This year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed (28 June – 1 July 2012), will mark two key anniversaries, with the peak of sports car racing 40 years ago, and the launch of the exciting Group C era 30 years back.
Forty years ago, the 1972 season was a pivotal year in sports car racing. In America, Can-Am was at its peak, with a fascinating battle for supremacy between McLaren, Porsche, Shadow and Lola, while in Europe a change in regulations prompted an intriguing fight between Ferrari, Matra and Alfa Romeo. Although ostensibly similar in appearance, these cars were very different in design philosophy, highlighting fundamental differences between European and American racing – technical sophistication versus raw power. A special class at the 2012 Festival of Speed will bring these cars together, providing a unique opportunity to witness the most exciting sports racing prototypes of all time in no-holds-barred action.
A decade later, the Group C era began in 1982, and went on to become one of the most competitive in sports car racing history, with an unprecedented number of factory teams. This summer’s Festival of Speed will celebrate 30 years since the launch of Group C, with a dedicated class including cars from Porsche, Jaguar, Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, Aston Martin, Lancia and Peugeot. As well as a stunning sight in the Festival paddock, these cars are sure to be amongst the fastest up the famous Goodwood Hill, with many in the running for fastest time of the weekend.
Full details of the sports car racers and driver line-up due to appear at Goodwood will be revealed over the coming months.
At the Assen Centennial Classic 1998, events were decided on regularity of lap times. Italy’s nine-times world champion Carlo Ubbiali, then aged 68, was a clear winner in his class.
His face was weathered from years of riding in pudding-basin helmets and goggles, but he was still a class act, and such a contrast to today’s small-bore riders.
Ubbiali was never flashy, kept his own council and did not have one major crash in a decade when ‘circuit safety’ was an oxymoron. He was nicknamed “The Fox” for good reason, often luring rivals into a race-long duel and then doing them cold with decisive moves on the last lap.
Born in Bergamo on September 24, 1929, he began competing in 1947 and won a gold medal in the 1949 International Six-Day Trial.
Ubbiali won 39 classics between 1950 and 1960, first with Mondial but the majority with MV-Agusta. He was double world 125/250 champion in 1956, ’59 and ’60 and, we might surmise, adept at MV team politics.
He showed his good judgment again by retiring at the top, just as he turned 31 at the end of 1960. He’d just lost his brother and confidant Maurizio. He could sense Count Agusta was cutting back his race effort and would have seen the growing 125/250 challenges of Honda’s multis and MZ’s two-strokes.
A new champion would soon emerge from the same part of Italy, namely Giacomo Agostini, and he eclipsed Ubbiali as Italy’s most successful racer. Today, Agostini, Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi are the only Italians who’ve won more GPs.
This against the likes of Tarquinio Provini, Cecil Sanford, Luigi Taveri and (in 1954-55) top NSU riders Werner Hass and H-P Muller, and in an era when the there might be as few as six GPs in a season.
Team Australia has easily retained the International Challenge team’s event at Phillip Island, the centrepiece of the 2012 Island Classic historic meeting held this past weekend (January 27-29).
Australia was never headed, with the extraordinary depth of talent in the local team proving to be the trump card in its 312pt victory (1198 to 885) over the Jeremy McWilliams-led UK team. The World 13, an amalgam of riders from France, New Zealand, Australia and America, was well back in third on 596pts.
“It’s a pretty easy caper being the boss of the Australian team, and I congratulate all of them for again producing the goods,” said non-riding captain Rex Wolfenden. “But it’s the international riders who come over here which makes this event, as they are just so passionate about their sport.”
Thanks to the deeds of explosive Suzuki Katana pairing Steve Martin and Shawn Giles, with superb back-up support from the likes of Rob Phillis (Katana), Beau Beaton (Irving Vincent) and Mal Campbell (Honda CB1100R), Team Australia enjoyed a near perfect run through the first three legs before the tide turned against them in the final six lap instalment.
Martin’s race evaporated when he inadvertently stalled on the grid, and just when Giles was in sight of victory the battery failed on his machine.
The breakdowns didn’t put Australia’s team win in danger, but it opened the door for McWilliams to claim individual honours for the second year in succession after winning the last race ahead of Beaton and Phillis.
“This has been an incredible weekend and this is quite surreal to be honest,” said the 47-year-old former 250 GP winner. “Eleven days ago I lost my mum and there was a chance I wasn’t going to come, but I am sure she would have wanted me here.
“Sometimes racing doesn’t go to plan, and I commiserate with Shawn and Steve for stopping in the last race. But the speed of these guys was amazing – the improvement since last year has been amazing.
“I’ve had some up and downs this weekend, and at the start I just wasn’t getting anywhere with a host of carburetion problems.
“But I went into fighter mode in the last couple of races and really put my head down. And I’ve proven that to win you’ve got to finish, first and foremost.”
