.” But before Murphy talks about the fastest lap ever done around Mount ❯ Panorama, it must be explained MotorSportLegends

that 12 months beforehand he and teammate Todd Kelly received a huge ﬁve-minute penalty for fuel spilling into pitlane during a pitstop when they looked likely to win the race. “Some people said it (the Lap of the Gods) was payback from 2002,” Murph muses. “To go back 12 months later after receiving the worst, biggest penalty anyone’s ever received during a race; to come back and do what we did the following year was quite a comeback.” The ﬁrst sign of things to come in ’03 was on the Friday when Murphy, Skaife and John Bowe all posted sub-2min8sec times. “That was like ‘wow, whoever thought that was going to happen’ and up to that stage doing an eight was pretty amazing but the circuit had been resealed that year and it was in beautiful 40

MotorSportLegends

condition, the weather was perfect and you couldn’t have asked for better conditions to go out and go fast,” Murphy said. “At the press conference on the Friday night everyone was like ‘wow that was amazing, can you do it again, can it be done again?’ “I got out of the car on the Friday afternoon during the session and we actually had rain partway through and we were quickest at that stage with an eight-something and it was all quite close but we didn’t expect the session was going to continue on. “But it dried and the cars started to go back out and we thought ‘shit we better get back out there’ and I did the fastest time in that qualifying session. “As the checquered ﬂag came out at the start/ﬁnish line I went just a fraction faster than Mark and Bowie,

we were all on 207 point nines and that set a decisively new benchmark at Bathurst. “Then to go out the next day and go over a second faster was a once in a lifetime thing for me. “It’s held on for a long time which is nice and you know, it’s going to get beaten one day and it could be this year, but I don’t know. “There’s always a few factors that will depend on that happening but it has stood and it is nice to have that happen for as long as it has.” The actual lap itself Murph describes as far from perfect. “I didn’t set out to do a six eight,” he said. “I didn’t leave pitlane going ‘right, I’ve got a plan and it needs to be this’. “My plan was to go as fast as I could because I didn’t know what time John Bowe had done, but by the crowd

GREG MURPHY

Mixed weather conditions were a part of the 1996 race.

“People that get the opportunity to race around there in all sorts of formulas shouldn’t because I don’t think enough people respect it enough.”

Murph and the Kid drove the Mobil VR Commodore to their first victory in 1996.

reaction when I was sitting at the end of pitlane I knew he’d gone and done a very good lap. “So my plan was to go out and do the best I possibly could as always so I know at the time I just threw caution to the wind and was like ‘I’m gonna just push, just go as hard as I can, go a little bit harder, brake as late as I possibly think I can’ and that’s all I did hoping it was going to be a smidgen faster than what John had done.” The plan went awry when he missed a gear coming out of the Dipper. “That’s where I thought I’d blown it,” Murph remembered. “I came out of the Dipper in second gear and accelerated up the rev limiter and went to change to third gear and I slotted it straight into ﬁrst. “The engine went crazy; I snapped out of some sort of zone that I’d got myself

The chequered flag comes out after 1000-kays in 1999.

into, got it back into third gear and thought ‘oh well that’s it I’ve blown it’ but the rest of the lap was as good as the ﬁrst part and I still did that time.” Had he not made that mistake, Murphy believes the lap would have been about 2min 06.6sec rather than the 2:06.8594. “Now that people are getting too close to the six-eight I wish it was a six-six,” he laughed. “That’s why the lap wasn’t perfect. The rest of the lap was obviously as good as it could be, I suppose, so it was just ridiculous to come across the start/

ﬁnish line and see the time come up on the dash. “I didn’t comprehend what it said because there was nothing in my brain that had prepared me for seeing that number.” What he also wasn’t prepared for was a showering of congratulations. “To come down pitlane after doing that lap and having the crew in my headset, going oﬀ ballistic, and to come down pitlane and see all those people walk out - just about every team walk out to the line and stand there applauding you - I mean that is the ❯

GREG MURPHY

The Kmart crew was down and out after a fuel spill in 2002...

“It’s amazing still today how many people still come up and talk about it and want to know about it”

... but came back a year later and won the Great Race.

ultimate, ultimate accolade. “Nothing could beat that because it just doesn’t happen. “You have diehard, Holden-hating Ford fans come up and pat you on the back and congratulate you, and that’s the ultimate accolade.” Murph said the ﬁve-minute period after starting that lap was his most favourite and memorable moment of Bathurst. “The two minutes and six seconds it took to do the lap and then coming down pitlane is something you’d like to be able to relive because it feels good unbelievably good,” he said. 42

