Angus & Coote Diamond Trophy

Oran Park, 19 May 1968

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT23D [1] (Kevin Bartlett): The one-off BT23D was built for Alec Mildren Racing for Tasman racing and fitted with a 2.5-litre Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 V8. It debuted in Frank Gardner's hands at the Warwick Farm Gold Star race in Dec 1967 and was then raced by Garder in every race of the 1968 Tasman series. Kevin Bartlett took over the drive for the 1968 Australian Gold Star season and the 1969 Tasman series. It was then sold to Jim Abbott who acquired a 5-litre Traco Oldsmobile engine from Frank Matich and built what was claimed to be the first Formula 5000 in Australia. It was displayed at Abbott's Melbourne Racing Car Show and thereafter mainly used in hillclimbs. It was sold to Gavin Sala for the 1974 Victorian hillclimb season, and was then sold to Peter Neilsen, who had Gordon Dobie restore it to its original Alfa Romeo specification. Its racing career ended after the death of a later pilot, Chris Murphy, but the remains were acquired in 1985 by Paul Moxham who had it fully restored with its original Autodelta engines. It was advertised by oldtimeraustralia.com from 2011 to 2015, noting that it had been owned by the same person for 31 years.
2. Brabham BT2 [FJ-12-62] (Brian Page): Sold via Brabham's Australian agent Alec Mildren Pty Ltd to David Walker, and raced by Walker in 1963, 1964 and early 1965. Raced by Ralph Sach in 1965 then a Mildren entry with a 1500cc Ford twin cam for Frank Gardner and Kevin Bartlett during the 1965/66 season. To Competition Cars (Aust) for Mike Champion in the 1966 and 1967 Gold Star seasons, then to Brian Page for 1968. Entered by Graham Collier for Jack Bono in 1969. Through Australian owners Chris Farrell 1971, James Crawford 1973, Greg Kinlin 1977 and Graham Healey 1984 to Bryan Miller 1984 who restored it to Alec Mildren late 1965 spec with Ford twin-cam and raced extensively. To Colin Haste (Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia) 1998 and raced extensively in Australian Formula Junior Association events.
3. Brabham BT2 [FJ-8-62] (Kevin Pinkstone): Either a replacement for Frank Gardner's FJ-2-62 at some unknown point during the 1962 season or a new identity given to the car when it was shipped to Australia at the end of the European season. Sold to Alec Mildren, who entered it for Gardner to race in Australian national racing in early 1963. Then to Len Deaton later in 1963. To Barry Collerson for 1964 and 1965, then Kevin Pinkstone 1966. Then to further Australian owners John Mellen 1969, Peter Taylor and Brian Morrow 1972, John Hilliar 1973, Spencer Bates 1977, Tony Galletly 1980, Bryan Miller 1982, Tony Moodie 1991 and Ken Hastings 1992. While with Hastings it was damaged and rebuilt with a new frame. Then sold to John Streets in the US 2001 then to Dave Zurlinden (Carmel Valley, CA) in 2003 and raced to the end of 2008. To John Dowson (Tunbridge Wells, Kent) September 2009. Sold to Chris Chilcott (Aberdeen, Scotland) in February 2015, together with the damaged original frame.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.