When Sedans Were King

From Stock Cars to Saloons

A primer to the 1970s Sedan boom.

Text by Graham Mison. Images by Graham Mison unless otherwise stated.
Sedan type racing on Australian Speedways started with the Stock Cars of the 1950s. Empire Speedways at the Sydney Showground ran the first event for these cars on November 13, 1954 and they were an instant hit. Not for the actual racing but for their entertainment value, racing rules were almost non existent although many drivers liked to race for a victory. Spectacular crashes were the norm and were rewarded with cash. Drivers thought nothing of ramming their opposition and good prize money on offer ensured big fields week after week.
These cars were mainly pre war American iron running V8s, heavy exterior bar work added to their weight
Above: Seen at the Linigen collection are a threesome of Stockers from the '60s. Closest to camera is a car representing Arthur 'Basher' Briggs, the body however is not a '37 Ford Coupe as was driven by Briggsy. Phone numbers and sign writing is not accurate for the time either. Middle car is that driven by Jim Santos and next to it a representation of the Stock Rod driven by the father and son team of the Braziers.
and many a fence was taken out by these armoured heavyweights.
Earlier in '54 Stock Car racing had its
debut in the UK with an event at New Cross Stadium, South East London on April 16. The Brits had copied the idea from France, where for a few years previously American V8 powered sedans had been raced at a number of small stadiums. The cars were beefed up with protective bars and were mainly US types with some British as well. Every event for these cars played to a full house.This apparently was the inspiration for trying it in Australia.

It's interesting to note that the biggest crowd at an Australian Speedway meeting was for a Stock Car event at the Sydney Showground in 1955. A massive crowd estimated at over 50,000 jammed into the venue. In fear of a riot, Police demanded the gates be thrown open after some 27,000 people paid their way in and an enormous number were still cuing up.

It could be argued that stockcars were the reason that speedway was viewed by many as not real motorsport, just semi-organised destruction and something like the chariot race in the movie Ben Hur. Still the crowds flocked to these events, saving many a speedway from going under, most Australian speedways ran a mixed card of 2,3 and 4 wheeled categories. So, many that came for the Stock Cars were also exposed to the more genuine racing of Bikes, Midgets and Modifieds. Most of the capital city tracks including Rowley Park, Brooklyn and Claremont ran Stock Cars at least for a while.

There were many ideas tried by promotors to keep the fans coming back including test series between Australia and New Zealand and celebrity races. Westmead ran a race dubbed the "NSW Amateur Stock Car Title" on August 20, 1961 before a massive crowd. Entrants came from TV, Radio, print media and Rock and Roll. Included in the line up were Col Joye, Bob Rogers, Lucky Starr, Chuck Faulkner, Allan Toohey and many more. The title went to Jim Shepherd, now a speedway historian. Frank Ifield was another performer who regularly drove a stockie, the number 52 car, he continued this interest for a short time when he moved to the UK.

The Kiwis had also taken to these type of cars but had gone down a different path with more of an emphasis on racing than deliberately running into each other. The first Stock Car race in New Zealand was run on November 26, 1954 at Aranui Speedway, Christchurch. The cars the New Zealanders arrived in Australia with were more like the lightened Stock Rods that ran at Westmead than the average Aussie Stocker. The large crowds that attended these tests where whipped up into a frenzy, something repeated in the 1970s at Australia vs USA sedan tests.

Several variations on the Stock Car theme sprang up around the country in the sixties, one being the afore mentioned Stock Rods that ran mainly at Westmead Speedway and also occasionally Kembla Grange, Windsor and Liverpool.

These were a lightened version of the Stockies with most of the external bar work removed. Car preparation improved dramatically with this class and events were more races than spectacles. A recently published work titled "Winter Sundays in the 60's - The Westmead Stock Rod Story" by Grant Woodhams relives many of his memories as a keen spectator of this division:

Survivors
At the Linigen Collection
Black Power
Jim Santos Ford #56. A typical vehicle of the Stock Car era, this car is fitted out with internal and external bar work. Front Bullbar would not be out of place on a Kenworth crossing the Nullarbor.
Brazier
Representative of the Stock Rods is this car bearing the #58 of the Braziers. Both the elder Stan and younger Steve shared the blue and white #58 at Westmead in the '60s. The Rods ran without the heavy exterior bar work of their Stock Car forebears.
 
