MotorSport Legends Issue 7 by Supercar Xtra Magazine

MotorSport Legends T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E www.motorsportlegends.com.au

AUD $6.95 NZ $8.50

Skaife’s love affair with Mount Panorama

Jim Richards: My first race at Bathurst

UNSUNG HERO Tim Schenken’s story of persistence and determination

Jim McKeown drives a replica of his 1970 ATCC Porsche 911 Quarterly magazine ISSN 1835-5544

Aug/Oct 09 $6.95 Volume #2 Issue #7

T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E

Contents Editorial Welcome to the seventh edition of Motorsport Legends.

News 06-11 Want to know what’s next on the historic and nostalgia scene? Then don’t miss the news pages. The Schenken Story Only a handful of Australian drivers have scored F1 world championship points – Tim Schenken is one of them.

12-17

Modelling cars These historic racing dioramas are just out of this world.

18-21

Bowe to a Legend 22 Regular Motorsport Legends columnist, John Bowe, compares today’s Biante Series cars to his early touring cars. Historic Racer 23-30 Welcome to the first edition of our new historic racing section, which includes coverage of the 33rd Historic Winton and Jim McKeown driving a replica of his 1970 ATCC Porsche 911S. Skaife at The Mountain 36-41 In our regular Bathurst Series we talk to five-time winner Mark Skaife. Re-living Healey history 42-43 Healey enthusiast, Steve Pike, plans to take two cars to Bonneville to recreate some 1954 record attempts. My first Bathurst 47-49 Jim Richards remembers his maiden race at the famous Mount Panorama. Webb of intrigue 50 This issue Mick tells us some secrets about Allan Moffat’s Mazda RX-7 touring car.

Volume 3 Issue 7

Contributors in this issue Brian Reed In this issue our regular historic expert has given his view of events from the 33rd Historic Winton. He has also told a great story of Healey enthusiast Steve Pike’s plans to recreate history from 1954 with record attempts at Bonneville. Briar Gunther Our staff writer’s interview with five-time Bathurst champ Mark Skaife makes for interesting reading, while her book and DVD reviews will make Father’s day shopping a breeze for anyone with a dad who enjoys historic motor racing. Mick Webb One of the great masterminds of all things horspower has let us into some of the secrets behind giving a car the goods to get up ‘the hill’ at Bathurst – this issue he talks about his time spent developing Allan Moffat’s Mazda RX-7.

T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E

Managing Editor Allan Edwards Pole Position Productions Address: PO Box 225 Keilor, Victoria, 3036 Phone: (03) 9331 2608 Fax: (03) 8080 6473 Email: admin@motorsportlegends.com.au Website: www.motorsportlegends.com.au Staff Journalist Briar Gunther Artist/Design House Natalie Delarey Raamen Pty Ltd (03) 9873 8282 Contributors John Bowe, Darren House, Brian Reed, Mark Cooper, David Dowsey and Mick Webb. Photographers Autopics.com.au, Cheryl Reid, Wayne Preusker and John Doig. Advertising Manager Pete Rhodes Big Picture Media & Marketing Phone: +61 (0) 3 8786 8149 Mobile: 0413 154 460 Email: pete.rhodes@bigpond.com Historic Racer Advertising Jennifer Gamble: 0431 451470 Material in Motorsport Legends is protected by copyright laws and may not be reporoduced in any format. Motorsport Legends will consider unsolicited articles and pictures; however, no responsibility will be taken for their return. While all efforts are taken to verify information in Motorsport Legends is factual, no responsibility will be taken for any material which is later found to be false or misleading. The opinions of the contributors are not always those of the publishers.

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CLASSIC

Lines Welcome to issue seven of Motorsport Legends magazine. Motorsport Legends includes motor racing nostalgia and historic motor sport events.

n today’s tough ﬁnancial times historic motor racing is an aﬀordable way to get to the track as a spectator. At many historic events you can take an esky and a barbeque and often park trackside – try doing any of those things at a modern day race meeting! You can bring the family along for a fraction of the cost that you’ll be hit up for in tickets at many car racing events of today and, at most historic meets, you won’t have to pay extra to get into the paddock. In fact, at historic events you will be welcomed by all of the competitors, who love to have a chat to interested spectators. Historic events are also a perfect place to introduce youngsters to motorsport. Friends of mine recently took their car-mad young son to a historic event and were blown away when one of the competitors let their son sit in the cockpit of a classic race car for a photo shoot – even if you could get near a car they’d probably charge you for that at a ‘professional’ event. The entire family left the track with smiles on their faces and they saw some pretty good racing as well. For those of us who are a little older, historic meets can be the best place 4

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David ‘Brownie’ Brown will be missed by all at Motorsport Legends.

to reminisce and to catch up with our heroes of days gone by in a totally relaxed environment. Even former Bathurst winners – such as 1966 victor Bob Holden (pictured with yours truly) – are happy to take the time to talk with anyone who saddles up for a chat. So if you are looking for an aﬀordable way to keep the family involved in motorsport in tough economic times, you could do a lot worse than to head to your local historic race meeting. To check out when the next historic meeting is scheduled in your local area visit www.historicracing.com.au One person who loved historic

motor racing events was Motorsport Legends’ Advertising Manager, David Brown. He loved nothing more than cruising to meets in his Mustang or Chevy Impala. His hero was Norm Beechey and I remember him being like a big kid when he got Norm to sign his Impala at Phillip Island a few years ago. Unfortunately, the 2009 Festival of Motor Sport at Phillip Island was Brownie’s last historic meet. He recently lost his battle with cancer at the young age of 57. Brownie was instrumental in getting this magazine oﬀ the ground early last year. He was always quick to break any moments of tension while on deadline with his humour. But not only that, Brownie was a mate to all involved with Motorsport Legends. I honestly can’t remember having a cross word with him in the 15 years that I knew him – Brownie you will be missed, and I will never see another Mustang or Chevy Impala without happy thoughts of you crossing my mind. Thanks for the memories, mate! Until next time drive safely on the race track and on the road. Cheers, – Allan Edwards, Managing Editor

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HISTORIC NEWS

100 YEARS OF INDY

he Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Centenary Era celebrations moved into top gear in May with the running of the world’s most famous auto race, the Indianapolis 500 International Sweepstakes. IMS is honouring the 100th anniversaries of the opening of the venerable racetrack, in 1909, and of the inaugural Indianapolis 500, in 1911, through the Centennial Era celebration, which runs from 20092011. Indiana businessmen Carl G. Fisher, James A. Allison, Arthur C. Newby and Frank H. Wheeler pooled their resources to build the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1909 as an automobile testing ground to support Indiana’s growing automotive industry. The focus of the facility soon turned to racing, with Ray Harroun winning the inaugural Indianapolis 500 on May 30, 1911. “No other motorsports facility in

the world has the rich history and tradition of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” said IMS Chairman of the Board Mari Hulman George. “The Centennial Era celebration pays

homage to the heroes and events of our storied past while anticipating an even more glorious future.” History continued to be made this year at the ‘Brickyard’, when Danica Patrick becoming the ﬁrst woman to score a podium ﬁnish when she followed three-time winner Helio Castroneves and 2005 winner, Dan Wheldon, across the line. In the next issue of Motorsport Legends, Darren House looks at the history of the self-proclaimed ‘Racing Capital of the World’ and provides an Aussie perspective on a uniquelyAmerican extravaganza. ML

Centennial celebrations run until 2011 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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HISTORIC NEWS STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER

Greg Keene made his Biante Touring Car Masters debut in Darwin.

THE FASTEST SURGEON

reg Keene, dubbed Australia’s fastest orthopaedic surgeon, made his Biante Touring Car Masters debut at Hidden Valley Raceway in June.

Driving a classic 1973 Porsche 911 RS, the knee specialist was consistently among the fastest Group 2 cars. He qualiﬁed second in Group 2 behind Bernie Stack’s Porsche, but ahead of

Group 2 leader Trevor Talbot and a number of Group 1 cars. “Apparently when I was ﬁve years old I sat on my dad’s knee and said that I would be a doctor or a car racer,” Keene mused.

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“I have no recollection of that, but it’s funny how things have turned out.” The South Australian said people found it odd that he raced cars given his profession. “But the skills used for micro surgery and car racing are actually very similar,” he said. “In surgery you have two pedals, your hands are controlling two instruments that are guided by what you watch on a screen, which is kind of like looking down the road through the windscreen and using your hands and feet in tandem based on what you see ahead.“It’s all about psycho-motor skills. In fact, someone like (fellow Touring Car Masters competitor) Jim Richards would probably make a brilliant orthopaedic surgeon – he has excellent psycho-motor skills.” ML

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NEWS AUCTIONS/TARGA TASMANIA STORIES BRIAR GUNTHER

MONARO GOES

GANGSTER

his HK Monaro GTS 327 made a perfect getaway car on Underbelly, but it probably won’t be a case of life imitating art for the person who snaps it up in July. Actor Kate Ritchie, who played Judy Kane in Underbelly: a Tale of Two Cities, used the Brilliant Blue

metallic coupe as her getaway car in the show. It has clocked just 89,000 miles and features the original 327 Chevrolet-sourced V8 engine, four-speed manual gearbox, limited slip diﬀerential, stiﬀer sports suspension with rear radius rods, power front disc brakes and a long-range 25 gallon fuel tank.

