Spencer Martin

The 1950s and ’60s were to many involved in Australian historic motor sport, the halcyon years. It was the time of the Australian Special, the racing of early model Holdens and the Tasman Series. Many names came and went, but quite a few remained and are still well known today through active participation both then and now. One such name is Spencer Martin who started out in an iconic Aussie special called the Prad Holden, before moving on to drive one of the quickest early model Holdens in its day. Martin was then “discovered” by one of Australia’s leading motoring lights, resulting in him stepping out of the sedan and into a Brabham F1 car with following success in the Tasman Series. After being a household name, Martin walked away from the sport for more than a decade before joining the early days of the historic ranks. Spencer Martin continues to be involved in historics by assisting current enthusiasts with their sport and also the occasional time behind the wheel. VR’s Patrick Quinn was privileged to sit with Spencer Martin to talk about his life in motor sport.

Spencer, I have a memory of you running in the 1960s at Catalina Park in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Let’s go back to then and see what was happening.

Martin: It goes a long way back before that. The first motor race I went to was at Mount Druitt during the mid-’50s. So I got the bug from going out there and watching guys racing and thinking that I could go just as fast. I would have been about 16 or 17 at the time.

My introduction to motor racing came about due to my apprenticeship to a bloke who used to race a MG TC. I got involved with him and in those days to get there, you caught a steam train from Parramatta or there were some times I would ride my pushbike. Then I got my drivers license and went to my first Bathurst race meeting. I can remember it well, as I got my license on a Thursday and I drove to Bathurst on the Friday.

The names that come to mind from Mount Druitt include Curley Bryden, Arnold Glass, Jimmy Johnson, George Websdale, Col. James in his TC and Jack Myers. Lots of them, and in a way they became my idols.

I eventually bought a half completed project, a car that was built by Nota Engineering on an Elva design and powered by a Triumph Herald engine. I completed the car and my first race was at Gnoo Blas, Orange in 1960. I recall that the car went particularly well and I have lots of good memories of being in front of cars that I really shouldn’t have been. Going down the straight at Gnoo Blas it did 101 mph, which was pretty quick for such a little car. One event I do remember very well was being passed by the Leaton Motors D-Type that Doug Chivas was driving. Its exhaust pipe was at my ear level, and it went past me at 150 mph.

Then I went to Lowood in Queensland as you had to have raced at three different race meetings before you could have a go at Bathurst. I started at Gnoo Blas, then Lowood and finally Hume Weir in northern Victoria before being allowed to start at Bathurst. It was a big thing for me to race at Bathurst.

I was a panel beater back then, and I wanted to build aluminum bodies. Head man then was Stan Brown. He was at North Sydney working with Clive Adams alongside Jack Pryor and they built the Prad racing cars. So I worked there for a couple of years and then was offered a better opportunity. I had a word to Clive and let him know that I wanted to leave. I was making him quite a bit of money repairing aluminum-bodied cars, so Clive made me a proposition. I was asked to stay for another 12 months, and in return Clive said that he would give me the Prad racing car, which was his current competition car.

So I stayed for another year and Clive told me to take the car home anytime I liked. So I did, and completely pulled it apart and modified it. I wanted it to look like a 300S Maserati, and when I was finished with it I thought it looked the prettiest Australian special ever built.

It started out with an Alta engine, Jaguar gearbox and a de Dion rear end, and while it was being tested on a back street near Bathurst a fellow by the name of Bill Clark rolled it, so it sat in the corner for some time. Clive eventually put a Holden engine and diff and MG TC gearbox into it and that’s how I got it.

I also had a friend by the name of Joel Wakeley who had the BP station at North Strathfield. He had a guy working for him, a mechanic who had a hotted up Holden. Well he got into a bit of financial trouble, so Joel took the Holden on. Joel, Bob Gray and I rebuilt the car with a Waggott engine, and following a respray it looked great. It went well too, but we broke four crankshafts in the car before we got to our first meeting. We ended up running that car in 20 races, winning 17 of them, which included the Neptune Holden trophy.[pullquote]

“It was raining over the back of the circuit and I missed my braking point and went off. I was young and inexperienced and in awe to be leading two World Champions. In hindsight, I would have been better off following them.”

[/pullquote]

By this time, between driving the Prad and the Holden, David McKay had noticed me. That was in 1963, and David invited me to drive with Brian Muir in an S4 Holden. I put the car on the front row at Bathurst for the Armstrong 500, and while we didn’t finish the race, David was still pretty impressed. He brought Brian home from England to drive with me, and he was one of the leading British Touring Car drivers at that stage.

Did that lead to anything?

