MotorSport Legends Issue 14

MotorSport Legends THE MAGAZINE THAT BRINGS YOUR MOTORSPOR T MEMORIES BACK TO LIFE www.motorsportlegends.com.au

Tom Walkinshaw: a great life

ISSUE 14 May-Jul 2011

ISSN 1835-5544

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Contents

Editorial Sons of guns create interest.

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News Who did what on the historic and nostalgia motorsport scenes.

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Moffat: Brock’s nemesis 10-21 He was a hero to Ford fans as he took on the King of the Mountain and often came out on top.

Historic Racer 23-30 Welcome to the eighth edition of our historic racing section, which includes coverage of the New Zealand Motor Racing Festival at Hampton Downs and the Phillip Island Classic.

Webb of Intrigue 31 Mick’s not scared to tell it how it was.

Tribute to a Great Scot 32-36 Our man Foges pays homage to Tom Walkinshaw and his legacy to motorsport in both Australia and internationally.

Racing Heritage 38-40 They say racing improves the breed and Aston Martin is the perfect example of this truism.

Preserving great Mercs 42-45 We take a tour to the Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart.

No boundaries 46-48 Joy Rainey doesn’t let anyone or anything stand in her way.

Touring Car Masters 50 Bowe opens his 2011 account with twin victories in Adelaide.

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Contributors in this issue Glenis Lindley In this issue Glenis catches up with one of Australian motorsport’s true legends – multiple Bathurst winner Allan Moffat. He drove many marques, including Mazdas, Holdens and Fords during his career, but the Blue Oval fans claim him as one of their own.

Mark Fogarty Foges is known as the man who gets the big interviews, and he’s not scared to ask the hard questions. This sometimes makes him some enemies along the way, but he shared a mutual respect with the late Tom Walkinshaw and he pays homage to the Great Scott in this issue of Motorsport Legends.

David Dowsey Racing is in Aston Martin’s DNA, which has improved its road-going cars over the years. Inside this issue of Motorsport Legends, David Dowsey takes a look at both the road-going and racing history of this great British marque.

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 Craig Fryers Raamen Pty Ltd (03) 9873 8282 Contributors Glenis Lindley, Paul Marinelli, Geoffrey Harris, Mark Fogarty Brian Reed, David Dowsey, Adrian Musolino and Mick Webb.

Photographers Autopics.com.au, John Doig, Glenis Lindley, James Baker, Andrew Hall, John Lemm, and Sportsimages/ Darryl Seymour.

Advertising Manager Jennifer Gamble Phone: 0431 451 470 Email: advertising@ motorsportlegends.com.au Distributors Fairfax Media Publication Solutions 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 14 of MotorSport Legends magazine. MotorSport Legends includes motor racing nostalgia and historic events.

I

enjoy motorsport because it is so unique from any other sport, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn from other disciplines.

One thing that I love about Australian Rules Football is the father-son rule, which ensures that second-generation players end up playing for the teams their fathers did.

While we don’t have any such rule in motorsport we have ended up with two ‘sons of guns’ this season at Dick Johnson Racing – Steve Johnson and James Moffat (pictured above with yours truly) – racing in the V8 Supercar Championship.

I can’t wait to see how this pair goes during the season and, perhaps more importantly, how the Ford fans react to having the Johnson and Moffat names together in Blue Oval-badged cars.

There is no arguing that their dads

– Allan Moffat and Dick Johnson – were true Ford heroes of the ATCC. We’ve featured Dick in the pages of this publication on a number of occasions and it is with great pleasure that we are able to give you the complete Allan Moffat story as our cover feature in this issue.

Moffat Snr is best known as the late, great Peter Brock’s main rival in the ’70s and ’80s, so how good would it be if James Brock – son of the King of the Mountain – somehow ended up driving a Holden against Steven and James in Fords? Right at the moment it doesn’t appear as if that will happen, but what a promotional coup it would be for the promoters if it did.

On another matter all together, I can’t believe that the Clipsal 500 and the Phillip Island Classic found themselves on the same weekend in March. I don’t know

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who to hold responsible – CAMS or the individual promoters of each event – but really guys, two of the biggest motorsport events on the annual calendar scheduled for the same weekend when there are 52 weekends in a year? I know plenty of people who would normally go to both events who had to make a decision on which one to go to this year. I understand that Phillip Island is traditionally held on the weekend before the AGP, so it seems to me that it wouldn’t be too hard for the powers-that-be to make sure no other major events are held on that weekend.

Anyway, that’s my prattle for this issue, so until next time, drive safely on and off the race track.

Cheers, – Allan Edwards, Managing Editor

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NEWS

WORKHORSE REUNITED WITH DRIVER An extraordinary vehicle was reunited with its equally extraordinary driver at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.

Four-time Australian touring car champion Allan Moffat drove the car once described as “the greatest touring car Australia has ever seen” at Albert Park.

Moffat acquired the Boss 302 Mustang, which he described as his favourite race car, in early 1969. Though it never carried him to an ATCC title it did win 101 times from its 151 starts.

The motorsport legend first spied the 1969 Mustang when he was a test driver for Ford in America and the car was on the drawing board.

Ford later used the model in Trans-Am and Moffat said he wanted to bring one Down Under because he “knew it could do some damage”.

Moffat was given one of the Mustangs and he went on to win three 10-lap races the first time out at Sandown in 1969.

Moffat in his famous Mustang at Sandown during 1969.

The car never won an ATCC title but it became famous for Moffat’s ferocious battles with even more muscular beasts like Bob Jane’s Camaro and Norm Beechey’s Monaro.

The last time Moffat raced it in anger was at Christchurch in New Zealand in 1975 when he had another

ding-dong battle with Jim Richards.

Moffat later stored the car in the USA, where he had hoped to sell it, but it was Australian collector David Bowden who bought the car, sight unseen, in 1995.

Bowden labels it “the best muscle car Australia has ever had” and has reputedly

refused offers of up to two million dollars for this prized piece of American-Australian racing history.

After doing a familiarisation run around the Albert Park track, Moffat then proudly showed off the Trans-Am Boss Mustang in demonstration laps at this year’s Grand Prix. MSL

HOLDEN RACING TEAM TURNS 21 A commemorative birthday cake was cut to celebrate 21 years of the Toll Holden Racing Team in February.

Exactly 21 years to the day when the team made its race debut at the now-defunct Amaroo Park Raceway in Sydney on February 25, 1990, HRT held a party at its race headquarters in Clayton, Melbourne.

At Amaroo, the first round of the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship, then-team manager Win Percy drove the team’s #16 VL Commodore SS Group A SV to 14th after starting 16th.

After a humble start, 6

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Above: 2011 drivers James Courtney and Garth Tander with Walkinshaw Performance boss Craig Wilson (far right) and City of Kingston Mayor Ron Brownlees (far left).

Percy scored HRT’s first ever podium at the fifth round of the championship when he finished third at Lakeside in May 1990.

Percy and Allan Grice then combined to deliver HRT its first ever race victory in October that year, winning the Bathurst 1000.

The team now has six driver’s titles to its name and six Bathurst 1000 victories.

Besides Percy and Grice, HRT has had legends including the late, great Peter Brock, Mark Skaife, Greg Murphy and Craig Lowndes in previous driver line-ups.

Current driver Garth Tander said the party was in recognition of everyone that has worked at HRT over the years and contributed to its winning heritage.

“Driving for the Toll Holden Racing Team is a great honour and it makes me even more proud to be here today celebrating 21 years of achievement,” he said. MSL

RARE COMPETITION CARS GO UNDER THE HAMMER

LEYBURN SPRINTS: A WORK OF ART About 725 metres of concrete barriers at the Leyburn Sprints track will be adorned with local artists’ work.

RoadTek, the Queensland Government’s road construction operation, has donated the 100 safety barriers to the not-for-profit Leyburn Sprints Committee last year.

The donation will save thousands of dollars in annual costs of hiring and transporting temporary barriers for the Darling Downs annual classic motor sprints event, allowing the Committee its goal of freeing more of the event proceeds for future development and distribution to community projects and organisations.

Work beautifying the barriers was expected to have started at the time of press with some of it expected to be completed before the 16th edition of the Sprints is staged on August 27-28.

The results promise to provide a new and growing tourist attraction for Leyburn.

Leyburn professional artist and art teacher Elizabeth Young will lead the artist task force.

Murals and paintings will depict scenes and people from the colourful history of the township, once a gold-mining centre.

They also will record highlights of the round-the-houses

Sprints, one of Australia’s most renowned historic motorsport competitions, and the event it commemorates, Leyburn’s 1949 running of the Australian Grand Prix.

Committee President Ann Collins said the art project would not only improve the appearance of the barriers in their permanent positions, but also provide a new tourist attraction for Leyburn.

“Elizabeth Young and her fellow artists face a large but exciting challenge,” she said.

“It will be a long-term project to decorate all 725 metres, but the results will provide something new for Leyburn visitors to see, especially for the thousands who come every year to the Sprints.”

Paint was also donated for the project. MSL

LETTER TO THE EDITOR I do love MSL and enjoy the read each time it comes across my path.

I read with interest Tony Whitlock’s story about the AGP at Calder. I always found it a fascinating period in the race’s history for the colour Bob Jane brought to the race when by the end of F5000 it was in danger of becoming a footnote in Australian racing history. Tony makes the assertion that the Australian Grand Prix is the world’s second oldest Grand Prix. This is a claim I’ve heard often, I first heard it when I was a kid, but it’s fairly obviously bogus.

While it’s universally recognised that the French Grand Prix is the

A number of rare cars, including a 1953 Ferrari used in the grueling Carrera Panamericana, were due to go under the hammer at RM Auctions’ debut sale in Italy in May. The 1953 Ferrari 250 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta competition coupé, chassis number 0352 MM/0239 EU, was one of just 32 built and was initially delivered new to Mexican collector, Efrain Ruiz Echeverria.

The well-known privateer racer immediately entered the car in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana, recording a strong top 10 finish.

Echeverria’s result was considered an outstanding achievement by a private owner because the first six cars were factory-entered Ferraris and Lancias.

A string of prominent Mexican collectors has owned the car since, and besides being displayed at a number of world leading events, including the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, it returned to competition at the 2004 Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca, California, driven by experienced vintage racer, Pablo Gonzalez.

It was expected to fetch between $3.6 million AU and $4.5 million AU. Another consignment at the auc-

eldest at 1906, several other Grands Prix pre-date Australia. The Italian Grand Prix was first run at Brescia in 1921. The Spanish Grand Prix was first held for open wheelers in 1923 at Sitges-Terramar, but a sports car race under the same name was held at 1913 at a place called Guadarrama.

The grandeur of Spa-Francorchamps first held the Belgian Grand Prix in 1925. The British Grand Prix was first held at Brooklands in 1926, the same year the German Grand Prix first wizzed up and down the autobahns of AVUS (in Berlin) before moving to the Nurburgring in 1927. Even Morocco, then still a French colony, pre-dates the Australian Grand Prix. In time the Ain-Diab circuit would hold a Formula

tion is an ultra-rare 1965 Ford GT Works Prototype Roadster, chassis number GT/111, one of just five prototype roadsters built.

