Hi!
What made that circuit so demanding and
which drivers did excel there?
Bartlett and Walker each won two Gold Star
rounds, I think. Who watched F5000s at
Phillip Island?
F5000s at Phillip Island
Started by
island
, Apr 22 2000 20:17
3 replies to this topic
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#2
Ray Bell
-
- 81,471 posts
- Joined: December 99
Member
Posted 23 April 2000 - 04:19
You didn't 'watch' F5000 races at Phillip Island, you absorbed them. What a place! Only Bathurst could have been better, yet in some ways it couldn't... the circuit suited them to a T.
Most memorable to me was standing inside Lukey Heights (with the flag marshals) for the 1977 Gold Star round. Looking south, towards the grey expanse of Bass Straight, the bulk of the circuit appeared and disappeared from our view. Among the part we couldn't see was the grid, but across the shallow dip that contained the paddock there was a clear path for the sound..
The eruption of that grid we certainly heard. So, too, did the flock of seagulls at the most distant point, the Southern Loop, and they took to the wing in an instant, clearing the circuit for the rapid arrival of these brutal and noisy cars.
There was the sound as they wound up towards Repco, the long run with the sweeping Shell corner in the middle. We could hear the whistle of the gears and final drives as the exhausts barked at Tasmania, then the field coming into that braking area, sorted out from their good and bad starts. Exhausts barking at us again as they headed for Siberia, then silence for a moment... and a visual eruption as they appeared over the crest with more gear noise, darting to the apexes of the sweeps, then heading for our point.
Here came the paradox. Lukey Heights - many will have seen on TV by now - is a sharp crest leading towards the downhill braking area for what was MG corner, the sharpest corner on the circuit. It is, however, still part of a curve, so the cars arrived light, the suspensions on full droop and tyres unable to transmit power, engines backed off for that ballerina moment. Then... as they came back down, a quick squirt of the power before hard on the brakes.
Tyres squirmed as they left MG and blasted up a gear or two, danced round the bumps heading into the Copse, then powered on for the run to the sweeper leading to the straight, taken flat out in fourth.
But that brings back another, perhaps more vivid memory. Bartlett and Walker (yes, the two who did best on this circuit) heading into the final laps... was that 75? Then it rained, but in their dice for the lead there was no thought of pit stops. Can you picture this scene?
I was in the right place again, in the pit lane, watching as they danced together side by side and flat out entering the straight... spray coming from the slicks, wheels spinning almost visibly, driver reactions keeping them both on the road... then down the straight and headed for the South Curve.
It didn't last long, Walker ultimately went off the road and took a long ride on the grass to mow down a small bush.
That was perhaps the most vitally important thing about Phillip Island, there was nothing hard to hit, so there was plenty of incentive to have a serious go and know you'd not hurt yourself if you went off.
How I wish my friend, Vincenzo Basile, had stayed in Australian long enough to see this sight. A poor Italian immigrant with the strongest of interests in Motor Racing, he introduced me to Auto Sprint and worked in the plywood factory where I did for a few months before getting the job at Racing Car News. Ultimately his desire to again go to Monza and see GPs on TV led him to return to his homeland, never having captured the English language. Is he out there somewhere?
His legacy was the most endearing term for those great cars: "Cinquelitre Monopostos!"
------------------
Life and love are mixed with pain...
Most memorable to me was standing inside Lukey Heights (with the flag marshals) for the 1977 Gold Star round. Looking south, towards the grey expanse of Bass Straight, the bulk of the circuit appeared and disappeared from our view. Among the part we couldn't see was the grid, but across the shallow dip that contained the paddock there was a clear path for the sound..
The eruption of that grid we certainly heard. So, too, did the flock of seagulls at the most distant point, the Southern Loop, and they took to the wing in an instant, clearing the circuit for the rapid arrival of these brutal and noisy cars.
There was the sound as they wound up towards Repco, the long run with the sweeping Shell corner in the middle. We could hear the whistle of the gears and final drives as the exhausts barked at Tasmania, then the field coming into that braking area, sorted out from their good and bad starts. Exhausts barking at us again as they headed for Siberia, then silence for a moment... and a visual eruption as they appeared over the crest with more gear noise, darting to the apexes of the sweeps, then heading for our point.
Here came the paradox. Lukey Heights - many will have seen on TV by now - is a sharp crest leading towards the downhill braking area for what was MG corner, the sharpest corner on the circuit. It is, however, still part of a curve, so the cars arrived light, the suspensions on full droop and tyres unable to transmit power, engines backed off for that ballerina moment. Then... as they came back down, a quick squirt of the power before hard on the brakes.
Tyres squirmed as they left MG and blasted up a gear or two, danced round the bumps heading into the Copse, then powered on for the run to the sweeper leading to the straight, taken flat out in fourth.
But that brings back another, perhaps more vivid memory. Bartlett and Walker (yes, the two who did best on this circuit) heading into the final laps... was that 75? Then it rained, but in their dice for the lead there was no thought of pit stops. Can you picture this scene?
