10099 replies to this topic

[Steve Phillips]

Greetings all. A wonderful thread. Have only this week discovered this site when I was trying to find a photo of the beautiful green alta holden at the hairpin at Caversham. I'd had the photo as my office computer screen background for a couple of years but managed to delete it by mistake 3 days ago.

I was born in '55 (Dad was at Mooliabeenie watching Jeff Duke that day!) and grew up watching at Caversham, Claremont, various Round the houses and "scramble" tracks in South of WA.

My late Dad was a lap-scorer at the 57 GP and worked in the PA box at Claremont for years keeping stats etc alongside Dick Blythe and Keith Harvey. My Uncle Des raced bikes and officiated in various ways and is sitll involved with the Historic Club.

Coming across photos such as the Mini I saw Bruce McLaren race at Caversham in 62 and the Neptune Racing Team there was fantastic! Dad worked for Winterbottoms and I understand they made the mini available for the GP meeting?

I must get Dad's old slides out and see what he has and then learn how to post them.

As to the Alta - it's now restored to it's rightful position as screen background, but I note that on page 1 of this thread Terry refers to the driver as David Drew but on page 24 as David(?) Rockford. Are you able to clarify for me, and does anyone know what meeting it was taken at? Any other info about that car would be of interest.

Finally does anyone know anyone in Perth who could use an Austin A40 Service Manual (March 1954) or a Mazda 626 1979/80 Service and Repair Manual (free).

Thanks for the memories and new info about old memories.

[John Ellacott]

Ray, is this what you are after ?. Spencer at the Farm August 1965.

[DJH]

I'm sure I was at that meeting, The 250LM spun at Creek Corner, seem to recall hearing Spence got his race suit cuff caught over the gear lever, or was it Bill Brown? Not sure now, too long ago.
When are the Beatles re-forming?
Great photo BTW.

[GreenMachine]

Originally posted by John Ellacott
Ray, is this what you are after ?. Spencer at the Farm August 1965.

I have seen that photo, or a similar one, before but I haven't noticed the attitude of the car - it seems to be softly sprung, was this so, or was it just a characteristic of the era?

[Terry Walker]

David Drew raced under the psuedonym David Rockford for a number of years, for family reasons. Later he raced as David Drew. He;s still around, looking fit and prosperous.

The actual car was eventually sold to the UK, where is was re-united with a proper 2 litre unsupercharged Alta engine, had the bodywork restored to its original shape, (the nosecone was a late 50s fitting) and now races in European historics.

Love to see your father's slides. You'll need a slide scanner of course, I use an old Epson Perfection 2400 scanner which has a slide and negative scanner in the lid. Scan at about 2500 to 3000 pixels for the long side of the slide, save them as TIFF; then make copies, reduce to 640 to 800 across, and save as JPEG. Then post using Imageshack or Photobucket or similar image hosting website.

Welcome to our world!

[ken devine]

Steve the photo you are looking for is possibly the one from my collection if you would like a copy contact
me and i will send you one.

[Steve Phillips]

Thanks Terry and Ken. I think the photo is attributed to M McCutcheon? Was he an amateur or press?

On another matter, there are several Bathurst 58 GP photos posted on p2 of this thread. They and the billboard photo suggest that the start and finish lines were separate lines then and that the pits weren't then on the start-finish straight but around on Mountain straight? Can anyone clarify for me?

[ken devine]

Steve Milton McCutcheon is my lifelong friend of 60years,he was an amature
photographer as i was
all of his photos are now in my collection.In our days at Caversham and early Wanneroo we were the
handicappers.

[David Shaw]

I don't believe the pits were ever located anywhere but where they presently are. I had a quick look at the V8Supercar site to see if the start and finish lines were still located independent of each other, as it appears in the track map from my website, but it wasn't conclusive and I wouldn't really trust it as they can't even spell Barry Gourden (sic) Drive correctly!

I had always known the finish line to be just around Murray's Corner, and the start line closer to Hell.

[Ray Bell]

Yes, that's right, the start line is further towards Hell Corner, the finish line is at the control tower...

To my knowledge there's never even been an entry from the pits to the circuit in Conrod Straight, though the nineties brought the pit entry lane in from that point.

