47 replies to this topic

[humphries]

Being no expert on Australian racing history can anyone confirm, correct or expand on the information below?

The Victorian Trophy

??/12/1950 Ballarat....................Ron Edgerton ( Alfa Romeo 8C Monza )......1:14' 06.2

??/??/ 1951 Ballarat...................Stan Jones ( Maybach Special )

05/10/1952 Fisherman's Bend...Stan Jones ( Maybach Special )

??/??/ 1953 Fisherman's Bend...Stan Jones ( Maybach Special )

21/03/1954 Fisherman's Bend...Stan Jones ( Maybach Special ).....................1:12' 02.4

19/02/1955 Fisherman's Bend...Lex Davison ( HWM-Jaguar ).........................1:14' 01'0

11/02/1956 Fisherman's Bend...Reg Hunt ( Maserati 250F )...........................1:13' 06.2

24/03/1957 Albert Park..............Lex Davison ( Ferrari 500/750 )....................1:02' 57.2

23/02/1958 Fisherman's Bend...Stan Jones ( Maserati 250F )............................44' 27.0

22/02/1959 Fisherman's Bend...Alec Mildren ( Cooper T43- Climax 2.0).............46' 11.0

??/??/ 1960 Fisherman's Bend...Bib Stillwell ( Cooper T51- Climax 2.2 )

12/02/1961 Ballarat...................Dan Gurney ( BRM P48/57 )............................1:02' 52.0

16/09/1962 Sandown................Lex Davison ( Cooper T53- Climax )...................37' 05.5

??/??/ 1963 ...............................Lex Davison ( Cooper ...- Climax )

??/??/ 1964................................Leo Geoghegan ( Lotus 27- Ford 1.5 )

??/??/ 1965................................Bib Stillwell ( Brabham BT11- Climax )

Recently I have come across contradictory information on this series of races. My original times for 1958 and 1959 were very different. There appears to have been two major race meetings most years at Fisherman's Bend and besides the Victorian Trophy was there a Fisherman's Bend Trophy?

Also there were the Victorian Road Racing Championships at Sandown in 1963 and 1965 but were these the Victorian Trophy races? What happened in 1964?

As you can see help is sorely needed! Hope when I press the submit button this does not become all scrambled.

John

[David McKinney]

If no-one beats me to it, I'll have a look when I get home
In the meantime, Mildren would have been in his T45 Cooper, not the T43, in early 1959

[David McKinney]

I can add some details:

1950
Ballarat 19/11
47-mile handicap.......Bill Wilcox (Dodge Special)
winner on scratch (over 50 miles)....Rod Edgerton (Alfa Romeo Monza)
All subsequent races run on scratch
1951
Fisherman’s Bend 13/11 (51 miles)
Stan Jones (Maybach Special)
1952
Fisherman’s Bend 5/10 (50 miles)
Stan Jones (Maybach Special)
1953
Fisherman’s Bend 4/10
Stan Jones (Maybach Special)
1954
Fisherman’s Bend 21/3 (64 miles)
Stan Jones (Maybach II)
1955
Fisherman’s Bend 21/2 (50 miles)
Lex Davison (HWM-Jaguar)
1956
Fisherman’s Bend 14/2 (53 miles)
Reg Hunt (Maserati 250F)
1957
Albert Park 9/3 (100 miles)
Lex Davison (Ferrari 750)
1958
Fisherman’s Bend 23/2 (60 miles)
Stan Jones (Maserati 250F)
1959
Fisherman’s Bend 22/2 (50 miles)
Alec Mildren (Cooper-Climax T45) (or maybe T43)
1960
Fisherman’s Bend 14/2 (64 miles)
Bib Stillwell (Cooper-Climax T51)
1961
Ballarat 12/2 (100 miles)
Dan Gurney (BRM P48)
1962
Calder
Bib Stillwell (Cooper-Climax T53)
OR
Sandown Park 16/9
Lex Davison (Brabham-Climax BT4)
1963
Calder
Lex Davison (Cooper-Climax T62)
1964
Calder
Leo Geoghegan (Lotus 27)
1965
???
1966
Sandown Park 17/10
Spencer Martin (Brabham-Climax BT11)
1967
Sandown Park 17/9
Leo Geoghegan (Lotus-Repco 39)
1968
Sandown Park 15/9
Glyn Scott (Bowin-FVA)
1969
Sandown Park 14/9
Johnny Harvey (Brabham-Repco BT23E)
1970
Sandown Park 13/9
Johnny Harvey (Jane-Repco)
Possibly continued ?

