The Roaring Season

Wow, could be, as it's a 7a. If it's any help. the chassis no is BT7A-IC-1-63, and ORC list its current location as England.
That Barry Thomasen crash happened almost at my feet, he spun coming out of Rothmans onto the back straight, the car ran off onto the infield, it hit the bank and flipped, and as it went over he was half-thrown out of the car, with the car landing upside-down and him still half-out. Clearly no belts, and I think this was the last season they weren't compulsory. Very sad.

GD66 wrote:Wow, could be, as it's a 7a. If it's any help. the chassis no is BT7A-IC-1-63, and ORC list its current location as England.
That Barry Thomasen crash happened almost at my feet, he spun coming out of Rothmans onto the back straight, the car ran off onto the infield, it hit the bank and flipped, and as it went over he was half-thrown out of the car, with the car landing upside-down and him still half-out. Clearly no belts, and I think this was the last season they weren't compulsory. Very sad.

What happened to the BT7A? Was it a writeoff?

I have come across a BT7A on race-cars.com that could be it?
http://www.race-cars.com/carsold/brabham/1056995143/1056995143ss.htm
unfortunately I can't find a date for this sale.

However I always thought it had been written off.
can anyone help please?

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BayPark Oct 4th 1969

Graham McRae in the Begg FM2 passes the scene where poor Barry Thomasen had had his accident in the Brabham-Climax.
The car did not seem to be too badly damaged from where we stood across the track.

(Ken Hyndman )

GD66 wrote:Wow, could be, as it's a 7a. If it's any help. the chassis no is BT7A-IC-1-63, and ORC list its current location as England.

At the time it was known that IC/1/63 was a chassis built in Australia for Matich/Total and this was the car sold to Red Dawson.

Kwaussie wrote:At the time it was known that IC/1/63 was a chassis built in Australia for Matich/Total and this was the car sold to Red Dawson.

Frankly that is a lot of nonsense.
Matich went to England for several months to work with Tauranac on this car which was the prototype of the BT7A series.

Here are a couple of pics from Steve Elliott's collection, the captions are Red Dawson on pole for the first international meeting at Bay Park Raceway. The second pic is the same race start. No other dates given.

December 30th, 1967. Red off the line alongside Frank Radisich in the Lotus 22, Laurence Brownlie and Vince Anderson on the second row and Jim Palmer with his hand in the air in the M4A. This may have been a heat race as Palmer won the main race by 8 seconds from Laurence Brownlie.

GD66 wrote:December 30th, 1967. Red off the line alongside Frank Radisich in the Lotus 22, Laurence Brownlie and Vince Anderson on the second row and Jim Palmer with his hand in the air in the M4A. This may have been a heat race as Palmer won the main race by 8 seconds from Laurence Brownlie.

This must have been the opening meeting for the NEW Baypark track? i know they tried to open earlier but bad weather cancelled that event(so im told) at 8 years old i wasn't there, LOL

Dale M

The first meeting held was on December 3rd, 1967. There was a big issue with the seal, I understood at the time that they had economised and used cold mix and the tyres were tearing it up : Palmer's M4A smashed its mirrors with flying seal. They fixed it up pretty smartly and the Dec 30th international with Norm Beechey as the star attraction was a blinder, as you can see from the pics above there was a ripping crowd in.

Kiwiboss wrote:This must have been the opening meeting for the NEW Baypark track? i know they tried to open earlier but bad weather cancelled that event(so im told) at 8 years old i wasn't there, LOL

Dale M

Not quite. Inaugural meeting was rained off on 18 November. It was re-run on December 3, but according to Donn Anderson in Motorman only as a 'closed to club members' event. Apparently MANZ weren't being very helpful to the upstarts from the Mount, but a number of new members were 'found' and reasonable fields ensued!

The same Motorman issue mentions Paul Bolton's Levin accident in the Rorstan 2.5 Brabham, caused by a brake-pad becoming welded to the disc and describes the car as a write-off. Bolton wasn't too happy either, with broken collar-bone and shoulder.
Also mentioned the Feo Stanton had three 2.5 4-cyl Climax engines for sale and two Hewland HD5 gearboxes with plenty of spares.

stu

Steve some of those photos of mine are that early meeting. Cement dust just about everywhere.

Which Steve are you referring to Oldfart?

fullnoise68 wrote:Which Steve are you referring to Oldfart?

Our guiding light and owner of the site.

I was just wondering Oldfart as I have got some other photos of that meeting as well which Bruce may be able to post for me.

khyndart in CA wrote:BayPark Oct 4th 1969

Graham McRae in the Begg FM2 passes the scene where poor Barry Thomasen had had his accident in the Brabham-Climax.
The car did not seem to be too badly damaged from where we stood across the track.

(Ken Hyndman )

As you say, the car does not look too badly damaged from across the track

Surely someone must know what actually happened to this very well known car?
And NOT just what is in ORC.

I have an article from Auotonews vol 3, number 18 April13 1970 page 10. which may be relevent here-
BIll Thomasen had an older high-line Cooper less engine and installed a 2 litre unit in place of the 2.5. When Thomasen took delivery of the Brabham (now owned by Bryan Faloon) this Cooper was sold.
Does this give a link from Thomasen to Faloon or is this another Brabham?

John McKechnie wrote:I have an article from Auotonews vol 3, number 18 April13 1970 page 10. which may be relevent here-
BIll Thomasen had an older high-line Cooper less engine and installed a 2 litre unit in place of the 2.5. When Thomasen took delivery of the Brabham (now owned by Bryan Faloon) this Cooper was sold.
Does this give a link from Thomasen to Faloon or is this another Brabham?

No John, that is an earlier Brabham, BT4 (IC-3-62) that Bill raced.
Originally Bib Stillwell, then to Thomasen for NZ rounds of 65 Tasman, then Jim Boyd for NZ rounds of 67 Tasman, then to Bryan Faloon for NZ rounds of 68 Tasman. Understood to now be in OZ.

The car in question here is the ex Matich BT 7A (IC-1-63), that Thomasen bought for his son Barry

GD66 wrote:The first meeting held was on December 3rd, 1967. There was a big issue with the seal, I understood at the time that they had economised and used cold mix and the tyres were tearing it up : Palmer's M4A smashed its mirrors with flying seal. They fixed it up pretty smartly and the Dec 30th international with Norm Beechey as the star attraction was a blinder, as you can see from the pics above there was a ripping crowd in.

December 3rd 1967 was also the opening meeting for the Timaru Motor Raceway as it too had been postponed from the previous week because of a downpour which had flooded the infield area of the circuit. Red was the star attraction with the Mustang staying over for the week and keeping many entertained. The racing between he and Gary Sprague in the Anglia set the tone for meetings to follow.