44 replies to this topic

[SJ Lambert]

Here's footage of the debut Formula Holden race in 1989 at Mallala.

https://m.youtube.co...h?v=3bENshhkejM

There are some interesting chassis that took part, does anyone have a particular favourite from the formula?

[GMACKIE]

Nice to hear John Smith on the commentary. John later went on to drive Dave Mawer's 'Rat' [as Dave called it], driven in that race by Elwyn Bickley.

 

Thanks James.

[john medley]

Thanks James. Very interesting.

 

Elwyn Bickley was recently described by Ron Tauranac as "perhaps the best chassis builder in the world today"

[GMACKIE]

And I wouldn't argue with Ron on that one.

[Lee Nicolle]

I was there, the exhaust note deal was one of the talking points, as was the broken crankshafts!

Though compare that with the member funded F4 debacle. Twice as many cars and it cost CAMS member nothing directly.

The Q times , low 5s,were reasonable for the day though at club meetings Bob Minouge and Mike Trengrove were over a second faster in 5000s. These days 25 y/o Alfas do those times!

And F3s were I believe in the end down to high 2s. And I suspect cost a LOT more to run.

Some of the drivers,,Crompton and Onslow ended up driving 4wd Datsuns at Bathurst, McLauchlin was around for some period but seems to have disapeared. That was from memory the 'works' Elfin. Abrahams has not been heard of for a long while, nor has John Briggs though he did sell a race team to some unsuspecting pom! A few other names there have long disapeared as well. 

And yes the commentary from Smithy was very good.

[Ray Bell]

The best I ever saw of FHolden was at Lakeside, where Mark Larkham was trying to match strides with Mark Skaife...

They were quick that day, to be sure. Skaife was funded by Gibson Motorsport as part of his 'training', Larkham was chasing his own sponsors and doing quite well.

I think Larkham was quickest but Skaife got the trophy.

[Lola5000]

I always liked ,perhaps because I was involved ,Minogues Lola T87/50 that he bought of Alan Hamilton (he bought 2 of them of Alan) 

 

Converted the car himself with local tecs and bought a refreshed 2nd hand motor of Perkins and went racing with helpers and a shoestring budget.

 

1st practice session was at the AGP in Adelaide around '94 and the following day Bob in colour is on the front page  of the local daily paper, leading  the opening lap into the 1st corner .

 

Bob would have been further up the grid ,if he had of bought say a  Reynard chassis car ,but he was loyal to the Lola marque after so many years racing his Lola T430 in Historics.

Edited by Lola5000, 30 June 2017 - 09:48.

[SJ Lambert]

Mark Mclauglin's in or around Brisbane these days and the one off works Elfin FA891 is still around somewhere (in "hiding") apparently.

[Lee Nicolle]

Mark Mclauglin's in or around Brisbane these days and the one off works Elfin FA891 is still around somewhere (in "hiding") apparently.

Working with Ivan Tighe I believe

[SJ Lambert]

I got a tickle when I realised the nonclementure for the Elfin is related to the original working title for the Formula!

[timbo]

I have a huge bunch of photo's from back in the day, however any reference to Formula Holden should give a shout out to brands like Shrike and Elfin and Cheetah who produced a local chassis for the formula. Photo's of the era are old enough that I have to scan to a computer and then post , so it may take a while.

[timbo]

The best I ever saw of FHolden was at Lakeside, where Mark Larkham was trying to match strides with Mark Skaife...

They were quick that day, to be sure. Skaife was funded by Gibson Motorsport as part of his 'training', Larkham was chasing his own sponsors and doing quite well.

I think Larkham was quickest but Skaife got the trophy.

A Clipsal 500 support race, not sure what year, but with Christian Murchison with half a front wing, holding off the pack was a Formula Holden highlight.

[Graham Clayton]

I liked the Shrike, because it was designed and built by Adelaide TAFE students, rather than by an established builder like Elfin or Ralt.

[DavidI]

The best I ever saw of FHolden was at Lakeside, where Mark Larkham was trying to match strides with Mark Skaife...