Martin: Yes it did, as then David offered me a drive in his Brabham, which was an enormous step up from driving a Holden to go to a Formula One car.

The first meeting was at Oran Park, followed by Lowood, Sandown and then Bathurst. When we got to Bathurst we had the 2.7 Coventry Climax engine running on methanol and David said that I would have to be pretty careful down the straight. In those days there was no Caltex Chase as it was just straight and over the hump. So, for the first lap of practice I kept it under 4,000 rpm and on the next lap I let it go and it did 171 mph over the hump.

Did you stay on the ground?

Martin: No! I was completely airborne, and you can’t see the road in front, as the nose came up so much. You had to watch the windsock too, because if there was a bit of a wind going crossways you could end up off the edge of the road.

So we had a good run in that car and we did a few Gold Star races that year too, which would have been in 1964. Then David sold that car to Kerry Grant in New Zealand and he drove it under the Scuderia Veloce banner for a few races. David then bought a new Brabham and the Ferrari 250LM, but not before he brought Graham Hill out to drive the older Brabham in the 1964 Tasman. I was Graham’s mechanic.

By that time I was working for David and was one of the first employees of Scuderia Veloce located under the Shell service station at Wahroonga.

So when he bought the new Brabham I had to put it together. It came out in a packing case and you used you own engine. So that had to be installed along with the rest of the running gear. Its first race was the 1965 New Zealand Grand Prix, which Graham won in a car that I put together. That was a bit of a buzz for me to be involved with him doing that.

While you were trained as a panel beater, did you have the skills to do that as well?

Martin: I suppose you could say that I was mechanically trained by putting my own racecar together. Then David said that I could come and work for Scuderia Veloce doing mechanical work under Bob Atkin, as well as working on the racing cars. That was a pretty tall order because he expected me to work eight hours on normal cars, and then after work prepare two racing cars and then on the weekend drive two racing cars. Of course I agreed to do it, as it was anything to get your bum into a racing car.

How did you find Graham Hill?

Martin: Very demanding and constantly wanting things changed. I have read reports on him from when he was driving for BRM when the mechanics said the same thing, that he was impossible and that you could never please him. For instance you had the car set up, but you would still be changing things on the start line.

There was one time we were at Warwick Farm and Graham heard that Jack Brabham and Bib Stilwell had seven-inch rims and we only had six-inch rims on the back. So we borrowed one from Jack and one from Bib. They were put on the car and Graham went out and came back exclaiming that he couldn’t believe the difference in the way it handled. What he didn’t know was that when I took the tires off the wheels we already had, they were seven-inch anyway. It shows the psychological effects that play on a racing driver’s mind. However, he was a colorful character, nice to be around and a very gutsy driver.

So that was 1965, when Graham Hill won the New Zealand GP?

Martin: We then came back to Australia without doing the complete Series over there. Graham was going to drive in only two races, the NZGP and at Sandown where it was the LM’s first race. At Sandown Graham wanted to drive the LM, but David said, “I promised the boy that he would drive it, and the boy is going to drive it.” So I got to drive the LM in its first race and, as luck would have it, the leader blew up and I won the race. There was a bit of luck involved, but the LM was a top car of its day, and with the V12 the noises inside and out were just sensational.

How was David with the result?

Martin: He certainly was pleased, plus there was good bonus money from Shell, and a first place meant quite a few dollars in the pocket. However, I should say that the success was offset by the death of Lex Davison who was killed in practice. It came out quite a bit later that he did have a bad heart.

The next meeting was at Longford, which was a great racing track as long as you were on the bitumen. As soon as you were off it, you were gone. It was probably the most dangerous racetrack that you could drive on. There were three straights; you would be doing 160-170 mph on each. Rocky Tresize and a photographer were fatally injured when Rocky touched a slower car right in front of the pits. We saw the car disintegrating in front of our eyes. It was horrendous. I saw the oil tank from the car 50 feet in the air. The previous year it was Timmy Mayer who had been killed on his way down to the township and Pub Corner.

In 1966, for the Tasman Series, I was to drive both the Ferrari 250 LM and the new Brabham BT11A, and we went to New Zealand where we did the full series. At the first race at Pukekohe I was on the front row of the grid with Jim Clark and Graham Hill, with Jackie Stewart behind. I got the best start and was leading on the first lap. It was raining over the back of the circuit and I missed my braking point and went off. I was young and inexperienced and in awe to be leading two World Champions. In hindsight, I would have been better off following them.