It was one of only five prototype open GT Roadsters that the UKbased Ford Advanced Vehicle Operations built during early 1965 and Sir John Whitmore first tested the car at the 1965 Le Mans trials, prior to it being selected as a Works entrant in the Targa Florio.

Sir Whitmore joined and American driver Bob Bondurant ran as high as third place in the endurance road race before accident damage sidelined the car.

After 40 years in hibernation, the chassis was rediscovered in 2006 and following a painstaking restoration GT/111 reappeared on the race circuit in 2007 at the Goodwood Revival.

It has since gone on to race very competitively at some of Europe’s most prestigious events and is expected to fetch between $3.4 million AU and $4 million AU. A 1955 Ferrari 375 MM Pinin Farina Berlinetta and 1938 TalbotLago T150C-SS Teardrop Coupé are other lots of just 30 elite automobiles to be offered during the May 21 sale. MSL

1 Grand Prix in 1958. That race, one of a number of pre-war races held in North Africa by the French and the Italians at places like Algiers (Algeria) and most famously Tripoli (Libya), dated back to the first of the Moroccan races, held on a different Casablancan circuit in 1925.

The United States Grand Prix technically dates back far enough to grab the ‘second oldest’ tag, when a race called the American Grand Prize (forcibly translated from the French original) was run fairly consistently between 1908 and 1915.

All before the first Phillip Island race in 1928 (or the Maroubra race in 1927 if you prefer).

- Mark Jones

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NEWS

BOWE REFUTES FRANCEVIC John Bowe (right) has disputed claims made by former Volvo Dealer Team teammate Robbie Francevic (far right) in the last edition of Motorsport Legends.

In the article A Kiwi in a Swedish Taxi (issue 13), Francevic alleged that upon his arrival, the Australian Touring Car Championship team gave preference to Bowe.

“When John Bowe came on board it was the whole team against me,” Francevic told Motorsport Legends.

Francevic went on to add that he did not get along with team manager John Sheppard because the cars were not fast enough.

“At the debriefs I’d ask for a stiffer sway bar, then go the

car in readiness for the next session and the bar would not be changed, only to be told that John wanted to try it on his car.

“In the end I had to play the team politics games as

that was the only way I could get any changes done to my car.”

Bowe affirmed that Francevic’s recollection of the Volvo Dealer Team was incorrect.

“I am a big fan of your magazine and have a lot of time for history but the way the story is told about Robbie Francevic’s time with the Volvo Dealer team is taking very serious liberties with the truth,” he wrote to Motorsport Legends.

“I am intending to finish a book in the not too distant future and then you can read what really happened or alternatively, ask John Sheppard.

“I thought you would have done that instead of just writing the strangely twisted memories that came from Robbie’s mouth without checking the facts from people who were there.” MSL

VINTAGE GP BUGATTI REAPS $1.3M A French private collector paid €943,000 ($1.3 million AUD) for a 1933 Bugatti Type 51 Grand Prix two-seater which Bonhams auctioned in Paris, France early February.

The car drew competitive bidding both from within the auction room at the Grand Palais, which is one of the city’s most prestigious venues, and on the phone.

Carrying chassis number 51153, the car is thought to have been part of the factory’s own racing team because it was initially registered to Automobiles Ettore Bugatti in Molsheim, the town where the famous manufacturer was founded.

Rene Dreyfus is understood to have driven the car at Spa, Dieppe, Nice and Pescara in 1933.

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Molsheim resident Giovanni Alloatti bought the car in 1934 and is thought to have used it in the 1934 Targa Florio but he crashed it in the early stages.

Well-known Bugatti agent, Jack Lemon Burton, brought the Bugatti to the United Kingdom and it was used in British club racing

before it was sold to America where it was dismantled.

According to auction house Bonhams the Bugatti was a “collection of bits” when FitzRoy John Somerset, the fifth Baron Raglan, bought it in 1979 from an American owner who had relocated to France.

Lord Raglan, whose pas-

sion for Bagattis began when he was 18, spent two-and-ahalf years lovingly restoring the car.

The regal Bugatti enthusiast was also a Patron and former Chairman of the Bugatti Owners’ Club and trustee of the Bugatti Trust before his death in January last year. MSL

SENNA HITS THE BIG SCREEN

LEGENDS STAR AT FPV OPEN DAY Motorsport legends Colin Bond, Kevin Bartlett, John Goss, Murray Carter and FPV Ambassador Allan Moffat caused quite a stir at the Ford Performance Vehicles open day in February.

They were so popular at the day, held at FPV’s Campbellfield headquarters, that a scheduled autograph session needed to be extended.

FPV General Manager, Rod Barrett, said it was great to see so many devoted FPV fans

enjoying the day.

“The appearance of our motorsport legends was definitely the highlight of the day, with crowds willing to put in the long wait to meet their heroes,” Barrett said.

“We also had queues for the factory tours and FPR driver autographs, which is testament to the popularity of open day each year; it just keeps getting bigger and better.”

More than 5000 Ford fans turned out for the event, which

also featured access to the FPV production and engine facility and tours of the Ford Performance Racing workshop.

FPV’s new supercharged V8 range was on display, along with more than 230 Ford, Tickford and FPV models from past and present eras, all from participating car clubs and owners.

The event raised more than $7000 for FPV’s official charity which is the Zaidee Rainbow Foundation. MSL

Seventeen years after his death at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, the legend of triple world champion Ayrton Senna is set to grow with the upcoming release of Senna, a documentary directed by BAFTA winning filmmaker, Asif Kapadia.

Senna had its Australian premier at the Adelaide Film Festival where it was awarded Best Documentary, with judges describing it as “thrilling and poignant”.

There’s no narration or distorting of events, just a chronological rundown of Senna’s career, from go-karts to his first F1 test to his championship successes to his death at Imola. Although it seems like an awfully simplistic way to portray Senna’s life, his career is in effect the perfect three act structure for a film – the rise, the conflict (with rival Alain Prost) and the demise.

The film’s producers were given access to archival material including Senna’s mesmerising onboard laps from Suzuka and Monaco.

Senna will be screened at the Sydney Film Festival in June followed by an Australian release, earmarked for July 21, 2011. MSL

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ALLAN MOFFAT

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BLUE OVAL WARRIOR Multiple Bathurst winner Allan Moffat is one of Australian motorsport’s true legends. He drove many marques, including Mazda, Holden and Ford during his career, but the Blue Oval fans claim him as one of their own. This is his story...

STORY & PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLENIS LINDLEY

T

hink Ford, think Moffat – unless of course you’re a Queenslander, then the name Dick Johnson is probably firmly etched in

your mind.

We all associate the late Peter Brock with Holden, and so staunch rival Allan Moffat’s name is synonymous with Ford from an era when these legendary greats staged their memorable dices.

Now please don’t jump up and down saying, “Doesn’t she know Brocky and Moffat ended up driving together at Holden?”

Yes, she does, but that came later in the picture, so let’s start at the beginning of Moff ’s celebrated career.

Regarded as one of Australia’s leading

Left: Victory at Surfers Paradise in 1982. Top: In the Mustang 302 at Warwick Farm in 1970. Above: At Sandown 1964 in the Ford Lotus Cortina.

legends, Moffat is actually Canadianborn, hailing from the cold country of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He came to Australia with his parents around Christmas 1959, when his father was transferred to Melbourne with tractor

firm Massey Ferguson.

A job as a marketing cadet with Volkswagen Australia and an enrolment at Monash University to study economics and politics was part of Moffat’s early life in Australia before he purchased his first road car – a used Triumph TR3A – which later doubled as a race car at Calder.

“Not surprisingly, I didn’t last all that long at uni – my studies took second place,” he admits.

Returning home to Canada around Christmas 1963, Moffat attended the Indianapolis 500 the following year. He decided there and then that motor racing was where his future lay.

“But in those days I hardly knew understeer from oversteer,” he confesses.

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ALLAN MOFFAT

At Calder Park in a Triumph TR3A during 1962.

With sheer determination and total dedication (some of his trademark characteristics), Moffat willingly became an unpaid ‘gofer’ for Team Lotus.

“I volunteered to wash their cars, drive the trucks and become spare parts manager,“ he says. “Plus, I met Colin Chapman. I slept in the parts truck before they took pity on me, gave me a room and even fed me.”

This all paid dividends. Later, when the Team Lotus Cortinas were offered for sale, the young enthusiast was able to purchase one, using money borrowed from his from dad. It came cheaply ($4500), along with a carload of spares, and so began his professional motor racing career.

“I shipped my Cortina to Australia

as fast as I could and participated in the inaugural Sandown 6-Hour race in November 1964,” says Moffat. “Inexperience denied me victory as, after lapping a slower car, I hit a fence, but I still finished fourth.”

Then came a phone call from America (from Peter Quenet, “one of my first guardian angels”) asking if he could return to Detroit to run the two other unsold Cortinas, so back he went. Race wins, lap records, learning about thorough car preparation and other aspects of team organisation followed as he worked his way up the ladder.

Sponsorship from Goodyear was another step in the right direction, and it wasn’t long before Moffat had his eyes focused on the Trans-Am Series, where

victory soon came his way. It was all the more satisfying because, along with Jochen Rindt, he became the only driver to win a Trans-Am race in an under 2.0litre car – and against top-name drivers.

A year later Moffat was driving Mustangs, where winning races became part of his world. He proved that not only could he succeed in a little car, he could master big Mustangs and Cougars, racing against the likes of Dan Gurney and Parnelli Jones.

The Canadian’s performances in the US in places such as Watkins Glen to Washington, DC, netted many victories and new, different opportunities. With his special brand of competitiveness and skill Moffat could drive anything, so when the offer arose he jumped at the

Bruce McPhee and Moffat at the start of Bathurst in 1970.

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Above: Moffat with John French at Sandown in 1969. Right: Moffat in his Mustang leads Bob Jane’s Camaro at Oran Park during 1971.

chance to become a test driver for Kar Kraft, Ford’s Detroit-based advanced vehicle division. Edsel Ford (Henry Ford’s grandson), described him as dedicated and single-minded in his approach, and thanks to this commitment Moffat became an established name – amazing in such a short time.

“I also decided I enjoyed living in Australia,” explains Moffat, who returned in 1969, bringing his beloved Trans-Am Mustang Boss 302 with him. That kickstarted his professional driving career here and put him in the public eye, his car sporting major sponsorship from Coca-Cola. Prior to that, advertising/ sponsorship deals weren’t allowed but CAMS, in their wisdom, had a change of heart.

Those were the ‘heavy’ days of iconic muscle car racing in the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC), which featured some epic battles between rival stars such as Stormin’ Norm Beechey, Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan and Bob Jane.

However, it was Moffat’s famous exploits at the wheel of the factory team Falcons that established him as one of the all-time touring car greats, even though he tasted success with cars as varied as the Lotus Cortina, Mustang, Mazda RX-7, Cougar, Cosworth Capri, Chevy Monza and Ford Sierra (to name a few).

His record speaks for itself – four rewarding Bathurst victories; four hardfought touring car championships; six Sandown endurance titles; the Austral-

ian Sports Sedan Championship, and the inaugural Sports Car Championship (in a Porsche 934); plus class wins in international 24 hour classics at Daytona, Spa and Le Mans, along with other notable victories like the 1975 Sebring 12 Hour with BMW. Moffat’s decision to debut at Bathurst in a Ford XW GTHO Phase I in 1969 set the scene for him to establish himself at the top, but his car had other ideas that year.

