The Willmington/Donovan XD Falcon was also looking pretty good early in the day (Bathurst 1980).
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The Willmington/Donovan XD Falcon was also looking pretty good early in the day (Bathurst 1980).
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Looks about midday Bathurst 1980 (yes I walked my feet off!) and the O'Brien/Morris Falcon rounds up the Price/Jonas Gemini coming on to Pit Straight.
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And the Moffat Falcon limps its way back down the mountain with a terminal case of lost smoke - Bathurst 1980. :(
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Back to Amaroo Park with a photo of the Moffat Falcon heading up Bitupave Hill. This shot clearly shows the variation in elevation around the track. As I have said before, Amaroo Park was always a great place to be, with reasonably good access for getting close to the cars. I used to go with two rolls of 36 and just keep trying in the hope of getting "that" picture. Plenty of "nearly got it" images like this one as a result!
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Still on the Amaroo Park images, I am reasonably sure that this is Ross Bond in his Bolwell. While the image is not the best quality, I hope you all enjoy it anyway.
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This looks like an earlier photo (I was probably using the instamatic, judging by the photo quality) of Bond in the Nagari which would date it to 1977.
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In the Amaroo pit area and getting up close to Brian Shead's Cheetah - 1977.
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Wow I'm really enjoying these, and its great to see a shot of Garry Willmington's Falcon, which was the first XD Group C car.
Also interesting to see Allan Moffat's ill-fated XD at Bathurst. Note also in this shot the Paul Gulson/Pete Geoghegan Commodore (the black and gold car) which plugged around all day almost unnoticed from its 13th position grid spot to eventually finish 3rd. Geoghegan wasn't doing a lot of racing by this stage, but showed he still had it.
Onto a Formula Ford photo, I think this would be 1978 at Amaroo Park but as I don't have a program handy I will let the forum members advise who the cars and drivers are...
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As with many of the races at Amaroo Park, someone always came off second best, but at least this was only an exit into the gravel.
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The image quality on this one is not too good but you can at least get the idea...
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This is one off the instamatic, Formula Ford - Amaroo Park, 1977 IIRC.
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An interesting practice picture of the Jeff Barnes Mustang at Oran Park with a couple of Formula Fords in pursuit. This image of mine has been on the net at another site, but in the context of a run of FF photos I though I would include it. The performance difference overall betweeen the Mustang and the open wheelers around Oran Park appeared minimal although I expect the technique was very different :)
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Another FF photo in a mixed practice session, this one definitely dated 1978 at Oran Park. Over to those with better knowledge than me on the cars and drivers...obviously only the car on the grass is a FF (Bowin?) but I am not going to hazard a guess on the winged car.
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[QUOTE=GFR;30076]This is one off the instamatic, Formula Ford - Amaroo Park, 1977 IIRC.
John Smith, the 77 Series Champ in the Grace Bros Bowin P4.
Continuing with the Amaroo Park Formula Ford theme, I captured an incident on the instamatic on April 19, 1977 - my notes say that a spin by Conway was hit by Barnacle, then McLucas then Bretland leaving a pile of cars on the corner. To my knowledge everyone was uninjured, but I guess it would have needed a bit of work to get the cars on track again. If any forum members have further knowledge of this incident, your comments would be welcome. These photos have never been published previously.
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These black and white images were taken on the day that Renault brought a Le Mans car to Amaroo Park and paraded it around on the back of a little truck - I am unsure of the date but it must have been post-June 1977 as they were "celebrating" their Le Mans win.
Unfortunately I didn't keep a record of the Formula Ford driver names but if someone has a program handy I think all could be identified. Hopefully one or two of you may own one of the cars these days :) Check out the pit boards in the third image - classic.
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John Tuxford kindly invited me to spend some time with his small team supporting his Bowin P4A. I can't recall which specific chassis number this was, but the car was sold in March 1977 and John retired from racing to pursue his studies. The grid photos are from Oran Park 6th February 1977, also visible is Richard Carter in the Birrana and Lyndon Arnel in the Lola. The other images were taken in March 1977 when John demonstrated and sold the car. I can't recall the buyer's name but would love to know if his car is still around.
