Big Bad Sandown : An Endangered Species at 60
Victoria’s capital of motor racing turned 60 on March 11/12. Superb, fast Sandown hosted all the greats, with triumph and a little tragedy along the way. With property developer’s Sword of Damocles poised, Mark Bisset plots the twists and turns of a competitor and spectator favourite.
Horses and horsepower have gone hand-in-glove at Sandown for over a century, of all our racing-cathedrals, Sandown’s competition DNA goes back the furthest.
Wealthy Brighton publican William Cullen established his 275-acre Oakleigh Park in 1888 for horse racing. Sandown’s current site was posh with two grandstands, stables, saddling paddocks, plenty of flowers and green grass.
The Commercial Travellers Association’s held their annual picnic at Sandown Park on March 12, 1904. Attendees, all frocked-up in their Sunday best, witnessed the first car races in Victoria organised by the Automobile Club of Victoria.
James R Crooke, great grandfather of 1986 Australian F2 Champion, Jon Crooke, won the first event, a 1½ mile voiturette handicap atop a 4.5hp Locomobile steam car. The ‘steam-cars’ which followed many decades hence were usually suffering undue levels of mechanical stress.
Horses for Courses
State Government rationalisation of thoroughbred racing in 1931 resulted in Sandown’s closure along with several other metropolitan courses, but with post-war growth to Melbourne’s south, Springvale Council approved construction of a new horse racing facility on the site in 1959.
Cooper Climax racer, Jon Leighton extolled the profitability of motor racing to his father, Stanley Leighton. Leighton Construction pitched and won the contract to build Sandown’s grandstand, then did a deal with the Victorian Amateur Turf Club (VATC) to waive their fees (to design and construct the now heritage listed building) on the basis that a racetrack be incorporated within the facility.
Sandown Park Motor Sport opened for business on 11/12 March 1962, the thoroughbreds followed in 1965.
A huge crowd watched Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham battle out the 60-lap Sandown Park International in scorching Melbourne heat, aboard Lotus 21 Climax and Cooper T55 Climax respectively. Brabham prevailed from John Surtees, Bruce McLaren, Chuck Daigh, Moss and Jim Clark.
Bill Patterson was seventh, other local quicks included Lex Davison, Doug Whiteford, Bib Stillwell, and John Youl. Later sports-sedan ace, Bryan Thomson raced a Cooper T51 Climax and is the sole-survivor.
“We were new boys; I bought the Cooper in ’61 and only raced it a few times. It wasn’t about competing or winning, being on the same grid as these icons was mind-spinning.”
“We had oil pressure problems all weekend, which turned out to be a cracked block. But we presented as country boys did! I was going ok then got lapped by Davison, Stillwell and Salvadori at The Causeway – zoom-zoom-zoom!”
“Try harder I thought! I did, but then understeered off and gently clipped the Causeway wall. I damaged the suspension but got the car under the Dunlop Bridge to a safer place, then jumped out.”
“Then John Youl came over the bridge in his T51 upside-down! He landed on the wire fence between the two cars. I was sure he had a broken back, but he got up and walked away,” from what was the first of Sandown’s many Big Ones.
Great racing put Sandown on the map while voluptuous actress Jill St John put Sandown on the social pages. Her husband, Lance Reventlow, an heir to the Woolworths fortune, ran a Scarab Buick V8 for American F1 driver Chuck Daigh, he was fourth.
Melburnians flocked to the place, 30 km to the cities south. Access was great and noise wasn’t a problem with few houses close by, factories, and a huge cemetery to the north.
Victorian racing had a new capital. Sandown and soon to be opened Warwick Farm and Lakeside provided quality international venues, the Tasman Cup soon followed.
Early AGP and ATCC success
Sandown’s first Australian Grand Prix was the 1964 100-miler won by our-Jack in one of his own cars, a Brabham BT7A Climax.
The Tasman Cup and later Rothmans Series summer internationals were key Sandown events. Every World Champion from 1959 to 1971 competed here in a magic-decade of racing which makes old-fans misty-eyed; Brabham, Phil Hill, Graham Hill, Clark, Surtees, Denny Hulme, Jackie Stewart and Jochen Rindt.
Touring Car racing was on the march in the early sixties. Sandown’s first 6-hour enduro (the length varied over the years), held in November 1964 was won by the Roberto Businello/Ralph Sach Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Super.