I was in the right place again, in the pit lane, watching as they danced together side by side and flat out entering the straight... spray coming from the slicks, wheels spinning almost visibly, driver reactions keeping them both on the road... then down the straight and headed for the South Curve.
It didn't last long, Walker ultimately went off the road and took a long ride on the grass to mow down a small bush.
That was perhaps the most vitally important thing about Phillip Island, there was nothing hard to hit, so there was plenty of incentive to have a serious go and know you'd not hurt yourself if you went off.
How I wish my friend, Vincenzo Basile, had stayed in Australian long enough to see this sight. A poor Italian immigrant with the strongest of interests in Motor Racing, he introduced me to Auto Sprint and worked in the plywood factory where I did for a few months before getting the job at Racing Car News. Ultimately his desire to again go to Monza and see GPs on TV led him to return to his homeland, never having captured the English language. Is he out there somewhere?
His legacy was the most endearing term for those great cars: "Cinquelitre Monopostos!"
------------------
Life and love are mixed with pain...
#3
island
-
- 289 posts
- Joined: April 00
Member
Posted 24 April 2000 - 07:28
Ray,
thanks a lot for sharing your recollections
with me. "Cinquelitre Monopostos", I love
that expression ! A Guido Basile raced in
British F3 in the late 80s. Related to
Vincenzo?
Speaking of demanding circuits, when did
Niel Allen set the record in his M10B at the
old Bathurst track? Were there F5000 races
at Mount Panorama?
thanks a lot for sharing your recollections
with me. "Cinquelitre Monopostos", I love
that expression ! A Guido Basile raced in
British F3 in the late 80s. Related to
Vincenzo?
Speaking of demanding circuits, when did
Niel Allen set the record in his M10B at the
old Bathurst track? Were there F5000 races
at Mount Panorama?
#4
Ray Bell
-
- 81,471 posts
- Joined: December 99
Member
Posted 25 April 2000 - 04:25
Vincenzo was the nephew of someone who lived in Sydney and emigrated in the hope of better life prospects. I have forgotten where he came from exactly, but I know he was absolutely hooked on motor racing. He worked on the floor of the plywood factory, which had a policy of employing the cheapest labour they could, and to that end had foremen who were multilingual so they could take on migrants unable to get jobs elsewhere because of their language difficulty.
He was not very happy with the loneliness he felt, Auto Sprint being one of his joyful moments each week, so he didn't last very long here. Whether he came from Milano or somewhere else, he returned there. I doubt he would ever have had the money to go racing, but one never knows.
As for F5000 at Bathurst - the Easter race meetings were open to anyone who entered. 1969 saw three 5-litre Sports Racing cars - Matich, Allen and Gibson - entered, and the Gibson tragedy unfolded. Allen, however, was the only one to ever enter a F5000, and he ran in a race that included Ken Ward in a Rennmax 1100 - a Formula Junior car from the early sixties - among others. His top speed down Conrod was 171.7mph, his fastest lap six seconds better than that done by John Harvey in a Repco Brabham Repco 2.5.
The circuit was unbelieveably rough at that stage, with only Conrod hotmixed. White lines on the edge? Not here! Gum trees and barbed wire fences abounded... serious stuff!
In 1973 the last of these meetings was held. The ARDC had killed the circuit as far as regular racing was concerned with a total lack of promotion. All they wanted to do was run the October endurance race.
Racing returned two decades later, but track inspection committees deny the circuit the feel of real cars. Formula Fords can and do run there, but none of the fast Racing Car categories are allowed. Perhaps they would show up the Touring Cars?
------------------
Life and love are mixed with pain...
He was not very happy with the loneliness he felt, Auto Sprint being one of his joyful moments each week, so he didn't last very long here. Whether he came from Milano or somewhere else, he returned there. I doubt he would ever have had the money to go racing, but one never knows.
As for F5000 at Bathurst - the Easter race meetings were open to anyone who entered. 1969 saw three 5-litre Sports Racing cars - Matich, Allen and Gibson - entered, and the Gibson tragedy unfolded. Allen, however, was the only one to ever enter a F5000, and he ran in a race that included Ken Ward in a Rennmax 1100 - a Formula Junior car from the early sixties - among others. His top speed down Conrod was 171.7mph, his fastest lap six seconds better than that done by John Harvey in a Repco Brabham Repco 2.5.
The circuit was unbelieveably rough at that stage, with only Conrod hotmixed. White lines on the edge? Not here! Gum trees and barbed wire fences abounded... serious stuff!
In 1973 the last of these meetings was held. The ARDC had killed the circuit as far as regular racing was concerned with a total lack of promotion. All they wanted to do was run the October endurance race.
Racing returned two decades later, but track inspection committees deny the circuit the feel of real cars. Formula Fords can and do run there, but none of the fast Racing Car categories are allowed. Perhaps they would show up the Touring Cars?
------------------
Life and love are mixed with pain...
