Studebaker Car Club Of New South Wales Inc.

Because my whole life has been one of competition be it at work or play I tend to lean more toward the motor sport side of things and have been involved in this in one way or another from an early age.

I have been asked a few times to write a bit about my early race days but have tended to put it off for various reasons, one of them being the thought that who wants to hear an old man’s ramblings about what used to be. But for those who like to reminisce a bit I thought I would jot a few things down.

I have gathered together a few items such as photos, race programs, sup regs and other mementos to assist my fading memory to recall events to write here. It has taken me quite some time to write this little piece, as writing is not as easy as top authors would have you believe.

And when I finish writing this, all of these things that I have gathered together to remind me and refresh my memory will go into a box, perhaps hidden forever, but never to be cast aside. They will stay there and I may look at them occasionally to remind myself how it used to be. This is probably carrying foolishness to the limit, but I am happy to have it that way.

My race and practice suits still hang in my spare wardrobe as though waiting for their next race meeting call, along with my gloves and boots that I wore on that last day on the mountain. Since that day I have worn them only once some 30 years later when I first started racing Go Karts, but it did not feel right to be using these reminders of a bygone era and I have not used them again.

I am pleased to have finally put this together as it has been a nostalgic and emotionally draining journey for me. It may be of interest to a few and if it serves no other purpose then it will seal these memories in place beyond the point where senility can one day rob me of them!

My 20 or so years of racing sedan cars have produced some memorable moments such as winning the last race ever held at the Mt Druitt track before Belf Jones (owner of the track) bulldozed the main straight after an argument with organisers and closed the track forever. It was a sedan and sports car handicap and at the end Leo Geoghegan was rapidly gaining on me. FTD at Catalina on a club day. Twice gaining third place in the NSW Saloon and Touring Car Championship, Pole position on the grid (with Warren Weldon) for the Hardie Ferodo 500 as it was then. Fastest speed down Con Rod Straight in the Studebaker Lark at 123.7 mph which seems quite tame today. There were others of course but these stand out in my memory.

In the early days at Mt Druitt we would drive our road car to the track empty the wife, kids and gear out of the car, put on the numbers and we were ready to race! It seems strange to hear this now but this was before we started trailering sedan cars to the track and things were more relaxed and friendlier back then.

Things were quite different when I first started racing as there were not many over the counter items you could purchase to assist in handling and speed, so you had to design and fabricate things yourself. There were a few speed shops which did help of course such as Leon and John from Lynx, John from Sydney Speed Shop, Jack Myers, Len Lukey Mufflers and exhaust systems among them. Some specialist engineer shops helped and I recall cams from Merv Waggott (who can forget that fabulous twin cam head for the grey Holden) Hedley McGee up at Darlinghurst, Bert Jones at Parramatta and of course the Repco head for Holden. And we all were in debt to Dave Dean from Hardie Ferodo who listened to our comments on brake linings and after ongoing research gave us what we needed. The cars were not too easy to stop in those early days and there were times after a torrid trip down Con Rod that I “went to Bathurst” as the saying goes as we were sometimes unable to get around Murrays Corner leading on to Pit Straight.

We were running mainly FX & FJ Holdens in those early days. Jack Myers was the first one to hit 105 MPH which caused a sensation and was not bettered for quite a while. Most of us had managed to get over the magic ‘ton’ and I can tell you that 102 mph down Con Rod was really something, as at about three quarters of the way down, the car would get up on tippy toe and you needed all of your wits about you to hang on! Stopping at the bottom was something else as well! Tyres were ordinary Dunlop RS5 road cross plies but we didn’t know any better. Before the advent of the “big race” the ARDC used to run the Bathurst races over the Easter long weekend. It was just like a normal race meeting and included the State Titles. There was little or no prize money then and we were awarded trophies for our efforts!

When the Studebaker Lark came along, that was really something. It was V8 powered and was quite a step up from the early six cylinder Holdens, Falcons and Valiants although by this time we had the very quick 3.8 Jags and soon to be with us were the V8s of the big three. Our problem with the Lark was while they were very fast they did not stop all that well with their drum brakes and had a tendency to shed the right front wheel under heavy cornering. They were CKD from the USA and had a fair bit of Australian content including road wheels which were much too thin for the heavy V8 in the front and pulled away from the wheel studs.