What's in a name?
Most dictionaries will state that a Stock Car was originally an unmodified passenger car. In the USA this grew into a term describing any mass-produced passenger vehicle modified for racing. Events described as Stock Car races were run at Australian road racing circuits before WW2. With the forming of NASCAR in 1947 Stock Car racing in the US moved to late model cars and the term became entrenched as an oval track term. The Australian Speedway Stock Car was generally a pre war (WW2) American car, as these were more easily available from wreckers than post war cars. Their appearance followed the English version of Stock Cars with massive reinforced rollbars and framing.
A Saloon car is a British term for a sedan, that is an enclosed car with a front and rear seat. Why the term was chosen for Speedway Tin Tops is still a mystery, perhaps it was to differentiate between them and the road racing Touring Cars or just because it was a term in general use in the early to mid '60s as British cars still made up a high proportion of the market.
"By 1962 the division had been established at Westmead and was part of the main program racing separately from the Stock Cars. Essentially the Stock Rods were based on old Chryslers, Buicks, Fords, Chevrolets and the like. Most of the bodies were pre World War Two. There was the occasional modern vehicle, but for the most part, the cars were old American imports. The cars ran with their wheels exposed. In the majority of cases the wheel arches, were removed from the body, so they appeared a semi open wheel configuration, but their handling and characteristics were strictly sedan. Many of them were former Stock Cars with the external bar work removed."
"As Westmead Speedway's Sunday afternoon meetings moved through 1964 the Stock Rods really started to consolidate their place on the program. Big car counts with handicapped starts and close finishes kept both spectators and drivers interested in every race. The Stock Rod events certainly weren't predictable! While the division was relatively new, many of the drivers had previous experience in Stock Cars and were familiar names to the regular fans."

A number of drivers that became big names in other divisions competed in the Stock Rods including Wayne Fisher, Howard Revell, Jim Winterbottom, Ken Barlow, Rick Hunter, Clive Sevenoaks and Stan and Steve Brazier.
A number of tracks ran Stock Car only meetings, Queensland's Archerfield Raceway among them. By mid '65 this track was running a Stock Car show every weekend through out the winter and packing the fans in. The Competition was referred to as being like "Tank warfare without actually firing guns" by speedway scribe Terry Vine in the January 1966 issue of The Australian Hot Rodding Review. A very apt description as some of these vehicles would not have looked out of place smashing their way through lines of Rommell's Panzers in North Africa. Local heroes included Dutton Stibbard
in a yellow Buick Century, Bill Malt, Len White, Hugh Bramwell and Laurie Menzell.

Archerfield had actually been closed down in it's first season after a Stock Car went through the fence at the second meeting. Several spectators were slightly injured in the incident and the promotors were told by Police there'd be no more racing untill the fence was upgraded. This was done and the fence was raised in height and the track recountored, this was said to have cost 15,000 pounds at the time. A feature of the early Archerfield track was a crude type of catch fencing using what most would call 'cyclone fencing', this extended some 1.5 to 2 metres above the wooden fence. The promotors brought New Zealander Ray New in, he'd been running Palmerston North Speedway with a mostly Stock Car show. He advised a switch to Stock Cars only was the way to recoup this investment quickly as higher prizemoney for the open wheel divisions had been cutting back on profits.
New became a regular visitor to Archerfield as a competitor. He ran a menacing black Zodiac Stock Car #6 (Below) and took the 1967 Qld title back to New Zealand with him. At a previous meeting New had been injured in an incident with local driver Duffy Menzies. Menzies was required to stand down for this meeting as penance. The race was typical of the division. Starting order for the 24 car field was drawn from a hat with New pulling out position 4. 1966 Queensland Champion, Don Allsop, drew pole position and led the first few laps. New worked his way to the front but got tangled with a lapped car on the 6th circuit and spun. Rejoining many spots down he worked his way back to the front but was again spun out by another competitor. With the help of at least 4 race stoppages he was able to get back to the front. Turn 4 on the last lap saw another drama for the Kiwi as he was forced off track and the black Zodiac mounted one of the 44 gallon drums used to line the inside of the track. Despite this he still crossed the line first and was followed home by Bill Malt.

At Westmead they often referred to the Stock Car race as "The Butcher's Picnic" but at Archerfield they called the feature "The Mechanical Bullfight". This Queensland track also tried a variation on the Le Mans start with the cars lined up on the infield with motors running and drivers in their cars, each driver held a ticket which was to be collected by a runner from his team. The runners lined up on the opposite side of the oval and at the drop of the flag sprinted to their car and collected the ticket allowing their driver to scream off onto the track and into the race. Archerfield also tried figure-eight racing.

