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Warren Weldon [RIP] (merged)


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#1 ripplestrip

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Posted 03 September 2010 - 01:13

Hey guys

I've just spoken with Mr Warren Weldon on the telephone, and he has invited me down to his place next week for an interview with my magazine. If you could ask 1 question, what would it be ? I will publish the better questions in the mag.

(oh he also has many programmes from the days of Catalina & Bathurst he is willing to allow me to digitise for him)



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#2 wagons46

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Posted 03 September 2010 - 03:01

Perhaps you could ask him "what the hell he was thinking" when he painted his Humpy GT stripes from door to door rather than bonnet to boot.

.........or which are his fondest memories, the Humpy or the Studebaker Bathurst years or later mounts including EH etc.,

#3 gtsmunro

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Posted 03 September 2010 - 05:15

I've got a fairly comprehensive list ripplestrip ;-0

#4 DanTra2858

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Posted 03 September 2010 - 08:01

At one of the meetings at Catalina he was told by the Scrinears to repair a rust hole in the body prior to the Sunday Race, on Sunday morning he turned up with the car repaired, rust hole covered up with BANDAIDS & painted and raced, if it was not true then it sure was in caracter with WW, they were the days of style.

#5 Ray Bell

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Posted 03 September 2010 - 19:57

Originally posted by wagons46
Perhaps you could ask him "what the hell he was thinking" when he painted his Humpy GT stripes from door to door rather than bonnet to boot.

.....or which are his fondest memories, the Humpy or the Studebaker Bathurst years or later mounts including EH etc.


While I agree that the latter question should get some interesting responses, thinking of supercharged Studes etc, the first should surely be self-explanatory?

They were painted there on the car's return from a rollover...

#6 wagons46

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Posted 04 September 2010 - 01:12

I can't recall a particular car of Warren Weldons that may have had any sentimental attachment to him. It was more a case of a good engine and his own abilitiy and courage that gave him the successes he achieved regardless of what body or chassis they were both installed in, hence there may never be a WW car in any "Hall of Fame". A bronze casting of himself would be more appropriate.

#7 ripplestrip

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Posted 04 September 2010 - 03:44

.........or which are his fondest memories, the Humpy or the Studebaker Bathurst years or later mounts including EH etc.,


Will do

I've got a fairly comprehensive list ripplestrip ;-0


shoot them through GTS

At one of the meetings at Catalina he was told by the Scrinears to repair a rust hole in the body prior to the Sunday Race, on Sunday morning he turned up with the car repaired, rust hole covered up with BANDAIDS & painted and raced, if it was not true then it sure was in caracter with WW, they were the days of style.


I'll bring that up ;)

ANY OTHERS TO ADD

Edited by ripplestrip, 04 September 2010 - 03:45.


#8 eskimut

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Posted 04 September 2010 - 05:05

Hey guys

I've just spoken with Mr Warren Weldon on the telephone, and he has invited me down to his place next week for an interview with my magazine. If you could ask 1 question, what would it be ? I will publish the better questions in the mag.

(oh he also has many programmes from the days of Catalina & Bathurst he is willing to allow me to digitise for him)


Nice one, make sure you copy any old holdens images along with the programmes.
Ask WW the story how he come to be sponsored by the Waggot bro's in the 48-215 (FX).
When do you hope to have story up online.?
Keep up the good work.

-GO HUMPY'S


#9 Dale Harvey

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Posted 06 September 2010 - 12:49

You could also ask what made him change to road racing motorcycles and what was the significance of #119. The number he mostly used.
Dale.

#10 Ellis French

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Posted 06 September 2010 - 22:31

Look forward to hearing his story and see any new Pics he may have.
He may still have a Humpy race relic (either 4J or 119 or 33 will do) in an old shed.....now that would be interesting.
I'll make a guess and say he was maybe the first well known driver to put the stripes across and not along, but not the last.
Make sure you publish the Katoomba pic with the front wheel high up in the air being pushed hard by another Humpy. It typifies the era very well .

Ellis

#11 ripplestrip

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Posted 06 September 2010 - 23:17

Unfortunately Ellis - no old cars in his possession... asked that on the telephone :(


#12 Paul Newby

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Posted 07 September 2010 - 00:58

At my suggestion, my journo friend Luke West interviewed WW for Australian Muscle Car magazine about five years ago.

It was an illuminating article covering WW's career on both four wheels and later two wheels. Certainly worth tracking down and reading for research purposes.




#13 GMACKIE

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Posted 03 July 2011 - 21:28

Just happened to look at Natsoft results, and noticed the Wakefield Park line, 2/7/2011. "Southern Sporting Car Club" [now there's a name from the past] supersprint. Guess who was outright winner, with fastest time? You guessed it........Warren Weldon! Nice going, old mate. :wave:

#14 David Shaw

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Posted 03 July 2011 - 21:49

In a Studebaker?


#15 GMACKIE

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Posted 03 July 2011 - 21:54

Or Morris Minor V8? Or Humpy Holden?..........No, just a Mitsubishi Evo.

