primotipo…

So many motor racing magazines have come and gone in Australia down the decades, only two of them really floated my boat, both long departed, Cars and Drivers and Chequered Flag. The common element in both was a capable driver on tarmac and dirt, and a gifted writer, Barry Lake.

Only three Australian specialist car racing mags proved to be long-term-stayers with shelf lives of over 20 years: Australian Motor Sports, Racing Car News and Auto Action. The latter, established in 1971, is the only one left.

The key people behind Chequered Flag in its early days – when it was at its best – were publisher Gabriel Szatmary and editor Barry Lake.

The shot above is of John McCormack aboard his Elfin MR6 Leyland-Repco F5000, perhaps during the Oran Park August 4, 1974, Gold Star round. The car was a dog with the Leyland-Repco engine, which was harpooned when Repco withdrew from racing in July 1974. They would have got there with ongoing development, but the MR6 was transformed when it was fitted with Repco-Holden V8s, winning the 1975 Gold Star for Mac.

That story is told here, inclusive of McCormack turning the Leyland V8 into a wing and a prayer winner:https://primotipo.com/2024/10/18/repcos-withdrawal-from-racing/

Racing Car News and Auto Action, which competed with Chequered Flag – and had a good start on the Sydney-based publication – covered all of motorsport, whereas Chequered Flag covered only the major championships: F1, the Gold Star, Australian Touring Car Championship, Australian Rally Championship, Australian F2 Championship, etc.

While I preferred that, most anoraks wanted the lot, even if much of it was covered only in brief. The market talks, of course, so Chequered Flag had a short life, as did Lake’s Cars and Drivers, which I thought was brilliant, Australia’s answer to MotorSport. Few others did, though; it only lasted about eight issues.

I’ve moved house and am sorting out my magazine collection – giving many of them to a mate – and thought I’d scan some Chequered Flag images of covers or topics I like. In most cases, the ‘snapper isn’t identified, hence I am short on attributions in this piece.

Sports Sedans were and still are mega, although there isn’t an Australian Sports Sedan Championship these days as it doesn’t suit the Maxi Taxi Cartel who fuck over anything they perceive will get between them and a holy-dollar.

The shot above shows John McCormack’s Valiant Charger Repco-Holden being chased by Bryan Thomson’s Volksrolet and three Porsches of Pete Geoghegan, Bill Brown and Leo Geoghegan (?) and the rest.

Frank Gardner’s Lola F5000-based Chev Corvair Chev V8 – think of it as a spaceframe Lola T332 with 10-inch wide wheels – was the Sports Sedan game-changer until the rules were changed to eliminate it.

He is in front of Colin Bond’s LH Torana Repco-Holden and McCormack’s similarly powered Charger. The one below is on the exit of Dandenong Road at Sandown in 1977. More about the car here:https://primotipo.com/2020/01/31/chev-corvair-v8/

Alan Henry wrote in his Chequered Flag column, that, having won his 1975 Monaco GP F3 heat, Larry was comfortably placed second in the final behind Conny Anderson until receiving a pit signal to the advise him that Andersson had been pinged with a one-minute penalty for jumping the start, and that, therefore, Larrikins led the most prestigious F3 race of them all…Larry then crashed on the very next lap.

‘To his eternal credit, he admitted that, up until that point, he’d been concentrating so hard that he was driving accurately and precisely. Once he appreciated that the pressure had eased slightly, he lost his concentration and the Ralt hit the wall. That’s one of those mistakes that Larry will not make again!’ More here:https://primotipo.com/2023/01/28/terry-and-larry-perkins/

Alf Costanzo flat chat at Surfers Paradise in his Lola T332 Chev – under Dunlop Bridge – during the 1977 Rothmans International round.

In 1975, he re-launched his career after years in an uncompetitive Elfin Mono aboard the ex-Leo Geoghegan Birrana 274 Hart-Ford that had won the 1974 Australian F2 Championship, then immediately reinforced his pace with the Lola. Budget was still a problem, but the raw pace was clear amongst the DNFs…enter Alan Hamilton stage-left in 1978…

By the way, Alfie was a DNF busted crank at Surfers. The winner was Warwick Brown in a VDS Racing Lola T430 Chev, the sister chassis to the one in which the lovable Italian Midget won the 1980 Gold Star for Alan Hamilton. See here:https://primotipo.com/2023/01/18/1977-surfers-paradise-100/

The technical content of the articles was strong too; this one (above) by Barry Lake on the build of John Sheppard’s Laurie O’Neil-owned, Pete Geoghegan-driven Holden Monaro 350 Sports Sedan is typical.

Laurence Charles O’Neil (23/9/1925-26/8/2024) was a very successful behind-the-scenes car owner who helped the likes of Doug Whiteford, Frank Matich, Geoghegan, and others. He is shown below left with Bob Jane and Pete Geoghegan.

