The Morgan Park Track Day Next Friday - 26/11

Ray, the wheels are supposedly Formula Ford wheels, very lightweight.

I completely agree about the engine, would love to put in something better, it would not be original though :D

Can I be rude and ask, are you the guy who used to write for RCN, way back when ?

Cal, used to have an S1 E-type roadster, went like stink, no stopping power though with those crappy original Dunlop discs :eek:

anybody want a good '64 S2 Elan
have to sell both cars, Cal has driven them :eek:

IMG_1514.jpg
 
How did you know we were talking about you? :) Hope you don't mind me posting the shot of your car. I've got some funny incar footage from Morgan Park to show you. When you hit the brakes on the exit of that rising left hander because you thought you were going to run wide, followed by both hands in the air. :roflmao:

Cal.
 
my ears were burning :D

no problems with the photo, might bring in a buyer :banana:

yeah, would love to see the footage, cocked that corner up badly, got very mad with myself :D

Jeff
 
pardon my ignorance, what publication is MRA, always interested in Elans.

Did you hear John Girard passed away?

Jeff
 
Motor Racing Australia... sort of took over when they killed off RCN.

This happened because the style of RCN meant it was a competitor to the weeklies in providing race reports. Instead, MRA is more of an overview magazine with a mix of current day and old time stuff.

I don't have the 26R story on the computer because I used to operate with a 1.2gig hard drive when I wrote that. Give me a call late next week on 0409 063 662 and I'll see if I can dig it up for you.

MRA is a very good magazine in this latter day world of picturebooks...

Sorry, by the way, can't say I recall John Girard.
 
He had the Gates 26R, thought you may have spoken to him re the article, but then again maybe not :)

Will give you a call for sure

Jeff
 
Ah yes, I didn't know his name but I certainly did speak to him about the Gates car...

But most of the information I had about the Gates car was from Jim Bertram, who was close to it in the early days. Including the matchbox episode, I think it was.

I was very familiar with a some of the 26R owners... Leo Geoghegan, Niel Allen, Peter Hopwood and Doug Macarthur, and I spent some time with the Peter during preparation of the Elan and the Capri V6.

Maybe you'd like to read this?

