Peter Brock Trophy

[Chadly]

i think the trophey is at King Willys raceway, where the Brock will be held this year.

 

i didn't have much success at the Brock.

on the same, King Willys, king i was 9 laps off making the open final at the 2001 Nats.

7 years later at the Nats on Mobile Raceways king, those same 3 motors that had got me to that position, did a total of 19 laps altogether.

hence why i love the King Willys king track!

.........not as much as the old redline king tho

[axman]

Hey Pete.. (pmdaniels) you got me thinking about your very credible performance at the 1976 G&D Matich race. Downstairs I've got quiet a few old Mini Wheels and Trackspeeds from that era. Even found the race report from that event.

You were running hot. Smithy won the Matich, you came second, me 3rd. (Charlie Frost and I fought the whole race to see who would get the third place trophy). That year you also won the NSW grp 20 championship and came 3rd in open.

Interestingly, I looked at the motor specs and got it wrong. Both you and Smithy ran #24 guage arm and I had a #25. I'm sticking to the fact you guys sucked all my power!

A few of the old gang are traveling to Sydney for the Scaleauto Enduro at Hornsby end of Febuary.. you should pop in and see how slow we are now!

[pmdaniels]

Hi Kim I might just do that , I live in Adelaide now ,which I did before I went to Sydney. I will see what I can organise , would be good to catch up with some old faces.

Back to that race, a bit of local knowledge helped , we knew the power was crap and that white lane was the worst, so I opted to start on white as I figured I'd run it while the power was still good. I don't remember but I probably ran the more laps than anyone on white, except maybe Dave Smith!

Glad to hear you've still got copies of the old magazines Trackspeed and Mini Wheels. Any chance of getting copies? I lent mine to Wayne back in the eighties because he was going to write some magazine article and wanted the information.

I never went back to collect them before I moved back to Adelaide. My fault!

Finding this forum has brought back lots of memories and I went out to Thunderbird Raceway last weekend and had a look. Think I will get something to race. Retro looks good but not sure if they run it here.

As you may know I was married to Karen Cowell but after I moved back to Adelaide in the late eighties we lost touch and it is only through this forum that I found out she had passed away. Very sad, can some one let me know the circumstances please.

I wonder what happened to all the stuff at G&D ? I know the tracks have gone to the tip but what happened to all those boxes of history that was out in the room behind the counter

 

[stoo23]

Hey Pete,

 

Glad to see you are well and re-finding your lost interest in Slot Cars. May I say that YES,..Retro IS Great !!!

Not sure what the Adelaide guys intend to do regarding any possible retro racing,..those like us that actually enjoyed and regularly Did build their own cars are (with a few exceptions), a somewhat dying breed !!,..lol

They race retro in Victoria and I guess it would Have to be said that HSC (the Old Waitara), is Retro Central and we have had a Number of years of truly exceptional and enjoyable racing, with the numbers and quality of driving growing slowly, but steadily. Perhaps you should plan to come up for a Retro race with us all,..many of us have Spare 'Loaner' cars and next year we should have Wayne and Lindsay back racing regularly, along with Fox, Charles and myself and the many others that have been enjoying the Class.

 

As you suggested, it IS an extremely Sad situation with 'The Cowells',..I am unsure of exactly what the story regarding Karen was, but it was arguably Very sad, that Daphne, Karen and Gaylene had All passed away before Geoff finally passed.

 

Many of us will always have and hold Very fond and perhaps also Very interesting stories and memories of our Youth whilst at G&D.

 

Anyway, just thought I'd say Hi, glad you are back and hope you find something interesting and enjoyable to race again.

Say G'day over on the ASCRA forum, which is where Many/Most of the Older Wing Car guys hang out,..

 

Cheers,

Stewart

Edited January 17, 2014 by stoo23

[axman]

Hi Pete, I"ll run you a copy of the 76 issue.. (good braging rights issue for you) pm me your address. Stoo's right about Retro.. There's a lot of good old wing car talent in S.A. that you could probably get interested now that they've go the King Track. Cant get Retroto launch in SEQ.. probably because we only have garage tracks here in Brisbane and outer burbs.

Mind you, Queensland does'nt have many wire chassis builders. I remember coming to Qld years ago and scratchbuilding talent was aralditing brass pans on to a cox La Cookaracha!