[Ray Bell]

On April 11 1965 there was a Gold Star round at Sandown that was called the Victorian Road Racing Championship, but I feel sure it wasn't the Victorian Trophy.

The 1964 race was for FJr and 1.5-litre cars only... it seems to me that the title was becoming disregarded for some reason at this time.

By the way, wasn't it originally known as the Victoria Trophy?

[humphries]

Thanks David and Ray

J must say I am surprised that a race like the Victorian Trophy, which was probably only third in status behind the Australian GP and the Bathurst 100 during the Fifties, lost its prestige so quickly only to re-emerge later as the classic race it is generally believed to be. Didn't AMS or any other Australian magazine report on the race in 1964? Does anybody have more detailed results when it was held at Calder. The Britsh and Continental press lost track of the race in these years.

Also I would dearly like to know the main race titles of the Fisherman's Bend meetings that did not feature the Victorian Trophy. David,Ray?

John

[Ray Bell]

You need John Medley for that, I suggest, or Dick Willis...

I only have AMS up to 1950... my next solid collection of mags begins in August 1963.

So I can tell you about the 1964 Calder race... and it's a bit of a strange story.

So easy was it for Leo Geoghegan that he could play with his 'little' brother Ian during the event, swapping places as they held the lead, several times a lap according to the Racing Car News report. That Leo was in the Lotus 27 and Ian was in the 22 that was on the market at the time might well have been the motivation for this fun and games, trying to show that the 22 wasn't yet past its best...

Arnold Glass seems to have had an easy time of it in third, not far adrift of the Geoghegans, with David Fletcher initially fourth in his Lola before Mel McEwin passed him. McEwin later spun out of the race, but his dice with Fletcher had lasted 19 laps and enlivened the race considerably.

Rocky Tresise in the Lotus 18 FJr was next, but a lap behind by the end, while Jack Hunnam drove a borrowed car (but which car?) behind him. The final result was:

1. Total Team Racing:Leo Geoghegan (Lotus 27 Ford twin cam 1.5)
2. Total Team Racing:Ian Geoghegan (Lotus 22 Ford 1.5)
3. David Fletcher (Lola - more detail required)
4. Rocky Tresise (Lotus 18 Ford) - 1 lap down
5. Jack Hunnam (car unknown - not FJr)

Next in FJr class were:

John Smart (Para Ford)
Bill Reynolds (Lotus 20)

Though there were 2.5-litre cars at the meeting, it's perhaps an indication that the race's stature had fallen that it was for the lesser formula cars.

[Ray Bell]

My error here... regarding the Geoghegan cars...

Troubled by the thought that the Lotus 22 (as raced by Leo Geoghegan) was always a Junior, and the recollection that Leo always ran the 20B when he ran in the 1.5 class, I looked up John Medley's Bathurst book to see what the entry list said the week before this Calder meeting.

I had already used this book for reference to determine which car Ian drove, in fact, to check that it might not have been Frank Matich (though I was fairly sure it wasn't...) as the name of the second placed driver isn't once mentioned in the Racing Car News report, he's only identified by the report saying that Leo won and that 'the Total twins' played games throughout the race!

But I hadn't checked the entry list for Bathurst for the size of the engine in the 22... to my knowledge it having only ever run as an 1100 with Leo at the helm.

Well, it was 1475cc. That was okay. But then I noticed that the 27 was also that size! So the winner was, in fact, Leo Geoghegan in a Lotus 27 fitted with a pushrod Ford engine of 1475cc.