Colin Bond and Allan Grice having a difference of opinion about real estate ownership at Amaroo Park in 1976, Holden Torana L34s.

Perennial ‘Baddie’ Grice got pinged for this helping hand during round five of the ATCC. Magic days for Tourers, I loved ’em then. Charlie O’Brien won from Allan Moffat and John Harvey: L34, GT Hardtop, L34. Fancy drivers with personalities and cars of different makes?

Stonie – John Stoneham – was there, of course; this cartoon was in the August 1975 issue.

Both Ford and Holden had pretty much licked their oil starvation problems – why CAMS didn’t just allow a cost-effective dry-sump fix is beyond me – by this stage, but it caused dramas for a year or so when Group C became the ATCC and Manufacturers Championship Formulae. More here:https://primotipo.com/2024/03/05/holden-torana-sl-r-5000-l34/

More great ads, this time from Tamron lenses.

The start of the 1974 AGP at Oran Park: from the left, fraont row Lella Lombardi, Matich A51 Repco-Holden, Warwick Brown having got the jump, Lola T332 Chev, Max Stewart’s partially obscured Lola T330 Chev, Ken Bartlett’s T332 Chev and John McCormack’s Elfin MR5 Repco-Holden and the rest L-R Garrie Cooper, Graeme Lawrence very obscured, Jomn davison even more so, and at the far right, John Leffler’s briliant Bowin P8 Hart-Ford 416B ANF2 machine.

In a race of changing fortunes Stewart won from McCormack and Lawrence. See here:https://primotipo.com/2021/01/15/1974-australian-gp-oran-park/

And John Walker’s Lola T332 Repco-Holden below, OP again?? Tamron ad again.

Peter Gethin was the only F1 Championship Grand Prix winner who contested the Tasman Cup F5000 and the Rothmans/Peter Stuyvesant F5000 Internationals, wasn’t he?

Above, in the cockpit of a VDS Chevron B37 Chev, he won the ’74 Tasman in a VDS Chevron B24 Chev. More about Peter here:https://primotipo.com/2025/07/23/lola-t430-chev/

It was great to see both Leffo and Grace Bros get a result when his second place in the final November 28 Phillip Island round of the 1976 Gold Star, bagged him the Australian Driver’s Championship.

Brad Haywood hands John his helmet while Drew McCausland checks his belts, Lola T400 Chev. More about Leffo and that era of Australian F5000 here:https://primotipo.com/2025/11/17/1975-australian-grand-prix-surfers-paradise/

Perhaps the most famous Sandown Park dam-crash was Lex Davison’s in Sir Gawaine Baillie’s Ford Galaxie in 1964 but Davo didn’t even get his pinkies wet! See here:https://primotipo.com/2021/08/14/the-australian-ford-galaxies/

Wayne Negus, on the other hand, did have a paddle after going through the wooden fence in Bob Forbes’ Holden Torana L34 after having brake failure during his 69th lap of the September 14, 1975, Sandown 250 enduro. Round two of the Australian Manufacturers’ Championship was won by Peter Brock’s L34 from six other Holdens.

Forbes’ L34 was rooted, but Negus, thankfully and luckily, lived to fight another day, emerging unhurt in this massive underwear-staining hit.

He came, he saw, he conquered, and then he never left!

Most of the crowd around me on the Sandown pit counter on July 6, 1975 were aware of Jim Richards, having watched him and Rod Coppins finish third in the 1974 Bathurst 1000 in a virtually stock Holden Torana L34.

They were canny young mid-twenties veterans (JR was born September 2, 1947) who stroked the thing home impressively in a race of attrition won by John Goss and Kevin Bartlett in Goss’s Ford Falcon GT Hardtop (see below).

The vivid red and yellow Sidchrome Mustang 351 ‘popped’ on that dull, grey, gloomy, rainy Sandown Sunday afternoon, at the end of which the web-footed Kiwi had bagged two wins in a field that included John McCormack’s Valiant Charger Repco-Holden and Allan Moffat’s Ford Capri RS3100.

The pundits expected the Kiwi would come back to the field when he ran the mandated ten-inch wide wheels, rather than those he ran on at Sandown, but that wasn’t the case at all!

Richards was swamped by promoters with start money; they figured Richard’s Mustang took up where Moffat’s left off. Ironically, Al-Pal’s final races in the famous Boss 302 were in New Zealand that summer of ’75.

