MotorSport Legends Issue 25

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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 Adelaide F1 here we come...

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Monaro Monster 6 Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan’s Monaro sports sedan was a crowd pleaser. Car builder, John ‘Sheppo’ Sheppard tells the story of how the dream machine was built.

Jackie Stewart 12 The ‘Flying Scott’ won three world Formula One titles and lived to tell the tale. Many of his peers didn’t make it through what could arguably be called the most dangerous period in motor racing.

Adelaide Motorsport Festival 19 We take a look at the action you can expect as Formul One cars roar into action at Adelaide’s Victoria Park once again.

There’s plenty of features on the cars that will make up the show as well as the full schedule of events and entry lists.

Webb of Intrigue 35 Mick’s not scared to tell it how it happened. In this issue he gets the chance to have a look at a rival from yesteryear’s car and is surprised as he examines one of Peter Brock’s favourites.

John Surtees (Part two) 36 In part two of this fascinating feature we take a look at what makes John Surtees – one of the few to conquer two wheels and four – tick.

Steven Richards 42 This ‘gun of a son’ has made a career in his own right. As he looks to move into the next phase of his career, we take a look back at his achievements.

Bernie Ecclestone 46 Can you remember a time when Bernie wasn’t in charge of F1? It’s been a long time and he hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with everyone along the way ...

Trade Talk New products on the classic scene.

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CONTRIBUTORS IN THIS ISSUE Darren House Darren can’t help himself – he’s written another story on his favourite sports sedan era. But we are sure you will be glad that he did as his great feature on Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan’s Monaro is an awesome read.

Don’t just take our word for it. Turn to page six of this issue to see for yourself.

Grant Nicholas Grant has been busy preparing features for the official program of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, which starts on page 19 of this edition of Motorsport Legends. His features will keep race-goers and armchair enthusiast alike entertained for hours. So even if you can’t make it to Adelaide be sure to check it out anyway.

Mick Webb Mick’s column has become a muchloved part of MSL, as he recalls his best memories from the many years he’s spent in Australian motorsport. However, who said you can’t teach an old mechanic something new? Mick still finds it fascinating everytime he pulls apart an old car, especially when it used to belong to one of his favourite rival’s from the past.

Managing Editor Allan Edwards Pole Position Productions Address: PO Box 225 Keilor, Victoria, 3036 Phone: (03) 9372 9125 Fax: (03) 8080 6473 Email: admin@motorsportlegends.com.au Website: www.motorsportlegends.com.au Sub Editor Darren House Graphic Design Craig Fryers (CDF Design) Contributors Glenis Lindley, Darren House, Tom Howard, Grant Nicholas, Adrian Musolino and Mick Webb Photographers Autopics.com.au John Doig/Torque Photos Glenis Lindley James Smith 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 25th edition of Motorsport Legends magazine.

Motorsport Legends includes motor racing nostalgia and historic events.

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hen the Australian So when I was asked if Motorsport Grand Prix moved Legends wanted to be a part of the from Adelaide to Adelaide Motorsport Festival – which Melbourne in 1996 was hoping to recapture some of I remember at the that spirit from the city’s 11 years of time that, as a Melbournian, I was excited. F1 – there wasn’t a lot of convincing But I have to concede that the AGP lost needed. something when that move happened I’m positive the event – which this and I often wonder how things would year will be held on the weekend of have turned out if the race had stayed in April 12-13 – will be a major success. the ‘city of churches’.

How could it not be? With cars such Sure plenty of people visit Albert Park as Alan Joneses Beatrice Lola roaring each March, but Melbourne doesn’t into action in Adelaide’s Victoria embrace the event as Adelaide used to Park once more there are bound to each November from 1985 to 1995. be plenty of smiling faces as we relive I can still remember the ‘Adelaide Adelaide’s F1 glory days.

Alive’ theme and there was never a Inside this issue we have the official more appropriate marketing slogan as program for the inaugural Adelaide the place certainly livened up when the Motorsport Festival, with plenty of Formula One machines and their pilots great features on cars that will be came to town. competing DEN27412 Dents'R'UsStripAd.eps 30/7/12 6:55:14 at PM the event.

But there’s also plenty of other good reading. Regular Motorsport Legends’ scribe Darren House has done a great job with this edition’s cover story on Pete Geoghegan’s ground-shaking Monaro sports sedan. We are sure you’ll love it.

We’ve also published our second installment of our John Surtees feature, an incredible piece on Jackie Stewart and a ‘must read’ article on F1 czar Bernie Ecclestone. Son of a gun, Steven Richards has also been featured.

We hope to see you at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival or another historic motorsport event soon.

Until next time, drive safely on and off the race track, – Allan Edwards Managing Editor

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PETE GEOGHEGAN

BIG PETE’S MONARO IS HOLDEN ON

A one-time favourite of Australian motor racing fans, Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan’s mighty Monaro Sports Sedan today is a mere shadow of its former self but the car has commenced the long road to recovery. Motorsport Legend’s Darren House spoke to the car’s creator, John Sheppard, about the machine’s glory days.

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

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he great machine stands forelorn in a dark and sombre Melbourne workshop not far from where it burst onto the Australian motor racing scene.

Its creator, known as much for his immaculate presentation as he is for championship-winning performance, looks on, remembering the glory days and hopeful that this masterpiece of moving art will be restored to its former splendour.

The machine is Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan’s mighty Monaro – the man, the incredibly successful race engineer, John Sheppard. ‘Sheppo’, as he is affectionately known, says he’s never been overly sentimental about the race cars he’s built over the years (a view that is softening), though clearly he has a place in his heart for the big Holden that he last prepared nearly 40 years ago.

Commissioned by businessman and long-time motor racing enthusiast, Laurie O’Neil, the Monaro was created when O’Neil decided to take on the then thriving (and rich), Australian sports sedan category.

“Laurie said that he wanted to build a sports sedan and I asked him ‘what do you want?’ He replied, ‘I don’t know what I want, I just want a winning sports sedan’. I worked on the assumption that a good little car will beat a bad big car but it won’t beat a good big car, so I went and got a big car, which was contrary to a bit of the thinking (of others).

“Bryan Thomson’s VW is a classic example of a good little car (but) I think you have to have a reasonable ratio between wheelbase and track – if you have got something that looks like somebody’s little roller skate with a V8 engine in it, it doesn’t help a lot. When

Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan (above) was a favourite with the crowds as he wrestled the Monaro around the Aussie race tracks.

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PETE GEOGHEGAN

Harry Lefoe put a V8 engine in his Hillman Imp it used to pull the front wheels off the ground. So part of the philosophy was to get a big car with an intelligent ratio of wheelbase to track so that it handled well and was able to put the power down. We didn’t think it was ground-breaking thinking. It just seemed the natural thing to do.”

With Geoghegan, a long-time associate of O’Neil, enlisted to drive the new car, it’s reasonable to assume that a Ford Falcon would have been the basis of the new car, given Geoghegan’s success with Mustangs, ‘Super Falcon’ and 1973 Bathurst victory, co-driving with Allan Moffat in the factory-entered Falcon GT. But Sheppard says there wasn’t a lot of Blue Oval love for Pete.

“Ford was never really friendly to them, (Laurie and Pete) had been very successful Ford operators and they didn’t get anything – most of the stuff went to Moffat,” he said. “They didn’t get what they probably thought they deserved from Ford but the company had Moffat at the time, who was a good PR man and that helps. Pete, with his speech impediment, wasn’t a good PR man. (But) I don’t think Pete was all that fussy what he drove.

John Sheppard was the mastermind behind the Monaro.

Holden was a little more generous, donating an HQ bodyshell but by the time the car was completed late in 1974, the HJ facelift had been released and the racer was updated to the new model – an easy task given the work simply involved fitting a new bolt on nose panel.

Prior to commencing the car’s build, Sheppard had not pondered the perfect

sports sedan specification, and despite some radical thoughts bouncing around rival teams, Sheppo kept his design reasonably conventional.

“I am an evolution man, not a revolution man. Things need to evolve with me. I like to use things that have proven to be usable,” he says.

That meant front engine, rear-wheeldrive and a big six-litre Chevrolet V8 donk. Even so, the Geoghegan car differed greatly in spec to the improved production Monaro that Sheppard had earlier created for Bob Jane, which the Jane team later converted into a ‘conventional’ sports sedan.

The principal differences with the Geoghegan Monaro were an independent rear-end, a transaxle and a rear-deck mounted oil cooler, and of course the HJ front panel. Many of the parts, including the transaxle, were Ford GT40 items, sourced by O’Neil.

“Laurie, for whatever reason, had access to a lot of Ford GT40 parts, so he kept coming up with these parts and he used to blame me for not having the car finished,” laughed Sheppard. “I would say, ‘well, we are waiting on some wheels, Laurie, and he would reply, ‘Oh, okay’. I had no idea where he got the stuff from.”

Geoghegan in the Monaro at Calder in 1975.

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REBUILDING THE BEAST! Despite the haphazard manner in which O’Neil supplied the components, Sheppard says it didn’t cause any difficulty in designing the big coupe.

“It really was an evolution thing,” he explained. “Laurie said ‘I’ve got this transaxle, I’ve got this suspension’ and he pretty much supplied most of it before we started. With the rear suspension we worked backwards from the parts that we had to make them fit rather than designing something special. We worked out where we could hang things so that the suspension fitted into the HQ body shell. We made up brackets to hold the wishbones a la what a GT 40 had. We set the wheels and tyres up where they belonged and then worked out how to join them together with wishbones and so forth.

We looked at whether we needed to put a racing double wishbone front end on it but we decided to use the Holden stuff. We just got rid of all the rubber bushings so that it was reasonably stable and didn’t wobble around.”

The wheels were a mixture of genuine GT40 wheels and replicas cast by Globe Products of South Australia, all constructed from magnesium alloy.

Despite his evolutionary bent, O’Neil’s parts placed Sheppard at the start of a sports sedan revolution.

“That was sort of the beginning of people getting a Formula 5000 and making a sports sedan out of it,” he says. “Lots of people did it – I wouldn’t say we started the ball rolling but that’s when people started doing it.”

A large number of holes inside the bodyshell highlight Sheppard’s attitude to reducing weight.

“I am a firm believer in not running a car any heavier than you have to.

People say there are no intrusion bars in the roll cage but we filled the doorshells with polyurethane foam and that was the best anti-intrusion you could have because putting a lump of polyurethane inside a steel (door) makes it very strong. I notice that the doors we got with it now, all the polyurethane foam is gone because the new owners must have built a (new) roll cage. CAMS didn’t like our roll cage because it was chrome moly and it didn’t meet their specs as written in the book. I said, ‘I will get you an engineer’s certificate to show it is superior to

Although John Sheppard is not officially involved in the car’s restoration – “I am not in a position to make it happen” – he still likes to keep an eye on its progress. The work is being carried out for current owner Kerry Turley by Tom Smith.

Sheppard says Tom has carried out extensive research and collected as much information about the car as John has stored in his head.

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PETE GEOGHEGAN

IT’S A CLASSIC: RICHARD FERLAZZO

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s the designer of the Holden Efijy, and a senior member of design team that developed the V2 Holden Monaro in 2001, the Holden Coupe 60 in 2008 and the Chevrolet Camaro in 2010, Holden Chief Designer Richard Ferlazzo knows a lot about classic coupe design.

A child of the ’60s, Ferlazzo was at a very impressionable age when Holden unleashed Monaro onto a performance-starved Australian motoring public, something that positioned him well later in life when designing new-breed sports coupes.

Richard remembers fondly the Monaros, Toranas, Chargers and Falcons of the classic muscle car era, describing the whole period as “wonderful”.