This was a bit disconcerting as you had no idea when one was about to go and apart from trying to keep the car away from the fence or the side of the mountain when one let go, it also meant that because of the regulations you had to change the wheel with the tools supplied with the car! If you have ever had to change a wheel with one of those bumper bar jacks you will get what I mean!! We could not do anything about strengthening the wheels because in those days the cars had to be as supplied from the manufacturer and were impounded after the race and inspected the next morning. Engines were pulled down and measured and the car was thoroughly checked according to the parts book. This meant that although we were turning reasonable lap times, we spent a fair bit of time doing road side repairs which put us out of contention in the results. This was disappointing as we knew we could do better.

The Ford and Holden drivers were lucky in this respect as when something was found to be faulty and needed to be changed they could get the factory to list them in the parts book which made it legal to use.

Bert Needham Snr. was a Studebaker dealer and was passionate about the cars. He formed and ran the race team and we drove under his direction. Although we entered and drove the Studebakers in several Hardie Ferodo 500s and later the 1000 we were never able to get away from this problem and in the last race we entered, (probably because we were now going faster) the car lost 5 wheels over the duration of the race which had everyone’s nerves on edge.

There were good times and some moments at Warwick Farm such as going over the couple of wooden track crossings at speed and the memorable battles between Jane, Moffat, Beechey and Geoghegan. Also the superb drive by Stirling Moss in the rain. Catalina Park (Katoomba) was called “the tunnel without a roof” because of the fence all round and nowhere to go if you misjudged things but it was exciting racing especially in the rain probably because of this challenge. The biggest problem was because of its location in the Blue Mountains and being at the bottom of the hill it was plagued by fog. Many times we had to sit around till 10.00am or later waiting for the fog to disperse before we could see the track!

Oran Park in its original short track form was great as it fostered close racing and I enjoyed the cut and thrust of this. I had acquired the ex Barry Sharp FE Holden which had been built with Oran Park in mind. It was left hand drive with a Chev V8 engine and fibre glas guards, bonnet and boot It was a bit of a handful but probably no worse than some others of the era and I enjoyed every minute that I drove it feeling the power and hearing that glorious noise from the V8 engine.

Peter Brock made an early debut here in the very much modified Holden engined A30 which was a bit of a beast but went very well. The driving position was where the original back seat of the A30 had been which prompted a few friendly jests!

I feel that I must mention Lou Kingsley who started racing when he was around 69/70 years of age. He began by racing his road Mercedes at the Mt. Druitt track and as it was quite unsuitable for this he eventually rolled it. This did not deter him as he went out and bought a new FC Holden kitted it out with the latest gear and went on having a ball! With all the brashness and arrogance that comes with youth we wondered what an old guy like Lou was doing in racing and going up against the young guns. Well, I did find the answer to that in later years. Who would have thought that I would be emulating him some 30 to 40 years later!! They say you never lose it and I guess that’s right.

Looking at the cars and drivers of today I am so amazed, they are a world away from our time. Everything is so clinical and professional that it makes me wonder -- is the fun still there?

And apart from racing, for all us revheads what about Saturday night at the Beefies with cars polished and sporting twin or triple carbs and maybe a cam, loud exhausts & headers We leaned on our cars and tried to look cool or grouped together to ogle and hopefully ‘pull’ the birds!!. Then dodge the cops as they came around to check cars and generally harass us. Or took the occasional fang up the road to show what it was about or accepted a challenge to go down to the Brickies to pit yours against whoever thought they were better. How we managed to live so long I do not know but it was fun and I would not have missed it for Quids!

I feel that I should stop now as the more I go on, the more the memories come flooding back and I would only bore everyone with my ramblings.

After a string of such remembrances If you can say “Yeah, I remember that” then you and I have a common bond, WE HAVE LIVED

Bill Slattery