“Bathurst really enthralled me,” he says. “I was really taken by it, and after seeing the track for the first time I knew I’d spend quite a number of years there.”

Those brutish Falcons, purposebuilt to end the V8-powered Monaro’s domination of 1968, suffered ❯

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ALLAN MOFFAT

Left: Harry Firth, Moffat and Peter Brock. Above: In the GTHO at Warwick Farm in 1970.

Below: Moffat, Alan Hamilton and Colin Bond.

“I THOUGHT PETER WOULD SKID OFF TOO, BUT HE WAS SUCH A CHEEKY DEVIL, HE DROVE RIGHT UP THE DIRT EMBANKMENT, AVOIDED ME AND WON THE RACE …” alarming tyre-wear problems, and that failure consequently handed victory to Holden drivers Colin Bond and Tony Roberts. Ironically, it was Harry Firth who masterminded the Monaro victory, having split from Ford to join the opposition and establish a semi-factory Holden Dealer Team. It was even more ironic because when Moffat ran Lotus Cortinas in America in 1966, Firth went over and drove with him in the TransAm races.

By 1970, tyre-shredding troubles had been overcome and Al Turner, sent from

America as Firth’s replacement, dug deep into Ford’s ‘hot-parts bin’. They produced the Phase II for Bathurst, and with it came Moffat’s first win on the Mountain. He’d already effortlessly clinched the Sandown endurance race, so after putting the GTHO on pole the rest was easy. Teammate Bruce McPhee followed Moffat home, giving Ford an opposition-crushing, morale-boosting 1-2 result.

Ford upped its act yet again in 1971, producing the GTHO Phase III, and Moffat conquered the Mountain with a

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resounding start-to-finish victory.

“There were a few hidden dramas that year, with a faulty alternator threatening to end my race, but we hung in there,” Moffat recalled. Those were the days when drivers could elect to run the whole race solo, which he preferred.

In 1972, Moffat put his Falcon on pole for the third consecutive year. He was on track to notch up victory number three until he hit a puddle approaching Skyline in horrendously wet conditions and slid off.

“I thought Peter (Brock, who was hot

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Moffat in the Brut 33 Mustang at Sandown during 1974.

on Moat’s bumper in his nimble little Torana XU1) would skid o too, but he was such a cheeky devil, he drove right up the dirt embankment, avoided me and won the race,� he explained.

All wasn’t lost for Ford, however, as good friend John French claimed second in the Bryan Byrt XY Phase III. Because of growing concerns over high-performance ‘supercars’ in the hands of impressionable young drivers, plans for a Phase IV based on the XA Falcon were shelved. With Bathurst extended to 1000km in 1973, Mof-

fat shared his Falcon XA GT with Geoghegan. This time ‘David’ (Brock with Doug Chivas in the Torana XU1) couldn’t get the better of ‘Goliath’, so Moat claimed another mountain triumph.

Ford then dropped a bombshell by withdrawing factory support, so Moffat and other campaigners were forced to form privateer teams. Moat’s next Mount Panorama victory came in 1977 (teamed with Jacky Ickx), and was memorable for the famous side-by-side 1-2 ďŹ nish with Colin Bond.

By now, Ford’s most credible driver was in a class of his own. He was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) the following year for exceptional services to motorsport.

I ďŹ rst met Moat at Bathurst in 1976, and found him none too friendly towards lady photographers. I also found him rather intimidating, but complexity has always been part of the persona. “He was the most intense person I’ve ever met, and he found the public side of life diďŹƒcult to cope with,â€? said Ronda Matthews, Moat’s Race Secreâ?Ż

1 51 1/26 Burgess Rd Bayswater Nth Vic 3153 MotorSportLegends

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ALLAN MOFFAT

Going down The Dipper at Bathurst in 1976.

Moffat with ‘Captain’ Peter Janson (below) and with Colin Bond (bottom right), racing the XC Falcon at Amaroo Park (right) and in the pits at Bathurst (below).

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tary of more than 10 years. “He envied drivers like Peter, Dick and Colin for their ability to mix with fans and sign autographs for hours.

“Allan’s world was all car preparation, focusing on overseeing every aspect himself. Mixing the two elements on a race weekend were opposing goals for him.”

It’s been said that Moffat had a good sense of humour camouflaged by intensity. Perhaps that’s why he seldom acknowledged me, but one day at a press conference he said with a big grin, “thanks for coming gentlemen – and lady,” pointing to me. Finally I felt accepted!

Since those early daunting days (for me) Moffat has mellowed considerably. His once-perceived smug attitude and aloofness has been replaced by a genuinely caring, accommodating and friendly manner.

Nowadays, relaxed and stress-free, he happily signs autographs for hours at a time at places like the Muscle Car Masters and Legends at the Gold Coast 600.

Winning Bathurst is obviously every driver’s dream, but back in the day the ATCC was another milestone for drivers seeking to establish themselves. Moffat

Above: The famous Bathurst one-two form finish in 1977.

debuted his Lotus Cortina in Australia in 1964, switching to his much-loved red Mustang in 1969 for a serious attempt, but sadly never clinched the ATCC in this car – although 101 wins wasn’t a bad effort! Success eventually came in 1973 (in a GTHO), followed by three more

ATCC titles, the last in 1983, in his giant-killing Mazda RX-7 – “one of the easiest cars ever to drive” – prepared in Moffat’s workshop, with factory engines supplied.

“They were so reliable. It was a shock for die-hard Ford fans, but it was a

necessity then,” he said, referring to the rule changes of the time. And his alltime favourite car? “The Mustang!” he responds without hesitation.

Some years down the track came another upheaval for Ford fans: Moffat joining the Holden ranks. While ❯

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ALLAN MOFFAT

Moffat co-drove with Yoshimi Katayama in a Mazda RX-7 at Bathurst in 1982 finishing sixth. Below: Sharing with Gregg Hansford in 1984, he failed to finish the Great Race. Bottom: At Surfers Paradise in 1984.

… HIS GIANT-KILLING MAZDA RX-7 – “ONE OF THE EASIEST CARS EVER TO DRIVE” – PREPARED IN MOFFAT’S WORKSHOP, WITH FACTORY ENGINES SUPPLIED.

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arch-rivals Brock and Moffat had tremendous respect for one another on the track, no-one expected them to join forces.

“He was a gentleman,” Moffat said. “It was a pleasure to race against him but in those days we were never really buddies.

“Then in 1985, when I had no job (the rules had changed again and the RX-7 was deemed ineligible to race), Peter offered me a drive. He was so gracious.”

They won their first race for Holden on debut (the 1986 Wellington 500, NZ). “Why did it take so long?” was the first thing they both said afterwards.

“In 1986, in practice for Bathurst, I was following another driver over Skyline and dropped a wheel off the track causing the Commodore to slam into the wall,” Moffat said of another of Brock’s gracious moments. “It was a scary moment but the nice thing was there were no recriminations from Peter.”

This was a tough era, which saw them racing together in Australia and internationally, before the well-publicised split between Holden and Brock (over the infamous polarizer, amongst other issues).

Moffat later linked up with John Harvey, purchased a VL Commodore from Brock, and won the first World Touring Car Championship round in Monza in 1987, plus they finished a commendable

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Above: Moffat celebrates victory at Sandown 1988 with Gregg Hansford and the crew. Right: Klaus Niedzwiedz and Frank Biela on their way to second at Bathurst 1989 in a Moffat-prepared Sierra.

fourth outright in the Spa 24 Hour. But that was as good as it got.

No more Bathurst victories or ATCC trophies came Moffat’s way either, but there were some close results and almosts for Allan Moffat Racing.

In 1987 he originally entered the Commodore for Bathurst, but switched to the new breed of turbocharged Ford Sierra RS Cosworth then taking Europe by storm. He almost snared his fifth Bathurst win in 1988 in the ANZ-sponsored car with co-drivers Klaus Niedzwiedz and the late Gregg Hansford.

Holding a three lap lead with about 25 laps remaining, they looked unbeatable until the engine blew.

“The win was in our hands; it should never have happened,” explained the still-devastated Moffat. “It was our mistake.”

Moffat’s former teammate Colin Bond has been tagged “Mr Versatile”.

But if we take into account the range of vehicles successfully driven by the gifted and fearless Canadian, there’s probably not much he couldn’t master, either, once he set his mind to it.

Moffat chose his final victory – Japan’s Fuji 500 in 1989 with Klaus Niedzwiedz in an Eggenberger Sierra, the day after his 50th birthday – to quietly announce his retirement, well away from the fanfare and spotlight. He still maintains it was a very personal thing.

“I didn’t want to become an old fella limping into the car – like I saw when I went to Indianapolis,” he said.

Stepping into his Ford shoes was Brisbane battler Dick Johnson, who’d already earned his first Bathurst glory in 1981, ironically with one of Moff ’s former co-drivers, John French. It was the Moffat/French combo that gave the Ford Falcon GTHO its first win – the

1969 Sandown 3-Hour.

There is so much more to Moffat as an individual than can be mentioned here.

As a driver, his ability to coax a car home with his smooth driving style puts him amongst the sport’s best. Mick Webb, Moffat’s long-time crew chief, described his former boss as “a good, totally-focused and passionate driver”.

After retirement his interest in motorsport continued. He undertook various roles ranging from TV commentator to FPV ambassador. In 2004 he finally, and proudly, became an Australian citizen. And who was on hand to witness the occasion? None other than his old racing rival, by then close friend Peter Brock.

Prior to that, in 1999, Allan Moffat OBE was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame, acknowledging his tremendous contribution to Austral-

ian motorsport. More recently, he was voted the third best Australian touring car driver behind only Brock and Mark Skaife.

Moffat’s name continues to this day with sons Andrew and James. James has shown particular flair, rising through the ranks from Formula Ford to V8 Supercars. He made his Bathurst debut in 2010, sharing a Ford with Steve Richards, son of fellow racing legend Jim Richards.

This driving partnership came steeped in tradition, with Steve being the only man to emulate his famous father’s Bathurst success (he has two victories of his own). They finished just outside the top 10, but James, at 26 and now driving for Dick Johnson Racing, has youth on his side and many more years on the Mountain to come… with his proud father watching on. MSL

Andrew Miedecke and Charlie O’Brien with the Moffatprepared Falcon EB in the lead-up to the 1993 Bathurst 1000.

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Chris Amon’s NZ Festival

Tom Walkinshaw: a great life

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HISTORIC RACER

STORY BY GEOFFREY HARRIS PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM BARCLAY AND SPORTS IMAGES/DARRYL SEYMOUR

AMON’S PRODIGAL CHILD After initially rubbishing the idea of restoring his namesake car, Chris Amon lent a hand to turn it into a proper racer more than 30 years after its debut.

Amon AF101 was a very badly behaved child – and quickly banished. Now, though, in its late thirties, it’s getting an abundance of affection, even love, and that includes the father whose name it bears but who disowned it during its infancy.

Chris Amon and AF101 were reunited at this year’s New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing, which

celebrated the career of the great Kiwi racing driver of the 1960s and ’70s.

