Examiner "1000"

Symmons Plains, 26 Sep 1971

All cars are 5-litre F5000 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Elfin MR5 [5711] (John McCormack): New to John McCormack in September 1971, and raced in Australian Gold Star, taking two second places and a win from three races. Raced by McCormack in the 1972 Tasman series, and the 1972 Australian Gold Star, where he won one race. Then raced in the 1973 Tasman series, where he won the NZ GP and the Adelaide '100', and in the 1973 Australian Gold Star, when he won two races and the championship. Raced again in the 1974 Tasman, again winning the NZ GP. Raced by Phil Moore in the 1974 Gold Star. Sold to Glen Nichols December 1975, and entered for the Rothmans Internationals, but did not start a race. History then unknown until bought from Les Swallow by Gavin Sala, and sold to John McCormack for restoration some time before 1992.
2. McLaren M4A [M4A/2] (Warwick Brown): Entered by John Coombes for Piers Courage in F2 in 1967. Crashed at Brands Hatch in August 1967 and believed to have been rebuilt on a new tub before its next race at Albi four weeks later, but Autosport makes no mention of a rebuild nor of it being a new car. Raced by Piers Courage in the 1968 Tasman series. Sold to Niel Allen and raced in Australian events in 1968 until Allen crashed heavily at Lakeside in July, reportedly requiring another new tub to be fabricated. Raced again by Allen in 1969, then to Pat Burke for drivers Len Goodwin 1970-71 and Warwick Brown 1971. Sold by Burke and Peter Malloy to Erol Richardson but bought back by Pat Burke around 1982. Restored by Molloy for Burke and retained until sold to John Hugenholtz. To David Coplowe (England) by 1994. Raced in the HSCC Historic Formula Racing Car Championship in 1995. Raced by Coplowe until 2010, and sold to Gareth Williams (Oxfordshire) in 2012.
3. McLaren M10B [400-02] (Kevin Bartlett): New to Niel Allen (Australia) late 1969, and raced in 1970 and 1971 Tasman series. To Kevin Bartlett for 1971 Australian Gold Star and 1972 Tasman 1972, then to US for at least one race in 1972. Then unknown until bought by Gil Cameron, and raced in Australia from 1975 to 1977. Donated parts to Tony Edmondson's Alfetta Chev sports sedan, and the remainder of the car stored at Elfin during the 1980s. Subsequent history unknown, but later owned by Llynden Riethmuller (Sydney, NSW) in 2007. After Riethmuller's death, sold to Alan Hamilton in 2011, and restored for historic racing. More information about McLaren M10B 400-2
4. McLaren M10B [400-19] (Alan Hamilton): A spare chassis supplied to Niel Allen. Built up and sold to Allan Hamilton for Australian Gold Star 1971, then to Pat Burke Racing for Warwick Brown in 1972 Tasman series and in 1972 Australian Gold Star. Raced by Bob Muir at a couple of 1973 Tasman races, then for Warwick Brown again in the 1973 Gold Star. Suspension and other parts used for Bryan Thomson's VW Sports Sedan in 1974, but the McLaren tub built up again, and sold via Peter Bick, Paul Trevethan and George Parlby to Llynden Riethmuller. Acquired from Riethmuller's family after his death by Alan Hamilton in 2011. Raced by Alfredo Costanzo in historic events in 2013, 2015, and 2016. To Giuseppe 'Joe' Ricciardo by 2016. More information about McLaren M10B 400-19
5. Lola T192 ["HU14"] (Colin Hyams): Said to be the fourth T192 but does not appear in Lola records. New (?) for Frank Gardner in the 1971 Tasman series; then to Colin Hyams for the 1971 Australian Gold Star, 1972 Australian Internationals, then to America for the 1972 US series. Via Carl Haas to Dan Furey (Columbus, OH) for the US series in 1973 and 1974 - Randall Dana 1975 - Phil Niles 1976 - Bob Danzi 1978 for Single-Seat Can-Am - Dana Seymour 1981 - Brian Blaine 1984 - Bob Young by 1987 - Hans J. Glaser 1992 to 2006. Acquired by Nick Shrigley-Feigl (Ramsey, Isle of Man) by 2010. To Roland David (Vienna, Austria) 2016. More information about Lola T192 "SL.192/14"
6. McLaren M10C [400-10-3] (Frank Matich): New to Frank Matich (Australia) and fitted with Repco's new Holden V8 F5000 engine for Australian racing. Raced for the first time at Warwick Farm on 12 July 1970 but crashed, and rebuilt on a new tub as "M10C". Next raced at Calder on 18 Oct 1970, then at Australian Grand Prix 22 Nov 1970. Raced in the 1971 Tasman series, then to the US for the L&M series before returning to Australia for the 1971 Gold Star series. Crashed prior to Oran Park 27 June and rebuilt on third tub. To Frank Radisich at the end of 1971 and raced in the 1972 Tasman series, the 1972 Australian Gold Star, and the 1973 Tasman. To Keith Laney (NZ), fitted with a Chevrolet V8 and appeared in the Tasman series in 1974 and 1975. Then to Dennis Phillips for hill climbs 1976, then Russel Greer (Blenheim, NZ) and fitted with a 6.3-litre Chevy to win the 1979/80 NZ hill climb championship. Sold to Peter Addison (Australia) but history then unknown until acquired by Max Warwick (Australia) in the mid-1990s. Raced at Historic Sandown from 1998. Sold to Graham Wadsworth (Melbourne, Australia) 2006.
7. McLaren M18 (Don O'Sullivan): May be 500-08. Don O'Sullivan (Australia). Bought new from McLaren to replace O'Sullivan's M10A crashed at Teretonga. First seen at Mallala 11 Oct 1971 with Repco-Holden V8. Raced at 21 Nov 1971 Australian GP. Entered in the 1972 Australian Tasman rounds but DNA. Next seen at Surfers Paradise 27 Aug 1972 (raced by O'Sullivan) then at Symmons Plain 24 Sep (DNA but described as McLaren M22) and Adelaide 8 Oct. Raced by Howie Sangster for O'Sullivan from Warwick Farm 5 Nov 1972 (DNS). Not entered in 1973 Tasman series. O'Sullivan then bought an ex-Teddy Pilette M22 from VDS and the M18 is not seen again. Jaime Gard recalls it being reduced to a bare tub to contribute parts to the Gardos F5000 and then sold with the McLaren M22. However, M18 bulkheads have been found in the Gardos so it would appear than the M18 was completely consumed.
8. Brabham BT23E [1] (Bob Curran): 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.

Australian Gold Star results for the period 1971-1976 are now available from a variety Australian magazines and yearbooks. As well as Racing Car News, results have been cross-checked against the 1972 Australian Motoring Yearbook and the 1973 and 1974 Australian Competition Yearbooks. Information is added from Autosport where available. The 1975 season was collated by Glenn Moulds using Racing Car News, Australian Auto Action, Chequered Flag, Australian Competition Year, "50 Years Of The Australian Grand Prix" and "Australia's Elfin Sports and Racing Cars". For the 1976 season, Glenn was also able to use Motor Sport Reporter from R3 Calder onwards.

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.