Which National Australian newsprint and magazines covered sports car races during the 1960's?
Erik
Posted 24 August 2013 - 02:06
Which National Australian newsprint and magazines covered sports car races during the 1960's?
Erik
Advertisement
Posted 24 August 2013 - 05:26
Edited by cooper997, 24 August 2013 - 05:28.
Posted 24 August 2013 - 14:53
Autosportsman morphed into a Hot Rod magazine (not sure of the exact title), a sort of blending of the motor sport and general magazine with the hot rod mag...
RCN continued unhindered until about 1984, then was sold to the owner of the Prad Holden (his name escapes me at the moment) who kept it up for a while. Max Stahl, with backing from Bill Brown and Mal Biddlecombe, then repurchased the title and it went back under his control, but with Elizabeth Tuckey doing a lot of the work. It Faltered somewhat, I think, as the standard of magazines was improving and RCN wasn't keeping pace.
That was when Chevron (Ray Berghouse and Tom Floyd) bought it and upgraded the image for a while. But reporting the sport in a monthly magazine in the face of opposition from a weekly or fortnightly was too much and it was phased out in favour of the bi-monthly Motor Racing Australia, which didn't pretend to be trying to be first out with the news each month.
We also had Tasmanian Motorist for a time, and I don't remember the name of the WASCC-based magazine which reported on a wide range of events.
Modern Motor also gave quite reasonable coverage of major racing events, David McKay being the main writer for this ACP title. Remind me who was involved with AutoNews? That was the unfortunately doomed brainchild of Ian Fraser, was it not?
Edited by Ray Bell, 24 August 2013 - 14:55.
Posted 24 August 2013 - 23:46
Posted 25 August 2013 - 10:49
Autosportsman migrated to Sydney to the Yaffa group, Graham Howard was there, Gordon Hill was the man on the hot-rod magazine (whatever it was called) and Autosportsman eventually blended into that... probably not successfully. It was in this magazine that I had my first article published.
RCN, I'm pretty sure, had its first issue out covering the opening Warwick Farm meeting. A full reproduction of this magazine, which was tabloid but not newsprint, was included in the 20th anniversary issue. It wasn't thirty years before Stephen Knox bought it, I reckon it was '84 and certainly by '86 Max was back at the helm.
There were no AutoNews issues after March 14, I had them all at one stage but termites go them along with many of my programmes. Someone here promised a few weeks ago to send me a photo of each page of the Longford report out of the final issue.
Another magazine that I picked up on was Motorave out of South Australia. Strangely enough, I got a copy of this fairly amateurish effort when I went to Darwin in '98 or '99 and got in touch with the publisher and tried to help him elevate its standard and increase the level of the content. It all failed, he had no backing.
Posted 25 August 2013 - 12:50
Posted 25 August 2013 - 14:10
Motorsport News (was that the name of it? Or Australian Motoring News?) was owned by Niel Allen and edited by Tom Floyd initially.
A little later Barry Lake conspired with Gabriel Szatmary (sp?) to produce Chequered Flag as a monthly in opposition to RCN, where he had been Assistant Editor until that time. This title changed hands a couple of times and eventually died.
Posted 25 August 2013 - 20:18
Posted 25 August 2013 - 21:00
Did I see Gail Holmes 'flogging' RCN at Warwick Farm, [early '60s?], or has my memory failed once again?
Posted 25 August 2013 - 21:21
Probably...
I flogged plenty of the seventies issues at race meetings too.
I don't recall that yearbook at all, what's it look like?
Posted 25 August 2013 - 21:27
Does that mean Gail was "Probably" flogging RCN...........or my memory has "Probably" failed?
Posted 26 August 2013 - 00:07
Posted 26 August 2013 - 00:28
Motorsport News (was that the name of it? Or Australian Motoring News?) was owned by Niel Allen and edited by Tom Floyd initially.
A little later Barry Lake conspired with Gabriel Szatmary (sp?) to produce Chequered Flag as a monthly in opposition to RCN, where he had been Assistant Editor until that time. This title changed hands a couple of times and eventually died.
I think Gabriel's claim to fame was the Moss/Brabham Bathurst entry
http://news.google.c...pg=1160,9160653
Edited by Ian G, 27 August 2013 - 11:38.