[Gordon Graham]

Talking of WA photographers, does anyone know what became of all those race photos The Visor magazine used to publish, particularly in the mid-late-60s? For a while they were publishing quite a large number from each meeting. IIRC the photographer's name was Gerry Mattingley.

[ken devine]

That is something we would all like to know Gordon ther were some real good ones,Although BP Australia
supplied a lot.one of their other contributers was Roger Yates.

[Steve Phillips]

Many pages ago Cavvy posted:

"I see Neil McCrudden has the Ken Hopkins midget, he may know?"

Does anyone have photo's of the Ken Hopkins car? As I recall it was a frequent winner of Event 3A at Claremont - i.e. best turned out speedcar and crew, judged by a guest celebrity or attractive young female.

Does that car ever make a public appearance?

Terry, Ken or others, does anyone have a photo of the night Johnny Stewart rode someone else's wheel in Pits bend at Claremont and made a bit of a mess of his car? I was a young lad, up in the PA Box at the time and burst into tears on Dad's shoulder when J Stewart climbed out of what was left and trotted down the track. Speedcars were beautiful things then but still glad they're a bit safer now!

As to the Visor photos, the most recent edition I have is March 65, "Published by Russell Fenton & Co, 56 William Street, Perth" and describes itself as The Official Organ of more than 30 Motor Sport Clubs. The only photos attributed to anyone are the 2 from Caversham described as "BP Photograph". That probably doesn't help much.

[ken devine]

Peter Roebuck was the official Speedway Photographer for many years.He is probably still around the
speedway office may help you or contact RexMcKay at the Vintage Speedway they have a large collection
of photos.

[Ray Bell]

I don't think I ever posted this one before...



Kings Bridge at Longford, the lesser crossing of the South Esk River. Taken during morning practice on the Saturday of the 1965 meeting, Spencer Martin in the then-new Ferrari closing rapidly on the other car. Anyone know who that is?

[ellrosso]

Looks like Brian Bowe (John's dad) in the H.E.A. Special - Lotus 11 replica with supercharged Simca engine. Good atmosphere shot of the area Ray.

[David Shaw]

Great shot Ray, taken from a very unusual position. You can see the track in the background as meanders its way back to the viaduct.

[Ray Bell]

Nothing special, really...

We were camped in the camping ground alongside the river and I simply walked down the drive that came in from the main road, lifted my mum's old 35mm and shot the pic with its 50mm lens.

[kevinbartlett]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Nothing special, really...

We were camped in the camping ground alongside the river and I simply walked down the drive that came in from the main road, lifted my mum's old 35mm and shot the pic with its 50mm lens.

Really Ray That shot brings back memories for me. For it was on that bridge one WET practice that I spun the Alec Mildren Brabham Climax, missed left and right fences, I think with my eyes closed, continued on to the railway crossing and spinning once more. Straight back to the safety of the paddock. I've not seen any other shot of little bridge, as we called it. Thanks !

[ellrosso]

Nice story KB, bet that got the heart rate up a bit! That's actually quite a rare shot Ray, as very few of the working photographers went down there on a regular basis. We've only got 2 shots on the oldracephotos website of King's Bridge and even the wider one does'nt show as much info as yours. Good to know you have it and it is scanned for posterity.
Regards Lindsay Ross

[fines]

Originally posted by kevinbartlett
(...) missed left and right fences, (...)

WOW! Could you have repeated THAT?

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by fines
WOW! Could you have repeated THAT?

Well... check this out... and KB can verify this as he ran in the GTA this year (1966):

In this picture, alongside Graham Hill's BRM, you'll see some skid marks that sort of curve their way across the road. Because they seem to emanate from the shadow of the rail, they tend to look like shadow, but they're skid marks.



It wasn't KB, but like I said, he would have seen them as he raced across there in the Alfa. It was Kerry Cox in his Paramount Jaguar, known colloquially as the 'Purple Petrol Eater' who had what must have been a very frightening moment on the Long Bridge.

As for KB, he later spun between fences over water on the Warwick Farm Causeway. As I've mentioned before, he halted the spin at 180° and selected reverse as the car started to roll backwards, steered it in reverse (by the mirrors) around the corner off the Causeway, executed a neat front end throw, selecting a gear, probably second, in the Mildren Chev F5000 as he did and blasted away towards Polo Corner.