[stoo23]

Well, there IS that Lovely King (ex Penrith) Track of Gary's from Browns Plains Kim, Now in New premises and called, "Thunder Alley Raceway", situated at Unit 7 / 40 Johnson Rd Hillcrest.

[neiljb]

Reading through this has been great seeing all the names has brought back many memories. I raced at the end of the seventies mainly at G&D. I came 2nd to Dave Smith at a national at G&D beating Kym ,Brian ,Charlie Frost and Rickards. I remember a race series at G&D where we had to qualify over a series of races and at the end Wayne Bramble beat me by 1lap ! I also remember building a Gp12 car for Neil Bolton with which he won. I also won the first Gp20 national 3race series(Adelaide Melbourne Sydney) Not bragging here just remembering. All this was late seventies.

 

Wow Pete, talk about great memories.

I remember that GP12 car very fondly. We won quite a number of races in NSW with it and then went to Melbourne and was lucky to make the final. Paul Close was the gun driver on a Blue King that was very fast.

Also remember racing in Adelaide with Karen and Jan comimg with us. I think we both made finals against some strong opposition including Paul from Melbourne, I ran a chasis built by Charle Rickards that handled well down there, but I couldn't find a track in NSW that it liked,

In a 6 degrees of seperation moment I caught up with Bov at Christmas and I will be attending the race at Waitara, Its a long way from Adelaide, see what you can do.

I am thinking of making a comeback as well.

[neiljb]

Hope someone can help put a time line on this - in the early '80's a bunch of us from NSW including Wayne Bramble, Charlie Rickards, Greg Erskine, Neil Bolton & Toby Lee etc went down in a convoy (or was it back from?) to Thomastown (?) for the Brock Trophy. I still remember Charlie was in a Volvo, Neil in a 4cyl Commodore while Wayne and I we were in rented Commodore SLE which Avis wanted us to gently run in as it was brand new (yeah, right...)

 

I ended up 'pit-crewing' for Toby in the final (which I'm pretty sure 'we' (LOL) won. I do recall being hunckered down inside the bank for all the brackets of the final Polishing the resistors for his controllers (he had two Parma turbos he was alternating each bracket) and preparing braids for replacement at each lane change. So each bracket he had fresh braids and a pristine resistor - at the time i thought this was over the top, but results proved otherwise. Toby was a great guy to be with - I still have one of his chassis from the day, and the craftmanship is remarkable....

 

I'm possibly wrong - but wasn't the Matich Trohy race held at G&D & Parramatta? That's probably where Banno & I first met.... (still miss him just about every day...)

 

Great to catch up with you over Christmas

I remember that trip very well. The 4 cylinder Commodore was a company car and very, very slow. Toby Lee's brother was with me and couldn't understand why you and Waynes V8 was pulling away from us. The tacho was past the red line and we were stuck on about 130K watching you disapear.

I beleive the chasis you mentioned was the one I used on that weekend, it was a rapid unit untill I hit the brick wall about six feet above the track. ah well another one that got away

Sorry about Ian.

[neiljb]

Reading through this has been great seeing all the names has brought back many memories. I raced at the end of the seventies mainly at G&D. I came 2nd to Dave Smith at a national at G&D beating Kym ,Brian ,Charlie Frost and Rickards. I remember a race series at G&D where we had to qualify over a series of races and at the end Wayne Bramble beat me by 1lap ! I also remember building a Gp12 car for Neil Bolton with which he won. I also won the first Gp20 national 3race series(Adelaide Melbourne Sydney) Not bragging here just remembering. All this was late seventies.

 

Wow Pete, talk about great memories.

I remember that GP12 car very fondly. We won quite a number of races in NSW with it and then went to Melbourne and was lucky to make the final. Paul Close was the gun driver on a Blue King that was very fast.

Also remember racing in Adelaide with Karen and Jan comimg with us. I think we both made finals against some strong opposition including Paul from Melbourne, I ran a chasis built by Charle Rickards that handled well down there, but I couldn't find a track in NSW that it liked,

In a 6 degrees of seperation moment I caught up with Bov at Christmas and I will be attending the race at Waitara, Its a long way from Adelaide, see what you can do.