Many cars Amon raced – and others similar to cars he raced, at home and abroad – were part of the recent festival at Hampton Downs, a modern circuit located between Auckland and Hamilton (venue of NZ’s V8 Supercars street race), and quite close to Pukekohe.

Amon drove 81 types of ❯ MotorSportLegends

23

HISTORIC FEATURE

car in competition, excelling in sports cars – he won the Le Mans 24-Hours sports car classic with countryman Bruce McLaren – as well as F1.

Among the cars at the January festival was the Ferrari Dino 246T, perhaps the most popular of all open-wheelers to have raced in Australasia, certainly in the days of the old Tasman Series.

There was also a March 701-1 (though only on display), which was to have been the F1 car that gave Amon equal equipment, including a Ford DFV, to Jackie Stewart in 1970 and which had hung on a wall at the Donington Park Museum in Britain for almost four decades.

And from Amon’s youth, the A40 Special he started racing in. There was also the Maserati 250F in which, as a teenager, he so reminded F1 team boss Reg Parnell of Juan-Manuel Fangio the Brit enticed him to Europe and gave him his start in F1 before his 20th birthday.

It’s a career famous because somehow, cruelly, it never yielded a world championship grand prix victory, yet GP aficionados know

Chis Amon’s Austin A40 Special.

Peter Giddings’ Maserati 250F

Amon was one of the most exquisite talents of all.

For three years he was Ferrari’s number-one driver and, after the March experiment failed, he spearheaded French factory Matra’s F1 effort. His performance in

Amon in his Austin A40 Special with Peter Giddings’ Maserati 250F in the background.

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MotorSportLegends

Amon in his Ferrari 246.

it in the 1972 French GP at Clermont-Ferrand is legendary, even though the results place him third (following a puncture and long pitstop).

With a little luck Amon might have been world champion with Ferrari in

1968 and he holds, forever, the lap record for the old, real Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium in the March.

But so often he was let down by his machinery and through being in the wrong team at the wrong time.

Mario Andretti joked that Amon was so unlucky people would stop dying if he became a funeral director.

The post-Matra years were even sadder, especially when Amon and a business associate John Dalton built the AF101 for the 1974 season.

It was designed by the little-known Gordon Fowell, who had created the previous year’s Tecno. He also developed heavy equipment for the Australian mining industry and later, treadmills for gymnasiums.

Amon only got behind the wheel of the AF101 a

handful of times and it had just one GP start, at Jarama in Spain.

At the German GP, at the Nurburgring, Amon fell ill and mechanic and reserve driver Larry Perkins stepped into the cockpit, only to crash in practice and fail to qualify.

It was the first F1 car with its entire fuel tank between the engine and driver (a distance of 55cm) and thus put the driver well forward.

Amon felt it “had a large amount of potential”.

“With a bit of time and money it could have been pretty good,” he says. “But we never really got time to develop it. Every time I drove it something fell off it.”

In the end Amon would happily have set fire to it out of sheer frustration. And all the more galling that during the season he received offers to return to Ferrari, from Teddy Mayer at McLaren, and from Bernie Ecclestone, who then owned the team formerly operated by Jack Brabham and Ron Tauranac.

The AF101 vanished, seemingly without trace.

But a few years ago Ron Maydon, founder of Britain’s Masters Historic Racing, was in Germany talking to a guy in a workshop and noticed “a pile of bits” in the corner. He inquired what they were and the German replied: “A Formula 1 car – an Amon.”

Maydon did not immediately comprehend its significance. But he soon found himself the owner, very cheaply, of the bits and recalls the seller could not deliver them to him quick enough.

“Once I got the Amon back to my garage I sent Chris an email informing him of the wonderful news

Amon in the March 701-1 F1 car.

that the Amon AF101 had been saved for history and would shortly be returning to the tracks,” Maydon said.

“And could he give me any helpful hints!

“I quickly received a reply from Chris that basically said I should have left the car where it was as it had tried to kill him three times and would probably try to kill me, and that if I had any sense I would abandon the project.

“I suffered a mixture of heartbreak, annoyance and determination, but then – to his eternal credit – Chris sent me another email apologising for his initial message.

“He listed the things that they had got wrong with the car and what he thought could be done to correct them.

‘His overriding comment was that the car was ahead of its time, but they had not had money to develop it.”

Maydon entrusted the restoration to engineer Terry Carthy, who replaced many of the lightweight components with stronger parts.

“My first race in the Amon was the Historic GP of Monaco in 2006, where the car ran faultlessly,” Maydon said. “That evening I received a call from Amon

saying it was great to know the first time the car had ever finished a race was at Monaco!”

Soon after Adrian Newey, the legendary designer of Williams, McLaren and now Red Bull world championship-winning F1 cars, took a look at the AF101.

He told Maydon how pleased he was to see such a unique car back on the track and that Chris Amon had been one of his heroes.

“I told him we were having problems with the back end, so he took a look at it and within about 30 seconds he pointed at the front suspension and told me to weld a brace between two suspension arms. We went away and did this, and it transformed the car.

“Two years later I was back at Monaco and the car was even more magnificent – and it has continued to run perfectly since, apart from when I crashed in the tunnel at Monaco last year, which was 100 per cent driver error.

“Chris has been helpful throughout, and I’d been waiting six years – it was a two-year plan that turned into six years – to bring the car to New Zealand to reunite him with it and let him see how close he was in 1974 to having a brilliant car.”

Before the AF101 was shipped out Maydon emailed Amon saying: “I hope it’s going to behave itself for its daddy.”

Amon replied: “It never did. I hope it does better for its stepfather.”

Maydon happily drove the AF101 midfield during the Formula 5000 race at Hampton Downs, telling Amon he was “just keeping it nice” for him to do a few laps in.

When Amon’s turn came he gave the once-despised machine the thumbs-up.

“I loved it – it handles wonderfully now,” he says, his smile counting for more than any words can. For Maydon it was “mission accomplished”.

March 701-1, meanwhile, has not turned a wheel since 1971 and was bought last year by expatriate Kiwi Roger Wills, who now intends to give it a comprehensive overhaul and drive it in historic F1 races.

“It wasn’t one of my favourite cars, I’ve got to say,” Amon recalls. “In fact, I regretted the whole March thing from virtually the moment I decided to leave Ferrari and sign for March. But I suppose it wasn’t a bad car on a quick, smooth circuit.”

A painting of Amon ❯ MotorSportLegends

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HISTORIC FEATURE

THE NZ FESTIVAL The Formula 5000 Tasman Revival Series has not only given lots of great cars of yesteryear a new lease of competition life, it’s revived the tradition and spirit of overseas drivers visiting New Zealand and Australia during the southern hemisphere summer.

Visiting drivers figured prominently in the races at the NZ Festival of Motor Racing, with Canadian Jay Esterer (McRae GM1) notching up a hat-trick of victories on the second weekend after clouting the infield wall on the way up to the pit straight, bringing out the red flag, in the rainhit single F5000 race run the first weekend.

“After that weekend we needed to fix my car and everyone was so good about it,” Esterer said. “Roger Williams gave me a McRae nose cone and the Bursons (Aaron and Peter) gave me a radiator.”

British driver Mark Dwyer (Lola T400) spun 360 degrees on the startfinish straight in that first race but hit nothing and finished second.

Dwyer scored another podium the next weekend but suffered a bent front wing in the main race, while another Brit, young gun Michael Lyons (Lola T400), also scored two podiums during the festival – including runner-up to Esterer by just 0.02 seconds in the cracking 15-lap “Grand Prix” feature.

“I got round Jay at turn one, I got round him at turn two, I got round him at turn four and I had a damn

good try at getting round him at turn five – I’ve never passed a car so many times and not won the race,” says Lyons.

In the first race on the final day Lyons charged to fourth from the ninth row of the grid after clocking a non-finish the previous day.

Monaco-based Brit Peter Dunn (March 73A) was another impressive visitor with a pole position, two fourths and a sixth over the two weekends.

Kiwi Kenny Smith, approaching his 70th birthday in August, remained a huge presence, winning the first, shortened F5000 race of the festival in the ex-Teddy Pilette VDS Lola T430.

While he was second in one of the three races on the second weekend, it was a rather wretched festival for him – he had a sticking throttle early on, a broken half shaft in the second part of a modern Formula 1-style three-part qualifying session, which left him 10th on the grid, and had to change a rear tyre after a collision in the feature race.

Nonetheless, Smith was still his lively self – also racing in the super historics, Formula Ford’s NZ 40th birthday celebrations and the 1980s saloon and GTs (in a Toyota Corona).

F5000 newcomer Clark Proctor (March 73A), better known as a NZ V8s and Targa rallying competitor, took the final podium position in the “GP” – 14 seconds adrift of Esterer and Lyons.

Above: Jay Esterer in his McRae GM1. Left: Ken Smith in his Lola T430 and below: Peter Dunn (March 73A) and Esterer battle it out at Hampton Downs.

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driving the March at Spa by NZ motorsport artist Don Packwood sold at auction during a dinner at the festival for $9600 to trans-Tasman motor industry identity Neville Crichton.

The Ferrari 246? It’s now owned by American Graeme Adelman and was driven at the festival by Brit Rob Hall.

It was in this 2.4-litre six-cylinder car that Amon won the 1968 New Zealand International Grand Prix at Pukekohe and again the next week at Levin in the second round of the Tasman Series, beating a field that included Jim Clark in a Lotus 49 powered by a 2.5-litre Ford V8.

The next month the pair had a race-long dice at Sandown, trading the lead many times. Amon finished 0.1 seconds behind the Scotsman but has special memories of that day – it was to be Clark’s last victory, and little more than a month later he was killed in Germany.

The next year Amon won the Tasman Series.

When Amon recalls the many rivals and friends who died during his career he disputes his tag as the unluckiest of all GP drivers.

“People always say I was unlucky,” he says. “But when I think of all the guys we lost in racing in those days I think I’m actually the lucky one.”

His career began at 16 in a 1947 A40 Special that had been built and driven by Des Herrick as an A-grade speedway midget, initially with a Ford B4 engine and later a Hudson Terraplane.

It won the 1948 Mt Eden hill climb in Auckland and was used for an NZ speed record attempt in 1949. It changed hands and was converted to a circuit car with independent rear suspension,

but crashed heavily at a Wellington hill climb in 1956.

An 18-year-old Bruce McLaren rebuilt it with his mates Phil Kerr and Colin Beanland and, after more ownership changes, it ended up in Amon’s hands in 1959.

It was black with a Bugatti gearbox. Amon painted it red – perhaps a portent that he would be a Ferrari factory driver eight years later – and installed an A40 gearbox.

In 2006 Roger Herrick, great nephew of the A40 Special’s constructor, reclaimed it after 56 years in the hands of others and was delighted to see Amon drive it at Hampton Downs.

Amon was delighted, too, despite its quirks.

“I wondered, does it steer and does it stop?” says Amon, who ran out of fuel on his second lap in it. “You know, I never really ‘raced’ this car.

I did some hill climbs and sprints in it.

“I had planned to fit it with a Chrysler straight six engine – it would have been a total disaster!”

But what thrilled Amon most of all at Hampton Downs was the sight of his old Maserati 250F on the first weekend of the festival.