[fines]

Anyone know how far off the ground (well, water actually) these bridges were? Kings Bridge looks like about fifteen feet, but Long Bridge appears to be rather more? And I don't think I need to ask about the railing, do I?

[Ray Bell]

Somewhere, fee-nes, I do have a pic looking down to the bridge from afar, but for now these will have to suffice:





Again, the skid marks of the spinning Paramount Jaguar are visible, as they are in this one, which also shows water at the foot of the bridge timbers:



There was always a team of divers available, by the way, should a car go through the railing and into the water. You can see some evidence of their presence here:



elrosso... here's an even more unusual pic... Brabham chases Clark out from under the Viaduct, taken standing on the railway line:

[ellrosso]

Thats a beauty out of the viaduct Ray! We've got a b/w of Stewart and Clark out of there at a different angle, but again there are very few shots of that area (like Kings Bridge). Such an atmospheric motor racing posse too, I'm surprised that viewpoint was'nt used more often. I was talking to Kerry Cox about that spin on Long Bridge at the 2004 Bask anniversary (HSCC) and when he got back to the pits after the race he found an huge splinter wedged between the rim and the tyre on the rear! He'd been doing approx 145mph on the Flying Mile after this spin too - the man upstairs was looking after him! He was not short of bravery our Kerry - I can still remember him getting the Paramount sideways down the Chute (pit straight ) at Baskerville, lap after lap, heading towards pit wall at around the "ton" and casually flicking it straight again to line up for the Esses!
KIng's Bridge was quite a bit lower in height - did they have divers there as well Ray?
Great to see all those colour Longford pics too - fantastic stuff!
PS : we've also got a cracker of Geoghegan in the Mustang chasing Gardner in the GTA out of the Viaduct amongst the foliage in 1967. I'll figure out how to post these things one day!

[Ray Bell]

Big Pete toying with the boys...

I'd love to see that one. Posting pics is easy, just follow the instructions in the 'sticky' thread about posting images at the top of the page.

[cavvy]

Originally posted by Steve Phillips
Many pages ago Cavvy posted:

"I see Neil McCrudden has the Ken Hopkins midget, he may know?"

Does anyone have photo's of the Ken Hopkins car? As I recall it was a frequent winner of Event 3A at Claremont - i.e. best turned out speedcar and crew, judged by a guest celebrity or attractive young female.

Does that car ever make a public appearance?

Terry, Ken or others, does anyone have a photo of the night Johnny Stewart rode someone else's wheel in Pits bend at Claremont and made a bit of a mess of his car? I was a young lad, up in the PA Box at the time and burst into tears on Dad's shoulder when J Stewart climbed out of what was left and trotted down the track. Speedcars were beautiful things then but still glad they're a bit safer now!

As to the Visor photos, the most recent edition I have is March 65, "Published by Russell Fenton & Co, 56 William Street, Perth" and describes itself as The Official Organ of more than 30 Motor Sport Clubs. The only photos attributed to anyone are the 2 from Caversham described as "BP Photograph". That probably doesn't help much.

Check out www.warm.org.au for the Ken Hopkins ca.

Any sites with WA speedcar photos?

[eldougo]

Originally posted by fines
Anyone know how far off the ground (well, water actually) these bridges were? Kings Bridge looks like about fifteen feet, but Long Bridge appears to be rather more? And I don't think I need to ask about the railing, do I?

Using a scale rule i guess 6.0 meters from water to top of roadway.....

[David Shaw]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
With the obligatory Dodge ute in the background and the Phillips 100s alongside...

Did the 100S compete in the AGP? It won a sports car race early in the day, and was entered for the AGP, but it's not mentioned in the AGP book as running in the race, it's not mentioned why it didn't and it's not listed among the starters.

And it won the scratch section of a Sports Car race after the AGP, so my I suspect it was withdrawn. It doesn't rate a mention in the AGP coverage at Terry Walker's Place either.

[GeoffR]

Ray, some magnificent shots of Longford. Unfortunately racing there had finished by the time I arrived in Tassie, however I had a good mate who was a Longford local and laps around the old circuit in his RX2 were something to remember! I have to agree it seemed a long way down to the river from the Long Bridge. Seem to recall going waterskiing on the river upstream from Kings Bridge - a short rope was the order of the day!!

