
Versatile George Follmer
#1
Posted 13 April 2000 - 01:37
A road racer. USRRC/Can-Am/Trans-Am Champion.
He could race with Jackie Ickx at Montjuich
in 1973. Did he ever try Indy 500?
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#2
Posted 13 April 2000 - 01:52
1970 - started 31st, retired, classified 21st.
1971 - started 15th, retired, classified 29th.
Also won the Pheonix USAC race in '69, driving a car that I believe had a stock block Chevy engine.
Won a couple of F5000 races in 1970 with a Ford powered Lotus 70. St. Jovite and another.
Finished third at Le Mans in the early eighties, driving with John Morton (of Trans Am 2.5 fame, Horst Kwech's nemises) and Elliott Forbes Robinson, who is still racing sports cars.
Yes, very versitle, and very accomplished at an age when many drivers are getting beaten by the younger guys. As stock car driver Harry Gant says: "A race car doesn't know how old you are."
Dave
#3
Posted 13 April 2000 - 03:33
Surely this is his son we're talking about now?
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Life and love are mixed with pain...
#4
Posted 13 April 2000 - 08:19
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Regards,
Dennis David
Grand Prix History
Life is racing, the rest is waiting
#5
Posted 13 April 2000 - 08:37
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"Speed cost money, how fast do you want to go?"
#6
Posted 13 April 2000 - 09:12
Don't forget that Follmer caught everyone's attention when he campaigned that wonderful hybrid of a car, the Lotus 23-Porsche to the the USRRC Championship in 1965. He captured the first round OVERALL at Pensacola and managed to hold off Jim Hall down to the wire. This was the last time that the Under 2-Litres cars were given equal points for their class win as the Big 'uns. I saw him at least twice that year in the Lotus and it was pretty neat, even for a huge Chaparral fan like me.
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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,
Don Capps
Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…
#7
Posted 26 January 2014 - 23:14
Today (already being January, 27 as CET), is George Follmer's 80th Birthday!!!
Let's wish George to have a great B-day party and many many happy returns of the day!!!
#8
Posted 27 January 2014 - 00:32
Today (already being January, 27 as CET), is George Follmer's 80th Birthday!!!
Let's wish George to have a great B-day party and many many happy returns of the day!!!
#9
Posted 27 January 2014 - 06:19
Unfortunately due to the recent "updates" to flickr my computer is now obsolete and I can't add to my images on flickr.
I do however have a cfew of images of GF in my F5000 and IMSA sets.....
All my sets......
http://www.flickr.co...681980@N03/sets
I hope to be getting a new computer soon and when that happens I'll get back to scanning with a vengeance and more GF will be appearing on screen.
#10
Posted 27 January 2014 - 21:09
Thank you Marc for sharing these great moments!!!
Especially I like the portraits, namely of the late Graham Hill, Paul Newman, young Gilles Villeneuve and Gene Felton. Also I do like the panning shot of Danny Ongais, classic photos of Teo Fabi testing March 82G at Languna Seca and Price Cobb in Jaguar XJR-9 during 1989 Daytona 24 Hours.
So that would be really great to see more of your pictures, incl. the ones with George Follmer.
#11
Posted 28 January 2014 - 06:01
AAA:
Thank you. I still have many thousands of images I would like to show the world.
As I said above. new images won't be appearing until I get another, more modern, computer up and running.
Not gonna be soon enough for my taste.
ps
Didn't realize that when I posted the links to my sets it would show up as a slideshow. Not what I wanted. Didn't know that latest "update" to flickr would show up that way.
Edited by Marc Sproule, 28 January 2014 - 06:02.
#13
Posted 12 January 2025 - 10:15
George Follmer, Matich A50-003 Bartz Ford, Laguna Seca? 1972 (via Mike Follmer)
In the words of Confucious, or Frank Gardner, 'If 'yer Aunty had balls, she'd be 'yer Uncle'.
The tale of Matich Cars, the Repco Engine Development Co, Carroll Smith, Roy Woods Racing and George Follmer in the 1972 US L&M F5000 Championship is a blip of a mighta-been.
In December 1971 Smith formally and comprehensively proposed to Woods to enter a Matich A50 Repco-Holden driven by Follmer in the '72 L&M. In so doing Smith wanted to bag 'franchises' for Matich Cars and Repco-Holden engines.
Woods ordered a car but wanted it powered by Al Bartz prepped Boss Fords.
Smith flew to Sydney and helped the FM crew in Brookvale build the car - Matich A50-003 - over the Summer of 71-2.
Woods entered Follmer in the first three L&M '72 rounds at Laguna: Q3 5th and DNF heat 2, Edmonton: Q8 but DNS, and Watkins Glen: Q9 DNF accident. With that George focussed on his Penske Porsche 917/10 ride and a replacement Lotus 70B Ford for the balance of the L&M. The Porsche gig went well, the Lotus not so much.
The car - still Ford powered - was raced by John Gimbel in 1973 and Merle Brennan in 1974, before is was 'destroyed’ in a trailer crash.
Chris Bender built the McBender McLaren Ford out of the components and amazingly finished fourth in the '77 Laguna Seca Can-Am round in the bitza, which exists in the US as an historic racer.
I'm after photographs of any and all of the drivers in the car if anybody has anything. I've done a successful Facebook crawl but none of those files are big enough for magazine print.
If anybody can help, please email me on mark@bisset,com.au
Its one of those minutae obscurities that turns Matich/Repco Nuffies like me on!
On the other hand, Matich Repco history could have been quite different had George won a race or two aboard an A50 Repco-Holden Stateside in '72!
Mark
Edited by MarkBisset, 12 January 2025 - 21:49.