“Frankly, they were halcyon years as all of us (Holden, Ford and Chrysler) were building performance coupes.” Ferlazzo told Motorsport Legends. “To me, cars are an art form.

Sure you enjoy the driving experience and the performance side of things, but what’s most appealing to me is, it’s industrial design personified. Cars are more emotive than any other product in the world.”

We asked Richard to cast his highlytrained eye over the HQ design and he was happy to oblige.

“I think the HQ is a classic design. I still have a soft spot for the original Monaro but when you look at the HQ, it’s very elegant.

Some people thought it may have been a little bit too soft for a muscle car – I don’t agree with that. I think it is a really good design.

“You look at the three that Australia was doing at the time – the HQ Holden, the XA Ford and the VH Valiant – they had a lot more volume in the body than the previous generations, which all looked kind of linear. All three of them are great. If you had room for an HQ

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Monaro, an XA Falcon and a VH Charger in the garage you’d be a very happy man.

“It is quite clear that the HQ has some inspiration from what they were doing in the States at Pontiac and (GM) other brands – that was the trend.

“And being a GM sub-division, there is always a lot of interaction, but I would argue the HQ is a better proportioned car (than the Pontiac GTO) because (the GTO) is big and heavy, whereas the Monaro is much tighter and you can still fit a big block in there. I reckon it is a triumph – a really beautiful car, even the four-door version.

“It is a very elegant car. There is a lot of surface work in the body, those little blisters in the side – that all went away in the ’80s and ‘90s and design became clean and clinical. It’s changed again in recent times, there’s a lot of embellishment on the side of the cars now (and) the sort of surface treatment on the HQ could easily fit in with what is happening today.

“With the HJ, the trend was for tougher looking cars – they were looking stronger around the world and the HJ is a reaction to that, hence it is more upright, it is a lot stronger looking. The HQ is soft and friendly, the HJ is a little bit more aggressive. They would have been thinking, after three years of HQ, where’s the trend going? Tougher and stronger.”

Given Richard’s involvement in creating a retro-inspired Camaro, we asked if he’d like to design a new ‘HQ’ Monaro.

“Sure. The answer is always yes because you can bring a new proportion to it,” he replied. “The HQ designers were locked into certain technologies at the time that didn’t allow them to go any further and you have to consider social trends – you can only go so far at any one time before people are spooked.”

Sadly, it will never happen. But given Richard’s amazingly fertile mind and worldclass talent, not to mention GM’s 6-litre Gen IV V8, we know such a Monaro would be one amazing vehicle.

what’s in your book’ and they gave it the tick of approval. That’s what we have put back in it now, the standard roll cage. It’s inch and a quarter (in diameter); in some places it is inch and a half, with 28thou wall. It is very light and very strong.”

Without being unkind, Pete was an enormous man, which must have impacted on Sheppard’s minimum weight philosophy. “(Pete) was always very weight conscious of the car, not himself – he’d say if we put this part on we can save a bit of weight and I used to say to him, ‘Yeah, well if go and evacuate your bowels you’ll save the same amount of weight!’ That was who he was and that is what we had to work with and fortunately his skill made up for his weight. I remember the first time I saw him up at Albury, I was standing up on top of the quarry watching him drive sideways everywhere and I said to him, ‘That’s not the fastest way around the track’. I don’t remember what his comment was but I think every time I saw him drive he was sideways all the time, even in the Mustangs. He was very skilful and one thing made up for the other.”

Power for the Monaro came from a 6-litre Chevrolet V8 that produced around 540hp, about the maximum Sheppard says the unit was capable of producing prior to the NASCAR blocks becoming available. “We had a lot of really weird things on that engine,” remembers Sheppo. “Most of them stopped making power at 6500-7000 revs so we put fitted huge exhausts and huge inlets hoping that it would help the horsepower, but we only ran them to 7500 anyway because you were scared if you ran it higher it would dismantle itself. I don’t remember the torque figure – no one talks about torque, they don’t think it means anything, but it means everything.”

The team also ran ‘love it or hate it’ Lucas fuel injection, a fuel delivery system Sheppo says worked fine.

Along with the transaxle, the Monaro was also equipped with a dummy gearbox fitted in the conventional position due to category rules.

“You read different stories that John McCormack did something similar and we copied him, or he copied us, or whatever, but it was only a dummy

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gearbox because the car had to have that relationship of engine, gearbox diff, as they called it – I hate their term – it is rear axle. The dummy gearbox just had a shaft running through it.”

CAMS also enforced another rule that indirectly contributed to the car’s transformation from a thing of beauty to ugly duckling. The rules allowed a six-litre limit for cars employing the original engine and a 5-litre limit for those powered by an alternative motor. Holden had dropped the 350 Chevrolet engine for the HJ range, its home-grown 308 became the top engine option and CAMS insisted the team run with a 5-litre limit. In response, Sheppard refitted an HQ nose to the Monaro, and also added a developing trend, mudguard box flares.

“We put those box flares on it because we thought it was a good idea, but it made the car look quite ugly,” Sheppard admits. “In retrospect, it would have been much better to have just put (standard) HQ panels back on it. The HJ, to me, looked a bit tougher than an HQ. The HQ was still a nice shape, but we did all that box flare nonsense to the detriment of the car.

It just shows you that everything you do in life isn’t necessarily that smart, he laughs.

“I (also) did it to stick it up CAMS’ nose because they let Moffat run his (controversial) Cologne Capri (built in Germany to German rules) and it had box flares on it and I thought ‘how can you do that?’ So we put box flares on ours but, it was an ill-conceived notion.”

The car was also notable for other innovations, such as a Cessna aircraft vista vent in the windscreen, and Cessna vortex generators fitted to the rear of the roof because the airflow wasn’t getting to the boot-mounted oil cooler.

“That was something Holden helped us with. We put it in their wind tunnel – they didn’t have a high speed one, it was only for checking out heating and cooling and so forth – and there was no air flow (to the cooler) so they put on those little vortex generators – Cessna aircraft have them to generate some vortexes so that the air flow becomes laminar. We just told people

Geoghegan in the Monaro in front of Jim Richards in his Mustang and the chasing pack at Amaroo Park in 1976.

“WE PUT THOSE BOX FLARES ON IT BECAUSE WE THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA, BUT IT MADE THE CAR LOOK QUITE UGLY…” it was to hold the back window in,” laughed Sheppard.

Sheppo also fitted the car with a standard Holden rear spoiler, though it’s worth as an aerodynamic device remains in question.

“There wasn’t a lot of science in it,” Sheppard confessed. “We messed with the rear deck spoiler on Norm Beechey’s Monaro and the test for that was for someone to be in the boot and see how hard it was to push the boot lid up at speed so it wasn’t very scientific at all, but it served its purpose. The main thing we were doing it for was for the duct down to the oil cooler. People looked at the oil cooler in the boot and said, ‘Oh you can’t do that’ and I would reply ‘where does it say you can’t do that?’

“We put as much stuff in the back as we could because we had a big heavy lump up the front. I don’t know what the weight distribution was, when weighing it you had to hire four sets of grain scales to put it on and it took four days to do it because you’d change something and all the (suspension) arms would be banging up and down.”

Despite the effort in building the Monaro, it was lightly raced during O’Neil’s ownership.

“Laurie was exceptionally interested

in it for quite a while, he used to come to all the race meetings and the car was very successful early in its life. I was going around running it at race meetings and I got sick of that because I had been doing it for too long, so I abandoned it and then Mick Lambert, who used to work on the car, took over.

He hated it because he reckoned it was all too hard, he didn’t like it at all so the problems started. I think that was mainly due to the fact that Mick didn’t like it. Generally if the car is not loved by the man who is working on it; it’s going to have a sad life. That’s how I saw it from the outside.”

Sheppard can see why someone wouldn’t necessarily enjoy working on the car.

“It was hard to change ratios but that wasn’t all that big a deal – we changed ratios in our time but it was reasonably fair to say it wasn’t built with a view to servicing it,” he laughed. But my attitude was you shouldn’t be messing with them anyway – I reckon you build a car and leave it. Don’t keep working on it because there is a fair chance you will mess it up.”

“It was semi successful in their hands but then Pete sold it to Garry Rogers and it had mediocre success from then on.” MSL MotorSportLegends

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JACKIE STEWART

THE FLYING SCOTSMAN Formula One has produced many characters whose achievements have transcended the sport itself, but few names resonate quite like Sir Jackie Stewart.

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he Flying Scot was one of the giants of the F1 track, a three-time world champion during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and someone who has unwaveringly lived up to the title of his autobiography, Winning is not Enough.

His name is not just synonymous with his steely brilliance on the track, but also because of his aptitude as team manager with Stewart Grand Prix, his astute observations as an F1 commentator, and his undisputed success as a businessman. He also tours as a highly respected motivational speaker.

Stewart’s is a wonderful legacy, the story of a man born in West Dunbar12

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE INTERVIEW HUB

tonshire, Scotland, in 1939; someone who overcame dyslexia, a condition he didn’t even know that he had until he was 42 to succeed at nearly every aspect of his life.

“I obviously knew I was different in school. I knew that I wasn’t clever.

When I married my wife at age 23 I hadn’t the courage to tell her that I couldn’t read or write or spell. I didn’t know the words to the Lord’s Prayer or the words to the Scottish national anthem, and to this day I don’t know them.

“Raised in that condition you learn to train yourself to be good at other things. I was good at sports. At shooting for example, where I came very close to

qualifying for the Olympics, and that year I won the European and British championships in (clay) shooting; the Irish championships, and the Welsh. I won everything that year!”

Stewart dismisses the idea he might have won a gold medal – “I might have made the podium!” – but acknowledges what shooting had given him: the sense of pride that he had lacked. “When you find you’re good at something, you grasp at that with both hands so tightly and you’re desperately looking for ways of getting praise because your sense of self-worth has been so badly damaged in other ways. “Success is often critical to your sense of self-worth and pride.

Shooting enabled me to gain confidence

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and that helped me when I started racing.”

This is not empty bluster: Stewart can detail the very essence of what clay pigeon shooting gave him that helped forge his winning mentality.

“When you miss a clay target, you don’t get to do it over again. You can’t get to 100 no matter how brilliant you are. The best you can do is 99. In driving you can make an error on one lap and you get a chance to make the time up on other laps. Same thing on the golf course. So I learned how to focus on mind management and develop mental toughness.”

By the early 1960s, having worked as an amateur mechanic, the family connection began to open doors. “I got a contract with Ford Motor Company in 1964. They gave me £500 and a Ford Zodiac from the motor show in Earl’s Court in London. I saw that as a golden opportunity. I stayed with Ford for 40 years. I learned so much from my work with Ford and I surrounded myself with clever people. I knew that if I had clever folk around me, working for me

Belgium Grand Prix Zolder Belgium 1973.

Jackie Stewart at speed on his way to the win.

PHOTO SUPPLIED BY FORD USA

to get certain things done, I had a huge advantage.

“But it wasn’t just Ford. I’ve also been with Rolex for 45 years, and I’ve also been on the board of Moet and Chandon for 44 years. Working for those companies taught me to underpromise and over-deliver. That always wins you points.”

It was while driving in Formula Three, Stewart captured the interest of F1 team BRM and his destiny became clear. His three Formula One championship victories in 1969, 1971 and 1973 are proof enough of Stewart’s special talents, giving the Scot a place in Formula One folklore.

But that success is tinged with grave Jackie Stewart on the victory rostrum.