Ritchie has personally signed the glovebox lid and the personalised number plates on this New South Wales car reads ‘UBELLY’. The vendor, who is the car’s second owner, acquired the Monaro in 2002 and has maintained it in top mechanical condition according to Shannons, who say it is one

of the nicest GTS 327 models they have ever driven. The Holden Monaro GTS 327 is expected to fetch between $130,000 and $160,000 when it goes under the hammer at Shannons Classic Vehicle Auction in conjunction with MotorEx at the Sydney Showgrounds on July 12. ML

THREEPEAT AT TARGA V

ictorian Rex Broadbent managed to pull off his third consecutive outright win (his fourth in total) in the Classic category at the 2009 Targa Tasmania. Broadbent and navigator Mike Goedheer took out both the Late Classic and the outright Classic in a 1974 Porsche 911 RS. They beat Bill Pye/Grant Geelan who was in a similar car and despite being an early pace-setter, Ben Wooster/Tim Kulhanek finished third in a 1990 Nissan Skyline GTS. Broadbent was suffering a head cold early in the event

Besides three consecutive wins, Broadbent also won the Classic outright competition in 2002.

but he pushed through and attributed wet conditions to helping him win. “After the ﬁrst day I was embarrassed about being 50 seconds behind,” he admitted.

“We lowered our expectations signiﬁcantly. A podium was all we were likely to get, but weather changed. “We worked really hard for this one and we virtually

snatched it from oblivion.” In the Targa Tasmania Shannons Early Classic classifications, father and son Mike and Paul Batten won in their 1964 Volvo PV544, ahead of husband and wife team Peter and Sari Ullrich in a 1963 Jensen CV8. Graham Copeland and Cameron Lepp was the first of the only three entries in the Vintage rally in a 1938 Dodge Speedster Special, ahead of Professor Michael Clark and his son Andrew in a 1937 Riley and Bill Griffiths and Kerry Auty in a 1936 Roesch Talbot ML BG 110. MotorSportLegends

STORY BY ALLAN EDWARDS PHOTOGRAPHS BY WWW.AUTOPICS.COM.AU AND THE SCHENKEN FAMILY COLLECTION.

ONE OF A SPECIAL BREED Tim Schenken is one of a handful of Australians who have scored world championship points in Formula One. His story is one of determination and perseverance, but above all else, pure enthusiasm.

t’s every Australian racing drivers’ dream to race a Formula One and win the World Championship, but so far only two Australians have won the F1 title – Sir Jack Brabham in 1959, 1960 and 1966 and Alan Jones in 1980 – however, a select group of Australians have driven in Formula One races, including Larry Perkins, Warwick Brown, Tim Schenken, Vern Schuppan and, more recently, Mark Webber. Though younger motor sport followers may know him better for his administration roles, in the gap between Brabham’s third F1 crown and Alan Jones’ trophy-winning year, many considered that Sydney-born Schenken was the country’s most likely chance to claim a Formula One title. Schenken’s F1 career spanned from 1970 to 1974 and he raced for Williams, Brabham, Trojan, Surtees and Lotus. His best result came in a Brabham at Austria in 1971 where he ﬁnished third. He is one of only ﬁve Australians to have scored world championship points in Formula One – he scored a total of seven. Schenken began his motor racing career in Australia and won the 1965 Australian Hillclimb Championship. He decided to head to England to chase his Formula One dream, though it was no overnight decision. “When I became interested in racing my hero was Stirling Moss. The only way you could get the odd bit in the news on any grand prix news or motor racing in Europe was to buy Autosport or Motoring News,” Schenken said. “In those days it came by boat, and I used to work in the city 12

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and walk every lunchtime to the technical book company, to see if Autosport or Motoring News was there and I’d read it from cover to cover. “It was always my intention to go overseas and race and be a grand prix driver, racing Formula One. So I never got to the point where I decided that I should go overseas, (because) that was always my ambition.” Even though it had always been his dream to race in Europe, Schenken nearly didn’t make it. “I suppose I nearly, very nearly, stayed here,” he explained. “I went to meet Lex Davison a couple of weeks before he lost his life at Sandown. He explained that he was going to retire. Rocky Tresise was going to take over the Tasman car… and Lex wanted someone to race his Elﬁn. So I had signed if that’s the right word – I don’t think I signed anything! “I joined his team and then there was the accident at Sandown. Had that not happened, it could have been that I might have ended up staying here.” However, history shows that Schenken did follow his dream en route to Europe. “I’d booked a berth on a ship The Ellinis to go from Station Pier to Southampton at the end of the year. I’d put a deposit down and I could not decide whether the time was right to go or not,” Schenken said. “I was racing at Warwick Farm at the time and afterwards (leading Australian saloon car driver) David McKay came up and said ‘do you have plans’ and I said what I wanted to do. I explained that I wanted to be an international driver racing Formula One. He said, ‘you have no option then, and while ❯

In the BT32 at Silverstone, 1971.

â?Ż

TIM SCHENKEN

“It was always my intention to go overseas and race and be a Grand Prix driver, racing Formula One. So I never got to the point where I decided that I should go overseas, (because) that was always my ambition.”

Pau France: European F2 Championship.

you are young you should go now’. Having read the British motor sport magazines for many years, Schenken knew exactly what to do when he arrived in Old Blighty. He set himself up in a bedsit in the London suburb of Earls Court – otherwise known as Kangaroo Valley due to the number of Australians who live there – and then went about getting himself a drive. He approached a business called Chequered Flag, which was based in Chiswick (just down the road from Kangaroo Valley). Chequered Flag sold sports cars and also ran the works assisted Brabham Formula Three team. “I went to see them to get a job. They asked what I could do and I said I could do anything. They said they needed a mechanic, so I became a mechanic,” Schenken explained. The resourceful young Australian convinced the owners of Chequered Flag to supply him the parts to rebuild a Ford Anglia with a Lotus engine in it, which had been traded in. Schenken raced this car throughout 1966, but at the end of that year Chequered Flag decided to sell it. Undeterred, Schenken persevered and purchased a Lotus 22 with funds he had from when he had sold his Lotus 18 in Australia and money he borrowed from his dad. “I converted all the suspension, put adjustable anti-roll bars on them and adjustable shock absorbers, and I rose-jointed all the suspension,” he explained. Schenken did quite well in British Formula Three races in that car during 1967, until he crashed it. 14

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Formula Ford started as a category in 1968 and Schenken thought he would try his luck in the new series. “ Merlyn were building a car and they did a test at Brands Hatch. I went and drove there and they thought I was the bloke to have, so they lent me the car for the year and they organised an engine builder to lend me an engine… I started winning the races and then I had an offer to drive a Formula Three car. I was winning with that and then I was on my way,” Schenken explained. For the next few years Schenken drove anything he could get his bum into. Even when he eventually made it into Formula One, he continued to race in the lower categories, such as Formula Two, Formula Three and Sportscars, something virtually unheard of in Formula One today. “In ’72 I was doing Formula One, Formula Two and Sportscars, so there was a hell of a lot of racing going on,” Schenken said. “In fact, in 1968, when I was first racing in England, I did 68 races in the year. I would do two to four on a Saturday and go to another circuit on Sunday and do another two to four. So there was never any shortage of racing. I’m not sure if that fits in with what a Formula One racer would do today, but I think there is so much more a Formula One driver does today, with all the commercial, press and sponsorship work and whatever which is there today and which we didn’t have at all.” In 1970 Schenken finally saw his opportunity to break into Formula One.

Schenken already had form with Brabham in Formula Two and Three before joining the Brabham Formula One team in 1971.

“After Piers Courage was killed at Zandvoort I took a deep breath and went and saw Frank Williams and asked if he’d give me a chance and he agreed,” Schenken explained. Schenken had three retirements from his four starts for Williams in 1970, but the following year he swapped to the Brabham Formula One team. He already had a relationship with the Brabham team, having driven for them in Formula Two and Three. Claiming a podium finish with third at Austria in 1971 was the highlight of his Formula One career, and Schenken finally felt comfortable in the pinnacle category of the sport. “When I started in Formula One there was something I could not quite get. I’d been winning in Formula Three, Formula Ford and I could win in Formula Two, but when I was in Formula One there was something that wasn’t quite right and it took a few races for it to click,” Schenken said. “Basically the problem was that I was using the engine, and I was thinking the engine was going to do all the work for me, so I was arriving at the corners too slow with not enough speed into the corner and then using the engine to get out of the corner. “Something clicked at the French Grand Prix with me and suddenly I was there. I was nearly third at the French Grand Prix and I had an oil line break or something like that, so by the time I got to Austria, I was feeling like I could finish in the top three. “They didn’t have a podium in those days and I was racing ❯

Graham Hill and Tim Schenken.

A tender moment between Tim and his wife Bridgette.

Off the line at Silverstone, 1966.

