Posted 30 April 2024 - 09:16
Well, I’ve known about it for many years now, but it hasn’t been talked about much outside the Elfin Works crowd from the sixties. Imagine my surprise when seated next to the 2024 Mallala All Historics Guest of Honour, Brad Jones, at Saturday night’s dinner in the Clem Smith room, when introducing myself as James the Elfin Mono tragic, Brad retorted with a
“Well as a 10 year old kid who’s Dad had the keys to The Hume Weir track, one day a quiet young guy arrived with an Elfin open wheeler on his trailer hoping to go testing. Brad’s Dad (who was also car club president) explained to the young hopeful that he was disabled (polio as a child) and that there were only he and his young son within a bull’s roar of anywhere - so if he wanted any chance of some track time he’d better not do anything stupid. The polite young man promised to take it easy and was duly let loose to do a few laps. Apologies for being unable to put names to track areas as I can’t recall them, indeed if I was given them by Brad as I was too busy being astonished at what I was hearing. Save to say there was an initial demur trundle out of the pit exit onto the track and a tame build up to what I presume was the first decent straight - by this stage the driver was out of eyeshot, Brad heard the engine open up in a no holes barred fashion followed seconds later by the sound of an open wheeler impacting something solid.
Brad ran to scene of the accident to find a driver removing himself from a cart with the wheels of its wagon! Brad’s Dad was unimpressed and the driver extremely apologetic.
Brad helped the driver collect the bits and throw them on his trailer………”
Me to Brad - “who was and what type of Elfin was it?”
Brad. “ I dunno, I was a 10 year old kid, I never heard anything about it again”
I’d have probably been a 5 year old kid at the time and well back in Tassie away from the Elfin Works and associated car assembly goings on, but I do have a godfather, Bob Mills, who totalled his one off Elfin Mono at the Hume Weir around 1969/70! Not his proudest moment & he doesn’t talk about it other than to say that when he came to he was sitting in a tub that was rather worse for wear!!!!
He had built the car after hours on a left over tub when the type 600 had become de rigueur and it had type 600 front suspension and an 1100 cc Cosworth motor. Bob rebuilt it afterwards, but I don’t think he did a lot with it after the rebuild.