#16 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 03 July 2011 - 23:05

Motorsport participation is a disease that is very hard to recover from fully.

#17 Paul Newby

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Posted 04 July 2011 - 01:17

Warren Weldon has been active in club motorsport for a quite a while. For a long time with the Ferrari Club - I recall his modified 328 GTB - where I did a track driver training day that he was involved with as long ago as 1998. I believe he picked up his Evo on retirement (when he sold his motor repair business) about 5 years ago.

Australian Muscle Car did a really interesting profile on the man about 5 years ago - well worth getting a copy of. Did you know he has probably competed at Bathurst more times on two wheels than on four?



#18 Ellis French

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Posted 04 July 2011 - 01:42

The stripes across his Humpy was probably among the first if not the first to run them that way instead of lengthways.
His was done that way at least by early 65.... maybe earlier.

The car certainly stood out.


#19 seldo

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Posted 04 July 2011 - 02:28

Motorsport participation is a disease that is very hard to recover from fully.

Great to see he's still at it. Warren was always very handy on the tiller and it seems he's still got it. Good on him! :)

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#20 GMACKIE

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Posted 04 July 2011 - 22:18

About 50 years ago, at Silverdale Hillclimb, I met a young bloke who drove a Morris Minor [ very quickly ] with a S/V Ford V8 engine.......It was W.W.

Warren [or 'Flange'] raced 2 stroke 'bikes for a while, until the vibrations through the handlebars destroyed the nerves in in his fingers - not good. He was a 'traveling Marshall', also. Last time that I spoke to him, [about a year ago], he was battling prostate cancer. I wish him well.

#21 wagons46

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Posted 04 July 2011 - 22:34

. Last time that I spoke to him, [about a year ago], he was battling prostate cancer. I wish him well.


I believe he underwent surgery,so to see him competing again is good news. It would indicate that his treatment has been met with a measure of success. Well done W.W.




#22 Ray Bell

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Posted 04 July 2011 - 23:12

Originally posted by Ellis French
The stripes across his Humpy was probably among the first if not the first to run them that way instead of lengthways.
His was done that way at least by early 65.... maybe earlier.....


That was after his rollover... the reason for putting the stripes that way...

He'd laid the car on its side at the ATCC at Lakeside and reappeared at Catalina with no stripe, presumably having re-bodied the car. He gave Bo Seton an awful hard time at that meeting so that the Boomerang car finished with fence damage, then by the September Oran Park there was a pair of 'GT' stripes across the car amidships.

#23 GMACKIE

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Posted 04 July 2011 - 23:28

Peter Burnett was the first to do the 'stripes across' thing, from memory. He said that he wanted his Holden to look 'different' to all the others!

#24 ringers23q

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Posted 05 July 2011 - 23:00

I was racing there that day too, in the nissan pulsar :)

#25 GMACKIE

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 02:15

First met Warren about 50 years ago, at Silverdale hillclimb.....he was driving a V8 powered Morris Minor. Too many memories to recount here. I'm sure others can remember plenty about this 'top bloke'.

#26 wagons46

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 03:16

It was 1963 when Warren Weldon became more than another driver of early Holdens to me. Particularly the Neptune Series at Catalina, where he was a force to contend with and where my support was with another driver who at the final round came out on top. The series was repeated in 64 and Warren's enthusiasm was even stronger, so much in fact, that a slight lean or nudge was interpreted as a ram or launch by an over aggressive driver. Of course you had to be a supporter of one of his rivals to think this way. Nevertheless, The final result was the same and all was forgiven, and from then on he was to be admired, especially in his Bathurst 500 achievements in the Studebakers. The EH Holden was also a car that suited his ability and his driving 'slouch'.

His presence faded for me when he went to bikes but later could often catch up at a Historic car meeting at Eastern Creek, the last being 12 months ago at The Muscle Car Masters weekend. He always looked younger than his age and even after his initial surgery seemed to be fit and well.

Sadly there is no escaping the dreaded disease once it sinks it's evil claws into our fragile bodies and it has claimed another, but very significant, member of the Australian motor racing fraternity.

R.I.P. Warren Weldon.

#27 seldo

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 03:35

Unfortunately I didnt know Warren other than by his substantial reputation, and as an observer who appreciated his skills in producing some better than deserved results from a variety of cars.
He certainly was a driver to be watched at the time and one of the crowd favourites, but I suspect, not of officialdom.
He will be missed.

#28 GMACKIE

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Posted 28 August 2012 - 07:07

Warren Weldon’s friends will farewell him at 10am on this Thursday the 30th August at St Philips Anglican Church, 402 Port Hacking Road South, Caringbah.



#29 275 GTB-4

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Posted 03 October 2012 - 06:08

Eastern Creek on the weekend...

Posted Image

Posted Image

perhaps a Mod could combine the three theads?

http://forums.autosp...l=warren weldon

http://forums.autosp...l=warren weldon

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 03 October 2012 - 06:09.


#30 gtsmunro

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Posted 03 October 2012 - 11:09

Very sad news. Condolences to his family.