CLARK & GEOGHEGAN LOTUS 39

[Ray Bell]

My error with the BT7/BT11 question I have explained. I have previously always relied on the AGP book when there was a question and it's wrong...

Funnily enough, the BT16 was in Mike Ryves' hands at one time too.

Yes, that is Bruce Burr with the rag on his head. He had been a sweets salesman in Tasmania until he became a voluntary 'gofer' on the Aussie Miller LSR project, then he disappeared from Tasmania. His rep's car was found at Launceston airport three months later, Bruce was by then firmly ensconced in the employ of the Geoghegans.

With regard to Niel Allen and the BT16...

I'm fairly sure I saw him practise in this car at the May Warwick Farm. But I don't have anything to confirm that, though this might come to hand in the near future. That was the day Niel got pole ahead of Matich, so maybe he had problems with the Brabham, maybe he simply decided to concentrate on trying to beat Frank in the RAC Trophy.

A week later they were at Surfers, it was the ATT meeting. Neither the Elfin or the Brabham were there, but Des did record in the report that 'Allen and Bolten (sic) failed to front'. To me this shows that the car was entered, as was the Elfin.

Three weeks further on, June 11, Catalina Park was on. It rained that meeting, the report reads, "It rained again quite heavily not long before the first of the events for Racing Cars. Leo Geoghegan and Niel Allen were both non-starters..." They would therefore have been there for practice.

Finally, a further fortnight on, the Lakeside round of the Gold Star saw Niel record a lap of 59.1 before withdrawing from the meeting. This was slower than Mel McEwin's time and 3.3 seconds off pole.

The next outing was at the Farm and Fred Gibson was in the car.

[Mark Bisset]

My error with the BT7/BT11 question I have explained. I have previously always relied on the AGP book when there was a question and it's wrong...

Funnily enough, the BT16 was in Mike Ryves' hands at one time too.

Yes, that is Bruce Burr with the rag on his head. He had been a sweets salesman in Tasmania until he became a voluntary 'gofer' on the Aussie Miller LSR project, then he disappeared from Tasmania. His rep's car was found at Launceston airport three months later, Bruce was by then firmly ensconced in the employ of the Geoghegans.

With regard to Niel Allen and the BT16...

I'm fairly sure I saw him practise in this car at the May Warwick Farm. But I don't have anything to confirm that, though this might come to hand in the near future. That was the day Niel got pole ahead of Matich, so maybe he had problems with the Brabham, maybe he simply decided to concentrate on trying to beat Frank in the RAC Trophy.

A week later they were at Surfers, it was the ATT meeting. Neither the Elfin or the Brabham were there, but Des did record in the report that 'Allen and Bolten (sic) failed to front'. To me this shows that the car was entered, as was the Elfin.

Three weeks further on, June 11, Catalina Park was on. It rained that meeting, the report reads, "It rained again quite heavily not long before the first of the events for Racing Cars. Leo Geoghegan and Niel Allen were both non-starters..." They would therefore have been there for practice.

Finally, a further fortnight on, the Lakeside round of the Gold Star saw Niel record a lap of 59.1 before withdrawing from the meeting. This was slower than Mel McEwin's time and 3.3 seconds off pole.

The next outing was at the Farm and Fred Gibson was in the car.

Guys,

Totally different direction! An abuse of the thread I Spose but I dunno how to start one!
Ray, researched an article about David Walker over Xmas, still got to tackle it in terms of writing, his European record is relatively easy to track.

My questions are how he was rated in Oz when he left? against his peers.
In '67, his first F3 year Barry Collerson and Kurt Keller were also racing Euro F3 and did pretty much as well as Walker.
How were they rated in Oz @ the same time?
I Spose what I am asking is who was / were the outstanding potential young stars competing outside ANF1 @ the time?

Mark