Posted 26 August 2013 - 03:00
'Australian Autonews' was a tabloid style format with Ian Fraser as editor (who had been the first editor of SCW in 1957). First issue was January 29, 1965 and I have 7 issues, the latest dated March 12th, 1965. But not sure whether it lasted any later.
'The Visor' was the West Australian Sporting Car Club magazine. There was also 'Wheelspin' from the Sporting Car Club of South Australia, plus 'Tasmanian Motorist' but all these are so limited in circulation they make Autosportsman look common.
Stephen
Australian Autonews 12/3/65 is the last one I have record of too. Ray, I have some photos of Longford report from this, for you, must remember to send!
Tasmanian Motorist ran from 1964 to early 1967 and was replaced by Tas Auto News, which ran until 1970. If you think Tasmanian Motorist is rare, try finding the later one! I used to have a few of them but in a moment of madness 15 years ago swapped them for some programs. I am fortunate to have one of only three (I believe) complete sets in existance of Tasmanian Motorist, which had reasonable coverage of Tasmanian events in that period but the accuracy of reporting and style of writing left much to be desired.
Early Sports Car World had good racing coverage from across the country but accuracy and editing were major problems.
Rob Saward
Posted 27 August 2013 - 03:31
Thanks guys for the leads on the magazines and newsprint....time to fire up the search engines and see what we can find.
Erik
Posted 27 August 2013 - 04:09
Posted 27 August 2013 - 09:00
Rob, this is the last Tas Auto News I have - must have been very close to the end of the line I'd say. I have 5 others ranging from Longford 1968 meeting, another 1968,a 1969 and a couple from 1970. Strange though, all the pics on this 1972 are from 1969 - McCormack, Wigston's Lotus Cortina and Nelson Lattimer's Super 7
Posted 27 August 2013 - 18:23
To Stephen:
I'm doing some research on the Ron Thorp Cobra and here's a list of events that I'm looking for articles on.....and if you have to ask, yes I have been in contact with the current owners (Bowden's Own).
February 14,1965-Warwick Farms-14th OA/3rd in class
February 21, 1965-Bathurst Hill Climb-1st
March 14, 1965-Silverdale Hill Climb-1st
March 21, 1965-Tamworth Hill Climb-1st
March 28,1965-Lakeland Hill Climb-1st
April 1, 1965-Huntley Hill Climb-1st
April 11, 1965-Wollongong Hill Climb-1st
April 19, 1965-Bathurst-race 1: 5th/race 2: 4th
May 1, 1965-Oran Park-9th OA
May 15, 1965-Warwick Farm-race 1: 10th/race 2: 4th
May 23, 1965-Silverdale Hill Climb-1st
June 6, 1965-Caversham 6-Hour-2nd OA/2nd over 3000cc
August 22, 1965-Catalina Park-race 1: 7th/race 2: 6th
September 11,1965-Newcastle Hill Climb-1st
November 7, 1965-Catalina Park-race 1: 7th/race 2: 7th
November 14, 1965-Lakeside TT-did not start, rule infraction
December 5, 1965-Warwick Farm-3rd
December 15, 1965-Huntley Hill Climb-1st
January 31, 1966-Catalina Park-race 1: 5th/race 2: 4th
February 12,1966-Warwick Farm-did not finish
February 20, 1966-Bathurst Hill Climb-1st
March 6, 1966-Oran Park-race 1: 5th/race 2: 1st
March 20, 1966-Tamworth Hill Climb-?