McWilliams finished 4-3-3-1 across the four legs to complete the challenge on 149pts, just in front of the extremely impressive Beaton (3-4-4-2, 147pts), Phillis (5-6-5-3, 141pts), Martin (2-2-1-18, 137pts) and Campbell (6-7-6-5, 136pts).
McWilliams also received the inaugural Ken Wootton International Perpetual Trophy for his victory, in memory of the late Aussie motorcycle journalist and a key driver of the Island Classic event.
Giles, the three-time Australian Superbike champion, just got home in the first two International Challenge races after fierce scraps with Martin. Another Aussie, Josh Brookes (Suzuki XR69), was also jockeying for top position in race one before a loose exhaust system caused him to highside spectacularly at turn one, with his stricken machine cartwheeling through the infield. Understandably, that was the end of his abbreviated campaign.
In race three, Martin enjoyed clear air all the way after Giles’ bike jumped out of second gear just after the start, before it all went pear-shaped for the duo – clearly the fastest riders on circuit – in the finale.
Martin’s consolation was a new lap record – 1:38.707, set in race three.
Meanwhile, South Australian Levy Day was awarded the Phil Irving Memorial Trophy for the highest individual point-scorer across the weekend, after scoring maximum scorecards across two classes – 500cc Classic and 350cc Classic.
Other winners included Ryan Taylor (1000cc New Era), Scott Webster (Unlimited Forgotten Era), Mick Damon (Unlimited Classic), Glenn Hindle (350cc Classic), Craig Ditchburn (500cc Post-Classic) and Simon Cook (Unlimited Post-Classic).
The Formula 1 season kicks off in earnest this week as the teams unveil their 2012 challengers. However, it’s not all the fun of the fair it has been in the past
In the 1960s there was no glitz to the launch of a Formula 1 car. The team would turn up at a track to test, roll it off the transporter, push it into the pitlane – and fire it up.
By the ’70s, the ‘launch’ had been upgraded to a sheet over a car in a pitlane with a handful of invited media. The level of one-upmanship between teams grew into the 1990s, as the competition – and finance – in Grand Prix racing escalated.
In 1997, Marlboro had moved on, but McLaren still had a new car to launch. In a double nod to the past, a handful of media were invited to see the McLaren-Mercedes MP4/12 – painted in the orange that will always be associated with Bruce McLaren. That was the technical side accounted for, and the specialist media. It was low-key and informal. There was, however, a much bigger fish to fry.
A few may disagree, but if there was a World Championship for ‘Launch of the Decade” it would go to West McLaren Mercedes in 1997 for the team’s “Night of Stars and Cars”.
The sheet over the car prior to the launch was about the only throwback to 1970s car launches. Let’s face it though, McLaren had to do something special. The rocket red Marlboro McLaren livery had been iconic for well over 30 years, and had won multiple World Championships. That’s not an image that could be erased by lifting the sheet from a car to reveal its brand new sponsor’s livery, and McLaren-Mercedes’ new colours.
So, no stone was left unturned. “Extravaganza” is too small a word to describe it.
They hired Alexandra Palace in London, and the world famous Spice Girls to perform, had MTV broadcast it live across Europe’s networks, invited 4500 VIPs, celebrities, guests, sponsors, journalists, and fans for a night that wouldn’t have been out of place in Las Vegas.
There was dry ice, Cirque du Soleil standard choreography, roller-skating dancers, flashing lights… Oh and the brand new colours of the silver West McLaren Mercedes.
It worked. Within moments, McLaren’s long-term involvement with Marlboro was gone. It was history. Out with the old, in with the new. Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard unveiled the new ‘silver arrow’. Sporty, Ginger, Posh, Baby and Scary Spice soon joined in for live TV interviews. “Sexy isn’t it?” said Sporty, while the rest debated over whether it was the car or Coulthard in his overalls that was the most sexy.
Then the Spice Girls sang live to continue a memorable launch. The party went on until the early hours.
In today’s economic climate we will likely never see such extravagance again. But boy it did the job. Within hours, the West McLaren Mercedes dynamic colours seemed as familiar as any other livery in F1 for decades.
Final words to Ron Dennis on that night: “The evening wasn’t about a glitzy show, or just showing off the surface of the car. It was more than that.”
1984 was a year of ups and downs for a young Stefan Bellof. He took six victories and won the Drivers’ Championship for the 1984 World Supercar Championship season in his Rothmans Porsche 956.
It was also his first year in Formula One, driving alongside Martin Brundle for Tyrrell. Despite running an increasingly-antiquated naturally aspirated three-litre Cosworth, Bellof produced his best result – a third – from a remarkable performance dancing in the rain around Monaco. However; ups and downs – Tyrrell and their cars were disqualified from the entire ’84 season and stripped of their points for a rule infraction.
