MotorSport Legends Issue 21 by Supercar Xtra Magazine

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“Moffat was better than Brock. But Richards is the best.” – Mick Webb PAGE 29

REVVIN’ KEVIN! Q U A R T ER LY

#21 Feb-Apr 2013

M A G A Z I N E

More ore to Bartlett’s artlett’s career than just that Bathurst crash

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THE LIFE OF BRIAN Still racing at 77

GARRY ROGERS – WHERE IT ALL BEGAN A glittering 50-year motorsport career 3/1/13 9:31:25 AM

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

Contents Editorial The quiet achievers.

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

Revvin’ Kevin 8-15 He might be best known for being upside down in a Camaro at Bathurst, but there is a lot more to Kevin Bartlett’s racing career than ‘that’ incident on the Mountain. Rogers’ early days 16-23 Before he was the eccentric team boss in V8 Supercars, Garry Rogers had a notable career as a racing driver. Historic Racer 25-28 Welcome to the 15th edition of our historic racing section, which includes coverage of the Sandown Historics and the Tasman Revival. We also take a close look at a new book launched recently on Lakeside. Webb of Intrigue 29 Mick’s not scared to tell it how it was. This issue he recalls the true Peter Brock, who was not so ‘Perfect’. Schuppan: unsung hero 30-36 When you think of Australian racing heroes, the names Brock, Brabham, Jones, Moffat and Johnson are often the first to sping to mind, but none of them won the famous Le Mans 24-Hour. Vern Schuppan did! The Shelby legend – part 2 38-45 We continue our talk with Shelby America President, John Luft, about his plans to make sure the Shelby name remains a part of motoring folklore. Sampson’s story 44-50 We catch up with the 1975 Bathurst 1000 winner and find out that at the ripe old age of 77 he’s still racing.

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CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE Glenis Lindley Once again Glenis has been extremely busy. Not only has she interviwed Kevin Bartlet, but she has also been catching up with author Richard Croston and plenty of racing legends at Lakeside Raceway as a new book covering the history of the famous Queensland circuit was launched. Grant Nicholas Grant has been driving down memory lane with the winner of the 1975 Bathurst 1000, Brian Sampson. As well as covering Sampson’s illustrious career, Grant discovered that even though he’s in his late seventies, that Sampson still likes nothing more than taking on his step son on the race track. Mark Fogarty Garry Rogers and Foges go way back! The latter’s article in this issue is the result of a catch-up between the two of them over a cup of hot Horlicks. They remember a time when Garry sat behind the steering wheel rather than calling the shots from pitlane.

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 Sub Editors Briar Gunther Rod Chapman Graphic Design Craig Fryers Diane McBride Contributors Glenis Lindley, David Dowsey, Darren House, Grant Nicholas, Mark Fogarty, Garry O’Brien and Mick Webb. Photographers Autopics.com.au John Doig/Torque Photos Glenis Lindley Darren House Neil Hammond Advertising Manager Jennifer Gamble Phone: 0431 451 470 Email: advertising@ motorsportlegends.com.au Distributors Integrated 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 the 21st edition of Motorsport Legends magazine. Motorsport Legends includes motor racing nostalgia and historic events.

ern Schuppan (pictured above with yours truly) is arguably Australia’s most under-rated racing driver. You don’t win one of the world’s most famous motor racing events if you don’t know how to pedal a race car. However, he’s often overlooked when racing fans discuss this country’s great racers. Motorsport Legends caught up with the 1983 Le Mans winner to talk about that great weekend and the rest of his successful racing career. Our article starts on page 30. Also in this issue we feature another quiet achiever, Brian Sampson. He is probably best known as the winner of the 1975 Bathurst 1000 with Peter Brock, but he too had a long and illustrious

racing career, which is still going today. You can read all about it by turning to page 44. In fact, this issue has a theme about it when it comes to guys who just got the job done, but who didn’t have the hype and publicity of the likes of Brock and Dick Johnson. Kevin Bartlett became famous for the much-shown footage and photographs taken at the 1982 Bathurst when he rolled the Channel Nine Camaro. It’s footage and images that I’m sure Revvin’ Kevin would rather have been lost in the archives many years ago, but television networks and magazines like ours are not likely to let that happen anytime soon. However, we’ve also taken the opportunity to relive the rest of his career so hopefully he won’t be too upset with us!

You could hardly call Garry Rogers quiet, but many of our younger readers will not realise he was a racer of note himself long before he became a V8 team owner. Mark Fogarty, who has been covering the sport for more years than he cares to remember, was there to report on Rogers’ exploits in the early days and had a fun time when he visited Garry’s workshop decades later (though this time he probably didn’t turn up on a scooter as rumour has it he did all those years ago). There is also plenty of other awesome reading in this edition of Motorsport Legends so we are sure you’ll enjoy it. Until next time, drive safely on the road and the race track, Cheers, – Allan Edwards, Managing Editor

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NEWS

TCM 2013 CALENDAR ANNOUNCED The seventh season of the Touring Car Masters features an eight round program set to keep this showcase of classics as a centrepiece of racing around Australia. The 2013 season will see the Masters alongside the V8 Supercars for six rounds and as a feature category at Muscle Car Masters. TCMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s calendar begins at the inaugural Top Gear Festival Sydney held at Sydney Motorsport Park on March 9-10. Described as a feature race category for the festival, the category will still have a full race program of two 20 minute practice sessions, a 20 minute qualifier and three action packed races on the North Circuit. Round two takes place at Barbagallo Raceway on May 3-5, round three is at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin on

June 14-16 and round four at Queensland Raceway on July 27-28. The Touring Car Masters returns to Sydney Motorsport Park for the Muscle Car Masters held over the Fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day weekend but this time the classic cars battle it out on the Brabham Circuit.

As a support event for the V8 Supercars endurance events, round six will be held at Sandown Raceway on September 13-15 and round seven at Bathurst on October 10-13. The 2013 Touring Car Masters Champion will be crowned at Phillip Island with round eight taking place

at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit on November 23-24. With even more new cars and personalities, many exciting changes to the already strong series means there will be even more action for spectators in the 2013 season of the Touring Car Masters. MSL

LONDON-SYDNEY MARATHON RALLY IS BACK The London-Sydney Marathon Rally, last held in 2004 and based on the original 1968 event, will return a decade later but will be run in reverse. The event is a special stage gravel and asphalt rally for pre-1981 classic cars, with certain modifications allowed for the long distance. Starting in Sydney on April 13, 2014 there will be up to six special stages on most days. The cars will be airlifted in giant Antonov transporter planes to Turkey from Perth while the crews travel in a chartered passenger jet. After Turkey, the rally 6

runs through Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Italy and France before crossing to the UK where there will stages on the Epynt Ranges in Wales, before heading for London and the finish on May 11, 2014. When first announced in 2010, the event was for Classic Rally cars only and without service vehicles. Following representations from potential entrants, the organisers hope to make

an announcement soon regarding a challenge/ touring category and service vehicles. The entry fee for two people and their car is US$52,000, which includes

accommodation and airlifts before or after and during the event and it can be paid in instalments. For more information visit www.transwordhistoricrallying.com

John Sprinzel on the original 1968 London to Sydney Marathon, soon after his MG Midget lost a wheel.

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LEYBURN 2013 GETS BOOST The annual Leyburn Sprints on the Darling Downs has won a major funding boost from the Queensland Government, which has increased its contribution and, for the first time, committed to a three-year program. Leyburn will receive a total of $110,000 for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 sprints from the government’s Events Queensland organisation. The funding is intended to help promote the event and attract more competitors and spectators from outside the Southern Down region. The 2013 Leyburn Sprints for historic and classic racing cars will be on August 17-18 and again is expected to lure more than 200 drivers and up to 10,000 spectators for time trials on a round-the-houses street course. The 18th annual event will celebrate the running of the 1949 Australian Grand Prix on a nearby ex-wartime airstrip. Proceeds from the not-for-profit Sprints benefit local community groups and projects, many of which assist in the event’s preparation and operation. Organising committee President Ann Collins said the Events Queensland grant was a recognition of the Sprints’ heritage, its standing in the national historic racing community and popularity with spectators. “This is a very significant increase over past funding levels and will enable us to grow and secure the Sprints as one of Australia’s longest-running historic motorsport weekends,” Mrs Collins said. “We greatly appreciate the contribution from Events Queensland and the State Government.” The Leyburn Sprints receives funding through the Events Queensland Regional Development Program (EQRDP), which is designed to extend the flow of economic and social benefits of events to regional Queensland. In collaboration with local councils and Regional Tourism Organisations, the EQRDP supports a diverse portfolio of events which help to attract a continuous stream of interstate and international visitors to Queensland while also raising the profile of the State nationally and overseas, encouraging future tourism and investment. Events Queensland has created the most comprehensive portfolio of supported events of any state in Australia, with more than $20 million invested through the EQRDP across 918 events since 2001. MSL

PHILLIP ISLAND CLASSIC IS OFFICIALLY WORLD CLASS It’s official. The Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport is one of the World’s best Historic Motor Sport events. That was again the judgement of the expert panel that short-listed the ‘Classic’ in that category of the International Historic Motoring Awards of the Year 2012, with the event “showcasing excellence, rewarding innovation, and providing the benchmark by which the world of historic cars judges itself”. It was the second year running that the Phillip Island Classic Festival has been awarded this distinction, competing against such acknowledged world-class events such as England’s annual Goodwood Revival, Belgium’s Spa Six Hours classic festival and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in California, USA. The Victorian Historic Racing Register is planning to build on this result at the 2013 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport staged from March 8-10, with ‘Big Banger’ sports cars from the 1960s, ‘70s and

‘80s taking top billing at the event and featuring in a 30-minute mini-enduro race on the Sunday. Confirmed participants so far include a Porsche 962 from Europe, a 956 model from the UK, the ex-Briggs Cunningham and ex-Le Mans 1951 Aston Martin DB2, the ex-Bib Stillwell D-Type Jaguar and two Matra 670 models from the UK. Containers will bring six spectacular sports cars from the US, six from the UK and at least one from New Zealand to compete at the meeting, with VHRR President Ian Tate confident of a full grid of iconic sports cars. Off the circuit, displays celebrating the 100th anniversary of Aston Martin and the 60th anniversary of the Chevrolet Corvette will support the sports car theme of the meeting. World class sports car drivers, including at least two Le Mans winners and at least three former F1 drivers, are also expected at the 2013 ‘Classic. The 2013 event will again see more than 500

sports, racing and touring cars spanning nearly a century take to the newly resurfaced Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit for three days of practice, qualifying, racing and demonstrations over the Labour Day long weekend. It will be the first car race meeting to enjoy the completely resurfaced 4.55km Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit. Camping – or rather ‘Glamping’ – will be an option for competitors, officials and spectators for the first time at the meeting. The camping area is adjacent to the circuit in the Visitor Centre Gardens, surrounded by trees and with spectacular views to Bass Straight – just a short stroll from the Paddock and adjacent to the popular licenced Champions Café. The 24th annual Phillip Island Classic is being staged by the Victorian Historic Racing Register and is again supported by Shannons, CoolDrive and Penrite, with race officials supplied by the Victorian Mini Club. For more meeting details, visit www.vhrr.com MSL

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KEVIN BARTLETT

Driving an Elfin at Amaroo.

