Car fails Leonard

Press, 10 June 1978, Page 56

Car fails Leonard

Leo Leonard, of Timaru, was one of the many victims in the gruelling Rothmans 500 production salooncar race at Oran Park, Sydney, last week-end. Leonard and Gary Sprague, of Tauranga, were lying fifth after 80 laps of the 222-lap event when part of the front suspension of their Falcon GT XC collapsed and they could not repair It in time. The two drivers qualified their car, which is owned by an Australian, Norm Smith, twelfth On the capacity 40car grid. “We realised that with the demanding circuit and the great distance to be travelled there was going to be a great carnage on cars, so we settled for a lap time that would look after the car,” said Leonard this week. “As the other top cars

dropped out with complications we found ourselves creeping up through the field. Most of the frontrunners dropped out before the halfway mark.” The field was so strung out near the end that one of the winning drivers, John Harvey, ran out of petrol in his Holden dealer team Torana A9X and had to sprint Ikm to the pits for more, but was still able to make it to the chequered flag first, ahead of the Tasmanian, Garth Wigston, in a similar Torana. Harvey won $25,000 for his efforts. A husband-and-wife team, Fred and Christine Gibson, almost won the race in their Torana. They led for 50 laps, but with 25 to go their car’s motor blew up. The expatriate New Zealander, Jim Richards, did not even get a drive in the race.

His fellow co-driver, Peter Brock, pulled out after only five laps with a blown motor. Another New Zealander, Graeme Lawrence, crashed his team’s Falcon into a wall and retired. Dave McMillan, better known for his successes in New Zealand in single-seat-ers, had the most success of the Kiwi contingent. His Citizen Torana was involved in a bad shunt during practice but it was rebuilt overnight and McMillan and G. Cooke finished sixth in the race, after many pit-stops to remedy minor problems. Leonard said he had been invited to drive the Norm Smith Falcon in several shorter production races in Australia, and he will also share it in the prestigious Hardie Ferodo classic at Bathurst in October.