REMEMBERING BILL BROWN – FOR MORE THAN THE OBVIOUS  

VALE BILL BROWN 

AUTO ACTION is sad to acknowledge the passing of sports and touring car racer Bill Brown who died on September 23rd at the age of 81 after a short battle with illness.

Seen in the above photo with a young Dick Johnson.

While it is the two huge crashes at Bathurst in Ford Falcons that Bill Brown is widely known for, it was his success in sports car racing in the late 60’s and early 70’s that he was most proud of.

It all began for Brown competing in some club racing in Sydney during the early ‘60’s, racing a Porsche 1600 Speedster at the Homebush and Warwick Farm circuits in NSW.

As a young man, Bill Brown was great mates with Spencer Martin, and indeed they remained close friends right up till his passing.

It was via this friendship that Brown got to know racer David McKay, later of Scuderia Veloce fame. David McKay was well known for preparing and racing cars and specialised in preparing cars for longer distance events and this led to some endurance drives for Brown and Martin.

In 1964 Brown teamed up with Martin for the 500 mile race at Bathurst and the pair won their class at in a Vauxhall Viva.

The relationship with McKay grew and saw Bill Brown racing in sports cars.

In 1966, he took a class victory in the Surfers Paradise 12Hour in a Volvo P1800 he shared with David McKay.

The relationship with McKay also gave him the opportunity to race the fabulous Scuderia Veloce Ferrari 250LM.

The 250LM delivered Brown many race wins. Indeed, Brown rated his greatest race victory as that of winning the 1967 Surfers Paradise 12 Hour. In that race he shared the victory with Greg Cusack.

Brown also managed to prang the very valuable Ferrari at Warwick Farm in 1967.

The relationship with Scuderia Veloce’s David McKay also gave him the opportunity to race another fabulous Ferrari, when in 1968 McKay imported the Ferrari Can-Am 350. The Ferrari had been converted from one of the 1967 Le Mans 4.0 Litre V12 factory P4’s.

Originally imported for Chris Amon to race, Brown drove the car at a round of the Tasman Series at Longford. During the event, Brown set an Australian speed record at the tree lined Tasmanian road circuit of 182.9 MPH (294.5 Km/h), this was the fastest ever recorded outright speed at an Australian race circuit at the time.

A few months later he raced the car at Bathurst and set another record for the fastest official time down Conrod straight of 181 MPH (291 Km/h).

In 1968 Brown was part of the first Holden Dealer Racing Team, racing the new HK Holden Monaro GTS 327.

It was a clandestine ‘Factory effort’ sponsored by the Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper and put together by Scuderia Veloce’s David McKay.

Although a Monaro delivered Holden its first ‘Great race’ win, it was a privateer in Bruce McPhee and Barry Mullholland who took the flag first.

The best placed car of the McKay managed Holden Dealer Racing Team Monaro’s was Jim Palmer/Phil West in second, while a damaged wheel put Brown and teammate Paul Hawkins Monaro out of the race.

But for most race fans, it was the two big Bathurst crashes that Brown had during the running of the 500-mile production car races that he became infamous for.

In 1969, on the opening lap he crashed the big Falcon XW GT HO on the run down the hill from Skyline after a slight touch with another competitor. It was a big crash that saw many competitors get caught up in and the race was slowed to a crawl while the wreckage was removed.

And then in 1971, it was the huge crash at McPhillamy Park that will live long in the memories of most touring car fans.

It is a crash that is still considered to be one of the most violent ever witnessed and is regularly played in event highlight packages.

While running competitively in the front part of the field, Brown’s XY GTHO Phase III Falcon blew a tyre in the high-speed run through McPhillamy and then after losing control and slamming into the fence, the big Falcon barrel rolled along the top of the armco narrowly missing an official and slicing the big sedan in half just behind the driver’s seat.

Most who witnessed the incident feared that Brown had been killed or at least seriously injured, but after several minutes, with the help of officials and spectators Brown emerged from the wreckage with a few minor cuts and bruises and was thankful that the big Falcon had not ended up in the crowd.

Brown kept racing and in the early 1970’s was still a fast peddler in 911 Porsche’s and competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship races. Later his Porsche 911 carried the Grace Bros signage.

During the ’70’s Brown continued to race occasionally at Bathurst and last competed at Bathurst in 1978, with by then former wife Sue Ransom in Ford Capri GT 3000 Mk.1.

While he only ever considered himself an amateur racer, he was still highly regarded for his abilities.

Brown retired from a successful business life several years ago.

AUTO ACTION extends our condolences to Bill Brown’s family, friends and those who knew him.