#14
Posted 12 January 2025 - 14:20
#15
Posted 12 January 2025 - 14:29
...In the words of Confucious, or Frank Gardner, 'If 'yer Aunty had balls, she'd be 'yer Uncle'...
And "If the Queen had balls, she'd be the King" !! Another great Gardner quote of course...
That's a good post, Mark. I thought Follmer was terrific - especially after I'd written to Shadow in 1973 as a schoolboy in the UK and I received back some signed photos.
More on Follmer (and Frank) would be welcome.
#16
Posted 12 January 2025 - 20:19
George Follmer, Matich A50-003 Bartz Ford, Laguna Seca? 1972 (via Mike Follmer)
In the words of Confucious, or Frank Gardner, 'If 'yer Aunty had balls, she'd be 'yer Uncle'.
The tale of Matich Cars, the Repco Engine Development Co, Carroll Smith, Roy Woods Racing and George Follmer in the 1972 US L&M F5000 Championship is a blip of a mighta-been.
In December 1971 Smith formally and comprehensively proposed to Woods to enter a Matich A50 Repco-Holden driven by Follmer in the '72 L&M. In so doing Smith wanted to bag 'franchises' for Matich Cars and Repco-Holden engines.
Woods ordered a car but wanted it powered by Al Bartz prepped Boss Fords.
Smith flew to Sydney and helped the FM crew in Brookvale build the car - Matich A50-003 - over the Summer of 71-2.
Woods entered Follmer in the first three L&M '72 rounds at Laguna: Q3 5th and DNF heat 2, Edmonton: Q8 but DNS, and Watkins Glen: Q9 DNF accident. With that George focussed on his Penske Porsche 917/10 ride and a replacement Lotus 70B Ford for the balance of the L&M. The Porsche gig went well, the Lotus not so much.
The car - still Ford powered - was raced by John Gimbel in 1973 and Merle Brennan in 1974, before is was 'destroyed’ in a trailer crash.
Chris Bender built the McBender McLaren Ford out of the components and amazingly finished fourth in the '77 Laguna Seca Can-Am round in the bitza, which exists in the US as an historic racer.
I'm after photographs of any and all of the drivers in the car if anybody has anything. I've dome a successful Facebook crawl but none of those files are big enough for magazine print.
If anybody can help, please email me on mark@bisset,com.au
Its one of those minutae obscurities that turns Matich/Repco Nuffies like me on!
On the other hand, Matich Repco history could have been quite different had George won a race or two aboard an A50 Repco-Holden Stateside in '72!
Mark
Gee, this part of Matich F5000 history escaped me .
#17
Posted 13 January 2025 - 03:46
You're not alone there, Rob...
I don't recall ever hearing anything about it at all.
#18
Posted 13 January 2025 - 03:55
#19
Posted 13 January 2025 - 09:19
Matich and Peter Mabey check out the opposition at Bridghampton in September 1967. Matich SR3-3 RBE 4.4 V8, ZF 'box, spaceframe chassis (S Rosenthall)
Interesting the way the Carroll Smith thing happened. It goes something like this...
My guess is that Carroll Smith and Matich met during FM's 1967 four or five race Can-Am campaign with the Matich SR3 Repco-Brabham 620 4.4-litre V8. It was a David and Goliath exercise but Matich made a positive impression despite (memory) not finishing any of the races.
Smith engineered and team-managed Tony Adamowicz' 1969 SCCA F5000 Championship win with an Eagle Mk5 Chev. From then until his '77 season with Allan Moffat's Ford outfit in Melbourne, he was involved in F5000 in addition to whatever other gigs he did. F5000 was his business...
The first Repco-Holden F5000 V8 raced in the back of Matich's M10B in mid-1970, by the end of the year the combo had won the AGP @ Warwick Farm.
After a strong '71 Tasman (McRae won) Matich staged his two race L&M Series Hit and Run Tour.
They based themselves at Shelbys in California with Smith assisting. With one engine, FM won the (two heats) Riverside round and finished second at Laguna Seca...they led the L&M at that point, then returned home.
By the end of the year Matich had won the AGP again, this time in his three-day old Matich A50 Repco-Holden.
At that point Carroll hatched his plan with Roy Woods Racing, the target. The source of Mr Wood's $s is a question for our American friends.
Smith flew to Sydney and worked with the Brookvale crew building A50-003 over Xmas-New Year and beyond while the race team did the '72 Tasman (McRae won again).
Carroll joined the team for the Warwick Farm 100 weekend in February (above) to experience and observe the way the crew attended to A50-001/002's needs.
A Ford Boss block was used to make the necessary mounting plate et al in Brookvale. All of the other five Matich monocoques were mated with Repco-Holdens. The fitment of the Bartz Ford Boss and all related plumbing, electricals, exhaust etc was done in Wood's US 'shop.
A50-003 was pushed out the Brookvale door in March 1972.
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A50-003 out the door, with The Team, Brookvale (address folks?) in March 1972, Derek Kneller photo.
Jim Hunter mech, Scott McNaughton mech, Charlie Munro machinist, Henry Nehrbechi designer, Mr Arcadia mech/fabricator, Bob Riley manager/mech, Derek Kneller chief mech, John Bug machinist. Missing is Bob Cube machinist.
The middle shot was taken during the February 1972 Warwick Farm 100 Tasman Cup round. Matich A50-001/002 Repco-Holden.
Not sure who is at left, Repco's Ken Syme in the light blue overalls behind FM, Smith in the Goodyear cap, and Kneller at far right
National Archives Australia photo
Edited by MarkBisset, 13 January 2025 - 09:54.