Couple of great shots here of Norm Beechey in his HT Monaro during the 1971 season, when he competed as reigning ATCC champion.
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Couple of great shots here of Norm Beechey in his HT Monaro during the 1971 season, when he competed as reigning ATCC champion.
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Pete Geoghegan charging hard in the Mustang GTA at the Lakeside round of the 1971 Australian Touring Car Championship.
Despite the old Mustang being well into its 5th season of racing, it was still going strong. Although not able to compete for outright pace with the Allan Moffat Mustang and Bob Jane Camaro, Geoghegan was super consistent. Although he didn't win a race in 1971, he also never finished outside the top three, and he scored points at every round.
Come the championship deciding race at Oran Park at the end of the season, he was right in the championship hunt, 2nd on points. Here at Lakeside, for the penultimate round, he finished 2nd to Moffat, and heading into Oran Park, had 32 points, to Jane's 34, and Moffat's 31. What a fighter!
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Yes that's the car Steve Dymand bought of Ron Dickson ended up in OSCA trim
Pete... I think you will find car 22 is John Harris... with both cars entered in "The Lakeside 1500" event for Production Touring Cars, on 29th November, 1970. As for the Valiant Pacer behind, its a bit hard to tell without a number, but could also be either of the Geoghegan brothers, who each had an Austral Motors Pacer, or Alan Whitchurch, driving for P.J. Motors... and based on the sign on the back of the car, I think it is likely to be the latter. :-)
John French, in the Bryan Byrt XA Falcon GT hardtop, one of the half-dozen or so RPO83 cars that ran in Group C in 1973. This car was quite distinctive, for its lime green and purple colour scheme. It was later converted into a Sports Sedan, and was the first car Dick Johnson drove for Bryan Byrt.
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Norm Beecheys awesome Chevy Nova, in its 1968 guise. The Nova was part of the Tridents/Neptune Racing Team, who usually changed their colour scheme each year. This car first appeared in 1966 (at the Australian Touring Car Championship held at Bathurst no less) painted navy blue with this white stripes. For 1967 it was black with red and yellow stripes, before this colour was applied for 1968. The car is now restored to its 1967 guise, which is probably its most memorable.
Someone may wish to correct me here, but I believe this car only ever raced with 4-wheel drum brakes. Beechey had the option to switch to discs on the front later in its career, but stuck with the drums.
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How about this! Dick Johnson, giving it heaps and cocking a wheel in his EH Holden. Brilliant photo!
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Kevin Bartlett, and his awesome Lola T300 at Surfers Paradise in 1972. Standing next to big-rev-Kev appears to be John Harvey. Check out the purple outfit! Damn, the '70s were wild!
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Bob Jane's awesome 7 litre ZL/1 Camaro, powering towards an eventual third place finish at Lakeside, 1971. Jane sat in second position for much of the race, chasing leader Allan Moffat in his Mustang, before wheel bearing failure slowed the Camaro late on, allowing Pete Geoghegan up to second in his Mustang.
Moffat won the battle that day, but ultimately, Jane won the war, emerging as 1971 ATCC champion.
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John French in the famous purple Bryan Byrt Ford GTHO Phase III.
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Another shot of the Bryan Byrt Phase III. This must be either late 1972, or possibly very early 1973, as the car is wearing aftermarket wheels. Note also the nice metallic gold paint added over sections of the purple. I think it really looks sharp.
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Steve
It already had the Gold highlites in 5 slot pre Globe days....
I think it would have been nice if it was restored to this configuration
and be remembered as how it first run in 71 as Barnes /Skelton (pic is Sandown pre Bathurst)
French had a works HO3 in 71 and drove this one in 72
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps7bdca802.jpg
Well thats certainly interesting Ellis. The car raced at Bathurst 1972 with just the purple paint without the gold highlights, and the photo in post #52 above from Lakeside appears to have been taken not long after Bathurst, as the car still wears its Hardie Ferodo sticks. So it would seem the gold highlights appeared earlier in 1972, and later in 1972. Seems unlikely, but do you think they could have been stickers?
This genuine 1750 GTAm has been restored by Vin Sharp in Melbourne, back to the original 1971 Chesterfield spec (as seen here) with the Autodelta 2.0 narrow angle twin cam complete with Spica slide throttle fuel injection. Briam Foley was reunited with the car in Melbourne late last year.
Yes, this is the second of Alec Mildren's GTAs and the first RHD one that Kevin Bartlett took to 4th in the 1967 ATCC at Lakeside. This must be at least 1968 given that there is a Datsun 1600 in the pits.