That year JR took 13 wins from 30 starts, 27 of them podiums, his name was on the lips of fans, funders and team owners alike. In the company of the day, McCormack’s Charger, the Geoghegan and Jane Monaros, Moffat’s Capri, Bryan Thomson’s VW Chev, and Jane’s Frank Gardner-driven Torana Chev, the ‘low-tech’ Murray Bunn built ’69 Boss Mustang was impressive. The’69 Boss 302 Mustang was bought off the used car lot of Colin Giltrap and Neville Crichton’s Monaco Motors Hamilton dealership.

Jim told me in mid-2025 that ‘We took it to a little shed on a farm (on Alfriston Road) because we didn’t want anyone to know what we were doing. We stripped the car completely, rewelded the body, chopped the guards out, put the flares on it, built a 351 engine, the whole lot.’

Fitted with a Borg Warner ‘box, and still with modified but standard front and rear suspension, the car was equipped with a powerful, reliable 351 Cleveland, which was topped by a pair of fuel-injected Gurney-Eagle cylinder heads, and in modifications made over the summer of 1974-75, was located well back in the chassis; the firewall was attacked accordingly..

The very well-sorted and driven car had the 1974 New Zealand Saloon Car Championship in its CV. In 1975, JR took 13 wins from 30 starts, 27 of them podiums, his name was on the lips of fans, funders and team owners alike.

CAMS held the Australian Sports Sedan Championship for the first time in 1976, Jim was fourth behind Moffat, Frank Gardner’s Chev Corvair V8 and Tony Edmondson in the ex-McCormack Charger, his best placings were a pair of seconds at Wanneroo and Adelaide. The old war-horse was fourth again in 1977, this time behind Gardner, Jane, and Garry Rogers’ ex-Geoghegan Monaro GTS350.

And the rest, four Australian Touring Car Championships, seven Bathurst crowns, and much more, is history.

Gotta be one of the sexiest Australian Formula Fords ever built? Paul Bernasconi’s Mawer, 004 Ford, yep, I know there was a follow-on chassis or two, but I don’t want to go down that path…1975 Driver to Europe, aka the Australian Formula Ford Championship winner.

Ron Tauranac listening to Paul Bernasconi at Brands Hatch during the July, 1976 British Grand Prix weekend. F3 Ralt RT1 Toyota-Novamotor. 11th in the race won by Bruno Giacomelli’s works March 763 Toyota. Geoff Brabham was 13th in another RT1; Terry Perkins was a reserve who didn’t start.

It would be great to talk to Paul if anyone has his contact details. Max Stewart ran him in his Lola T330/T400 Chevs before he went to Europe, and my memory tells me his F3 campaign never really got out of the water, with the capable mechanic/engineer running others in his car to get some dollars…

John Goss and Kevin Bartlett’s 1974 Bathurst 1000 win was a bit of a tear-jerker.

My favourite driver, Kevin Bartlett, hadn’t had an easy year with a big leg-breaking prang in his Lola T330 Chev at Pukekohe, setting him back. But it all came good in October for the duo, and magnificent preparation and planning by Goss and Grant O’Neill, his engineer/mechanic. See here:https://primotipo.com/2015/07/03/john-goss-bathurst-1000-and-australian-grand-prix-winner/

The shot below is at Oran Park, a few years later, where KB uses all the road en route to second place in the first round of the 1978 Gold Star, Brabham BT43 Chev. John McCormack’s McLaren M23 Repco-Leyland won.

Warwick Brown on the way to winning the Oran Park Rothmans Series round on February 6 1977, VDS Lola T430 Chev. Won the series too.

Vern Schuppan had a Chequered Flag column for a couple of years or so; here he is racing his Elfin MR8A-C Chev in the 1977 Riverside Can-Am round on October 16. He seemed likely to take Peter Gethin’s fourth place before pitting with body damage on lap 45 of the 60-lap, 200-mile race won by Patrick Tambay’s Haas Lola T333CS Chev.

More about this car and Vern’s season here:https://primotipo.com/2018/10/02/hit-with-the-fugly-stick/

For the better part of a decade, Bob Morris provided the most consistently competitive opposition to the GMH and Ford ‘factory’ cars aboard his Ron Hodgson Holden-supported Holdens.

The cars were beautifully prepared and presented and driven with great passion, skill, finesse and mechanical skill as Morris’ best results indicate: victory in the ’76 Bathurst 1000 with John Fitzpatrick and the 1979 ATCC (A9X) and second in 1974 (L34) and 1978 (A9X) and fifth in 1977 (L34, Triumph Dolomite and Ford Capri GT V6 and 1980 (Craven Mild VB Commodore).

Key team members included Bruce Richardson, Ron Missen, Peter Molloy, Ian Maudsley and others, not to forget Ron Hodgson, a very capable racer in his day.

Peter Finlay powers his Palliser WDF2 Ford out of Torana corner on the way to victory in the fifth round of the 1975 Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series on July 6 at Sandown Park.