Later that year the first of the twin-cam (Lotus) Ford engines filtered into these cars, though maybe not Leo's because he went to the 32 at year's end (luckily winning the Hordern Trophy first time out) which was his first twin-cam drive. The 27 went to the Howards and was converted, as was the Scott car and I'm sure the Glass 27 got the 'twink' head too.

As to the descents and ascents of the Victorian Trophy, I have no answers. Diana Gaze may well be the one to ask. This is a problem since the LCCA died, there no longer being a body with history like theirs in Thicktoria.

[humphries]

Cheers Ray

Over the last few years I have been surprised at the difficulty we have had obtaining information about races in Australia. Over the years I did not bother too much about logging Australian race results etc believing that when the time came to concentrate on them it would be relatively easy. Places like Czechoslovakia, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and the Far East took precedence. They needed much work and whatever was available has now, more or less, been acquired.

The reasons I thought Australia would be easy was because there was no language barrier. Also owning books by John Blandon, amongst others, and always buying the Australian Motor Racing Yearbooks led me to believe that all the post war races would be very well documented. It does not appear to be the case.

I wonder if you could tell me what magazines were published in Australia post-war up until the 1970's and which years did they cover? Which ones provided detailed information on races? Do you know if these volumes are held in Sydney libraries or are they held elsewhere, like Canberra? How easy or difficult is it to peruse these runs of magazines and make photocopies?

Finally, do you know of any person who owns a comprehensive collection of race programmes? In the UK there are a number of collectors but they have very few Australian race programmes.

All advice from anyone will be greatly appreciated.

John

[Ray Bell]

1946 to 1965 or so (with reasonable coverage)... Australian Motor Sports

The magazine continued for a few more years and then merged with a sister hot rod magazine before ultimately disappearing.

c 1951 to the mid sixties there was Motor Manual with a smattering of racing information.

I believe it was in 1954 that Modern Motor came into being. From then until perhaps the late sixties it was a good source of reports on the major racing, but only the major racing, and probably only really 'good' when David McKay was present.

Sports Car World arrived some time in the early fifties... the October 1959 issue is numbered Vol 6 No 1, so 1953 would be a good guess. It carried race reports from all around the country, but mostly in a kind of summary form unless they were very important races. This seems to me have drifted off the subject of racing around the end of the sixties again. Or maybe I stopped looking at it for race reports then...

In all of this, you will find little in the way of actual results. Apart from AMS, anyway, though there will be snippets of results mentioned in text and some actual results printed on some races.

Racing Car News came along in 1960, at first in broadsheet form, turning to a quarto magazine with the August 1963 issue. Even so, it was light on for result panels until the late sixties. Then it became quite religious about them, carrying through until about 1984 with a real attempt being made to cover every race at every meeting except for club meetings.

Unlike AMS, the coverage was really near to complete. It was probably this completeness of RCN that led to the reduction of race coverage by the general magazines. That and also the proliferation of new cars to be road tested, of course.

One of the best was the broadsheet started by Ian Fraser, AutoNews, but it only lasted for the duration of the 1965 Tasman Cup series and disappeared.

A fortnightly newspaper called Auto Action came about 1969 or 1970, with broad coverage but often poor reporting. It was soon followed by Australian Motoring News from the Niel Allen offices, a weekly IIRC. Usually a better product, but shortlived. The Melbourne based fortnightly paper is now a weekly magazine...

In 1974 Chequered Flag was launched, which was later (in the nineties) to become Australia's magazine of Road & Track or something like that. Modeled on RCN, it's good to have when you come to the gaps in RCN crop up... like when it was sold circa 1985 and went bust. Its resurrection after a short period was followed by a watering down of its goals until it was submerged in the face of the immediacy of Auto Action as a weekly and the need to dress it up in the modern way.

The effective replacement was a glossy bi-monthly, Motor Racing Australia, which came out about 1992. Somewhere in there, Motorsport News began as a weekly in opposition to Auto Action.

So at the moment we have Motorsport News, and Auto Action covering events on a weekly basis, but often still without results panels, and Motor Racing Australia giving excellent background coverage and a balance of modern and historical articles. I frankly don't know if the successor to Chequered Flag still exists... I doubt it.

Unfortunately, the Motor Racing Yearbooks ceased a few years ago too, they having been excellent sources for major races.