I am thinking of making a comeback as well.

 

After joining the forum yesterday, I have spent most of the day rememebering my days in the addictive world of slot cars. Including that Gp12 car. I thought I would expand my recollections on the racing at the time ......and at the risk of boring others .........and if my memory fails me ..... they are honest mistakes.

Pete was a fast runner at G & D at the time.Sometimes beating the likes of Wayne and all the Charlies.

He felt sorry for my car building efforts and took me under wing.He built me a group 12 car and I won many races with it including the GP12 class at the Slotz slot car revival meeting in 1977 run at Dave Smiths track.

It was probably the biggest race meeting I attended and certainly the most memorable wins I had. All the guns came to Sydney from Melbourne and Adelaide. It was held over the Easter long weekend running against Geoff's Matich meeting at G&D. There was much bad blood between Smithy and the Cowells at the time. I ran qualy at G&D early on Saturday, drove over to Seven Hills, ran qualy on Slotz. Drove back to G& D - won the GP12 race. Back to Slotz - won the race there. Two wins in the same day and we didn't even swap out the motor brushes. I think the only thing we changed was the body. Talk about good times, all I did was drive, Peter did the hard work.

I didn't have the balls to tell Daphne that I was racing at Slotz as well. Peter and Karen were at Slotz to support me and I don't think they told Geoff and Daphne either. Peter's support was so intense I think a couple times I could have stopped driving and he would have taken over telepathically.

As I said it was a great weekend and the biggest win I had. I remember practicing for hours at Slotz as it was a new track at the time. Pete would complain about wearing out the car and I would keep saying I have nearly nailed it.

That was at Easter, in June we went to Melbourne to race on their very fast King track and a guy named Paul Close made me look very ordinary. I might have just scraped into the final.( I don't actually remember, so I might not have made it) Our car had seen its day and Paul had taken the class to a new level, just as Peter's car had the year before running in Sydney. Pete gave me the most honest piece of advice at that meet that I ever got in slot racing 'there is nothing left in the unit, work out a way to drive faster'

The next January in Adelaide I had the small revenge of passing Paul in the semi of the open class to beat him out of a spot in the final. I don't think Paul came to Sydney often as, like most of the Melbourne guys, G & D was was not to their liking. We traveled to Melbourne often as the Blue King was magic to race on.

[axman]

neiljb.. ? I remember you.. was it Neil W ? Slotz was a ridiculously fast track... I remember Smithy getting me up there to build it in this office space that was not very big so I had to vary the lane centres thru some of the huge radius banked turns so there was somewhere to overtake! The track hardly had a straight section. Would love to see a few pics of it. Yep, Was'nt a good time for the Cowels.. Before Slotz I had came up from Melbourne and won a couple of big events at G&D. Things got a bit heated because they did'nt want us to take the trophy back to melbourne... Go figure.. Smithy had put a lot on the line importing stuff and I think G&D stopped buying when Smithy opened Slotz. Great times though.. just before things got to crazy with too much Goo and motors that smoked and blew comms on hot power because we had'nt worked out the importance of chokes.

Edited January 28, 2014 by axman

[neiljb]

neiljb.. ? I remember you.. was it Neil W ? Slotz was a ridiculously fast track... I remember Smithy getting me up there to build it in this office space that was not very big so I had to vary the lane centres thru some of the huge radius banked turns so there was somewhere to overtake! The track hardly had a straight section. Would love to see a few pics of it. Yep, Was'nt a good time for the Cowels.. Before Slotz I had came up from Melbourne and won a couple of big events at G&D. Things got a bit heated because they did'nt want us to take the trophy back to melbourne... Go figure.. Smithy had put a lot on the line importing stuff and I think G&D stopped buying when Smithy opened Slotz. Great times though.. just before things got to crazy with too much Goo and motors that smoked and blew comms on hot power because we had'nt worked out the importance of chokes.

 

Nah always Neil Bolton

I had forgotten you built Slotz, and yes it was crazy fast in a really small room. I raced some GP20 and Opens when Charlie Frost had it. The flat 90 after the donut was the maker or breaker for the lap.

Your Blue King was the best !!!