This GTA later passed to John French who repainted it red with sponsorship from Clive Nolan Motors (John's father-in-law) and then Brian Foley who turned it into a sports sedan in Chesterfield colours. He crashed it badly in 1973 at Oran park breaking a leg and then the GTA headed west where it was originally restored in Chesterfield colours before returning to New South Wales where the current owner carried out an expensive restoration back to its original Alec Mildren Racing white livery as seen here. John French was reunited with the GTA at Lakeside in 2011.
I think you will find that this was actually a Fulvia 1.3 HF. Grahame Ward raced this car in early 1968 with some success before he was involved in an accident with Bo Seton in a Falcon GT at the 1968 Easter Bathurst meeting. Unfortunately the little Fulvia was written off. There was talk of the car being reshelled but this never happened.
Grahame Ward, who still operates a Lancia sevice business in Surfers Paradise, apparently still has the original 1.3 HF engine....
The Skelton / Barnes pic is Sandown in 71 pre Bathurst (#54)
I believe they had a spare car originally entered for Geoghegans in 71 Bathurst (allocated 56E) but didnt race
(Its not in the race program but is on the preliminary entry sheets.)
The spare was originally another colour (Red) but repainted Wild Violet.
The better known car was a delete options Wild Violet car.
No Steve. The other Alfa - the 1750 GTAm in Chesterfield colours that Foley was three wheeling around Lakeside is the car that Brian transplanted the Tasman V8 into. Foley raced both the GTAm V8 and GTA sports sedan in Chesterfield colours at the same time, which is why they are often confused for each other.
After Foley sold the GTAm to the wild west, the Tasman V8 was replaced by a more common V8 (a Rover). The Tasman V8 was eventually reunited with one of the Mildren single seaters (the Brabham BT23D I think). When Vin Sharp bought the GTAm shell, the the original engine was part of the deal but hadn't been in the car since 1972!
Paul
Thanks Paul, great info, keep it coming. I assumed it was the white car which became the V8 Sports Sedan, as both this car and the V8 are rhd, whereas the car he ran in the 1971 ATCC was lhd. Would he have converted it to rhd when the V8 was fitted due to clearance issues?
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Wow, what a beautiful resto. Do you know where Foley got the GTAm from Paul ?
My understanding is that Foley bought it directly from the Autodelta factory in 1971. I suspect that Foley was expecting a GTAm in race ready condition, but I think it was pretty tired when it landed in Australia. I beleive it was supposed to have been a works car, but Autodelta records were pretty much non-existant even back then and I understand the car's European history remains a mystery.
Thanks Ellis.
Yep, that is the rebodied and RHD "ex-Luigi Racing" GTV6 that Colin Bond campaigned in 1986. It is the only Alfa Romeo Australia "works" GTV6 race cars that survives.
I think the other yellow GTV6 on the other side of that photo would be the ex-Greg Carr ARC winning rally car.
Wow, the only survivor? How many GTV6s did Bondy race? I know he ran a two-car team in 1985 with Alan Jones driving the second car. Did either of these cars carry across to 1986?
There were three Alfa Romeo Australia GTV6s and Colin Bond raced all of them…
The first was the in-house built RHD GTV6 that started out in Network Alfa colours that Bond debuted in 1984, when Group A was allowed at Bathurst that year. This car was repainted “Ignis” yellow and used for the 85 ATCC, then raced by Allan Grice and Greg Hansford in white “Toy Shop” Colours before sold to Warwick Rooklyn and raced at Bathurst 86 in blue “Pye” colours with Lucio Cesario. Then it was sold to John Cotter and later Andrew Leithhead (both Alfa Club Presidents). Leithhead turned it into a sports sedan and he wrote it off at Amaroo Park circa 1992.
The LHD “Luigi Racing” was bought in for Alan Jones for the 85 ATCC. When he went to Europe it reverted to Bond who used it at Bathurst with Hansford to finish 8th outright. The car was written off at the Surfers Paradise enduro round later that year.
The remains of the Luigi car were transplanted into a new GTV6 shell sans chassis number and the original “Luigi” CAMS logbook was retained – essentially it assumed that car’s history. This is the car Melbourne Alfa specialist Hugh Harrison has owned for a long time.
As an aside the Ray Gulson “Dulux” Group C/A GTV6 survives in Melbourne in the hands of Scott Farquaharson.
And before anyone asks, Bond’s Group A 75 Turbo was turned into a sports sedan by another local Alfa club member Ian McDonald. It was raced on occasion by John Cotter but was written off by McDonald at Oran Park in the early 1990s.
Paul
Thanks Paul, great info. I'd almost forgotten about the Alfa 75. Bond ran it through 1987, before switching to a Ford RS500.
More from the Precision Driving Team.
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This is Pete Geoghegan getting both inside wheels up off the deck in his Mustang GTA.
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Jim McKeown cocks an inside wheel in the 911 Sports Sedan. Does anyone know where McKeown got this car from? And what happened to it?
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