Have I missed anything? Well, yes, Tasmanian Motorist was active for a while in the mid-sixties, and there was a magazine whose name escapes me in Western Australia which covered everything on that side of the continent.

I'm sure someone will fill in any gaps... John?

[David McKinney]

Wheels was also good in the Modern Motor mould until its publishers brought out Sports Car Wolrd, which gradually took over the competition side of things. I had stopped reading Wheels and MM by about 1960, when SCW and especially AMS - and later RCN - were far better for race coverage

[john medley]

The Western Australian monthly magazine was " The Visor" , even showing individual laptime charts in WASCC events.

[Ray Bell]

Yes, and that really brings us into another area...

The SCC of SA's newsletter did this also, didn't it?

And what about pre-war magazines? You know them much better than I do, John... the back page of the Referee always carried motor sport news, what else?

[john medley]

Prewar sources include " Motor in Australia " later " Motor in Australia and Flying " , " The Australian Motorist " , " Motor and Wheelman " ( Western Australia ), " The Car " , " The Referee " , and daily newspapers.

[humphries]

Thanks for the titles of Australian motor-racing publications. Does the national library of Australia have all the issues? In Britain a copy of every book and magazine published used to be sent to to the British Museum Library or the Newspaper Library at Colindale. I am not sure if that is still the case. To read the magazines you had to plan carefully and still have the patience of Job. The stores for these publications were not always at the actual library and there could be delays in them being transferred.

Another request.

Recently I committed myself to help with the research, collecting, collating and editing of a project that aims to make a record of races conforming to most racing car formulae. With regard to South Africa, New Zealand and Australia this includes Formula Libre races of the Fifties and early Sixties and before. The South African races are virtually complete owing to the brilliant efforts of one researcher, Peter McIntosh. The New Zealand races are fairly well documented but the same cannot be said for the Australian races. Of course the number of Australian races far exceeds those of South Africa and New Zealand put together.

The first thing we have to do is to decide upon a list of races to be included in the compilation. When that is in place we can begin the task of contacting enthusiasts, libraries and organisations to try and dig out missing information.

The Australian races will, of course, include the Australian GP, The Tasman races, Gold Star events, all other F5000 races and some Formula Libre races, about which we need guidance. A supplementary publication will hopefully include details of Australian F2 & F3, Formula Pacific, and Formula Brabham/ Holden.

As there are many well-informed individuals contributing to this forum it seems a good idea to ask them what Formula Libre races they would like to see included. The criterea to be applied is that the races were mainly contested by racing cars, or that the entry included significant racing cars, or that the races were an annual event even if some years the entry list was poor. We are thinking along the lines of the Victorian Trophy, Bathust 100, the South Pacific Championship and major races held at Lowood, Caversham, Mt Druitt etc. It is very important that we have the date; librarians insist upon that usually and we do not want to run up crippling research charges.

Sadly, there may well have to be pruning but that will be dictated by space.

All contributions will be appreciated.

John

[Ray Bell]

Missing out on the Hordern Trophy Race prior to it becoming part of the Gold Star series would be a travesty...

There were Moomba races at Albert Park too, as recorded on the 16mm movie I have here with me.

Another Racing Car feature race at Warwick Farm were the Motor Show Trophy race which was held for a number of years at the September meeting.

Terry Walker's Around the Houses is an invaluable source of information on races in Western Australia... the various 'Flying 50s' and so on that were run around the streets of towns in that state.

[humphries]

Thanks Ray

The Motor Show Trophy is one that is not on our lists. Any dates?

Terry Walker's book on racing in W.Australia is one I've wanted to buy for years but cannot locate a copy.

John

[Ray Bell]

Check with Fred Vogel... Max Stahl had several copies and Fred is selling off his stuff...

May 5, 1968... Race of Champions at Warwick Farm... Geoff Sykes was trying to build up a repertoire of major racing car events at each of his meetings... though the next year he ceded this title to run the HMV Trophy race on May 4. You have to include both because Niel E won them...