We had a good season in New Zealand and won every race in the Ferrari, the main opposition being the Lycoming Special [VR, July 2011], with its Lycoming aircraft engine. In fact, they had some amazing cars, including a number of aircraft-engined specials. At one circuit the owner, Jim Boyd, offered Jim Clark a drive. David McKay just couldn’t believe that Clark would get into a car that was a home-built special and give it plenty. You know there were lots of blokes who could drive cars, but there weren’t as many as nice a Jim.

There was a time when I was in New Zealand and wearing a short sleeve shirt to race in. No seat belt, just jump in the car and away you would go. The shirt was made from nylon and Jim Clark came over and told me I had to take the shirt off as if there was a fire, the poison from the burning shirt would kill me quicker than the fire. He came back later and gave me two of his driving suits.

Did you have another shunt in 1966?

Martin: I had a good race at Wigram and then we went down to Teretonga where they have a funny way of starting races. The starter just turns a hand around which means start your engines, you get on the line and a bloke jumps up on a box and waves the flag. A driver by the name of Red Dawson, who was in a Brabham, I reckon must have been in second gear as he was going past me. However, when we got down to the first corner he’s braking too early, so to avoid hitting him I had to swerve out and got around sideways. Dickie Attwood, who was driving a BRM, came down and hit me head on and went off up into a paperbark tree, upside down in the BRM with the fuel pump going and full tanks.

Then we came to Sydney for the rest of the Tasman Series, and I think the only thing I can report from all that was that the LM was a great hit in Australia and we won many more races in it. The best result in the Brabham was a 3rd at Lakeside behind Jim Clark and Frank Gardner. What would happen was that I would do a 50-mile race in the LM in the morning and then a 100-mile Tasman race in the afternoon. By the end of the day you knew you had done plenty.

After eight races I thought I could do with a week off. I said to David that I was having a week off and a bit of a break. His response was that he wanted me to go back to Sydney and take the engine out of the LM. I told him that I would be back in a week, but he insisted that I was going back straightaway. I told him that I would be back in a week and would talk to him then.

Was it a stand off between the two of you?

Martin: Yes it was, and that was the end of my association with David. He was a difficult man. He expected me to drive both cars, also be mechanic on both and I had to supply my own tow car. In those days I was getting about $100 a week, which was about a third of what a real wage was. The opportunities were enormous. Like how many guys would have the opportunity to drive a Ferrari 250 LM and a Formula One car, after stepping out of a Holden? After a while the novelty wore off, and I suppose I bit the hand that was feeding me.

What direction did you take then?

Martin: I rang Shell, our sponsors. Archie White was the manager and told him what had happened. He responded that he didn’t know how I had put up with it for so long. I had always got on well with Archie, so he rang their head office in Melbourne who stated that wherever I went the sponsorship money went with me.

I went to Alec Mildren, but he couldn’t do anything as he was always with BP. Shell came back to me and suggested that I could go and drive for Bob Jane. That meant a move to Melbourne, which was something I didn’t really want to do, but if I had to I would. It was March 1966 when I moved to Melbourne, and Bob ended up buying David’s Brabham from him. This was the car I had been driving, and David made out that he was doing us a favor, but had just bought Jack’s (Brabham) Repco V8 and put Greg Cusack into it. However the V8 wasn’t reliable and we won enough races to win The Gold Star, the Australian Formula One Championship.

I went to Melbourne as mechanic/driver and did that for two years, and while there shared a flat with Bevan Gibson who was later killed at Bathurst in the Elfin 400. I drove for Bob for two years in all of his cars, including the lightweight E-Type, which was a real weapon. I had the pleasure of blowing the LM off in it. I also drove the Elfin 400 with the 4.4-liter Repco. I had a really good car to drive and won the CAMS Gold Star two years in a row 1966-’67.

How long did all that keep up?

Martin: At the end of 1967 I had enough of all the pats on the back with no money to show for it and had met my wife to be. So I told Bob that I was moving on and came back to Sydney. Vicki and I were married in 1968, and then Harry Firth asked me to drive a Holden Monaro in company with Kevin Bartlett at Sandown in the six-hour race and I had a horrendous crash in that car. Craig Lowndes’ father Frank was a mechanic for the Holden Dealer Team and some 20 years after the accident he told me what had happened.

They had put the wrong brake pads on the car, and I had absolute brake failure at the end of the main straight when the pedal went right to the floor. I managed to get the car completely around and went through the Armco backward, driving the muffler through the fuel tank. The car went up in the air and landed on a service road below. The fire, with the tank half full, was spectacular. I was lucky to get out of that as all the doors had jammed shut. My pregnant wife, who was standing on the side of the road watching it all, was horrified. That was the end of my motor racing for a period.

It was only for a time wasn’t it?