MotorSportLegends

“As I say, I’m lucky that’s happened to me because that feeling stays with you for a lifetime and you just can’t really explain what it feels like.” Even though he is an old hand at it now, Murph still takes in the atmosphere every time he attends the Great Race. “It’s a pilgrimage for a lot of people, and they travel to this place to feel the whole deal. People love to say I’ve been there 10 times, I’ve been there 25 times, this is my second year and people you talk to who have never been go ‘I just want to go to Bathurst’. “It’s like something’s drawing them in,

it’s a power. It is like that. “People who go there for the ﬁrst time and are big fans turn up there and they can’t believe the feeling of the place. It’s quite amazing.” Murph believes the changes going on at Mount Panorama have positively impacted on the Great Race. “This amazing new pit facility has put the whole Bathurst race and the circuit into a whole new realm,” he said. “Being there and being in that new building and feeling it, it’s just spectacular; it really is world class. “It makes you feel even more special about it and it’s a shame it’s not a fulltime race track. “But in the end it’s good that it’s not because it keeps that really special vibe about you only going there once a year and it means not everyone gets a chance to race there and that’s the way it should be.” Murphy describes it as a “full on” place. “You’ve got to have your wits about you,” he said. “You should have a lot of experience racing before you go racing at Bathurst because it demands a lot of respect.” ML

Murph won his second of four Bathurst 1000s in 1999 with Steve Richards.

CLASSIC Festival of Motorsport 19th 20th 21st 2010 www.vhrr.com Enqs 03 9877 2317

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STORY BY DARREN HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS BY INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY AND CAROL SHERIDAN

A CENTURY AS THE GREATEST When it comes to self-promotion, nobody does it better than the good folk of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

elf-proclaiming the venue as the Greatest Race Course in the World, and the 500-mile race as the Greatest Spectacle in Motor Racing, the IMS clearly isn’t prone to modesty. But truth has always been a pretty good defence and it’s one the IMS

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can certainly cling to. After clocking up a century of world famous motor racing, the organisation is well-entitled to write its own headlines. This year the speedway that put the US town of Indianapolis on the map commenced its Centenary Era celebrations in recognition of the track’s 100th anniversary and the 100th running of

the 500-mile race, which will occur in 2011. Attending the 500 should be right at the top of any serious race fan’s mustdo list and being there during this wonderful period made the pilgrimage even more special. So did the possibility that one of two Australians competing – Ryan Briscoe and Will ❯

The Speedway opened in August 1909. The first auto race was a two-lap, five-mile standing start won by Louis Schwitzer. However, accidents in the initial events on the surface of crushed stone sprayed with tar convinced the management that a paved surface was necessary for the safety of drivers.

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A 1934 Indianapolis 500 credential that inspired the Centennial Era logo.

AJ Foyt, left, led eight times for 71 laps en route to victory in the 1961 Indianapolis 500.

Power – were in with a great chance of victory. The IMS story began when four men – Arthur C Newbury, Frank H Wheeler, Carl G Fisher and James A Allison pooled their resources to build the track. On August 19, 1909, the IMS hosted its ﬁrst motor car race, a ﬁve-mile sprint won by Stoddart Dayton driver, Louis Schwitzer. By meeting’s end, three crew members and two spectators had been killed, creating sensationalist newspaper stories as well as threats from the AAA to never sanction events at the Speedway again.

Indiana lieutenant governor Frank Hall wanted an end to what he called a “deadly and wasteful pastime” but Indianapolis mayor Charles Bookwater claimed “the Speedway is of inestimable value to the city”. Naturally there were calls for safety improvements, the most notable being a change in surface from crushed rock sprayed with tar to something more durable. New York engineer, Park Andrews, who had designed the track, suggested a concrete or brick solution. He preferred brick, which was adopted despite the

Nearly every Indianapolis 500 driver talked to the crowds at IMS through interviews with Tom Carnegie, including pole winner Joe Leonard, left, in 1968. 46

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extra expense. At a cost of around $700,000, the track was laid with 3.2 million bricks, and with it came the nickname, The Brickyard. The ﬁrst 500-mile race took place on May 30, 1911. Known then as the 500-mile International Sweepstakes, the event was won by Ray Harroun driving a Marmon Wasp. Since that time the 500 has attracted the biggest names in motor racing, and made many more as well. As you enter the speedway it’s impossible not to be consumed with thoughts of the legends

Bob Burman makes a pit stop in his Benz during the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911. Burman finished 19th.

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A fleet of Studebaker race cars that competed in the 1932 Indianapolis 500. Cliff Bergere was the highestplacing Studebaker driver, in third.

The 500 may not be contested by the leading Formula One drivers of the day anymore but it hasn’t lost any of its appeal for race fans.

