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'Racing Car News' magazine


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#51 David Shaw

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Posted 10 June 2010 - 08:49

David, I never started following circuit racing until about 69 so that is a lttle before my time. Have learnt a lot of interesting stuff on this forum from the people that where around then participating. {drivers, spectators, crews, journos, preparation people]
But the magazines in the 60s and 70s were far more balanced and covered more events than now. Which is wrong.


A fair bit before my time too, as my first meeting was at Sandown in '73 at the ripe age of 10.
In the course of my research on Australian racing, I have purchased a fair few magazines from the era.

The lack of balance is wrong, but I can understand how it has become as it is. From July 1968, the tide started to turn here and it went from being a sport to being a business. The teams involved in all the major and popular categories now have employees whose job it is to market the team. Therefore they push themselves on the motorsport press and it is a lot easier to cover those categories than the ones where you have to actually chase a story.

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#52 Allen Brown

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Posted 10 June 2010 - 09:26

Therefore they push themselves on the motorsport press and it is a lot easier to cover those categories than the ones where you have to actually chase a story.

That's a general media issue not specific to motor racing. This is a great read if you want to understand how the relationship between media and PR is changing the magazine and newspaper business:
http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/0701181451

This is one reason why blogs are starting become important. There is no requirement to fill 32 pages every day if you write a blog and the better blogs don't therefore feel any need to regurgitate press releases. Having said that, for every one of these "better blogs" there are another 999 that you can safely ignore.

#53 275 GTB-4

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Posted 28 November 2014 - 11:29

Who actually thought of the idea for RCN?

Who were the initial movers and shakers who got the magazine started?

#54 cooper997

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Posted 28 November 2014 - 12:10

Mick, look I'd tell you, but I'd probably be accused of underselling them (see Oz Vauxhall thread). So best I just tell you to visit speedcafe and search for the Max Stahl feature.

Stephen

#55 Ray Bell

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Posted 28 November 2014 - 16:21

Was it Gayl Holmes, the original editor?

 

Max, of course, took over that role in either late '63 or during '64...



#56 GMACKIE

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Posted 28 November 2014 - 19:28

I believe it was Gayl Holmes. In its early days, Gayl would wander around in the pits....flogging RCN. It was in a sort of newspaper form then.

 

Was Gayl behind the 'Down-under Doghouse Club' ?


Edited by GMACKIE, 28 November 2014 - 19:32.


#57 Ray Bell

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Posted 28 November 2014 - 20:40

That was a few years away then...

 

She married Ralph while she was still the editor, the Doghouse Clubs began around '65 or so.



#58 275 GTB-4

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Posted 28 November 2014 - 21:39

I believe it was Gayl Holmes. In its early days, Gayl would wander around in the pits....flogging RCN. It was in a sort of newspaper form then.
 
Was Gayl behind the 'Down-under Doghouse Club' ?


This example is July 61...

P1060715WarwickFarm61contpage3_zps27b1d1

looks a little bit better than a roneoed handout (mimeograph machine)...professionally printed and obviously funded to a certain extent by advertising.

Greg, are you saying you remember something less up market? More newspaper/flyer like? If so, where are they all? :well:

#59 GMACKIE

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Posted 28 November 2014 - 22:10

My memory of the early RCN was that it was about twice the size of the average magazine. Better than newspaper, and of high quality.....and a damned good read.

 

That photo of the Morris Minor 'hiding' behind the MG is a classic. Jack Bono's Karmann Ghia is lurking there, also.



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#60 275 GTB-4

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Posted 28 November 2014 - 22:37

Cooper 997 (Step Hen) has all the answers...found another thread...

RCN was first edited from July 1961 by Gayl Holmes in newsprint form initially. She married, racing driver Ralph Sach and Max Stahl was in the seat from July 1964 issue. Some twenty years later, Stephen Knox took over and tried to take it upmarket and turned it into a quarterly. That format didn't last long.

http://forums.autosp...onal-magazines/

But July 1961 was the first issue of RCN, covering the May 21, 1961 Warwick Farm on the front page. It was reproduced in the 20th anniversary issue - July-Aug 1981. That particular issue had various previous covers emblazoned on it.