April 10, 1966-Bathurst-3rd
April 16, 1966-Huntley Hill Climb-1st
May 1, 1966-Oran Park-8th
May 14, 1966-Warwick Farm-race 1: 11th/race 2: 2nd
May 22, 1966-Silverdale Hill Climb-1st
June 4, 1966-Caversham 6-Hour-1st OA/1st over 3000cc
June 13, 1966-Mallalla Race-race 1: 7th/race 2: 4th
July 16, 1966-Warwick Farm-race 1: 2nd/race 2: 7th
August 19, 1966-Surfer's Paradise 12-Hour-9th OA/1st GTS over 2.0
August 28, 1966-Catalina Park-race 1: 5th/race 2: 2nd/race 3: 7th
October 23, 1966-Fountaindale-1st
November 16, 1966-Grafton Hill Climb-1st
December 3, 1966-Warwick Farm-race 1: 6th/race 2: 4th
January 22, 1967-Amaroo Hill Climb-1st
January 30, 1967-Catalina Park-race 1: 5th
February 19, 1967-Warwick Farm-did not start
February 26, 1967-Bathurst Hill Climb-1st
March 27, 1967-Bathurst-race 1: 2nd/race 2: 9th
May 14, 1967-Warwick Farm-race 1: 10th
May 21, 1967-Wollongong Hill Climb-1st
June 5, 1967-Caversham 6-Hour-2nd OA/1st over 3000cc
June 25, 1967-Castlereigh Sprint Championship-1st
July 9, 1967-Dapto Hill Climb-1st
July 16, 1967-Grafton Hill Climb-1st
July 30, 1967-Wollongong Hill Climb-1st
September 3, 1967-Surfer's Paradise 12-Hour-9th-Thorp/Strong
September 9, 1967-Newcastle Hill Climb-1st
September 17, 1967-Silverdale Hill Climb-1st
October 15, 1967-Wollongong Hill Climb-1st
November 10, 1967-Wollongong Hill Climb-2nd
November 26, 1967-Bathurst Hill Climb-2nd
Erik
Edited by ERIKZ, 28 August 2013 - 02:50.
Posted 27 August 2013 - 20:27
Erikz, you have the dates back to front...
Given time I could look up all these things, but have you tried asking Ron himself?
Advertisement
Posted 27 August 2013 - 21:50
To Ray:
Is Ron still around? Out here in the States, it goes month, day and then year (I know your joking here by the way....)....everywhere else is the day, month and then the year..
Regards, Erik
Posted 27 August 2013 - 22:33
Erik, I feel the same as Ray about those dates. Those events took place here in Australia, and to us would make more sense around the 'right' way.
I saw Ron a lot in the early '60s, in the 'Bargain Barn' Cobra......a handy driver.
Wollongong, Dapto, and Huntley are the same hillclimb, by the way.
Posted 27 August 2013 - 22:49
I believe Ron Thorp still lives at Inverell, NSW. I would have most of the mags where Ron competed in sprints and hillclimbs in 1965/6/7 as I was competing in the same clas, unsuccessfully, against him.
Posted 27 August 2013 - 23:38
I doubt there's many of those events weren't covered in RCN, Dick...
Yes, Ron is still at the airport in Inverell (or just out of Inverell... halfway to Elsmore hillclimb) and is still tied up with the car museum there.
Posted 27 August 2013 - 23:50
To Ray, Greg and Willis:
All right, I went ahead and made corrections to the date format for the events, hopefully they are a little easier to follow this time around.
If Wollongong, Dapto and Huntley are the same event, what is the preferred name then so I can rename all of them as the same event?
Willis....if you have any of those magazines articles, could you scan them and send me a copy when you have some spare time. Also, Willis....what were your fond memories of Ron and his Cobra....if anyone else on this Forum has any input on Ron and his Cobra I'd be interested in what you remember.
Erik
Posted 28 August 2013 - 00:12
Posted 28 August 2013 - 00:40
Which National Australian newsprint and magazines covered sports car races during the 1960's?
Erik
Erik, do a search on RCN...for example
http://forums.autosp...ws-magazine/?hl= racing car news
Posted 28 August 2013 - 01:05
Posted 28 August 2013 - 01:21
Erik, that is rather a tall order to scan and email a multitude of magazine articles as you requested, I will have to think of an easy way, any suggestions ?
Posted 28 August 2013 - 02:04
Huntley hillclimb [probably what it's most commonly called] is near Dapto, which is near Wollongong. The hillclimb is the access road to Huntley Colliery.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 02:10
Yes, it is a tall order on my part....you'll have to pardon me on that part. Instead of scanning and emailing the whole article, I just need a summary of any part mentioning Ron and his Cobra unless it is rather minor (For example....Ron passed Bob on the outside of turn two....if it is as minor as that, it is not worth the effort). If the race results are the only thing in the article I would need those to reference what I have written down and also to check and see if I have the dates and events correct.
I guess, the only other things that I have questions on would be what Ron was like? What was it like to race against the Cobra? How did you set up your car differently to race against Ron and how hard did you have to push him so he would make a mistake? How come none of the other competitors ended up buying a Cobra? Any tall tales or good stories? You can PM me or email at the following address if you would like:
Regards, Erik
Posted 28 August 2013 - 02:58
I'll check the RCN link....
Ken I'd be interested in seeing those pictures when you have a chance.