The IMS story began when four men – Arthur C Newbury, Frank H Wheeler, Carl G Fisher and James A Allison pooled their resources to build the track.

who have done battle there, such as Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, the Unser family, AJ Foyt and our own Jack Brabham just to name a few. You marvel at the sheer size of the place, and the speeds reached down the straights, or ‘stretches’ as the Americans say, and wonder how drivers and their riding mechanics bravely did so during the early years. While race tracks may seem the same the world over, come race day you are left in no doubt as to where you are. From the brass bands and marching girls – once the mainstay of Bathurst

Mario Andretti led 556 laps – No. 3 on the all-time list – during his illustrious Indianapolis 500 career.

The 1947 500 is on. Beregere takes the lead, Rose second, Horn third.

1000 pre-race entertainment but passed over in favour of the racier XXXX Angels – to songs belted out by Florence Henderson (aka Carol Brady) and Jim Nabors (aka Gomer Pyle, USMC), the event is as American as apple pie. So too, is the moving tribute to the men and women of the US armed forces, to which the Memorial Day race is dedicated to. History abounds in every direction. There’s the legendary Gasoline Alley, the imposing Pagoda that houses race control, the majestic score tower, the enormous grandstands and the place

where every team wants to be post race – Victory Lane. And let’s not forget the speedway’s museum, which houses one of the most incredible collections of race cars in the world and is worth the trip to Indy alone. The race no longer attracts the world’s very best drivers or constructors, and the IRL/CART spilt undoubtedly did harm, but that doesn’t diminish from the event’s appeal one little bit. To win at the Brickyard is still one of motorsport’s greatest and most satisfying achievements. The 500 is still a great race and will remain ML so for a long time to come.

Ray Harroun drove the Marmon Wasp to a victory and into racing immortality in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911. Note the rear-view mirror on the car, believed to be an automotive first.

Kissing The Brickyard’s famous bricks has become a tradition for many race fans.

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WEBB OF

Intrigue Mick Webb delves deeper into motorsport’s murky waters of ‘interpreting’ the rule book and comes up with some interesting stories.

ell, last month’s column certainly got readers’ attention and plenty of you want to know more about what Aussie racers have gotten away with. ‘Interpreting’ the rules has been going on as long as I have been in motor racing and I reckon I have only seen the tip of the iceberg. I was still an apprentice mechanic when I started working on race cars with Tubby Ritter at Stillwell’s and I learned Bib Stillwell would bend the rules, no matter what, to win. We just read the rules diﬀerently to how other people read them. And that is a philosophy Harry Firth went by as well. There are many ways to read a rule book and regulations and you always read them to your advantage. I can still remember, in the very early ’80s, sitting in a Malvern workshop studying the CAMS manual religiously and working out what we needed to do, when this guy walked up behind me saying, “What are you doing?” I replied that I was just verifying a few modiﬁcations that I was going to do to the chassis. He took the book out of my hands, threw it in the bin and said, “build the fastest race car you can, don’t worry about the rules”. There were lots of little tricks you

could do to achieve that. Take ride-heights for example. When we were running the Mazda RX-7s we tried to keep the air from going underneath the car so we wanted the chassis as low as possible; lower than the minimum ride-height permitted by the regulations. To get around this, we would present the car at scrutineering with balsa wood jammed in between the spring coils. After two laps, the car would lower itself by squashing the balsawood down. You could buff the sidewall of a tyre so that you couldn’t read its size, which might have been a half-inch wider than the regulations allowed. There have been a few cars over the years running nitrous oxide. Being involved in the performance engine business for so long and having tested road cars that we fitted it to, I was aware of the noise difference when nitrous kicked in. There was a certain Sports Sedan that raced against us at a Calder night meeting one year that blasted past everybody. All of a sudden, a third of the way down the straight, he gained 100 horsepower. There is a challenge to all of this and that’s the fun part. Firstly, you have to gain an advantage and then you have to keep it under wraps and not get caught. When you discovered what others had done you usually said nothing because they probably knew things that we did

and were getting away with and you didn’t want to have a total shit-fight at a race meeting. You just made their main mechanic aware that you knew what was going on and the offending item was removed for the next race meeting. That wasn’t always the case when the stakes were high. I was team manager when Allan Moffat and John Harvey won the opening round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship at Monza, Italy and discovered the six BMWs that had finished ahead of us used lightweight bodyshells. It was only discovered by chance. I watched them washing the cars and in Europe they had big diameter hoses, so it was a fair old stream of water being used. I thought my eyes were playing tricks when I saw the roofs bowing under the water pressure. I walked straight over and gave a roof a push and I could feel it was paper thin. I told John Lindell, who was Holden’s head of motorsport in those days. John wanted me to prove it to him so I walked over amongst the six German mechanics that were around the cars and I pushed my hand on top of the bonnet and the roof. The mechanics were yelling at me in German but I had enough front to do it. John then made the necessary arrangements to protest. The BMWs were subsequently excluded from the event and we were awarded the win. – Mick Webb MotorSportLegends

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