5 replies to this topic

[island]

Hi!
He was quite good in single seaters, I believe. Gold Star Champion in 1970 in a
2.0 Lotus 59 and Australian F2 Champion
in 1973 at the wheel of the Birrana.
But why did not he take the Grace Bros.
sponsorship to run in F5000? Or were there
other reasons?

[Ray Bell]

Whilever he was running his own cars he drove Lotus exclusively. Being the Lotus agent had something to do with this, although he did once or twice drive Glynn Scott's Bowin, but that was a personal thing as they were close friends.
When F5000 came he decided he didn't want to own racing cars any more..
Then, out of the blue, he was asked to drive a fully-supported Birrana F2 car.
There was some talk about the Lotus 70 staying here for him, but he (probably) looked at the running costs and said it was just too hard. There was no Grace Bros at that stage, and I don't think their money would have been enough anyway.

------------------
Life and love are mixed with pain...

[Ray Bell]

The things you don't think of...

Leo drove an Elfin MR5 at Adelaide International Raceway once... only minor races, I think it was a matter of Garrie Cooper trying to convince him to step into a F5000 of his own.

[Vicuna]

No Jim Palmer in NZ F5000 either.

Or Rollo Levis.

Both would have been good,.

[David McKinney]

Palmer and Levis were both more or less retired by the time F5000 came around.
I always regarded Geoghegan as a small-car man, in much the same way as Levis, Lawrence and Smith in NZ. Leo spent years in Lotus 20, 22, 27 and 32 cars before finally moving up to the 39 - he just never struck me as a "big car" man at heart.
In NZ, Lawrence moved fairly quickly into F5000 but Smith resisted the bigger class for years, insisting on running F2 Lotus and March cars against the big-bangers. Only when the small cars were banned did he grudgingly make the move to F5000 - and ended up as New Zealand's most vociferous - and most successful - supporter of the class.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by David McKinney
Palmer and Levis were both more or less retired by the time F5000 came around.
I always regarded Geoghegan as a small-car man, in much the same way as Levis, Lawrence and Smith in NZ. Leo spent years in Lotus 20, 22, 27 and 32 cars before finally moving up to the 39 - he just never struck me as a "big car" man at heart.
In NZ, Lawrence moved fairly quickly into F5000 but Smith resisted the bigger class for years, insisting on running F2 Lotus and March cars against the big-bangers. Only when the small cars were banned did he grudgingly make the move to F5000 - and ended up as New Zealand's most vociferous - and most successful - supporter of the class.

Maybe Leo was happier with lighter more elegant single seaters that better fitted the profie of someone in the business of importing and selling Loti ??

I saw him manhandling a Valiant Charger around Warwick Farm and other places and I didn't get the impression he was a small car man then....(I know you weren't being derogatory David )

Can someone please ask him the question at Speed on the Tweed