Enter the Saloons

In the early '60s a new category had its beginnings, Production Saloons. Where and when the first races for this category were held is still to be determined. Jim Shepherd in his History of Australian Speedway believes it was at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds (known as the Ekka) in the early '60s.

Sometimes referred to as Prodies but also Sedans, Tin Tops or Saloons by race fans they still coped the general terms of Stock Cars or Stockies by the general public. Competitors in the open wheel categories often referred to them as Taxis. Fields mainly consisted of early model Holdens and Fords with small numbers of other makes. This was seen as a cheap way of getting into speedway. Just buy a car from your local wrecker, remove the glass, add an internal rollbar, weld the doors up and you could go racing. Rules varied between clubs and with no controlling body they were open to wide variations.

By mid 1966 the Brisbane area had 4 tracks featuring Saloons - Arthur Park, Brisbane Exhibition Grounds, Forest Park and Archerfield. In the same year disagreement between the promotors of Archerfield (Blair Shepherd, Ron Wanless and Peter Dykes) and the Queensland Stock Car Association over a drivers insurance scheme saw a Black Ban placed on the track. However most of the clubs members ignored this and continued to race despite being black banned by their own club for doing so!

During this period of unease the profile of the Saloons was raised with many meetings seeing a smaller number of Stock Cars than Saloons. Growing crowd support for local Saloon peddlers such as Barry Harrison and Jim Holden helped raise the stock of the new division and on August 7,1966 a Test Match between Australia and New Zealand was run. This was said to be the first ever such event with Saloon cars. The Kiwi team drove borrowed local cars, led by visiting NZ promotor and ex Solo rider Ray New. New was also a Stock Car driver of some note. His team mates were Lew Mungavin and Red Dawson, a pair of Kiwis who were on holidays on the nearby Gold Coast. Australia was represented by locals Rob Ladewig, Des "Wizard" Graham and, as captain, Jim Holden.

The 'Test' was a single race over 10 laps. Holden and New started off the back row with Holden easily moving through to the lead on the 2nd lap with Graham second then Ladewig, Mungavin, Dawson and New bringing up the rear. New, in a car he'd only turned a few laps in, worked his way through his team mates and then Ladewig but had difficulty getting by Graham. Eventually working his way past the"Wizard" he set of after Holden but ran out of laps, finishing just behind the Aussie captain. Australia was declared the victor with a score of 13-8. The two captains also had a go at the 1 lap record, then at 20.4 seconds, and both lowered it to 20 seconds even.

Next season another 'Test' was organised. This time between Australia and the USA, however the validity of the nationality of the US drivers, who had been found in Brisbane, was under question and the press considered the whole thing a farce. For the record Australia was the victor and Holden driver Hugh Bramwell lowered the 1 lap record to 19 seconds.
Arthur Park

Arthur Park, a 1 mile oiled dirt oval built on 57 acres at Acacia Ridge in 1965, was the culmination of a 30 year dream by Frank Arthur.

Arthur had big plans for the 1 miler even to hiring it out to GMH as a test track and also allowing anyone off the street to drive the track for 2 shillings per lap.

Up to 130 Saloons competed at each meeting with a feature race having over 60 starters! Some of the cars were a hybrid class with many running with glazing still in place and opening doors.

At 100ft wide the track allowed for 6 wide starts. Its high speeds contributed to spectacular accidents with several cars going over the banking or ending up in one of the five dams scattered around the track. Leroy Phillips was a two time visitor to these water hazards. In the second incident he spun off track in his #47 mini and after rolling landed upside down in a dam with the roof flattened and his head under water. Quick action by a flag marshal ensured his extraction from a life threatening situation.

Barry Harrison was another driver suffering a major accident at the track when he hit a stationery car at a meeting in 1967. He was knocked unconscious by the impact and his car leapt over the banking before running over a pair of young spectators, who had entered a non spectator area, before coming to a halt entangled in a barbed wire fence. He, the two spectators and John Dam who was the driver of the other car involved were taken to hospital.

Only a small number of meetings were ever held at Arthur Park and the venue faded away into history by the end of the decade.
 
Forest Park
Forest Park, a 700 yard dirt track built by Ron Coleman, an ex Stock Car and Hot Rod driver, was built on 200 acres of land at Kalangur 22 miles from Brisbane.

The track was built in a valley using the trees that were cleared from the land in the construction of the fence and buildings. This resulted in what was said to be one of the toughest fences in speedway. The track was triangular in shape and followed the fall of the land resulting in up and down hill sections.