They were quick that day, to be sure. Skaife was funded by Gibson Motorsport as part of his 'training', Larkham was chasing his own sponsors and doing quite well.

I think Larkham was quickest but Skaife got the trophy.

I think Larkham won the Lakeside round but Skaife got the championship.

I was at Lakeside the following year when Stokell set the outright lap record, 46.66, late afternoon and most of the crowd had left because the touring cars had finished

[ellrosso]

Best F Holden race I witnessed was at Oran Park in either 98 or 99 (support race for the V8's). Mark Noske had a huge battle, can't recall the other driver - I'll dig out some shots when I get time as I have stuff from 1997-2001 Oran Park V8 rounds.

I used to see Chris Kane regularly in the late 90's, early noughts as he was doing all my b/w processing back then. They had Simon Kane's Gold Star trophy from F Holden days in the foyer of their Cammeray studio. Chris said Simon held the outright lap record at Sandown for many years. Simon had raced against Skaife, Seton etc in Karts back in the day and he was quicker than Skaife in F Holden on a number of occasions (on a much smaller budget - Clive Kane was paying all the bills back then).

Skaife would get very upset on the radio to Fred Gibson if Simon was quicker in practice or whatever so the story goes (Clive had a scanner so he could pick up their radio).

Simon had a F3000 test in the UK at one point and couldn't believe how much better balanced they were than a F Holden. 

[timbo]

A few from the earlier days of Formula Holden,

Simon Kane,


Mark Larkham,


Neil Crompton leading Chris Hocking,


Mark Larkham again,

[GeoffR]

Great pics timbo. Pity we still don't have open wheelers like that competing in Australia, irrespective of what motive power they may have ....

[king_crud]

Cheers Timbo, i used to love that Crompton "Benetton" car when i was 12

[CRDMotorsport49]

Great Photos Timbo, may I post them in the Formula Holden FB group? I would be keen to see more of your photos especially of the early cars. I now run a Hocking 901 in historic Group R Racing.

[Thundersports]

I'm sure Simon Kane tried to qualify for the 1990 International F3000 race at Brands hatch in a dark blue Ralt RT22.

[Thundersports]

Neil Crompton raced in British F3000 in 1991 with a Reynard 90D. He was competent without being quick.

[Ray Bell]

How can someone be 'competent without being quick'?

As the aim of motor racing is always to be quick, you must surely be quick to be competent...

[timbo]

A few more pictures,
Brett Fisher, Liston BF3 (I think)


Mark Poole, Shrike.


Chris Hocking,


Brian Sampson's Cheetah Mk.9.

Edited by timbo, 07 July 2017 - 08:45.

[SJ Lambert]

Loving your work there Timbo!

[ellrosso]

Here are a few from 1996 - 2000. Excuse the Mark Webber shot - only one i have.

[Thundersports]

How can someone be 'competent without being quick'?

As the aim of motor racing is always to be quick, you must surely be quick to be competent...

Competent is safe and always brings the car home usually about 10th. Quick is finishing and battling near the front.

[timbo]

To people who have been following this thread, I have posted successfully up until now, but it seems that Photobucket are asking me to update my account. I'm not sure what that means, as I have only used 26% of my capacity, but I will try and sort it out. If it means money, they can forget it. This is the first time I have come across this, so we will see what the outcome is.
Cheers

Timbo

[ellrosso]

I'm with you Timbo, I've only used 3% of mine and they do this...... crazy.

[timbo]

I have been told to update my account  to enable 3rd party hosting.   Whatever that means, and whoever the third party is, I have no idea. I will just not post photo's for the time being just to be sure.   Bugger... 

[timbo]

I have been looking at Photobuckets website, and as I feared, they want to charge depending upon how much you want to post on various websites. This may be a problem, for us and for other people on different websites who want to post photo's etc. Is there an answer, I don't know, I just hope that people are affected not too much, or people may have a different hosting website that they can inform us of.

Edited by timbo, 08 July 2017 - 09:01.