Then again, I see that the July 13 meeting also featured an HMV Trophy for frontline Racing Cars, as had the July 21 meeting the previious year. This meeting always had the tintops as its feature race.

This meeting's main event, of course, was always for Sports Cars... the RAC Trophy race.

Looks like the first Motor Show Trophy was the race that saw F5000 cars debut here... September 7, 1969.

Some of the RCN reports don't mention the race names... so it would be a matter of going through old race programmes to be sure what was going on... I don't have them.

[David Shaw]

I have a little bit more information on the 1964 Victorian Trophy (sic) from Sports Car World June 1964. It gives a different outcome to that provided by Ray, which I assume comes from Racing Car News.

Victorian Trophy April 5 1964, Calder 30 laps (Heat of the Joseph Lucas-Lex Davison 1500cc Championship)

1. Leo Geoghegan - Lotus 27
2. Ian Geoghegan - Lotus 22
3. Arnold Glass - Lotus 27
4. Mel McEwin - Elfin Catalina
5. Rocky Tresise - Lotus 18 FJ
6. Jack Hunnam - Elfin Catalina

'During practise Hunnam's Elfin ricked its back end when a radius rod worked loose. The car was a replacement for a replacement from the works in Adelaide. Having sold his disc-braked Elfin [6312] to Tasmanian Lyn Archer, Hunnam was offered Granton Harrison's older car [61P1?]. But the weekend before at Mallala, Harrison bingled it. At the same meeting Keith Rilstone's Elfin [6317] spat out its motor. A quick swop was made. Rilstone's chassis and Harrison's engine were mated together in Melbourne. But it wasn't really a love match. Hunnam was dogged by indifferent handling, suspect braking, sticking throttle, and overheating'

'McEwin was slowly making up ground on Fletcher's Lola and went past on lap 24. Four laps later Fletcher was out, Hunnam was lapped for the second time, and with the flag only a couple of tours away the Total boys adopted a nose-to-tail formation to cross the line sixth tenths of a second apart. Glass was a further six seconds away in third with the gap between him and McEwin 10 seconds more.'

As to the status of the 'Victoria Trophy', it says:
'Maestro Lex thought that restricting such a classic to hairless racing cars was a bit rich. And he told the organisers, the Light Car Club, in no uncertain terms.'

Unfortunately it seems to have been the trend, as the same issue of SCW reports on the 'Panorama 1500' which had previously been the Bathurst 100, but had been restricted to ANF1.5 after only a handful of cars started in 1963.

[275 GTB-4]

I'm still upset that the Mexicans allowed Dan Gurney to take a win in 61

[humphries]

David

Thanks for resurfacing this thread and good luck with your site.

Recently I was on holiday in Oz and NZ during which time I visited numerous circuits or the former sites thereof. These included Albert Park, Altona, Ballarat, Calder, Fisherman's Bend, Point Cook, Philip Island and Sandown Park in Victoria - and Bathurst, Catalina Park now renamed, Eastern Creek, Orange (Gnoo Blas) and Warwick Farm in NSW. Terry's "Fast Tracks" was an essential guide.

Unfortunately there was no time available to spend doing research in libraries. Some progress has been made gathering information but there is still a lot missing and I'm sure people in Oz stand a far better chance of documenting fully its motor-racing history than I do.

As for Gurney's win in 1961 we visited Ballarat. The idea was to visit the Sovereign Hill Museum, a "living" museum of a reconstructed gold mining town and then to visit the memorial site for Australian P-o-Ws in a park by Lake Wendouree. This lake was used during the 1956 Olympics for the rowing events, however the venue could only be used again if mud-wrestling becomes an Olympic sport.

Not far away is the airfield that was used for the Victoria Trophy in 1961. A little bit of humiliating pleading and a diversion was agreed. It is just a country airport in the middle of flat, scorched pastures. That the likes of the BRM team of Dan Gurney and Graham Hill raced here, along with Innes Ireland in a works Lotus, is quite amazing but times were different then.

As always I'm interested in making contact with those who have programme collections.

John

[Ray Bell]

I believe the Ballarat aerodrome was probably a little more active in 1961 than today, John...