PHOTO SUPPLIED BY FORD USA

1966 Indianapolis 500 in his Lola Ford.

PHOTO SUPPLIED BY FORD USA

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JACKIE STEWART

Rubens Barrichello drove for Stewart Grand Prix in 1998 and 1999.

“HIS GREAT FRIEND JIMMY CLARK WAS KILLED ON THE TRACK, ANOTHER VICTIM OF THE SAVAGE REALITY THAT FORMULA ONE WAS... ”

sadness. His great friend Jimmy Clark was killed on the track, another victim of the savage reality that Formula One was, back then, the most dangerous sport in the world.

“Jimmy was one of my best friends.

We were sharing an apartment in London and we were both Scottish and saw ourselves as representing our wee country in the world. He was also in Formula One long before I arrived on the scene. In those days there were many other non-Formula One events, many at Brands Hatch, and we got to know each other very well from driving at those races.

“Jimmy was very shy, very modest, almost introverted. I was able to study Jim Clark up close and personal. We would talk about racing technique but I learned mainly by watching him drive whenever I could.

“Jimmy was always the man to beat in Formula One. While we were both driving, we came to be known as Batman and Robin. I’ve said many times over the years that it was always clear

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who was Batman and who was Robin!”

The death of that close friend in such tragic circumstances led Stewart to question why F1 tracks were so hazardous for drivers, and he knew something had to be done.

Nobody worked harder than Stewart to improve the safety of the circuits, and his legacy in this area is perhaps stronger than that associated with his podium finishes. He recognised that while tracks like Nürburgring still existed as they did, more and more fatalities were likely.

“That type of racetrack could never continue and I closed it in 1970 because they wouldn’t do one little thing for safety,” he said.

It is for this work long after he had finished racing, not to mention his reputation in the car, that allows Stewart to straddle the generations with such authority. He bemoans the lack of camaraderie between drivers in 2013 – “during the ’60s and ’70s, the drivers would do breakfasts, lunch, and dinners together. Today most of the drivers

Overseas model shown

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The Seven 485 provides a power output of 177 kW (240 bhp) in the light weight but larger ADR compliant SV chassis.

This makes the new Caterham Seven 485 the most powerful Seven ever offered for sale in Australia. With a zero to 100 km/h acceleration time of 3.9 seconds, it is comparable to some of the fastest road cars ever produced. The new Caterham Seven 485 is available for order in Australia!

For more information, or regarding the rest of the Australian model range, contact us.

Caterham Cars Australia, Level 1, 362 Swan Street, Richmond, VIC 3121 P: 03 9329 0344 E: chris@caterhamcars.com.au

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JACKIE STEWART

Stewart even drove in Australia.

Here he races a Brabham at Surfers Paradise in 1966.

on the same team don’t even speak to each other except at briefings!” – and isn’t scared to voice a controversial opinion when asked a question. Take his response when queried about the classic battle between Niki Lauda and James Hunt, whose famous rivalry in the 1976 season has just been reimagined in film via Ron Howard’s RUSH. “It wasn’t a classic battle! Lauda was significantly better. He was a great

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driver. James Hunt was a good driver, but never great. The final race in Japan, which decided the championship, was run in a driving rainstorm and would never have been started today. So Lauda’s decision to pull out after two laps was based on the fact that he had been in a terrible accident a few months earlier and he didn’t feel the need to risk his life again. Why would he want to expose himself in injury and death

when he had come back from near death at Nürburgring?”

Who is the best driver in the history of the sport?

“Jim Clark was the best driver I ever raced against. My hero was Juan Manuel Fangio. And I luckily became friendly with Fangio. He went on to become president of Mercedes-Benz in Argentina and carried his relationships globally in the most perfect way.” MSL

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10/3/14 11:33:27 AM 20/12/2013 2:26 pm

OFFICIAL PROGRAM 2014

ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

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ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

A MUSEUM IN MOTION

An amazing array of classic cars and motorcycles will converge on the South Australian captial for the inaugural running of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

A

s part of Adelaide’s Speed-Week of events, the Adelaide Motorsport Festival will deliver two days of competition which can be described as a “Museum in Motion”.

Interstate travellers are encouraged to book accommodation with the official hotel provider, The Arkaba Hotel, which is located just a few kilometres from both elements of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

Not since 1995 has Formula One action hit the streets of Adelaide in the size or scale we will be seeing at the festival’s Victoria Park Sprint on the second day of competition, Sunday April 13.

The Adelaide Motorsport Festival draws upon South Australia’s rich motorsport history and celebrates and

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re-enacts motorsport competition of a by-gone era. Grand Prix cars from the 1930s to the 1990s are the main focus of the Victoria Park Sprint and the event is rounded out with a diverse field of historic touring cars, sports cars and classic motorcycles. There are also displays of some of the greatest classic cars from across the years.

The first day of the festival sees modern and classic sports, touring and special interest vehicles undertake a hillclimb at Windy Point (6km from CBD) whilst the second day features competition on a section of the famous Australian Grand Prix circuit within Victoria Park, which is now well known as the Clipsal 500 track.

Many of the vehicles attending are rare and collectable pieces, often with a colourful story to tell. Approximately 12 Grand Prix cars have been sourced

to attend the event, conjuring up the same sights, sounds and smells that could be found trackside at previous Australian Grand Prix events.

The Adelaide Motorsport Festival intends on being true and authentic to South Australia’s rich motor racing heritage whilst creating new event experiences with relevance and meaning to the Adelaide motor racing enthusiast.

Saturday April 12th Windy Point Hillclimb This 1100m long Hillclimb is held on a section of Belair Rd, between Lynton and Windy-Point, Belair. The designated spectator viewing point is at the Windy Point Lookout. Spectators are encouraged to park at Gloucester Ave, Belair within the St Johns Grammar School. A shuttle bus will ferry

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spectators to the Spectator point at the intersection of Kalyra and Belair Rds, Belair. Entry is free but the spectator zone may reach capacity early in the day. Here spectators can expect to see cars slow for a wide hairpin and power over the finish line. Spectators will also get to see approximately 120 competition cars up close in the regroup area at Windy Point. Food and drink will be provided by Windy Point Restaurant and the Pavilion and Cafe Restaurant will be open for lunch, with a view of the track and city below. Call 08 8278 8255 to book a table.

Sunday April 13th Victoria Park Sprint The Adelaide Motorsport Festival Victorias Park Sprint is held in the Eastern Parklands at adjacent to, and on, part of the Clipsal 500 track. Entry

to the festival is via two gates located in the south-eastern corner next to Fullarton Rd. Parking is located further south along Fullarton Rd. All areas surrounding the track, apart from the gated area and designated spectator zone on the eastern side of the track, are exclusion zones. Tickets are available on the www.adelaidemotorsportfestival.com.au website.

On-track elements include up to 120 rare and collectable sports and racing cars as well as a number of historic Grand Prix and Formula One cars. These cars will be actively competing in a Sprint where they race the clock in a number of 4-lap

sessions. Awards in each category and overall will be announced at the day’s conclusion. A spirited Classic Motorcycle Demonstration rounds out the on-track element, with pre 1985 racing motorcycles taking to the track on two occasions.

Off-track activities include Model Demonstrations and Scalextric racing for kids, as well as kids electric car rides.

More than 250 cars on display and nearly 100 classic motorcycles will be featured.

Trade displays, food vans and club exhibitions will also be on the infield and a classic car auction will be held in the middle of the day.

“DESIGNED TO ATTRACT LOCAL, INTERSTATE AND INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION CARS AND MOTORCYCLES” MotorSportLegends

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ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

WINDY POINT HILLCLIMB ENTRY LIST Name John Gillett James Redwood Tony Parkinson Samantha Dymond Robert Ford Andrew Sladden Bill Brentzell Tim Harper Kym McPeake Ross Smith Adam Debiasi René Felkl John Illingworth Alister Gosse Jon Williams Andrew Maros Jed Richards Tom Ferguson Stephen miller Brad Fox Hamish Laurie John Parker David Southwell Lincoln Till Michael Poll Jonker Peter Mathwin Paul Richards Jeff Sabel Michael Stewart Henry Beasley Ken Mee Nick Lenthall Brett Sunstrom Norm Goodall Jonathon Finnis Peter Harper Ross Kingham Jai Raymond David Tomkins Scott Rose Craig Haysman Kristian Downing Stratton Limberis Philip Edwards Robert Edwards David Lawson Oscar Matthews Kevin McIntosh Hamish McKendrick Matt Selley Chris Makai Henry McLeay Tristan Catford Andrew Coles Andrew Colliver Rami Hamdan Steve Mason Vic Moore Nathan Green Scott Limbert 22

Make

Model

Year

MG Singer Austin Healey Lola Morris Ford Shelby Buick Ford Prince Volkswagen Volkswagen Datsun Ford Triumph Chrysler Porsche Datsun Datsun Mitsubishi ASP Chimera Mitsubishi Mazda Mercedes Benz MG ASP Porsche Porsche Ford Toyota Ford Porsche Porsche Mazda Ford Volvo Rover Morgan Ford Triumph Porsche Toyota Porsche Porsche Toyota Toyota Porsche Porsche BMW Toyota Toyota Mitsubishi Alfa Romeo Toyota Toyota Toyota Porsche Nissan Nissan

K3 Special 1100cc 4c 100S Mk1 Cooper S Cortina GT350 Riviera GT Mustang Fastback Skyline GT-B Beetle Beetle 1600 Falcon GTHO 2000 Mk 1 saloon VG Pacer replica V8 911T Targa 240Z 1600 Lancer 340B - Clubman Sports Colt Galant 16L GS RX2 500SLC B GT Clubman 340A 916 911 RS Escort Celica Escort Mk II Group 4 911RSR 911SC RX7 MK2 Escort 242 GT SD1 Plus 8 Escort TR7 V8 911 Corolla 944 944 Corolla CS-X AE86 Sprinter 928 944 Turbo Cup M3 E30 H35-24S Group A AE86 Corona Wagon Galant VR4 Sprint Supra MR2 FX-GT Corolla Coupe 911 Carrera GTR GTR R32

1934 1954 1955 1960 1964 1964 1965 1965 1965 1966 1968 1968 1968 1969 1969 1970 1970 1971 1971 1972 1972 1972 1972 1972 1972 1973 1973 1973 1973 1974 1975 1976 1976 1977 1979 1979 1979 1979 1979 1980 1981 1983 1983 1984 1984 1984 1984 1984 1985 1985 1986 1986 1987 1987 1988 1988 1988 1988 1989 1989

Above: This ex-Graham Hill Lotus 12 has been in Australia since 1960. It will be driven by Mike Bennett at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

SCHEDULE SAT APRIL 12 Public Road Closure Track Set-up

8.30 am 8.30-9.15 am

First Run

9.15 am

Classes Pre-1970 1970s 1980s 1990s Open * Running order from oldest to newest

Break

12.30 pm

Last run

4.30 pm

Class award presentations

4.45 pm

Track pull-down

4.30-5.00 pm

Road re-opens

5.30 pm

*Schedule correct at the time of printing

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Below left & right: The bikes and cars are the stars of the show. There were plenty on display at the recent media day for the AMF.

STARS OF THE SHOW

The Adelaide Motorsport Festival will serve up a delicious feast of some of the most desirable vehicles in the world, many of them have remarkable histories as well.

Nigel Tait’s Matich SR4 is one of the Australia’s most significant home-grown sports/racing cars.