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[QUOTE=GFR;30115]These black and white images were taken on the day that Renault brought a Le Mans car to Amaroo Park and paraded it around on the back of a little truck - I am unsure of the date but it must have been post-June 1977 as they were "celebrating" their Le Mans win.]
Maybe post June 1978 when Renault Alpines won Le Mans. All the ELF Alpines retired in ignominy with engine failure in 1977 (at about the same time and for the same reason as the year before), I doubt Renault would have been celebrating that.
[QUOTE=Howard Wood;30118]1978 for sure http://www.autopics.com.au/item.mibiznez?id=10218
Thanks Howard, that makes good sense. I remember thinking at the time that it would have been nice if they had actually driven the car around the circuit under its own power - and I found the photos:Quote:
Maybe post June 1978 when Renault Alpines won Le Mans. All the ELF Alpines retired in ignominy with engine failure in 1977 (at about the same time and for the same reason as the year before), I doubt Renault would have been celebrating that.
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" Check out the pit boards in the third image - classic."
Hanging out the pitboard at Amaroo was an unreal experience, especially with touring cars you had to hold it up over the roof, the further towards the start of the straight the worse it was as on a good lap they would graze the wall.
Another Amaroo Park photo from 1977, this time I recall it is Cam Worner in his Ford Capri leading the rest of the field into the sharp right hander with a dose of concrete wall close by to keep everyone honest.
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Another Ford Capri, Amaroo Park 1978, this one was owned and driven by Bob McTavish.
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Another 1978 incident at Amaroo Park, minor in nature at least, with the Gall/Bryant Mazda RX3 facing the traffic and being passed by the Morris-driven Ford Escort Mk 2.
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A 1978 photo of Peter Williamson in his Toyota Celica at Amaroo Park. The panel damage on this car, although minor, is very noticeable.
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Here is a neat group at the same 1978 Amaroo Park meeting, with Peter Williamson in the Celica, Alan Cant's Ford Capri, John(?) Duggan's Mazda RX3 and Barry Seton in his Ford Capri.
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These are fantastic photos Geoff, keep them coming.
Another Amaroo Park Formula Ford image from April 1977, this one I had labeled as Grant Walker but I am unsure of the chassis type.
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Following on from post #57 by Bondy, this photo confirms that car 33 is Richard Steigler who happens to be having a few issues that would lead to retirement from the race.
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And it just got worse each lap...
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A couple of touring car images from 1977, first John Goss in his Falcon...
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And Murray Carter in his Falcon...
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Here is another 1977 Amaroo Park racing incident with Ray Kaleda in his Torana dropping a load of oil and spinning in it himself, and Warren Cullen already coming unstuck on the same oil trail in the background...
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In the second image, you can clearly see the trail of oil dropped from Kaleda's Torana which has come to a rest racing the traffic while Cullen is having a big spin into the corner...
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Following on from Post #27, these are the images I captured of the Wolf F1 cars that were running at Oran Park in 1979. Geoff Lees was in car 32, and David Kennedy in car 6.
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In the background, Colin Trengrove in his Lola T332 is coming into view at the end of the Oran Park main straight.
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Continuing with the Wolf F1 cars...
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The day I pushed a Formula 1 Wolf to my absolute limit (obviously not behind the wheel though!). Lees hit the wall right under my feet and then wanted a push back off the wall followed by a push start. Being mid-week and no-one around I jumped down and helped but that Wolf was a heck of a difficult thing to move, especially as he kept dumping the clutch trying to start it. Luckily another fellow pitched in and we got Lees going again even though we only got to walking pace on the uphill grade. My good mate Mitch Holland captured the moment and gave me this image recently. Posted with his permission (and no, not my Escort parked there).
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Also cross-posted on the Corvette thread, a couple of images of Warwick Henderson's Corvette at Amaroo Park in the late 70s.
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Really loving these pics Geoff, keep 'em coming. Out of interest, the Henderson Corvette pictured, is this the same car fitted with the impressive looking Greenwood style bodywork in the early '80s?