Youthful Canadian, Allan Moffat, co-driven by Jon Leighton, could have won it in his just acquired ex-works Lotus Cortina, but for an off, however the day is renowned for Davison’s near-swim in the Sandown Dam after brake-failure in his monstrous Ford Galaxie Coupe. A huge crash left the beast’s nose teetering above murky, brown waters.
A Who’s-Who of drivers included Kevin Bartlett, Bill Brown, Brian Foley, Alan Hamilton, Bob Jane, Peter Manton, Spencer Martin, Frank Matich, Bruce McPhee, Brian Muir, Brian Sampson, and Doug Whiteford. Visiting internationals were Rauno Aaltonen, Paddy Hopkirk, John Fitzpatrick, Timo Makinen, Jim Palmer, Jackie Stewart, and Rodger Ward.
Sandown’s long straights suited Ford’s Mustang, Norm Beechey and Bob Jane’s cars faced off in Springvale’s first Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) race in April 1965. Stormin’ Norm won comfortably from Pete Geoghegan’s Lotus Cortina, Muir’s Holden EH S4, and Moffat’s Lotus Cortina.
The die was cast for the next few years, Geoghegan, Jane, and later Moffat’s Mustangs thrilled Sandown spectators until the mid-1970s. Allan’s sensual, flaming-red Kar-Kraft Trans-Am 302 debuted at Sandown in May 1969.
The Hi-Po parts-bins of Ford and GM US were raided for our own Bathurst performance cars commencing with Ford’s ‘67 XR Falcon GT.
Sandown’s touring car roster comprised an ATCC round (from 1970) in the first half-year and an enduro in September. Form at the latter was indicative of Great Race pace, manufacturers traditionally rolled out new cars, or freshly homologated trick-bits in time for Sandown which made it compelling spectating.
Light Car Club of Australia
The Light Car Club of Australia’s heritage dated back to the organisation of the first Phillip Island Australian Grands Prix from 1928-1935.
The club ran Sandown from 1966, Jackie Stewart’s BRM P261 V8 won the Sandown Park Cup, the feature race of the LCCA’s first, February meeting.
Memorable events include Jim Clark’s thrilling 1968 Australian Grand Prix win aboard a Lotus 49 Ford by one-tenth of a second from Chris Amon’s howling-V6 Ferrari 246T. The brilliant Scot, winner of three Tasman Cups, died at Hockenheim only months later.
That September Holden rolled out their mighty Monaro 327GTS coupes, the crowd thrilled to the sight of two of the General’s finest up front of the Sandown 3-Hour. Tony Roberts/Bob Watson won from the Alan Jones/Clive Millis entry, the Jones boy left for Europe shortly thereafter and did rather well.
Beechey’s 1970 Sandown win was the second of three victories which won him the ATCC aboard an HT Monaro GTS350 built up the road in Dandenong. The crowd roared long-and-hard that day for a hometown boy in a hometown car!
Moffat bagged three Sandown ATCC wins on the trot from 1972-75 aboard Trans-Am, HO Phase 3 and XB GT Coupe, but his Sandown sweet spot commenced with back-to-back enduro wins in works HOs – as the homologation war hotted-up between Ford, GMH and Chrysler Valiant – in 1969-70.
It took Peter Brock until 1984 (Commodore VH) to win a Sandown ATCC round, but his enduro run commenced with a win in an HDT XU-1 in 1973, then followed an incredible seven wins in a row from 1975 to 1981 aboard Holden Torana L34 and A9X, and Commodore VCs.
The LCCA mixed things up in ongoing quests for bums-on-seats. Mid 1970s enduro rounds morphed into Two-Plus-Four meetings, a mix of touring cars, motor bikes and historic events.
In elite single-seaters, F5000 replaced more sophisticated 2.5-litre Tasman Formula cars from 1971 (having co-existed in 1970). Kiwi ace Graeme McRae had the same affinity with Sandown’s open spaces as Brock, winning AGPs in 1972-73 and 1978 aboard self-built McRae Chevs.
Few remember McRae’s AGP and Brock’s Hang Ten 400 wins that September 1978 day because Sandown was filled to the rafters with fans watching five-times F1 World Champion, Juan-Manuel Fangio, demonstrate straight-eight Mercedes Benz W196 he raced in 1954-55.