Officially opened on November 7, 1965 by the Speaker of the Queensland Parliament, D.E. Nicholson, the track length mainly suited the hordes of Saloon cars in the Brisbane area but all 4 wheel divisions ran at some time on the circuit.

Like Arthur Park it faded away towards the end of the '60s, the Brisbane area having too many speedways to support.

Over at the Exhibition Grounds they liked to run long races, 100 lappers for Speedcars, Super Modifieds and the Saloons. Grinding out a ton of laps at this track, or any track, in any vehicle of the time would have been a real endurance test for any driver. Saloon races of this distance seemed to get the public's attention and they continued on the nations ovals for several decades. Nearby Ipswich Speedway opened for business on March 27, 1968 and Saloons featured from the very beginning. There is no doubt that southern Queensland was a driving force in the early years of true sedan racing in this country, a force that continues to this day.

At the new track at Liverpool, in Sydney's south west, sedans were on the programme from the opening meeting in '67. Listed as Sedan Cars in the programes of the first season they became Production Saloons in the second. They shared the billing with the Stock Cars and Stock Rods as supports to the headline divisions of Speedcars, Super Modifieds and Solos. A strong following developed in the area and a number of title races were run attracting entries from Interstate such as Victorians Gordon Rintoul , Ian Lewis, Phil Page and South Australian Graham Dadow.
Above: Peter Crick in the blue #49 EH Holden at a late '60s Liverpool meeting. This car is typical of the upper level of Saloons racing at the time with neat signage and paintwork yet the body has obviously taken some hits and been repaired. Full internal rollcage is evident, many cars of the time ran with only a rollbar for driver protection. A feature of 1960s Saloon racing were Teams. Two or three cars sponsored by the same garage, wreckers or car yard etc. They were usually the same make and model, painted the same way and
often with consecutive racing numbers. Lead driver, often the owner of the cars, was referred to as the 'Team Captain'. In southern Qld Jim Holden led the Tornado Team. At Liverpool, in it's early years, the Muller Motors Team consisted of Maurie Muller, Peter Crick and Wally Traucht all in FC Holdens. Down south at Brooklyn the Wavestoc Team ran a trio of Humpy Holdens.

In the '68 Liverpool season Max Kennerly, in an FJ Holden #68, took out the NSW title from Jim Hartep and Maurie Muller and on September 1 of the same year the National Production Saloon Championship went to Col Hunter with brother Rick Hunter chasing him home for second and Ken Barlow third.

All around the nation various speedway organisations created rules for their own state or local version of Saloon racing. This was fine for the majority of racers at the time as most were only interested in racing their local track or maybe those within a few hours drive of home. This changed as the popularity of the division began to spread and promotors and clubs began to offer more prize money and put on title races. With no overall standard of allowed modification or safety equipment much argument took place between competitors, officials and promotors.

Saloon numbers boomed all over the nation in the second half of the sixties. Yet the Stockies held on in various forms into the early 1970s in some areas. The spectacle of cars deliberately crashing into each other has made several comebacks over the decades and lives on in the form of Demolition Derbys and Fender Bender racing. Of the later, one of the strangest sites must be the Caravan, Boat and Dunny Derby run at tracks such as Parramatta City Raceway to raise funds for charities. In this event the 'Benders tow the said attachments and try for the most spectacular wipeout, the result is often reminiscent of a Mad Max movie.

As the the sixties drew to a close the rise of the Saloon car was evident at tracks in every corner of

Above: Adam Cusak's 'SHREK' Fender Bender seen here at Nowra. Character cars are common in the 'Bender ranks and provide comic relief between rounds of heat races at many speedways. They are a modern day connection to the days of the Stock Cars.
the nation. Australia's love for tin top racing had seen sedans raised above the 'pure' racing cars on the road course cicuits of the nation with a similiar swell building on the dirt tracks. That swell would become a boom in the coming decade. The seventies would see new chariots for the champions of oval track racing, chariots that looked for the most part like the cars driven by the people in the stands, yes Sedans would be Kings of the seventies.

Thanks to: Grant Woodhams for allowing reproduction of several paragraphs from his book "Winter Sundays in the 60s - The Westmead Stock Rod Story" and some background information on Stock Cars at Westmead. If you are interested in finding out more on this book contact Grant here> d.track promotions

Also to Gavin Evitt from the Historic Stockcar Club of New Zealand
CONTACTS: Snail Mail - Graham Mison PO Box 4234 Marayong N.S.W. 2148 Australia | This Site - www.homepages.ihug.com.au/~gmison | email - Contact Graham
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