Change was everywhere in ’85. It marked Niki Lauda’s final season in Formula One, the first victories for Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell and the final push towards 1.5-litre turbocharged engines. It was time for Big Power, and by the end of the season all teams had changed from naturally-aspirated to turbo motors.
Bellof was back for the second race of the season running this naturally-aspirated Tyrrell 012. He put in some amazing performances in the first half of the season, demonstrating his raw talent by taking on the more powerful turbo cars and bringing home 4th and 6th place finishes in Detroit and Britain respectively.
The Tyrrell team switched to a turbo Renault motor after the British Grand Prix, but Bellof sadly never got to demonstrate his true potential in Formula One, as he passed away in an accident during the 1000 Kilometers of Spa.
This car is hugely significant and has been given a no-compromise cosmetic and mechanical restoration by Canepa Design. Hit this link and head to Canepa’s website for the full details.
Estimating a 250F’s current market value is difficult, but buying one now would almost certainly require a number of millions.
The Tipo 250, on the other hand, is a little more attainable. A beautifully hand-crafted bespoke replica of the original 250F, the Tipo 250 is useable, reliable and even road-registerable (depending on where you’re located).
It gets its grunt from a BMW M20 2.5 litre straight six running three Weber carburettors and sitting in a steel tubular space frame surrounded by lovely aluminium alloy bodywork. Each car is hand built to order, so if the standard specs aren’t to your liking you’re free to collaborate with the team to build the car that suits you.
One of the greatest motorsport videos of all time, this classic short film shows 1981 World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen completely attacking The Pikes Peak International Hillclimb on his way to a record breaking run in 1988.
The brief is simple. Commission leading photographers to capture the world’s most beautiful women on film for the exclusive calendar, which is only available as a gift for royalty, celebrities and VIP customers.
“For Martin Donnelly to have survived that accident was an act of God,” said Warwick. “That accident could happen another five million times, and in every one of them he would be dead. To be honest, he should not have survived. The only reason I drove today was that I was happy he was okay.”
The Dakar rally is probably the most gruelling and dangerous motor race in the world. Motorcycles, cars, quad bikes and trucks compete, not so much with each other, but with the race itself, to survive each year’s course. Competitors slog through each mile in danger of serious injury and death.
In 1980 a French team of 4 riders, put together by Jean-Francois Piot, decided that this all sounded wonderful and that they would enter the race. On their Vespas.
Greg Moore. It’s a name that stirs emotions and memories, happiness and sadness all in one go. This five-part column will celebrate the life of the Canadian that was cut so short, and try and pass on some of the fun that everyone around him experienced before he sadly lost his life at the tragically young age of 24.
Imagine the ideas and technology that can come about if the dudes tinkering away in garages late at night are racing engineering experts, funded by the seemingly bottomless coffers of French petroleum giants. That is just what Elf decided to do when it began a program of experimental motorcycles that lasted from 1978to 1988, searching for that innovation that would propel their riders, and their brand, to the top of the podium.
Incredible creativity, workmanship and design abound in all of them, from the simple but unmistakable W196 to the ridiculous detail of the Jaguar. Amazing work!
Star of the range is the uber retro light blue jacket, famously worn by Argentinian legend Carlos Reutemann. The jacket sports the Martini Racing logo on the chest with the iconic red white and blue stripes down the sleeves. Its made from 100% Polyester and retails for 149 Euro.
Unique among world rally championship events, Rally Sweden offers the only chance for the world’s top drivers to show off their extraordinary talents entirely on snow and ice. Threading powerful rally cars along frozen forest tracks that you’d struggle to walk on is the preserve of the very best. In fact, any of the great champions would admit that a Rally Sweden victory is a vital inclusion on their CV.
First run in 1950 – and known as the ‘Rally to the Midnight Sun’ – Sweden’s international event is now part of the fabric of the WRC, appearing as the second round of the series’ inaugural season in 1973. Almost forty years on, it’s still there – and still as much a test of talent and bravery for rallying’s elite.
Super Swedes
With a long history in rallying it’s no surprise that Sweden has produced a bumper crop of top drivers. In fact, Sweden ranks third in the all-time list of winning nations with 10 drivers. Only France (18) and Finland (14) have produced more world-championship event winners. Most famous among the 10 Swedes are world champions and motorsport household names Bjorn Waldegaard and Stig Blomqvist.
Waldegaard won 16 WRC events and was crowned inaugural drivers’ world champion in 1979. His first win came on home soil – or should that be snow? – in 1975 at the wheel of the iconic Lancia Stratos and he was still winning 15 years later.
Blomqvist won that first world-championship-qualifying Swedish Rally in 1973 in the giant-killing, two-stroke Saab 96 and scored 10 more wins en route to the world title in the awesome Audi Quattro in 1984.
