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Frank Matich
The
Australian Challenge |
 Anyone
who followed racing in the sixties and early
seventies knew the name of the best driver in
Australia. Frank Matich. Undisputed, even though at
times he was restricted to sports cars. Everyone
knew that if he had an open wheeler he'd better
everyone else.
It wasn't always so, of course. Matich started out
in an MG TC that was also his road car. He spent
many a race day and other days at Mount Druitt's
airstrip circuit with wife to be Joan in this car,
but just as they eventually got married, so the MG
was replaced by an Austin Healey 100/4.
His racing successes in this weren't notable, but he
was able to use it as a springboard to get into a
D-type Jaguar owned by Leaton Motors. This took him
to fourth place in the Australian Tourist Trophy at
Bathurst in 1958 and gradually closer to the pointy
end of the field.
Leatons were a big help to Matich. In 1960 they
bought a Lotus 15 for him and he was on his way to
the top. Despite the frailty of this car, which
matched a 2.5-litre Coventry Climax engine with an
Austin A35 differential. It introduced Frank to the
lightweight specialty cars that were becoming the
winners in that era and led the way to the Lotus 19.
In this car he leapt to prominence. While he didn't
always win with the 19, he only ever lost to the
Cooper Monaco of Bib Stillwell when it came to a
straight fight. Despite this, he never won the
Australian title in the car.
But he won backing for advancement that led to the
top of the tree in Australian racing. Two backers
were to take over from Leaton Motors - Total Oil's
Australian branch and Laurie O'Neill, a wealthy
businessman who became a major patron over many
years.
In addition to this, the fledgling Elfin Sports Cars
put cars into his hands as 'works' entries in no
fewer than three classes, enhancing his experience
and adding greatly to his CV in 1962.
The Lotus 19 was written off by mechanic Bruce
Richardson while Frank was testing one of the
Elfins, Bruce being assigned the job of bedding in
the Lotus' brakes at the Warwick Farm short circuit.
A new car was built, the 19B, and alongside it there
was a new Brabham 2.5 for Gold Star and
International series participation. Total owned the
Brabham, Laurie O'Neill funded the Lotus, while
Total had representation on all five cars in the
stable.
Racing was bursting out everywhere at the time. 1960
had seen Warwick Farm open, then came Catalina Park
and the rough and ready first edition of Oran Park.
All in or around Sydney, they were Matich's
playground, Mt Druitt having died in 1957 and
Bathurst being restricted to two meetings a year -
and just one from 1963.
Similarly, new circuits were coming on stream in
other states. Lakeside in Brisbane, Sandown Park in
Melbourne, then Calder, while Longford was being
improved all the time in Tasmania.
 One
Catalina Park meeting saw Frank dominate
proceedings, winning the Formula Junior championship
in an Elfin 1100, taking his class win in an Elfin
Clubman, then the 1500cc openwheeler had its wins
and the 19 still more. The outright lap record at
this circuit was his for most of its life.
But it was Warwick Farm which saw his greatest
efforts come to fruition. I first saw him in the 19
and the 1500 Elfin there in October, 1962. He won
easily in the Lotus and then filled third place in
the Elfin after a battle with Chris Amon in a 2.5
Cooper. Clearly it was time for his graduation to
the Brabham, but that was still a year away.
At the Warwick Farm International meeting he stunned
many by qualifying the Elfin 1500 (this was powered
by a pushrod Ford engine) fifth on the grid
alongside David McKay's Brabham 2.5 and ahead of
Chris Amon in the McKay's 2.5 Cooper, Graham Hill in
the 2.5 Ferguson, Lex Davison's 2.7 Cooper many
others. There were three 1.5 cars in the field,
thirteen 2.5 and over.
When the Brabham arrived it was to stun even more.
Despite a run of mechanical outs, the car grabbed
early leads in races, in both New Zealand and
Australia in the inaugural Tasman Cup series, beat
many international drivers in practice sessions and
showed Frank was a front line driver in any company.
While Tasman placings were an object of the
exercise, Total were keen to wrest the Australian
Drivers' Championship away from BP. Bib Stillwell
was the leading contender and a BP driver, Frank was
to take the battle to him. Unfortunately, the
reliability he and his men had found in the Lotus
couldn't be transferred to the Brabham.