One has to be careful not to be tricked by the reproduction #1 as being an original issue. For starters it was stapled into the anniversary issue. It has a fault from the sample original on the front page lower photo, smack bang in front of McKay's Fiat. But most obviously the easiest way to tell it's a repro is the inside back cover has a then current RCN subscription advert. This page also displaying 12 of the early tabloid format covers. So the reproductions are plentiful, but the 1961 original certainly isn't.

For the record, September 1963 was the first RCN in magazine form. This issue having the Geoghegan brothers both in their Lotus' featured on it. Even these early magazine issues are pretty rare.

Also rare, is the small format RCN yearbook published in 1964. Just before Max took over the chair.

Stephen

So question for Stephen: Does the front page above look like the original? (vice the reprint)

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 29 November 2014 - 02:18.


#61 cooper997

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Posted 29 November 2014 - 00:57

Yes Mick, that one looks like the real deal. No paper fault visible in front of the Fiat.

 

Stephen



#62 DanTra2858

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Posted 29 November 2014 - 03:52

My poor old memory reminds me that every Car Club recieved some gratis copies of the new magazine to help push early sales from # 2 on, seemed to work, for in the circles that I existed we could not wait to purchase the new Newspaper of Motorsport.

#63 275 GTB-4

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Posted 29 November 2014 - 09:46

The Gayl Holmes story is interesting...how old was she in the 1960s? What was her background? Did she have some helpers to kick off RCN? Where was she based? Any pictures of the lady we all should be most thankful to?

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 30 November 2014 - 05:25.


#64 275 GTB-4

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Posted 30 November 2014 - 08:07

What would we do without the Women's Weekly! :clap:

GaylHolmesarticle51392814-2-001_zpsdc5c7

GaylHolmesarticle51392814-2-002_zpsb5afb



#65 cooper997

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Posted 30 November 2014 - 09:17

Great find Mick.

 

Here's the full entry list. Probably the reason Greg M took up racing (laughs)

 

1961_WF_event_9.jpg

 

Stephen


Edited by cooper997, 12 May 2018 - 02:23.


#66 Wirra

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Posted 04 July 2019 - 12:22

About 25 years ago I put together a scrapbook of my inglorious racing career. Like me it's rather tatty these days with bits falling off so I'm trying to create one of those Photobooks from the contents. Unfortunately a few of the RCN race reports have disappeared and while I've hung on to most RCNs I no longer have a few relevant ones.

 

I wonder if someone might have 1973 RCNs from September to December and the June & July 1974 copies and might be able to scan for me the relevant 6-8 (in total) pages.

 

Could you kindly message me if you can assist.Thanks.


Edited by Wirra, 04 July 2019 - 12:26.


#67 Ray Bell

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Posted 04 July 2019 - 13:10

I would certainly be able to photograph those pages for you...

I should be home again in about two months. Currently in Peterborough, SA, heading for Port Pirie tomorrow, Leigh Creek next week, Ayers Rock the following week, I expect to be working in Alice Springs for three or four weeks and then on to Lajamanu and Miniyeri.

Maybe Mt Isa on the way home.

#68 Wirra

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Posted 05 July 2019 - 01:23

Thanks Ray. Unfortunately I have magazines, photos, programmes, etc, etc, scattered all over the lounge room and I'm getting 'those looks' already from my other half. if i can't source the pages elsewhere shortly i'll have to pack everything up and try again when you're back home.

 

Enjoy you're travels.



#69 Glenn Moulds

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Posted 05 July 2019 - 02:07

Thanks Ray. Unfortunately I have magazines, photos, programmes, etc, etc, scattered all over the lounge room and I'm getting 'those looks' already from my other half. if i can't source the pages elsewhere shortly i'll have to pack everything up and try again when you're back home.

 

Enjoy you're travels.

PM sent.



#70 Ardmore

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Posted 05 July 2019 - 03:52

About 25 years ago I put together a scrapbook of my inglorious racing career. Like me it's rather tatty these days with bits falling off so I'm trying to create one of those Photobooks from the contents. Unfortunately a few of the RCN race reports have disappeared and while I've hung on to most RCNs I no longer have a few relevant ones.

 

I wonder if someone might have 1973 RCNs from September to December and the June & July 1974 copies and might be able to scan for me the relevant 6-8 (in total) pages.

 

Could you kindly message me if you can assist.Thanks.