Martin: For ten years anyway. In 1979, David drove the 250 LM in a demonstration run with Fangio at Sandown Park and an oil line came off and he had a big crash, breaking his arm and ending up in hospital. As you did in those days I sent him a telegram, even though we hadn’t spoken for many years, I said I hoped he was okay. He warmed to that and invited me to drive a Volvo at Bathurst. At that time our combined ages added up to 100. David was 60 and I was 40. Following that, for many years, we travelled the world together, attending many Grands Prix and playing golf.

What were you doing in the intervening ten years?

Martin: I had my own business. I had a mate who had a trucking business, and while I had spent ten years motor racing he’d spent the same ten years driving his truck. He owned his house, his car and had paid off all the things that I had still to get and start up a family. So being a tradesman and stuck with a dilemma of what to do, that’s what I did. Eventually I built a new house, had three kids and things were going really well until my wife passed away in 1990 at just 45 years of age. In the meantime I had moved on to a Bob Jane T-Mart.

In 1984 we were invited to run at Laguna Seca in the LM. By that time David had sold me a quarter share in the car. I was under the impression that it was to be a high-speed demonstration, but when we arrived there were four other LMs. So there were five LMs in the race, with one driven by Steve Earle. I went around in the LM and was about two to three seconds off the pace. We had Firestones on the car, but they were quite old. Steve Earle was running Goodyear Blue Streaks and we decided we had to get a set, but they said the last set was taken. So we approached the bloke who was supposed to have ordered them and he said he wasn’t racing. So that was fortunate and we fitted them to the car and were three seconds quicker than all of them. They not only lowered the car, they lowered the ratios and the tires were sticky as anything. We were the first Ferrari home, 3rd behind a Cobra Daytona driven by Bob Bondurant who won. The car went so well Ralph Lauren’s spies were out, and it wasn’t long before they were here in Australia and came up to my place to look at the car. They were just blown away by it all and paid us the money we asked for it.

Was it a time before you raced again?

Martin: I also met Kerry Manolas at Laguna Seca that year and he was showing a restored 212 Ferrari at Pebble Beach. He was fairly impressed at how the LM went, and in 1988 Kerry had a 300S Maserati with which he wanted to go to Laguna Seca. I drove the car for him there. We had a lot of brake problems, and eventually the clutch failed. My next drive for Kerry was in a 250 Testa Rosa pontoon-bodied car at Silverstone, where we beat Neil Corner who was the Ferrari guru with a well set up car. Our car had supposedly had a tune before we got there, but it was running on about six cylinders. So we took the distributor caps off and there were only two sets of points opening instead of four. We drained the carburetors and out came water and dirt. So, finally running on 12 cylinders, we gave Neil a very good race and won our class.

In 1992 I said to Kerry that the drum-braked cars are a bit of a handful. A three-liter car putting out 320 horsepower with drum brakes that doesn’t stop it. So he bought a Dino 196S, the ex-Rodriguez brothers car. This was a car we had our most fun with. It was sent to Auto Restorations in New Zealand and Alan Whylie completely rebuilt the engine. It had previously blown up and had a cracked crankshaft. So, we had a brand-new crank and all the new bits. Stretched to 2.5 liters it was a quite a car to drive, and could also be stopped consistently with its disc brakes. It was with the Dino at Laguna Seca in 1994 that we won the Phil Hill Trophy, awarded for the best presented and best driven car at the meeting. It had never been won by anyone outside America before. Our main opposition was Pete Lovely in a well sorted V12 250 TR.

Kerry bought a T33 Alfa in 1996 that we ran at Laguna, and while at the meeting he took delivery of another two cars—the ex-Moss C-Type Jaguar that had taken 2nd at Le Mans and the 250 SWB that came 3rd at Le Mans and 1st in the GT Class. It was called a 250 Factory Hot Rod car as it had the thinner chassis tubes, Perspex and aluminum. It was a real hot rod, their cheating version, but a great car. We took that on the Colorado Grand, which was an incredible 1000-mile bash across Colorado, after the races at Laguna.

In 1997 the biggest thing we did was to take the C-Type to Monaco for the Historics, which was probably the best Historic meeting I have ever been involved in. They had all the class winners up on the stage with half a dozen cars with Princess Stephanie, Prince Albert and Prince Rainier, along with Sir Stirling doing the presentations. After Monaco we went to Silverstone, where I drove the C-Type and managed to finish 3rd with it.

Kerry and I then took the 250 GT SWB to the 50th Anniversary of Ferrari at Maranello for the celebrations. This was an amazing event, starting in Rome, following the Mille Miglia course to the factory, followed by many laps around Fiorano.