Australian Gold Star Race

Surfers Paradise, 26 Oct 1969

All cars are 2.5-litre Tasman unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Mildren 'Mono' (Kevin Bartlett): Designed by Len Bailey and built by Alan Mann Racing for Alec Mildren Racing in Australia in late 1968, when it was raced by Frank Gardner using one of 2.5-litre Alfa T33 V8 engines from the team's Brabham BT23D. Raced by Gardner in the 1969 Tasman series, then by Kevin Bartlett in the 1969 Gold Star series. Later in 1969 it was fitted a Waggott TC4V engine, and Bartlett used it in this form in the 1970 Tasman and the 1970 Gold Star. It was sold to Bob Muir at the end of 1970 and raced by him through 1971 and early 1972, both with his 2-litre Waggott engine and with a Ford twin cam engine for Southeast Asian events. Then to Ray Winter and used in ANF2 in 1973 and 1974. Winter used the car again on occasion in 1975 and 1976. Later on, when the new single-cam Australian F2 was introduced, the old Mildren was raced in that category by Greg Ferrall. Then unknown until acquired by Lionel Ayres and restored. The car was retained by Bruce Ayres after his father Lionel's death in 2013.
2. McLaren M4A [M4A/2] (Niel Allen): 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. Brabham BT23E [1] (John Harvey): 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).
4. Brabham BT16 [F2-8-65] (Col Green): John Coombs entered this Brabham BT16 for Graham Hill in 1965, fitted with a BRM P71 engine. Hill continued to race it in the early part of 1966 after which it was then refitted with a 2.5-litre Climax FPF and taken to Australia by Frank Gardner to be used in Tasman racing. Gardner won first time out at a Gold Star race at Warwick Farm in December 1966 and then raced it in the 1967 Tasman series as part of Alec Mildren's team. After the series it was acquired by Niel Allen who planned to race it himself but instead entered it for Fred Gibson in 1967 and again in early 1968 before it was sold to Col Green in mid-1968. Retained by Green for three seasons and then sold in mid-1971 to Neil Rear (Perth, Western Australia), who raced it at Waneroo Park in 1972. In 1973, it was fitted with a Cosworth 1600 engine and at the end of that season, Rear sold it to Colin Hall, who planned to fit a Lotus twin cam, but continued to drive his Macon instead. Rear raced the car again in early 1974, before clouting the barrier in a race at Wanneroo in April 1974. The Brabham passed through various owners until acquired by photographer Julian Cowan. Sold via Bonhams to Rob McMillan (Sydney, NSW, Australia) and rebuilt on a replica chassis for historic racing, the original chassis being cut up and scrapped.
5. Cooper Mk I 'T41' ['F2-2-56'] (Bill Anderson): The fouth and final Mk 1 built for 1956 went to Ken Wharton and was then shipped out to New Zealand for the Internationals. Ater Wharton's death in a sports car race, the Mk 1 returned to the UK and was sold to Bill Whitehouse for the early 1957 races. When Whitehouse took delivery of his Mk II, the ex-Wharton Mk I went to Paul England, on holiday from Australia. England later sold the car to Austin Miller, another Aussie over in Europe and he shipped it back to Australia. It ran as the Miller Special for several seasons and remained in Australia with later owners. (Sources: Cooper Cars, Nye; Historic Racing Cars in Australia, Blanden)

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.