Raced by Frank Matich, the car dominated the 1969 Australian Sports Car Championship. Two years later, Repco purchased the car and in 1986, the company sold it to Tait, who was ACL’s Chief Engineer at the time. The car was restored by Jim Hardman, with Nigel himself rebuilding the current 5-litre quad cam Repco Brabham engine, which is the only one of its type running in the world. The engine develops around 550hp. The car has

Fathi Shahin Nissan Antony Luesby Nissan Guy Chet Toyota Mitchell Hall Nissan Fletcher Bolton Mazda Nathan Dale Nissan Chris Edmondson Nissan Lachlan Smith Nissan Michael Linke Mazda John Beasley Mitsubishi Tynan Brice Mitsubishi Michael Clare Nissan Marque Le Maistre Mazda Justin Miller Toyota Jason Palmer Porsche Daniel Smith Subaru Riki-lee Clarke Toyota Alastair Dow Puma Joel Johnston Seat Chris Meulengraaf Subaru Charles Nott TVR Sean Bennett Mitsubishi Luke Bosman Nissan Seth Coultas Subaru Leigh Harris Mitsubishi Jim Myhill Subaru Tasman Orme Subaru Ben Calder Mitsubishi Graham Davidson Subaru Martin Farkas BMW Nick Streckeisen Mitsubishi Lancer Richard Wright Elfin Sportscars Hamish Gibson BMW Greg Keene Porsche Mark Rundle Mitsubishi John Davies Mitsubishi Harry Papageorge Ford Dave Settle Mitsubishi Simon Dellamalva Lotus Brodie Huppatz Mitsubishi Karl Thomson Ford Craig Van Diemen Mitsubishi Chris Weddle Lotus Geoff Crowe Porsche Hamid Farouque Subaru Kevin Weeks Lamborghini John DalCollo Audi R8 Peter Gazzard Mitsubishi John Amos Mitsubishi Sebastian Lip Nissan Michael Keen Mitsubishi George Michell HDT Julian Newton Nissan Amanda Sparks Porsche Colin Zytveld FPV Richard Clampett Porsche Michael Flood Mitsubishi Jason Thiele VW Scott Dornan Holden Andrew Weber Ultra Sam Shahin Porsche * Entry lists correct at the time of printing

Skyline GTR 180SX Soarer 180SX MX5 R32 GTST Skyline 180SX 180SX RX7FD Evo 1V Lancer Evo III 200SX S14 MX5 Supra 993RSR WRX STI JZX100 Chaser Clubman Ibiza Cupra Sport (Cuprace GTI) WRX STI 22B Chimaera Evo 6.5 TME GTR R34 WRX STI Lancer Evo VI Impreza WRX WRX STI Lancer Evo TME Sti type RA M3 Evo VII RS T3 Clubman M3 GT2 Evo VIII Lancer Evo VIII GT40 MK 1 1967 replica Evo IX RS Exige Cup 240 Evo IX FPV Typhoon Evo VIII Exige 997 GT3 BSpec Liberty Gallardo Super Leggere R8 Twin Turbo modified Evo IX Evo X R35 Evo X Group A SS GTR Turbo S Boss 335 356 Speedster replica Evo X Golf GTD GTS LMR 997 GT3 RS

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1990 1991 1993 1993 1994 1994 1994 1994 1995 1996 1996 1996 1996 1996 1996 1996 1998 1998 1998 1998 1998 1999 1999 1999 1999 1999 1999 2000 2000 2001 2001 2001 2003 2003 2003 2004 2004 2004 2005 2005 2005 2005 2005 2007 2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 2009 2010 2010 2011 2011 2011 2012 2012 2012 2013 2013 2013

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ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

SCHEDULE FOR SUNDAY APRIL 13 Spectator Gates Open

9.00 am

Racing Starts

9.00 am

Racing Order: Porsche Through the Ages Historic Touring Cars Early Racing Cars Racing Cars – 1950s & 60s Racing Cars – 1970s to 2000s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix history Bursons Supercar Sprint Historic Sports Racing Cars Production Sports Cars Classic Racing Motorcycle Demonstration * Repeated three times throughout the day

Key times to remember Formula 1 on track (approximately)

10.00 am, 12.00 noon and 2.00 pm

Lucky Swing Band, Historic Grandstand

12.00 noon

Classic Car Auction, Hitoric Grandstand

12.25 pm

Auction items include: 2004 Evo IX Tarmac rally car; Lancia HF Delta 4WD road car; 1947 Fiat 500 Toloplino Belvedere; Early 1970s BMW 650 motorcycle; 1947 Citroen 11BC Traction Avant; 1978 TR7 V8 Tarmac rally car; 1972 ASP Clubman; Original signed artwork of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival Poster; and a full collection of framed Adelaide Grand Prix posters 1985-1995.

Hot Lap Rides and other demonstrations on track Grand Parade

4.15 pm

Track Closes

4.30 pm

Trophy Presentations

4.45 pm

*Schedule correct at the time of printing

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12.30 pm

mainly been used for demonstration events since its restoration, though it competed in the Super Sprints at Mallala in 2013 and in the Regularity class in 2012.

Continuing the Australian racing car theme, Luke Doidge’s Cheetah is a rare beast indeed. The Mk 9 model is the only example constructed and is a Formula Brabham spec vehicle originally built for 1984-5 Formula Two champion, Peter Glover to run in the 1989 Australian Drivers’ Championship. Powered by a V6 Holden engine, the car was later raced by V8 Supercar star Craig Lowndes, who drove it to victory in the 1994 Silver Star series. Veteran racer and 1975 Bathurst winner, Brian Samson, later raced it in Sentinel Grand Prix support races.

Of course no Australian historic race meeting – much less a South Australian one – would be complete without an Elfin. Located in the Adelaide suburb of Edwardstown, Elfin was Australia’s most prolific racing and sports car builder and Mark Goldsmith’s ex-works Type Elfin 622 Australian National Formula Two car is a fine example of Garrie Cooper’s craftsmanship.

Continuing the open wheeler theme is Pat Mullins’ Van Diemen RF 86 Formula Ford. One of the most popular cars to race in Australia, this Englishbuild Van Diemen was originally owned by superstar David Brabham, who raced this car in the Formula Ford race at the 1986 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.

If you prefer your historic cars a little older, make sure you check out Ron Townley’s superb Lago Talbot Type 26C Formula 1 car. The Formula One machine has an extensive European

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Grand Prix history, in addition to claiming third position at the 1955 Australian Grand Prix in Port Wakefield and eighth place in the 1955 AGP at Albert Park 1956.

Everyone loves a Porsche and Stewart Kay’s 901 clearly demonstrates why. This immaculate vehicle is the first right-hand-drive Porsche 901/911 delivered worldwide, the original owner being Ron F Angas of Collingrove, Angaston.

John Parker’s Chimera sports car was built in Adelaide by its current owner and Allan Parker. It was first road registered and raced/hill climbed in 1972 and competed in club events both here and interstate.

The car features a mid-mounted Datsun 1600 engine, VW gearbox and Triumph Spitfire front end and appears at the AMF in original condition.

If purist racing/sports cars aren’t your thing don’t worry, there is something for everyone at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival. Chris Meulengraaf’s Subaru WRX STI 22B is a rare world rally homologation car, one of only 400 built in the world and just one of only 12 in Australia.

For something a little different, make sure you have a look at Alexander Thomas’ Fiat 1500S. The Italian-built car has the honour of being one of the first Group N log-booked racers in Australia in 1980. Having competed at history race meetings at Lakeside and Surfers Paradise in Queensland, along with specialty events such as the Leyburn Sprint in Noosa and Morgan Park in Queensland, and Speed On Tweed in northern New South Wales, the car has a very interesting competition history indeed.

Of course the AMF isn’t all about cars, motorcycles are well represented too. Gavin Porthouse’s Enfield Bullet 350 is a fine example of the mouth-watering two wheel offerings on show at the Festival.

The motorcycle is a transition model, created during the changeover between English and Indian manufacture. It has been restored in Cafe Racer style, with period correct colour scheme and accessories.

VICTORIA PARK SPRINT ENTRY LIST Name

Make

John Gillett MG Peter Playford MG Ron Townley Lago Talbot Formula 1 James Redwood Singer Tony Parkinson Austin Healey Michael Bennett Lotus René Felkl Porsche Samantha Dymond Lola Max Pegram Gemini MK II Alexander Thomas Fiat Robert Ford Morris Stewart Kay Porsche Bill Brentzell Shelby Joe Calleja Chev Tim Kuchel Gilbert Davin Umlauf Toyota Special Alister Gosse Ford Brenton Griguol Lola Nigel Tait Matich Andrew Maros Chrysler Jed Richards Porsche Peter Axford Alfa Romeo Robert Vanderkamp Ford Phil Carter Ford Chris Frost Holden Ron Guppy Lola Jeff Sabel Porsche Paul Richards ASP Andrew Ford Birrana Joe Calleja March F1 Mark Goldsmith Elfin Phillip Lane Elfin Peter Whelan Chevron Darren Holliday Prad Norm Goodall Porsche Simon Gardiner Chevron Peter Brennan Warsteiner Arrows Paul Faulkner Williams Robert Loro Lola Kevin McIntosh Porsche Matt Selley BMW Hamish McKendrick Porsche Ian Ross Beatrice Lola Pat Mullins Van Diemen Formula Ford Ian Wilson TVR Luke Doidge Cheetah Les Dombi Honda Kristian Downing Porsche Jason Palmer Porsche Chris Meulengraaf Subaru Keith Wong Ferrari Greg Keene Porsche Harry Papageorge Ford Keir Wilson Lamborghini Kevin Weeks Lamborghini Geoff Crowe Porsche Greg Edwards Spectrum Martin Farkas Aston Martin John DalCollo Audi R8 Twin Turbo modified John Amos Aston Martin Amanda Sparks Porsche Julian Newton Nissan Sam Shahin Porsche Peter Altman Chevrolet Scott Dornan Holden * Entry lists correct at time of printing

Model

Yearn

K3 TC Special Type 26C Special 1100cc 4c 100S 12 718 RSK Mk1 Formula Junior 1500S Cooper S 901 GT350 Corvette Z06 Indy Car Formula 3 Falcon GTHO T142/21 SR4 VE pacer replica V8 911T Targa Zagato 1300 Ford falcon XY GT Falcon GT Torana XU1 T204 916 Clubman 340A 274-F2 741-1 Type 622 700 B42 Prad 11 911SC B42 A1B F1 FW07 T700 928 M3 E30 H35-24S Group A 944 Turbo Cup F1 RF86 Tuscan Mk9 Formula Brabham NSX 911 (993) 993RSR WRX STI 22B F 360 Challenge GT2 GT40 MK 1 1967 replica Gallardo S Gallardo Super Leggere 997 GT3 011B Formula Ford V8 Vantage R8 Twin Turbo Vantage Roadster Turbo S GTR 997 CUP Corvette Z06 Centennial Edition GTS

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1934 1947 1948 1954 1955 1957 1960 1960 1960 1962 1964 1965 1965 1966 1968 1968 1969 1969 1969 1970 1970 1970 1971 1971 1971 1971 1973 1973 1974 1974 1974 1976 1977 1977 1977 1978 1979 1980 1983 1984 1985 1985 1985 1986 1988 1989 1990 1995 1996 1998 2000 2003 2004 2005 2007 2007 2007 2007 2008 2008 2011 2011 2011 2012 2013

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10/3/14 3:51:27 PM

ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

AJ’S BEATRICE RETURNS TO ADELAIDE

Brace yourself for the excitement of Formula One once again at Adelaide’s Victoria Park as the likes of Ian Ross’ ex-Alan Jones machine roar into life.