In a Porsche at Zandvoort.

a one-year old car, which was Jack’s (Brabham) from the previous year. I had done some testing with that BT34, what they call the lobster claw, which was a much stiffer chassis than the car I was racing, so I was confident; I thought, ‘if I won here then I could win Grands Prix’. I felt very confident within myself.” However, just as it all started looking like Schenken’s F1 career was about to take off, a poor decision put the brakes on his progress. “At the end of the year Ron Tauranac sold out to a chap called Bernie Ecclestone,” Schenken said. “I knew Bernie: I had seen him around because he was helping Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi. “Ron Tauranac actually stayed on at Brabham, and when I was talking to Ron and told him that I was going to do a deal with Bernie the following year, Ron said ‘the guy is a lunatic and he will end up designing the car’. I’m not quite sure why he said that or what he meant by that, so I tried to do a deal 16

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“When I was first racing in England, I did 68 races in the year. I would do two to four on a Saturday and go to another circuit on Sunday and do another two to four. So there was never any shortage of racing.” with Bernie for one year, for ’72. Bernie wanted a two-year deal, because he didn’t want to lose me at the end of the year… so I went to Surtees and that was the end.” Schenken’s career basically floundered at Surtees as he claimed he had “a complete clash of personalities” with team owner, former motorcycle and F1 champion, John Surtees. “I’m not the only driver who had difficulties with John,” was Schenken’s only comment on his time at that team. Schenken retired from six races out of 11 starts in 1972 for Surtees. He made one more start for Williams in 1973 and then had another reasonably unsuccessful year driving for Trojan in 1974 with one start in the US Grand Prix for Lotus that year, where he was disqualified. He continued to race for many years in other categories in Europe and then went on to become a successful racing car constructor with Tiga Racing Cars. Schenken eventually returned to Australia to take up an adminstration position with the Confederation of Australian

TIM SCHENKEN

Tim Schenken in his Trojan racing suit, 1974.

Driving an XJ Jaguar at Zandvoort in 1977.

Motorsport and he remains with the organisation to this day. In the next issue of Motorsport Legends we’ll take an indepth look at his time racing with Ron Dennis’ ﬁrst racing team, Rondel Racing, and discover how Tiga Racing Cars was born. But in the meantime, we had to ask: does Schenken have any regrets that his Formula One career ended without his much sought after world crown? “No. I wouldn’t change anything,” Schenken replied. “You know when I go back now and I look at the grid from the ’70s, and look who’s around today and the tragedies and what has happened… I’ve lived the dream, my own dream. “At school the teachers used to accuse me of being a dreamer; well I was a dreamer. I wanted to be a Grand Prix driver. So here I am now, I’m still in motorsport; I’m passionate about it. It’s a huge challenge, but the great thing about motorsport is that you never get on top of it. You are learning all the time; there are new experiences all the time. The whole thing is a challenge.” ML

With Roy Pike and ladies at a motor show in 1968.

At Sandown Raceway with Jackie Stewart.

At Calder in 1962.

STORY BY DAVID DOWSEY; PHOTOGRAPHS BY WAYNE PREUSKER

MODEL CITIZEN

This model maker’s eye for detail is so amazing you have to look twice to see if they are the real thing

onet’s Garden, the Isle of Capri, Prague’s back laneways: It’s not a stretch to imagine how artists have been inspired by these beautiful surroundings. But a dimly lit backyard shed in regional Victoria? Now that’s something else again. The exquisitely detailed dioramas on our pages were crafted in modest surroundings and, often, on a tight budget. But take another, closer look.

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There is no doubt that this is the work of an artist of the highest calibre. And he lives on our doorstep in Wangaratta. During Motorsport Legends’ guided tour we couldn’t help but notice that Peter Krajnc’s ‘studio’ is a little on the shabby side. It certainly offers little promise of the beauty that emerges from within. As we pause to inspect a miniature figurine of Harry Firth, Krajnc stops to close the workshop’s blinds. It’s to keep the sun off his precious creations, he explains softly, as if not to wake the

sleeping models. “The paint fades on the cars if too much sun gets on them,” he says. In one corner of the shed, sitting beneath a windowsill, is Krajnc’s crowded workbench complete with tools of the trade: miniature saws, pliers, paint bottles and glue tubes. Next to the workbench is a large wooden wardrobe heaving under the weight of countless model kit boxes, as yet to receive Krajnc’s magic touch. For many years, Krajnc has acted as a

â?Ż MotorSportLegends

the ‘Firth’ workshop to accommodate Motorsport Legends photographer, Wayne Preusker’s request for a car swap. “Actually, I’m glad you suggested that,” he admits. “I like it better that way.” Every available shelf and tabletop in Krajnc’s shed is covered in models and dioramas. His collection includes Stirling Moss’ Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR sportscar, ‘Birdcage’ and 250F Maserati racers and some Formula One open-wheelers. Of his several dozen dioramas many are Aussie muscle or V8 Supercarthemed. Moffat’s GTHO Phase IIIs, Brock’s Toranas and Monaros, and the Commodores and Falcons of Lowndes, Bowe and Johnson dominate, some bearing the signatures of their legendary pilots. So it’s interesting to hear that Krajnc’s first automotive love is not cars at all: it’s motorcycles. Dozens of motorcycles and bike-themed dioramas sit proudly amongst his collection. “I began by making motorcycles,” he says. “Then I asked myself, ‘How can I display these a bit better?’ So I started making pit scenes for the bike models. But bike garages aren’t very big, or involved, with lots of tools and things. So I began building car displays instead.” Krajnc began by building the smaller 1/24th scale model cars, but when the bigger, more detailed 1/18th scale started becoming more popular, especially with Australian muscle and racing cars, his creativity went into hyperdrive. full-time carer for his elderly parents; the One of Krajnc’s great talents is spotting isolated lifestyle fostering an amazing eye artistic merit in all sorts of seemingly “Off to the side of for detail and the patience of Job. mundane objects; the types of things most the instruments It takes a person with the artistic insight people have lying around their house. of Krajnc to create these amazing pieces: He points out a set of silver brake drums rest finely detailed the job includes conceptualising the collected on a workbench in his Maserati miniature human finished diorama, interviewing subjects, racing car display. The brake’s centres are heads sitting mutely in made from dental floss spools, he reveals. sketching detailed plans, researching books and films, sourcing resources, Touched up with paint, they became small filing trays.” constructing parts and assembling the realistic mechanical accessories. There are models. It’s not for the faint hearted. bottle tops, tree branches and jewellery Before too long we are running our eyes It’s a good thing then that Krajnc items in his dioramas as well, but only the covetously over his collection of accurately glues nothing down. That’s right. Those keenest eye will spot them. detailed dioramas. But it’s Harry Firth’s spanners, the racks of tyres, even the The figures in his creations usually come miniature workshop, complete with workshop broom leaning against the wall from scale model soldier collections. Brock’s GTR XU-1 Torana and GTS 350 are not permanently attached to their bases. Cut up and manipulated into their Monaro that stops us in our tracks. Not even Harry Firth is fixed in place. new positions, they are then sent to Ian Tate’s son once reported to Krajnc “I am always changing the dioramas, Queensland where they are molded into that he was spot on with the piece, apart adding to them and finding out that new plastic race drivers and pit crew. from one detail: Harry Firth was in the things are in the wrong place. I leave Krajnc then customises them further wrong place (he always sat in the corner them now, so that things can be moved by adding a cigarette drooping from of the workshop). around,” continues Krajnc, reorganising a mechanic’s lips, or miniscule cloth Peter Krajnc and one of his intricately detailed workshop dioramas.

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MODEL CITIZEN

Wood turner friends fashion items like oxy bottles and air compressors while another mate mills brass items for the dioramas.

handkerchiefs tied around their necks; some have pockets bulging with oily rags. One area where Krajnc usually doesn’t venture is altering the cars themselves. There are a couple of racers showing oil and dirt stains, and one diorama features a rusty old tow truck, but he mainly leaves the metal or plastic kits as they come out of the box. Sourced mainly from local Classic Carlectables and Biante collections, the models are usually very accurate, says Krajnc. One of Krajnc’s favourite pieces is his Maserati workshop diorama featuring a complete 250F racer alongside a dismantled example showing its inner workings. The diorama had taken over a year to construct, not including the

research. But it’s not ﬁnished, he tells Motorsport Legends, asking if we can see the sparkplugs on his workbench. Craning our necks and straining our eyes we can just make them out. “I need to make little packets for them,” he explains. “Maserati had their own sparkplugs and

“It’s Harry Firth’s miniature workshop, complete with Brock’s GTR XU-1 Torana and GTS 350 Monaro that stops us in our tracks.”

I need to get a photo of them first before I can do that.” There’s no doubt about it: he’s fussy. It’s work that doesn’t pay well: Krajnc knows that most people don’t appreciate the amount of time it takes to produce his museum-worthy pieces. So he will only take a commission if a client is prepared to pay a fair price. Like most things, it all comes down to what a person is prepared to pay. Even a modest hourly labour rate, plus the raw materials, it can add up to a high-priced investment. People have tried offering $200 for a piece, but Krajnc can’t be bought for that. The model maker is pragmatic about the situation; he simply enjoys his craft for the love of it. But it’s also a frustration. A craftsman of his standing should be in great demand. His amazingly detailed work is worth the money and the people who can afford it should form an orderly cue. Money is not at the forefront of Krajnc’s mind though, we can tell. He quickly moves the conversation on to his next piece. “I wouldn’t mind doing something on Le Mans,” he calls down the driveway as we hop into our car. “Maybe something with those beautiful Jag D-Types…” Peter Krajnc can be contacted on (03) 5721 7786. ML

Some of Krajnc’s dioramas take up to 900 hours to complete and that doesn’t include research, interviews, design and sketching.

