50th Anniversary of Touring Cars at Lakeside 2011

[TonyG]

I have no idea whos car this was meant to be but it was running with the other GpA/Cs.

[TonyG]

[thunder427]

[quote="TonyG"]

...this is a real nice 'replica' of the Bob Jane Torana,built by a very passionate owner/driver, signed by Bob at Eastern Creek,Muscle Car Masters, a couple of years back, well detailed,brings back a lot of great memories to me

This was a fantastic period of my life/career, I got to work for Bob Jane Racing with Pat Purcell/Team Manager,who gave me the opportunity to be creative,room to excel,( I think my title was, 'OJ' (odd job!!) sure we had the odd 'dust off', but when you work under pressure of a 'GET IT FINISHED' time table, 7days a week, on the average of 16hour days and there is no talk of 'Second Place',there is always going to be a 'little' heat in the kitchen!!

Working in a small team creates a interesting work ethic,given a task it has to be completed, personally checked, checked again just to be sure,then ask for it to be checked off by your team leader,ticked off the list, then move on to the next task,don't look for praise of job well done,that comes when you cross the line First!!!!!!

It was a real pleasure to work with 'Big' Pete, he and I got on very well, read; we had the ability to laugh..... a lot !!!

For Example,take Sandown 500/1977/78,the pits were,turn left at the end of the Main Straight,"Peter's Ice Cream Cnr' on to a small straight,the pits were on the left hand side as the cars ran down to the Next lefthander,keep this picture in mind......well we,the Bob Jane Racing Team/Torana was on 'Pole'.......so we, the Team ,wait with baited breath around the cnr on this small straight,can't see the start line from this position,but we can hear the 'announcer',the building up of Rev's,then all 'Hell' lets loose,a total 'cresendo' of noise...and we will be first..have to be...we were on 'Pole' remember?...

WHAM!!!! around the cnr come a 'Blast' of colour and Cars and Noise and Smoke and Dust and....NO TORANA!!....No you think!!! its been hit on the Start Finishline..but suddenly around the cnr comes our favourite car...vrooooom past the pit...round the lefthander and gone......we all look at each other with both relief and WTF!!!!.....

The announcer is 'pumped-up' that 'Pete' Geoghegan is passing this car and that car in a desperate bid to get back to the front of the field..so we wait...I'm at the fence with the 'Pit Board' so 'Pete' can locate our position when he blasts past.....we wait...the Announcer is trumpeting the good news that Pete is doing so well...we wait, suddenly the whole show is on top of us 'flashing' by....I'm standing out there as duty states,swollowing 'dust and fumes' (Loving it ofcourse!)..10 cars go by..then suddenly the Torana arrives....believe me when I say arrives......totally sideways and on the grass, 'Pete' withbags of opposite lock,shit and small stone showering every were,suddenly the Torana gets a guts full of energy and spears straight across the track towards the pit wall....well the scene from were I stood was total 'CHAOS', team personal and pit boards going in all directions.............Only 'Pete' could turn this event in to a happy ending,but at this point I'm still not sure!!......'Pete' gathers the 'little' Torana up and 'Fly's past my position with a 'Wave of the Hand'...gone again and still the announcer is in full song!!!

But alass,not to be our day...I see the Torana come on to 'Pit' road and stop.....so I run ,giving Pat the 'heads-up' as I race off (Bloody 'Fit' in those days..The Beer!?) up to retrieve our car......pushing back down pit lane I commended 'Pete' on his driving skill's,but advised him that, if we were to work as a team, what was with the 'Hand' signal as he past the pits after all the sideway commotion.....In 'Pete's words...Quote; "W.w.w.well If f f ya ya ya you do an an Act like th th that ya ya gotta Curtsey" !!!!............to this day I'm still impressed that he had time to spot me standing (Ridged!!) at that position on the pit wall!!.....You had to love this man!!..................regards thunder427/MJ

NB; we had a problem with the Fuel pick-up in the 'Drop tank'...it seemed that it kept floating to the top!!!

[TonyG]

Thanks Thunder. I wondered what the deal was with this one as it was running with the Show cars eg Moffstang, Tru Blu etc and not with the others.

[Steve Holmes]

...this is a real nice 'replica' of the Bob Jane Torana,built by a very passionate owner/driver, signed by Bob at Eastern Creek,Muscle Car Masters, a couple of years back, well detailed,brings back a lot of great memories to me

This was a fantastic period of my life/career, I got to work for Bob Jane Racing with Pat Purcell/Team Manager,who gave me the opportunity to be creative,room to excel,( I think my title was, 'OJ' (odd job!!) sure we had the odd 'dust off', but when you work under pressure of a 'GET IT FINISHED' time table, 7days a week, on the average of 16hour days and there is no talk of 'Second Place',there is always going to be a 'little' heat in the kitchen!!

Working in a small team creates a interesting work ethic,given a task it has to be completed, personally checked, checked again just to be sure,then ask for it to be checked off by your team leader,ticked off the list, then move on to the next task,don't look for praise of job well done,that comes when you cross the line First!!!!!!

It was a real pleasure to work with 'Big' Pete, he and I got on very well, read; we had the ability to laughed, a lot !!!