T

STORY BY GRANT NICHOLAS / PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES SMITH

he 16th and final race of the 1985 Formula One season was the inaugural Australian Grand Prix on a street circuit next to Adelaide’s CBD. Australian F1 hero and 1980 World Driver’s Champion Alan Jones was given special permission to drive the very first F1 car around the parkland circuit for the opening Friday morning practice session. Jones’ Team Haas Beatrice-Lola THL1 Hart thrilled the 120,000-trackside fans plus the worldwide television audience as he ventured around the 3.78-kilometre circuit.

Jones qualified his turbocharged THL1 in 19th spot, then he stalled on

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the grid and ended up following the safety car as the field tore through turn one. Through skill and dexterity he fought his way through to 6th place before being forced to retire after 20-laps due to engine woes. Finnish driver Keke Rosberg driving for Jones’ former championship winning team Williams won the gruelling race run in 35 Celsius ambient temperature ahead of the Ligier Renaults of Jacques Laffite and Philippe Streiff.

Team Haas owned by legendary American Lola race car distributor and team-owner Carl Haas formed FORCE (Formula One Race Car Engineering) in 1984 and persuaded Jones to return to the F1 scene after securing

financial support from US consumer conglomerate Beatrice Companies and a three-year exclusive V6 turbocharged engine deal with Ford. The first car THL1 (Team Haas Lola) was designed by former Williams race engineer Neil Oatley and fitted with a Hart inline four-cylinder 415T (1.5-litre turbocharged) engine due to the non-arrival of the Ford engines. Jones raced in three Grands Prix in ’85 but failed to finish in any of them due to reliability problems.

“Back in 2004 I was talking to Guido Belgiorno-Nettis who currently owns the ex-Michele Alboreto and Stefan Johansson F1 Ferraris about what cars were available and I noticed on the

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internet that the Beatrice-Lola THL1 was advertised for sale in England. I made some enquiries here if the car would be eligible to run in the Group R category, it was okay, so I tracked down the history of the car as I knew nothing about it,” Ross explained. “The car features a carbon fibre chassis that was designed by Neil Oatley and John Baldwin and the aerodynamics were done by Ross Brawn for FORCE.” “The car competed in a number of Grands Prix then was displayed in the Monteverdi Museum in Switzerland until 1997. After that it was raced in the 1999 and 2000 EuroBOSS with success by Mathew Mortlock and then it won the 2001 and 2003 EuroBOSS Masters Series with Bernie Harris at the wheel. He was unable to race the car the following season due to lack of backing from his corporate sponsor and he was forced to sell the car. Once I found out that it was the ex-Alan Jones car I purchased it; plus no one was going to give me a F1 drive so I bought my own car.”

“After the car landed in Australia I had it painted in the original ’85 colours and markings, then the Clipsal 500 organisers asked me to run it at their 2005 event as it was 20 years after the inaugural F1 Grand Prix in Adelaide. The engine blew and I had to get it rebuilt in England but since then we have experienced some small issues with it at various times but now we seem to be on top of them. There was virtually no development carried out on the Brian Hart manufactured 1.5-litre turbocharged engine in ’85 as he was supplying engines to numerous privateer teams that included Toleman,

Ian Ross in action at Phillip Island in AJ’s Beatrice Lola Hart.

“Once I found out that it was the ex-Alan Jones car I purchased it; plus no one was going to give me a F1 drive so I bought my own car.”

RAM, Spirit and Team Haas – they were actually being developed as they raced. Over the years I have been able to secure another engine plus a monoblock and other assorted components, so that makes maintenance easier.”

When questioned on the performance of the engine Ross tells of the qualifying horsepower that it is capable of producing thanks to turning up some additional turbocharger boost. “The engine is capable of producing 700 to 1,000 horsepower like other engines of that era. I don’t have the need for speed as the F1 drivers do, so I have it set to produce 650 to 700 horsepower. I can

turn the boost up at circuits like Sydney Motorsport Park and the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. The car is nearly 30 years old, yet when you jump into it everything is where it should be, the small steering wheel that is close to the gearshift plus the braking and handling is phenomenal. It really does everything right – so it is a real pleasure to drive on our two fast circuits. I am running the car at the forthcoming Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport then at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival followed by a few laps at Mallala Raceway and the Sydney Retro Speed Fest in early May.”

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4/3/14 3:58:58 PM

ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

LORO’S LOLA UNLEASHED

This ex-Newman/Hass Racing Lola Indy Car should be spectacular around the Adelaide Victoria Park precinct. Keep an eye out for its distinctive black,yellow and orange livery.

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STORY BY ADRIAN MUSOLINO / PHOTOGRAPHS ADRIAN MUSOLINO & ROB LORO COLLECTION

he Lola brand is synonymous with racing success across a wide variety of motorsport categories around the world, from Formula One to world rally and a host of open-wheel categories.

In the US, the English-based company has a proud history, and a particularly close relationship with iconic openwheeler team, Newman/ Haas Racing.

Together, Newman/Haas Racing and Lola won seven CART/Champ Car titles and came agonisingly close to winning the Indianapolis 500 several times.

One of those early Lola IndyCars, the Lola T700 chassis #HU700-3, will appear at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, thanks to Adelaide-based owner Rob Loro.

The Lola T700 #HU700-3 was one of three cars ordered by owner Carl Haas for the 1983 Indy 500. The car features an aluminum honeycomb and Kevlar chassis that weighs in at around 700kg, powered by a Cosworth DFX 2.65-litre V8 turbocharged engine that

produces 880hp at 11,000rpm and uses methanol fuel.

The first two chassis were reserved for Newman/Hass driver, Mario Andretti, while the #HU700-3 chassis was loaned out to Sherman Armstrong’s Armstrong Mould privateer team for veteran driver Steve Krisiloff, in what would be his final Indy 500.

Krisiloff qualified on the inside of the eleventh row and retired on lap 42 with a broken universal joint.

Andretti’s sister car, #HU700-1, crashed heavily at Turn One on lap 79, forcing the team to revert to the #HU700-2 chassis for the remainder of the season, in which Andretti took two wins from two poles and finished third in the championship.

“The Armstrong Mould Lola entry was run as a semi-privateer entry by Haas at the Indy 500, obviously down the pecking order from the Budweiserbacked Mario Andretti entry,” says Loro.

“It was third to last on the grid but it did complete the 200mph (322km/h) threshold needed to qualify, in the days when there were a lot of entries just trying to qualify for the race.

“Although the car retired early in the race, it was a good competitive car, the equivalent of the entry driven by Andretti in the same race.”

The Lola T700 Cosworth DFX remains one of the most powerful IndyCars to tackle the Indy 500, at a time when the top speeds had increased to in excess of 350km/h.

“In qualifying trim, the Cosworth DFX engine could pump out 1200 hp,” says Loro, “although now we are running it at 900hp for the sake of preserving the engine. It runs straight methanol with a top speed of 370km/h.

It has reached that speed but in the 1983 race, it ran around 320km/h.”

As Loro explains, the #HU700-3 raced just that one time at the Indy 500, before a journey that would take it across the other side of the world to Adelaide.

“The car was stored following the Indy 500 and eventually went onto the market,” he says.

“A few people have attempted to restore it to its original condition but failed. Then Ian Buttery from Sydney bought the car and owned it for a few

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© 2014 Penrite Oil Company Pty Ltd - SGAD0089

The Lola was a sister car to Mario Andretti’s Newman/ Haas Racing machine. It was driven in its hey day

by Steve Krisiloff, but is now enjoyed by its current day owner, Adelaide local Rob Loro.

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years, restoring it and racing it at the likes of Phillip Island and Winton meetings before I decided to buy it from him.

“I went to the Phillip Island Historics to get a feel for it and fell in love with the car and the historic scene.”

The car gets a fortnightly tune up and start up to keep the engine ticking over, lovingly looked after by Loro and his friends in preparation for the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

The car remains as it appeared at the Indy 500, with the original black and orange Armstrong Mould paint job and stickers, complete with the wear and tear of 42 laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Loro has further plans to drive and showcase the Lola T700, including at the proposed motorsport park planned for Tailem Bend in South Australia and historic meetings across the world, following a number of invites.

But first it’s the ‘home ground’ debut for the Lola T700 at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

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ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

JOE GETS A MARCH ON

Joe Calleja’s March 741 Formula One car that was raced in 1974 by German driver Hans-Joachim Stuck will be awesome around Victoria Park.

W

STORY BY GRANT NICHOLAS / PHOTOGRAPHS FROM JOE CALLEJA’S COLLECTION

hilst walking amongst Joe Calleja’s automotive collection, there is one particular car that stands out amongst his exceptional array of classic and sporty vehicles – a March 741 Formula One machine that German driver Hans-Joachim Stuck raced in the 1974 Formula One World Championship. The car features eyecatching original orange body panels and an engine air box carrying the Jager Jagermeister livery as raced by Stuck in the ’74 German Grand Prix.

Unlike current Formula One race cars that have carbon-fibre chassis, components, wings and body panels that are computer designed, styled and in some instances machined, the March 741 has an aluminium chassis/tub that was hand-crafted by the team’s fabricators and race engineers. The suspension components, steel support braces for the battery, bodywork and ancillaries were all meticulously fabricated to be light but able to withstand the rigours of racing on the rough and bumpy F1 circuits of the ’70s era.

March Engineering Limited in Bicester, England, only built two cars for the ’74 season; Calleja’s chassis is numbered 741-1. Stuck raced the car in the Argentina and Brazil events but failed to finish due to reliability problems with the clutch and transmission. He finished fifth in the South African race and then scored a fourth placing at the next Grand Prix in Spain. He retired from the Belgium race with clutch woes before crashing heavily at the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix. The factory repaired the chassis and fitted new bodywork 30

Joe with his crew pose with the stunning looking March 741.

before selling it to American racer Gus Hutchison, who converted the car to Formula 5000 specifications in late ’74.

Hutchison entered the car as a March 73A – 741 and campaigned it in a selection of F5000 races through to the end of ’78 when it was sold to USAC driver Larry McCoy. The car was prepared for the 1979 Indianapolis 500 with USAC-approved fuel cells and safety items fitted by O’Hanlon Racing prior to receiving official USAC technical approval stickers. The car is documented as an Indy 500 entrant and its aluminium tub still bears small

modifications to allow the installation of the fuel cells – unfortunately McCoy failed to qualify the car.

From 1980 to 2000 the March was sold to a number of owners who didn’t have the funds to restore it to its original Formula One configuration.

Over a period of approximately two years, new owner Deane Tank painstak painstakingly researched and restored 741-1 to its former F1 glory. The car’s Ford Cosworth DFV V8 engine and transaxle were rebuilt to original specifications to comply with the vintage race car rules and regulations before Tank raced it for

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several season in the US and Canada.

“I bought the March 741 from Virtuoso Performance in California during October 2012 and in early 2013 Scott Drnek, the owner of Virtuoso Performance, ran the car at the Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport for me,” says Calleja. “He was fortunate enough to win the F1 category and that was most satisfying. Several months later we shipped the March and my Corvette to the United States for John Bowe to run at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca.

Unfortunately there was a minor ball joint problem that hampered the car’s steering, which was a real pity because the F1 field consisted of some absolutely phenomenal race cars. Just to have your car running in the 1966 – 1984 Formula One race running alongside the likes of famous Ferraris, McLarens, Williams, Shadow, Lotus and other well known marques from that era was a huge thrill for me. It was extremely pleasing when local racer Steve Cook won the event in the sister March F1 car to mine – chassis 741-2.”

The March 741 has an aluminium chassis/tub that was hand-crafted by the team’s fabricators and race engineers.