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BOWE TO A

Legend Competing in the Biante Series has reminded Bowe of the ‘good old’ touring car days, but he believes V8 Supercars could learn a thing or two from those times.

hen I retired from V8 Supercars I wanted to keep racing. Racing has been my life focus since I was 15 and I still needed to satisfy my craving. It’s a bit like a recovering heroin addict who goes on a methadone program. The Biante Touring Car Masters is my methadone program. The Biante series appealed to me more than any other category because it’s basic. The cars have very little sophistication about them. But there is a DNA link to V8 Supercars. I love V8 Supercars and if I was younger I’d still be doing it but it has some problems that really need to be overcome quite quickly. The category is massively expensive because of the level of engineering in the cars has gone up to the point where you need a lot of very qualified people on staff who earn serious money. I have watched tin-tops evolve from the Group A days when I raced my first sedan, a Volvo 240 Turbo. It had an engine management system that was pretty basic but it was there. They had reasonable brakes but they weren’t mega horsepower cars but then I saw the category destroyed by the Nissan GT-R because Nissan did a better job. In the midst of that, V8 Supercars was born and I saw that evolve to the point 22

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John Bowe has watched tin tops evolve since the raced the Volvo 240 Turbo in the ’80s.

where it is ‘boffin-led’. In the Group A days we had mechanics, now they have highly-qualified engineers. It is very different. The days of the free-styling mechanic, and for that matter, the free-styling driver, are probably gone. V8 Supercars are now strong enough to have the life beaten out of them. You just drive the thing as fast as you can. But in moving categories, you have to lower your expectations. The HQ Monaro I raced in Darwin (after my Camaro broke a crankshaft in practice), would boil the brake fluid after six laps. I had to pump the brakes six times to get the pedal up so that the car had front brakes, otherwise it just had rears. It flicked me off the road at one stage because I didn’t know it was going to

do it. Other things are not ideal, such as not having a spare engine. In V8 Supercars, they can change an engine in an hour so if they have a problem they can get the car our for the next session or race. Local open wheel classes and categories like Sports Sedans are in the same boat. It’s not professional racing. It never will be. But the Biante series oﬀers good, strong racing and people like it. My sponsors – Dunlop, Westrac and Wilson Security – love it, and the money you need is not ridiculous to run them. And the cars are not that slow. They are 40 years older than a V8 Supercar but only six seconds slower. – John Bowe

HISTORIC RACER

MotorSport Legends T H E M A G A Z I N E T H AT B R I N G S Y O U R M O T O R S P O R T M E M O R I E S B A C K T O L I F E

WINTON WARRIORS! All the stars and cars from the 33rd annual historic meet.

McKeown drives a replica of his ATCC 911S

STORY BY BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL REID

Special guest: Graham Hoinville.

The late Lou Molina’s 1925 Bugatti Brescia.

There were plenty of characters in the crowd.

AUSTRALIA’S ANSWER There was plenty to celebrate at this year’s Historic Winton meeting – 100 years of Morgan and landmark years for Bentley, Jaguar Mk.2, Mini, Triumph Herald and M.G. TD. Add to this the many car clubs that used the occasion for a club run and the result was a stunning collection of motoring history on display in the car park.

he 33rd running of Historic Winton was prefaced by a Friday morning run on July 29 around the scenic Benalla district followed by a static display of classic vehicles and race cars outside the Benalla Civic Centre. It was then on to the two-day, 46event program catering for all Historic groups from the 1920s to 1984. A total of 280 cars took part, while 110 vintage and classic motorcycles and sidecars contested 18 bike events. Run in perfect weather conditions, the 33rd Historic Winton was presented by the

HistoricRacer

Austin 7 Club in conjunction with the Historic Motorcycle Association of Victoria. Apart from one nasty spill that hospitalised two riders, the two and three-wheel action was action packed and keenly contested – a wonderful adjunct to the 28 races for the cars. There were some standout performances such as Fred Greeneklee in his 1956 1100cc. Cooper JAP. The South Australian has dominated the Group Lb category for some years and continued on his merry way at Winton. He certainly knows how to

get an aircooled car going! A bumper ﬁeld of Groups M and O racing cars plus Formula Fords was led home by the globetrotting Laurie Bennett in his 1970 Elﬁn 600B. Keith Simpson chased hard in the Penrite Oils 1966 Brabham BT 16, and Nick McDonald (1972 Birrana) and Nick Bennett (1981 Wren) scrapped for the Formula Ford honours. Winton brings out the best in the tintops, and the Group N races re-lived the great David and Goliath days of the Minis and the Mustangs. Mini ace Henry Draper scored pole position

HISTORIC WINTON 09

Terry Gay and Greg Butler on their 1969 Honda Tranzac.

Keith Roberts 1932 MacDonberg Special.

Ian Brock in his 1960 Elfin Streamliner. Note the number of his car goes up by one each year to match his age.

A little Austin Swallow.

These Morgan fans came prepared complete with picnic basket.

TO GOODWOOD over the 1964 Ford Mustang of Jervis Ward by just 4/1000th of a second, but Ward outdragged the Cooper ‘S’ and scored narrowly. Special tributes were paid to two iconic ﬁgures of Australian motorsport. The late Lou Molina, racer, raconteur and restauranteur was remembered with several of his famous cars taking part in the meeting. Included were the 1956 Molina Monza and the 1953 MM Special, while Ernest and Tony Molina maintained the family tradition in Lou’s 1939 M.G. TB and the famous 1925 Bugatti Brescia. Special guest for the meeting was veteran racer Graham Hoinville who has been actively involved in motor sport as competitor, engineer and administrator for more than 60 years. His achievements include winning the

1968 Australian Rally Championship with Harry Firth along with several other major national rallies, and competing in international classics such as the East Africa Safari and as a Ford team member in the London to Sydney Marathon. Hoinville is currently the CAMS Historic Technical Advisor and is the recipient of the CAMS Service Award and CAMS Award of Merit. Last year he received an international award for his services to the FIA Historic Motor Sport Commission. For the demonstration laps, the popular veteran rolled out his trusty M.G. TC, a car he has owned and raced successfully since the 1950s. Amongst the huge crowd were two special visitors, Tony and Diana Gaze who were reunited with their 1928 Alfa Romeo. This car, known as ‘the little

Alfa Special’ had been in the Davison family for almost 80 years, belonging originally to Mr Alec Davison, father of the legendary four times Australian Grand Prix winner, Lex Davison. Fortunately the car has remained in Australia after being sold recently at auction to its proud new owner, Trevor Montgomery. Squadron Leader Tony Gaze was also on hand to sign copies of his book Almost Unknown. Stocks of the book quickly sold out as fans lined up to meet the famous Australian Spitfire ace and racing driver and have a prize autograph added to their book. Another very significant car seen at Winton for the first time was Stuart Anderson’s 1926 Talbot-Darracq GP. Unfortunately the supercharger failed ❯ and the beautifully restored car HistoricRacer

HISTORIC WINTON 09

Multiple trophy winner Graeme Raper in his 1948 Ford Monoskate.

Tony Osborne in his 1930 Riley Special.

was sidelined for the weekend, but Historic racing, being what it is meant, spectators were able to get up close and personal to this famous car in the pits. An interesting Australian car having its ﬁrst outing was the 1932 Macdonberg Special of Keith Roberts. Originally built by the McDonough brothers in South Australia for the Lobethal GP, the car ﬁnished up in a derelict state in a paddock near Avoca until found by Roberts. Nine years of painstaking restoration were rewarded when the Macdonberg Spl took to the track looking absolutely resplendid. Roberts’ patience and skill received further accolades when his car was awarded the Terry Kelly 26

HistoricRacer

Clive Carter leads Kelton Cheeseman.

Perpetual Trophy for the best presented Australian special at the meeting. Other special awards were presented after the meeting. Grant Cowie made it two in a row when his highly credentialled 1931 ‘Duck Racer’Austin 7 again won the Col. Arthur Waite Trophy and scored fastest lap for an Austin 7 at the meeting. The Encouragement Award went to one of the young competitors, Anthony Read who drove sensibly in his Mazda RX-2. It was good to see the oﬃcials weren’t forgotten, and the Firth Family Trophy was presented to Robert and Janne Humphries for their eﬀorts at the meeting. The ‘Driver of the Meeting’ trophy went to Samantha Dymond

Peter McKnight in his 1956 Aarons Lotus Mk 9.

who drove her 1960 Lola Mk.1 with great ﬂair in the Group L events. Other winners were Nick Bennett (Formula Ford Trophy), Peter Jackson (Alan Jones Memorial Trophy), Richard Townley (George Coad Memorial Trophy), Laurie Bennett (Phil Irving Trophy),Graeme Raper (Douglas Briese Trophy and Lou Molina Trophy), Fred Greeneklee (Mark Dymond Trophy), and the team of British-based ‘Specials’ won the Regularity Teams Trophy. Describing the Historic Winton meeting as the Australian equivalent of the Goodwood Revival may be a little ‘over the top’, but that’s the way one very satisﬁed competitor summed up the 33rd event on May 30-31.