[Ray Bell]

There was a weir across the river about halfway between the bridges, right?

So water skiing would have been upstream, between there and the Kings Bridge (which, of course, is now long gone), I guess.

I reckon it might be 40' down to the water off the Long Bridge, a bit over 15' off the Kings Bridge. What defeats me is how the track seemed so level all the way from one bridge to the other, at least from the Kings Bridge to the Long Bridge, yet there is such a difference.

[Terry Walker]

The Race Results section of my site shows the RK Phillips A-Healey as winning the scratch section of the sports car race at the 1957 AGP. The only results I've got are from The Visor and from the AGP Book. Unfortunately no fastest lap, and unfortunately no actual times for the 40 lap scratch race.

[Ray Bell]

So is there nothing about him running in the AGP, Terry?

That's the point of it all.

[Terry Walker]

Entered, but not started apparently.

"Monday

22nd Australian Grand Prix, Scratch Race over 70 laps (plus handicap section over 45 laps).

Scratch Placings, 70 laps

1 2 A N Davison (Vic) 116:24.7
2 1 S Jones (Vic) 117:07.6
3 3 J Brabham (NSW)
4 9 L Lukey (Vic)
5 6 A Mildren (ACT)
6 14 S Taylor (WA)
7 11 D Jolly (SA)
8 19 M Dudley (WA)
9 28 B Ranford (WA)
10 23 N Aldous (WA)
DNF Syd Anderson Alta
DNF Mick Geneve Ballot V8
DNF Aub Badger BM Holden
DNF Ted Kinnear Austin Healey
DNF Tom Hawkes Cooper Bristol
DNF Jack Myers WM Cooper
DNF John Walker MG TC s/c
DNF David Van Dal Bugatti
DNF George Wakelin WS Spl
DNF Syd Negus Plymouth Spl
DNF Peter Bond Bondley
DNF Tom Sulman Aston Martin DB3S
DNF Aub Melrose Austin Healey
DNF Fred Coxon Holden Spl"

[bradbury west]

As an aside, the current issue of Vintage Racecar, July 08, carries a good, IMHO, long and very informative piece on the Gladiator, giving origins, history, restoration and track test, with useful photographs, written up by Patrick Quinn. Something nice and different again.
Roger Lund.

[Ray Bell]

Now why doesn't Patrick post here?

He could well have access to a lot of good pics...

And on that subject, a call from Damon Beck last night led me to finding out that both Bruce and Roberta Blackley, who photographed racing at all NSW circuits through the late sixties and seventies, are no longer with us. His daughter passed all his negs and slides on to David Blanche (Blanch?), though a lot of negs were lost in a garage flood a decade or two back.

[bradbury west]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
Now why doesn't Patrick post here?

He could well have access to a lot of good pics...

and
......lost in a garage flood a decade or two back.

Ray, he knows about TNF now.......

The thought of a flood must seem a distant memory now in view of the horrifying drought which we hear reported continuing in Australia. Dire times, I fear.
Roger

[Ray Bell]

Roger, like many lands, it is a place of contrast...

Hard to believe, but Dorothea Mackellar was only 19 when she penned these words in My Country:

Core of my heart, my country,
land of the rainbow gold.
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold.
Over thirsty paddocks
Watch after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
that thickens as we gaze.

In keeping with that, it's worth noting that the man holding all the records of racing at the Hume Weir circuit had to rescue them from a flood at his home. I doubt that in your time here during your last trip you would have found a drier area than that around Albury, and the area is still drought-affected, yet this fate almost befell a pile of race programmes, photographs, results sheets and more in that very area!

So you can understand why Miss Mackellar could include the third and fourth lines above in her poem, yet she could still conclude her finest work with:

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful lavish land,
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand.
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to which brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

I'm heartened to know that Patrick knows of TNF... I gather you have contact with him?

[Dick Willis]

Bradbury, Glad you liked the Gladiator story, Patrick put a lot of effort into it and the result, I thought, was superb. You may not have realised that in the Early Holden Racing thread, page 2, 3rd post where Ray Bell describes in detail modifications to the Grey Holden engine, the sports car he refers to owned by Holt Binnie and with engine modifications by Ray Eldershaw was actualy the Gladiator.