I was there on that chilly day, as mentioned in the Jim Richards bit above. Finlay’s taping over half his nosecone would have been common practice for him when he campaigned this car in Europe to get the little Kent engine up to optimum water and oil temps.

Peter penned this contribution to the Ten Tenths Forum on May 12, 2012. It’s a wonderful summary of his career/life. He’s still with us and regularly contributes to social media and corrects the writings of people like me!

‘My name is Peter Finlay, and I placed third in the EFDA/European Formula Ford Championship in 1973.
I returned to Australia at the end of that year as the UK and Europe looked like they were going “belly up”.

‘I raced in Australia for the next two years. In 1975, I was a member of the Grace Brothers-Levis Team and placed second (by 1 point) in the Australian FF Championship Series. After competing in the annual Bathurst 1000 in a Ford Escort, I retired and focused on home and business.’

‘In 1980, we (Peter and his wife, Gaye) purchased the Peter Wherrett Advanced Driving School and then started Peter Finlay’s International Racing Drivers’ School. Later, we became the Antipodean agents for John Kirkpatrick’s Jim Russell RDC. Later, we started a division with several FFs, which included the Mawer 004, an Elfin 600, a Van Diemen RF85 (an ex-Milldent-Malcolm Oastler/ Perry McCarthy FF 2000) and a Reynard. Later, an RF89 joined the team until the older-style cars were replaced with a pair of RF99 Zetec cars sourced from England and two RF98 Zetec, which had been built up here in that configuration. We sold the school in 2010.’

‘I returned to Hillclimbing in 1992 with the Mawer, which I progressively developed with wider wheels, slicks, a Toyota supercharger and wings. Later, a Toyota 4AG-ZE was fitted. I won the NSW State Hillclimb championship in 1994,5, and 6. In 1996, I brought out Alister Douglas-Osborn, Mike Pilbeam and the works MP 62-Vauxhall for the Australian HC titles at Bathurst and scored a very close second place to a blown VW-engined single seater. ‘

‘The following year, my wife, Gaye, and I spent a month in the UK, and I drove the new Pilbeam MP82 at Curborough and Ben Boult’s Pilbeam MP52-BDA at the 50th anniversary of the RAC British HC Championships at Shelsley Walsh in June. I then switched over to the MP82 co-driven by Ferrari aerodynamicist Willem Toet at Loton Park and Prescott, where I placed third in the under 2-litre class behind Justin Fletcher and Willem.’

‘Back in Australia, I set up a March 77B with a supercharged 2-litre Cosworth YBM for the local events. This car was not particularly successful, although I did lead the time sheets at the last AHCC in which I participated in 2002.’

‘I look back with great fondness to the FF events in which I drove in the UK in 1972 and in Europe the following year. The Palliser was eventually restored in the yellow and green Grace Bros colours and is owned by Brian Sampson in Melbourne.
After motor racing, I learned to fly and reached the commercial licence standard. I flew “bank document” in Beech Barons and Piper Aerostars. I turned to catamaran sailing, and my last boat was a NACRA 5.0… a rocket ship with which I won some national championship races.’

‘I am a contributor to a leading aviation periodical in Australia with articles and photographs. My day job is usually that of an executive chauffeur carrying politicians, entertainers and captains of industry in Sydney. I also work as a driving specialist with Rick Bates Advanced Driving.’

I’m sure Peter will give me a yell to fill in the last 13 years!

The September Sandown 250 was the traditional lead-up race to the Big One at Bathurst in October. It was indicative – sometimes – of the likely result on The Mountain and usually had technical interest in the days when touring car racing bore some resemblance to touring cars, and manufacturers would often have completed their homologation changes for Sandown.

The early lap shot of the September 8, 1974 race shows Allan Moffat’s XB Ford Falcon GT Hardtop under brakes for Dandy Road from the HDT L34s of Bond/Brock or Brock/Bond, then Bob Morris’ Holden Torana LJ GTR XU-1, Murray Carter’s venerable Hardtop with another XU=1 behind.\

Moffat won from Morris/John Leffler, and Carter. The Falcon form carried over the Bathurst, where, as per the post above, Goss/Bartlett prevailed from the Forbes/Negus and Jim Richards/Rod Coppins L34s.

Australia’s most versatile racer, Colin Bond at Lakeside on the way to winning the May 18, 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship round.

He took three of the eight rounds and the title in his Holden Dealer Team Holden Torana LH SL/R 5000 L34 from Murray Carter’s privateer Ford Falcon XB GT351 Hardtop with Allan Grice and Bob Holden equal third aboard L34 and Ford Escort Twin-Cam/RS2000 respectively.

Credits…

Chequered Flag, Gary Eastwood, Diana Burnett, Mike Harding, Ron Vinnard, Ian Smith, Wikipedia

Finito…