As I am currently working on the race reports for the 1966 Gold Star, I am interested to find out why only ANF1.5 cars turned out to Mallala that year. There were 5 regulars in 2.5 cars in '66, Spencer Martin, Leo Geoghegan, Kevin Bartlett, Greg Cusack and John McDonald. Was there some sort of agreement between these 5 to not turn out there? Unfortunately the Racing Car News report doesn't shed any light on the subject.
1966 Australian Gold Star round at Mallala
Started by
David Shaw
, Feb 24 2007 09:06
2 replies to this topic
Advertisement
#2
Ray Bell
-
- 80,223 posts
- Joined: December 99
Member
Posted 24 February 2007 - 11:01
Not necessarily, David...
One thing that stands out is the timing of the two Gold Star rounds run in October... 10th at Mallala (a Monday) and 16th at Sandown.
The cars had appeared (all of them except Spencer Martin's... I think Janey was in Europe at the time and Spencer went with him...) at Warwick Farm on September 15.
Then the Geoghegan car had its engine on the dyno after Warwick Farm and overheating caused it to require a rebuild. In all probability that absorbed a lot of time leading up to Mallala and with Sandown only a few days later they've decided to skip it.
The Mildren team had only just put KB into the 2.5, so they never bothered. Little to gain (on first appearances... but perhaps in hindsight they were very wrong!) and maybe lots to lose as well as the cost.
Cusack... well, Greg had just had the Brabham-type front suspension fitted and the car still wasn't behaving all that well. And Bruce Burr, his chief mechanic, took a trip to America and Japan after Warwick Farm. Greg had nothing to gain either, it seemed.
For Martin, probably having a 12-point lead in the series at that time, combined with the quick turnaround required for the much more important Sandown made the decision easy.
So Harvey had a win and leapfrogged to second place in the pointscore.
I think that probably the only collusion was with the Jane team. With none of their rivals going, they would have rested on their laurels.
All of these clues are in RCN... in the Down Tools column principally, while Bits & Pieces also mentions that the circuit was freshly surfaced for this event.
One thing that stands out is the timing of the two Gold Star rounds run in October... 10th at Mallala (a Monday) and 16th at Sandown.
The cars had appeared (all of them except Spencer Martin's... I think Janey was in Europe at the time and Spencer went with him...) at Warwick Farm on September 15.
Then the Geoghegan car had its engine on the dyno after Warwick Farm and overheating caused it to require a rebuild. In all probability that absorbed a lot of time leading up to Mallala and with Sandown only a few days later they've decided to skip it.
The Mildren team had only just put KB into the 2.5, so they never bothered. Little to gain (on first appearances... but perhaps in hindsight they were very wrong!) and maybe lots to lose as well as the cost.
Cusack... well, Greg had just had the Brabham-type front suspension fitted and the car still wasn't behaving all that well. And Bruce Burr, his chief mechanic, took a trip to America and Japan after Warwick Farm. Greg had nothing to gain either, it seemed.
For Martin, probably having a 12-point lead in the series at that time, combined with the quick turnaround required for the much more important Sandown made the decision easy.
So Harvey had a win and leapfrogged to second place in the pointscore.
I think that probably the only collusion was with the Jane team. With none of their rivals going, they would have rested on their laurels.
All of these clues are in RCN... in the Down Tools column principally, while Bits & Pieces also mentions that the circuit was freshly surfaced for this event.
#3
David Shaw
-
- 1,734 posts
- Joined: August 02
Member
Posted 24 February 2007 - 20:33
Thanks for that information Ray, unfortunately I only have a couple of 1966 issues, and my race report from Mallala is only a photocopy.