FAST AND FEARLESS

Over the best part of three decades Kevin Bartlett was a larger-than-life Aussie driver whose passion was only matched by his guts and sheer grit. STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLENIS LINDLEY

ometimes we remember people for all the wrong reasons. My lasting memory of Kevin Bartlett is watching his Channel Nine Sports Camaro on its roof, sliding down the track at Reid Park at Bathurst in 1982. I didn’t see the crash as I was taking photos on a different corner, but that spectacular flip – which would become a part of Bathurst folklore – featured repeatedly on TV (it must have upset the bosses at Channel Seven, the network that held the television rights to the event!). So, what does the man himself remember most about that crash? “Calmly turning all the switches off as I was sliding along upside down,” Bartlett said with a grin. Bartlett’s rollover, while sitting in fourth place, was caused by a blow-out triggered by a faulty rear wheel rim. It

Above: Bartlett in his Morris Minor at Hell Corner, Bathurst 1957.

capped off a disastrous weekend for the team. During practice, part of the front suspension had broken and co-driver Colin Bond had collected the wall. A popular competitor, ‘KB’, as he’s affectionately known, qualified the Chev Camaro on pole in 1980 and ’81, and, despite missing pole in 1982, he and Bondy started as favourites in the thundering big beast. “It was a great car to drive – just

fantastic,” Bartlett declared, perhaps more in reference to the car once he’d been permitted to fit disc brakes. It may surprise a few people, but Bartlett actually preferred racing open-wheelers and they remain his first love, although he tackled just about anything, such was his passion for motor racing. The young man from Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, but who now calls Queensland’s Sunshine Coast home, had his first competitive drive at the age of 16 and 10 months in a Scratch Race at Bathurst in 1957, driving a 950cc Morris Minor Convertible. His first car was an MGTC, which he raced at the small Schofields airfield near Sydney, but his father, a motor dealer, advised him to “get something cheaper”. Nothing was cheaper than his mother’s Morris, which the budding young mechanic promptly proceeded to ‘hot up’ in his spare time at night.

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KEVIN BARTLETT

Above left: Bartlett’s Lola T300 navigates the mud during the 1973 Tasman Series at Warwick Farm. Above right: With John McCormack and the Rothman Series trophy. Below and left: At Indianapolis in 1970.

Bartlett’s Lola T332 Chev at Surfers Paradise in 1977.

From the very first race, Bartlett knew he was destined for a career in the sport and so he set about rising through the ranks to achieve that goal – his flamboyant, spectacular style attracting plenty of attention along the way. “Jack Brabham and Frank Gardner were my heroes then,” Bartlett said, not knowing that one day he’d be racing Brabham cars and even racing against the great man himself and driving for Gardner in the JPS team the latter managed. Washing engine parts during his apprenticeship with Frank Kleinig Senior led to an opportunity to drive a Ron Tauranac-designed car for Lynx Engineering in the new Formula Junior class, with Bartlett supplying the engine from the Morris. “The first Lynx’s were Ralt designs – not many people realise that,” explains

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“BARTLETT ACTUALLY PREFERRED RACING OPEN-WHEELERS AND THEY REMAIN HIS FIRST LOVE”

Top to bottom: Bartlett wins at Sandown in a McLaren, racing hard at the Singapore Grand Prix and at Warwick Farm in 1965. Right: Bartlett in a Brabham chasing Johnny Walker (Lola T332) at Adelaide Raceway in the late 1970s.

Bartlett. At the initial test at Sydney’s Warwick Farm, the young hopeful received some inspiring words from respected track promoter Geoff Sykes. “I know you can drive, you know you can drive,” Sykes said. “This could be the start of – or end of – your career,” he added, by way of encouragement. Who could have imagined back then, that, for several decades, ‘Big Kev’ would go on to race single-seaters and tin-tops at the highest level? The next big step up the ladder was driving for Sydney Alfa Romeo dealer and former champion racer himself, Alec Mildren. This was Bartlett’s big break. His reward soon came in the form of two coveted Gold Star awards in the Australian Drivers Championships in 1968 and 1969, in which he campaigned a Brabham BT23D Alfa Romeo.

Bartlett began to amass a legion of fans, albeit initially limited to openwheel fanatics. He contested the prestigious Tasman Series for Alec Mildren Racing for a best result of third in 1970, but he raced against many top internationals including Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt, gaining invaluable experience. He also competed in AGP races but couldn’t crack victory there, claiming a best finish of second place. “Those blokes set the pace, but, after they’d returned home, their lap records and times gave us a target to aim for,” Bartlett said. In 1967, in a 1964 Repco Brabham BT11A Climax, he became the first driver ever to lap Mount Panorama averaging over 100mph (160kph). “I had to hang it all out,” Bartlett said in a bit of an understatement; he had the

happy knack of drifting cars in the most spectacular fashion. Not surprisingly, overseas racing beckoned and he competed in places as diverse as Macau, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand and the United States. Winning the Macau Grand Prix in 1969 in the Mildren ‘Yellow Submarine’ remains Bartlett’s favourite race and one of his proudest moments. “I accomplished something I knew I could do,” he said. “It was a very challenging track: safety features were non-existent and there were bamboo fences, telephone poles and concrete walls on the side of the track, but it had plenty of character.” His time spent in America during 1970 (‘the mad month of May’) was probably best forgotten, as he attempted to qualify for the famed IndianaMotorSportLegends

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KEVIN BARTLETT

Above: Starting the Wide World of Sports Camaro from pole at the 1980 Bathurst 1000. The car (below) looked mean as it cut laps around Mount Panorama.

polis 500. He ran in three different cars for three different teams in a hope of finding a car capable of qualifying. He’d passed his ‘rookie’ test – but the cars didn’t pass theirs! Some of the leading drivers of that era including Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser offered helpful advice, but in the end it all came down to circumstances – bad luck, rain at the wrong time, and

tyre contracts. “It was a hell of a disappointment to get bumped,” he recalled. He also remembers New Zealand’s Pukekohe circuit for an entirely different reason. In January 1974 during the Tasman Series, it was the scene of a major crash after his Lola Formula 5000 had a tyre deflate while he was driving at more than 200kph. Bartlett

suffered multiple fractures and became a reluctant member of the infamous ‘Lola Limp’ club. Quite astoundingly, that same year in October he joined with another F5000 driver, John Goss, in a Ford Falcon XA GT, taking victory in the Hardie Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst. Still suffering the effects of his open-wheel crash at the beginning of the year, Bartlett described his win as the best tin-top result during his career, but it was “a pretty rough old day”. This was one of the longest races on record (almost eight hours) and it was plagued by long periods of torrential rain, where visibility was often reduced to what could be seen out of the driver’s side window, as they ran with the window down. “The screen kept fogging up, and in some places – like coming down Conrod Straight – the wipers were useless, so I slackened the shoulder straps to reach forward and wipe the inside of the screen with my gloves. “It added to the concentration level;

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Above: Bartlett chases Brock at Lakeside. Bartlett raced many different cars with many different drivers at Bathurst, including Dick Johnson, Bob Forbes and Peter Janson.

I’m so glad I didn’t have a crash,” he admitted. But another crash followed a few years later, once again in open-wheel racing. Bartlett was competing at Sandown in the 1979 Australian Driver’s Championship. A rear wheel on his F5000 Brabham BT43 collapsed at around 200kph through The Causeway, spearing him into the barriers at Dunlop Bridge. Re-breaking both ankles and sustaining a few more broken bones put him in a wheelchair for several months – and not into the Camaro he was intending to drive at Bathurst. His sponsorship deal with the late media mogul, Kerry Packer, was big news. Bartlett had done private driver training with Packer and mate Lindsay Fox at Oran Park and a strong friendship developed. Bartlett prepared the big Group C Camaro (once called a “bloody dinosaur” by a high-ranking CAMS official) for its debut assault on the mountain, but he sadly sat back and watched John McCormack and Bob Forbes take the

wheel in 1979. While Bartlett was a crowd favourite, his car also attracted a cult-like following and captured the imagination fans like never before. Although he’d raced open-wheelers, sports cars and touring cars for Alec Mildren during his six years there, his love always remained with single-seaters. He was a firm believer in the motto ‘real racing cars don’t have doors’.

Soon the time came for a serious change. His wife Rana said, “You’re not going to drive one of those Formula 5000 things again, are you?” Reluctantly he agreed, but the writing was already on the wall: as the popularity of the touring cars rose, attracting increasing numbers of fans and money in the process, it was becoming increasingly difficult to secure sponsorship in open-wheelers. Bartlett’s spectacular exit in the 1982 Bathurst.