For Example,take Sandown 500/1977/78,the pits were,turn left at the end of the Main Straight,"Peter's Ice Cream Cnr' on to a small straight,the pits were on the left hand side as the cars ran down to the Next lefthander,keep this picture in mind......well we,the Bob Jane Racing Team/Torana was on 'Pole'.......so we, the Team ,wait with baited breath around the cnr on this small straight,can't see the start line from this position,but we can hear the 'announcer',the building up of Rev's,then all 'Hell' lets loose,a total 'cresendo' of noise...and we will be first..have to be...we were on 'Pole' remember?...

WHAM!!!! around the cnr come a 'Blast' of colour and Cars and Noise and Smoke and Dust and....NO TORANA!!....No you think!!! its been hit on the Start Finishline..but suddenly around the cnr comes our favourite car...vrooooom past the pit...round the lefthander and gone......we all look at each other with both relief and WTF!!!!.....

The announcer is 'pumped-up' that 'Pete' Geoghegan is passing this car and that car in a desperate bid to get back to the front of the field..so we wait...I'm at the fence with the 'Pit Board' so 'Pete' can locate our position when he blasts past.....we wait...the Announcer is trumpeting the good news that Pete is doing so well...we wait, suddenly the whole show is on top of us 'flashing' by....I'm standing out there as duty states,swollowing 'dust and fumes' (Loving it ofcourse!)..10 cars go by..then suddenly the Torana arrives....believe me when I say arrives......totally sideways and on the grass, 'Pete' withbags of opposite lock,shit and small stone showering every were,suddenly the Torana gets a guts full of energy and spears straight across the track towards the pit wall....well the scene from were I stood was total 'CHAOS', team personal and pit boards going in all directions.............Only 'Pete' could turn this event in to a happy ending,but at this point I'm still not sure!!......'Pete' gathers the 'little' Torana up and 'Fly's past my position with a 'Wave of the Hand'...gone again and still the announcer is in full song!!!

But alass,not to be our day...I see the Torana come on to 'Pit' road and stop.....so I run ,giving Pat the 'heads-up' as I race off (Bloody 'Fit' in those days..The Beer!?) up to retrieve our car......pushing back down pit lane I commended 'Pete' on his driving skill's,but advised him that, if we were to work as a team, what was with the 'Hand' signal as he past the pits after all the sideway commotion.....In 'Pete's words...Quote; "W.w.w.well If f f ya ya ya you do an an Act like th th that ya ya gotta Curtsey" !!!!............to this day I'm still impressed that he had time to spot me standing (Ridged!!) at that position on the pit wall!!.....You had to love this man!!..................regards thunder427/MJ

NB; we had a problem with the Fuel pick-up in the 'Drop tank'...it seemed that it kept floating to the top!!!

Awesome story Myles! There will never be another Pete Geoghegan. And by that stage he was only racing part time, but still had all the talent in the world. And Myles, quit being modest, that wild colour scheme was your design! Credit where its due.

[Steve Holmes]

Oh, forgot to say, the original of this car was wrecked wasn't it?

[TonyG]

[TonyG]

[TonyG]

[TonyG]

[nigel watts]

Great photos Tony. Jeez I'd love to see some [all] of these cars come over here for a race or two.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Tony, these photos are great!

[Bondy]

Im pretty sure the ex Thomson Camaro is still owned by Peter Sportelli, he's had it for over 30 years. I know it was for sale, i think the Bowden's sell cars on behalf of their owners at times...

[Steve Holmes]

Yep you are correct. Chris Bowden has sent me a bunch of info on the car so I do put together a bit of an article on it shortly.

[TonyG]

[video=youtube;JHvgQvjF24E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JHvgQvjF24E[/video]

[video=youtube;FHigbh5CJek]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHigbh5CJek&NR=1[/video]

[video=youtube;Q8Ow_XQQEKY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Ow_XQQEKY&NR=1[/video]

[video=youtube;46HnlPUBmhw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46HnlPUBmhw&feature=related[/video]

I looked but cant see me on the inside of Hungry Corner lol
[video=youtube;i7rs4YNjV64]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7rs4YNjV64&feature=related[/video]

[video=youtube;ES6bD1xbkYw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES6bD1xbkYw&feature=related[/video]

[Rod Grimwood]

Any more photos of these magic cars, what a gathering of history. Still love that Thomson Camaro. Just a neat clean, mean beast.

[TonyG]

Sorry Rod. Just a heap of repeats of the same cars in my Photobucket account here.
http://s448.photobucket.com/home/TGPhotography/index

Let me know if you can't open the albums.
Cheers
Tony

[Rod Grimwood]

Cheers Tony.

[Jizim]

Really cool when you open up this site and see your own car from by gone years.....(brought the Pine Pac Mustang from the Anderson Bros. ) Still one of the best cars I was to drive. Raced against a lot of these other Group A cars in these photos. Tony you are to be commended here mate. Brilliant photos. Thank you for sharing.

[TonyG]

You are most welcome and thank you for the kind comments. I only wish I could see them more often lol
Cheers
Tony

Really cool when you open up this site and see your own car from by gone years.....(brought the Pine Pac Mustang from the Anderson Bros. ) Still one of the best cars I was to drive. Raced against a lot of these other Group A cars in these photos. Tony you are to be commended here mate. Brilliant photos. Thank you for sharing.