ATCC PORSCHE 911 STORY BY MARK COOPER PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK COOPER AND CLASSIC ROAD AND TRACK

RE-LIVING PAST GLORIES Calder transforms into memory lane as Jim McKeown gets behind the wheel of this faithful recreation of his 1970 ATCC Porsche 911.

avid and Goliath battles are hardly new in Australian motorsport. Think XU-1 versus GTHO or BMW M3 versus Godzilla GT-R. One of the best David and Goliath battles was played out during the 1970 Australian Touring Car Championship when Shell Racing teammates Norm Beechey and Jim McKeown fought tooth and nail over the seven championship rounds. And while these two were teammates, they had very little in the way of identical equipment. Beechey was driving what was to become one of the most recognisable of

Australian Touring Car Championship winners, his much revered 350 Chev powered HT GTS Monaro, while McKeown was in the much smaller capacity, but by no means less developed, Porsche 911S. “It was nice and cammy, really peaky as a road car, but once we stripped it and got some good parts in the engine it became a really good race car,” McKeown said. The original Shell Porsche may never have eventuated though, as McKeown had ordered a Mustang for the 1970 season. Some team politics were at play behind the scenes though and a wish by some not to have another V8 in the Shell team caused the cancellation of the Mustang order. “That was at the end of ’69 and we had little or no time to ﬁnd a car. Luckily Alan Hamilton had a Porsche sitting on his showroom ﬂoor,” he said. The original iridescent green paintwork

made way for the Shell yellow and the car made its championship debut at Calder in round one of the championship with McKeown finishing third on the day. “The good thing about that year was that when the Mustang was cancelled Shell not only let me keep a contract for outright points but gave me another for class points,” McKeown remembered. “I would have been one of the only drivers who made money out of the year!” The Porsche was continually being developed, with parts coming on board throughout the season. “I remember we had problems with the clutch when we first ran the car and as the factory clutch was both fragile and expensive we had a new flywheel made and ran a Borg and Beck mutli-plate racing clutch,” McKeown said. “Brian Foley’s car was basically a sister car to mine, while the Bill Brown car ❯

Jim McKeown has taken a keen interest in the replica Porsche 911S. HistoricRacer

ATCC PORSCHE 911

Classic Road and Track left nothing to chance as the 911S was rebuilt as close to the original specs as possible.

The rear-engine sometimes made car-balance a little tricky, but at tight circuits it could match the V8s.

was a works car built at the factory in Germany for Scuderia Veloce. “The three of us had some great battles and we were nose to tail for most of the championship.” The little high-tech 2.3-litre Porsche was a match for the thundering V8s on the tighter tracks but Sandown and its long straights caused a drama. “We couldn’t get near them there,” McKeown recalled. “We’d be right alongside them heading up the back straight then they would pull top gear and just disappear. At Bathurst we’d still hit around 150mph down Conrod Straight though.” Reliability and consistency, both across

a race distance and the championship, were the keys to McKeown’s chances. “The V8s were powerful but fragile,” he said. “Plus they tended to run out of brakes quite quickly.” Of the other major competitors through 1970 Pete Geoghan, Bob Jane and Allan Moffat all favoured Mustang power while McKeown, Foley and Brown pushed them in their Porsches, and while Beechey had an outstanding season (when he finished he was never lower than second) McKeown’s consistent top four finishes (including two outright victories) equated to a small four point gap at seasons end, Beechey just shading

Racing during a recent historic meet at Sandown.

HistoricRacer

Classic Road and Track has done a fantastic job as the Porsche is emaculate inside and out.

his Shell Racing team mate. McKeown ran the car again in 1971, finishing fourth in the championship before the rules were changed for the 1972 season. The car was then sold off to Tom Naughton to finance the next chapter of his career. Classic car enthusiasts Mark Johnson and David Belford are co-owners of Classic Road and Track in North Melbourne and have recently completed this fantastic representation of the McKeown Porsche. Mark was looking for a car to compete in historic touring car competition and after much debate a 911S replica was decided upon. Some concessions to originality were

McKeown enjoyed his drive in the replica of his much-loved 1970 ATCC Porsche 911S at Calder Park.

made during the build process in respect to safety with a full FIA spec roll cage constructed of Chrome Moly being the major one. The other liberty is an alloy pedal box from a later model 935, but, as Johnson explained, where possible original parts were sourced and utilised. “We managed to source some wonderful original parts for the car including the Marelli 12-plug distributor, RSR rockers, a 901 magnesium case gearbox and the 10 x 15” Minilite wheels,” he said. The car is a ﬁrst class job that took up a lot of man-hours. “We spent roughly two years researching, collecting the factory race

parts and building the car. The car is a complete nut and bolt restoration,” Belford explained. McKeown himself has taken a keen interest in the car, having ﬁrst spotted it at the Sandown Historic meeting where it debuted in 2007. It was at this time that an open oﬀer was put to McKeown to drive the car but it wasn’t until the Phillip Island Historic meeting of this year where Jim pronounced the back injury which put a stop to his own racing cured and the plot was hatched to meet at Calder in June of this year for a trip down memory lane. “I loved it,” McKeown recalled of the day.

“It didn’t take a lot of convincing to get me to have a drive. I didn’t take any risks as it was a cold day and the track was rather slippery but it handled and stopped well and Mark has done a terrific job with the car. “My car ran six Weber carburettors as we were a little unsure of the mechanical fuel injection but Mark’s car is fitted with the injection and it seems to work beautifully. “If anything it is a little more refined than my car was, but that can tend to be the case with restorations, and its sound is just glorious. “I’m still trying to convince Mark to put the red Shell stripes on the car though.”

“We spent roughly two years researching, collecting the factory race parts and building the car. The car is a complete nut and bolt restoration.” HistoricRacer

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BOOK

REVIEW

STORY BRIAR GUNTHER

Gazing into an amazing life

fter a career of ﬂying Spitﬁres in World War II, it only makes sense that your next career involves

fast cars. And competitive motor racing is exactly what Tony Gaze proceeded to do after his air force career. Despite an extraordinary and exciting life – Gaze became the first Australian to compete in a World Championship Grand Prix – he is not as well known as other motorsport identities. Hence the title of his biography, Almost Unknown: The Story of Squadron Leader Tony Gaze, which details both his air force and motorsport careers. Motorsport enthusiasts who are also military and aviation buffs get double their money’s worth, as roughly the first half of the book details his flying history, which includes being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross no less than three times. Gaze grew up around cars; his mother Freda took part in competitive motor racing and the family attended racing meets including the first Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island in 1928. Helping to establish the Goodwood motor racing circuit in England is probably what Gaze is best known for in motorsport circles and he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2006 for his service to the sport. Gaze’s motorsport and aviation careers are entwined to the extent that he can compare the two. “I’m very glad I flew fighters; I have flown bombers just to see what they’re like and I mean they are trucks. We had sports cars,” he told journalists at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide earlier this year.

Almost Unknown is author Stewart Wilson’s 59th book but his first biography and the first to combine his specialties of aviation and motorsport writing. Rather than telling the story with his own slant, Wilson’s book is factual with plenty of detailed stories from Gaze, who is now 89. Obviously Gaze’s achievements are documented in the book, but some lesser known – and amusing – anecdotes are spread throughout. One story is how his crew had to ‘borrow’ fuel from the winning BRM team at the 1954 New Zealand Grand Prix because he was not supplied any fuel for the race. Chances are that Gaze would have won the race had there not been the fuel issue but in the end he settled with third place. While some biographies merely detail a subject’s working life, this book also delves into Gaze’s private life. It goes into his oft-turbulent relationship with first wife Kay, who died in 1976. But it goes on to detail his fairytale romance with Diana, who was widowed after her first husband Lex Davison, the famous Australian motor racer, died at Sandown in 1965. Diana is described in the book as

“a pretty good steerer in her own right” and her grandsons Alex and Will Davison are also mentioned in their capacity as current V8 Supercar drivers. At the Clipsal 500, she revealed that motorsport still excites her. “Whether it’s the old days or present time… I still get an adrenaline rush at the start of a race,” she said. Almost Unknown: The Story of Squadron Leader Tony Gaze is for sale in specialist bookshops.

Australian motorsport history at spa-Francorchamps and the Belgian Grand Prix on 22 June 1952 – Tony Gaze becomes the first Australian to contest a World Championship GP. Driving his HWM-Alta he finished 15th.

