He was flying an "experimental jet propelled glider" which according to eye witnesses exploded into flame in mid air. There was little left on the ground.
Paul was a very experienced glider pilot having won two World Championships in Europe.
He had a glider crash in November 2015 in the Pilliga Scrub south of Narrabri, and survived.
The difference this time was he had fuel on board.
He started racing in the mid 1960's in a Lotus Super 7. Being a mechanical engineer he was always looking for what Mark Donohue was to later call "The Unfair Advantage".
He fitted a new front suspension to the 7 and was quite successful competing against guys such as Arnold Ahrenfield and Bob Beasley (and probably Ray Bell)
He attempted to lower the body height of the 7 but this was not really succesul due to his large frame. When the Howards brought out their really lowered 7 he knew he could not compete so sold the car.
He raced in the Bathurst 500on five occasions, 1964,1965,1966 1967 and 1969. His highest finish was in 1966 finishing 4th against the might of the BMC works team. He also had several good class placings there.
http://autopics.com....=mander&Search=
Here is some stuff I posted on a TNF thread in May 1914:
"Not sure if this has been answered already since the query was raised in Feb 2013, but anyway...
The car was a TIGA Sports 2000 modified to run a Mazda Rotary. I think about a 1981 model.
It was owned by a Richard Warland who had been a clubman driver. Bought it from the US. Thought it didn't have enough power so had it modified to handle the Rotary. He had great trouble trying to sort so got the professional John Smith to try. He had some success but not fully. Eventually had a big crash at Winton (I recall) and car was put aside as irreparable. This story was in Motor Racing Australia in early 2000's. Unfortunately although I have every copy they are not catalogued so can't put my hand quickly on the article.
The basic problem was that the brakes etc. were not good enough for the greatly increased power.
By coincidence, in early 2000's I was working for a Paul Mander. He had been a reasonably successful driver in the 1960's, including a 4th at 1966 Bathurst 500, but retired to concentrate on his business. In 2003 he sold his business Mander Toyota and decided to get back into racing. He bought a TIGA Sports 2000, fitted with the 2L Ford engine in light stage of tune. He also found this had not enough power. I showed him a copy of the MRA article on Smith and it set his mind buzzing.
He found that in South Africa there had been a series for these cars with Rotary engines. A batch had been developed by TIGA with appropriate equipment upgrades. Paul found one of these in SA and imported to Australia in 2005. It was successful in Historic Racing for a while, although the piercing rotary sound was not appreciated by his competitors. He retired again a couple of years ago and I have lost touch so not aware of what happened to his car."
He was a good boss, and I admired and respected him. He died doing what he loved.
Edited by TerryS, 22 January 2018 - 22:23.