PETER HOPWOOD



VERY FEW people make an impression on others like Peter Hopwood has. A genuine friend to many people in the film industry, sailing and motor racing, he has shown incredible determination to succeed in each field.
Just looking at his first open race, back in August, 1975, exposes his flair for finding the way. The race was the NSW Production Sports Car Championship and Peter was driving an Austin Healey 3000 – certainly no match for the Lotus Elan or three Bolwells of the fastest regular competitors, and not likely to beat the Datsun 2000 that had often proved a winner in recent times.
But on this day, with the help of one Bolwell retiring, this Healey filled fourth place. It was the first glimpse of success for the marque since Ross Bond had retired his car. Yet it lacked many of the refinements of the Bond car, and its driver had only ever competed in a couple of 6-hour relay races.
In fact, he was more used to ocean racing in yachts. A good man to have on board in a Sydney to Hobart event, with navigation skills to match his aptitude for strategy and helmsmanship.
So well known was Peter in the yachting business that he was often called upon to deliver yachts up and down the coast, which he did in company with his wife, Carol.
They made a good team, and they even built a couple of yachts, working together. It was by this means that they afforded themselves some of the better things in life, like a nice home in Killarney Heights and the odd Healey in the garage. There were even trips to the other side of the world involving yacht deliveries, adventures that teach people things.
Learning was always one of Peter’s strong points. He was observant and had a knack for knowing where to find the right information. In racing this paid off handsomely, as was initially to be seen once he acquired the Elan with which Chris Roberts had been scoring a lot of wins in Victoria.
There was immediate learning with this car, learning how to patch up fibreglass bodywork between races at Phillip Island!
Over the following year the car was the one that challenged the Bolwells when the Porsches weren’t around, gaining popularity all the time and leading to sponsorship from Speedo and an all-out attack on the Australian Championship. Though he took the lead, edging out the Porsches by virtue of consistent class wins, it was shortlived.
But there was more in the air, for Peter had plans to make his mark in the 3-litre Touring Car series run at Amaroo Park, which was virtually his home circuit. With a couple of jobs to do on the other side of the world, he and Carol took a holiday and conveniently spent some time shopping for a Mk 2 Capri V6.
This was then developed to be a serious challenger to no less a competitor than Bo Seton, who Peter actually managed to beat on occasion.
His life was a whirl of racing at the time. Still the odd yacht race, and both cars being prepared, tested and raced, all the while having to make a living as a professional cinematographer. He had gathered some good men around him to help him overcome the difficulties, but it was still a major privateer effort.
For a while it was just the Capri to race, the Elan having been virtually destroyed in a road accident while being trailered to Amaroo. Then the Capri was sold and the Elan was back in action, again chasing the Australian title and defying the power of the turbocharged Porsches Allan Hamilton put into the fight.
It was at this time that many more people came to acknowledge Peter’s ability. Bob Holden, who was helping him along the way, remembers the title round at Amaroo Park, where Peter gnawed at the rear of the Porsche driven by Allan Moffat for lap after lap before finally getting by as a truly great drive. Ironically, once ahead he was put out of the race by a broken throttle cable.
In the second heat he won outright, and then followed this up with another outright win in the first heat at Winton. Lap records fell, too, but series prospects were jaundiced by failure at Sandown.
But there was still an Australian title in store for Peter Hopwood. By 1983 the long awaited Kim had joined the family and was regularly at trackside with mum and dad. Steve Webb had stopped racing for the time being and given his 5-litre Kaditcha Sports Car to Peter to take a tilt at the Championship. It was a relationship that worked, the 1983 Sports Car Championship going to Hopwood.
The racing at this time was pretty exciting, the newer Kaditcha, featuring a DFV Cosworth and many Tyrrell F1 bits in the hands of Bap Romano, was hitting its straps and frequently diced with the blue car Peter drove. At a Lakeside meeting they had a clash which led to a confrontation in the pits afterwards, a point worthy of note.
A title in the bag, the Kaditcha was replaced with a Ralt RT4 and Peter was to move into the top echelon, contesting the Australian Grand Prix of 1983 at Calder. Running mid-field in his debut and against some world-class company, he retired late in the race.
1984 saw him third in the Gold Star with consistent placings, 1985 took him to second with a string of second places behind John Bowe in his walkover year. It also saw Peter take an outright circuit record for the first time, sharing that with Bowe at Oran Park’s long circuit.
As the third season for the Webb/Hopwood partnership began, it looked tantalisingly like they might win the Gold Star. A year-long duel for points with Graham Watson saw them begin the final race side by side on the Amaroo Park grid, Peter on pole.
It was winner take all, with just two points separating them, but from the fall of the flag it was too close for comfort. The cars touched halfway up the hill, Watson barrel-rolling along the Armco and the Hopwood car climbing the bank and literally flying upside down in the the spectator area. A woman died, others were injured and the racing took a back seat.
The title was lost at a time that Peter had shown that, despite being down on power to the cars of the Ralt Australia team, he was capable of delivering the goods.
While all of this racing of other people’s cars had been going on, Peter had run an Appendix J Chev Impala, which he developed into a race winner by himself, and he was then on to HQ Holdens. He and his family had also moved, settling into a comfortably appointed new home on a blueberry farm at Ingleside, in the shadow of the Bahai temple off Mona Vale Road.
What began worrying him now was the cost of advancing years. Not in his racing, but in the movie business, where image counts for a lot. Younger people tended to get the work, and the financial crises of the late eighties did nothing to help as advertising dollars dried up.
Peter had approached this business with the same give-it-everything-you’ve-got approach as he did his racing. There’s a photo of him leaning on the fence at the start of the 1965 AGP shooting film of the dash of the Graham Hill Brabham as it left the line. Up until thirty seconds before the start he had been filming Hill from much closer quarters.
He once told me of a horrifying experience strapped beneath a hang-glider pilot over some clifftops in Hawaii as he filmed scenes for a deodorant commercial. The trick was in the landing!
The glamorous-sounding but thoroughly practical office boat moored at The Spit went. It was typical of Peter to find an alternative that made financial sense, another example being the purchase of a Maserati 3500 with money realised from the sale of the Capri. “Its value will go up,” he said, and it added to the funds that bought the new home.
Over the years he raced at Bathurst, but usually sharing in other people’s cars. Very often they were people against whom he had competed at some time, people who knew what kind of driver he was.
People like Jim Davidson and Steve Webb became close friends, as did Kerry Horgan in Queensland and many others. Not just the drivers, but also their wives, became part of the Hopwood family circle of friends, all appreciating the friendliness and sincerity of Peter and Carol.
As the nineties arrived it was clear that Peter’s halcyon days of constant racing were over, but what very few knew was that by 1993 he faced more serious problems than lack of racing funds. Peter had cancer, and he was to have several operations.
Recalling that acrimony of his clash with Romano at Lakeside, I was surprised to see him at Lakeside helping Bap’s son when he stepped into HQ racing. Knowing Peter’s experience with these cars, and being well aware of his skill, Bap had summoned his old rival.
He took on the job of preparing Lotus Cortinas, a job he naturally did very well. He and a partner bought an Historic car, a Buchanan, and raced it together for a short time. There were still challenges to be met, things to be learned and taught, fun days to be lived.
When Eric Rudd decided that his road-going Austin Healey 3000 should be made ready for the Bathurst Healey race in October, 1998, Peter was in on the project. Here he could show all his skills learned over the previous twenty-odd years, carefully deciding what steps to take to make the car a potential winner.
Dyno testing with Webers (borrowed from the Lotus Cortinas) and SUs showed no difference in power, but his experience determined that the Webers were more driveable. Energies were spent in the suspension rather than chasing rainbows elsewhere, for it’s ultimately the wheels’ contact with the ground that wins races.
But more than anything else, this race that may well remain the hallmark of his life was all about his driving. A race of strategy against a foe with much more power, it was fortunately televised. “I watched it,” Bob Holden said later, “and I thought it was as good as that race at Amaroo against the Porsches.”
Visiting English Healey expert, Dennis Welch, looked for all the world a winner. It could be clearly seen that he had horsepower to burn compared to the local cars, but Peter had a plan.
Lurking a little way behind, he bided his time until the last lap, then lunged past over Skyline. “I knew I’d be able to get a good gap down the esses,” he said later, “and I knew he’d pass me down the straight.” But he was confident he’d still be close enough to outbrake Welch into the Chase, then just hold him out to the flag.
The nigger in the woodpile was oil laid on the road in the braking area, leaving only one safe line. But there were no second prizes here, it was to be a bold win or a glorious defeat. The doctors had told him there would be no next year to try again – in fact, they’d told him not to plan on this year!
The run down the esses went perfectly, Welch rocketed by a good 40kmh faster on the straight, Peter was alongside him again under brakes. But the oil was just too much, and he spun.
“I’m glad my last race was a good one,” he told me. Rudd and everyone else connected with the campaign was delighted with the result, for they knew what it took and how impossible the odds were.
“Peter inspired everyone around him,” Eric said later, “and when he told me he wanted to drive at the Phillip Island Healey race the following February I was glad to let him.” It was almost as if he felt he owed this further chance to Peter.
But it was not to be. The rear shock absorbers lost too much condition on the trip from Sydney, and Peter was beyond working out what the problem was. The trip took a lot out of him and he sat out the meeting as Eric ran the car in Regularity events.
During the telecast of the 1999 Healey race, the commentators mentioned that Peter wasn’t well. In fact he was in hospital, but would be home again a few days later. He had been unable to walk for some time and time was fast running out.
As I write this, it is just a few hours since Carol rang to tell me Peter had died. Quietly and privately at home with his family, his frail body overtook his still-active mind. A week ago he was chuckling at a poem someone had written about Les Wright’s monumental spin at a wet Wakefield Park, now he is gone.
But the memory of the friend and the inspiration of the man remain.