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KEVIN BARTLETT

Kevin Bartlett at Clipsal, 2001

With his open-wheel racing days finishing in 1979, it was all systems go with touring cars. There aren’t enough fingers on both hands to count the number of different makes and models Bartlett drove during his 24 starts in the Great Race’ partnering other leading drivers like John Harvey, Frank Gardner, Dick Johnson and Russell Ingall to name a few. Bartlett had his last touring car drive of the Camaro at Oran Park in 1984, then for a bit of fun he entered it in the 1985 Canberra Rally Sprint, having tried his hand at rallying on other occasions. Admittedly his main claim to fame was rolling an Escort in spectacular fashion, a feat nobody saw – unlike his much-publicised Camaro capsize! After his less-than-elegant Bathurst exit in ’82, Bartlett expected his 1983 drive with Dick Johnson to be a dream. Wrong! He was in the pits watching the TV monitor when Dick’s Greens Tuf Falcon XE ‘went bush’ during the Hardies

Heroes Top 10 Shootout, after clipping the wall at Forrest’s Elbow. “This is going to be nasty,” Bartlett remembers thinking to himself, but Johnson thankfully emerged unharmed. Not to be stopped, after a frenzied session where the team and the TAFE boys worked frantically throughout the night, a replacement car was prepared for race day complete with still-wet paint. But numerous problems proved too much and after only 61 laps Johnson parked the car. The was race was over and KB’s hopes were dashed yet again. Having spent around 10 years in Group C ‘big bangers’, the next Group A era from 1984 was a bit of a let down. Bartlett headed the under-powered, under-developed Mitsubishi campaign, but the big disappointment was the lack of good results, especially considering the team’s great expectations. It was a frustrating period, especially given the rather low key factory backing. Then a one-off appearance in Frank Gardner’s works JPS Team BMW 635

NEW!

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with Kiwi driver Trevor Crowe in 1986 also failed to bring about the desired result. No matter what he raced, he just couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t recapture that magic winning feeling of 1974. What would be his final race at Bathurst came in 1990 in a Bob Forbes Racing Commodore, with young gun Russell Ingall. After practice, someone left the heater tap on full. This turned the car into a sauna on race day and the car did its best to cook the drivers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something none of us will ever forget,â&#x20AC;? Bartlett recalled. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was as hot as buggery in that car.â&#x20AC;? Bartlett collapsed from heat exhaustion after his second stint behind the wheel, while the younger Ingall also came in early, saying he was unable to continue. The team grabbed Rohan Onslow from the lead car, a move that was permitted under the rules at the time, and hastily sent him out to drive, but he too found the heat unbearable. Despite temperatures estimated at around 70 to 80 degrees, they somehow finished 14th. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A short time after that I had a heart

Above: Bartlett co-drove the John Player Special works BMW with Trevor Crowe at Bathurst in 1986, but it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a good day.

attack,â&#x20AC;? Bartlett said with a shrug of his shoulders. So at 50 years of age KB pulled the pin on serious racing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop him from enjoying the sport heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d loved with a passion for more than three decades. Life for Bartlett in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;retirementâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; saw him helping to maintain the famous David Bowden historic motor racing collection, which includes his Camaro and he makes an entertaining guest speaker at functions. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also the Driving Standards

Officer for VHRR and HRSCA historic racing and loves driving at historic events whenever possible. In Bartlettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accolades and awards basket thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an appearance on the This is Your Life TV program in 1978, an autobiography Big Rev Kev with Jim Shepherd in 1983, finishing second to Peter Brock in the 1980 ATCC, being awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and placing 15th (out of a total of 50) in Wheels magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Greatest Racing Drivers list in 2004. Bartlett also acts as a mentor for current V8 Supercar driver Michael Caruso â&#x20AC;&#x201C; something for which the young driver is very grateful. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My dad worked on KBâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s F5000, so now KB is helping me â&#x20AC;&#x201C; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just great,â&#x20AC;? Caruso enthused. Although Bartlettâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two sons, Greg and Steve, are both interested in motor racing, they show no signs of wanting to compete. Perhaps remembering the trials and tribulations of his own motorsport career, Bartlett is â&#x20AC;&#x153;very happy with thatâ&#x20AC;?. MSL

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GARRY ROGERS

THE ENTERTAINER

Colourful V8 team owner Garry Rogers celebrates 50 years in motor sport this year. Here he reminisces about the crowd-pleasing trio of sports sedans that established his career.

STORY BY MARK FOGARTY/PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTOPICS.COM.AU

he young boy nervously approaches the shack-like office at the rear of the car yard. He can see the man he is looking for sitting at a desk inside and the door of the slight structure rattles as he knocks politely before entering. 16

Despite his trepidation, the boy is bold and he immediately makes his request. The man races cars on weekends and to an impressionable teenager infatuated with racing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; someone who reads everything about the unfashionable sport he can get his hands on â&#x20AC;&#x201C; he is a local hero. When the

kid discovered that a racing driver ran the used car yard across the road from the parish church he attended every Sunday, he immediately became a fan and plotted to meet him. In his adolescent mind, the boy figured the famous driver would have photographs of his EH Holden S4 racer

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Rogers with the pedal to the metal in his Torana sports sedan at Calder Park Raceway in 1981.

which he could perhaps add one or two to his growing collection of motor racing mementos. He decided he would visit the driver at his business and ask for some. So there he is, standing before the man and, no longer nervous, excitedly declaring that he knows all about his exploits on the track and asking for some souvenir photos. The car dealer is friendly and, amused by the lanky lad’s enterprise, he agrees to grant his wish. He doesn’t have any photos on hand, but he can get one printed up. Come back in a couple of weeks, he tells the boy (who, of course, counts the days). The youngster is slightly disappointed when he returns for the photo. The man hands him an 8 x 10 matt black-and-white print of his previous 48/215 ‘Humpy’ Holden, leaning heavily and precariously as

In the Escort at Calder Park Raceway in 1976.

it teeters around a corner at Calder. He really wanted a picture of the S4, but he is happy enough just to receive something for his trouble. After quizzing the driver some more about his racing plans, he offers his

thanks for the photo, which he clutches proudly as he leaves the car yard and walks home. That boy was I and the car dealer/ driver was Garry Rogers. It was, we think, 1971, and somewhere in my MotorSportLegends

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GARRY ROGERS xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rogers in his Escort being chased by Frank Gardner in his Corvair at Sandown in 1977.

archives I still have that fading print of one of the two Appendix J ‘FX’ Holdens that launched Rogers’ long and remarkably varied racing motorsport career nearly 50 years ago. Four decades after that boyhood encounter, I’m sitting in Rogers’ office at his V8 Supercar race team factory in industrial Dandenong South in Melbourne’s southeast, talking to him about his formative years in racing. It’s a long time and a reasonable distance from when and where we started out in suburban Glen Waverley – me on the verge of beginning my long career in journalism and him in the early stages of building what would become a business and racing empire.

Now 68, Rogers is still spritely and as quick-witted as ever, and although he is hazy on dates, his memories of people, places, cars and events are sharp. He recalls me pestering him for that photo, a kid whose enthusiasm convinced the then dashing young racer to indulge him. “I remember that quite vividly,” Rogers says. He also recollects selling me a dark green Datsun 1600 off his Springvale Road forecourt in 1976 and its untimely demise at my inexperienced, overconfident hands just months later. So to say that Rogers and I go back a long way is an understatement. By the time I was establishing myself as a

motorsport writer in the mid-1970s, he was one of the stars of the burgeoning sports sedan category in his screaming Ford Escort BDG. He dominated the sub-two litre class in the Escort, but it was his giantkilling efforts against the V8-powered mutant machines that made him popular. His following increased as he subsequently graduated to the beautiful-buttroublesome ex-Ian Geoghegan Holden Monaro and then the beastly ex-Rex Monaghan Torana Hatchback V8. The showmanship that has been his trademark as a V8 team owner for 16 years began back in this hard-driving era, with his sideways driving style making him a crowd pleaser. He raced this trio during the golden age of sports sedans from the mid-’70s to the early ’80s, when the wildly modified saloon cars with their increasingly enlarged and relocated engines, bigger wings and air dams, fatter fender flares and lightweight replacement body panels were major drawcards. Big money non-championship contests like the $50,000 Marlboro Series at Calder Raceway and the Toby Lee Series at Oran Park attracted the

Rogers in his Torana (#34) dicing with Allan Moffat (#25) and his Monza at Amaroo in 1980.

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Jim Richards’ Mustang hot on the tail of Rogers’ Monaro at Calder Park in 1977.

cream of the country’s touring car racers and the odd open-wheel ace. There were fewer stars and less variety among the cars when sports sedans attained national championship status in 1976, but the weird wonders still prospered until combined with GT sports cars in 1983. Rogers raced touring cars concurrently with and beyond his sports sedans and in the late 1980s began the expansion of his racing operations. Over the past two decades, Garry Rogers Motorsport has been successful in AUSCARs and NASCARs at the Calder Park Thunderdome, as well as in Formula Ford, Super Tourers, Nations Cup and V8 Supercars. He is also regarded as having the keenest eye for new talent, discovering the likes of Garth Tander, Jamie Whincup, Lee Holdsworth, Steven Richards and Jason Bargwanna. Garry Rogers Motorsport won the Bathurst 1000 in 2000 and masterminded the awesome Holden Monaro 427 sweep of the Bathurst 24 Hours in 2002/03. But, arguably, it is Rogers’ time as a colourful battler during the heyday of sports sedans that was the foundation of his later success as a team owner and businessman. He expanded and developed his Glen Waverley site into a huge multi-franchise car dealership (sold some years ago) while also maintaining his life-long love of horses by competing in harness racing, in which he is still actively involved.