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DVD

REVIEW

Racing Through Time – the great drivers! Relive the racing careers of some of the true motorsport legends.

he Racing Through Time DVD collection has been put together by a team that knows its motorsport history back to front. Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio and Graham Hill are all featured in their own Racing Through Time DVDs, which provide a startling insight into their lives and motorsport careers. Moss is introduced as “the best racing driver never to win the world championship” and the documentary covers his time spent in grand prix, sports cars and rally cars. Lots of great old racing footage of Moss provides the perfect backdrop for a strong commentary – most of which is done by Moss himself. Moss was runner up in the World Championship four times and Knighted in 1999 for his services to motorsport. He discusses his interest in cars from a young age and working his way through the ranks to become one of the top steerers in the world. Moss critiques his driving rivals in the DVD and compares Formula One from his days to now. “It’s a totally diﬀerent sport,” he says in the DVD. “I can remember the time when brakes 32

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were so bad that if you put the brakes on really hard you had to wait until they cooled oﬀ. Then we had things like fading dampers…” Moss also talks about the gentlemen’s approach most drivers took back in his day and discusses the great respect he had for Fangio. The Racing Through Time DVDs were produced after Fangio’s death, so the Juan Manuel Fangio DVD features expert commentary from Moss and Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi. Fangio’s DVD details his start in the industry as a mechanic who prepared his own car at night for racing in Argentina. The DVD paints Fangio as a man with a “spirit of fairness beyond reproach” and covers his racing career right up until his retirement after the 1958 French Grand Prix. This includes his fabulous win in his second last race, the 1957 German Grand Prix at Nurburgring. The Graham Hill DVD features the wins he had to become the only driver ever to win the three races that make up the Triple Crown of Motorsport – winning the World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 and the Le Man 24 Hour Race. He won the Indianapolis 500 in 1966 and the Le Man 24 Hour Race in 1972,

three years before he died in a place crash. Others consider the Monaco Grand Prix to be part of the Triple Crown, but Hill also became something of a master of Monaco, winning the race in 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 and 1969. Hill’s wife Bette talks about his career in the DVD, which also features footage of Hill giving his speech at the 1972 British Racing Drivers’ Club Presentation. All three DVDs feature plenty of great racing footage in both black and white and colour and Racing Through Time is not shy in covering the more gory details of the drivers’ histories. In the Stirling Moss DVD, Moss is interviewed about his career-ending accident at the Easter Goodwood meeting in 1962 which left him in hospital for two months. Fangio’s crash on lap two of the 1952 Italian Grand Prix at Monza is covered in his DVD and the Graham Hill DVD details Hill’s fight to learn to walk again after he broke both legs in the 1969 American Grand Prix. Motorsport Legends has a special offer on the three Racing Through Time DVDs for readers. The DVDs can be bought as a set for the Motorsport Legends special price of $95 or individually for $35 each. Whether you splash out on all three or opt to buy one or two, these DVDs make great Father’s Day and Christmas presents for a loved one. Or buy them for yourself as a special treat and relive the racing careers of the three illustrious drivers. Each DVD runs for about 55 minutes and is rated E – exempt from Classification.

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DVD

REVIEW

STORY BRIAR GUNTHER

Love The Beast

omegrown Hollywood actor Eric Bana has finally become known as much for his other passion – cars – through his documentary Love the Beast. There is one car in particular, the XB GT coupe, which he falls in love with and it subsequently becomes a lifelong affair. He says that watching Allan Moffat and Colin Bond’s 1-2 form finish at the 1977 Bathurst was better than watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon “and from that moment on, I just simply fell in love with that car”. The start of Love the Beast features a fair few home videos as Bana talks about growing up in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. His affair with this one particular XB started at the age of 15 after he convinced his father Ivan to buy it. Thus begins the story of Bana and Beast, which he drove to third place in his category at his first attempt of the Targa Tasmania in 1996. He admits that at the time, he and his mates did not realise what a difficult thing that was to accomplish. Almost 10 years later, Bana decides to fully restore his Beast to have another crack at Targa. The endeavour ends up in tragedy when he hits a tree and the devastation is blatantly pasted on his face. Bana’s attachment to this car is so much that he says he would prefer a broken bone than the mess his XB ends up in, something which any motorsport enthusiast could relate to. What blows you away with Love the Beast is the passion and affection that both family and friends have for this muscle car. Featuring a great soundtrack, car enthusiasts will definitely relate to this documentary which takes the viewer on a rollercoaster of emotions. Rather than it being ‘just another car story’, Love the Beast is somewhat philosophic. Bana notes that doing up his beloved car kept him and his mates in the garage and more importantly, out of trouble. And while he doesn’t say it, the implication is that today’s youth might be better off if they had the passion for cars that his generation did. The wife might groan at the thought of yet another car doco, but this is definitely one you can watch together.

With the help of Dr Phil and others, the ﬁlm helps explain to the ‘non-car’ people the connection that car enthusiasts do have with their own beasts. As Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson tells Bana: “You can develop a relationship with a car and that’s what non-car people don’t get”. And for the women that are devoted to their cars, chances are you will be in tears by the end. Love the Beast is a must for any motorsport enthusiast who thinks of their car as a person rather than a machine. Love The Beast is available from all leading DVD retailers MotorSportLegends

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER PHOTOGRAPHS BY WWW.AUTOPICS.COM.AU, JOHN DOIG/TORQUE PHOTOS

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CRUEL MOUNTAIN With five wins and six DNFs from 22 starts, Mark Skaife has seen it all at Bathurst. And while his five wins get plenty of attention, Skaifey tells Motorsport Legends that there’s much more to his Mount Panorama story than what meets the eye.

❯ ❯ MotorSportLegends

SKAIFE AND THE MOUNTAIN

Clockwise from above: After Nissan left the ATCC, Skaife has always been the man in red. Racing in the New South Wales Laser Series in the mid ’80s. Nissan know-how: Skaife in a Nissan Gazelle at Bathurst, 1987. Mark’s father, Russell, and Brian Potts finished the 1976 Bathurst in 13th outright in a Ford Capri. Secret squirrel business with Skaife, Tony Longhurst and Jim Richards. Opposite: Skaife teamed up with Jim Richards to win Bathurst in 2002.

ny motorsport fan would successfully argue that Mark Skaife has tamed Mount Panorama given that he has an impressive five wins to his name. But when you speak to the man himself, he tells a different story. “The number of wins for starts is fantastic but all the ones that got away, probably for me, is the real story at Bathurst,” he said. “There’s so many over the years that we should have won or were so close (to winning).” While he has experienced a lot of highs at Bathurst, Skaife has had his share of lows. In fact, so many that he summarizes each one into a succinct, if not always grammatically correct, sentence. Skaife starts with 1993 when he and Jim Richards were runner-up to Larry Perkins and Gregg Hansford. “’93 was the closest race finish at Bathurst ever (up to that date and excluding the Moffat team’s form finish in 1977) 38

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and late in the race a guy pulled in front of Jimmy at Hell Corner and he had to go up the escape road and we lost by 10 seconds to Perkins,” he explains. “’94, the car was fantastic and I crashed it in the rain so that’s the one that didn’t get away, but 1995 we led by miles, almost lapping Perkins to win and it broke a tail shaft. It was the fastest car by miles.” Skaife then segues into later years driving with Peter Brock and Craig Lowndes. “’97, Brock and I on pole position, car was fantastic, Lowndes just crashed out and we were just cruising, engine failure. “’98, Lowndes and I leading by miles, and blew a tyre with a 40 second lead.” Skaife looks at the funny side of the 2000 race, when he ﬁnished sixth with Lowndes for the Holden Racing Team after getting tangled up with Neil Crompton and Matt Neal. “The car was just extraordinarily good and ended up,” he

“That to me is what any story of Bathurst develops into. There’s great wins and great memories, but there’s some really cruel finishes.”

interrupts with a chuckle, “ended up getting caught up with Matt Neal and Crompo running into each other with all that lunacy with a lapped car. “You just go through that really quickly (all of the incidents which put him out of contention) and you say ‘man, there’s so many of those’.” Skaife then interrupts his train of thought with another incident that springs to mind – the 2003 race when stewards ordered his VY Commodore into the pits to fix a rear door which kept flapping open while he was running second – before continuing on. “It’s just so many of those years where you think ‘uh’, not that I’m saying on each of those occasions you would have absolutely won, but you’ve just been in contention so many times to have five or six other wins there and it just hasn’t materialised. “And that’s the sort of cruelty of Bathurst; that to me is what any story of Bathurst develops into. “There’s great wins and great memories, but there’s some

really cruel ﬁnishes.” The most cruel of all for Skaife is the 2006 race. It was the ﬁfth and last time he would put a car on pole position for the Great Race – Brock is the only driver to have more poles at Bathurst with six – in a lap Skaife describes as one of the best he has ever cut at Mount Panorama. Skaife and co-driver Garth Tander looked set to make 2006 another Holden year at Bathurst, but the Holden Racing Team Commodore didn’t even make the second corner. After a bad start, Skaife was shunted from behind on his way up the mountain and the race was over for him and Tander. “When I drove it round the track that morning I genuinely thought ‘we are going to win this today’ and after winning it in ‘05, you’re saying ‘well, we’re a big chance’,” he recounts. “That was probably the most disappointing. To be out of Australia’s biggest race after putting it on pole within 500 metres of the start; it was one of the worst days I’ve ever, ❯ MotorSportLegends

“Brock winning Bathurst in 1979 by six laps and breaking the lap record on the last lap is just unheard of. There’s no way in the world that will ever happen again.”

ever had.” Besides the bad times, Skaife has enjoyed plenty of success at Bathurst, which is cemented by his five wins. He and Richards had back-to-back wins in 1991 and 1992 in a Nissan GT-R and he had his first win in a Holden there in 2001 with Tony Longhurst. The next year Skaife and Richards successfully teamed up again, winning in a VX Commodore and his last win was in 2005 with Todd Kelly. It is these latter wins, which the man affectionately known as Skaifey remembers with the most fondness. “I’ve got so many, so many fantastic memories of Bathurst,” he explains. “Probably the two stand outs for me is winning with Jimmy in 2002, 10 years after we won before, and the other one is winning with Todd Kelly on his 26th birthday.” Skaife goes deeper into thought as he explains the effort it took to clinch his fifth Bathurst win. “That was a day where I had to… we drove at such a high 40

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Clockwise from above left: Mark Skaife at his last Bathurst as a full-time driver. Skaifey always got serious as soon as he donned his helmet. The combination of Skaife and Richards proved a formidable force at The Mountain. Jim Richards and Skaifey back in the Nissan days. Skaife rates his win with Todd Kelly in 2005 as one of his most memorable Bathurst moments. A number of drivers teamed up with Skaife for Bathurst, including Craig Lowndes. Sharing a laugh with a pride of Holden drivers.

level which was basically breaking the lap record lap after lap after lap after lap,” he said. “And on those days you get to win the race with that level of intensity and what you had to do to achieve victory that day, it was ultimately as good as it can be in motor racing. “The rewards for that level of eﬀort and that level of competitiveness on that day are extreme because you win the sport’s biggest race and I don’t remember another stint in a car where I’ve ever driven on a level that high.” Despite being able to pull oﬀ so many wins, Skaife said he never counted his chickens or had the luxury to relax because the competition was just too close. “In those two races that I mentioned, 2003 and 2005, we sprinted to win the races,” he said. “It’s not like you can go round with your arm on the window. I mean, Brock winning Bathurst in 1979 by six laps and breaking the lap record on the last lap is just unheard of. There’s no way in the world that will ever happen again.”