When asked why he purchased the March and was it possibly due to him being an avid F1 fan, Calleja stated that it was through madness and pure impulsiveness whilst in Laguna Seca in 2012.

“Over the years I have followed F1 but under no circumstances did I ever dream or believe that I would own a F1 race car. John Bowe sort of conned me into buying it and it was a reasonably priced car, in fact the Corvette was a touch dearer. There are not many F1 cars in Australia and after driving it several times I am falling in love with it more and more. I first drove it at Winton Raceway and that really

Make mine a Morgan

demands your attention with all of the circuit’s short straights and numerous turns. Recently I ran it at Phillip Island during a 20-minute open wheeler session and it was a bit of a blur running down the main straight at 8,300 rpm. Driving an F1 car is a fantastic experience; it took many attempts by my crew to get me to return to the pit lane as I was in a wonderful world of my own out there on the track. I am looking forward to the Adelaide Motorsport Festival where we will run both the Corvette and the March 741 in the Sprint events, it should be a lot of fun.”

In a world of mass production, it is still possible to have a new car hand built exactly to customer requirements.

The bespoke world of Morganeering starts with the iconic Morgan 4/4, a model nameplate which has been in use since 1936, making it the longest running nameplate currently in use by any manufacturer. Classified as a fuel efficient vehicle in Australia, its price benefits from resultant Luxury Car Tax savings.

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Then there is the ultimate Morgan Classic experience from the new BMW V8 engined Plus 8 model.

Whichever bespoke Morgan you choose, you will be enjoying a classic English sports car, built to your exact specification, just for you.

Our website has comprehensive information on the model range and if you’d like to know more we’re always happy to talk about the unique Morgan experience.

All enquiries should be directed to: Chris van Wyk, Morgan Cars Australia Pty Ltd, Level 1, 362 Swan Street, Richmond, Victoria 3121 P: 03 9329 0344 E: chris@morgancars.com.au Please visit our website for more information. www.morgancars.com.au

The Morgan 4/4 illustrated (Note options include Stainless steel wire wheels, overriders and Mohair so top

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ADELAIDE MOTORSPORT FESTIVAL

ALLAMERICAN RACER John Bowe, car owner Joe Calleja, and even the late Peter Brock, have enjoyed racing this1965 Chevrolet Corvette at various events around Australia and the world.

T

STORY BY GRANT NICHOLAS / PHOTOGRAPH BY JOE CALLEJA’S COLLECTION

he bright fire-engine red 1965 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray that Melbourne motoring enthusiast Joe Calleja and veteran racer John Bowe have raced at numerous historic racing events for the past three seasons is the very last car circuit raced by the late Peter Brock. Brock thrilled the English and international race fans as he wrestled the booming 7-litre V8 powered Corvette through the GT Sports Car fields in the 2005 and 2006 Goodwood RAC TT Races.

Calleja’s Corvette was purchased and modified for racing by its American owner Doug Bergen and local racer Bob Johnson for action in the extremely popular Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events from 1965–69. The pair gained notable results in the SCCA West Coast and Mid-West regionals in the A Production Class for street/ showroom stock cars. They ran the Corvette in the 1967 American Road Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway, where Johnson finished seventh overall, and fourth in the Corvette class. After they moved to a newer Corvette the car was raced in a variety of sports car classes for several decades before being shipped to the United Kingdom.

During the ’90s the car was raced in the Historic Sports Car Club GT and Sports Endurance Series, plus a host of hill climbs and was issued with FIA Papers in 2002. During 2004–05 the car was completely rebuilt by Roxell Racing, with a selection of bullet proof components being utilised in the refurbishment of the engine, transmission, driveline, differential and brakes.

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During 2012 and ’13 Calleja shipped the car to the United States for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca Raceway.

During the next five years the car competed in a range of European and United Kingdom races; the Le Mans Legends and Classic events, Spa 6-Hour, Master GD Series, British Grand Prix supports, Tour Britannia and Tour Auto plus the celebrated Goodwood Revival RAC TT Race on four occasions.

Prior to shipping to Australia, the 7-litre big-block engine was replaced with a GM small block 5.4-litre FIA specification engine that developed 465bhp. Since its arrival on our shores, the car was completely refurbished, including an engine freshen-up and now develops a hearty 495hp, making it the quickest ’65 Corvette in the nation.

“I just love taking the Corvette to historic events where the car is admired by race fans, enthusiasts and families,” said Calleja. “We have run the Corvette at several Longford Revival Festivals plus the Australian Muscle Car Masters, the Winton Festival of Speed, Big Bad Sandown and the marvellous Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport.”

During 2012 and ’13 Calleja shipped the car to the United States for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca Raceway in California.

In ’12 during qualifying, Bowe made the local GT heroes sit up and notice with his speed on the undulating and twisty circuit. Despite being put to the rear of the 34-car field for having an incorrect inlet manifold fitted, Bowe impressively sliced his way through the pack to finish a superb third and established a new lap record for the category.

The following year he once again put in a stirring performance at Laguna Seca against a host of larger capacity GT cars to finish a creditable fifth outright.

“I did the Rolex Pre-Reunion race meeting last year, which was amazing – the thrill and feeling of racing at Laguna Seca amongst the top GT cars of the ’63–66 era was fantastic,” said Calleja. “Going down through the famous Corkscrew and running around a circuit so wide and smooth was great fun. Tearing along the main straight at full speed before heading into the blind left-hander certainly grabbed my attention – it was a corner that I didn’t get quite right. It was a privilege to be there racing the Corvette plus have the spectators inspect it each time it ventured onto the circuit – it was a very special time for me.

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WEBB OF

Intrigue Mick is amused at the size of the components on the LJ Torana that Peter Brock campaigned in 1973/74 compared to the Falcons he is used to.

I

n the last 12 months I’ve had the opportunity to have a good look at a yesteryear ‘pocket rocket’ – the ultimate small Holden of the ’70s, the LJ Torana Peter Brock campaigned during 1973-4.

I have the car, which is owned by a friend of mine, in my workshop now.

He approached me a year ago to prepare it, and also to have a drive in Regularity events at Historic Sandown.

When I put the car on the hoist I was amused at the size of everything compared to the Falcons I prepared in that era. It’s all just so tiny.

The car was built by Ian Tate in the HDT days. Ian found the car a few years ago and restored it to its former glory. I’ve certainly had a good look for evidence of Harry Firth’s rule interpretations in regard to preparation but so far I’ve found nothing…

I was also surprised, when I first drove the car, at how fast the monster was. It’s been a real eye-opener for me. It’s been fantastic, not that I like telling everyone that driving a Holden is fantastic, and it’s no wonder it was so competitive in its day – it is a weapon!

While there is no substitute for cubic inches, and the Falcon certainly had an advantage there, the big Ford was always disadvantaged by being too heavy, and it didn’t have the brakes or the tyres to cope with the weight.

Historic Sandown 2012 was my first Regularity event. My old mates, Johnny

French and Kevin Bartlett, gave me some hints in regard to nominating a lap time, but I didn’t realise you had to drive to the stop watch and on the second lap I beat my nominated time by 5sec!

I was driving around, having a bit of fun and pulling 7200rpm up the back straight, which got my attention I can tell you. I used to tell all the drivers I worked for, “Keep your boot into it up the back straight because you are losing time from the end of the straight through to Dandenong Road corner” and now I understand why they did back off because that corner comes up faster than you think. I was nearly ready for the toilet paper, I can assure you! I wussed out of it.

Later on I eased off everywhere because we had a little problem with oil surge. I was just tootling around for the last few laps when I glanced in the rear view mirror and spotted a V8-powered MGB, driven by Historic Sandown co-organiser, the infamous Ian McLennan. Ian used to be my solicitor who helped me get out of many a speeding fine in the old days and I thought no way am I going to let him pass me, so I got back on the gas and went for it. Ian was amused at how I went straight across the right-hander going into Dandenong Road with all four wheels on the dirt so I could keep in front of him!

The Torana is a physically hard little

car to drive. In saying that, I remember driving Allan Moffat’s Mustang, at a Calder test session, and I was overwhelmed at how heavy the steering was. Moffat was no he-man by any stretch of the imagination and how he steered that car has got me beat. It’s the same with the Torana. I can assure you I didn’t have one arm resting on the window sill like Brock used to do – I had both hands on the steering wheel, gripping it as tightly as I could.

The brakes are fantastic and it handles bloody well. It is very nimble and very quick through all the tight stuff.

It’s been a great thrill to drive one of our greatest touring cars, knowing the only difference between ‘then and now’ is having 110kg sitting in the driver’s seat. I am not sure the seat has that rating! While I felt like Peter Brock, some wags reckoned I looked more like Pete Geoghegan.

– Mick Webb

“DANDENONG ROAD CORNER COMES UP FASTER THAN YOU THINK. I WAS NEARLY READY FOR THE TOILET PAPER, I CAN ASSURE YOU I WUSSED OUT OF IT…” MotorSportLegends

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JOHN SURTEES (PART TWO)

John Surtees in a Lola Climax at Warwick Farm in 1963.

THE CROSS OVER KING

Part Two of our profile on John Surtees: the only man to conquer two wheels and four STORY BY TOM HOWARD / PHOTOGRAPHS BY GARY HAWKINS; LAT PHOTOGRAPHY; & AUTOPICS.COM.AU

A

t the end of his first season in Formula One racing in 1960, Surtees announced his retirement from bikes and was offered the number one drive at Lotus. He initially agreed and chose Jim Clark to be his team mate. But Surtees walked away from the deal at the last minute due to Ireland still having a contract with the squad and the storm that his move was brewing, something he still regrets.

“In many ways I shouldn’t have done it.

I should have said to myself: this is what Colin [Chapman] wants, so be it.”

Ferrari asked John to drive for them but he didn’t feel quite ready to join the team so he agreed to race a Cooper and then a new Lola for the Yeoman Racing Team. Two seasons with the squad earned John two second-place finishes

36

in the British and German grands prix in 1962 as he beat Ferraris and Porsches to finish fourth in the championship.

Such an ease of transition to four wheels caught the attention of Enzo Ferrari, who became desperate to sign Surtees and a year later he joined the iconic Scuderia. That year he went on to win the New Zealand Grand Prix at Pukekohe.

The combination of Surtees and Ferrari took a while to gel but during his first season with the Italian team a breakthrough moment arrived at the hugely dangerous Nurburgring Nordschleife.

An engine problem for Clark’s Lotus handed Surtees his maiden win by more than a minute. But the victory masked what was going on behind the scenes at Modena with the team more focussed on sportscar races like Le Mans.

“Ferrari were at a low point in their history when I joined. It was like they were starting again although I did manage to get my first GP win. At the beginning, Formula One took a back seat at Ferrari and the first year we had to build a car from parts we could find in the factory. It was very frustrating as a driver.”

Everything clicked in his second season; a year which has gone down in motor racing history. Victories in Germany and in front of the tifosi at Monza saw Surtees crowned world champion at the age of 30. The feat came just four years after retiring from motorcycle racing and it proved he was king of both two and four wheels. Few have enjoyed the experience of winning for Ferrari at Monza and it’s a feeling John recalls vividly.

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Surtees during the 1970 Formula One World Championship.

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JOHN SURTEES (PART TWO) Lakeside 1963

“Luckily I had cemented a place with the Italians and they accepted me. When I won at Monza the crowd was so great I had to sit in my garage for three hours until it was safe to go out. It’s one of the most important races of my career but my first win on a bike back in Wales was my most important race.

“Looking back on winning the world title that year though, I feel frustrated because we could have done so much more. We made it so hard for ourselves and we had to battle against adversity but a lot of that came from within the team.”