Huntley Hill Climb it is.....thanks Greg.
Correct, the race list/dates is from Bowden's Own.....
Erik
Edited by ERIKZ, 28 August 2013 - 03:01.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 03:34
Edited by cooper997, 30 August 2013 - 01:57.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 03:45
A photo using any digital device is quicker and easier than a scan...
I use camera to take the pic, then I use Irfanview to crop and reduce its size.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 04:45
Stephen and Ray, you are both on the right track with the camera/ipad....instant satisfaction, simply outstanding!! I guess I'm still in the stone ages with the scanner.
Erik
Posted 28 August 2013 - 05:03
My brief Ron Thorp impressions; I ran against him in 1965 in a few hillclimbs, the Cobra then was in basically äs bought" "condition, at that stage although we were both running in the same class, ie. sports/racing over 1500ccs. In 1966 Ron obviously decided to have a big go in the championship, both in class and outright. and the Cobra was fitted with a set of downdraught Webers and fat Halibrand wheels etc. He was a quiet ruddy complexioned chap who didn't say a lot but got about his business very effectively .He had started racing in the early 1950s in a Ford V8 special then later graduated to the Masling Humber or AER Humber, by the early 1960s he had the ex Tom Sulman Aston Martin DB3S. He was usually entered under the name of Ron Thorps Bargain Barn, some of our Wollongong TNF people may be able to elaborate on that more. Later, in his Inverell days he became interested in Bristols and had either a 401 or 403.
In the 1966 NSW hillclimb champs Colin Bond in the Lynx Peugeot was the man to beat for outright honours finishing with 50 points and FTD at every round he contested but Ron finished second on 42 points outright while in the sports car category he won the class at every round bar one when I pipped him at the Newcastle round ,Ron 49 points to my 46.
In 1967 I had moved to another category but Ron came third outright behind Colin Bond and Peter Cohen, points 59, 50, 45.He won the sports car category with FTD at every round he contested with 60 points to second placed Tom Sulman on 50.
As I was running in the same class as Ron he was naturally my target but at time I couldn't believe how far ahead of me he was and knocking on the door of FTD particularly at Bathurst when the track was a little damp, obviously some conditions suited the Cobra well while at others his advantage wasn't as great.
No doubt Stephen and Ray will be able to relate Ron's racing exploits with the Cobra much better than I can.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 06:02
Posted 28 August 2013 - 06:26
Dale, have a good time touring Europe/UK, lucky bugger !
Posted 28 August 2013 - 06:35
Posted 28 August 2013 - 08:55
I remember reading a story about Ron and the Cobra possibly about 20 years ago.
I seem the recall that he ran it open in hillclimbs and with the hard top on the circuits.
Advertisement
Posted 28 August 2013 - 11:02
General impression as a spectator at that time - I remember Ron and the Cobra as kinda ‘missing the boat’. Up until the mid ‘60s sports cars were mainly modified British production sports cars (Sprites, Healey, Jags, Morgans, etc) or low cc sports racing cars (Lotus 11, 15. etc). When Ron appeared with the Cobra he would have been in a position to beat most of those but as it was the bigger V8 sports racers (Elfin 400, Lolas, etc, even the 250 LM) were arriving on the scene and outright victories were never a possibility. I must say, in those circumstances, I never really thought much of it as a race car.
It was great to see it at the Goodwood Revival last year.
Edited by Wirra, 28 August 2013 - 11:06.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 14:21
Matich's Lotus 19 had been top of the sporties pile from early '62, even late '61, along with Bib Stillwell's Monaco...
Ron's car was always remarkably 'road going' in appearance and very much unlike the factory 7-litre car that appeared here just once at the end of '65.
He proudly claims that he was the only person to ever win an endurance race with their wife as co-driver, this being the 6-hour at Caversham in 1966. Careful though, that was his first wife, Marie, not the present one. Actually, it's a while since he told me that and I'm not sure whether she was in on the winning drive.
The race reports only mention her being in the '65 race, when he competed against the 250LM. There's no mention of her at all in the '66 and '67 races and in the '65 report she's simply mentioned in the preamble. There's no note of when she actually drove the car, but judging by the laps lost over the second hour that might have been when.
Posted 28 August 2013 - 15:41
Thanks Ray, Dick and Wirra on the Ron Cobra history.
To Dale....no rush on the project so when your back in town in October, you can go ahead and send the Newcastle photo.