The eight other successful Swedes on the WRC scoreboard are Ove Andersson (one win), Ingvar Carlsson (two), Per Eklund (one), Mikael Ericsson (two), Kenneth Eriksson (six), Mats Jonsson (two), Harry Kallstrom (one) and Anders Kullang (one).
Saab
Only one Swedish manufacturer has racked up a victory in the WRC since 1973. Recent stories surrounding Saab and its bankruptcy won’t have resonated well with fans of the quirky Trollhattan manufacturer that took four Swedish Rally wins in the 1970s.
The lightweight, two-stroke 96V4 – an updated, four-pot version of the earlier three-cylinder machine – broke Saab’s WRC victory duck with incomparable local hero Blomqvist ‘at home’ in ’73. The same configuration also gave Eklund his only WRC win, again in Sweden, in ’76.
The replacement for the 96, the 99, continued Saab’s winning streak in ’77, with Blomqvist taking a six-minute victory – his fourth in his home rally. The original Stig made it five two years later with the turbocharged 99. His win marked the first for a forced-induction engine in WRC history.
Imagine interviewing a machine gun. That’s what it is like talking with John Force. The 15-time NHRA Funny Car Champion is the sport’s most popular driver
Californian John Force is extremely well known in the United States, but hardly at all outside the country’s borders. Why is he so well known at home? It’s because as well as being one of the most dominant drag racers of all-time, with over 1000 wins, he is an instant quote machine that talks as fast as his 300+mph quarter-mile runs.
He is the life and soul, a non-stop- livewire, and in another world could easily be a stand-up comedian. I twice had the pleasure of spending a day with him at his factory in Yorba Linda for RACER www.racer.com, and each time ended up with so much material we could have filled the entire magazine – and more. Here is a brief selection of many anecdotes.
His drag racing career actually started in Australia in 1974, and straight away came the first story. “I didn’t have a licence, I’d never been in a professional drag race, and we were bad. I didn’t have a clue, but it meant the organisers could introduce me as ‘American John Force’. I was on fire every week for three months it seemed. I’ve seen more burns units that State Parks.
“The only thing that saved me racing there was that I set a new national record on the opening day,” he said. “The promoter came to me and said ‘since that opening day, you’ve been terrible, you’ve burnt all your engines.’ So I told him he’d better send me home then. His reply was: ‘Well, you can swim back, because you suck.’
“We were milking the media there though, and the Sydney papers were running headlines about me. We were wearing big ol’ cowboy hats and boots in the pictures – I’d never worn a cowboy hat in my life! They all thought we were John Wayne… That’s when I realised the power of the media. I could give my own line of BS, and these people would love me.”
Force quickly became a sponsor’s dream when he returned to the States (“This guy can’t hit his own ass, but boy can he talk”).
As we set up for the RACER cover photo shoot, Force launched into a load of one-liners as chit chat. “I saw Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder… I never had a physique like that, even in my best days. Look at the guys in Formula 1 and IndyCars. These guys look like movie stars and can drive like hell. Which backyard farm do they grow them in?”
Or on the exhilaration of blasting away from the lights, and acceleration to 300mph and more in no time at all: “It’s about 4gs when you leave the line. They compare it with the Space Shuttle. But I’ve never been in the Space Shuttle.”
As we got closer to the shoot, he came out with this: “You guys at RACER have a great way of portraying race car drivers, and I want to be seen as I am – an overweight, blue-collared guy who gets the job done.”
To give an idea of his popularity, in 2001 he had an open day for his fans at his race factory, which is in the middle of a shopping complex. An estimated 23,000 people turned up, and ruined the trade for all the shops around it. So much so the local council refused to let him repeat it the following year. One of his sponsors was there: “Burger King brought 15,000 buns with them,” he laughed, “and they were all gone in four hours.”
Which leads to one of my favourite stories. “Burger King has been a long-time partner of ours, and you can tell I like them by looking at me. One day we had the big execs coming for a meeting, and the team thought it would be good for me personally to collect them at the airport. So I jumped in the car, and went and picked them up – forgetting that the back of my car was littered with empty KFC cartons! I told them I was just checking up on their rivals…”
As you can tell, he and his family were tailor-made for a TV series like the Osbournes, and sure enough it came. Driving Force was a thoroughly entertaining warts and all reality show about Mr Non-Stop, his wife and three girls.
There are so many more stories to tell –this really is scratching the surface – and we will revisit John Force for part two later in the month as part of a special series based on the photos RACER magazine did. There are some of the out-take Polaroids by photographer Robert Kerian here to give you a tease, so keep an eye out for the real thing!
Owning, working on, running and racing a classic car is something special. It’s a unique experience, and usually a deep and quite meaningful relationship that grows and changes along with life. There is a connection between car and driver that you can find in a classic and which often extends beyond driver and car into a unique and rewarding community.