1965 saw more of the same - Tasman flashes of
brilliance and disappointment. All along, however,
the Lotus was performing well. It had taken the
Tourist Trophy at Longford in 1964 and thus put the
Matich name on the serious Australian Championship
winners for the first time.
But the 19B was to meet its end prematurely in June,
1965. Practising for a minor race at Lakeside, the
throttle stuck open and Frank rode it into the fence
behind the paddock area. Fire broke out and he was
burned. Total then abandoned him, selling off the
Brabham.
But Laurie O'Neill was still behind Frank and funded
the building of the prototype Elfin 400 with an
Oldsmobile 4.5-litre engine. Australia thus got its
first 'big' sports car in the sixties style and
spectators flocked to see it perform. Even if it was
only tearing away into the distance with no
opposition.
Lap records fell by the dozen - for the short time
this car ran. It was sold to Niel Allen within a
year and Frank got cracking on building his own car
with construction done by Bob Britton of Rennmax
fame. The Matich SR3 came first with the same
Oldsmobile power, a later car had a Repco 4.4 V8.
Lap records continued falling to Matich, Allen
provided competition, then came the quad-cam Repco
5-litre powered Matich SR4, which continued the
domination.
 The
'Gold Star' series had languished without Matich
since 1964. Lesser drivers, if one could call Kevin
Bartlett and Leo Geoghegan drivers in any way
'lesser,' were battling that out in the 2.5 cars
that were in vogue as the sixties closed. But 1969
saw a new type of car on the horizon of the
seventies.
The coming of F5000 - five litre V8-powered racing
cars - seemed made to suit Matich. His connections
with McLaren rapidly led to a car coming to
Australia for him to drive, followed by another when
the M10B came on stream. In this Frank was to win
the Australian Grand Prix at his beloved Warwick
Farm in 1970. By the same time the following year
he'd built the Matich A50, construction this time
entrusted largely to John Joyce at Bowin Designs,
and it won him his second AGP, again at the Farm.
Competition intensified too, but still the
Matich/Matich combination were difficult to match.
Though Niel Allen beat him for the NZGP win of 1971,
when the A50 finished it was most often in front.
The Gold Star finally fell to Frank in 1972, but the
Tasman Cup was to elude him.
He also took cars to America, running in Can-Am and
F5000 races there, winning one round of the L&M
Series in the McLaren M10.
Early in 1973 he took the A50 to New Zealand and put
it on pole position for the NZ GP. A clipped kerb
early in the race damaged the suspension and the
Matich was retired. Levin brought a second place,
Wigram fourth, Teretonga brought a retirement. Back
in Australia he took a win at Surfers Paradise but
in the rain at Warwick Farm he only managed second -
despite a stirring drive and rounding up Graham
McRae round the outside of Paddock Bend. Sandown
brought two spins after leading from the start and
Adelaide saw another failure after taking pole
position.
This series had seen a number of driving errors for
Frank. But then he had been facing challenges from
drivers two racing generations on from himself.
Bartlett was there, and McRae, while young chargers
like Warwick Brown and John Walker were mixing it
with Max Stewarts and Bob Muirs. Niel Allen had
already retired from the sport.
Was it time for Frank to hang up his helmet?
With the Goodyear Racing Tyre agency, he was doing
enormous mileages testing tyres for the Akron
company. His lap times were among the very best, but
there were chinks appearing in his racing. But this
didn't dissuade him.
In fact, he went to America again with an A51 for
the L&M series. But he was not a force in a series
that saw Brian Redman leap to prominence. Back in
Australia for the Gold Star he took pole at Surfers
Paradise and was leading by half a lap when the
battery collapsed. An illness in the family kept him
from the second round at Adelaide, then kept him
from returning to Phillip Island for the first time
since he'd set the outright sports car record there
in 1960.
 Joan
was in hospital and Frank put her first, but was
still developing the car and the A52 and A53 were
still to come. Despite announcing that he'd be
contesting the Tasman Cup of 1974, the A53 was
present only for the final three rounds, a third at
Surfers being the best result.
That was the end of the Matich story, however.
Joan's health was no doubt a major contributor to
his retirement, along with Repco's withdrawal from
racing and other pressures. Suddenly the Matich saga
ended. |
Article
written and kindly contributed by Ray Bell
Every
effort has been made to trace the owners of
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