Chassis 2509 was built for the Owen Organisation in England and served as a test bed for the BRM P25 F1 cars it was developing.

Ken Wharton, Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn raced it before it was sold to Jack Brabham, who drove it four times before he then sold it to NZ. Amon handed his second race car, a 1500cc Cooper T41, and some cash to Kiwi race driver and car dealer Tony Shelley in exchange for the 250F in late 1961.

Twenty six 250Fs were built – the 250 signifying its 2.5-litre engine, the F

The Amon AF101 Cosworth in action.

representing it was an F1 machine. Chassis 2509 was one of only two with disc brakes and the only one with the oil tank beside the driver.

It has long been housed at the Southward Car Museum at Otaihanga on NZ’s North Island “It was a wonderful car, my favourite of all, I think,” says

Amon. “It did everything – it sounded great, it leaked oil, it had character. It was the car that got me to Europe.

“I loved it. You could steer it on the throttle. In fact, the quickest way around a corner was to throw it into a big slide and hold it there on the power.

“If I could ever recreate

anything it would be three laps around Wigram (the Christchurch airfield circuit) in that car, driving like I could then and with the car going like it went then. That would be the ultimate!”

Perhaps Amon should have been born a little earlier than 1943, so he could have raced in F1’s front-engined

era, but even in rear-engined cars some of his power slides were Fangio-esque. What memories.

The other great Kiwi race drivers, Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme, were lost too soon – McLaren testing one of his awesome CanAm sports cars at Goodwood in 1970, Hulme from a heart attack while driving a BMW (now meticulously maintained and raced in NZ) in 1992 at Bathurst.

Amon is New Zealand’s living legend, and this year’s NZ Festival of Motor Racing was proof again that he is worshipped by his countrymen in the way Australians revere Sir Jack Brabham and the late Peter Brock.

He may have been the unluckiest GP driver of all time, but NZ is extremely lucky and rightly proud to have him.

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27

HISTORIC FEATURE STORY BY BRIAN REED; PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOHN LEMM

ISLAND CLASSIC Record crowds, bumper fields and perfect weather combined to make the 2011 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport a truly memorable event.

Add in the fabulous displays, the celebration of a number of special landmarks and the presence of 30 international cars and drivers amongst the 500 entries racing at one of the world’s greatest motor racing circuits and it was just the right recipe for success.

Jaguar fans were on hand to honour 50 years of the famous E-Type, while the Porsche faithful celebrated 60 years of their favourite marque in Australia. Under the watchful eye of museum curator and special guest of the meeting Klaus Bischof, several famous racing Porsches were on display and were driven in the parade laps and regularity events. Included was the 1987 Le Mans winning 962 of Derek Bell/Hand Stuck/ Al Holbert. “Moby Dick” was there, (the 845bhp rocket ship that reached 366kph down Mulsanne Straight), the nimble RS60 Spyder that won both the Targa Florio road race and the Daytona 24 Hour race in 1960, and the 908/02 Targa winner of Mitter/Schutz of 1969. Others on display were the stunning 2003 V10 Carrera GT road car and Walter Rohrl’s World Rally Championship 911 which he

Peter Giddings through the Southern Loop in his 250F Maserati.

will drive again in the 2011 Targa Tasmania.

Phillip Island also celebrated 40 years of the Phase 3 XY GTHO Falcon, and John French, a former Ford works driver who qualified his GTHO alongside Moffat for the start of the 1971 HardieFerodo ‘500’, was a patron of the meeting. French previously co-drove with Moffat to win the 1969 Sandown ThreeHour Race and later teamed with Dick Johnson to win the 1981 Bathurst classic in the Tru Blu XD Falcon. Moffat, Johnson, and even VHRR President Ian Tate were on the receiving end of some great yarns told by the laconic Queenslander at the Saturday

night dinner.

Another Ford hero of this era was 80-year old Murray Carter, still competing for Ford in the Groups C and A touring car races. Other veterans of the sport at the Island still capable of acquitting themselves well in historic motorsport were former Bathurst winner Bryan Sampson (Lola 644e), George Hetrel (Bugatti Type 35C) and Ted Brewster (Morris Cooper ‘S’). Several others are rapidly approaching ‘four score years’ and are still out there enjoying their racing – such is the appeal of the sport.

One driver who is escaping before reaching this landmark is the effervescent John Mann who announced his retirement

from the sport after a final stirring drive in his Ford Mustang.

This year’s overseas contingent included drivers from USA, New Zealand, Denmark, Hong Kong, UK and South Africa. The 1976 Sana RD11 F5000 only arrived from South Africa at 9.30pm Friday night in time for owner Greg Mills to get to the Island.

Eleven cars came from the USA including three legendary Maserati 250Fs belonging to Peter Giddings, Tom Price and Jeffrey O’Neill. What a sight to see the three ‘Masers’ sideby-side thundering down the main straight with the Lago Talbot of Ron Townley tucked in behind!

Lilo Zicron brought out two cars from the States – his Lola T70 Spyder and another ‘big banger’ sports car, the Devon – while Bert Skidmore (a great name for a racing driver) had the beautiful 1966 Gurney Eagle F1. Other Americans included Ranson Webster (Porsche 956), Jacob Shalit (Porsche 911 RSR), Ed Swart (Lola T163) and Jonathon Ornstein (Webster).

A great UK supporter of the Phillip Island Classic,

Porsche 935/78, known as “Moby Dick”, leads the Porsche museum cars.

Not Le Mans, but Phillip Island – Russell Klempnich (Porsche 956C) leads Peter Harburg (Porsche 962C) over Lukey Heights.

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SHINES ON Andy Newell had his Palliser Formula Ford and Chevron B8, and Chris Wilson drove a genuine Ford GT40 which was previously raced by David Piper and was once owned by Australia’s Laurie O’Neil.

After five years of planning, James Owen brought out his Triumph TR5 from England.

He also plans to run in this year’s Targa Tasmania. The trip hasn’t been easy for this privateer, but as he says: “If it was easy, everyone would do it!”

Fellow Brit Greg Thornton showed the F5000s the way in his Chevron B24. Chasing him hard was young Aussie James Davison, grandson of the legendary Lex Davison who has been racing successfully in the USA. James’ father, John previously raced the Lola T332 which Alan Jones originally campaigned for Teddy Yip, and is now owned by James’ uncle, Richard – a real Davison family affair.

There were several other standout performances, but none better than Jamie Larner who finished second in the feature race for Q and R sports cars. Larner chased the Veskanda of John Briggs for 20 laps and finished a close second in his 2-litre Ralt RT2 (2000cc against 5800cc – a real David NZ’s Anne Thomson fights to hang on and change gears in the 1906 Darracq.

and Goliath affair).

Biggest grinner of the meeting was David Reid who won the J,K, Lb and Invited Car 6-lapper in his 1959 Faux Pas. How many racers can claim they beat three Maserati 250Fs at Phillip Island!

The unluckiest driver was undoubtedly Melbourne’s Bob Harborow whose Lola T192 was punted into the pit wall at the start of the Q, R and F5000 race on Saturday.

Bob worked tirelessly to bring together the field of local and overseas Formula 5000 cars for Phillip Island and the support race at the 2011 AGP carnival.

A real crowd pleaser was the amazing 1906 Darracq Grand Prix car driven enthusiastically

by Anne Thomson from New Zealand in the Regularity events. This French classic was built for the very first Grand Prix in 1906, and won the Vanderbilt Cup that same year in the USA. It was also the first time the chequered flag was used to signify the finish of a motor race and it was the Darracq that was first to greet it. In 1910 Malcolm Campbell purchased the Darracq and it became the original Bluebird synonymous with the Campbell name. Campbell campaigned the car at Brooklands

Below: 1987 Le Mans 24 Hourwinning Porsche 962C came from the factory’s museum.

James Davison (Lola T332) leads Greg Thornton (Chevron B24) and Paul Zazryn (Lola T332) in Formula 5000.

until 1914.

The 2011 Phillip Island Classic was indeed a Festival of Motorsport thanks to the tireless work of the Victorian Historic Racing Register ably supported by the Victorian

Mini Club. It is now recognised widely around the world as a “must attend” historic meeting and is helping forge close ties and friendships with enthusiasts both here and overseas.

The Porsche Museum’s Klaus Bischof drove the 1969 Targa Florio-winning Porsche 908/2 in Regularity events.

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WEBB OF

Intrigue Mick Webb delves into the 1980 Bathurst race and an engine problem that derailed Allan Moffat’s campaign in the Federation Insurance XD Falcon.

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lot of effort goes into preparing a car for Bathurst but Allan Moffat’s 1980 entry was probably the toughest I have ever been involved with.

Moffat’s deal that year was a real lastminute affair – we only had four weeks to turn a standard six-cylinder XD Falcon, some second-hand piece of junk from Ford that they couldn’t sell, into a winning race car.

Moffat and I procured some good ol’ boys to put this package together, including Colin Russell, an ex-Ford guy who prepared the diffs and gearboxes, and Dennis Watson of Dencar fame.

We started by stripping Moffat’s Federation Insurance XC Falcon. We were all heads down and bums up for days on end. I slept at the workshop seven or eight days in a row; sometimes I just had a ‘Pommy shower’ and kept going.

The engine wasn’t my problem in those days; it was handled by Ivan Tighe and his partner from the Brisbane Engine Centre. The 351 originally came from Holman Moody, as they all did in those days, but it had been rebuilt by different people around Australia and this time it was Brisbane Engine Centre.

Moffat was crying poor, saying he didn’t have any funds to run the car, so I supplied all the pit crew at no expense.

Both my brothers, Pete and Gary, came with us, along with another good mate, Gary Peterson. Colin Russell was also there.

There was no time to test but we knew how to make a Falcon work, where we needed to be with wheel-alignment settings and spring settings, and we had a driver who knew how to get around Mount Panorama.

When we got to Bathurst we sent Moffat out on what is now referred to as an installation lap. At that stage we were quietly confident because the car looked and sounded good but that quickly changed. When Moffat resumed practice the car began to lap slower and slower.

Back in the pits one of the boys said: “She’s going through a bit of oil, the dry sump tank is half-full”. So someone put oil in without really looking for the cause.

The car went back out on to the track and started blowing a bit of smoke. We then realised we had an internal engine problem. The oil was not being scavenged out of the sump and transferred back to the oil tank.

On the Saturday night the decision was made to pull the engine. Ivan Tighe and his crew arrived from Brisbane to check,

repair or do whatever it took to make it right. We were told to wait outside while they checked the engine. At that moment I felt like telling Moffat where to jam his team because, as far as I was concerned, it was a united effort. It didn’t matter to me if they were in business building race engines or servicing Goggomobils; we were part of the same team.

The engine was checked all over and put back together ready to race but only did a total of three laps before becoming a smouldering, smoking piece of junk.

A few weeks later I called in to Moffat’s workshop to identify the problem. The oil pan (sump) had three -12 aero fittings that were positioned in the sump to scavenge all the oil out. This style of oil pan had a deep section running the length of the pan and there were three pieces of steel tube attached to the fittings that should have big slots in them – something like two inches long by half an inch wide, so you had a large suction area.

