Big O Larry Ormsby – Now the Big OAM after Australia Day Honours. 

Australian drag racing legend, the ‘Big O’ Larry Ormsby will forever now be known as the ‘Big OAM’ after Ormsby was recognised in this year’s Australia Day Honours. 

Larry Ormsby OAM, receives his Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame award in 2019

The recognition comes in the form of the Order of Australia Medal, awarded to Ormsby for his storied and successful 40-plus year career in the sport.

He has been recognised as a record-setting and championship-winning driver, official, and promoter.

Ormsby began his racing career in his family XR GT Falcon in the bygone era of ‘Win on Sunday. Sell on Monday’, garnering the attention of Ford’s Big Al Turner.

A pair of famous factory-backed GTHOs followed, first a XW GTHO Phase I – Ormsby the first to race a GTHO Falcon in any category of motorsport – and then the “Braker III” XY GTHO Phase III with which he claimed the first ever Australian Nationals Pro Stock title.

Amongst many national open event wins around the country, Ormsby won the Nationals five times, in four different categories, Stock (1970), Pro Stock (1971), Competition (1976 in a AA/Dragster), and Top Fuel (1979, 84).

Larry Ormsby won the Nationals five times, in four different categories, Stock (1970), Pro Stock (1971), Competition (1976 in a AA/Dragster), and Top Fuel in 1979, 84

He recorded the first 7-second pass for an alcohol dragster in Australia, was the second racer to earn a spot in the Goodyear 5-Second Club.

He set the Top Fuel speed record at 247 miles per hour, and set five World Land Speed Records in the Waltzing Matilda jet-powered Ford Louisville truck.

Nearly all of Ormsby’s racing successes came with the help of his long-time crew chief and iconic Lot 6 Mahoneys Road Ford Racing mechanic, “Russell the Rascal” Colin Russell.

In addition to his on-track achievements, Ormsby was instrumental in the sport’s breakaway from the Australian Hot Rod Federation and subsequent formation of ANDRA in 1973. He became its first Chairman of Honour the same year.

He also held management roles at Calder Park, Adelaide International, and Heathcote Raceways. Ormsby was the General Manager for RPS Promotions and its Rothmans-sponsored Winfield Drag Racing Series. The series also received major television coverage from Channel 9’s Wide World of Sports.

In 2019, Ormsby was inducted into the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame alongside notables such as Craig Lowndes, Max Dumesny, and John Bowe.

Following on from the announcement that Larry Ormsby received the prestigious medal of the Order Of Australia for services to drag racing, we take a look back in the our archives at a story that was published in Auto Action issue #1725 magazine in December 14, 2017…

Big O Larry Ormsby featured on our Auto Action cover back in December of 2017

AUSTRALIAN DRAG racing legend, Larry Ormsby has released a stunning new, strictly limited edition hard cover book titled ‘The Larry Ormsby Scrapbook – The Ford Years’.

In this must-have book for any drag racing or muscle car fan, Larry Ormsby documents the early years of his long and successful drag racing career in which he campaigned a trio of tough Ford GT and GT-HO Falcons. Ormsby’s big Fords terrorised drag strips around the country.

1971 – Nov 28 – Big O Larry Ormsby.

Those years also coincided with an exciting, but sadly bygone era when the ‘Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday’ mantra ruled the sales strategies of major car companies.

It was also a time when drag racing was a big deal, being televised live into lounge rooms on a Sunday afternoon. Drag racing also earned considerable column inches in the nation’s biggest newspapers, making the sport’s stars as recognisable as their circuit racing counterparts.

Ormsby’s timing to begin his drag racing career could not have been any better…

With a burgeoning brakes servicing business in Melbourne, Brake Service Co., Larry Ormsby was introduced to the sport when racer-turned-promoter, Jack ‘Fizzball’ Collins invited him to the first drags meet held at Calder Park in April 1968.

Enthused by what he witnessed, Ormsby took Collins’s bait and fronted the next month with his family car.

It was one of Ford’s new XR GT Falcons – the thumping V8-powered sedan that kick-started Australia’s muscle car era.

In the 1960s drag racing was a bit more basic than it is in the 21st century.

Prepared for the strip by one his Brake Service Co. branch managers, an extraordinary young mechanic by the name of Colin Russell. Ormsby immediately impressed, winning his class on debut and running as quickly as 15.88 seconds.

Such were his performances over coming months that Ormsby captured the eye of legendary Ford Racing boss Al Turner (who passed away in November of 2021), enough attention to earn the blue oval’s factory support.

Russell’s abilities were also recognised with Turner poaching him for Ford’s famous factory racing team at Lot 6 Mahoney’s Road soon after.

Ormsby’s book covers all three of his famous GT Falcons – the original XR GT. His 1970 Nationals-winning XW GT-HO, and the full factory-supported XY GT-HO ‘Braker III’, with which Ormsby claimed the first ever Nationals Pro Stock title.

