13 replies to this topic

[brucemoxon]

John French. Lovely, funny bloke, 1981 Bathurst winner, Australian GT Champion, has died at the age of 94.

 

I'm sure he deserves his own thread. 

 

Someone was getting Frenchy to sign something one time and started to say "I remember you-" 

"Geez, you must be old", he quipped. 

 

 

BRM

[Bunkered]

John French. Lovely, funny bloke, 1981 Bathurst winner, Australian GT Champion, has died at the age of 94.

 

I'm sure he deserves his own thread. 

 

Someone was getting Frenchy to sign something one time and started to say "I remember you-" 

"Geez, you must be old", he quipped. 

 

 

BRM

 

I'd only just read it myself, and thought that Father was more than worthy of a thread to himself, although I'd be the last person qualified to eulogise him.

For a kid of the 70's who by the 80's was enraptured by the Group C touring cars, Frenchy was a legend, an integral part of the Arrival of Dick Johnson.  Subsequent years, and some reading about the Good Old Day revealed him to have been a far more serious operator of heavy iron that he'd ever have been likely to let on if you met him. Works drives with BMC and Ford... the bloke that both Allan Moffat and Ian Geoghegan handed the keys to their Improved Production XY's to try to take points off the other during the Queensland rounds of the 1971 ATCC fight.  Those cars were renowned as being far from nice things to drive, but Frenchy drove them to good results, and didn't have anything seriously disparaging to say about the cars... 

And meeting him was a joy: I was lucky enough to have a few impromptu and relaxed chats with him at the A pillar of some great old tin tops at historic gatherings at Lakeside when he was in his early 80's.  And he demonstrated his old cars vigorously on those occasions.

Sad to see him go, but at 94, a life lived well, and long.

[Ray Bell]

Yes, the news is through that John French has passed away...

 

I first saw him racing, as best I can work out, at Bathurst in 1959. In a televised race he was making his Holden show the way to the Jaguar of Ron Hodgson. In person I had to wait a few more years, but he was always a very quick competitor trusted by others to drive their cars as well as his own.

 

Even  the GT Championship at Catalina Park was before I got to the Blue Mountains circuit, but it was well-reported. I saw him at Warwick Farm racing a Turner for Alec Mildren and a long, long string of other cars, so many that any attempt to recall them all would always find that there were some one had forgotten.

 

For years he was a BMC-supported Mini racer and he was always ready when Alec Mildren called for him to take a GTV to Bathurst in the 500. Later he gained more fame as Dick Johnson's co-driver, but before that he'd been at the helm of many Falcon GT HOs, coming in second in that wet 1972 race after having been fifth the previous year in another the second works GT HO.

 

Experience in the 'Super Falcons' when Moffat and Geoghegan were preferring to stick to their Mustangs was a part of the mix. 

 

John Was married to Marie, the widow of Lotus racer Clive Nolan. 

 

I don't think the term 'Larger than life' applied to him, but he was always someone you remembered meeting, always wearing a smile, always humble about his abilities and achievements.

 

Even though he once said, "They've got money, all I have is talent!"

[ReWind]

[...] widow of Lotus racer Clive Nolan.

What happened to Clive Nolan?
Is it him?

[Ray Bell]

That would be him...

 

Cancer, I'm fairly sure.

[Bunkered]

 

I don't think the term 'Larger than life' applied to him, but he was always someone you remembered meeting, always wearing a smile, always humble about his abilities and achievements.

 

Even though he once said, "They've got money, all I have is talent!"

 

It was a recurring, tongue-in-cheek theme.  One of the FB groups posted a clip from the 1982 James Hardie 1000, and they cross to John in the troubled Tru-Blu car, for a live-to-air chat mid-race: Evan Green was the interviewer.  Evan asked Father about the dynamic between him and his lead driver (who had been a friend, competitor and co-driver of many years' standing).

