IV SANDOWN INTERNATIONAL
 Location - Sandown Park Aust  Laps - 54  Distance - 167.40 km  Date - 21/02/65  Weather - Fine
ENTRY LIST
No. DRIVER ENTRANT MAKE ENGINE
1 Graham Hill Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT11A Climax FPF
2 Kerry Grant Scuderia Veloce Brabham BT4 Climax FPF
3 Frank Matich Total Team Brabham BT7A Climax FPF
4 Jack Brabham Ecurie Vitesse Brabham BT11A Climax FPF
5 Jim Palmer George Palmer Brabham BT7A Climax FPF
6 Bib Stillwell B.S. Stillwell Brabham BT11A Climax FPF
7 Frank Gardner Alec Mildren Racing Brabham BT11A Climax FPF
8 Lex Davison Ecurie Australie Brabham BT4 Climax FPF
18 Greg Cusack Greg Cusack Brabham BT10 Ford 1.5
19 Geoff McClelland Geoff McClelland Brabham BT2 Ford 1.5
21 Roly Levis Roly Levis Brabham BT6 Ford 1.5
10 Bruce McLaren Bruce McLaren Racing Cooper T79 Climax FPF
11 Phil Hill Bruce McLaren Racing Cooper T70/79 Climax FPF
12 Rocky Tresise Ecurie Australie Cooper T62 Climax FPF
14 Arnold Glass Capitol Motors Cooper T55 Climax FPF
15 John McDonald Bill Patterson Motors Cooper T53 Climax FPF
9 Jim Clark Team Lotus Lotus 32B Climax FPF
16 Leo Geoghegan Total Team Lotus 32 Ford 1.5
17 Glyn Scott Glyn Scott Motors Lotus 27 Ford 1.5
20 Wally Mitchell Wally Mitchell MRD BT1 Ford 1.5

THE ovation from the 33,000 plus crowd of excited fans nearly lifted the roof of the Carlyon Grand stand as Jack Brabham took out his third Sandown Cup in fine style from Jim Clark. Always popular with the downunder fans in Melbourne, Jack drove brilliantly, although pressed hard by Clark's Lotus for most of the race. One never knows, of course, whether Jack is on or near his limit and he certainly didn't give the impression of being very worried by Clark's proximity during the event.

Practice was a sad affair after the tragic and untimely death of the Sport's No. 1 Gentleman, Lex Davison. Lex's Brabham left the track at 100 m.p.h. on the dog leg of the Mobil Straight and crashed through a ditch and hit the running rails of the fence.

Times for practice were a little slower than at the unofficial sessions the (lay before and the 50 bottles of bubbly went to J.B. for his pole position time of 1:08.8.

Although there was a class for the ANF 11 cars, most of them had decided not to run as they felt they would only be in the way of the faster cars, and 100 miles IS a long way in a highly stressed 1500 anyway.

After two warm-up laps the field was away well with Jim Clark first into Shell and Matich, Brabham, McLaren, Phil Hill and G. Hill following closely. J.B. moved past Matich before Peters and he and Clark started to run away from the rest of the field. Bruce McLaren and Phil Hill went past Matich in the two Coopers as they motored up the Mobil Straight for the first time,

Lap 2 and Graham Hill pushed the Scuderia Veloce Brabham into fifth spot ahead of Matich in the same place. The order remained the same until lap 6 when Graham went up another slot by taking his namesake Phil on the run to Lukey's. J.B. had now closed with Jim Clark and, with a terrific burst, shot past Clark at Lukey's on the next tour. A time of 1:08.8 on this tour gave him the honour of the first 100 m.p.h. lap of the race and another 50 bottles of champagne.

Lap 8 and Frank Matich was slowing with Bib Stillwell needing no urging to slip past two laps before Frank was out with a broken rotor button. Graham Hill had now been given the message and he slid under McLaren at Shell as they completed lap 10. He was now third, followed by McLaren, P. Hill, Stillwell, Palmer, Gardner and Kerry Grant.

The Lotus pit board said --Goget Brab- so Jim Clark turned on a succession of time-chopping laps, 1:09.7, then 1:09.5 and on lap 16 he took Brabham on the inside at Shell and opened up a slight lead.

Jack responded with some superb driving and, 4 laps later, he swept round the dog-leg on Mobil much quicker than before and was leading again as they topped Leighton's hill.

Already the pace of the race was taking its toll of the machinery and Kerry Grant was brought into base by an alert pit crew who spotted oil being lost. Frank Gardner had brought the Mildren Brabham up from a back of the grid start as he hadn't practised the car due to a trailer accident on the way from Sydney town. He was now lying just behind Palmer and actually passed the blue car once but Palmer shot back to the lead before the lap was over. They diced together for some twenty laps or so before Frank retired with a sick motor.

STILLWELL MAKES HIS BID

Up till this stage Bib had been content to sit behind the Coopers of Hill and McLaren but he realised that his wide-track Brabham was quicker through the corners so he challenged Hill. By lap 23 he lay between the two Tasman Coopers. In one of his best drives yet, Stillwell closed on the Enzedder and, after a passing and repassing adventure up the back section, he was fourth.

It was found later that both the Cooper drivers were suffering from severe heat exhaustion. Bruce's overalls had come apart near his left ankle and he was being almost roasted alive as he drove. Phil Hill also was experiencing much discomfort and nearly collapsed several times during the race.

Bib now realised that the car immediately in front was slowing too. Pressing harder, Stillwell took third place from Graham Hill when Graham retired the Scuderia Veloce Brabham to the pits with heating problems. Bib had recorded his fastest lap during this dice and was timed at 1:09.8.

However, he was to hold third spot for only another five laps before his motor went right off tune.

Phil Hill had moved past team-mate McLaren and now he caught Bib and took over third. Bib shot into the pits, found that it was the magneto that was faulty and rejoined the race to finish. He was still leading the resident battalion as he motored slowly to a great ovation at the finish.

RECORD TO JACK BRABHAM

Meanwhile, Clark had again closed on J.B. so Jack opened out and stopped the clocks at 1:09.0. Jim replied with a 1:08.8 and this was followed by Jack at 1:08.9, so Jim did a 1:08.7 just to show Jack that he was still a threat. All this, mind you, after 40 gruelling laps! There was nothing left for J.B. to do but stop all this nonsense and he did just that with a 1:08.6 to take fastest lap and a record for the 2.5 litre cars on Sandown. Falling oil pressure now started to worry the wily Scot so he backed off to 1:10's and 1:11's to save the car.

Jack went further ahead but a burst by Clark near the finish reduced his winning margin to 5 seconds at the flag. One lap behind came a completely exhausted Phil Hill and he still had a lap in hand to Bruce McLaren and jim Palmer, who was another lap further back.

The Under 1500 class was only contested by two cars and Roly Levis had an easy win even allowing for that awkward moment in the Esses at Dandenong Road Corner when he lost the rear end slid sideways into the dirt, just catching it before "netting" into the Cyclone fence. Second car in this section was Keith Rilstone in the Elfin some ten laps behind.
 
RACE RESULTS
POSITION LAPS TIME
1. Brabham 54 1:02'57.7 FL:1'08.6
2. Clark 54 1:03'02.3
3. Hill (P) 53 .
4. McLaren 52 .
5. Palmer 51 .
6. Stillwell 51 .
7. Levis 49 .
8. Rilstone 44 .
McDonald 42 DNF:Engine
Hill (G) 34 DNF:Cylinder Head
Gardner 31 DNF:Engine
Grant 17 DNF:Oil Pressure
Matich 10 DNF:Distributor
Mitchell 0 ?
Article submitted by Ray Bell

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