But I know what you mean. I drove in there about six months ago for a quick look myself. Now what you really need to do is have a look at Mooliabeenie.

[David Shaw]

Originally posted by humphries
Being no expert on Australian racing history can anyone confirm, correct or expand on the information below?

The Victorian Trophy

??/12/1950 Ballarat....................Ron Edgerton ( Alfa Romeo 8C Monza )......1:14' 06.2

??/??/ 1951 Ballarat...................Stan Jones ( Maybach Special )

05/10/1952 Fisherman's Bend...Stan Jones ( Maybach Special )

??/??/ 1953 Fisherman's Bend...Stan Jones ( Maybach Special )

21/03/1954 Fisherman's Bend...Stan Jones ( Maybach Special ).....................1:12' 02.4

19/02/1955 Fisherman's Bend...Lex Davison ( HWM-Jaguar ).........................1:14' 01'0

11/02/1956 Fisherman's Bend...Reg Hunt ( Maserati 250F )...........................1:13' 06.2

24/03/1957 Albert Park..............Lex Davison ( Ferrari 500/750 )....................1:02' 57.2

23/02/1958 Fisherman's Bend...Stan Jones ( Maserati 250F )............................44' 27.0

22/02/1959 Fisherman's Bend...Alec Mildren ( Cooper T43- Climax 2.0).............46' 11.0

??/??/ 1960 Fisherman's Bend...Bib Stillwell ( Cooper T51- Climax 2.2 )

12/02/1961 Ballarat...................Dan Gurney ( BRM P48/57 )............................1:02' 52.0

16/09/1962 Sandown................Lex Davison ( Cooper T53- Climax )...................37' 05.5

??/??/ 1963 ...............................Lex Davison ( Cooper ...- Climax )

??/??/ 1964................................Leo Geoghegan ( Lotus 27- Ford 1.5 )

??/??/ 1965................................Bib Stillwell ( Brabham BT11- Climax )

John

Reading through Sports Car World April 1960 , it mentions a two day meeting at Fisherman's Bend on February 13 and 14. It doesn't specifically mention the Victorian Trophy, but gives the following results for the A Grade racing car scratch race, which appears to have been run on the Saturday. A quick flick through John Blanden's 'Historic Racing Cars in Australia Vol2' confirms that this was the Victorian Trophy.

1. Bib Stillwell - Cooper T51 2.2 [FII-18-59]
2. Austin Miller - Cooper T51 2.2 [FII-20-59]
3. Doug Whiteford - Maserati 300S Sports 3.0 [3055]
4. John Roxburgh - Cooper T41 1.5 [F2-P-56]

[David McKinney]

Those are indeed the results of the A Grade scratch on the Saturday
The 50-mile Vic Tro on the Sunday however was:
1 Stillwell
2 Miller
3 Patterson
DNF: Whiteford, Roxburgh
also started: Carter (Corvette Special), Myers (WM-Cooper)

[David Shaw]

Thanks for that correction David.

I must admit I jumped the gun a bit, but what I wasn't expecting was that they would report on the meeting without even mentioning the Victorian Trophy.

Patterson - Cooper T51 [FII-15-59]

[Ray Bell]

John's list includes question marks for the type of Cooper Davison drove in 1963...

This was the car McLaren used here in late 1962 and early 1963, presumably, the T62. Davo took delivery of that immediately after Longford and drove it until Longford in 1964.

[Stan Patterson]

Ballarat Airstrip

In 1961 the site was an operational RAAF base and yes, if one sees it today, it is hard to imagine that the works BRM's, Ireland's works Lotus and Flockhart in Brabham's lowline, ran there against the best field of cars and drivers assembled in the country up to that date.

All the top T51 Coopers (except Bill Patterson strangely missing), including the 2 Cooper Maseratis and Davison's front engined Aston did battle under the warm summer sun.

It was at this meeting that Stan Jones absolutely shone in his duck egg blue Cooper T51, driving so fast that after the first heat of the Victorian Trophy Race, Dan Gurney remarked to the PA system announcer...."wow, he is some driver that Stan Jones guy"....