 

JF: "Oh, we get on well: I'm better than him, and he acknowledges it"

 

The conversation went around the handling issue John was experiencing - a broken front sway bar - and there was no bitching or moaning about the lack of handling... just an quick overview of how it was affecting the handling and pace, but never a mention of it as a problem - just circumstance, solution, and outcome.  And much of what I saw of Frenchy in the media or in person was like that. Potentially a more apt archetype of the Laid-Back Queensland than his co-driver was held to be.

 

That he was selected by so many "serious" race teams to pedal their tinware was a solid testament to how good he was. And that every pic I've seen of him had him beaming cheekily while those around him grinned or laughed would suggest that as Ray says, "larger than life" isn't really it, but he was definitely a beacon.

[ellrosso]

RIP John French. Condolences to his family and friends. I never got to see John drive "in the flesh" but I certainly knew of him through the RCN race reports etc. Very popular and well respected as already mentioned in other posts.

I've included pics from his days in the late 60's, early 70's (plus 1 from 1984). I'll post some from his later period next week when I'm back from Melbourne.

[cooper997]

For many years John French was a regular at Phillip Island Classic, one year (2011) he did some autographs on Mini related items and the SCW specials mag that is shown here with Centaur Waggptt GT gracing the cover.

 

 

Then at the Island in 2015 he was in a group for the driver autograph sessions usually organised by Richard Williams. Right time, right place to get a few snaps rather than autographs. With Frenchie that day was Brian Reed, Bryan Thomson & Fred Gibson. In what has fast become a common theme of late, just one of them is still with us.

 

John with his great mate, Fred Gibson

 

 

My condolences to John's family and friends.

 

 

Stephen

[cooper997]

The travelling salesman's car turned weekend racer...

 

John ahead of Leo, two hard driven early Holdens at the March 1958 Lowood meeting (as shown in the August 1958 programme. With some irony, John would work for Peter Uscinski at the Coorparoo BMC dealership in the early days of his Mini Cooper racing.

 

 

Stephen

 

 

[cooper997]

This is one fairly late, Australian-built Morris Cooper 997's that John sold new while working as a salesman for Peter Uscinski

 

Shown when Cliff Bourke, the buyer who took delivery in March 1964 went back to see John 40 years later with the same car.

Mini Owners Club Qld club mag March 2004.

 

 

Stephen

[MarkBisset]

Nice Stevo,

 

The consensus seems to be that JF started racing in a Holden 48-215, I wonder when his first race was? Maybe Paul Newby knows that one??

 

m

[Bunkered]

 

 

John with his great mate, Fred Gibson

 

 

 

when they shared a works Bluebird at Bathurst in 1983, Freddie suggested the drivers' names on the side of the car be altered to "Fred Gibson And His Dad"

[cooper997]

Nice Stevo,

 

The consensus seems to be that JF started racing in a Holden 48-215, I wonder when his first race was? Maybe Paul Newby knows that one??

 

m

Mark, the earliest race I have for John is Sunday 3/11/57 Lowood. The AMS report states "French is a.relative newcomer to the sport" He won the 5 lap Saloon Car Handicap from Sid Sakzewski's Porsche.

 

Modern Motor's sportlight piece on this meeting shows John in a two-tone no 28 FJ and that he won his class in the Qld TT that day. David McKay won overall in the second DB3S.

 

 

Stephen

 

Edit - more ferreting after posting the above info... I can add that John ran at the 19/10/57 Strathpine meeting. Winning the 15 lap Open Handicap (the main event of the day). It was obviously an all-comers event because he beat Arthur Griffiths Cooper Climax.

Edited by cooper997, Yesterday, 09:00.

[Bunkered]

He had been a cyclist prior to taking up motor racing, had he not?  His famous cut lunch was a throwback to his cycling days, and featured in a number of great anecdotes about Frenchy.  Fred Gibson mentioned how Father always advocated a supply of cut fruit in the centre console for the endurance races, and Freddie relented... and when he rolled the Falcon GTHO over the top in the wet in the 1972 Bathurst 500, he was pelted with orange segments as they were thrown from their spot.

Dick Johnson reckoned that post Bathurst 1981, they put the XD away and celebrated for a week or so... and opened her up after all that to find evidence of the remains of a couple of vegemite sandwiches and the like, taking on a life of their own in the console...