Approaching his 50th anniversary in racing in 2013, Rogers is entrenched as one of the great characters of Australian motorsport, famous for his quips, politically incorrect publicity stunts and earthy, no-nonsense approach. Rogers is still fondly remembered by longtime fans for his giant-slaying antics in the Escort and his larrikinism in the Monaro and Torana. They are days and cars he recalls wistfully as perhaps the most enjoyable period of his driving career which ended in 1989.

“Sports sedans were where the action was,” he smiled. “They were huge back then.” A regular front-runner in six-cylinder improved production touring cars in his ex-Brian Muir EH Holden S4, he quit racing in ’71 to concentrate on his used car yard. Three years later he returned in the Escort, which he bought from Sydney racer Bill Fanning. “A mate of mine who I grew up with and always helped me with my racing said ‘you should get another racing car’,” Rogers remembers.

“IT WAS HIS GIANT-KILLING EFFORTS AGAINST THE V8-POWERED MUTANT MACHINES THAT MADE HIM POPULAR”

The Ford Escort at Sandown in 1977.

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GARRY ROGERS

Rogers giving the Torana a workout at Amaroo in 1982.

“He knew what I was like – I’d probably had a couple of wives in this time and things were rolling along – and Fanning’s car was advertised in the paper. “My mate said to me ‘we could do something with his car’. So to cut a long story short, we went to Sydney,

bought the car, brought it home and I ran it, I think, only once before I realised it wasn’t such a good deal. It had that 1.8-litre Waggott chain-driven twin-cam engine in it and it just wasn’t any good. “So I ended up putting a Cosworth BDG two-litre engine in it and rebuilt

“THE ESCORT WAS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL BY A LONG SHOT, BUT I REALLY ENJOYED THE V8 TORANA”

Rogers in his Escort followed by Jim Richards in the famous ‘Sidchrome’ Mustang at Oran Park in 1977. 20

the whole thing differently to what it was.” It came with a 1.8lt twin-cam Waggott motor, which was so ‘peaky’ that initially Rogers struggled to adapt to its manic power delivery. “You could just really thrash it – and I was never really used to a car you could rev up,” he recalled. “I’d been driving an EH Holden that you revved to 6500rpm flat-out. When I got the Escort from Bill Fanning, I went out to Calder to test it and the engine was misfiring. I couldn’t work out what was wrong. I was revving the thing to 6000rpm. Kerry Luckins, who was working for Paul England, was out there and he came over and said to me, “You have to rev it up – that’s the problem. You’re not revving it hard enough”. “So I started revving the thing and all of a sudden it went like stink. But, of course, it also started spitting out chains and leaking oil everywhere, so that’s why I went and got the BDG engine. It was a ripper. I used to rev it to 10,000rpm in fifth gear at Sandown and then, shit, it’d go. Even at the short tracks, you had to keep it up between 6500 and 9500.” Replacing the temperamental

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Waggott with the two-litre Cosworth BDG (the update of the more famous BDA) transformed the Escort, which became the tiddler to beat in sports sedan racing. “It was a bloody fast little jigger,” Rogers grinned. “I won the 2lt championship every time I went in it because it was just that much better than anything else.” His main rival was Sydneysider Phil Ward in a similar Escort. “He and I had some magnificent races,” Rogers said. “At Amaroo Park, Oran Park and Lakeside, we had some outstanding races. Actually, Wardy could drive a car, too. He was bloody good.” Rogers’ abiding memory of the hyperactive Escort is of how easy it was to drive quickly, especially in slippery conditions. “It was a fun car – it was just so good. I remember one race at Sandown in the wet, I think I finished second outright to Jim Richards. They were all there, but that car in the wet was just an amazing car. And even in the dry, it was a very, very fast car. “I probably enjoyed it pretty much more than anything else I raced.” He regularly scored third and fourth places outright when the V8s fell out or at tight and twisty short tracks, where he hounded the bigger machines. “The Escort, for a little car, was very competitive with those big cars,” he said. “In the wet, it was perfect.” Just as famous, although nowhere near as successful, was the Monaro to which Rogers graduated in 1977. A big part of the reason it is remembered so well is because of its provenance. It was the John Sheppard-built, Laurie O’Neill-owned Craven Mildsponsored two-door Monaro which Ian Geoghegan raced. Rogers stepped up into the outright class after securing backing from Greater Pacific Finance – starting an association with which Rogers is still synonymous even though the company was long ago absorbed by one of the car finance/insurance giants. “By this stage, we’d been fortunate enough to get a bit of sponsorship from Greater Pacific Finance and they were a bit keen on that sort of bigger-type car,” he explained. “So we decided that, with some money, we’d buy that car. “I didn’t have much success with the

“THE ESCORT, FOR A LITTLE CAR, WAS VERY COMPETITIVE WITH THOSE BIG CARS... IN THE WET, IT WAS PERFECT” Monaro. I’d probably have to say it was one of my failures. “I probably bought the Monaro because it was built by John Sheppard, who was a bit of a guru in the day, and I thought it’d be a great car. But I reckon it was probably too technical for me. You know, the wishbone-type rear end and all that stuff. I’m a pretty basic bloke and I probably didn’t know how to work that out properly. And I don’t think ‘Fatty’ Geoghegan won that many races in it, either. “It was a hellishly unreliable thing.

Something would always break. It was typical Sheppo, like a jeweler’s watch. It was a fragile piece of gear.” What Rogers did enjoy about the Monaro, though, was using the sheer grunt of 350-cubic-inch Chevy V8 to return to his tail-out cornering roots. “I was brought up on a farm, driving cars around paddocks in the mud and I reckon you get used to things like that,” he chuckled. “Sideways cars never worried me. If you nailed the thing and it got a bit sideways, well, you just got off the throttle a little bit…” MotorSportLegends

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GARRY ROGERS Garry Rogers’ Holden FX at Oran Park in 1965.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS… It all started because his mother wouldn’t allow him to be involved in equestrian activities. Instead, Garry Rogers took up car racing half a century ago and from humble beginnings so typical of the times, built a motorsport and business empire which now includes a marina in Hobart. Racing cars led to selling used vehicles, which in turn grew into prosperous Nissan and Subaru dealerships and a burgeoning motorsport operation that evolved into an iconic V8 Supercar team. Ironically, Rogers’ success in business gave him the means to later indulge in his original passion of training harness racing horses and competing in trotting. Along with his enduring race team, he still maintains his involvement in harness racing as a trainer. It is all a far cry from when he started racing at Winton in 1963 in a hotted-up Holden 48-215 he saw advertised by a backyard car dealer before he began his rise to prominence in the screaming Escort sports sedan. “I was an apprentice motor mechanic at the time and I’d always been keen on cars,” he recounted. 22

EH Holden at Sandown in 1969.

“Actually, horses were my first love, but my mother wouldn’t have a bar of that. “I had to get a trade and I became a motor mechanic, and then I liked the idea of racing cars. “I bought an early model Holden, which was advertised as a racing car in the paper. It had triple downdraught Stromberg carburettors – that was a big thing back then – and track rods. “I drove it to work, I drove it to trade school and then when I started racing a little bit seriously, I stopped driving it as a road car. “I won the first race I ever went in at Winton. That was the start of it all. Maybe if I’d gone terrible, I would never have done what I’ve done today. But I probably would’ve

“I probably won more races than most when I think about it.” What Rogers does remember clearly is juggling his crude racing efforts with establishing himself as a used car dealer. “Of course, I was starting my business at that stage and you’d go racing when you could afford to,” he recalled. “When you had some money, you did it, and when you didn’t, because I just enjoyed it.” you didn’t race. You did everything It was the first of two ‘Humpies’ yourself. You were the mechanic, Rogers raced, run to the Appendix you were the driver, you towed the J touring car rules that allowed only car there, and all your mates came limited modifications throughout along to help you pay for the fuel. Victoria and at Sydney’s Oran Park “People laugh today, but that’s in regular Victoria versus New South exactly how it was. We didn’t even Wales challenge events. have a trailer. We towed our cars to Initially, Rogers downplays his the races on an A-bar. When I tell impact in those early years. “Oh, the guys working here (at GRM) look, I never really starred, to be about it, they all think I’m f’ing crazy. honest,” he shrugged. “I won a few They just don’t believe that’s how races, but I didn’t think I was all that it was. good. I enjoyed it, but there weren’t “When I started, there were no really any standouts, I suppose. driving suits or shoes, nothing. “There were different winners at The first race I ever went in, I was different tracks and different sorts of wearing Dunlop Volleys and I still do races like handicaps.” today. They’re my trademark. I was But after running through some wearing a pair of Dunlop Volleys, of his opponents back in the day, he shorts, a T-shirt, lap seat belt, basic decides to give himself more credit: helmet; no harness or roll cage.”