This short film looks at two generations of men; a father and a son, and their experiences buying, owning and working on classic MGs. It’s beautifully shot and edited, and an uplifting and interesting watch.
Ahead of the first Formula One pre-season tests to be held at Jerez in Spain this coming Tuesday, let’s take a look back at some of the magic that has occurred on the circuit over the years.
1986 was the first time that Formula One had contested the Spanish Grand Prix since Gilles Villeneuve won the extremely closely-competed 1981 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama. Ayrton Senna started the race on pole position, followed by the Williams-Hondas of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. Senna and Mansell wasted no time in christening the brand new Circuito Permanente de Jerez, engaging in furious motorsport and producing one of the closest finishes that the sport has seen.
Enjoy the race coverage from the day, with commentary from the great Murray Walker and Formula One World Champion, James Hunt.
Throw anything that life could at him, but Clay Regazzoni still raced whatever he could get his hands on. Even after he was paralysed.
Clay Regazzoni is one of those drivers that seemingly would have fitted in any racing decade from the 1950s onwards.
You can picture the suave-acting, stereotype racer, as he battled with Mike Hawthorn or Sir Stirling Moss, or Jim Clark – and especially Graham Hill – just as well as he fitted in with his personal era in Formula 1 in the 1970s. They were gentlemen all.
In true swash-buckling style of racers in the 1960s and 70s, Clay tried his hand at all sorts. Name any classic event, and he had a go! In 1970, his first year in F1 (making his debut in a Ferrari, something which only a handful of drivers have done), he also shared a Ferrari F12S at Le Mans for the 24 Hours with Arturo Mezario. The car barely made darkness, but he remained racing sportscars for Ferrari, taking second place at Brands Hatch in 1000kms with Jacky Ickx. The pair also won at Monza’s 1000km too – a circuit that, with racing banned in Switzerland, became Reggazoni’s spiritual home.
It’s F1 that most people associate him with though, a career that started in 1970 with a win in his debut season at (where else?) Monza, and sadly ended in 1980 with a very nasty crash at Long Beach that left him paralysed from the waist down.
In between the bookends, he drove for Ferrari, twice, BRM, Ensign, twice, Shadow and Williams. A line graph of his career looks more like a map of a Tour de France mountain stage, as erratic as it was with peaks and troughs throughout his 10 years.
The 1974 championship was the one where Clay came closest to winning the world title. A season-long battle between him, his Ferrari teammate Niki Lauda, McLaren’s Emerson Fittipaldi, and Tyrrell’s Jody Scheckter went to North America for the final two races all four of them with a good chance of winning the title. The Canadian GP at Mosport put paid to Lauda’s chances when he spun out, leaving Reggazoni and Fittipaldi tied on points in the lead, and Scheckter in the running, but needing a huge dose of luck at the final round at Watkins Glen in the American Grand Prix.
The South African qualified sixth, Fittipaldi eighth, and Regazzoni ninth after all three suffered problems. In the end the race was a damp squip. Regazzoni had suspension problems that sent him slipping away to what would be an eventual 11th place, Scheckter retired eight laps from the finish with a fuel pump/pipe problem. The title was Fittipaldi’s.
After that season, ‘Regga’ won once in 1975 – at Monza again to delight the tifosi, but by then Ferrari was Niki Lauda’s team. His final Ferrari win came at Long Beach in 1976.
For 1977 he joined Ensign, and in 1978 moved to Shadow. His best championship position in that time was 16th, far from the heady Ferrari days.
Clay moved again in 1979 as Williams expanded to two-cars. The team had yet to win a race, so it looked as though his F1 downward career spiral may continue, and let’s face it Clay was 39 years old by then.
It couldn’t have been further from the truth. Frank Williams had funding, Patrick Head designed a simple and competitive car in the FW07. Against all the odds, it was not Alan Jones that won the team’s first Grand Prix, it was Clay, at Silverstone in the British Grand Prix – a fact even he found hard to believe.
“I haven’t deserved anything,” he said after the race. “It’s the car you have to congratulate, the designer Patrick Head who drew it, and Frank Williams who runs it… it’s the car, not me.”
Humble as the Swiss driver may have been, after his career with Ferrari, there was one moment during the racing at Silverstone that brought a smile to his face. The world championship leader, and one of Clay’s title rivals Jody Scheckter in 1974, was on his way to the 1979 world championship. “I was surprised to see a Ferrari in front of me as I led, but when I lapped him coming out of Copse, I thought of the Commendatore [Enzo Ferrari] down in Maranello, watching on TV…”
The British GP win was Williams’ first, and Clay’s final. But he wasn’t about to stop yet.
For 1980, he returned to Ensign. Hopes weren’t high, but Clay was racing and that’s all that mattered. By round four progress was being made, but perhaps in one of the ultimate ironies, he started that race on the final row of the grid. In last place was the guy he fought for the 1974 title – Emerson Fittipaldi. Who would ever have thought that these two would be the last two qualifiers?
