Lobethal Grand Carnival 2009

Giddings, left, and Shirley, right, enjoy Southern Australia.

At last year’s presentations, event director Tony Parkinson had hoped the Lobethal Grand Carnival would become an annual event, attracting cars of the calibre that raced there in the thirties and forties. The 2009 entry list proved that, and there were several pre War Alfas on hand to celebrate the seventy-year anniversary.

Alfa P3 chassis numbers 5006 and 50005 are well known at historic race meetings around the world, in the hands of Peter Giddings and Jon Shirley. Gidding’s 5006 (according to Simon Moore, the first series of P3s had a four digit serial number) dates from 1931 and is the only surviving first series Tipo B. Its racing history with Scuderia Ferrari includes Guy Moll’s win at Monaco in 1934.

Shirley’s 50005 is documented as the 1935 German Grand Prix winner. Tazio Nuvolari’s skill in overcoming the powerful Mercedes and Auto Unions from behind at the Nurburgring is well recorded as his most famous race.

Peter Mullin had Jim Stranberg drive his Delahaye in the event. Seventy years ago the same car placed fourth in the Australian Grand Prix.

Keeping them honest was the Delahaye Type 135 that placed fourth in that 1939 Grand Prix. Now owned by American Peter Mullin and driven in his absence by Jim Stranberg from Colorado, it had placed 2nd in the 1936 French Grand Prix and won the Marseilles GP at Miramas.

The Talbot Lago leads the field at Lobethal.

Also in blue were John Lawson’s 1936 Delage D6 70 Le Mans and Ron Townley’s 1948 Lago Talbot Type T2C. Chassis 110002 was the second of Tony Lago’s 4500cc cars built to the 1948 unsupercharged formula.

Lawson’s Delage Le Mans.

In 1953 its factory rebuild included twin magnetos and dual plugs per cylinder, ZF limited slip differential and work to the windscreen and oil tank. Sold by Tony in 1954 to Australian Doug Whiteford, it came third in the 1955 Australian Grand Prix.

Rod Quinn’s Type 35B.

Bugattis included George Hetrel’s well known 1927 Type 35C, Rod Quinn’s Type 35B, the 37As of Kent Patrick and Andrew Cannon and Roderick Amos’ Type 40.

George Hetrel in his Type 35C Bugatti.

Trevor Montgomery ran his Alfa Romeo 6C 1500, the “Little Alfa” previously raced by 4 time Australian Grand Prix winner Lex Davison. In spirit with these were the Argentinean Pur Sang recreation cars of Mick Hone (Type 51), Ray Delaney (Type 35B) and Phil Schudmak (Alfa Monza).
______________________________________________________

If you are enjoying this article, why not consider a donation to VeloceToday? Click here for details..it’s easy!
______________________________________________________

More a tourer than a racer, the world’s only Alfa G1 shared marquee space in the pits with the Delahaye and the two P3s.

Factory records show 50 were built from 1920 with two prototypes possibly included in this figure. Two were imported into Australia. This car’s first owner was a Brisbane businessman who was declared bankrupt before the Alfa had covered its first thousand miles.

Alfa G1.

The story goes that he drove it 900 miles west to leave it at a cattle station in the middle of Queensland so that it would escape the accountants. Unfortunately he never picked it up as he died three years later. The car stayed there in a shed and eventually tangled with a tree while in the hands of two lads working on the property, suffering front suspension and steering damage. The station foreman saw the value of its 6.3 litre six cylinder engine. He stripped off the body, welded angle iron to the chassis and connected up a centrifugal pump. There the Alfa stayed, ticking over at 1100rpm and pumping water into feeder dams.

Alfa G1.

In 1965, Queenslander Ross Flewell-Smith heard about it from a contact out west. A deal was done which saw Ross provide the cattle station with a Holden-engined pump unit in exchange for the car. Too big for his trailer, it was trucked back and unloaded with a fork lift. The curator at the Alfa Museum, Luigi Fusi, confirmed it as the only known G1 survivor and sent blueprints and photographs to help in the ten year restoration.

Alfa G1.

Now owned by Neville Crichton and driven over the weekend by David Berthon, in top gear the G1 travels over 2.7 metres for every engine revolution. With two fuel tanks totalling 275 litres, it has a range of over 1000 kilometres. On its last run on Sunday, the tube in the right front tyre let go and it finished the lap of the 14 kilometre circuit on the back of the rescue vehicle.

As in 1939, MGs, other British and European sports cars and Australian built specials, several with Lobethal racing history, and over thirty racing motorcycles and sidecar outfits, completed the entry list. Frank Moore’s Mercury-engined “Black Bess” won a race in the last meeting held at Lobethal in 1948 and was victorious at the 1950 Australian Grand Prix. Its bench seat was the ideal place from which to hear and smell two P3 Alfas taking on the best French and British cars from the era. Trying to hold the camera steady while facing backwards over the fuel tank behind the seat was just a minor issue.

Spectators were treated to the sights and sounds of these cars on a public road circuit that hasn’t changed its layout since before World War 2. Allan Tomlinson is now 93 years old and he’d flown in from New York. A recently completed replica of his MG TA Special ran all weekend. On Sunday afternoon when he was presented with a trophy to commemorate his win in 1939, he modestly gave credit to his team of twenty year olds as though it was yesterday. And the memories came flooding back.

Trevor Montgomery with his Alfa Romeo 6C 1500.

In a recent issue of this magazine, Jon Shirley was asked how to get the next generation interested in historic and classic cars. If the kids in the crowds lining the Lobethal circuit are anything to go by, they already are.

Special thanks to Tony Parkinson and Frank Moore.

See www.lobethalgrandcarnival.com.au