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Still operating out of a shed at the back of his car yard, Rogers got rid of the Monaro after sampling Rex Monaghan’s much cruder, but more robust, 5-litre Chev V8-powered Torana Hatchback. “Rex Monaghan rang me up and said, ‘look, will you drive this car?’; he’d entered it somewhere – it might have been Phillip Island – and I drove it and I liked it. Then I saw it advertised, so I bought it. And that was actually a bloody good car. “It was a shocking thing to look at – it was made out of railway sleepers and bits of water pipe – but it worked. It really worked. I didn’t have a lot of success with the Monaro, but I certainly did have a lot of success with the Hatchback, mainly because I could always get it to the end of race. It didn’t have the delicacy issues that you had with the Monaro. “So long as you put oil and water in it, and made sure the brake pads were up, you could drive it hard. You could drive it like you drove the Escort – just flat-out. “That Torana was a bloody good car. It looked a bit rough, but it did the business. It was as rough as guts. Everything was rough about it. But it

worked.” Steel-bodied with a fibreglass front section, the ungainly bewinged Torana had its engine mounted so far back into the cockpit that four of the eight inlet trumpets were inside. It put Rogers in the thick of the sports sedan action in 1980/81, against an eclectic array of mutant monsters that included Allan Grice’s John Player Special BMW 320i Turbo, the Chev Monzas of Bob Jane and John Briggs, Phil Ward in the ex-Bob Jane/Tin Leo Monaro 350, Tony

Edmondson’s lovely Alfetta-Chev V8, John McCormack’s Jaguar XJS (“bloody great useless heap of shit that was,” remarked Rogers) and Bryan Thomson’s over-thought Chev-engined Mercedes-Benz SL (“what a disaster that was”). Rogers rates the Torana Hatchback as his favourite sports sedan because it was the most challenging to drive. “The Escort was the most successful by a long shot, but I really enjoyed the V8 Torana,” he decided. “Plenty of power, lightweight, plenty of sideways action. The Escort was my most successful car, but it wasn’t hard to drive. People used to think it was difficult to drive because it went so fast for what it was, but, really, it wasn’t hard to drive. “It was easy to drive fast. Unless you did something really stupid, it was pretty forgiving.” l Geoff Beare, Rogers’ longest serving employee who started as a mechanic at the Glen Waverley car yard 50 years ago and is still on the staff at GRM, assisted Rogers in his recollections for this article. MSL Mark Fogarty is Fairfax Media’s motorsport writer and Editor-At-Large of Auto Action. Foges has clocked up four decades as a motorsport journalist.

And the race was on at Amaroo in 1980 – Allan Moffat in his Monza leads Rogers in his Torana as Allan Grice in his BMW and Tony Edmondson in his Alfetta chase the big bangers. MotorSportLegends

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HISTORIC

RACER

SANDOWN CELEBRATES HALF A CENTURY IN FINE STYLE

Holc dominates the Group A and C Touring Car races and a small field of F5000s entertain The 50th anniversary of Sandown Park Raceway was celebrated in fine style over the weekend of November 9-11 last year with excellent crowds flocking to the circuit to witness motor racing as it used to be at the annual Sandown Historics meeting. Sports, touring and racing cars from the 1920s to the 1990s took part in the 55-event weekend of non-stop action. There was also plenty to enjoy away from the racing with some 300 desirable classic cars on display, trade stands to tempt the enthusiast, and opportunities to get up close to the competing cars and drivers in the pits. It was also a special occasion for a group of young people from the Make a Wish Foundation. They donned helmets and were strapped into several of the race cars for laps of the circuit. Another highlight was the moving ceremony to mark Remembrance Day at 11am on Sunday, November 11 when the entire arena became silent as a mark of respect for our fallen servicemen and women. Special guests arrived in a convoy of World War II army jeeps, and the Ode was recited by WW2 airman Bill Prowse.

The feature races of the weekend were held for Formula 5000 and the Group A and C Touring Cars. Paul Zazryn, in his Lola T332, won the Saturday Formula 5000 race, while Andrew Robson claimed the victory in both of Sunday’s races in his T332. At one stage Richard Davison (son of the famous Lex and father of V8 Supercar stars Alex and Will) was leading race two in the ex-Alan Jones Lola T332 before he spun off. He finished third in race three. David Holc cleaned up all three Group A and C Touring Car races in his ex-Mark Gibbs GIO VL Walkinshaw Commodore. The 15-lap third race included a compulsory pit stop however many of the cars made more than one stop as they were booked for speeding as most didn’t have speed limiters and had trouble judging the strict 40kph pitlane speed limit. The highly successful meeting was organised by the Victorian Historic Racing Register (VHRR), which celebrated 21 years of promoting motorsport at Sandown in 2011.

Top: Holc dominated the Group A and C races in his GIO Walkinshaw Commodore VL. Above: Anna Cameron in the ex-Brock/Sampson HDT Torana. Left: Denis O’Brien in his Group Nc Ford Galaxie Fastback.

Right: Richard Davison driving the ex-Alan Jones Lola T332, leads Andrew Robson in his Lola, but it was Robson who took the chequered flag first. MotorSportLegends

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HISTORIC REPORT

ROBSON WINS TASMAN REVIVAL F5000 WORDS BY GARRY O’BRIEN PHOTOS BY GRANT PATERSON

Australian Andrew Robson won the 10-lap feature Formula 5000 final at Sydney Motorsport Park Tasman Revival meeting on Sunday November 25. Though the weekend’s races do not carry points for the 2012/13 MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series, the meeting attracted a 17-strong category entry with a fairly even split of drivers from Australia and New Zealand and the balance Great Britain and the United States. This was the third outing for the New Zealand-based series, the second in Australia after the series opened at the Sydney venue as part of the Muscle Car Masters in September. After round two at Ruapuna Park, Christchurch, the F5000s were back here for this non-championship round. Driving a Lola T332 Robson set the fastest lap time in qualifying and won the first of the big biennial event’s four races on Friday. But he was forced out of the second on Saturday morning

with a puncture, leaving visiting British driver Greg Thornton to win that race and the next in his newly-acquired ex-Stuart Lush McRae GM1. Thornton also led Sunday’s 10-lap final for the first three laps before his 5-litre stock block V8 engine overheated, handing the lead and eventual victory to Robson with fellow Victorians Paul Zazryn (Lola T332) and Chris Lambden (McRae GM1) filling the minors. Lambden gained an early advantage over Robson off

the line but the latter was second before the end of the first lap and Lambden was relegated to third by Zazryn a lap later. Alan Dunkley (Lola T140) was in the hunt early on, only to have a ball-joint in his car’s gear change mechanism break. Fellow Kiwi Russell Greer was also out early due to a broken brake caliper. That left two-time former NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series champion Ian Clements in fourth ahead of David Abbott (Lola T430). With Stan Redmond (Lola

Above: Andrew Robson won the 10-lap feature Formula 5000 race in his Lola T332 at the Tasman Revival held at Sydney Motorsport Park.

T333 CS), Abbott worked his way from 13th and pipped Redmond for fifth on the final lap. The other big mover in Sunday’s race was US-based Australian Bruce Leeson (McLaren M10B) who was ninth at the end of the first lap – before getting as high as fifth mid-race before being reeled in and shuffled back to seventh by Redmond and Abbott.

Though the meeting didn’t carry points for the 2012/13 Tasman Revival Cup it still attracted a 17-strong field, which included an even split from New Zealand and Australia.

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LAKESIDE BOOK LAUNCHED Croston captures their stories in informative and interesting detail, accompanied by photographs from Brier Thomas’ collection, creating a fascinating insight into an important chapter of Queensland’s motorsport history. Dick (Johnson) summed it up wonderfully. “ I have so many great memories of Lakeside – I just wish I was still racing there today.”

WORDS & PHOTO BY GLENIS LINDLEY

What a day of memories! Appropriately, author Richard Croston chose last year’s Lakeside Classic event to launch his book, Lakeside… The Early Years. On hand were 100 special guests, including legends Dick Johnson (who penned the forward), John French, Jim Richards, Kevin Bartlett, Dennis Geary and Lionel Ayers. Almost 60 years ago, motoring enthusiast, the late Sid Sakzewski, turned his dairy farm on the banks of Lake Kurwongbah, north of Brisbane, into a firstclass venue called Lakeside International Raceway (now Lakeside Park).

From left to right: Author Richard Croston with legends Dick Johnson and John French.

This fast, demanding circuit earned everyone’s respect, attracting leading internationals to Australian Grand Prix events. Stars like Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Jim Clark rubbed wheels with Aussie hero (Sir) Jack Brabham, while locals loved

the challenging track too, staging memorable openwheel and tin-top races against the ‘southerners’. The book also features the late Frank Gardner and Glyn Scott, Frank Matich, Bob Jane and the Geoghegans, amongst numerous others.

Retails at $45 from www. lakesideracingbooks.com.au

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WEBB OF

Intrigue Mick knew Peter Brock well before he was famous and even became involved in a tit-for-tat over car parts with the future King of the Mountain.

got a phone call a couple of weeks back regarding a documentary about Peter Brock. The producer came out to Mick Webb Performance Engines to interview me and he was surprised how open I was about my dealings with the King of the Mountain. I first met Peter and his father, Geoff, when I was a first year apprentice and doing my schooling at Watsonia Tech. At lunchtime all of the boys would rush down to the Diamond Valley Speed Shop to gawk at the performance parts. At that time, Peter was just a spare parts jockey behind the counter. One time I ordered a set of tramp bars for my ’48-model Holden but Brock sold me a set for an FJ, which have a slightly wider rear spring. On returning the bars, Peter refused to give me my money back – he would only give me a credit note. The cost of the bars was nearly half a week’s wages, which really hurt at that time and it wasn’t until years later that I got back at him. John Sheppard was looking after the HDT in 1978 and Brock, as well as being a driver for the team, was again the spare parts jockey and he came into my shop in Heidelberg to buy Sheppo some Aeroquip hose fittings. The next day Brock fronted up again wanting to return some of the goods, so I took them back and wrote him out a credit note. He looked at me shocked and said Sheppo wanted him to get the

money back and I said, “No Brock, this is payback time”. I told him the story of the tramp bars and he was gobsmacked, but I still wouldn’t give him his money back. When I got involved with Allan Moffat I became part of the rivalry with Brock and I was always wanted to beat him. I am sad that Peter has passed away but that doesn’t mean we should believe the “Peter Perfect” persona that some people bestowed upon him. He certainly wasn’t Peter Perfect, and he was always the first to say that, too. He did a lot of things that raised the eyebrows of those

who knew what was going on. I always used to say to Allan at race meetings, “How come you’re not pulling all the girls in the way that Brock is”, because we were always in envy at the way that Brock would draw the girls into his pit area – he always had gorgeous girls hanging around him. That’s the way he was. And throughout all of my years in motorsport, he was the biggest egomaniac I’ve ever met. I’ve often been asked to compare Moffat and Brock as drivers. Of course, both were great and their records speak for themselves but Allan was definitely a better driver than Brock. Allan was a lot more calculated. I think he learnt the hard way with the Mustang, where he had to win to get paid from Coca-Cola - it was a performance contract. Consequently, I think he was more determined to win. Allan lived, breathed and slept motor racing and I think that made all the difference. But having said that, I still rate Jim Richards as the best driver I’ve ever worked with. Jim could drive anything and his personality didn’t change when under pressure, whether he was on pole position or 10th on the grid. He’d always work his way up to the front of the field, anyway. The other two would be just about ready to cut their wrists if they hadn’t qualified well or they had a DNF. – Mick Webb MotorSportLegends