When I pulled the sump off to see why it wasn’t scavenging we noticed someone had drilled quarter-inch pilot holes in the tubes but the machining work hadn’t been completed. This meant oil was being pressurised into the engine through a one-inch diameter tube but there were only three little quarter-inch holes to suck it back out of the sump. Eventually the engine filled up with oil and the car began belching great clouds of smoke, ending our 1980 Bathurst assault.

– Mick Webb MotorSportLegends

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TOM WALKINSHAW

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GREAT SCOT Mark Fogarty salutes Tom Walkinshaw, his most constant sparring partner over a quarter of a century.

STORY MARK FOGARTY; PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTOPICS.COM.AU AND JAMES BAKER

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ealing with Tom Walkinshaw was never dull. His powerful personality ensured that if you were up to crossing verbal swords with him, the encounter was always memorable.

It was, however, never quite an equal exchange. Walkinshaw didn’t mince words, and didn’t suffer fools gladly, so it was your rapier against his cutlass. While you probed and parried, he would block and banter.

At his peak, Walkinshaw was imperious and belligerent, and his attitude to unprepared journalists was dismissive.

You had to be at your best to get anything out of him – and even then, it was often like pulling teeth.

He could be intimidating and he was always formidable. He didn’t like his methods and motives being questioned, yet the corollary of his prickliness was a begrudging respect if you stood your ground.

Spar with Walkinshaw long enough and persistently enough, and you could get under his skin. He would accept, even enjoy, the challenge of a robust interview.

But he was always wary, private and secretive – unless disclosure suited his purposes. His belief that reporters should not delve beyond what they were told led to many clashes, although he could see the funny side of the constant cat-andmouse game.

In a moment of frustration with my

persistent probing, he once accused me of being nosy, delivering the admonishment in the hard-edged version of his Scottish brogue. But when I objected that I preferred to think of my dogged questioning as being meticulous, he chuckled.

During the quarter of a century that I knew Thomas Dobie Walkinshaw, confrontations – many heated, most merely competitive – were the rule rather than the exception. I got to know him well, although never really as a friend, as our paths crossed almost eerily around the world in different places and different series.

By the end, the relationship had developed into a sort of comfortable combativeness, with the familiarity ❯ MotorSportLegends

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TOM WALKINSHAW

Above: Tom Walkinshaw finished the 1985 Bathurst in third with Win Percy while John Goss (car #8) and Armin Hahne won that year’s Great Race in a sister TWR Jaguar (car #10).

also establishing a trust that allowed us to be frank with each other without causing friction.

Neither of us ever quite let our guards down, but we could enjoy the occasional social meeting. For all his well-earned reputation as a fearsome and ruthless individual, Walkinshaw could be charming and gracious. He was a great host when it suited him.

Although he knew better, he delighted in calling me “Foggy”. He was the only person in the business who knew me well to not use Foges – and it was intentional.

His small but pointed defiance was a glimpse of his mischievous sense of humour.

When he succumbed to his three-year battle with cancer on December 12 last year, at a relatively young 64, his death affected me greatly. It created a big hole because he had been such a significant figure throughout a large portion of my career.

He was a larger-than-life character who had a profound impact on motorsport and the automotive industry, especially in the 1990s, and he left a large legacy. Although the many controversies 34

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in which he was embroiled – especially the collapse of the TWR Group in 2002 – dominate the memories of his professional life, his many achievements deserve to be his monument.

In Australia, he will be remembered – if not always fondly – as the uncompromising owner of Holden Special Vehicles and Holden Racing Team.

HSV, protected from the implosion of his overseas empire, was the lifeline that saw him through the dark days following the embarrassing demise of TWR and allowed him to regroup.

In racing, the highlights of Walkinshaw’s epitaph are the glory years of Bathurst and Le Mans victories with Jaguar in the 1980s and his role as the engineering mastermind of Benetton’s F1 success in 1994. But there was so much more to him and the mark he left on motorsport.

He was a formidable man whose involvement and influence made him a legendary figure in the international automotive community.

Although most famous – or, perhaps, infamous – for his motorsport exploits, Walkinshaw was also a significant figure

in the motor industry for the best part of 30 years.

His enterprises, which at their peak spanned four continents, were involved with several of the world’s largest or highest-profile car manufacturers, running racecars and designing and building road cars – or both – for the likes of Jaguar, Aston Martin, Porsche, Volvo, Rover, Nissan, Ford and General Motors.

Not all those relationships were happy or enduring, but they were mostly successful or at least seminal, and Walkinshaw’s no-nonsense persona created frictions and conflicts as well as admiration.

No one who dealt with the burly Scot at his prime – or even in his cancerinduced decline – was ever ambiguous about how they felt about him. His methods and personality earned respect or enmity, but rarely indifference.

His death was met with conflicting emotions throughout the worldwide automotive and motorsport industries.

Only the most callous would not have expressed sorrow that he had lost his typically stoic and private battle with a brutal illness.

However, it’s true to say that Walkin-

Clockwise from top left: Walkinshaw and Percy during a pit stop on their way to third. On the Bathurst grid for a photo shoot with the other Jaguars. The four Jaguar drivers on the podium – Walkinshaw, Goss, Percy and Hahne – and Foges catches up for a chat with David Richards and Walkinshaw.

shaw crossed swords with almost every major motorsport and automotive figure during his controversial career and not all of them would have fond memories of their encounters. But even most of his detractors respected his achievements on and off the track.

Despite his deserved reputation as a ruthless boss, Walkinshaw was tremendously loyal to those who met his high standards and saw behind his brusque manner.

Following the collapse of the TWR Group, he helped many of his longestserving and most dedicated staff find positions elsewhere or recalled them when he began rebuilding his empire.

Walkinshaw was certainly no angel and he remained a controversial figure to the last, but there was another side to him. As well as gruff, hard-nosed, demanding and confrontational, he could be charming, generous, considerate and mischievous.

He was great company over dinner, when his dry, wicked sense of humour came to the fore. He certainly lived a colourful life and when he let his guard down, he told great stories, his Scottish

brogue adding to the effect.

I don’t mind admitting that Tom’s passing hit me hard and that I miss the cantankerous old bugger. He had been a large presence during much of my career, our paths crossing regularly around the world.

Over the best part of a quarter of a century, I got to know him possibly better than any other journalist simply because, while not parallel, our paths intersected in several major series.

I first met him when he came out to drive John Goss’ Jaguar XJS at Bathurst in 1984 and again the following year with his own all-conquering JaguarSport team.

Further encounters when he was running Rover 3500s in the European Touring Car Championship in ’86 – when, memorably, the TWR-fettled 3.5-litre V8 Vitesses walked past Peter Brock’s 5.0-litre Commodore on the long straights at Monza – cemented my standing as that nosy Aussie reporter in his eyes.

By the time he set up Holden Special Vehicles in late 1987, the pattern of verbal sparring that would continue over

the years was well established.

There may have been a point where he thought I was stalking him because whatever championship or road car project he became involved with, I’d be there. I witnessed first hand his time in F1 with Benetton, Ligier and Arrows; his period in the BTCC with Volvo; TWR’s multi-brand efforts at Le Mans; and I was even there when he took over Nissan’s Infiniti IRL engine program.

I was also there to grill him about the Jaguar XJ220, Aston Martin DB7 and Volvo C70, all of which TWR designed, developed and built in joint ventures.

And, of course, when Walkinshaw returned to V8 Supercars in late 2004, who was back here to welcome him?

Through uncanny coincidence or fate, our relationship developed over a long period into one of comfortable conflict.

We still played the cat-and-mouse game (although perhaps not quite as heatedly as in our F1 days), but when the recorder was turned off, we would often linger in casual conversation.

We became friendly, if not friends, and while I was always well aware that he sought any and every advantage, I ❯ MotorSportLegends

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liked him a lot. Tom was a roguish character whose contribution to the sport and the industry shouldn’t be overshadowed by the contentious collapse of the TWR Group at the end of 2002.

He bitterly resented and refuted the perception that dodgy dealings during his ownership of Arrows brought down the whole TWR house. It’s a long and involved story for another day, but he was indignant that the adverse court judgment was subsequently overturned, but never as widely reported.

In Australia, Walkinshaw’s living legacy is HSV and HRT, both of which are financially and emotionally linked with Holden, along with Walkinshaw Performance and Elfin Sports Cars.

They are now controlled by a family trust and Tom’s widow Martine will maintain them as a monument to him.

Under her watchful – and, after so many years at his side, knowledgeable – eyes, management at Clayton will continue the enterprises that epitomised Walkinshaw’s drive and determination. MSL

Historic

Tom Walkinshaw oversaw HRT through its glory days of the 1990s and 2000s, which included the Mark Skaife/ Tony Longhurst Bathurst win in 2001 (above), the Win Percy/Allan Grice Bathurst victory in 1990 (below left) and Greg Murphy/Craig Lowndes triumphing in the 1996 Great Race (below right).

SANDOWN....

WINTON........

Festival of Speed

NOVEMBER 4TH-6TH

AUGUST 12TH-14TH

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MotorSportLegends

MotorSport Legends THE MAGAZINE THAT BRINGS YOUR MOTORSPOR T MEMORIES BACK TO LIFE

DO YOU HAVE A HISTORIC RACING CAR or a classic road car with motorsport heritage that you want to sell? From issue #15 of Motorsport Legends we are offering free classifieds for private sellers. All you need to do is email us a photograph of the car and up to 30 words.

Only photos in jpeg (.jpg) format of at least 500k and no bigger that one megabite (1mb) will be accepted.

Text must be in Word or Text (.txt) file format. Note: PDFs and pictures embedded in other files will not be accepted.

Email to: classifieds@motorsportlegends.com.au

ASTON MARTIN

RACING HERITAGE Just like with Ferrari, Aston Martin’s glorious road cars would not exist without the company’s strong racing legacy.

STORY & PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAVID DOWSEY

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ston Martin cannot boast the racing pedigree of Ferrari, but like its Italian rivals, the company’s early existence was dominated by competition cars; the road cars that followed were used to prop up the company’s bottom line. Like Ferrari, though, the racecars inspired their road-going cousins and over the years Aston Martin has produced its share of road-going sports and GT greats.

Aston Martin is fast approaching its 100th birthday. The company began in 1914, when founders Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford began building high quality sports cars, possessing great beauty and high performance.

Aston Martin’s international racing debut came in 1923, when two cars competed in the French Grand Prix, establishing the marque’s longstanding, if not always glorious, racing credentials.

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Above: While never a superstar at Le Mans, the DB2 was a great Gran Turismo road car.

Later that year, an Aston Martin went on to break 10 world records at Brooklands.

A car from that year later made its way to Australia, competing in the first three Grands Prix at Phillip Island between 1928-30 (see breakout).

By 1929, the ‘International’ model had

surfaced. It won the Biennial Cup at Le Mans in 1932, but tellingly, it could occasionally be spotted cruising British highways, fully road registered.

David Brown acquired Aston Martin in 1947 and, while the decade or so that followed proved to be the marque’s most illustrious racing years, a new era of ‘DB’-badged road cars emerged that firmly cemented the British company as one of history’s great marques.

Brown’s DB2, which first raced at Le Mans in 1949, competed well in its class for a number of years, but never contended for outright victory. It was, however, a magnificent Gran Turismo road car.