[David Shaw]

Originally posted by kaydee


Ray, based on the background, the variety of cars and their respective numbers this photo was taken at Dunlop Corner during Event 13, - 6 lap, Invitation Handicap at Port Wakefield on Monday 12th October '59.......

The cars and drivers from l to r are #47 Clem Smith - Holden, #35 Gordon Bedson -750 Special, #31 Graham Lewis - Simca Aronde and #19 Col Riches - Dodge V8 (Sorry can't tell you what lap they're on..........)

Sorry for the late call, but I just started entering the data for this race. I reckon the Simca is #30, and the only Simca I can find at this meeting is John Newmarch's, but then again I only have the AMS report, and it seems that you have the program

[Lee Nicolle]

Originally posted by Ray Bell


I took the liberty of posting your pic on another forum, onelung...

And here's a pic from that forum showing the engine:



I'm much more inclined (huh?) to accept the explanation posted there that the original cant of the engine would have seen it foul the top chassis rail. It would have interfered with the driver's footwell too. There's no way that it could be lower when stood upright, but it's not much higher either.

I've long had a fascination for this story about engines being leaned over to make the bonnet line lower. The Peugeots had them like that for years, but the carby and air cleaners sat higher anyway! It's simply not the reason. There is an explanation about the slant 6 somewhere on the net, about it being half of a very successful V12 project that Chrysler did for a tank engine or something, that they found that 30° slant suited the engine in some ways.

On the Peugeot, when fitted in a LHD car as they were designed to do, it really does make maintenance easy. Everything fits with room to spare. Of course, this isn't quite so true with RHD versions.

As for those piccies of the cars at Phillip Island... wouldn't they be disqualified from this thread because the track surface has been Photoshopped?

I would suspect that you would have to stand the slopey up to get the sump between the seemingly fairly narrow chassis rails. It would be quite a deal of fabrication to make a sump, pickup, intake and etc to do this.
I would suspect the car would be an understeerer as slopeys are a heavy [and powerfull] engine. The rare aluminium early 60s version would be a good thing in this car I think.Very interesting car though.

[bradbury west]

I thought I would fetch this thread to the top again, in case newcomers may have missed it. Scroll through and enjoy the history
Roger Lund.

[onelung]

I've just got off the phone from the original owner/builder of the Valano and I'm told by him that ...

1) the main reason for the upright installation was to avoid any lateral weight bias.
2) yes - the sump was indeed extensively modified (as of course it would have to be...)
3) the repositioning of the oil filler cap helped to reduce the installed height
4) footwell space considerations had no bearing on the installation decision.

[MJR28]

I just finished making my way through this thread and thoroughly enjoyed it, it only took 3 weeks. I can't believe the knowledge here and the brilliant photos. Loved reading KB's comments, great to see someone like him on a forum like this! Ray you seem to have an endless supply of photos and stories. Just fantastic entertainment, thank you all.

[John Ellacott]

Warwick Farm December 1962. Bob Holden Lynx Peugeot leads Glyn Scott Lotus 20 FJ and Pete Geoghegan Lotus 20B.

[model]

I know the numbers say race Arnold Glass and Tom Clark Ferrari 555 of the Grand Prix of New Zealand 1958 and the 1959 Tom Clark?
Thanks
Luciano

[seldo]

Originally posted by John Ellacott
Warwick Farm December 1962. Bob Holden Lynx Peugeot leads Glyn Scott Lotus 20 FJ and Pete Geoghegan Lotus 20B.

Interestingly. I have just got home from Speed on Tweed where I had a long chat to Bob. He's quite amazing - I think he's 79 and still driving...

[model]

[img]http://fotos.vivito....-1879830133.jpg[/IMG]
[img]http://fotos.vivito....-1557837111.jpg[/IMG]

In the first photo we have the Ferrari 555/860 Tom Clark of the second photo is the Ferrari 555 Arnold Glass.
I know say the circuits and the year.
ciao

[John Ellacott]

Enjoy !

[Quixotic]

What an exceptional series of posts. Brings out huge memories...... at least of the later cars.