Ray Bell
Click to expand...

I did that for the AHOC magazine.
 
Ray,

I have had the opportunity to talk to Bill Gates, not that helpful, didn't seem to care, just another car to him !

I haven't spoken to Jim, does the matchbox refer to my car or the 26R ??

The Hopwood article is great. As a kid I used to love watching the Healey, and then the Elan, race with the Nagari's, (have owned 2 myself). Relived quite a few memories reading it. Those guys are probably half the reason I have this sports car disease.

It's funny how people pop up, the 2nd Elan I have, I bought from Steve Webb last year !

Jeff
 
You might have to ask Jim Bertram... or maybe I included it in the story... but because a matchbox or something else was dropped onto the chassis, something happened and the car got totalled at Lakeside.

Bill Gates claimed insurance and the car was rebuilt. There were new bits in some places, but I don't remember the details... like the front of one chassis and the rear of another, that sort of thing.

This might be familiar to you then...

gateselankink.jpg
 
Is that the shot you passed onto me to give to Jeff some time back?

Cal.
 
Ray,

I think I love you :D

Fan...bloody...tastic, can I get copies of any shots you have of the car?

Obviously more than happy to cover all costs
 
Is that first one just after the kink? Second one is obvious. Who was driving the E-type? Bob Jane?

Cal.
 
Cal, I reckon it's at Carousel.

Ray, do you have any others of the car, I am trying to get a pictorial history of the car?? Am happy to get prints from slides, etc, have been speaking to Brier Thomas, and have all of his shots of the car.
 
The car appears to be turning left slightly.

Cal.
 
Hard to remember exactly right now... either just entering or in the middle of the kink...

The other one, of course, is coming over XXXX hill (or BP bend as it was then) behind Bob Jane. The only other pics of the car would be in the start of the 1965 ATT.

Check the references in the 1966 chapter of the Official 50-Race History of the Australian Grand Prix... I think it's just entering the kink.

This is coming out of the Karussell...

milesexkarussel.jpg
 
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