AA Archives: Planned Geelong street race, Senna tests IndyCar, Erebus in race to make v8 test

Take a journey back in time and discover what was making news this week over the last five decades as AUTO ACTION delves into its archives.

1973

The famous New Zealand Grand Prix was held in early January 50 years ago and the title taken out by John McCormack after a ‘war of attrition’ at Pukekohe.

The cover of AUTO ACTION issue #51 in January 1973.

Only seven of the 18 starters reached the chequered flag after 58 laps, but it was a thriller with McCormack edging out Alan Rollinson by just 0.6s.

With the victor encountering some mechanical gremlins through the weekend, it was an impressive effort.

“1973’s New Zealand Grand Prix turned out to be a war of attrition, with only even of the 18 starters making it ti the finish of the 58-lap, 101.5-mile race,” read the report by Grahame Brownlie.

“But through it all John McCormack turned on a fine, heady drive which earned him a close 0.6-second win over Britain’s Alan Rollinson in the McRae GMI.

“McCormack’s car was hardly in the best condition, having lost third gear after only eight laps, and later was troubled by a sticking throttle, but the Ansett-sponsored Elfin-Repco was getting its power onto the ground extra well and this helped McCormack take the 89.86 mph win.

A week later the Tasman Championship continued at Levin, where Graham McRae stormed to a crushing win.

Graham McRae on his way to winning the second round of the Tasman Championship.

McRae led every lap of the 100 mile race and rewrote the event’s average speed record. He won by 29.6s over Frank Matich, while McCormack suffered a broken throttle cable on the first lap.

1983

TOURING CAR racing appeared destined to take place on the Geelong streets on the Easter weekend of 1983.

The cover of AUTO ACITON issue #311 from January 28 1983.

The Geelong 500 was given the green light to be held on April 2-4 after the Geelong City Council voted 14-1 in favour of the race.

“Geelong’s fabulous Easter Touring Car race through the streets will go ahead,” read the story.

“A meeting of the Geelong City Council met last week and voted 14 to 1 in favour of the race, which will be staged on April 4.

The planned Geelong street circuit.

“The two hour meeting threw its full support behind the event, which will be over 198 laps (498.9km) of Geelong’s city streets. $80,000 prize money is up for grabs, enough to to attract an entry from every major Touring Car team in the country – many of whom have already indicated they will run the new event.”

Excitement was also building for the start of the 1983 ATCC season at Calder Park, which promised to be “more competitive than ever” with big names and multiple manufacturers expected to contend.

Dick Johnson was the man to beat heading into the 1983 ATCC season.

“There’s no doubt about it. The Australian Touring Car scene is no longer just a Ford versus Holden battleground,” read the David Segal’s preview.

“In 1982, the Mazda and Nissan challenge really came into its own, the former scoring many good wins and the latter looking like it was ready to go by season’s end.

“Reigning Touring Car champion Dick Johnson is all ready to face the new season with his Tru-Blu Steel supported Falcon XE. Dick is certainly confident, not only because of new team manager George Shepheard, but also because of the duo’s recent trip to America. They came back with a few vital engine bits and a number of ideas.”

1993

Gary Brabham was announced as the first Australian to race in the Gold Coast IndyCar Grand Prix after striking a deal with Dick Simon Racing.

The cover of AUTO ACTION issue #568 from January 22 1993.

“I’m happy to be at the Gold Coast,” Brabham said in the cover story.

“We’ve had a tremendous response from Australian corporations, but until the deal was done with Dick we couldn’t tell them what the team was, or what they’d get for their investment.

“Now it is full steam ahead.”

Rumours of a potential shock switch from F1 to IndyCar for Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna were running wild at the start of 1993.

Ayrton Senna testing the Penske Chevrolet PC22 for the first and only time at Firebird Raceway, Phoenix.  Photo: Motorsport Images

A test for Penske at the end of 1992 fuelled the speculation, with Senna revealing IndyCar was becoming a serious option in a one-page interview.

“I have an open mind about the future and seriously considering what I should do next,” Senna said.