The two-seater was fitted with a 2.6litre of W.O. Bentley/Willie Watson design and a Frank Feeley-penned body, equal to anything the Italians were designing at the time. Over the years it

grew a little, was provided with occasional rear seats and an uprated 3.0-litre engine in DB2/4 guise.

Meanwhile, the DB3 racing car proved a disappointment. Production versions of the purpose built and successful DB3S, however, were offered for sale in 1954. Several came to Australia, raced by the Kangaroo Stable (see breakout), while a handful were road registered in other parts of the world.

The lighter, more powerful DBR1 race car debuted in 1956. It was enormously successful, winning at Spa, Nurburgring, the TT and Le Mans, while earning the company the World Sports Car Championship in 1959.

During these glory years the DB4 was released in 1958. With a 3.7-litre six-cylinder engine, it was a 140mph GT in its purist form. It also possessed one of the most beautiful bodies of all time.

A shortened, lighter DB4GT and specially bodied DB4GT Zagato were created for road and track use soon after.

Up against the might of the Ferrari 250 GTO they were largely unsuccessful (Australia’s Lex Davison won in a Zagato in the UK where most others failed), but as high performance luxury

The DB5 ran a 4.0-litre version of the DB4 engine. It was a high watermark for Aston Martin.

expresses, they had few equals. One of the now hyper-expensive Zagato DB4GTs came to Australia when new.

The later DB5, DB6 and DBS ran a 4.0-litre version of the DB4 engine and proved a high watermark for Aston Martin’s profile and profitability.

From 1969, Aston martin concentrated on V8-engined GT cars, the engines of which were used in the Lola-Aston Martin, which competed at the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours, driven by John ❯

THE AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION One of Australia’s earliest connections with Aston Martin came in 1928 when the son-in-law of Sir Herbert Austin (of Austin cars fame), Arthur Waite of South Australia, raced a two-seater 1923 Grand Prix Aston Martin at that year’s Phillip Island Grand Prix; the country’s first such race. Against strong competition from Bugatti et al the car was not successful, but it did return for the 1929 and 1930 races, providing some European glamour to the event.

Bib Stillwell and Lex Davison raced a DB4GT Zagato at the 1961 Le Mans 24 Hour race. The pair was not successful and forced to retire after two hours with head gasket problems. It was not a fruitless foray, however. Looking for a flight back to London, Bib chartered a plane on which he met future wife Gillian Harris, former Competitions Secretary at, you guessed it, Aston Martin.

Lex and Bib also bought ex-Formula 1 DBR4 competition cars from Aston Martin and Davison scored a memorable second place at the 1960 Australian Grand Prix while, the following year, Bib won at Warwick Farm in his single-seater.

Tony Gaze (who had earlier competed in a DB3 Aston Martin in Europe), David McKay, Tom Sulman, Jack Brabham and Les Cosh raced three different DB3S sports cars in the mid 1950s without success. But a DB3S later set a road speed record in Australia at 143mph.

Jack Brabham also had several outings in the more successful DBR1 in Europe as a works driver. With Stirling Moss, the pair won a memorable battle at the 1958 Nurburgring race, while they later retired from that year’s Le Mans 24 Hour race.

Jack’s son, David, is Australia’s most successful Aston Martin competitor, having twice won GT1 Class at Le Mans in 2007 and 2008 in the DB9-based DBR9.

V8 Supercar driver, Jason Bright, also had a liaison with Aston Martin. He competed at the 2006 Sebring 12 Hour race, finishing second, and was to compete at Le Mans that year, before V8 Supercar calendar rescheduling ruled that out. He never raced with the team again.

Above: At Le Mans in 2005. Top: The DB4 in road-going guise. Far left: Early racing heritage – the DBR1.

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Racing has always been a part of Aston Martin’s DNA – the AMR1 (above) and the DBR9 (right) at Le Mans in 2008. Below right: They say racing improves the breed and the awesome-looking DBS is the perfect example of that truism.

Surtees, and a much more refined version in the AMR-1 Group C sports car of 1989. Neither was successful.

The road cars of the time, however, kept Aston Martin in business long enough for Ford Motor Company to become interested; the American giant bought a majority shareholding in 1987.

It is true that, due to a lack of funds, the road cars of that time overstayed their welcome, but on the other hand, they did force Aston Martin to become creative and a bewildering array of variants and specials were produced from 1969-89, including Volante convertibles, high performance Vantage models and even Zagato-bodied low volume collectibles.

The Virage line of cars appeared in

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Lionel Martin regularly competed at the Aston Clinton Hillclimb races in a specially tuned Singer, prepared at the Bamford and Martin Works. The combination of Martin’s surname and that of the event gave birth to one of the most evocative names in automotive history: Aston Martin.

Lionel Martin was quoted early in the company’s existence as saying Aston Martin vehicles were: “A quality car of good performance and appearance; a car for the discerning owner driver with fast touring in mind; designed, developed, engineered and built as an individual.”

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1989, but by this time it was evident that a smaller, more sports orientated car was needed: a DB4 for the 1990s. It arrived with the DB7 in 1996. It too spawned a number of variants before Aston Martin announced a totally new line of road cars. They are still with us: the V8 Vantage, DB9 and, more latterly, the V12 DBS and four-door Rapide.

Meanwhile, various versions of all these cars continue to compete, including at Le Mans. It appears that little has changed: without road cars, Aston Martin would never have had a racing program. But it is also equally as true to say that without Aston Martin’s racing cars, we wouldn’t have its high performance road cars either. MSL

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MERCEDES MUSEUM

THREEPOINTED STAR UTOPIA Australian motorsport marketing and management identity Paul Marinelli took time out on a recent visit to Germany to fulfill a lifelong ambition to visit the jewel of the home of the three pointed star, the outstanding Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.

STORY PAUL MARINELLI PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL MARINELLI AND ANDREW HALL

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s a lifelong Mercedes-Benz road car and motorsport fan, I knew that a visit to the Mercedes Benz Museum would be an incredible experience and I wasn’t disappointed.

The first thing that takes your breath away is the design of the immense museum structure, which was specially constructed opposite the main MercedesBenz manufacturing plant in Stuttgart in an area known as Neckarpark, in the same area that hosted several matches

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during Germany’s hosting of the Soccer World Cup in 2006.

The architecture of this 4800 square metre museum (featuring 16,500 square metres of display space and some 1500 exhibits) is remarkable in that there are no closed rooms or straight walls or any right angles within the entire enormous structure. The ceilings are 33 metres high and there are no supports other than the circular exterior walls of the building, which fittingly, resemble the three pointed star in a double helix layout

when you gaze straight up. The museum also features many materials used in the manufacture of Mercedes-Benz vehicles in its construction, including aluminium and glass along with seat vinyls and airbag material! Speaking of glass, the museum features 1800 triangular panes of glass, none of which are identical in size.

The museum consists of nine levels that wind into themselves along with seven different themed Legend Rooms along the way. You start at the top, taking

“THE FIRST THING THAT TAKES YOUR BREATH AWAY IS THE DESIGN OF THE IMMENSE MUSEUM STRUCTURE, WHICH WAS SPECIALLY CONSTRUCTED OPPOSITE THE MAIN MERCEDES-BENZ MANUFACTURING PLANT IN STUTTGART…”

an interesting elevator ride with projections of the very early development of transportation, starting with the humble horse. You then embark on one of the most magical walks of your life.

I am at pains to point out that it is not only the history of the motor vehicle and its predecessors that led to the creation of Mercedes-Benz; it is also a trip through major events in world history that are aligned with each era depicted on each level of the museum. The design of the museum embodies the inseparable link between tradition and innovation, two of the main hallmarks of this world leading automotive brand. Interestingly, the design of this incredibly unique museum was not developed by a German firm, but was in fact the incredible work of Dutch architectural firm, UNStudio van Berkel & Bos. Starting at the top, you begin 34 metres above the ground at the Pioneers level, experiencing the very invention of the motor vehicle in 1886 and you quickly realise that you are standing in close proximity to the humble work sheds where Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz independently pioneered the first powered automobiles, before sensibly joining forces to create Daimler-Benz

and later Mercedes-Benz.

The duo’s passion for curiosity and research resulted in new discoveries that created the dream of individual motorised mobility. This is well reflected through the varied engine configurations and vehicle designs that have been meticulously maintained and preserved through this early part of the museum.

Daimler and Benz’s story has cap-

tivated the imagination of millions of automotive enthusiasts for more than 120 years and the remarkable examples of the first automobiles at this museum are just breathtaking. Most of these early vehicles, including the first ever motor car, are still in running condition, reflecting the quality of their initial design and construction.

The next level brings you to the ❯

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MERCEDES MUSEUM

birth of the Mercedes and later the Mercedes-Benz brand, the amazing story behind it and the absolutely beautiful motor vehicles produced during that era. The third level ushers in the Time of Change with the first diesel and supercharged Mercedes-Benz vehicles, true sports machines which were exclusively for the very well-to-do of the time.

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As with every level of the museum, your senses are treated to different lighting, ambient sounds and décor to suit the specific period. The fourth level is called the Post War Miracle outlining how Mercedes-Benz forged ahead with innovative motor cars despite the incredible damage to its plants and those of its suppliers throughout Germany during the

war years. The company’s transition from motor vehicles to incredibly powerful wartime aircraft engines and its almost seamless return is also an incredible story.

The next level covers Visionaries, outlining the history of MercedesBenz advances in road safety and the development of world changing vehicle engineering innovation that has made our roads immeasurably safer as a result.

Level three is called Moving the World and features all manner of vehicles large and larger as developed by the company through the years, with everything from the Unimog to double decker buses and one of my absolute favourites, the vehicle dubbed as The Blue Miracle. This immaculate Silver Arrows race team transporter that was nothing short of an engineering and esthetic masterpiece in the 50’s.

The second level is what most Motorsport Legends readers will adore.

It was certainly my major highlight. You find yourself in a grandstand, facing a banked oval corner (based on the original legendary Monza banked corner layout) that includes priceless examples of dozens of Mercedes-Benz entered Silver Arrows

“NEW EXHIBITS ARE CONSTANTLY ADDED TO KEEP IT EXCITING FOR TOURISTS AND LOCALS ALIKE. THIS PLACE IS A DEFINITE ADDITION TO YOUR BUCKET LIST!” racing machines and many others from every series all over the world since 1900.

It is truly remarkable and it is an extrasensory experience as well. Every few minutes, one of the many cars on this display is highlighted with strobe lighting effects and then the actual recorded sound of that specific racing machine at full anger is blasted in surround sound all around you.

I was not surprised to see people spending an hour or more just within this incredible gathering of motor racing history. Then erected along the walls towards the ceiling are the many land speed record breaking Mercedes-Benz cars that have re-written the record books through the decades.

This brings you to the atrium level, which gives you an appreciation once again of how immense this museum really is. Earlier in this story I mentioned the Legends rooms located adjacent to the museum levels. Following the completely downhill roughly five kilometre walk from the top to the bottom through the history of Mercedes Benz and the world as we know it, you can then enjoy a whole complete second part to the museum.

I ventured back to the top to visit each of the Legends Rooms. These are rooms that consist of Mercedes-Benz collections that were just stunning. There is even a room full of former global celebrity owned and customised Mercedes-Benz vehicles!

