Australian Gold Star Race

Sandown Park, 15 Sep 1968

All cars are 2.5-litre Tasman unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. McLaren M4A [M4A/1] (Peter Macrow): Entered by Bruce McLaren Motor Racing for Bruce McLaren in F2 in 1967. Sold to Jim Palmer (NZ) 1968, then to Tony Osborne's Argo Racing in Australia July 1968, driven by Peter Macrow in 1968 and then Alfredo Costanzo from 1968 to 1971. To Ken Hastings mid-1971, who swapped the FVA for a Ford twin-cam for 1972, and the to John Sheppard August 1973. Fitted with a 1300cc Toyota Corolla engine by Geoff Kennett 1974. Later Tony Armstrong (Victoria, Australia) in November 1982 and rebuilt around 1985. At Christie's Melbourne auction 1990 where it was sold to Art Valdez (Torrance, CA). It remained in Valdez' collection for many years, until sold to a UK consortium in 2017.
2. Brabham BT23A [1] (Phil West): Built for Jack Brabham to use in the 1967 Tasman series and fitted with a 2.5-litre Repco 640 V8. Brabham won the last race of the series at Longford in March. The car was then sold to David McKay's Scuderia Veloce and entered for driver Greg Cusack in the 1967 Australian Gold Star. Cusack finished second in the series having won the Gold Star round at Symmons Plains in November, and two weeks later also took the Australian Hill Climb Championship in the car. Cusack then raced the BT23A in the Australian rounds of the 1968 Tasman series but was injured when he crashed at Longford in March, and decided to retire. Although extensively damaged, the car was repaired and Phil West took over the drive for the 1968 Gold Star, starting with victory at Bathurst on Easter Monday. The Brabham was then sold to Brian Page, who used it in Gold Star and regional events during 1969. After being missig for a couple of seasons, the Brabham was mentioned again in 1972 when Monarch-Ford racer Alan Stewart was said to have it for ANF2. At some point the car was crashed, and the rear of the chassis was replaced. Acquired by Peter Simms (Kurrajong, NSW Australia) in January 1980, restored and raced for the first time at Amaroo in August 1984. Raced in Australian historics by Simms for many years.
3. 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.
4. Brabham BT23E [1] (Allan Moffat): Built for Jack Brabham to use in the 1968 Tasman series and fitted with the latest "overhead everything" lightweight 2.5-litre Repco 830 V8. However, after an oil leak in practice at Warwick Farm, Repco supplied a replacement 740-series engine for the race. Also raced by Brabham at Sandown Park, this time with the 830 engine. Sold to Bob Jane Racing but crashed by John Harvey in practice at Bathurst in April. It was then raced by Jim Palmer, Ian Cook, and Bob Jane himself in a minor race at Calder. Then crashed again by Allan Moffat in practice at Sandown Park in September. For Harvey again in the 1969 Australian Gold Star, the 1970 Tasman series (Warwick Farm and Sandown Park only) and for the first race of the 1970 Australian Gold Star (won at Symmons Plains March 1970). Then sold to Bob 'Woody' Curran and fitted with a Ford twin cam for ANF2 racing in Tasmania from 1971 to 1977. From Curran to David Madrers in the early 1980s who started a restoration. He sold it in 1983 to Bill Marshall who completed the restoration and used it in historic racing in Australia. Then sold via Ray Delaney (Melbourne, Australia) to Art Valdez (Torrance, CA) in late 1990, and remained in his collection for many years, until sold to the Rare Metals consortium in the UK in 2017. Bought from the consortium by Aaron Lewis (Australia) and rebuilt for him by Tony Ditheridge's Hawker Racing (Milden, Suffolk).

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.