“Given the difficulties we had in F1, I lost my enthusiasm. I am seriously considering what I should be doing next, and that includes not driving in ’93 as well as thinking about Indy.

“I always had a lot of curiosity about Indy because I have never seen an Indy car close by. It was a new experience for me and it was something special.

“The Indy car is more driveable. In a way it is more for the driver, which is great.”

A move to Indycars was considered by Senna, but never transpired as he raced his sixth and final season for McLaren in 1993.

2003

The new Holden VY Commodore V8 Supercar was revealed with a more aggressive look.

The cover of AUTO ACTION issue #1022 from January 15-21 2003.

Although “Project paw-print” was revealed, it was still unclear which drivers would be lucky enough to steer the latest Commodore at the non-championship 2003 opener at Albert Park.

Holden Motorsport high performance car manager Ray Borrett was not worried about the looks of the car, but concerned about the delays in finalising the aero package under the parity based Project Blueprint rules that came into affect in the upcoming 2003 season.

“The general look of the car should not deviate too much from the pictures,” he said in the story.

“It is going to be pretty late, but we are all working together (with Ford) to make sure Project Blueprint works for the sport.

“This is a critical car for us because its a new machine and we want to demonstrate our place at the top of the V8 Supercar championship.”

Despite losing star driver Craig Lowndes and question marks surrounding its factory support from Ford, 00 Motorsport announced it was “blazing along” towards the 2003 season.

After losing Craig Lowndes and Ford support to the newly formed FPR team, 00 Motorsport experienced a tough 2003 V8 Supercars season. Greg Ritter gets airborn during the Winton 300. Image: Mark Horsburgh/LAT Photographic

Team owner Bob Forbes confirmed his squad will remain part of the V8 Supercars series despite negotiations with Prodrive recently shifting focus to Glenn Seton’s operation, which would become Ford Performance Racing.

“We are blazing along as scheduled,” Forbes told AUTO ACTION.

“We are negotiating with a number of drivers, but we are here to stay and keep everything going along with the plan we had in place – except with a few obvious differences.”

2013

Erebus Motorsport was in a frantic race against time to get its three Mercedes AMG E63’s ready for the first chapter of the Car of the Future era.

The cover of AUTO ACTION issue #1524 from January 16-22 2013.

With less than a month before the February test day, Erebus was yet to finish building a single Mercedes or sign its third driver alongside Lee Holdsworth and Tim Slade, but was adamant it would be ready.

“We are coming a long way in our progress against our timeline and expectations but we are going to have to jump through some hoops fairly soon as far as Supercars goes to make sure we can go racing,” said Erebus Motorsport CEO Ryan Maddison.

“We are literally down to the wire one making sure we can get to the mandatory test day on February 16. No one is working standard hours at the facility here.

“We will definitely intend to have three cars for the test and Adelaide 500.”

The silly season remained in full swing with seats at Tekno Autosports, Dick Johnson Racing, Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport and Erebus still up for grabs.

Maro Engel ended up securing the car #9 seat in 2013 as Erebus Motorsport managed to get its three Mercedes E63 AMG’s ready in time.

Due to Shane van Gisbergen’s departure from Erebus, the #9 Mercedes seat became hot property with European stars Mark Engel and Christian Klien linked. The former ended up getting signed.

LDM was looking for options to fill its second car with Dean Fiore the favourite to sit alongside then debutante Scott Pye and that proved to be the case.

After Norton’s and James Moffat’s departure to Nissan, DJR also had a sit to fill with Karl Reindler the early favourite ahead of the likes of Steve Owen and Michael Patrizi. But none of the trio ended up racing for the famous Ford squad with Tim Blanchard driving #17 and Kiwi Jonny Reid driving the first three rounds before being replaced by impressive newcomer Chaz Mostert.

Despite links to Walkinshaw, Nick Percat was “strongly tipped” to join Jonathon Webb at Tekno Autosports. But in the end Percat had to wait and race a season in Carrera Cup as van Gisbergen stepped out of retirement into car #97 and the rest is history.

For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.

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