14 replies to this topic

[island]

Hi!
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?

[Dave Ware]

1969 - started 27th, retired, classified 27th.
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

[Ray Bell]

Elliott Forbes-Robinson? Seems I've heard that name before somewhere.... oh yes, ran 14th in the 1947 Australian Grand Prix. Was racing tin tops in the States in the sixties.
Surely this is his son we're talking about now?

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Dennis David]

George races in Vintage events and from what I've seen he and Brian Redman can pretty much call their shots.

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Regards,

Dennis David
Grand Prix History

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

[buddyt]

Geroge also drove in Nascar in the mid seventies in a Bud Moore Thunderbird. Bud Moore was a world war two vet and I think he earned the Silver Star. I know the press has referred to him a hero of WW2.

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"Speed cost money, how fast do you want to go?"

[Don Capps]

I'm not sure if Bud Moore had a Silver Star (I think he did), but he had several Bronze Stars for Valor and most importantly, the Combat Infantryman's Badge. He was a GI who saw a goodly amount of action.

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…

[AAA-Eagle]

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!!!

[JacnGille]

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!!!

[Marc Sproule]

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.

[AAA-Eagle]

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.
 

[Marc Sproule]

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.

[jj2728]

Giving my father the 'stare' Mid-Ohio 1974



Copyright JAG

[MarkBisset]

 

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 to be 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 a A50 Repco-Holden Stateside in '72!

 

Mark 

Edited by MarkBisset, Today, 10:23.

[E1pix]

Did nobody reply from your “Facebook crawl” if asking for higher-res?

[MCS]

...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.