SKAIFE AND THE MOUNTAIN

Skaife said the Great Race is now as extreme as ever as it evolves more and more into a six-hour sprint race. “You might have had to conserve fuel at some point so you make your last fuel stop as short as it can be, you clearly have to have good brake pedal quality and you have to be fit enough and the car needs to be looked after enough to be able to sprint to the end,” he explained. “So the reality of these sorts of races now is they’re much more intense to the finish and what goes through your mind is that it’s incredibly important, it’s of the highest stakes in the country, it’s our Grand Final and you can’t afford to make a mistake and you desperately want to win so it’s very gratifying (to win). There’s nothing as rewarding as that.” Unless the crowd is booing you when you are standing on the top step of the podium after an extremely hard day, a la Skaife’s 1992 win with Richards. He described that day as “highly emotive”, in part due to the tragic death of Richards’ friend Denny Hulme during the race and the controversy surrounding the win.

Skaife accepts that Richards’ podium comment to the crowd has become a historic moment in motorsport but describes the scene as “a bit weird”. “I’m glad he said it and I didn’t because with what I was thinking, I was probably going to be a bit more vulgar,” he confessed. “Why we were disappointed was because on one of the most dangerous days you could ever imagine at Bathurst, you just want the accolade of doing a good job and just the genuine kudos,” he said. “The risks that we took which people don’t understand… 300 kilometres an hour in the rain, you couldn’t see two car lengths in front of you let alone down the main straight.” Regardless of the bad memories at Bathurst, Skaife will always remember the happier ones better. “I’ll certainly remember the happier ones more, but all I’m saying is there’s so many of those cruel moments up there where you reckon you’ve got Australia’s biggest race shot to bits and it doesn’t work out,” he said. ML “It’s just one of those things.” MotorSportLegends

STORY BY BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL REID

HEALEY HISTORY RELIVED Healey enthusiast, Steve Pike, aims to take two cars to Bonneville in September this year to relive record attempts of 1954. This is his story…

t seems Donald Healey was a great believer in the saying, “It pays to advertise”. In addition to circuit and rallying successes, motor racing annals recognise the extent of Healey’s involvement in speed and endurance record attempts, all of which helped establish the reputation of the Donald Healey Motor Company. Healey’s name became associated with Austin of England, and in 1953 a special 100S was built to attack Class D (20013000cc) international speed records at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA. Healey himself was the ﬁrst to make an attempt, and on September 9, 1953 he clocked 142.55mph (more than 230km/h) for the kilometre and slightly faster for the mile. Then, on September14, Healey, George Eyston, Bill Spear and John Gordon Bennett attempted a range of records up to 24 hours over a 10-mile circular course on the salt ﬂats. A conrod 42

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failure after 17 hours brought the attempt to a premature stop, but not before seven records were established. Amongst these was a 12-hour record at more than 200km/h. After some modifications and mechanical improvements the 100S (SPL 227B) returned to Utah the following year and set 21 standing and flying records from five kms to 24 hours including a flying 10km run at more than 294km/h. The 100S Healey averaged more than 211km/h in achieving the 24-hour record. Around the same time, Donald Healey produced another record breaker code named SPL261 BN with a special streamlined body designed by Gerry Coker. A standard BN1 chassis and running gear formed the basis of the car but engine and bodywork were extensively changed with the aim of toppling the 200mph (320km/h) barrier. Wind tunnel tests showed that

at sea level, 240bhp would be required to achieve this speed. With a Shorrock supercharger ﬁtted and running on a mixture of methanol, Benzole and a touch of castor oil, the Healey’s engine produced a reliable 224bhp at 4500rpm. Calculations from Austin’s Dr John Wevering warned that the streamlined Healey would fall just short of the goal. His predictions proved correct, and on August 22, 1954 Donald Healey sped across the Bonneville Salt Flats ﬂying at 192.74mph (over 308km/h.) Other longer distance records were set the same day. Four days later, and with the Plexiglass cockpit bubble removed to accommodate the tall Texan Carroll Shelby, a new Class D one-hour world record was established around the 10-mile course at 157.92mph (almost 253km/h). There were celebrations, but unfortunately the magic 200mph record just evaded them. That was until now. Victorian Steve

HEALEY HISTORY RELIVED

Above and Middle: Four fulltime workers have been engaged to complete a copy of the 100S Streamliner. Right: The 100S has been brought back to life after it was found corroding from its time at Bonneville back in the 1950s.

Pike is a self confessed Austin Healey tragic with a passion for the marque dating back to the 1960s. Since then he has built up an international reputation as a leading Healey ﬁxer at his modern workshops in Bacchus Marsh. Another Healey enthusiast, Dutchman Wiet Huidekoper, in a worldwide search for 100S parts, stumbled on some of the remains from SPL 227B, the 1953-54 record breaker that had sadly corroded away due to salt damage from Bonneville. Huidekoper, a customer of Steve Pike, decided to join forces with the Australian and recreate the famous endurance Healey utilising the surviving original bits sourced overseas from Arthur Carter. Belgian Healey enthusiast Bruno Verstraete also got to hear of the project

and joined the team to partly finance the exercise. The completed 100S, built in just six months and looking resplendid in its unique green livery, took to the track for the first time at the VHRR Phillip Island Classic meeting in March this year. Their ambitious project has grown to include recreating SPL261 BN, the Gerry Coker streamlined record breaker. Through liaising with Coker, Huidekoper gained access to the personal files of Geoffrey Healey (Donald’s son) and the technical drawings of Allan Casavant in England. Currently four workers are engaged full time building a copy of the 100S Streamliner including Paul Jenkins, an expert coachbuilder from England. Jenkins was happy to sign up for a

working holiday in Australia and help train Pike’s son, David in metalwork. “From start to ﬁnish it took eight weeks to build the body of the Streamliner,” Pike said. The car was ﬁrst displayed to the public at this year’s F1 meeting at Albert Park. Pike aims to take the two cars to Bonneville in September this year to relive the record attempts of 1954. In straight line runs, Bruno Verstraete will attempt 150mph (240km/h) in SPL227B, the endurance car, while Pike will aim for 200mph (320km/h) in SPL261 BN, the Streamliner – a feat that narrowly eluded Donald Healey at the same venue back in 1954. Motorsport Legends will be following their progress with interest. ML

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BIANTE UPDATE

STORY BY BRIAR GUNTHER

VICTORIANS LEAD THE WAY

avin Bullas, driving a 1969 Ford Boss Mustang (pictured above), leads the Biante Touring Car Masters heading into the half way mark of the 2009 season. The Victorian has an almost perfect points haul from the three rounds that have already taken place this year. With clean sweeps at Adelaide in March and at Darwin in June along with ﬁnishing all three races at Winton Motor Raceway in second, the Rain City Racing driver sits on 528 points. He leads former V8 Supercar driver and fellow Victorian John Bowe, who was able to borrow a HQ Monaro for the Darwin round after his WesTrac Cat 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS barely turned three laps in a practice session on the Friday thanks to engine dramas. Bowe is on 420 points and his second place is no mean 44

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feat, given the run of bad luck he has had. While he was the fastest in the first practice session of the season opener in Adelaide and finished the first race there in second, a broken diff forced him out of the second race two laps in. Starting mid-field for the final South Australian race, Bowe fought through the pack to finish third. Drew Marget, who is also from Victoria, is the only other driver to win a race so far this year. He won the third race at Winton in his Marget Engineering 1969 Ford Mustang Trans Am and sits in third place on the standings with 373 points. The 1971 XY GT Falcon, which is piloted by Brad Tilley and featured in the November2008-January 2009 edition of Motorsport Legends has been performing well, with Tilley in fourth place on 347 points. Meanwhile, Steve Makarios is having a bit more luck

John Bowe and the WesTrac Cat Camaro at Adelaide earlier this year.