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VERN SCHUPPAN

THE QUIET ACHIEVER

A versatile driver who competed at the top in many forms of motorsport, South Australia’s Vern Schuppan is also a genuine classic car enthusiast who regularly competes in historic racing and concourse events. STORY BY DAVID DOWSEY/PHOTOGRAPHS BY AUTOPICS.COM.AU

n Europe, the USA or Japan, Vern Schuppan is the object of autograph hunters whenever he appears at the many historic racing events on his itinerary. But, in his home country, the athleticlooking, blonde-haired Schuppan flies somewhat under the radar. The softly spoken South Australian is at peace with this, but it says a lot about Australia’s V8-Supercar-or-naught mentality. Schuppan’s achievements in motor racing are considerable. He is one of only a handful of home-grown Le Mans 24-Hour winners (‘Bentley Boy’ Bernard Rubin and Peugeot

Schuppan racing the Tasman Series in 1976 (Oran Park).

drivers Geoff and David Brabham are the others), he has stood on the podium at the Indy 500 and climbed motor racing’s highest mountain by becoming a Formula 1 driver. Born in 1943 in Whyalla, Schuppan

“SCHUPPAN STOOD ON THE LE MANS PODIUM IN FRANCE FOR THE FIRST OF FOUR TIMES…” 30

enjoyed success in local karting events at a young age before – like so many of his compatriots – he headed to the UK in the hope of making a decent living in motorsport. Things began well: he participated in the British Formula Atlantic Championship, which he won. This lead to a test drive with Marlboro BRM and, as the team’s official test driver, in 1972, he found himself at the Belgian Grand Prix. His first taste of Formula 1 was unpalatable, however. He did not qualify his troublesome V12-powered BRM and sat out the rest of the season on the sideline, competing in a handful of non-championship openwheel races. In 1974, he kick-started his Formula 1 career with back markers Team Ensign. Debuting for the UK-based team at the Belgian Grand Prix in

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VERN SCHUPPAN

Above: In his Elfin MR8 (Oran Park, 1977). Right: Co-driving the Falcon XB GT with Allan Moffat at the 1976 Bathurst. Below: On the Sandown grid with John Gossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Matich A53 (left) and Peter Gethinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s B37 Chev (right). With Dick Johnson in the XC, Bathurst 1978.

the middle of the season, Schuppan took his Cosworth V8-engined Ensign to 15th place. He competed in a further six races that season but failed to either qualify or finish any of the races and Schuppan and Team Ensign parted company. F1 legend Graham Hill threw Schuppan a lifeline the following year, giving him a start in his Embassy team

for one race â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Swedish Grand Prix â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from which Schuppan retired. Schuppanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s final year in Formula 1 was modest, but it his best nonetheless. From four starts he finished three times with a best placing of seventh at the German Grand Prix. But success in other forms of motorsport was just around the cornerâ&#x20AC;Ś

In 1975, along with Jean-Pierre Jaussaud, and piloting a Gulf Mirage with Cosworth V8 power, Schuppan stood on the Le Mans podium in France for the first of four times with a classy third-place finish behind the Ligier of Chasseuil/Lafosse and the winning Gulf Mirage of Belgian and serial winner, Jack Ickx, and four-time Le Mans champ Derek Bell.

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Driving a Renault V6-powered Mirage GR8 and partnered by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier, Schuppan finished with a storming second place in the 1977 Le Mans 24 Hours, behind the famous Martini Racing team’s Porsche 936 with six-time winner Jacky Ickx and Hurley Haywood/Jurgen Barth at the wheel. Schuppan repeated the feat in 1982,

driving with Jochen Mass in the Rothmans Porsche 956 behind, again, Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell in another Porsche, this time in the famous Rothmans livery. Schuppan’s Le Mans triumph finally arrived in 1983 in one of the French classic’s closest finishes, with only 17 seconds separating the first- and second-placed Rothmans Porsche

956s. That year, turning the tables on Bell and Ickx, Schuppan, along with American drivers, Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert, battled a failing car and the close-finishing pair of Bell/ Ickx. The same year, Schuppan was victorious in the inaugural Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, partnering with Japanese driver, Naohiro

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VERN SCHUPPAN

Rob Butcher’s Lola T332 and Schuppan’s Tiga CA80 at Calder in 1980.

Fujita, again driving a Porsche. Japanese sports car racing was good to Schuppan, with the South Australian finishing third in the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship from 1984 to 1986. To this day, he remains a popular figure with Japanese racing enthusiasts. Former Formula 1 World Champion and fellow Australian Alan Jones partnered with Schuppan and JeanPierre Jarier for the 1984 Le Mans 24-Hour, with the pair finishing sixth in a 956 Porsche. On the other side of the Atlantic, Schuppanec_strip_mslegends.pdf stood on the 1Le1/12/2010 Mans11:07:58 AM

After qualifying fifth on the grid the Harvey/Schuppan Commodore VC had a disappointing DNF at Bathurst in 1981.

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“SCHUPPAN STOOD ON THE LE MANS PODIUM IN FRANCE FOR THE FIRST OF FOUR TIMES”

Porsche 956T 1-2: Stefan Bellof and Derek Bell leading Schuppan and Allan Jones in the final round of the World Sports Car Championship at Sandown in 1984.

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VERN SCHUPPAN

podium in France for the first of four times, finishing third in 1981 driving a McLaren-Cosworth. It was a mighty achievement. But it didn’t end there. The ever versatile Schuppan competed, with some success, in other forms of motorsport including open-wheel Formula 5000, finishing second in his Elfin MR8 behind John Goss (the only driver to win both the Australian Grand Prix and Bathurst) in the 1976 Australian Grand Prix. Schuppan also showed his hand at touring car racing, partnering with top local drivers and teams including Allan Moffat, Dick Johnson and the Holden Dealer Team. His best Bathurst placing was fifth, driving a Ford XC Cobra with Dick Johnson; a creditable finish in a race dominated by Peter Brock and Jim Richards in their HDT LX Torana. A genuine classic car enthusiast, Schuppan regularly competes in historic motorsport events – you may spot him drifting a silver Mercedes-Benz 300SL ‘Gullwing’ if

THE SCHUPPAN 962CR In 1994 Schuppan tried his hand as a car constructor, briefly producing race-derived road-going Porsches for the super rich. Based on the dominant Le Mans-winning Porsche 962, Schuppan’s 962CR was the result: a mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive sports car weighing just 1050kg. A twinsupercharged 3.3-litre flat ‘six’ pushing out 600hp – and mated to a five-speed manual transmission – powered a two-seater that was as sleek as it was fast: the 962CR’s top speed was said to be 370kph, with a 0-100kph acceleration time of 3.6 seconds. The chassis and body were built by Schuppan’s team at a production facility in the UK,

you are lucky and he showed his lovely Aston Martin DB2/4 at the inaugural Motorclassica concours in Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building a few years back. For someone used to racing cars that were on the cutting edge of technology in their day, Schuppan remains pragmatic about classic machinery.

with funding provided by Japanese investors who supported Schuppan’s All Japan Sports Prototype Championship racing team. Costing more than $1.5 million in 1994, the Schuppan 962CR remains one the most expensive new cars ever sold. It is believed that five or six were built but, unfortunately for Schuppan, two buyers reneged on their payment obligations after their cars had already been shipped to Japan. This, coupled with extremely high overheads and a worldwide economic recession, forced Schuppan to declare bankruptcy, bringing his brief career as a car constructor to an abrupt end.

“I enjoy driving older cars and I have driven several of my old race cars,” he told Motorsport Legends. “You have to place them in context, though. They are old and you have to remember that. Driving my old race cars certainly brings me back, but it also reminds me just how far we have come since I gave up racing.” MSL

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SHELBY

MAINTAINING THE LEGEND In the final part of our exclusive interview with Shelby American President John Luft, he discusses plans to keep the iconic performance brand relevant to a ‘greener’ generation. STORY BY DARREN HOUSE/PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED BY FORD US

espite building a reputation based on big capacity high performance petrolfuelled V8s, Shelby American President John Luft points to a future that includes four-cylinder powered hatchbacks and even an all-electric Shelby.

MSL: How long can the US’ love affair with the V8 continue? JL: Carroll was interviewed eight or nine years ago and he said the future of automotive was big power, small footprint. He said the Germans have been making big power with four and six cylinders for years and now we are going to see the American automakers doing

that. The big V8s were what they loved and knew but for the first time in Ford’s history, the new EcoBoost outsold V8s in pickups, so that tells you that clearly that’s the trend. Ford is even testing the EcoBoost in Mustangs. So we are excited to test the EcoBoost in our platform and the Focus and Fusion. I don’t think the Shelby brand will

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stretch all the way down to an entry level car as you don’t want to hurt the brand. But when you’ve got a car like the Focus with performance, style and handling, we look at it and wonder if it appeals to the fans, as it needs to sound like a Shelby, handle like a Shelby and it has to look like a Shelby. Shelby has certain key design elements that you just can’t abandon. And so you ask, can the core design cues fit on the product – those are the key requirements. The GTS is a good example. We had the GTS developed a year before we brought it out, so I showed Carroll that it was ready to go. He asked what performance upgrades were available and I said we had handling, new suspension, big brakes. He asked “what’s under the hood?” and I said “just the V6”. He said we would not launch this car until there was some upgrade option available for under the hood. And there wasn’t one developed, so we had to get with a supercharger company and engage them to develop a supercharger for the V6 before we could launch it. As Carroll said, Shelby is performance. And we are not a brand that just puts scoops and stripes on a car and call it a Shelby.