Regazzoni’s pace was quick, and within 16 laps, he was up to ninth place. By lap 50 he was an amazing fourth, with Emerson in his wheel tracks in fifth. That’s when it all went wrong. At around 175mph at the end of Shoreline drive, he suffered brake failure. He tried his best to slow down by aiming at Ricardo Zunino’s abandoned Brabham. It scrubbed off 25mph, but the final impact with the wall was still huge. Emerson, was shocked – as was anyone who saw it.
“I was behind him and saw he lost his brakes,” remembers Fittipaldi. “I could see he was trying to spin the car to slow it down, but at that speed, there was nothing he could do.
“When I turned into the hairpin,” the Brazilian added, “I lost sight of him, but I heard an enormous crash.”
As the rescue workers attended to the injured Regazzoni, the race continued. Not many drivers would admit to the next comment Emerson made. “The crash really affected me for a couple of laps,” he said. “It was dreadful, my legs were trembling, and I don’t think John Watson who was behind me could either. He slowed down as well.”
When news came through after the race that Clay had survived, there was relief, tinged with the fact that his back had been broken. “Only a miracle allows one to come out of an accident like that alive,” said Emerson.
After months and years of spinal rehab, it was clear his racing gene was 100% intact. Not only did Regazzoni start racing again in karts, he helped other disabled people. He also returned to his sportscar roots to compete in the Sebring 12hrs, and possibly the most gruelling event in the world, the Paris-Dakar Rally. He closed his personal book on Long Beach too, where he had experienced the ultimate high and ultimate low, by racing in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race in 1994 – as a Pro.
Sadly, after all that he had been through, Clay Regazoni lost his life in a road accident in Italy in December 2006. It was the end of an era.
Special thanks to the Cahier Archive for the photos, and Toyota Motorsport for background information.
It has taken 30 months to complete, but Jim Richards says the Shannons 1972 AMC Javelin sedan he will debut at Adelaide’s Clipsal 500 opening round of 2012 Touring Car Masters on March 4 is the finest racing car he has ever built.
As an ardent admirer of Penske Racing and champion American driver Mark Donohue, who together dominated Trans Am racing with Javelins in the early 1970s, the distinctively styled AMC ‘Pony Car’ was Richards’ first choice as a potential successor to his very successful Shannons Falcon Sprint
“We wanted something different that would interest spectators, but would also be in the Shannons mould,” said Richards. “The Javelin ticked all the boxes.”
As only 178 Javelins were sold in Australia by then-distributors AMI, Richards began his search in mid-2008 by looking at US cars on the Internet.
“However it turned out that the uncle of one of my team members was an enthusiast with four or five of them and I picked this car up almost around the corner in North Melbourne!” he said.”
The exhaustive process of turning the former road car into a TCM front runner began mid-2009 and involved stripping the Javelin of every nut and bolt and then rebuilding it methodically to the TCM regulations, employing proven racecar technology.
Richards said the project had taken him and former Gibson Motorsport Crew Chief Bruce Tyson some time to complete because his small team had been focussed on getting the most out of the Shannons Falcon Sprint, which rewarded them when Richards became the 2010 Touring Car Masters champion.
“We believe it has been worth taking our time,” said Richards after the car’s first shakedown at Melbourne’s Calder Raceway. “The Javelin is a step up from the Falcon in every way and all the lessons we have learned from four decades of racing touring cars have gone into it.”
To comply with TCM regulations, the Shannons Javelin runs a 360-ci AMC V8 producing “in excess of 600HP” and weighs a mandatory 1,580kg, plus an additional seeded driver penalty of 30kg.
This will make it 180kg heavier, but more powerful than the 289-ci V8-engined Falcon Sprint and on par with its Mustang and Camaro TCM rivals.
“Being more aerodynamic, wider and with a slightly better brake package, it should also handle and stop a little better than the Sprint, but we can’t guarantee that it will be faster out of the blocks. We’ll have to wait until Clipsal for that!”, said Richards.
Shannons National Sales Manager Paul Gates said interest in Richards’ new Javelin by Australian enthusiasts had been “phenomenal”.
“I have never known the arrival of a new racing car to be so eagerly anticipated,” he said. “Its debut at Clipsal will be huge!”
Super Bowl commercials have become an institution; rivalling the popularity of the match itself and lighting up social media with passionate conversations world-wide. Yesterday’s game reached a record audience of 111.3 million people and Fiat took the opportunity to chat to each of them about the allure of its storied motorsport history with the Abarth brand in this captivating advertisement.
Fiat bought Abarth in the early ‘70s, turning it into their racing department under the watchful eye of Aurelio Lampredi and producing fever machines like the Fiat 131 Abarth. They brought the brand back into prominence a few years ago, capturing the essence of their sporting and racing heritage and producing some lovely little drivers’ cars.