with his fishing than his motorsport endeavours. In April, he caught a 128 kilogram southern bluefin tuna off Portland and it has been declared the largest ever caught in the state. Unfortunately his 351 Motorsport XY GT HO Falcon caught fire and hit an embankment in the second race at Hidden Valley and it is understood to have been deemed a write-off. Since the start of the 2009 season, the Biante Touring Car Masters has enlisted the services of veteran

commentator Barry Oliver, whose extensive motorsport knowledge and familiar voice has been a welcome addition to the series. The fourth of seven Biante Touring Car Masters rounds for 2009 takes place at Queensland Raceway from August 21-23 as a support category to the V8 Supercars. The Biante Touring Car Masters is proudly supported by Biante Model Cars, Rare Spares, Shannons Insurance, Hoosier Tires, Coopers and the oﬃcial charity is RSPCA Australia. ML

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ORY BY BRIAN REED PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHERYL REID STORY AS TOLD TO DARREN HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS WWW.AUTOPICS.COM.AU

MY FIRST TRIP TO MOUNT PANORAMA

Jim Richards is a Bathurst legend, but in 1974 he was just a Kiwi with dreams. Here he tells of how his first race at Australia’s Great Race eventuated.

n 1974 a good Kiwi friend of mine who is no longer with us, Rod Coppins, decided to buy a Torana L34 from GM here in Australia to race at Bathurst. Rod sent over Mark Sheehan, whose nickname was Jandals because he always worked in jandals (thongs), to prepare the car. Funnily enough, he did most of the preparation at Road & Track Services, which was Fred Gibson’s workshop. I couldn’t even aﬀord to come over here to Australia so Rod paid

for my airfare. We flew into Sydney and the first place we went was Road & Track Services. I didn’t know Fred from a bar of soap and I only got introduced to him fleetingly because we were working on the car in his workshop. One of the things we had to do was convert the car to a new semi-dry sump system that Harry Firth had made for the L34. They had a special tank and a pump that transferred the oil from the sump to the tank and then the oil was injected straight back to the pick up.

We towed the car on an open trailer from Sydney to Bathurst and it wasn’t ready when we arrived. Mark kept working, he was the team’s only worker, but we had an absolute cast of thousands from New Zealand to cheer us on. We stayed at the scout camp (Bathurst Goldﬁelds) on Conrod Straight, just out of Forest Elbow. The accommodation was a bit like an army barracks – there were about 50 ❯ bunks laid out in a long dormitory

The Kiwis of Coppins and Richards showed the locals how it was done at Bathurst in 1974.

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along with a common toilet and common shower. There were lots of people staying there who we didn’t know and they were yahooing and drinking beer. The place put on brekky in the morning; eggs and massive steaks as tough as old boots but the whole thing was just fantastic. We had no expectations about a result. We were just there for fun. The car went ﬁne in practice and we qualiﬁed eighth without any dramas. But I remember when we woke up on race morning it was raining and we had no wet weather tyres. We hadn’t bothered to get any, so we raced down

to the track and tried to ﬁnd some wets. I can’t remember exactly what we got but I know there were two intermediates and two wet weather tyres. That was all we could get so Rod bought those tyres. Early in the race we were running top 10 I suppose and as the race went on (Colin) Bond and (Peter) Brock broke down in their Holden Dealer Team L34s but our car was okay and we kept blazing around. We were lapping a heap faster than anyone and we caught up and passed guys, no problem. Towards the end of the race we had run out of front brakes – the pistons had popped out of the calipers. It was raining While other L34s broke down or were involved in accidents, the Coppins/ Richards one kept powering on.

The start of the 1974 Bathurst.

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so we were stopping the car by changing down gears and just gently, gently slowing the car way before the corners. I started to have a race with the Rod and Russ McRae L34 – whether we were lapping them or it was for position I can’t remember. We would go down the straight noseto-tail and when we came to stop he’d out-brake us and disappear. As we went up the hill and across the top of the mountain, we’d catch him up again. I’d pass him across the top, we’d come down the hill slowly, slowly and he kept right up behind us and passed us down the straight because we were coming into

The XA GT Ford Falcon of John Goss and Kevin Bartlett was the eventual winner of the 1974 Bathurst race.

RICHARDS’ FIRST TRIP TO BATHURST

“McRae’s L34 rolled just in front of me and hit a tree. I didn’t think anything of it. It was just another car out of the way. He simply disappeared and we kept plugging on.”

Rod Coppins bought both the Torana and Richards’ airfare to Australia for the Great Race.

the Elbow so slowly. This happened for many laps. On lap 146 he passed us down Conrod Straight, pulled to the inside where you drive and hit a puddle. The car went off to the left, spun, went up on the bank and then started to roll. It barrelrolled across the track just in front of me and hit a tree right on the floor pan underneath the car. It was an old dead tree but it was about 1m around. The car was bent worse than a boomerang. The tree went through the floorpan and it pushed up behind the rear seat up to the top of the back window. It nearly cut the car in half. Rod had been sitting where the car was bent but he only received a cut ear. I didn’t think anything of it. It was just another car out of the way. He simply disappeared and we kept plugging on and ended up coming third. You didn’t worry about those things. It was the same with the track. The track is fantastic but being young, I didn’t think ‘this track is awesome’. All I thought

was, ‘when can I get out in the car again, have a practice and then race it’. I appreciate Mount Panorama more now than I did then because it is an iconic event and it’s a track you go to once a year. But in those days we were rapt to come from New Zealand to race in Australia with all of our friends around us and away we went. Bathurst was a big thing in New Zealand. Although we didn’t have all of the Australian magazines, we had our own called Auto News run by a guy named Allan Beck, who is a journo still in New Zealand. At that time he was just a young guy who went to the races and printed a little newspaper-like booklet that folded out and he would report on Bathurst and say what some of the Australians were doing. But we never read about Wheels magazine or Auto Action; we got none of those so we really didn’t know what was going on. We did know who Peter Brock and Allan Moﬀat were because I had raced against them in New Zealand

in Sports Sedans. Bathurst was just a thing where we thought it would be brilliant to have a go at but never thought we would get there, so when the opportunity came it was fantastic. When we got there we just got into it and blasted around and did the best we could. Finishing third was beyond our wildest dreams because we were just over here for a bit of fun, thinking, ‘hey, it will be a good experience’. We drank as much beer and ate as much food as we could. Our result was very special but we didn’t get on the podium. In those days the winners were taken around the track on the back of a truck. Despite our success, I had no thoughts of coming back to Bathurst. I had no money; I couldn’t even afford to get there in the first place. I didn’t even think about it. But the next year we came back again, ran the same car and we qualified and finished eighth. That car we raced is still in New Zealand and ML a guy has restored it. MotorSportLegends

WEBB OF

Intrigue Mick Webb built many racing cars in his day, but none were quite as famous (or should that be infamous) as Allan Moffat’s Mazda RX-7 touring car.

t’s 25 years since the end of the Group C era and the competition career of the mighty little Mazda RX-7. I got involved in the RX-7 factory campaign when Allan Moffat called me in 1980 and told me he was working on a package with Mazda, who were trying to homologate the RX-7. The factory deal was amazing – they were going to keep shovelling engines and gearboxes at us. We probably had enough componentry to run 10 cars and Moffat just kept feeding-in new parts every five minutes. We initially received 12 to 15 engines, which arrived in crates and an assortment of gearboxes with different ratios. I learned as much as I possibly could about the engines and they sent a Japanese guy out from the US to give me a crash course in freshening-up rotaries. I then went to the USA for the Daytona 24-Hour with Moffat, who was driving with one of the factory teams out of California. We learned more and more about how the cars went, what revs to use safely and things like that. All along the Japanese were telling us to use 8600 revs in a 12A engine and 9200rpm when the 13B came along. Well, we ended-up revving the Australian cars to 10-and-a-half, 11,000 all the time and that is what gave our cars a little bit of an advantage over the RX-7s that were

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The only way we got it up the Mountain one year was to commission Peter Hollinger to build us a six-speed gearbox, which we ran in place of the homologated five-speed. No one ever thought to look at the diff ratio, which would have given the game away – it was 5.4:1. behind us. While we had a lot of success, the RX-7 was really an endurance race car that was better suited to 12-Hour type events but we tried to convert it into a sprint car. While the car was very successful, we couldn’t triumph in the one event that everyone wanted to win – the Bathurst 1000. Lack of torque was our biggest problem. The only way we got it up the

Mountain one year was to commission Peter Hollinger to build us a six-speed gearbox, which we ran in place of the homologated five-speed. No one ever thought to look at the diff ratio, which would have given the game away – it was 5.4:1. Normally, with that diff the engine should have been on the maximum revs by Forest Elbow but we ran fifth and sixth gears as overdrives so it accelerated like hell up the Mountain and it still had overdrive fifth and sixth gears to come down the Mountain. Japanese touring car champion Yoshimi Katayama drove with Moffat at Bathurst in 1983 and I had to show him the new shift pattern. The interpreter was saying to me, “Mick San, you realise you are telling the works factory driver where the gears should go” and when I went indicated the shift from fifth to sixth he said, “Oh my God!” We had to disassemble the gearbox that night to show their competition manager before Katayama would drive it. That was our secret weapon in 1993 but it still wasn’t quick enough against the V8s. We gave them a fright but that was all. Our RX-7s were a lesson in how a car should be built because one thing we didn’t look at was the rulebook. You will read all about it one day in my book, where I will reveal how and why the RX-7 ever won a race. – Mick Webb

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V8X 2005

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