Quote Originally Posted by Michael Clark View Post
I interviewed Allan Moffat a couple of times last year and asked him about the proposed Surtees TS11 with a Boss Ford that had been entered for the 1972 Tasman.

To my surprise he mentioned that not only had he never raced an open-wheeler, he's only done a few laps in a Formula Ford as part of a promotional thing - he said "I realised that I didn't have a windscreen and that after a couple of corners I came to a realisation - 'I really like windscreens'"
Michael, I think you have to understand that with Moffat in any interview or written article that fact and fiction get very mixed together and overlap. It is difficult to take things as gospel.

You note he said he had never raced an open car. May I note some facts:

In August 1971 he was in a 10 lap “celebrity” race at Calder for top Australian drivers in Formula Fords. He drove a Wren. Some photos:

http://autopics.com.au/71326-allan-m...r-peter-dabbs/

http://autopics.com.au/71327-allan-m...r-peter-dabbs/

In 1968 before his Trans Am Mustang arrived in 1969 he spent some time working for Bob Jane and driving some of his cars.
In mid 1968 at Warwick Farm he drove Bob’s Elfin 400 Repco V8 Sports Car and smashed it badly into a fence.
In September 1968 at the Sandown Gold Star meeting he drove Bob’s Brabham BT23A Repco V8 open wheeler and crashed it badly.

May I quote directly from his recent autobiography:

“The wheels fell off, literally, in a one-off appearance in the Lombard Trophy Race, a round of the CAMS Australian Gold Star Drivers Championship at Sandown when I was in the Jane Repco Brabham. Apart from another drive in the company’s locally made Elfin 400 sports car at Phillip Island, which I won, I was desk-bound and it was frustrating.

I was sitting at that desk in January 1969when Bob Jane himself walked into the office, threw $500 on the table and said “We haven’t been getting along very well”. And that was the end of my employment.”

One wonders if that last bit was true, and why wait until January.

He doesn’t mention crashing the Elfin at Warwick Farm