Ah memories..if only my mother hadn't thrown all the photgraphs I took of the meeting.

Stan Patterson

Old Aussie Grump

[Ray Bell]

Patto might have had a date...

Yes indeedy, a shame you don't have your pics. I think this forum could well do with some vision of that circuit and those races.

[Stan Patterson]

Actually Ray,

I do have some other pics but I am b........d if i can work out how to post them.

Can you assist Ray?

Stan

[Ray Bell]

Sure, I can help... but I'd rather you go through the sticky 'solution to posting pics' thread first...

A tip... you just do what it says there, nothing else. But if you can't work it out, e.mail them to me.

r@ybell.net

[Stan Patterson]

Ray,

I agree, there are virtually no pics around of the meeting - not that i am aware of anyway.

However, I have always thought the pic on page 121 of John Blandens book, " Historic Racing Cars in Australia", shows Jonesy at full bore in surely the loveliest and last T51, is Ballarat.

I am worried about the background hill though....I dont recall....i was only 16!!

Stan Patterson

Old Aussie Grump

[David Shaw]

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that Vol II of Blanden's book has the same photograph.

[Stan Patterson]

Unfortunately, I never got Vol 2


i suggested some corrections in resepct of Vol 1, but never got a reply

[kaydee]

I have a March 1961 copy of AMS which has a full page of 7 pictures from the February 11th & 12th Ballarat International meeting.

I can try and scan and post if anyone is interested?

[David Shaw]

I would be one of many I suspect that would be very interested thanks.

[Stan Patterson]

kaydee..we besheech you

[David McKinney]

As long as you're sure you're not breaching copyright laws ;)

[Stan Patterson]

As HM KGV famously said, "Bugger Bognor"


We are talking our motor racing heritage here................

Stan
Bugger the Ambulance Chasers

[kaydee]

Okay - I hope this works............. and that it's readable!!!!

[275 GTB-4]

Thanks Kaydee (BTW I have a pair in my wardrobe )....

Can anyone identify the sports racer at the foot of the page in front of the Porsche and the 48/215 Holden ???

[David Shaw]

The Monza Holden driven by Bryan Thompson in GT form with a hardtop, I think to run under Appendix K?

[2Bob]

Monza Holden

See thread http://forums.atlasf...?threadid=79841

[Stan Patterson]

A sub-highlight of that meeting was the temendous duels in the sports car races between John Ampt in the Cooper Jaguar and Murray Carter in the Corvette Special.

Both of these cars were able to stretch their legs on the long straights afforded by the airport runways and it was a thrill to hear the 3.8 D type engine at full song for long periods.

What ever happened to John Ampt?..he seemed to be a driver of great potential who disappeared suddenly?

Stan Patterson

[David Shaw]

Ampt went on to often drive in the Victorian rounds of the Gold Star in smaller class cars such as an Alexis and an Elfin Mono Mk 2D.

[David McKinney]

and also enjoyed reasonable success up to F2 level in Europe

[Stan Patterson]

I remember seeing him drive a pretty little Gemini rear-engined FJ at Sandown in 1962 or 1963.

I wasn't aware he had competed in Europe and I have always thought it was a shame he didn't get into a full-blown Tasman car, because he seemed to have the talent required.

And...repeating...whatever happened to him?.. he seemed to disappear rather quickly...does anyboy know why, how or when?

Stan Patterson

[275 GTB-4]

HSRCA were expecting him to be at the Tasman Revival....he is listed as John Ampt: John drove an Alexis in 1965.

[David Shaw]

Further to what David McKinney mentioned, Ampt was a factory driver for Alexis in F3 and F2 in 1964. In F3 he had a 2nd at the Nurburgring Sudschleife, and in F2 a 9th at Aintree against the other works teams, where Jim Clark won.

The Alexis Mk 6 he raced in Australia was one of only 2 made, and he also raced the unique Mk 5 that went to DAF to be fitted with their Variomatic transmission for F3 in 1964.

[David Shaw]

I have accumulated some data on the Victorian Trophy races from its inception in 1950 until the end of the 2.5 litre era in 1970:

http://members.optus...s/victrophy.htm