This is an automotive museum which

is not limited to automotive enthusiasts.

Anyone young or old, male or female will enjoy a visit to the Mercedes-Benz Museum. Much care has been taken to ensure that it reflects on how motor vehicles have been an intrinsic part of our lives ever since the concept of motorised mobility was turned into reality.

The Mercedes-Benz Museum is easy to find, a simple suburban train ride from the main Stuttgart Railway Station to Neckarpark Station and a short but exciting walk from there. The Museum also features everything from memorabila shops to outstanding restaurants and

cafés, along with abundant car parking. The complex is entirely wheelchair friendly and the use of natural light, electronic light and carefully selected ambient sounds create an environment that is truly unique. If you liked it enough, at ground level there just happens to be a Museum-based MercedesBenz dealer!

I look forward to returning to this outstanding museum with my young family in the near future, as new exhibits are constantly added to keep it exciting for tourists and locals alike. This place is a definite addition to your bucket list! MSL

Special thanks: Paul Marinelli travelled to Germany in the comfort of Qatar Airways Business Class. Renowned as the world’s five star airline, Qatar Airways offers daily direct flights from Melbourne to its Middle Eastern hub of Doha with fast connections to Europe. Visit www.qatarairways.com for further information.

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JOY RAINEY

THE JOY OF RACING Keen motorsport competitor Joy Rainey has blown the gender stereotype out of the water by competing all over the world. Life has dealt some cruel blows in recent years but Rainey is determined to continue her passion to race.

STORY & PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN REED

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he shares her initials with another famous Australian female motor racing identity – Joan Richmond. Both were demon drivers with lots of grit and a willingness to take on all comers in a male-dominated sport. Both built their reputations in competition overseas.

But that’s where the similarities end.

While Richmond raced and rallied successfully in pre-World War II years, Joy 46

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Rainey has competed with distinction in more recent times. Richmond was a tall, imposing figure, while Joy is not tall at all. But what she lacks in stature she more than compensates with a steely resolve to succeed.

From an early age Rainey wore painful, restricting irons on her legs. As a child she showed no interest in doll sets or “girlie play”, and when a three-wheel tricycle was given to her by her parents,

her love of speed and all things mechanical took over. Her father, a skilled engineer and racing driver himself, had a Cooper Mk IV (less engine) at home, and she soon learned to tear downhill into their driveway avoiding side walls without braking.

The influence of her father, Murray Rainey, was particularly strong. He, too, was small of stature, yet he successfully raced a variety of cars both here and

in Europe, including Jaguars, Coopers, Morgans and Alfas. He also restored cars and designed and installed mechanical improvements into his (and later, his daughter’s) competition vehicles.

Geelong was home to the Raineys and Joy attended The Hermitage, a school where girls were “taught to be ladies. In my case they failed!” Living in close proximity to a number of excellent beaches, she developed a love of swimming and surfing. It was also an opportunity for welcome relief (and good therapy) from her leg irons.

The Raineys owned ‘Grassy Creek’, a property along the Great Ocean Road, and it was here that 12-year old Joy taught herself to drive the family FC Holden. A landmark came in 1961 when she gained her driver’s licence and acquired her first car, a Morris Minor with suitably extended pedals. Her first job followed at the CSIRO, where she became a wool tester, and she was able to exercise her new-found independence by daily driving her Morrie “flat out” from Grassy Creek to Geelong. All went well until she cooked the engine one day after a fan belt broke – another valuable mechanical lesson learnt the hard way!

In 1959 the family toured the European race circuits, an experience that helped cultivate a love of travel. Following her father’s racing exploits and meeting many of the great names in the sport also helped consolidate her passion for motor racing.

Joy arriving in Mysore (above) and sitting in a 1936 Alfa Romeo (far left).

When the family returned to Australia Rainey became interested in a newly formed go-kart club in Geelong, and it wasn’t long before her innovative father designed and built the first of his successful Rainey Karts. She took to this form of competition with great enthusiasm, but couldn’t understand why the organisers ran separate races for men and women. She also couldn’t accept that male winners were presented with nice silver trophies, while the winners

of ladies events were given embroidered sets of sheets, crockery or Tupperware. “I was not in the slightest bit interested in feminine niceties,” she said.

Rainey started making a name for herself in karts, but it took quite some time before she won her first silver cup (and this was for the best-presented kart). Other trophies followed before she married and temporarily retired from racing. The marriage didn’t succeed, and for the past 43 years she has

“I WAS NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST BIT INTERESTED IN FEMININE NICETIES …” lived in England.

Rainey has visited many great places and some of the happiest times in her life include touring Italy in her Triumph Spitfire, studying Italian in Perugia and later setting up a language school in Guildford, UK. There was more camping in Italy while her father campaigned a three-wheel Morgan, as well as further travels to Spain and Morocco in another trusty Morris Minor.

Returning to England, Rainey completed a Bachelor of Arts degree and campaigned her father’s three-wheel Morgan JAP before her first serious outing at Shelsley Walsh hill climb ❯

Left: Joy racing the Pilbeam at Shelsley Walsh.

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JOY RAINEY

Top: The start of the London to Sydney Marathon.

Above: Joy in action during an outback stage of the London to Sydney Marathon in her trusty 1970 Morris Minor. Left: Made it! At the finish of the gruelling rally in Sydney.

in a Jaguar E-Type. Overcoming nerves, she scored a class win and third outright – a forerunner of things to come.

Rainey has been successful in a wide cross-section of cars, including a Murrain (a hill climb special built by her father), vintage Alfa Romeos and even a 600hp Pilbeam single-seater. As well as mixing it against the men, she has achieved numerous class records and 48

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has held the ladies hill climb record at Shelsley Walsh for 23 years. On top of her busy competition career she has been involved as an event organiser for the Bugatti Owners Club at Prescott, actively campaigned to have disabled drivers accepted into motorsport as competitors, been a member of the Brooklands Society and written a fine autobiography, titled Fast Lady – My Life in Motorsport.

Rainey’s next major adventure was to compete in the 2004 London to Sydney marathon, and for this she chose, you guessed it, a 1970 Morris Minor.

She and her partner, car restorer and fellow hill climber Trevor Hulks, spent a year preparing the car for a challenge she describes as “a bit addictive”. And what an amazing feat to arrive at the Sydney Opera House after 10,000 miles of physical, emotional and mechanical punishment through seven countries to be greeted by fleets of fellow Morrie fans in the run to the finish.

Life has not always been easy for this fast lady. In northern Argentina during a gruelling 2006 off-road event she received word that her father, then 89, had died. “We were stranded in Bolivia,” says Rainey. “But we kept on and finished the rally for Murray.”

Only a week later, Trevor’s father died, followed soon after by his mother, and since then she has also lost Trevor. “I’ve had a bad trot since 2006,” she says.

“Without Murray and Trevor my story would have been very different”.

Rainey and her mother Norma have spent the past three months back in the familiar surrounds of Geelong. “To clear my mind,” she says. “My confidence has been down, especially since Murray died.”

Rainey and her mother will soon return to England, but don’t be surprised if Joy takes on new challenges. She is keen to participate in the London to Brighton run for veteran cars and drive her 1904 Oldsmobile across America.

She also plans to organise events at Prescott hill climb, continue her writing and maybe do some invitation runs up the hill climb courses where her legacy lives on.

Joy Rainey is an inspiration to all who come in contact with her, and living proof that obstacles can be overcome if you have the will to succeed. MSL

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lutches are obviously vital for transferring the power from your car to the ground, but if you’re restoring your first Historic Racer how do you go about selecting the right clutch assembly?

Individual class rules in the CAMS Manual don’t specifically mention that much on clutches, so where do we start? Obviously we are dictated by the engine/gearbox combination and what is available for your car. And what you

select needs to be dependent on the torque output of your engine.

Back when your historic racer was a state-of–the-art piece of kit your choices were limited compared to modern times, and organic based clutches may well have been all that was available.

Now we have a much broader range of material options, all with slightly differing friction, heat control and wear characteristics. You must take into account though, that exotic materials

TOURING CAR MASTERS

BOWE OPENS 2011 TCM ACCOUNT IN STYLE John Bowe claimed two victories from three races at the opening round of the Toruning Car Masters Series on the streets of Adelaide.

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tarting in 10th on the grid due to the top 10 being reversed in the third race of the weekend, Bowe was awesome as he blasted his way through the field in his Mustang to take victory. Earlier in the weekend he had dominated race two, while Brad Tilley claimed the opening race in his Falcon XY GT. Bowe had made it to fourth by the end of lap one of race three, and soon moved in to third by passing Cameron Tilley (Valliant Pacer). He was posting times some 1.5 seconds faster than secondplaced Steve Mason (Camaro).

At the head of the field a battle between Alistair MacLean (Camaro) and Mason had developed.

Coming into the final corner of lap four, MacLean dropped the left wheels of his Camaro on to the grass and couldn’t pull up spearing off towards the wall. He managed a lucky save but it was a big ‘lose’, which handed the lead to Mason.

Bowe was soon all over the back of Mason and the pressure was taking its toll as the latter ran wide and across the kerb at turn seven. He managed to keep it off the wall, but Bowe shot past in to the race lead with four laps to go.

Andrew Miedecke (Camaro) and Jim Richards (Falcon Sprint) joined the lead group towards the end of the race with Richards making a late braking move under Miedecke to take third.

“It’s always nice to win, especially now

that we’ve got the car working better,” Bowe said.

“She’s had a whole makeover since season’s end, but that wasn’t finished early enough for us to test and we came here with a few little issues.

“In the first race it was really unstable in the back under brakes, but the boys worked to correct that and then we were really strong.

“I couldn’t pass Mason or MacLean without them making a blue.

“It was really awesome to drive against (Steve) Mason… we had four corners side-by-side and not a mark on the paint!”

In race two Eddie Abelnica launched his XB Coupe to the lead from Bowe before the first corner. Bowe soon found himself back in third behind Brad Tilley, but JB then decided to get serious. He passed Tilley along Brock straight, before diving up the inside of Abelnica through turn nine, going from third to first in just two corners.

Further back Richards was involved in a three-way battle with the Tilley brothers.

By the chequred flag Bowe had stretched his lead to more than five seconds, while the action behind became a drag race for second between Abelnica and Brad Tilley, with the former getting the nod for second place.

A five-way battle for the lead broke out

Amanda Sparks won the Rare Spares Hard Charger award.

between Brad Tilley, Richards, Bowe, Mason and Abelnica in race one.

Abelnica took a gap to move past Manson before eventually going up the inside of Bowe to claim third with two laps to go.

There was contact between Abelnica and Bowe as the former enthusiastically defended his position as they entered the final lap.

Brad Tilley power slid the final corner and then took the chequered flag and the first win of the new season, while Abelnica shot up the inside of Richards through the final turn to take a very impressive second place, leaving Richards to cling on to third, ahead of pole-sitter Bowe.

Local driver Amanda Sparks was awarded the Rare Spares Hard Charger award for her brilliant drives across the three races in her Porsche 911RS. MSL

John Bowe (left) posted times up to 1.5 seconds quicker than rival Steve Mason in the third race.

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