Above: Carroll Shelby deep in conversation at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966.

In Australia, you’re considered the devil if you buy a V8 because of climate change and all that. How do you see that impacting you in the future? Shelby isn’t your typical daily driver. If you look at the buyer of the Super Snake, I’d say eight out of 10 buyers in 10 years would never have more than

5000 miles on their car. They pull it out on Sunday, polish it and take it to the coffee shop and tell car stories before driving it home and putting it away. So in spite of the trend in terms or fuel consumption and whatever, this won’t affect them. The cars we build in the USA, you have to build according to EPA

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SHELBY

and CARB environmental standards, and CARB in California is the strictest standards of any state. Our cars comply with those requirements and those of all the 50-state emissions requirements. And the cars we make have great drivability. The GT350 is probably the pinnacle of that. It is on the 5.0 platform and you can order a 350 naturally aspirated at 430hp or the 525hp supercharged or the optional 624. We’ll do road course events with our track GT350 – we’ll track it all day – and then we’ll hose if off and take it to dinner that night. It is just the most civilised performer you could imagine. I think the 350 is the perfect storm of balance, performance, styling and drivability. I have a GT500 Super Snake but I (also) have a GT350 – it is my favourite Shelby because it matches how I like to drive, and I guess that comes down to the fact that I have always been a Porsche lover. That 350

The Cobra logo has a high ‘cool factor’ with kids.

acts like and performs like a Porsche. (But) the guy that likes to get in, grab onto that wheel, push that pedal to the floor and rip through those gears, he needs to own a Super Snake. Do you consider that one day you may have to build an electric Shelby? We already did. We worked with one of our partners and developed an electric Cobra. I loved it. What torque; oh my

God! Carroll drove it in the parking lot right out in front of this building and stood on the throttle holding the brake… the torque is unbelievable – electric motors have more torque to the rear wheels than a (petrol) motor. And the battery life, driving it like that, is about 20 minutes. With electric motors today, they make claims that you can go 150 miles (on a charge) but the fallacy of some of the validations is that you only have to do it one time to make to the claim. It’s like horsepower. You can make 20 dyno runs on a motor but if, on the perfect day – a cool day with a certain barometric pressure – the motor makes 50 more horsepower, then you can make that claim. Well, it’s the same thing with electric cars. On a perfect day, at 50mph (80kph) with cruise control, overinflating the tyres and with a tail wind they got a 150 mile range once out of the 100 times they took a

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“CARROLL HAS ALWAYS HAD AN IRON-CLAD SUCCESSION PLAN ASSOCIATED WITH HIM GOING TO THAT BIG RACE TRACK IN THE SKY” shot at it. With the way people drive Shelbys, battery technology has got to really develop. When you drive a Shelby you can’t help yourself, so what are the chances of you getting 15 minutes out of a charge? Does the company welcome new technology? I would love to have some hybrid R&D cars to work on. It’s always about the resources you have. We, as a company, budget for so many R&D dollars to bring product to market and maybe when the economy gets back on its feet and we are feeling a little healthier, maybe we can commit dollars to really play around with that. But in the short-term, it probably wouldn’t fit our product development line. Every week we have a product development meeting with our engineers and designers. We have product planned through 2020 right now and it is a combination of new model year product and vintage. This year is just the beginning of a number of historical anniversary milestones for Shelby. The first Cobra was introduced in 1962. That was the little 260. What was the next

big milestone? It was the Cobra 427 SC, so we have that 50th (anniversary) coming in our future. Then there is GT350. Carroll unveiled GT350 in 1965, there’s another 50th anniversary in our future. Then there was the GT500 so there is another big 50 year milestone. That’s about a 10-year anniversary span. We have (developed) a hydrogen Cobra, working with one of the universities. It went to Bonneville Salt Flats and set a record on its first run for the fastest hydrogen car. But when it went to make its documented run it broke down, so it didn’t go down in the history books. So we’ve always reached out to new technologies. And as Ford develops its hybrids… remember the days when electric cars looked like a wedge of cheese? It was horrible, you would never own one. But the Teslar is a beautiful car and as they become sexier, and as Ford develops their alternative technology and a sexy platform, it would just be logical that we would have some fun with it and see where we could go. In terms of marketing, if you go back to the 1960s, muscle cars were

the fastest but now Mercedes has AMG and BMW has M-Power etc. How does that impact Shelby? Well, if you think about, Shelby is to Ford what AMG is to Mercedes. I always kid to the engineers at Ford that we are kind of their skunkworks. Ford engineers come up to us at events when we unveil – we just unveiled the Shelby 1000 (1000 horsepower) – and they say, “We love what you are doing with our cars”, because in the global picture, they could never do that. In fact, you’ve got to hand it to Ford, as the GT 500 Shelby being produced by them under license produces 650 from the factory. It is amazing. In the horsepower wars, Ford is clearly a step ahead. Another threat is the younger generation embracing Japanese cars and drifting, rather than racing. How do you turn them onto Shelby? That would be the reason why we would aggressively develop on the Focus or Fusion platform. You’ve got to give them something that’s cool. You’ve got to keep the price point low and give them great styling cues. And MotorSportLegends

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SHELBY

you can’t fall into a rut (of being ‘your grandfather’s car’). The last thing kids want to be in is something that’s not cool and Mustang has always bridged that gap. Ford has done a great job of keeping Mustang fresh and kind of ‘wow and now’. So riding on that wave, you’ve got the Focus, which is clearly for a younger generation, and you add some styling cues and stay current with the trends that reach down to that young generation buyer. Ford does a great job of keeping their fingers on the pulse (and) we are only as good as Ford’s work. Our Super Snake and GT350 are great vehicles because we start with

great vehicles. It’s only been in the last 10 years that we’ve become more relevant to kids. It was by design that Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars and video games have become our top licenses. When that kid is playing Need For Speed and the next car that he gets to drive is a Shelby, that’s a brand impression. And you don’t get to drive a Shelby until you successfully drive other cars, so you know your driving skills are getting better when you drive a Shelby. That’s where you develop that brand affinity. When I was president of licensing I said we should do Shelby branded skateboards and bikes with our cool logos.

How involved was Carroll in the business toward the end? He was a little less involved. He had not felt well (but) Carroll was always 80 going on 50. I remember he was doing 150mph (240kph) around Las Vegas Motor Speedway testing the Shelby 1000. He was 88! When Carroll was 80 he was in the car park riding a turbo-charged motorcycle! He was always actively involved. The Shelby 1000 was a classic example. It was his dream to develop a car with 1000hp. Out of all the cars we have developed over the last 10 to 15 years, Carroll has been more involved in that one – from design to development to even naming – than any other. Carroll hated to sit in a meeting for more than 15 minutes but he sat through hours of meetings discussing names and the reasons behind them, which was painful for him but he did because he so loved that car and was so involved. But he began moving slower. He was in the hospital for three or four months and got pneumonia. At 89 he began feeling 89 and then once he got out of hospital he had to have therapy to get his muscles working again, so he had become less involved (in the business). I can tell you that over the last 12 years it was hard for me to keep up with him and he was in his 80s. You could barely stay one step behind him – you could never get one step in front of him, so I can’t imagine what he was like in his 50s. He just never let up.

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“IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT, SHELBY IS TO FORD WHAT AMG IS TO MERCEDES. I ALWAYS KID TO THE FORD ENGINEERS THAT WE ARE THEIR SKUNKWORKS” How will Carroll’s passing impact the brand? Well, the good news is the company is structured in a way that things won’t change. Carroll has always had an iron-clad succession plan associated with him going to that big race track in the sky. Carroll’s impact on performance is much like Enzo Ferrari’s, and when Enzo died, Ferrari didn’t go away. It’s our job to make sure of that (with Shelby). In the last two years we’ve unveiled some significant cars in the market but (Carroll) wasn’t there for any of them. He said, “John, I’m getting older and there’ll be a day when I won’t be here so it needs to be less about me and more

about the cars”. That was in preparation for the day, and he was right. What is the best thing about running Shelby America? The people and the enthusiasts who gather at the events we do. Any and every time we announce an event they gather. Every morning at 10.30am we have a tour of the Shelby American Museum and the production floor, and anywhere from 50 to 300 people a day go on this tour and they talk with such passion. I’ve had the luxury of working for some pretty big brands, but I had no idea this brand was as strong as it is, and people as passionate as they are.

Everywhere I go people come up to me and introduce their kids or themselves as Shelby, named because their dad’s favourite car was a GT350 or their grandfather owned a Shelby. That was something I’d never seen. I don’t know, did anybody name their kid Ferrari? Not many, I can’t imagine. I even remember there was an empty Coke can on Carroll’s desk and someone asked if they could have it – I’d never seen the passion like that. The most fulfilling part of it is to hear of the couple who save their entire lives to buy one of our cars because it’s such an aspiration to own a Shelby. I’d be lying if I told you we made enough money that we could retire tomorrow. It’s really about the passion. In the Shelby world, every day we are on the ground, we are part of history, because they will write about these days. What we do influences history, so it’s exciting to know that the people working right beside you are just as passionate about affecting history. MSL

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BRIAN SAMPSON

THE LIFE OF BRIAN

Former Bathurst 1000 winner Brian Sampson is 77 years young and still racing… STORY BY GRANT NICHOLAS/PHOTOGRAPHS BY SAMPSON FAMILY ARCHIVES, JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS and AUTOPICS.COM.AU

ver a period of 57 years Brian Sampson has raced with great success on the majority of Australia’s motor racing circuits in a wide variety of touring and open-wheeler racecars. At the same time, he specialised in modifying and developing various types of race engines that proved to be virtually unbeatable as they racked up national and state titles. Even today these engines are still sought after by historic race car owners and preparers. Turn his Speco/VHT business card over and you immediately notice a photograph of the 1975 Hardie-Ferodo 1000-winning Gown-Hindhaugh Holden Torana he shared with the legendary Peter Brock – a sign of successful one-upmanship. As a youngster, Sampson spent time at his father’s South Melbourne engine reconditioning business.