The sight of the 67-year-old ace kicking the Silver Arrows sideways for lap after lap in third gear through Shell Corner was an unforgettable, spectacular sight. It was a promotional coup for the LCCA at the height of its powers.
Sporting success, Commercial challenges
Sandown’s sporting success was incredible, but the Light Car Club business was a marginal proposition.
Sandown surpluses cross-subsidised other activities including its Queens Road, St Kilda bar and restaurant. Race meeting success often suffered due to Melbourne’s capricious weather, while driver’s appearance fees rendered summer internationals break-even propositions.
By the mid-1970s Springvale locals grumbled about noise, its remediation was expensive, so too were repairs to the Back Straight bridge. It always seemed that a financial step-and-a-bit-forward, was matched by one back.
Alf Costanzo sizzled around the original circuit in 59.6 seconds aboard Porsche Cars Australia’s McLaren M26 Chev in 1981 to set the lap record. This ex-James Hunt F1 car, converted to ground-effects was the world’s fastest F5000. It was a stunning lap in a machine which was never fully sorted…
Formula Pacific replaced F5000 as Australia’s National F1, successful Gold Star Sandown winners include John Bowe and Graham Watson in Ralt RT4s, Alf Costanzo, Tiga FA81 and Peter Macrow, Cheetah Mk8.
By the early 1980s Sandown needed serious investment to comply with FIA safety requirements. Chasing an F1 race, the club embarked on circuit extensions from 3.1 to 3.878km (minimum for F1 3.5km) via the addition of a twiddly infield section and safety changes at the track’s south end.
A change in State governments from Liberal to Labour administrations resulted in $M2 promised (but not contracted) for the upgrade being unpaid. The LCCA was in dire-financial-straights but managed, just, by selling its former club building in Brunswick Street Fitzroy to plug the cashflow hole.
Bernie Ecclestone was only interested in an AGP around Sydney’s streets until sweet-talkin’ Vern Schuppan and Premier John Bannon convinced him of Adelaide’s TV optics, so South Australia got-the-gig.
Undeterred, the LCCA secured a World Endurance Championship round in October 1984, what a stunning spectacle that race of 29 Group C Le Mans prototypes was!
The Stefan Bellof/Derek Bell Rothmans Porsche 956 won. Local interest was provided by Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Vern Schuppan, Colin Bond, Alf Costanzo, Dick Johnson, Allan Grice, Ron Harrop, Andrew Miedecke, Jim Richards, Tony Longhurst, Peter Janson, Lucio Cesario and more.
The race was huge, so was the commercial disaster. A legal squabble about noise threatened the race and frightened-off the preferred telecaster, promotion of cars the average punter knew little about was poor, and a State Election was held that day. Spectators didn’t come, a huge loss ensued, despite that, the club survived.
The Group A era provided variety in Sandown ATCC and enduro wins. From 1985 to 1989 the enduro victors were Peter Brock’s VK Commodore, Nissan Skyline DR30s of George Fury and Glenn Seton, and Dick Johnson’s Ford Sierra RS500s.
Then, in an extraordinary act of management incompetence, the LCCA, led by President, ex-racer, and Jaguar dealer James Smith, grabbed another WEC round in 1988.
Again, the sporting spectacle, head-lined by two works Jaguar XJR V12s and Sauber Mercedes C9 V8-turbos was stunning, the sound of the howling Jag V12s is still in my head.
Within months of the winning Jean-Louis Schlesser/Jochen Mass Mercedes taking the chequered flag, the LCCA was on its knees, and with it, so was Sandown.
Poorly promoted again, the killer was that only $100k of $500k ‘planned sponsorship’ was paid by Jaguar Rover Australia and Lucas Service Australia, doubtless because $500k had not been contracted. In addition, the ABC international TV deal involved no payment to the club.
Shane van Gisbergen wins race 2 of the Penrite Sandown SUPERSPRINT. Event 2 of the Repco Supercars Championship, Sandown, Australia. 21 Mar 2021
The Davison Era
The LCCA was Melbourne’s blueblood car-club. Generations of corporate titans competed in a vast array of Victorian events; they ran a 60-year-old club which was the envy of most in the world. Jon Davison, in Sandown’s hour-of-need was the blueblood who stepped up to the plate.
