Australian Grand Prix

[Phil Kalbfell]

The cars arrived in Australia all in great condition.

The drivers did take some time to become familiar with the circuit, the mechanics worked very hard to tune the cars for this surface and the short straights.

Practice was a very busy affair with with some cars struggling for grip.

The promise of the Lotuse 56b Turbine arriving for this event did not happen and the promoters were very dissapointed.
But the McLaren Team came to the rescue rushing the M19A in from South African Grand Prix for New Zealander Denny Hulme to drive.



The McLaren Mechanics soon showed the other teams they have great local knowledge, and soon had the M19 circulating the track very well.

Qualifying was a completed late in the afternoon and the Tyrell team soon topped the time sheets. Fittipaldi pushed the Lotus to the limits but could not quite catch Francois. Very close behind was Chris Amon showing that his local knowledge helped the slower Techno achieve some good times.

But this was all to no avail, as Hulme only needed 5 of the available 15 laps, to put the McLaren on P1 for the race.




Emerson slowed on the top of the circuit but may have been just posing for the TV crew.



The rest of the field returned to the grid for post qualifying checks.



The drivers and spectators are all looking forward to the race.

[Aurora]

Great - a new entry. The McLaren is looking quite dangerous, and the qualifying time backs up that impression.

[Andrew Rowland]

Exciting stuff, good to see the Mclaren added to the fray and the mix in the grid is also exciting!
Can't wait to see how it all pans out.
Cheers
Andi

[Phil Kalbfell]

Race day arrived and thanks very much to Dave Bantoft, Bruce and Callan Thomas who arrived early to assist me with the main duties ( driving). Also thanks to all the other members who asisted with marshalling.

The drivers wait for the pits to clear before warm up.



The official took some time to clear the pit area.



But soon had completed the warm up, and the cars formed up on the grid.



The first few laps resulted in some close racing as the drivers gained a feel for the track conditions.



But Hulme's and McLaren's great local knowledge soon had them out in front, leaving the other cars to race among themselves.



The crowd appreciated the close racing and being able to see these cars first hand.



But it was not long before Hulme started to lap the rest of the field.



As he came up to lap the field under the dunlop bridge, Amon who was being lapped a second time missed his braking point and ran off the track into the barrier, damaging the nose cone of his car, but was able to continue but with the nose missing.

The photographer was just too slow to catch the action.



Hulme continued to steam roll through the field.



The Tyrell was having some problems over the hump on the main straight, lifting the nose on several occasions.



But suddenly it became completly airborn, crashing into Emersons Lotus, the Lotus continued unharmed BUT the Tyrell had to stop for the front axle to be realigned.

Meanwhile Hulme and the McLaren continued to outpace the field, resulting in a 4 lap winning margin.




Here are the top 3 cars returning to the pits.






The cars will now be loaded onto transporters for the overland trip to Warwick Farm for the South Pacific Grand Prix in two weeks time.
Lotus are still hopeful of getting the 56b cleared through customs for that event, but only time will tell.

[Andrew Rowland]

First I'd like to extend a BIG thank you to your club and its members for running this round.

Great Photos and some nice write up there Phil. Very exciting then and quite close in the mid field actually. Hulme doesn't seem to have had quite the edge that he had in qualifying which I guess is down to everyone getting used to the cars as the race progressed.

Obviously a big turn around for the Brabham Team and Reutemann whilst Cevert being right up there suggests a very different track from the sort they've been racing on in Europe.

Interesting to see that Reutemann did get the fastest lap suggesting a lack of consistency more than outright pace and likewise Peterson's fastest lap was right on Hulme's tail!

So the leaderboard, nicely formatted now I'm writing from home looks like this:



A real pity that McLaren didn't get Hulme going for the season start as he looks very quick and good to see if Lotus can field their 56B as a field of 8 cars would start to create more of a 'critical mass'.

Sorry to hear about the damage to the Tecno and I do hope it will be able to enter the remaining races.

Thanks again
Andi