Open Day to Celebrate the Ford GTHO Phase IV Prototype’s.
The team at Bowden’s Own Car Care are running an open day tour of their impressive collection, this coming February 26th to celebrate 40 years of the Phase IV Falcon
It was back in December 1973 that Australian car collector David Bowden first acquired one of the corner stone’s for his famous car collection; the now infamous Ford GTHO Phase IV Race Prototype. After owning a succession of GTHO Phase III’s, he was to find that this Bathurst ready “super car” was a vastly different and more refined beast than any he HO he had driven before. It was a love affair that has lasted almost four decades as he helped slowly piece together the now fabled story of the three unique Phase IV “Super Car” prototypes.
These cars have become icons for those into Aussie muscle cars and for Bowden it was the start of his car collection, giving him the foresight that was needed to save and preserve the many iconic Australian racing beasts that now form a part of his extended family in the shed.
So this February, the first collection “Open Day” will be a special event celebrating the reclusive Phase IV’s, and a coming together of the former owners of the three race prototypes, including rally legend Bruce “Hoddo” Hodgson, the only man who drove one in anger, in the Australian Rally Championship. Bruce got his car direct from the Ford racing team boss Howard Marsden, and entered it in the Australian Rally Championship, coming a gallant 6th place that first year. He was to later to sell his car, where it was tragically written off in a road accident after surviving for years unscathed in rallying through the unforgiving forestry trails.
How to get on the entry list?
The Bowden’s Own Open Day is strictly by invite only. The free invitations are available inside two of their famous car care kits, the Super Size or Mother Bucket kit, both brimming full of the highest quality products, personally hand crafted by leading Australian chemists to care for the Bowden’s own cars many years ago. Each kit has a registration form for one person and their spouse/ partner/ son/ daughter to attend the full day tour.
History of the Ford Falcon Phase IV Race Prototype
The Phase IV story is the most celebrated story in GTHO folklore.
In 1972 the new XA GT model had been released and a GTHO model was needed to take over from the XY GTHO on the race track. Three XA’s were sent to Howard Marsden and his team at Ford Special Vehicles, Fords internal race division. These were to become new factory race cars. Four of these cars were built, one road car and three race cars. The car in our collection is one of those racers.
The racing rules at that time dictated that 200 standard Phase IV’s had to be produced before a race car could be eligible. Therefore all parts on the racing Phase IV had to be fitted to the standard road going versions. Those rules were to be the death of these mighty machines. In mid ’72 the media hit on a story of these 160 mph ‘Super Cars’ that were about to hit our streets. They gave the impression that these cars were going to be too dangerous for the general public to drive. This was the start of mass hysteria that eventually led to the government stepping in and demanding that all production cease of these road going race cars. The Phase IV project was axed and the cars were ushered out the back door to selected owners in Australia.
Our GTHO was shipped to Queensland rally driver Keith Goodall. It was the only car of the three racers that was completed; it had been tested at Calder, and was all ready to be handed to Fords top driver Allan Moffat. Having talked to Keith recently he was able to give me some insights into his ownership of the Ford racer. Keith raced a GTHO Phase I quite successfully, both at the circuit and on the dirt. He was approached by Howard Marsden during part of the Dulux Rally at Hume Weir and asked if he wanted to get one of the new Phase IV GTHO’s they were developing. Keith had never heard of the new car and asked how much it would cost, “around 2500 dollars” Howard replied. Keith was very interested, it seemed about time to replace the Phase I and the price was right.
Over the next few months Keith rang Howard to get information on the new cars progress. With every call the cars price seemed to be increasing. Howard told him that the factory race team would be attending an upcoming meet at Surfers Paradise raceway, so he travelled there with a bank cheque in hand for $3,500. This was presented to Howard ensuring he received one of the Phase IV GTHO’s. Once again some time passed, then out of the blue he received a phone call telling him to pick up the car immediately from Ford Special Vehicles. Unable to get to Melbourne on such short notice, he had his brother collect the car and organise it onto a boat bound for Townsville, Qld.
Once the car arrived in Townsville Keith was amazed at what he had been sent, a fully prepared race car all sign-written for none other than Allan Moffat! He had read all about the Super Cars and the pressure put on the manufacturers to stop building these machines, so it didn’t take long to put two and two together, and realise what he had in his hands! The HO didn’t come with a drivers manual (funnily enough) and there was a bit of trouble getting the beastie started inside the boat. After about a quarter of an hour they found the kill switch on the side of the console! They flicked it up and she burst into life. For those who have heard what a red-hot Cleveland sounds like, imagine it with a straight through exhaust in the bowels of a cargo boat!! It put the wind up everyone on board including it’s new, now somewhat shaken, owner. With it being a bit too raucous to drive on public roads, he trailered it back to his workshop just outside Townsville and wondered what to do next. Keith crawled all over the car and noticed the numerous modifications that had been made to it. Realising that it was too special for a race car he decided to make use of it as a road car. In order to have it road registered, a standard GT exhaust that came with the car was fitted. This entailed the removal of the panhard rod so the exhaust pipes could get past the differential. The suspension was also raised two inches, (North Qld roads weren’t the best back in ’72) these were the only modifications he made to the car.