To Ken...thanks for the lead on the photos....I currently have a few of Lindsay Ross photos, Bruce Wells photos and also some of Autopics photos of Ron's Cobra.
Erik
Posted 28 August 2013 - 21:06
We will read the brochure while we are waiting to hear back from you Chas...
http://www.brisbane....l_track_map.pdf
Yeah,thanks Dick, having a good time,will be at Goodwood in a couple of weeks. In Paris at the moment.Dale, have a good time touring Europe/UK, lucky bugger !
Edited by Dale Harvey, 28 August 2013 - 21:08.
Posted 29 August 2013 - 08:26
Erik, I've actually got a colour shot on the ORP site which may not have been on there when you bought those prints. Its from Warwick Farm, Tasman series meeting, 1965. Only a wide shot from the spectator area
but quite good atmosphere. Thorp is chasing 2 other sportys, one of which is the J&S Hunter GT (probably of no interest to you, but quite a few TNFr's will know it). Ron's son bought a few prints off us a few years back too.
Just type Cobra into the Advanced Search will bring it up (or 7579). Actually, would any TNF'r know who was driving the Hunter GT at that meeting? Any help appreciated. I'm thinking Ian Hindmarsh
but I've got no way of checking.
Edited by ellrosso, 29 August 2013 - 08:28.
Posted 29 August 2013 - 12:30
There's no mention of either Hindmarsh or a Hunter GT in the RCN report, nor in any of the sporty car races on that day...
What was the other car?
Posted 29 August 2013 - 19:55
Ray, shots of Clark, Brabham etc (and Baillie in Galaxie) from the same spot, same lighting etc, so I'm assuming all shots were taken on the same day. He's a Tassy boy so I'd say on the big one off trip to W Farm for the Tasman series round. No idea who the other red car is.
Posted 29 August 2013 - 20:54
Posted 29 August 2013 - 22:19
Good photo...
It looks like Ron might be lining up to lap them...
Though the report on the 'B' race doesn't mention him at all, while the main sports car race has a lot of mention of him without saying where he was placed! I'd say these cars carried over into the main race.
Posted 30 August 2013 - 00:34
I vaguely remember Motorave. It lasted only a few months. The SCCSA also for a period sold Wheelspin as a proper magazine. I have 1 or 2 from about 69 and it covered speedway, circuit and even drags.Autosportsman migrated to Sydney to the Yaffa group, Graham Howard was there, Gordon Hill was the man on the hot-rod magazine (whatever it was called) and Autosportsman eventually blended into that... probably not successfully. It was in this magazine that I had my first article published.
RCN, I'm pretty sure, had its first issue out covering the opening Warwick Farm meeting. A full reproduction of this magazine, which was tabloid but not newsprint, was included in the 20th anniversary issue. It wasn't thirty years before Stephen Knox bought it, I reckon it was '84 and certainly by '86 Max was back at the helm.
There were no AutoNews issues after March 14, I had them all at one stage but termites go them along with many of my programmes. Someone here promised a few weeks ago to send me a photo of each page of the Longford report out of the final issue.
Another magazine that I picked up on was Motorave out of South Australia. Strangely enough, I got a copy of this fairly amateurish effort when I went to Darwin in '98 or '99 and got in touch with the publisher and tried to help him elevate its standard and increase the level of the content. It all failed, he had no backing.
Posted 30 August 2013 - 00:52
I think you will find that was the 90s. The Fiction never started until the late 70s and MN was in the 90s until recently. It was an online for a while, then became 'paid' and I think has disappeared.There were at one stage in the early 1970's two fortnightly newspaper type magazines.
Motorsport News was printed in Sydney. Not sure who the publisher/ printer was
The other version was Auto Action which was from Melbourne. It was printed by The Age in their Spencer st building
The interesting thug was that they oth came out on alternate weeks. For a while there it was a weekly serve of motor racing news with both Sydney and Melbourne points of view on the same or similar subjects on alternate weeks.
It took quite a bit of my spending money for quite a while keeping up with them both for probably about 3 years or so. Until Motorsport News stopped publishing then it was fortnightly with AA for quite a long time.
They seemed to lose the plot when they went weekly and the price soared which resulted in me stopping buying their paper.
AA started out covering nearly all aspects of motor racing but eventually concentrated on V8 super cars to the expense of nearly all other categories.
Cheers
Peter.