Photos: The Graham Ruckert Collection: Part 1

[prn31]

One of the beautiful Alec Midren Racing Alfa's. We have an Alfa expert on here and I vaguely recall them saying this right hand drive Alfa came after the lhd version the team had.

This car was often driven, with much gusto, by Kevin Bartlett.

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.

[Steve Holmes]

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.

Thanks Paul. So this is the car Foley fitted the V8 to?

[prn31]

Thanks Paul. So this is the car Foley fitted the V8 to?

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