Brock and Sampson celebrate their 1975 Bathurst 1000 win.

He did some work for the local Austin distributor who had several works cars that Jeff Brotherton and Haigh Hurst raced and he also owned an Austin Healey 100/4 sports car. “One day a couple of the guys who prepared the cars suggested to my father that he should let the young fella have a race,” Sampson said. “I had earlier competed in hill-climb events but my first road race was at the 1955 Argus Moomba TT over 100 miles (160km) – an event for sports cars and with no pit stops on Melbourne’s Albert Park Lake street circuit. In those days there was no official race licence testing, so I fitted an old army webbing belt as my seat belt in Dad’s Healey and borrowed a helmet that had a visor under the peak.” In the weeks leading up to the meet Sampson would leave home before 6am and get some practice laps in the

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Brian Sampson in his Morris Special at Templestowe, 1957

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BRIAN SAMPSON

Above: At the Geelong Speed Trials in 1958. Above right: In a factory Toyota Corona at Sandown. Right: In the Super Anglia at Albury’s now-defunct Hume Weir in the mid 1960s. Below: AMI works Toyota Corolla, with Bill ‘Wild Man’ Evan, Dick Thurston, Sampson and actor/TV personality Leonard Teal.

Healey around Albert Park Lake before the sun fully rose on his way to work. “On the Saturday of the race meeting we had one official practice session and the times from that dictated where you lined up for the Le Mans start – where the starter would drop the national flag and the drivers would sprint across the track to their cars and then roar off at a great rate of speed,” Sampson explained. “On the fourth lap the eventual race winner, Doug Whiteford, passed me in a Triumph TR2, and I thought I better get going; I finished 10th and ahead of Harry Firth in his supercharged MG TC. “Each time I raced down the straight at 105mph (168kph) the helmet would get air under it and turn sideways on my head, restricting my vision, so I had to 46

hold it down with one hand and steer with the other!” Sampson’s next racing pursuits included race meetings at Fisherman’s Bend and driving a Morris Minor in several rallies. A Morris Special that Lyn Evans constructed, featuring a tubular chassis and a Morris Minor engine had captivated Sampson’s attention during this time. “I saw it race at Fisherman’s Bend and it crashed with a Jowett Jupiter and disappeared from the racing scene,” he said. “Some time later I was driving down Sydney Road in Brunswick, past New York Car Sales, and spotted a red body under a tarp – it was the car of my dreams. The owner of the car yard was

Bob Jane, and he suggested I take it for a test drive on the neighbouring streets as he led the way in a big American tank at break-neck speed. I purchased the car and on the way home the engine kept boiling as it had no water pump; it made me wonder how it could race in that condition.” Sampson made a set of lightweight pistons and modified a Ford 10 water pump which he fitted to the car along with a header tank and Ford 10 connecting rods and reconditioned the engine. “I polished and ported the cylinder head and fitted larger valves. I fabricated a special inlet manifold and installed a Rootes Supercharger, also copper plating the cylinder head to ensure it would seal with the head

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Clockwise from above: In the Morris Special at Templestowe Hillclimb 1967; in the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;lightweightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Triumph Spitfire 1968; in action again in the Morris Special; In a Cheetah Mk4 at Sandown 1974 followed by Brian Shead (Cheetah Mk5) and Peter Macrow (Cheetah Mk4); In an Elfin 600 at Calder in 1971.

On the grid in his Morris Special at Phillip Island, 1957.

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BRIAN SAMPSON

gasket – it solved the problem properly. “With so much power I then had to stop the thing, so I made my own alloy brake drum fins and, combined with competition brake linings, the Morris Special could out-brake a lot of other cars. I raced it with plenty of vigour for four years at hill-climbs and at a host of tracks before selling, and with the proceeds of the sale I purchased a television,” Sampson laughed. He then raced an Austin A30 and an Austin Lancer which Sampson said put him up there amongst the more established drivers. “After a Calder Park race meeting where I had beaten Peter Manton in his new Mini Cooper with my Lancer, Manton rang me and asked if they could help me get a different car and into another class of racing. “I upgraded to a Morris Elite and I stroked and bored the engine to 1920cc – the same specification that the forthcoming MG B would run – plus added my own specially made brake and suspension components and gave the front-end some negative camber. Boy, did that car corner well after that modification.” An ex-police Ford Super Anglis, one of the giant killers in V8 touring cars, was next on Sampson’s list of cars he raced. “That was a terrific car; they were a specially imported model and had a 1290cc engine. In the mid-1960s Allan Moffatt had been racing in Australia and returned to the US to race and I stored his Lotus Cortina parts at my place. He rang and said he needed some money so I offered to buy his spare Hewland limited-slip differential, closeratio gearbox and mag wheels. He said

The Brock/Sampson Torana SLR5000 at Bathurst 1974.

“THEY ASKED IF I WOULD DRIVE WITH BROCKY AND I ACCEPTED, SO IT WAS PLEASING TO WIN THE RACE BY TWO LAPS…” After a DNF in 1974 the Brock/Sampson combination returned to be crowned Bathurst champs the following year. This pic was taken at Calder Park, preceeding Bathurst.

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Tearing the Torana down The Dipper on the way to victory in ’75.

‘take them’ and they transformed the car completely; it was extremely quick in those days.” Sampson’s first endurance race was the 1961 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island. “John Connolly, Jim Cullen and I won Class D in a Renault Gordini, just 10 laps behind outright winners Bob Jane and Harry Firth in their Mercedes-Benz 220SE,” Sampson said. “The next year Connolly and I were joined by Rex Emmett and we won our class again in the Renault, but this time only five laps behind Jane and Firth’s race-winning Ford Falcon XL.” With his car preparation and driving skills, Sampson had made a big impression by that stage and he was invited to join the Australian Motor Industries racing team guided by Bert Rydberg. “Firstly I drove their Triumph Spitfire sports car and helped the team improve it before driving a Toyota Corona at the 1965 Bathurst 1000 Enduro,” Sampson recalled. “A string of Corollas followed. I really enjoyed racing the little Corollas at Bathurst; we were faster than the bigger, more powerful cars in several parts of the circuit and winning Class A with Bob Morris in 1969 was rewarding.” Holden Dealer Team boss Harry Firth invited Sampson to join Peter Brock in the LH Torana SL/R5000 L34 for the 1974 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 race at Bathurst. “In the Torana I was lapping 25

seconds faster than in the Corolla, but I adapted to the car and promptly ran at a constant pace. “In the Corolla you spent more time looking in the rear-vision mirror than looking out of the windscreen to ensure that you kept out of the way of the faster cars. Brock managed to get a record six laps clear of the next competitor and Firth was attempting to slow Brocky down, as he was attempting to set a new lap record on every lap. “Eventually he blew the shit out of the engine, which caused a huge fallout between Firth and Brock.” Success came a year later when Sampson again teamed up with Brock, this time in a privateer Holden Torana. “Through my performance engine

business Motor Improvements I used to do work for Norm Gown and Bruce Hindhaugh – I supplied them with camshafts, manifolds and other components,” Sampson said. “I developed a manifold for the Holden V8 engine that would take two downdraft Weber carburettors instead of a single four-barrel Holley carburettor. I designed some ram tubes that fitted neatly under the bonnet and we had an engine setup that had no flatspots – it was fantastic. “They asked if I would drive with Brocky and I accepted, so it was pleasing to win the race by two laps after the mammoth engine failure we had experienced the previous year.” Sampson’s touring car success continued when he won the Sampson teamed up with Alan Browne at Bathurst 1979 finishing 17th.

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BRIAN SAMPSON

Rothmans 500 at Oran Park Raceway in Sydney with Warren Cullen in a Holden Torana SL/R5000 L34 and the following year he shared a four-cylinder-powered Toyota Celica GT with Peter Williamson. “We finished fourth outright behind three Holden Toranas – it was a great effort against all of the V8s,” Sampson said. “Sometime later, Peter Janson introduced me to Alan Browne and we finished fourth at the 1980 HardieFerodo 1000 in his Re-Car Holden Commodore. Next Bill O’Brien asked me to run in his Everlast Battery Service Ford XD Falcon and then his Holden VL Commodore SS, and it was in that car that we finished eighth at the 1990 Tooheys 1000. That was my last endurance race.” Sampson also has a passion for open-wheelers, running an Elfin Streamliner and an Elfin Ford Formula Junior before he bought a new Elfin 600 Formula 3 fitted with one of his specially developed Motor Improvements Toyota Corolla engines.

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The Elva Mk8 S at Winton in the late 1990s.

“During the ’70s I started an association with Brian Shead, the constructor of Cheetah open-wheelers – he was an underrated driver but his cars were extremely practical and they handled just fine,” he said. “Over the decades I have raced a wide variety of open-wheelers and thoroughly enjoyed competing against the younger drivers – drivers who now have a tendency

of beating me more easily as they started in karts when they were only eight or so years old. “I currently race a Spectrum Formula Ford alongside my stepson Brendan Jones and an Elva BMW Mk 8S in Historic Sports Car races. I also have a collection of 16 open-wheelers sitting in my warehouse, so I will have plenty to tinker with when I decide to stop racing.” MSL

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20/12/12 10:59:27 AM

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2/1/13 12:52:45 12:54:38 PM