Being a racer, Keith wanted to know exactly what this new HO was capable of. He took it on a number of long distance trips and found that it was a magnificently balanced piece of gear on the open road as well as through the twisty stuff. Its only short coming was driving around town, where the combination of a tall diff ratio, (3.00:1) close ratio gearbox and race spec engine made it almost undrivable. And how fast was it on those long country roads? Without giving too much damning evidence, both Keith and David Bowden agreed with Ford Special Vehicles foreman John Wynne, in that the race version was capable of an easy 175 MPH. The car was on the Ford display at the Townsville show and this is where next owner David Bowden first saw it. He just had to have the car, and eventually bought a property from Keith that included the Phase IV as part of the deal. David lived on a property some distance outside Townsville and used the car as quick transport between the city and home. He knew what the car was and was very reluctant to make any changes to it.
David has owned the car on and off throughout the last 30 odd years finally getting it back in 1999. He has now put the famous HO back to how it went out the back door of Ford Special Vehicles in late 1972. It now shares its deserved place in Bowden’s shed next to some famous brethren; the factory GTHO race Phase 1,2,3 and Group C Phase 3 which was built to race when the Phase IV project was abandoned.
Full details of the next Bowden’s Own Open Day can be found on their website by hitting this link . Likewise, you can see just a few of the iconic Australian race and road cars in their collection here.
It debuted in 1971 with a victory in the non-championship round in Argentina, finishing ahead of Henri Pescarolo and Carlos Reutemann over the aggregated two-heat event. Amon campaigned the car throughout the ’71 Formula One season, achieving the car’s best finish of third in the Spanish Grand Prix.
The car was upgraded for the start of the ’72 season and used until Brands Hatch, where Amon guided it to fourth place.
Since retiring from Formula One competition the car has run successfully in historic racing, winning its category at the Monaco Grand Prix Historique in 2008. It has received a full rebuild and is currently the only MS120 race-ready with original specifications.
From the utterly bonkers Group B monsters to the pluck of the Mini, rally has seen some of motorsport’s most exciting cars. Often driven through some of the sports most spectacular moments.
This WRC-produced program takes a three part cruise through rally’s history, stopping in to check out its greatest cars.
So, what’s on your list of rally’s greatest cars? Are there any gems that they missed?
There is still nothing like the excitement to the build up to a Grand Prix start. If it doesn’t make the hairs on your neck stand up, you are not human
As the F1 teams start testing for 2012, it is a quick reminder that there is nothing like the tension that you experience in the build up to a Grand Prix – or a Formula Ford race. Any race in fact. This video, made by Elf in 1985 captures it brilliantly.
There are rituals, superstitions, drivers who smile and chat, drivers who want to be left alone and focus. They all have routines.
Let’s face it, so do we as spectators. The 30 minutes before a race start is adrenalin fuelled, even for us. The out lap when they first pass you before settling on the grid. Some drivers get out of their cars, a few don’t, happy to be strapped in and keep the outside world away.
Times have changed, TV demands interviews on the grid today. Back then, drivers would prepare their own helmets. One thing hasn’t changed though, every detail is checked over and over before the cars set out for the grid. Maybe it is more intense today, but attention to detail has always been key to winning. The teams prepare the tyre guns for the pit stops over and over, they make sure the hoses are not tangled. They make sure the engines are up to temperature.
Once the cars are on the grid, the racers will take a ‘toilet’ break. They take on a lot of fluids pre-race, as they will lose a load during the race. For the mechanics, there is little more they can do now, apart from shield their drivers from the sun (or rain). The only adjustments may be to the mirrors – maybe that’s just a nervous thing to keep the guys occupied?
Then it’s what I call the ‘Gladiator moment’. Balaclava on, helmet on, into car (usually right foot first, seemingly a superstition that no-one can explain.) The belts are done up and tightened. Then the driver will make them tighter. The grid girls, TV crews, journalists, photographers and celebrities leave the startline, it is now driver and car all alone.
The warm-up lap, belts made even tighter so the driver is drilled tight into the cockpit. Radio check, then time to clear the mind, and focus on the first corner.
Park up in the grid spot. Visor down, and forget the millions of people watching around the world. It’s only a race car isn’t it?
And…. Go.
Thanks to Elf, and everyone who has made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in the 30 minutes before a race start. That’s why we are here, isn’t it?