Wow another memory, the first race at Slotz where Charlie Fox ran his "ice cream cone" sled. That night at Karen Cowells 21st we were drawing plans of the chasis on coasters. The next meeting every sled was an "ice cream cone" clone. Except me I came 4th and next meeting ran a cone made by Wayne Brambles.

[axman]

Sorry Niel.. to many sleeps ago. Bolton..now its clicked. The inventor of the ice cream cone - Mark Fox lived with me for quiet a while in Melbourne and always had the theory that aerodynamics would always win over a "fat chassis".. and he was right. I'm sure he moved to my place just because I had the only Blue King in the country ( he said it was to escape his crazy ex girl friend) Many a midnight we would go down to the track and try out another Ice cream cone chassis. I reckon Fox was only two cobalt magnets away from having the fastest slotcar in the world at the time.. It just needed a lightweight strap can to finish the story. Ironically, as you say, it was our Quickslot guys in group 12 that were way ahead of the game because they were cutting down cans to virtual straps way before the Americans even thought of it.

Edited January 29, 2014 by axman

[neiljb]

Sorry Mark Fox was the man. Getting my Foxes and Frosts mixed up, As you say too many sleeps. I can't imagine it being a quiet stay, not only did he step up slot car speed, his gentle urging of marshalls stepped up their recovery times.

[pmdaniels]

Wow I can,t believe I've heard from you Neil after all those years. And your memory is way better than mine ! I remember that GP 12 car and on the Saturday before the race you just wanted to thrash it round the track and I wanted to save it for the race and took it away and made you practice with your own car. I was right eh!

I don't think Karen was at Slotz that weekend , she wouldn't have dared ! I think she won the race at G&D that Sunday with a car I built but maybe that's just how I want to remember it !

 

I will come up to Sydney but I don,t know when yet. Thinking of going to Melbourne at Easter for the Nationals , just for a look !

What about Alan Withers he was a good mate back then ?

Neil do you know about Karen ? PM me if you do.

Kym I sent you my address did you get it ?

 

You joined the Forum Yesterday ? What made you do that ?

 

Should we be hijacking this thread or should we start an Old Pharts thread ?

Edited February 1, 2014 by pmdaniels

[neiljb]

Hey Mexican Pete,

Sorry I can't help you with any information on Karen apart from her not being with us any more. She contacted me couple of days after Daphne passed and we lost contact again. Perhaps someone else knows?

I picked up on this forum, because of a chance meeting with Tony Bovard. I am not sure if you you met him, it was probably after you stopped racing. He, myself and Ian Bannister ran an enduro season together. We called ourselves the B team. The A team was on TV at the time. Yes that long ago! Any how his brother in law is our next door neighbour and he arranged for us to have a get together at Christmas. Tony sent me links to the forum and my memory kicked in.

Alan Withers was a great guy. I remember him as the only person to get those horrible Cobra spur gears to mesh nice. He was always very helpful to new comers.

Also, Kim it would be great to see those old Mini Wheels again.Not sure how it could happen.

[axman]

Hi neil..

pm'd you last night with my personal email. On Friday David Hassall mailed back all my old issues of Trackspeed so I'll have some more old race reports from "our era".

I think Petes right.. this is getting way of track re Peter Brock Trophy so would be good to start another thread.

[axman]

 

Here's where it all began... Peter Brock at the original Quikslot in Huntingdale Victoria. Peter came along during the main event with his fiancee and former Miss Australia Michelle Downs.. ( I'm sure she was wondering WHY she was even there .. with all these gooey slot car grubs - everything was stickey in those days)

[iagx5]

Hello Guys,

I ran my last race at Penrith in 1990. It was the Geoghan Trophy. I was at the time running Group 12 and 15. I had to pull out midway through the 15 race as I near fried an armature. I geared the car to high, hence it would bog down on the goo laid down . I was on every lane after Stoo, who had put down the goo, so I pulled the pin then and there.

Miss the NSW Association racing of the 80's, on tracks like G&D, Fairfield and at Rockdale, and when it moved to Campbelltown, when it was owned by Don.

By the way, what happened to Paul Travis? I bought a lot of vintage stuff off him.

Take care,

Doug

[Garry J]

Paul passed away a few years ago.

[axman]

Hi all Brock fans... look on the news stands in a couple of weeks.. The January issue of Wheels Car Magazine will have a back page story on the Peter Brock Trophy race...