[timbo]

I've just had a look at the Nostalgia Forums, How to Post Photo's post, and it seems that it is definitely a Photobucket issue, and they want to charge either monthly or yearly to post photo's. I went to Photobucket because a different hosting site wanted to do the same thing. As much as I love sharing memories, I'm not going to pay for it. Perhaps other people can suggest websites or ways of us sharing our memories.

Edited by timbo, 08 July 2017 - 09:19.

[SJ Lambert]

I use postimage

 

https://postimages.org/

 

and it works ok most of the time  - most of the time I don't even log in.  It's been free for a while!

Edited by SJ Lambert, 08 July 2017 - 09:48.

[timbo]

I use postimage
 
https://postimages.org/
 
and it works ok most of the time  - most of the time I don't even log in.  It's been free for a while!

Thanks, I'll give it a try next time.

[ellrosso]

Thanks James, I'll try that too - certainly not paying $400 just to post pics on TNF............

[GreenMachine]

FWIW, I think that free sites are not as free as they seem.  You probably need to be a copyright lawyer to understand the full implications, but I do not like the sound of this:

"...you grant PostImage a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable worldwide license (with sublicense and assignment rights) to use, to display online and in any present or future media, to create derivative works of, to allow downloads of, and/or distribute any such file or content, including embedded (hotlinked) into third-party websites otherwise not affiliated with PostImage. To the extent that you delete any such file or content from the public portions of our site, the license you grant to PostImage pursuant to the preceding sentence will automatically terminate, but will not be revoked with respect to any file or content PostImage has already copied and sublicensed or designated for sublicense."
 
I understand that the photographer does not have to register his/her images for copyright, but ... 
"Because all DMCA notifications must be based on a work for which the copyright is registered with the Copyright Office (or for which registration has been applied for), and because a high percentage of DMCA takedown notices are not valid, it will speed our investigation of your DMCA notice if you attach to it a copy of your copyright registration, or registration application, for the work.

For me, I pay ~$70pa to Smugmug to host my images.
You retain all intellectual property rights in and to any User Content you post, upload or otherwise make available through the Services, including the copyright in and to your Media. SmugMug does not claim any ownership, right, title or interest in and to your User Content

[Lee Nicolle]

Inevitably they are all going to try and charge. At $400 I feel Post Image have just commited suicide. 

I too will not pay too upload. And TNF insists on the third party so I feel the illustration will be very little very soon.

 

How can someone be 'competent without being quick'?

As the aim of motor racing is always to be quick, you must surely be quick to be comp

[Ray Bell]

Lee, it's Photobucket who've hit people with the $399 demand, not Postimage...

Postimage is still free.

[Lee Nicolle]

Oops, had that name in my head. The rest though is true

[ellrosso]

Just testing postimage - works fine! Thanks James - lot easier than Photobucket too....

[SJ Lambert]

great photo!  

[Michael Ferner]

Nice to hear John Smith on the commentary. John later went on to drive Dave Mawer's 'Rat' [as Dave called it], driven in that race by Elwyn Bickley.
 
Thanks James.

Did John Smith ever race in Europe? Formula Atlantic in 1974, perhaps?

Reason I ask is, there was a John Smith finishing fourth at Phoenix Park in Dublin, and AUTOCOURSE gave his nationality as "GB", meaning it was probably the John Smith from Northern Ireland. However, I noticed his car was carrying #71 in that event, and that was always the Australian John Smith's number, wasn't it? Coincidence??

[king_crud]

Just testing postimage - works fine! Thanks James - lot easier than Photobucket too....

That's a sweet looking car, i was living abroad in 98 so had stopped following by this point

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by fines
Did John Smith ever race in Europe? Formula Atlantic in 1974, perhaps?

Reason I ask is, there was a John Smith finishing fourth at Phoenix Park in Dublin, and AUTOCOURSE gave his nationality as "GB", meaning it was probably the John Smith from Northern Ireland. However, I noticed his car was carrying #71 in that event, and that was always the Australian John Smith's number, wasn't it? Coincidence?

John Smith was still racing Formula Vee in Australia in 1974...

He graduated to FAtlantic about five or six years later.

[ellrosso]

Few more shots.

[Michael Ferner]

Thanks, Ray.