The following year was another frustrating one, finishing fifth in the championship and it was the beginning of the end of his relationship with Ferrari.

“The year after my world title was disastrous. I wanted to follow up my win but circumstances intervened and attention and resources switched to sportscars as Ferrari wanted to beat Ford.”

The great champion’s career almost came to a premature end that year after suffering a life-threatening crash in a Can Am sportscar meeting at Mosport.

38

A front upright shattered on the Lola T70 he shared with Jackie Stewart, at high speed in practice, leaving him with a fractured pelvis, leg, spine and ruptured kidneys. It almost took his life but he eventually made a full recovery.

“I only got in the car because Jackie had been complaining about it. It was a real turning point of my life. I was at death’s door for three or four days after it,” he concedes. “One side of me had been pushed up four inches. It was touch-and-go whether I would come back and race again, but luckily I didn’t have any head injuries so I continued.”

Amazingly, Surtees returned next year with Ferrari but for test sessions he needed to be lifted by a crane and dropped into the car due to the extent of his injuries. That year he won two grands prix including a dramatic Belgian race at Spa in torrential rain, where he beat Jochen Rindt. It was also the race where Stewart suffered a horrific accident, which was the catalyst for his safety crusade on F1.

A series of disputes with Ferrari team manager Eugenio Dragoni over the years

eventually took its toll and at Le Mans that year Surtees quit the team immediately after being dropped from the 24-hour race line up. He still regards his time there as an important part of his career, notwithstanding the immense frustration it produced. Despite joining the Cooper F1 team during the middle of the season, he only narrowly missed out on a second F1 world title.

“I have fond memories of my time there and the people but when I look back at my time at Ferrari, we probably jointly lost three world championships.

It ended in divorce, really.”

He continued competing in Formula One for another six years, driving for Honda, BRM and his own Team Surtees, but in that time only one more grand prix win arrived. However, it was a special one. In 1967 Surtees won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza for the second time in one of F1’s closest finishes, as he pipped Jack Brabham by two-tenths of a second.

Surtees hung up his helmet in 1972 but looking back on his Formula One career, he earmarked Brabham as his

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Start of the 1962 International meet at Sandown.

The stars in their Coopers line up: #1 Jack Brabham; #10 Bruce McLaren; #3 John Surtees.

toughest rival.

“There are racers and then there are drivers. Jack (Brabham) was one of the toughest and he was totally unpredictable and would try anything.

Nothing unfairly, I might add. He was an aggressive racer and he never gave up on anything.

Surtees admits he would have been more a successful driver if he hadn’t let his emotions dictate situations.

“If I had been less emotionally involved in my racing like Jackie Stewart or Ayrton Senna I would have been more calculated and thrown away some emotions. I would have not walked out on Lotus and not walked out on Ferrari at a time where I could have won championships.”

Surtees also concedes he took on too much within his own team.

“I messed up. I should have concentrated on myself as a driver. I played at driving as we were only a small team and had little money, and in the end I gave up in 1972. I was designer, chief executive and sponsor procurer, so it wasn’t the best way to prepare as a racing driver.”

A spell as a team manager of Team Surtees followed his retirement from driving but his squad ran on a limited budget before closing in 1978. Recurring health problems and financial concerns forced him to end the Team Surtees adventure and he sold what was left of the team to Frank Williams, who had just started up his now iconic team.

“I had built a new factory for the team, acquired engines but I lost sponsorship and I was floored. We still built some good cars but we closed the team and I made the decision in hospital as it brought my health to breaking point.

Arnoux tried to convince me to continue but I said that’s it and I sold to Frank Williams. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.”

Results for the team had been few and far between but Surtees did hand several

Australians a chance to shine. Alan Jones, Larry Perkins, Vern Schuppan and Tim Schenken all got behind the wheel of a Surtees designed and built F1 car. He also unearthed Frenchman Rene Arnoux, who would go on to record seven grand prix wins competing for Renault and Ferrari.The Brit burst back onto the international scene back in 2005 and 2006, when he became team principal of Great Britain’s A1GP team.

Surtees helped acquire a strong squad and they finished third in the inaugural season but a change of emphasis of the series saw him leave the category.

Bringing the next wave of young drivers through the ranks remains a top priority of John’s even today with the formation of the Racing Steps Foundation in which he is heavily involved.

“IT WAS A REAL TURNING POINT OF MY LIFE. I WAS AT DEATH’S DOOR FOR THREE OR FOUR DAYS AFTER IT. ONE SIDE OF ME HAD BEEN PUSHED UP FOUR INCHES…” MotorSportLegends

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4/3/14 4:02:36 PM

JOHN SURTEES (PART TWO)

This also led to the development of his talented son Henry, who managed to climb the lower formulas to compete in the 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship, before tragedy struck.

An errant wheel from another car struck Henry on the head at 193km/h, knocking him unconscious and he later succumbed to his injuries in hospital, aged just 18.

Since Henry’s untimely death, the Henry Surtees Foundation was formed and has raised more than $185,000 to assist people with brain injuries, to support the education of young people and provide education and training associated with motorsport-related programmes.

“I’m not one who scours the websites but after Henry died, what was so nice, was how he touched so many people.

People have been so supportive and that helps with the pain.

Not surprisingly, Surtees questioned weather he could continue in the sport following Henry’s death.

John behind the wheel of the Surtees TS7 at Brooklands.

“I had to think very deeply about what to do and not to do in motorsport afterwards. But I continued with my involvement in guiding youngsters into the sport.”

After a life consumed by racing, today John remains heavily involved in the sport and champions the causes for young racers with as much muster as he displayed in his glory days. But he

does so with a significant part of his life missing.

“I don’t really think about being the only man to win on two wheels and four. It’s all in the past. I get up in the morning and think about the problems we have got to deal with today and also the problem of knowing part of me is missing. That is the single biggest thing to deal with.” MSL

Surtees in his Cooper at Sandown during 1962.

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STEVEN RICHARDS

Steve Richards shares Australian motor racing’s most prized possession with Mark Winterbottom at Bathurst, 2013.

GUN OF A SON

He was constantly compared to his famous old man early in his career but Steven Richards has now built a reputation of his own as he contemplates life after V8 Supercars.

STORY & PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLENIS LINDLEY

W

hat a difficult position to be in – being constantly compared to a famous father, and perhaps even trying to live up to those expectations.

But the subject of our story – Steve Richards – is not alone. Steve is just one of the current crop of second (and third generation) racers in Australia who have followed in their famous father’s footsteps.

Like his highly-respected father, ‘Gentleman’ Jim Richards, Steve is successful and one of the nice guys in the sport, with a tremendous attitude towards fellow competitors and to motor racing in general.

“I have a huge passion for motorsport, both competing and watching,” says Steve.

It could be said that Steve was born to 42

race, but Jim is the first to admit that his son had to create his own career.

“I was so busy doing my own thing, that Steve had to fend for himself,“ admits Jim. I wish it hadn’t been like that, but then we both haven’t turned out too badly.”

What an understatement! Steve is an achiever too, and he’s worked hard to reach the top. His first job was as a tyre fitter at his father’s Melbourne business, a Bob Jane T-Mart franchise. Later he trained as an aircraft mechanic, where the sound technical knowledge gained helped his professional driving career considerably.

Like many of his mates, Steve began racing in go-karts but not until he was 15 years of age. He became hooked after driving a kart belonging to one of his dad’s friends.

“I sold everything I owned then, and Mum and Dad went halves with me so I

could buy a kart. I never had ambitions of replicating Dad or his achievements.

I went racing because I discovered it was great fun,“ explains Steve.

In addition to go karting, Steve used to watch Jim race whenever he could, but also found time to pursue his other sporting loves – playing cricket and soccer.

Having learned the raw essentials of racing, Steve progressed to Formula Ford where he won the 1994 Australian Championship. This achieved, ‘Richo’, as he became known, was ready for the next big step, racing an Alfa Romeo 155 TS for Garry Rogers in Super Tourers. Steve also raced in Auscar before it came time to appear on the big stage.

After his successful two-litre campaign, Richards snared an impressive debut in the Tooheys 1000 in 1995, co-driving for Gibson Motor Sport with international identity, Anders Olofsson.

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They recorded a better result (fourth), than their high-profile Winfield Racing Commodore team-mates Mark Skaife and Jim Richards, who recorded a DNF. This result netted the promising young star Rookie of the Year honours.

“Bathurst would have to be my favourite race track – fast and flowing, and it needs lots of commitment,” remarks Steve. “But I’ll always remember hearing the news that Denny (Hulme) had passed away during the 1992 race.

That was a sad day as he was a good friend of the family.”

For 1996, both Jim and Steve were signed by Garry Rogers/Valvoline Racing, but there wasn’t much joy, with a DNF. With ‘petrol flowing through their veins’, a strong bond developed between the two dedicated racing enthusiasts.

They always hoped to become the firstever father/son winning combination at Bathurst.

“I’d been going to Bathurst since I was a little kid. It was our annual family holiday, and I always hoped to race there one day but I never dreamed I’d ever end up driving there with my dad,” said Steve, who now has three Bathurst 1000 victories to his name.

“The times I drove there with and against Dad are pretty special – It’s very cool sharing your passion with family.”

Jim and Steve continued their Mount Panorama partnership in 1997, coming agonizingly close to victory when they finished second in the Valvoline/ Cummins Commodore. They were beaten

by Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall, in the Castrol Perkins Racing Commodore.

Down the track, the Richards would team up again in Perkins’ outfit.

Meanwhile, young Richards had decided to test the waters overseas with a test drive of a Vauxhall Vectra in England.

This was followed by a permanent position as test driver for the works Nissan team in 1998, with the hope of securing a seat in the British Touring Car Championship.

“To be honest, my time there was quite frustrating, but it was also great, fending for myself and learning to make ends meet, no matter what, “ Steve declares.

“It also enabled me to bring a car out from England for the 1998 two-litre Bathurst race.”

The mountain was kind to Steve that year. Driving the Nissan Primera, not

Getting air at Gold Coast in 2013.

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STEVEN RICHARDS With Skaife in 2007.

only did he finish a fighting second to Dad’s Volvo S40 (in the AMP Super Touring Cars event), two months later he won the ‘real race’, the V8 Supercar FAI 1000. As a matter of interest, there aren’t too many drivers with a first and second place at Bathurst in the same year!

Teamed with Jason Bright in a Pirteksponsored Ford for Stone Brothers Racing, Steve he recorded the first of his back-to-back V8 Supercar wins.

“That seemed to grab a bit of attention and the phone started ringing again, “ Steve says.

Choosing to remain in Australia for 1999, Richards returned to Fred Gibson’s Wynn’s Racing Commodore team, sharing the Bathurst drive and the triumph with New Zealander, Greg Murphy. He created history by becoming the first to claim victory with both rival manufacturers – Ford and Holden.

In 2001 Steve switched camps to join Ford Tickford Racing before returning to ‘The General’ with Castrol Perkins Racing. Steve was one of the first drivers to move freely between the Holden and Ford brands but he says he doesn’t

really have a preference when it comes to manufacturers.

“I’m a driver and just enjoy being behind the wheel. As V8 Supercars have grown, they’ve become better and better – great to drive when they’re handling well, but some aren’t so good when they’re not,” he admitted.

Richards Junior was also in the winning team that claimed the inaugural Bathurst 24 Hour race in 2002, alongside Garth Tander, Cam McConville and Nathan Pretty in a Holden Monaro entered by Garry Rogers Motorsport.

In the 2003 event, the same four finished second, snapping at the wheels of Murphy, Bright, Todd Kelly, and the late Peter Brock.

