9 replies to this topic

[ErinKondratieff]

Sad to report that Ian Gordon, well known and respected mechanic, fabricator, (and golfer) passed away early
on the morning of April 30th. Born in Australia, Ian worked for many of the great teams of the world. Sincere condolences to his wife Marie, and his children.

Edited by ErinKondratieff, 05 May 2009 - 16:27.

[MichaelM]

That is really dreadful news. A very good person and he will be missed.
He helped me with several projects and was always very willing to
share his knowledge. A great fabricator, don't know how good his golf game was.

Michael

[seldo]

That is very sad news. Ian was a lovely guy - always cheerful and willing to help as well as being an amazingly competent and skilled guy with his hands.
Very sorry to hear, and condolences to his family.

[eldougo]

Another sad day I.G. was a real good guy ,he always say hi and have a few words at the track ,a GREAT fabricator an all round good guy,last time we saw him was back a few years ago in the states.

[Ray Bell]

Steve Roby has been chronicling Ian's life, but his work has been cut short by the suddenness of his death...

Some main features are:

Lived in Hornsby, in the northern suburbs of Sydney and was called upon by Frank Gardner to go to England with him about 1964; worked in '64 and '65 with Ron Harris Racing and prepared Pedro Rodriguez' car, also prepared cars for Peter Revson, while Jim Clark and Peter Arundel tested them at times as the quasi-works Lotus team. At some time he is said to have helped Mike Hewland put together the first Hewland gearbox* and when it all didn't fit they filed the gears.

In 1966 Ian and Howden Ganley worked on Peter Revson's Can-Am car at the start of the series, then went to Trojan to help build USRRC cars. As Howden went off on his own career in 1967, Ian returned to Australia.

He joined up with Alec Mildren's team and worked alongside Glenn Abbey and Stuart Randall preparing the Tasman and Gold Star cars, particularly the Palliser 'Yellow Submarine', through to 1969, but had a hand in Max Stewart's Rennmax/Mildren car as well, possibly becoming the main spannerman on that car.

By 1971 the F5000 era had well and truly arrived. As Mildren saw no real connection with these cars, KB and Max went their own ways and Ian went with KB. He also went to the Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Macau races working for Teddy Yip on a car (or cars?) run for KB, Max and Vern Schuppan.

This connection lasted some time, Teddy frequently putting Vern into cars over the next couple of years. In 1976 he was back with Max full time looking after his two Tasman F5000 Lolas with Paul Bernasconi driving the second one. Obviously a free agent at this time, he also worked on KB's car at times.

Working for Teddy Yip in Europe in F1 for a while, Ian then went to the US and worked for Vern at AAR running a F5000 Eagle. Other Eagles at Indy and in the CART series followed over the next couple of years, Mike Mosely and Bobby Unser being the drivers.

In the early eighties he started a fabricating business in Phoenix and later moved to Sonoma, then, as Ian Gordon Racing, ran ex-F1 cars like a Williams FW08, a Shadow and a McLaren M23.

I believe we'll get more detail later on some aspects of his career, but it's clear he was one who achieved a lot, gained the respect of many and was very well known around racing in almost all spheres where open-wheelers have run.


* The timing of this incident indicates it might not have been the 'first' Hewland, maybe the first of a particular type of Hewland?

[Paul Hamilton]

Another sad day I.G. was a real good guy ,he always say hi and have a few words at the track ,a GREAT fabricator an all round good guy,last time we saw him was back a few years ago in the states.

Ian is still well remembered in Aussie racing circles and will certainly be missed. He has in recent years contributed to historic racing 'down under' by building the racking used to pack cars into the containers we use to ship cars from the US down to Eastern Creek for our bi-annual Tasman Revival meeting. He then also organised the loading and unloading of the cars at Sears Point.

[bobLee]

Sad to report that Ian Gordon, well known and respected mechanic, fabricator, (and golfer) passed away early
on the morning of April 30th. Born in Australia, Ian worked for many of the great teams of the world. Sincere condolences to his wife Marie, and his children.

This is very sad news. Ian was a tremendous help in restoring BT-5 SC-1-63 in 2001. I was lucky to get his help since he had worked for Ian Walker and was a mechanic on the very car we were restoring. Ian did a fantastic job on the restoration and finished the project on time. He went way beyond the norm in helping me do an historic restoration and was always cheerful and optimistic. I last saw Ian when we tested the BT-5 at Buttonwillow in 2001 and he gave me a great photo album of the restoration---he was a class act!

Edited by bobLee, 08 May 2009 - 16:01.

[Mylos66]

Thanks for the kind words from everyone on the passing of my Dad. I'm proud to see that he was thought of so highly by his peers in a sport (and business) that he truly loved. We had a lovely Celebration of Life service for Dad at Sears Point (Infineon) Raceway where he maintained his business Ian Gordon Racing for about the last 20yrs the service was last Thursday and it was attended by a large group of friends who shared good stories and reminisced on past glory and good times had by all. The track held a minute silence and closed the track for a 3 lap session with a 76' McLaren Dad worked on before and helped restore and run.

51 years doing what you love ain't a bad way to pass the time, now is it.

Cheers, Myles Gordon

This is the link to the session at Sears Point (Infinion) Raceway:

[eldougo]

Thanks for that link Myles.

Doug Grant.

[ErinKondratieff]

Here is a picture of Ian with Howden & Judy Ganley at the Monterey Historics some years ago.
Ian & Howden were Peter Revson's mechanics for the 1966 CanAm series.