More invested than most in Sandown – his father, Lex, died in the infield after a heart attack at the wheel of his Brabham Climax in February 1965 – ‘Davo’ secured future race rights with the dying LCCA and Sandown’s landlord, the VATC.
“My brothers and I were thrilled to be a part of that ’62 meeting, Dad ran the Aston Martin DBR4, great car but off the pace of the newer Coopers. A quick track, the place had a charismatic setting and that fantastic grandstand.”
“I first raced there in an F3 Brabham in 1969. I had some good runs in the Lola T332 Chev F5000, led the ’77 Gold Star round and raced well in the ’79 Rothmans until the throttle jammed.”
“I advanced the LCCA $150K to pay Sandown’s outstanding rent when they were stuffed. The club then shafted me in relation to the terms of that advance, I litigated in the Supreme Court and won. I ran Sandown from November 1990.”
Despite inhabiting shark-infested waters Jon ran the facility with innovation – his Easternats, Ford Tickford and Channel 10 deals are examples – success and profitability until 2007.
In 1989 Davo dumped the International Circuit in favour of the 13-turn course we all know and love. This reinstated the challenging Rise at the top of the Back Straight and following open left-right, angel-ride downhill into Dandenong Road.
“I raced the Veskanda, Sierra, Nissan and Ralt RT4 around the international circuit, the infield section was no good, too tight and fiddly,” John Bowe recalled to Auto Action.
“It was great when I visited with Dad as a kid from Tassie during the Tasman Series, the grandstand, grass, flowers and the rest. It was impressive compared with Symmons and its corrugated iron dunnies!”
“I won my first race there, on the old circuit in my F2 Elfin 792 Golf in 1979. Garrie’s (Cooper) engine split a bore in practice. Bob Mills, Garrie and Dad pulled the engine out, bored and sleeved it at Motor Improvements, then I won the race on Sunday.”
“I’ve always loved the place and its fast corners; I’ve had my share of wins too. I spun my Ralt RT4 about 50-times having convinced myself I could do the Causeway flat one time. Another moment was a high-speed dive to the left of the track going over Rothmans Rise at about 220kph in Garrie’s Elfin MR9 Chev when a rear-rocker bent, a lucky one.”
With the growth of 5-litre V8s and V8 Supercars from 1997, Commodores driven by Mark Skaife, Larry Perkins and Craig Lowndes won ATCC rounds from 1994-1996. Falcons reigned supreme in the enduros from 1993 to 1995; Geoff Brabham/David Parsons won in a Glenn Seton Falcon EB in ’93 and Dick Johnson/John Bowe in 1994-95.
Commodores then won the Sandown 500 from 1996-1998; Craig Lowndes/Greg Murphy in ’96-7, and Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall in ’98. Mark Skaife won the sprint round at Sandown in 1999 aboard an HRT Commodore, and Paul Radisich in a DJR Falcon AU the following year.
Supercars returned for the longer format 500 in 2003 when the Skaife/Kelly VY Commodore won. In 2004 Falcon BAs took four wins in a row from 2004-2007, with Craig Lowndes a member of the winning crew twice.
Jamie Whincup is the winningest driver recently, he paired with Paul Dumbrell to victories in Triple Eight Commodore VF and ZBs in 2013-14 and 2018, and in 2019 with Craig Lowndes.
Big open wheelers returned to Sandown in September 2019 with S5000’s first race. 13 Ligier JS3-S5000 chassis powered by 560bhp 5.2-litre Ford Coyote V8s took the grid including one driven by former F1 star, Rubens Barrichello. Dual Gold Star champion, Tim Macrow took a fitting win that weekend, having done most of the prototype’s testing.
Melbourne’s population was 1.95 million when Jack Brabham took Sandown’s chequered flag in 1962, It’s 5.15 million now. Back then Springvale was unattractive as a home, filled as it was with manufacturing businesses.
Now it’s now urban and ‘closer’ to the CBD given decades of road and rail improvements; Sandown’s 275 acres is highly prized. The owner, the Melbourne Racing Club have managed motor racing in-house since 2007, It’s only a matter of time until the planets are aligned for a 7,500-home white-shoe feeding frenzy.
Treasure your Sandown racing and spectating folks, it’s been an unbelievable 60-year ride, but the carnival is nearly over.