In 2004, father and son found themselves once again teamed together for The Great Race, driving for Perkins, where they almost created history.

Steve had snatched his first ever Bathurst pole and they were on track for a fairytale victory when the unimaginable happened. An unfortunate kangaroo took one hop too many and Jim couldn’t avoid the tragic collision. It

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was a heart-breaking end to their dream, as they limped home in twenty-first place.

During his time with Perkins’ Melbourne-based team, Steve rose to become lead driver, taking over the reigns from Russell Ingall when he departed for greener pastures. Then when the Perkins retired, Steve stepped into the boss’ #11 Castrol Commodore.

For 2007, Steve moved to Ford Performance Racing, where he remained as a full-time FPR factory driver until the end of 2010, recording many race and round wins, plus podium places.

Strangely, Steve didn’t achieve as much success as he deserved when it came to the Australian Touring Car Championship, Shell Championship and V8 Supercar Series, with fifth outright his highest result.

“We battled for the lead from 2002 to 2005, but always had dramas in the closing rounds,” Steve recalls.

However, this low-key, unassuming but extremely competitive racer firmly believes the advice he once received – “Never give up”.

Always a front-runner, he earned the tag Mr Consistency in media circles because of his strong performances, largely without controversy. This committed driver also believes in the philosophy, “The harder I work, the more likely I am to have another win.”

With driving his chosen career, after the shuffle-up at FPR at the end of 2010, Richards decided to enter Porsche Carrera Cup, forming his own team, Steve Richards Motorsport (SRM) with major sponsorship from Laser Plumbing and Electrical.

Once again the consistency and competitiveness of this professional driver shone through, achieving top five finishes each year. For 2013, he scored fourth outright in the championship, plus there were a couple of exciting wins for good measure.

Richards wasn’t lost to V8 Supercar ranks, as he returned to FPR each year as a highly-rated endurance co-driver, joining former teammate Mark Winterbottom in a bid to rule the roost again.

“We’ve driven together for six years, and I’ve watched Frosty grow into a very

accomplished driver, “ declares Richards.

Looking back over past mountain memories together, including when their car spectacularly speared off at The Chase and bounced through the sand, a loose battery, a frightening fire and mechanical setbacks, along with brake and tyre failures, the pair rightly deserved last year’s epic Bathurst victory.

“It wasn’t easy today, I had about five ‘moments’ during the race,“ confesses Richo with a grin. “That win was incredibly special for me and for everyone at FPR, knowing personally what the team has gone through for the past 10 years. It was also good for our kids to experience and appreciate what a Bathurst victory is all about.”

Then came the bombshell, with Richo switching camps again for 2014! Red Bull Racing had lured the reigning Bathurstchampion away from FPR, signing him to partner Craig Lowndes. But that’s all part of motor racing.

Like his famous father, this younger Richards has many more years of driving enjoyment ahead and high hopes of some more victories. MSL

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BERNIE ECCLESTONE

MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY Bernie Ecclestone has ruled Formula One with an iron fist for four decades and it’s hard to imagine the sport without the 83 year-old in charge.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED BY THE INTERVIEW HUB

B

ernie Ecclestone is a force of nature. Even at the age of 83, he strides up and down pit lane and the paddock area with the same boundless energy that has marked his reign over Formula One racing for the past three decades and counting.

Sitting down inside his small, unguarded private tent in the paddock area behind pit lane, it was fascinating to watch Ecclestone at work during the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Shortly before noon, various celebrity guests, including British 46

actors Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy and billionaire Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, arrived to pay tribute to him in much the same manner as foreign dignitaries might come to greet a world leader or royal head of state. This is a fitting comparison, however, as Ecclestone has ruled over the sport in a benevolent, iron-fisted way that has seen him transform a formerly dishevelled operation composed of factional racing tribes into a multi-billion dollar global business empire.

Unlike national rulers, however,

Ecclestone has little need for ceremony.

There is no excess baggage or artifice to his world or manner. He speaks in plain terms using an economy of words to state precisely what he thinks and feels. He has long sealed deals with a single handshake and adheres to an old-world expectation that one’s word is one’s bond.

Ecclestone’s business philosophy is essentially one of challenging you to make a deal with him and see how you fare. After he (via his family trust) sold off a 75 per cent stake in F1’s marketing company during 2000, his

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“I WON’T BE THREATENED OR INTIMIDATED

BY ANYONE AND I’VE ALWAYS BEEN PREPARED TO DO WHAT IS NECESSARY TO DEFEND MY INTERESTS.” family trust earned $3.37 billion yet still owned 25 percent of the operation while retaining effective control of the sport. It’s the kind of deal that any business school ought to use as a master case study in the art of outmanoeuvring your opponent. The German news magazine Der Spiegel recently described this deal as a “brilliant coup.”

But today the master dealmaker is under assault on several fronts. In November 2011, Ecclestone was called upon to testify in a Munich courtroom in the trial Gerhard Gribkowsky, the former BayernLB banker in Germany who oversaw the 2006 sale of F1 to CVC, a private equity fund, which netted the Ecclestone family trust, Bambino Holiding, a reported US$478 million profit. Gribkowsky, the BayernLB’s chief risk officer, was accused of accepting a bribe of US$44m to deliberately undervalue the shares of F1 so that the bank sold the shares for $800 rather than the more plausible value of $2.8 billion as has been charged in court documents.

Gribkowsky was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to an eight and a half year prison sentence.

Ecclestone admits that Bambino Holidings paid the sum to Gribkowsky but denies it was a bribe, testifying in court that it was the result of a subtle “shakedown” on him by Mr Gribkowsky, who was effectively blackmailing the billionaire Briton by threatening to present “false evidence” about him to British tax authorities.

In May, the influential Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Munich prosecutors had decided to file charges against Ecclestone relating to the Gribkowsky bribery case and that the indictment would be handed down sometime this month as soon as the complicated legal documents could be translated into English.

Despite this, Ecclestone appeared as cool as could be in the face of any possible criminal proceedings against him in Germany. He was looking forward to attending his daughter

Tamara’s wedding in southern France and was absolutely serene in his self-belief that he had done nothing wrong.

Given his unparalleled success in defeating virtually every adversary he has ever faced, why should anyone doubt the man now?

MSL: Mr Ecclestone, many of your admirers, as well as detractors, would tend to agree on one point – that you are generally a man without fear. Do you have any fears?

Bernie Ecclestone: No. It could well be one of my greatest assets, or strengths.

I won’t be threatened or intimidated by anyone and I’ve always been prepared to do what is necessary to defend my interests.

Was there a point where you felt if no one else was going to bring organisation and better management to the sport that you were going to do it?

When I arrived in the sport it was a very amateurish show. (Amongst the team owners) nobody cared or wanted to take responsibility for organising the sport – they just wanted to race their cars and try to win races.

It wasn’t good for the drivers, the teams, or the fans the way things were going. But you need to have proper management if you’re going to move forward. I tried to do what I thought was good for the sport and also what seemed necessary.

Does it trouble you that you may be facing charges in Germany, a country whose state prosecutors may be engaged in overzealous pursuit of high profile individuals ranging from Germany’s former president Christian Wulff to Uli Hoeness, president of the Bayern

Munich football club?

I haven’t followed the news concerning this “hostile climate” so I can’t really speculate. But I have a lot of faith in justice systems around the world even, though there were cases in the past where that faith wasn’t justified in some countries. I think in the end officials in each country’s judicial system will do what they believe is right because if they do something bad to somebody, it’s on their conscience for the rest of their lives. I don’t think people go out of the way to pursue people without cause. Sometimes it’s reported that way but I don’t believe that’s the case.

So you have confidence that you will be treated fairly whatever comes to pass in Germany?

Yes. Absolutely. I have 100per cent confidence in the German judicial system. I am not worried in the least because I have told the truth.

Do you feel, in retrospect, that your decision to testify in the Gribkowsky trial in Germany might have been a strategic MotorSportLegends

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BERNIE ECCLESTONE

mistake in that your testimony may at some point be used against you?

I was asked to appear and I appeared.

Anything I said at the trial was the truth, so I have no reason to believe or expect that anything could be turned against me.

Do you believe that the German legal system was tilted against Gribowsky?

No. I don’t think so but I’m not really familiar with (the German system). I do know that Gribkowsky changed his defence several times.

What have your German lawyers told you about what to expect should you be charged in this matter?

Nothing. They haven’t briefed me because you can’t make decisions if there are no charges or issues to deal with. So it’s quite normal to wait until there is some reason to react. But I am not in any way ashamed of anything I have done in this case. I am not at all troubled or worried and we will have to wait until matters develop further.

“WE COULD DO WITH ANOTHER JAMES HUNT. I WAS PRETTY CLOSE TO JAMES AND I HAVE LOTS OF GREAT MEMORIES OF HIM… HE WAS A UNIQUE MAN.”

Can you see things coming to the point where you would have to hand over your job to someone else?

I don’t think I will ever need to hand over my job to someone else. If I’m not here there will always be someone capable to do what I’m doing.

How do you see your legacy in the development of Formula One into

a multi-billion dollar operation?

All sports have developed and I took some charge of things because they needed to be done and if it hadn’t been me someone else would probably have brought Formula One forward. What we did was to make the necessary changes and I’m happy to have been part of that process.

Did you always have a long-term

A weekend with Bernie. Aussies Mark Webber, Ron Walker and Daniel Ricciardo with the F1 boss.

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strategy or was it more of an incremental approach?

It was more a case of looking at things that needed to be improved. When I was running Brabham, I didn’t have any strategy for expanding the sport but I knew what had to be changed for the sake of the sport and making it a better product. That kind of thinking probably helped me when I began managing things and was able to make the changes we all knew had to be made. Later on I knew we had to expand beyond Europe and go to Asia and places like Singapore.

You’ve long been described as a fearsome negotiator and master dealmaker. When did you realise in life that you had a particular talent in this area?

It’s like being a singer or an artist.

You’re born with certain gifts and you use them as best you can in life. You begin to learn and recognise that you have certain skills and aptitudes that you apply and use them to carry you forward. I don’t have any talent as an artist but I do have an awareness for business and what you need to bring

to that world. It helps to know what you’re good at.

Ron Howard’s new film RUSH is about the 1976 Formula One Championship and rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt. What are your memories of that final race day in Japan which decided the 1976 championship?

There was a lot of rain of course and everyone said that I shouldn’t have started the race because it was supposedly too wet. But I was always determined that races should begin on time and I never deviated from that policy. Of course there was going to be a big TV audience but that had nothing to do with my decision. I believe when you say you’re going to start a race at 2pm then you should stick to that and start the race at 2pm. There’s no maybe, could be, or should be. You start the race on time. It’s very simple.

What was your impression of James Hunt?

We could do with another James Hunt.

I was pretty close to James and I have lots of great memories of him. I never

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partied with him because I’m not a party guy but he was terrific for the sport. Those kinds of personalities are very rare. He was a unique man.

Sir Jackie Stewart says that today’s drivers are spoiled compared to drivers of the ’60s and ’70s?

Things have changed. They were very different times. Drivers in that (past) era were taking much greater risks and they had a different attitude. You can’t compare eras. But drivers of each era adapt to the needs and climate of their time. There are good and bad points to every era of the sport. I’m not really nostalgic about the past.

Are you sad to have witnessed the loss of the kind of camaraderie in the sport, especially between the drivers ?

I honestly don’t care what they do! The teams and the sponsors are placing more responsibility on the drivers and so maybe they are more careful – but when there is more money at stake it affects the atmosphere and things become more businesslike. MSL

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