 

Just today I located my copies of the 1970 to 1975 RCN magazine. They, along with a mountain of other stuff, were in storage following a move. Let me know which pages you need and where to send the scans and I'll get on to it over the next few days.



#71 Wirra

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Posted 05 July 2019 - 08:20

Thank you very much Ardmore and others who have contacted me - a surprising number of lurkers on this site.

 

I've sent the list off to Glenn as I understand he has quite a bit of additional relevant data from the period. I'm hopeful Glenn might assist with other anomalies as I've forgotten or am confused about so much that went on.

 

I think I've spent longer in front of a screen creating this book than I ever did behind the wheel.

 

  Book-example-2.jpg 


Edited by Wirra, 05 July 2019 - 08:24.


#72 Ray Bell

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Posted 05 July 2019 - 11:13

Do I see signs of McCombie, Gavin Green, Glenn and Damon there?

#73 Wirra

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Posted 09 September 2019 - 10:47

Probably Ray and there are a few of yourself, around 45+ years ago!

 

Ray-Bell-1.jpg

 

A huge Thank You to all TNF'ers who contributed to the book.

 

A daughter came over for Fathers Day and was quite interested in the book. I'd stopped racing 10 years before she was born! I've been elevated from 'Silly Old Fart' status to just 'Old Fart'. 



#74 Ray Bell

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Posted 09 September 2019 - 11:25

Forty-seven years and three months ago...

Or it will be in another week or so.

#75 TerryS

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Posted 17 August 2022 - 02:30

As an avid and passionate reader of RCN I was very pleasantly surprised when surfing the net to come across this fabulous site:

 

Racing Car News (Australia) magazine index and contents (magazinecollector.net)

 

I was a reader (and collector) from the early issues to the very end.

 

It was such a highlight of the month when the latest edition came out.

 

I couldn't afford some of the early issues as schoolboy pocket money would only stretch so far. But more sacrilegiously (and I hate to admit it) but I cut up some issues for schoolboy scrapbooks. 

 

On the site;. at the very top left hand side click on "more" for details of owners/editors.

 

Then go down to the wonderful display of covers. I am sure avid readers will remember a lot of them. In particular the painted covers were incredible.

 

I recall being upset when the last quarterly issue was out in August/October 1965. Then there was nothing. Then ideally browsing the newsagent an eternity later I came across the July 1986 issue headed THE "BIBLE" is back. What relief.

 

Then years later I kept looking for the February 1992 issue but never found it. The magazine had come to an end.  So sad.



#76 Porsche718

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Posted 17 August 2022 - 03:43

I have my complete set of RCN - July 1961 to 1992.

 

But I also have probably 100 duplicates (or triplicates) if anyone is after a specific issue that you can't find on eBay.

 

I also have 50 or so duplicates of Australian Motor Sports. Just PM me.

 

I purchased my full set of AMS from Graham Lowe (Alta 21S) not long before he passed away - although I didn't know that until much later.

 

He had gone through each issue and underlined and noted every mention of an Alta over the 20 years worth of copies!

 

Even today I have some RCNs and AMS and Sports Car World mags spread all over the dinner table whilst doing some research on the Mk 1 3.4 Jags.

 

I have a patient wife ..... I think?

 

Cheers Steve


Edited by Porsche718, 17 August 2022 - 03:45.


#77 terry mcgrath

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Posted 02 September 2022 - 02:28

steve interested in your comments re RCN and spares etc and more so research on MKI 3.4 litre cars.

I have a great deal on the cars in Australia and those that raced etc and would be keen to make contact regards terry

tmcgrath@bigpond.com 0407797003

I have my complete set of RCN - July 1961 to 1992.

 

But I also have probably 100 duplicates (or triplicates) if anyone is after a specific issue that you can't find on eBay.

 

I also have 50 or so duplicates of Australian Motor Sports. Just PM me.

 

 

 

I purchased my full set of AMS from Graham Lowe (Alta 21S) not long before he passed away - although I didn't know that until much later.

 

He had gone through each issue and underlined and noted every mention of an Alta over the 20 years worth of copies!

 

Even today I have some RCNs and AMS and Sports Car World mags spread all over the dinner table whilst doing some research on the Mk 1 3.4 Jags.

 

I have a patient wife ..... I think?

 

Cheers Steve