Bathurst Motorsport Legends of the 60s
Put a group of old racing drivers and mechanics on stage for an intimate chat in front of hundreds of motor racing enthusiasts and it’s almost certain to be entertaining. When the main subject is Bathurst in the 1960s, it’s a sure thing.
Nine of the legends of Bathurst endurance racing gathered in suburban Melbourne on 21 March for just such an event and two more joined in by phone hookup from interstate. And the crowd of around 250 enthusiasts had a great evening.
The Bathurst Motorsport Legends Night saw drivers Colin Bond, Fred Gibson, Christine Gibson, John Raeburn, Brian Reed, Bob Watson and Jon Leighton joined by ace racing mechanics Ian Tate and Frank Lowndes on stage. Drivers Bob Holden and Barry Seton were interviewed by phone.
The event gave the participants an opportunity to go into detail, often humorous and enlightening, about the way they got into motorsport, special cars they drove and the characters they met along the way. Many of the stories revolved around the abilities of the late Harry Firth as a driver, mechanic, team manager and talent scout.
Fred Gibson spoke about the induction process for a new driver in the Ford team in 1967. Given the drive shortly before the race, he hadn’t driven one of the new Falcon GTs until he got to Bathurst and he first met his driving partner and team boss Harry Firth the night before practice for the 500 mile race. Harry gave his instructions on how to drive at Bathurst and the Firth/Gibson combination duly won.
The Mini Cooper S was all conquering at Bathurst back in 1966, taking the first 9 places. Bob Holden spoke by phone and recalled driving the winning car with Finland’s Rauno Aaltonen and noted the tenth placed car was a six cylinder Valiant automatic.
1969 winner Colin Bond recounted the story of buying his first racing car. As was commonly done, he purchased it at a race meeting. It just happened that the car lost a wheel during the racing that day. Bond took the car home on a trailer and jacked it up to prop the wheel in place before his sceptical father came to check out the purchase. His dad inspected the car, which included the traditional kicking of the tyres and the wheel rolled off down the driveway. His comment? “A bit fragile, isn’t it?”
Christine Gibson is the best known and most successful female driver in the endurance race. She recounted how Harry Firth organised the first all female team to race on the Mountain with Christine and Sandra Bennett driving a Holden Dealer Team Torana GTR XU-1 with an all female pit crew. On that occasion they finished 13th outright and in all Christine had 9 Bathurst starts with her best result being 6th outright.
Racing mechanics Ian Tate and Frank Lowndes told some intriguing tales of preparing the Ford Cortina GT 500, Falcon GT, Monaro GTS and Torana GTR XU-1 for Mt Panorama. Their descriptions of how these “stock standard” cars were specially produced and prepared to win the big race were fascinating.
Tate recalled that until 1973 the Holden Dealer Team cars, like most others, were driven to and from Bathurst for the race. In 1972 he and Peter Brock drove the two XU-1 Toranas from Melbourne. At one point during the night, Brock wanted to try out Colin Bond’s car, which Tate had been driving. They swapped cars and Tate drove on with Brock following in the Bond car. Soon after, Tate could no longer see the headlights of the car behind. He waited down the road and Brock eventually arrived, minus windscreen and headlights which had been shattered by stones thrown up from the other Torana. They eventually got to Bathurst and quietly fitted a new windscreen and lights before Firth found out. That weekend Peter Brock went on to win his first Bathurst.
Ian Tate continues to contribute to motorsport as President of the Victorian Historic Racing Register and Frank Lowndes has, among other things, helped his son Craig to great success as a driver.
It’s hoped the organisers continue to provide similar opportunities to hear from the legends of Australian motorsport.