Edited December 21, 2016 by axman

[stoo23]

Hello Doug,

 

"I ran my last race at Penrith in 1990. It was the Geoghan Trophy. I was at the time running Group 12 and 15. I had to pull out midway through the 15 race as I near fried an armature. I geared the car to high, hence it would bog down on the goo laid down."

Great Track and some Fantastic racing was had !!

 

"I was on every lane after Stoo, who had put down the goo, so I pulled the pin then and there."

Hmmm,.. Gee,.. Sorry about that,.. but somehow, I doubt that I was Alone in Applying 'Bogging' levels of Goo,.. probably More to do with the Combinations of Goo and as you say, too High Gearing and I would also suggest Waaay Too Much Tyre !!

 

Some people, could Never Goo -Up properly and there were still people Piling On Heaps of that Awful Red 'Light' Goo (and various Other Concoctions,..lol).

I actually Never Ran Too Much Goo,.. I Knew what I was doing !!,.. lol,.. BUT,.. as I recall,.. it would either have Been Camen or Koford MEDIUM !! Easily,.. or perhaps the Stuff Mark Fox and I made, which was Similar to Camen 'Stick-It' !!,.. .

 

Group 15 was TOUGH and Very Hard work !!

We had All done quite a Lot of Testing and I (and a few others), were running Very Narrow Rear Tyres !!,.. Thus Allowing us to Use REAL Goo,.. Properly !!,..

 

The Set that was Still on the Chassis and a few Other 'Sets' I still had from All those Years ago, were All between about 10 to 12mm wide !!!,... Which then kind of Needed,.. Real Goo, but allowed us to Run FAST, with NO Bogging Down and low rolling resistance on the Straights !!

 

My Apologies, ... Sort Of,.. ,... Racing Is/Was Tough and Very Demanding to be 'On the Pace' in 15's.

 

"Miss the NSW Association racing of the 80's"

Yep !!,.,. Was Great Racing !! Group 20's Were Fantastic !!

 

"Paul Travis?"

Yes,.. as Gary said,.. He sadly Passed away some years ago now,.. :(,.. Nice guy,.. I still have AND Use a Grub-Screw Driver he made for me.

 

Can't say I actually Recall a 'Doug',.. but heck,.. I'm getting Old and that was a Long time ago,..

Anyway,.. great to see Another Older Slotter 'Enjoying' the Memories from the Great Racing of the Past.

 

Cheers,

Stewart

Edited December 22, 2016 by stoo23

[stoo23]

Also,.. it Has been 'Confirmed, that John Gattens has the ORIGINAL Brabham Trophy.

Wayne Bramble had a really good Chat with him relatively recently, when the Idea of Re-Instigating the 'Brabham', for Retro F1's came up,.. but Wayne decided to Create a NEW,..

"SIR Jack Brabham" Trophy for the New Retro F1 'Trophy' Races.

Edited December 22, 2016 by stoo23

[iagx5]

Hello Stoo,

Good to hear from you, and no I don't blame you at all for the goo issues at the Geoghean Trophy race.

Was racing on a real slim budget back then. Couldn't afford a new armature, so I sold the car cheap to a guy I worked with that used to race at Ingleburn.

Even so loved the racing back then, especially at Fairfield where I used to Club race on a Tuesday night in Group 12. Always walked away with the 2nd place trophies at the end of the seasons. Just couldn't beat John Kinnip. He was good.

By the way, met my Wife Josie at Fairfield, we are still together, after 26 years, and have resided in Newcastle for the last 16 years.

Good to think of the old days racing, and miss it heaps. Wish we had a track in Newcastle again. Does anyone remember the old track at Glendale in Newcastle?

Take Care, and have a Merry Christmas

Doug

[twiztd]

Just wondering if anyone has a list of class winners? I know my dad won I think was group 20? in the late 70's or real early 80's.

 

I have seen the small trophy he won as a kid but can't find it now.

 

I still have the car so was going to make a display with the year behind it.

[axman]

I have a few Trackspeeds and Magazines Dave Smith produced thru the 70's with race results. PM me your dads full name and I'll see what I can find.

I'm overseas for a while so will take a few weeks to respond.