The Willmington/Donovan XD Falcon was also looking pretty good early in the day (Bathurst 1980).
The Willmington/Donovan XD Falcon was also looking pretty good early in the day (Bathurst 1980).
Looks about midday Bathurst 1980 (yes I walked my feet off!) and the O'Brien/Morris Falcon rounds up the Price/Jonas Gemini coming on to Pit Straight.
And the Moffat Falcon limps its way back down the mountain with a terminal case of lost smoke - Bathurst 1980.
Back to Amaroo Park with a photo of the Moffat Falcon heading up Bitupave Hill. This shot clearly shows the variation in elevation around the track. As I have said before, Amaroo Park was always a great place to be, with reasonably good access for getting close to the cars. I used to go with two rolls of 36 and just keep trying in the hope of getting "that" picture. Plenty of "nearly got it" images like this one as a result!
Still on the Amaroo Park images, I am reasonably sure that this is Ross Bond in his Bolwell. While the image is not the best quality, I hope you all enjoy it anyway.
This looks like an earlier photo (I was probably using the instamatic, judging by the photo quality) of Bond in the Nagari which would date it to 1977.
In the Amaroo pit area and getting up close to Brian Shead's Cheetah - 1977.
Wow I'm really enjoying these, and its great to see a shot of Garry Willmington's Falcon, which was the first XD Group C car.
Also interesting to see Allan Moffat's ill-fated XD at Bathurst. Note also in this shot the Paul Gulson/Pete Geoghegan Commodore (the black and gold car) which plugged around all day almost unnoticed from its 13th position grid spot to eventually finish 3rd. Geoghegan wasn't doing a lot of racing by this stage, but showed he still had it.
Onto a Formula Ford photo, I think this would be 1978 at Amaroo Park but as I don't have a program handy I will let the forum members advise who the cars and drivers are...
As with many of the races at Amaroo Park, someone always came off second best, but at least this was only an exit into the gravel.
The image quality on this one is not too good but you can at least get the idea...
This is one off the instamatic, Formula Ford - Amaroo Park, 1977 IIRC.
An interesting practice picture of the Jeff Barnes Mustang at Oran Park with a couple of Formula Fords in pursuit. This image of mine has been on the net at another site, but in the context of a run of FF photos I though I would include it. The performance difference overall betweeen the Mustang and the open wheelers around Oran Park appeared minimal although I expect the technique was very different
Another FF photo in a mixed practice session, this one definitely dated 1978 at Oran Park. Over to those with better knowledge than me on the cars and drivers...obviously only the car on the grass is a FF (Bowin?) but I am not going to hazard a guess on the winged car.
Not sure on the F/Ford, however i reckon its John Davis in the Grace Bros Lola T360Originally Posted by GFR
Another FF photo in a mixed practice session, this one definitely dated 1978 at Oran Park. Over to those with better knowledge than me on the cars and drivers...obviously only the car on the grass is a FF (Bowin?) but I am not going to hazard a guess on the winged car.
[QUOTE=GFR;30076]This is one off the instamatic, Formula Ford - Amaroo Park, 1977 IIRC.
John Smith, the 77 Series Champ in the Grace Bros Bowin P4.
Going off memoryOnto a Formula Ford photo, I think this would be 1978 at Amaroo Park but as I don't have a program handy I will let the forum members advise who the cars and drivers are...
#3 Don Bretland Van Dieman, unsure on #33 i was thinking Steigler but that does'nt seem correct, 78 Series Champ John Wright ex Smith Bowin P4, Russell Norden Mawer..
Gerry Wittenden Birrana F71, John Wright Bowin P4 and unsure of the driver in the Palliser..The image quality on this one is not too good but you can at least get the idea...
Continuing with the Amaroo Park Formula Ford theme, I captured an incident on the instamatic on April 19, 1977 - my notes say that a spin by Conway was hit by Barnacle, then McLucas then Bretland leaving a pile of cars on the corner. To my knowledge everyone was uninjured, but I guess it would have needed a bit of work to get the cars on track again. If any forum members have further knowledge of this incident, your comments would be welcome. These photos have never been published previously.
These black and white images were taken on the day that Renault brought a Le Mans car to Amaroo Park and paraded it around on the back of a little truck - I am unsure of the date but it must have been post-June 1977 as they were "celebrating" their Le Mans win.
Unfortunately I didn't keep a record of the Formula Ford driver names but if someone has a program handy I think all could be identified. Hopefully one or two of you may own one of the cars these daysCheck out the pit boards in the third image - classic.
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