1964 Sandown 6 Hour: Alfa triumph
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Sandown 500 and before history is made in 2024, rewind to see how it all started in 1964.
By the end of 1963 the rise and rise of Touring Car racing was obvious to all.
The Australian Racing Drivers Club chest-marked the Armstrong 500, shifting the race to Mount Panorama after the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club couldn’t afford to repair the damage to its tarmac wrought during the October 1962 Armstrong won by the Harry Firth and Bob Jane aboard a works Ford Falcon XL.
This pair repeated the dose in a Ford Cortina GT at Bathurst in ’63.
Melbourne’s terribly-pucka Light Car Club of Australia were keen to grab a slice of the tourer glory and money and set about organising a Six-Hour enduro for Groups 1 and 2 cars to be held on November 29, 1964.
A Who’s-Who of drivers entered in a mix of factory and privateer entries: BMC UK Morris Cooper S’ were raced by Peter Manton and Brian Foley, Paddy Hopkirk and John Fitzpatrick, and Timo Makinen and Rauno Aaltonen, while the FoMoCo entered Bob Jane and George Reynolds in a Lotus Cortina. Allan Moffat entered his similar ex-works car sharing with Jon Leighton.
Nissan Motor Distributors were in on the ground floor of touring car racing too, fielding Datsun Bluebird SS’ for Brian Muir and Bill Brown, and Spencer Martin and Ron Clarke.
Other big names included later Gold Star/AGP winners Kevin Bartlett, Frank Matich, Doug Whiteford and Lex Davison.
Most of the spectator interest was in the Big V8s – it has been forever thus! – and no less a driver than 1959/62 Indy winner Rodger Ward shared a Studebaker Lark with Warren Weldon while British nobleman, Sir Gawaine Baillie shared his Ford Galaxie with Davison.
In the end the win went to the reltively little – but reliable – Alfa Romeo Giulia as Lex Davison’s Galaxy spectacularly crashed out in the background. Image: AutoPics
It was Baillie’s portly, 425bhp, 427cid two-door Holman-Moody built Ford Galaxie Fastback that provided much of the race’s excitement.
This commenced with the citizens of twee High Street, Armadale when, unable to fit the car on a trailer, Davo rumbled up High Street with a bit-of-wellie shaking the windows of frock salons enroute to AF Hollins’ workshop.
A potent of things to come arose when a Melbourne Herald reporter got the ride of his life when Lex’ demo of the Galaxie’s pace included its loss of braking power on the drop down the Dandenong Road Esses!
Moffat’s Group 2 Lotus Cortina – just acquired from Team Lotus in the US, of which he was a member – arrived after practice had finished, while Jane’s Lotus Cortina three-wheeled around in characteristic style.
Race morning dawned fine and sunny, 27,000 Melburnians rocked-up to enjoy a spectacular race.
Davison was among the Studebaker Lark V8s upfront and took the first stint, spectacularly bagging-em-up and disappearing into the distance, lapping the tailenders before the end of lap two.
By lap 40 Davison led Moffat and needed six-pumps of the brakes to get a decent pedal.
On lap 47 he got no response on the 170kmh run along Pit Straight before the second gear, slow, Peters left hander where the tail whacked the fence.
He then struggled to stop the beast at the Hollins pit. The offside front brake had worn through both pads and one of the backing plates allowing a piston to contact the disc, damaging it and the caliper.
The caliper was replaced in 22 minutes. Baillie rejoined in 30th place, eight laps behind the leader – still with the damaged disc fitted – while a spare was tracked down via the on-circuit PA system!
Moffat’s Cortina clobbered the fence too, so the race became a duel between Jane’s Cortina and the ultimate winner, Alec Mildren’s Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super, driven by Alfa factory driver Roberto Businello and Sydney’s Ralph Sach.
Baillie came in after 20 laps and handed over to Davison. On lap 91 Lex had total brake failure, again at Peters.
He lost some speed by jamming the car into second but muffed the change into first gear, thereby losing the opportunity to lock the rear wheels and spin the car. So, utterly a passenger, he ploughed headlong into the fence.
The Galaxie smote the timbers at 120kmh, smashed through the planks and displaced a 12-inch diameter fence post which drove the right front wheel back against the firewall, then stopped halfway through the fence, nose down on the edge of the six-metre drop into the dam.
The car didn’t fall because the front of it was resting on the hefty fence post. Lex’ door was jammed shut, the right-hand door was locked but eventually he got out, severely shaken but ok.
The Ecurie Australie team, on Pit Straight, ran the short distance to his aid to hear his immortal words repeated many times down the decades since, “The big bitch nearly killed me,” Davison exclaimed to Baillie and Ashton.
And so finished the first Sandown enduro – long the traditional Bathurst warm-up – many of which have been equally exciting.
1964 Sandown 6 Hour results
1: Roberto Bussinello/Ralph Sachs Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super 230 laps
2: Peter Manton/Brian Foley Morris Cooper S +7 Laps
3: Geoff Russell/John Raeburn Ford Cortina GT +7 Laps
4: Allan Moffat/Jon Leighton Ford Cortina Lotus +10 Laps
5: I Cooke/Bruce Hindhaugh Morris Cooper S +19 Laps
Image: AutoPics.com.au
2024 Sandown 500
Practice 1: 1: C. Waters 1:08.7478 2: C. Mostert +0.1445 3: D. Reynolds +0.1834
Practice 2: 1: S. Pye 1:08.8398 2: D. Fraser +0.0780 3: D. O’Keeffe +0.0785
Practice 3: 1: J. Le Brocq 1:08.2772 2: W. Brown +0.0394 3: A. Heimgartner +0.1377
Practice 4: 1: R. Stanaway 1:14.4910 2: B. Feeney +0.0361 3: L. Holdsworth +0.0422
Practice 5: 1: W. Brown 1:13.0865 2: R. Stanaway +0.1550 3: M. Payne +0.1586
Qualifying: 1: B. Feeney 1:12.8980 2: C. Mostert +0.0404 3: M. Payne +0.0879
Top 10 Shootout: 1: W. Brown 1:10.2549 2: C. Waters +0.0647 3: A. De Pasquale +0.1015
Warm up: Sun 9.55
Race: Sun 14.05 161 laps
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