1969 Jan 5 Calder Larry Ormsby.

1969 – XW GTHO Falcon Debut at Calder v Dave Bennett proudly supported by Bib Stillwell and his Ford dealership.

It includes in-depth insight into each of these legendary cars and their results. The publication includes details of the successful, and some not so successful, modifications, in addition to expert running commentary from Ormsby, Turner, Russell, and more.

AUTO ACTION publishes this extract from “The Larry Ormsby Scrapbook – The Ford Years” in which Ormsby and Turner detail how Ford’s factory backing eventuated.

It was during the time soon after making the move from the 289 cubic inch V8-powered XR GT to the soon-to-be-released XW GT-HO Falcon with its bigger, more powerful 351 Windsor.

An Invitation From The Ford Motor Company

TOWARDS THE end of 1968 I received a call from John Gowland at Ford Motor Company advising that Al Turner, the new Racing Manager at Ford, would like a meeting, and asked if I was available the next week. My answer was ‘yes’ and a date and time was set.

Prior to the meeting Colin and I endeavoured to establish some idea as to what the meeting might represent and who Al Turner was at Ford.

We established that Al had arrived in Australia in 1968. Prior to that he had been working on drag racing programs for Lincoln- Mercury, where he had been instrumental in developing Funny Cars, although his work also included broader disciplines of motor sport.

As we were led to believe, Turner’s brief in Australia was to work with Bill Bourke (Ford Managing Director) to develop cars that would capture the youth market.

This all sounded positive from our perspective and prior to the meeting I had illusions of Funny Cars, or whatever.

You can call me ‘Big Al’

Ford’s Al Turner left with David McKay, was instrumental in furthering Ormsby’s racing ambitions.

The meeting went along the lines of Al advising he had seen our XR GT Falcon on Channel O television on several occasions and asked what we had done so far to achieve the elapsed times that we were recording.

Al was impressed with the 4.00:1 diff install along with the 13” wheel option, and spent some time discussing his past interest and involvement in drag racing in the USA. He was easy to talk to and indicated that Ford may be interested in helping our team in the future.

What is needed to win.

He then posed the question to me; “What would you need to win on a per meeting basis?”

My reply was simply; “One light on the Christmas Tree.”

This response satisfied Turner. He said competitors often answered his question with a list of performance parts, which while part of the equation did not necessarily guarantee a winning performance.

My response assumed that we had the performance required, but more importantly had the edge to allow us to wait for a clean ‘green’ at the start line. It also assumed we would have enough ET performance to catch our opponent before the finish line.

Turner suggested we consider the more current XT GT with the 302 cubic inch engine, as Ford had a substantial catalogue of performance parts for this engine. My response was lukewarm to the concept, as the Monaro GTS 327 was already beating our reasonably tricked-up XR GT 289.

I mentioned Colin’s remarks that “nothing beats cubes” and that we were already competing against the 396 Camaro and the like in Stock Eliminator, and I felt that we needed more than the 302 might be able to deliver.

The discussion then centred on the 351 Windsor engine that was expected around the middle of June 1969.

For starters, Turner arranged for me to meet Bib Stillwell as our Ford Dealer contact and indicated that he would arrange for us to purchase the Falcon XW GTHO 351 at AutoAction.

In the 1960s drag racing was a bit more basic than it is in the 21st century.

The ‘Late’ Al Turner Recalls

Ford Special Vehicles boss Al Turner, who arrived in Australia in December 1968 with responsibility for Ford’s factory-backed racing, was the one who recognised Larry’s abilities early on.

“I was aware of pretty much everything that was going on over there (before I went to Australia); that was my job. I needed to stay in touch,” Turner says.

“My background was drag racing but that didn’t mean that that was my main focus. My focus was on everything. We didn’t have a big budget for the drag racing, but we took care of Larry.

“I’d been to a couple of events. Larry was a talent, he was a good driver.

“We had a saying in my drag racing days; ‘You snooze. You lose.’
“Larry was very focused on what he was doing. I’d done my homework on him before I called him in to talk to him and I had already made up my mind when he came in.

“I also had the Performance Parts program that I was trying to set up, so those were key things for us to be able to key into, to advance the Performance Parts thing. Drag racers use as many parts as the sponsored cars that were running Bathurst and the rest of it.”

Larry’s Scrapbook

The Larry Ormsby Scrapbook

“The Larry Ormsby Scrapbook – The Ford Years” is a strictly limited edition release with the first issue being the 351 Limited Edition, with just 351 copies available.

It is presented in a commemorative rigid box, with the box and book cover featuring distinctive silver foil embossing, and includes a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.

Cost for the premium version is $351 plus $30 p&h, the cost for the un-numbered standard edition is $75.00 plus postage and handling. To order, visit the online store at www.larryormsby.com