[HOONIGAN] KEN BLOCK # 39; S GYMKHANA SEVEN: WILD IN THE STREETS OF LOS ANGELES
January 11, 2013 by 1 Comment Filed in mcowner Features.
It is fair to say Rusty French is a bit of an enigma even the authority Great Race Bible had French debut at Mount Panorama as 1977, when, in fact, it was nearly a decade ago under the name of French W.
Not to be confused with Queenslander John French no relationship, Rusty presented relatively little in the press of motorsport for a man who held a general license CAMS competition for 45 years and has a top 10 in 24 Hours Le Mans to his name.
What has been printed is normally centered on its perceived wealth It's been painted as something of a playboy wannabe racing driver flamboyant A more accurate summation is an experienced gentleman racer who largely neglected sports historians.
Maybe he was holed pigeon in his first career in production sports cars to 1970 cars of Group C from an XC Falcon Hardtop a Falcon XE was a moment of unreliable vehicles and poor ends the reverse are two top 10 in Bathurst Holden Commodores, winning the Australian GT championship in a Porsche 935 and driving a Porsche 956 in the dreaded Sarthe.
French has always treated his run as a hobby, but the rich farmer and Melbourne sand mining contractor had the means to run the best equipment available to a pirate and that's the rub, he was never there to take the professional, happy to competition and give their best.
French is still competing today, the races this year Porsche Carrera Cup Championship and his beloved Porsche 935 local and historic race meetings in the United States even.
The discussion of the CMA with the French reveals a man somewhat elusive with a great love of sport and a detailed knowledge of the cars he raced Incidently, all were painted his black mark, many of which he still owns and cherishes until this day.
As for the W means you have to read.
Now 68 years old thinks about his most glorious moments in sport, the stellar lineup of cars, and he led campaigns Bathurst both disastrous and fruitful.
Rusty French, like many of his generation, including Peter Brock, began his racing career as a youngster in a machine based in Austin Seven.
I participated in speed competitions with the Austin Seven Club when I was 15 years old, French then explained I did an apprenticeship of three years in the Army as a car mechanic in civilian life apprentice in the ED civilian life you sweep the floor in the first year, get meals, and don t make a lot of mechanical work It was different in the army, I was there only for the course while I was there I ran in speedway at the Brisbane Exhibition Center in hot rods and stock cars Everywhere I was based in New South Wales and Queensland I used to do speedway racing, to the disgust of the military.
I have not started on the black run until 1966 when I got my CAMS license.
This first foray on the black run came after his time in the army in a Chevrolet Impala with two doors The reason I chose the Impala was that he was in the field of used cars for Eiffeltower Motors in Melbourne, where I worked in truck sales department, and it was the only car with a laminated windscreen I that for my three bands, mainly cams probationary the day license, and ran into the events tourism improved car in places like Victorian Hume Weir and Sandown a few years the Impala had an automatic two-speed transmission it wasn t the easiest thing to drive.
His next step of the travel scale would involve Eiffeltower Motors race entered Hillman and Valiants and has proven to be something of a false dawn.
Pantera French punter took a break from racing in the early 1970s and moved to Sydney to start a car dealership prestige on Parramatta Road.
I was running Falcon GT and GT-HOS for a while and just do the event the odd club around 1973 or 74, I started importing some vehicles from England and America I liked that, see world and bring good cars such as Mustangs and Corvettes, Ferraris and Jaguars.
It was at that moment-French cast his eyes on the eligibility list of the Sports Car class CAMS production to his arrival in the Italian supercar, the De Tomaso Pantera.
He was different, he stresses that it is simple, it was a Ford 351 Cleveland engine mid-mounted in it and it had not been one here in Australia, I decided to jump on a plane for Italy and watch the plant had a car of group 4 and I bought that back here in 1975.
It wasn t just a Pantera, but an ex-factory race car driven by such luminaries as former Formula One drivers Ferrrari Clay Regazzoni and Mike Parkes in the 1973 European GT Championship.
On delivery, the Pantera 351ci Cleveland sported four downdraft Weber carburetors two engine and a semi dry sump It was soon replaced by a dry sump and a full Australian mechanical fuel injection system developed McGee Other changes included the repositioning of fuel tank at the front of the car and a weight reduction program.
La Pantera participated in the Championship Sports Australian production cars between 1976 and 1981 against a succession of Porsche 934s driven by the likes of Ian Geoghegan, Alan Hamilton and Allan Moffat, but with little success.
The reliability of the Pantera was probably a little spasmodic To get the power out of it to run with the Porsche Turbo, it was difficult to keep reliable We always breaking new rockers and valve springs, but at least the lower end was to agreement with Carillo rods.
At the end of 1981, the Australian Sports Production Car Championship was more The following season saw the return of the GT last race championship in 1963, combining Sedans Sports In a classic case of if you can not beat, join em, French Porsche purchased the championship winning 1981 935 John Latham to run in the new-look series.
The recipe for success Like its predecessor, the GT championship was a Porsche-fest F1 world champion Alan Jones swept the series in Alan Hamilton, Porsche Australia-entered Porsche 935, with the French finishing a distant second in its sponsored Sands John 935.
In 1983, the French bought the 82 winning 935 Hamilton set up a team of two cars with Alan Browne, owner of Re-Car, driving the second car Jim Richards in the BMW 318i Turbo JPS sponsored obtained the jump on the French in the first two rounds of the AGTC, before the series was turned on its head in the third round at Adelaide International Raceway.
Many frontrunners fields were taken in one of the most expensive accident witnesses on an Australian racetrack Peter Brock, Bob Jane in Chevrolet Monza, snapped a drive shaft and turned in Richard BMW , destroying and damaging another five cars, including 935 french Browne was one of the few leading pack not to be caught in the fray and won the race it was the start of his championship run in 1983 Australian GT, winning two of the six towers and score twice as many points as the best defending champion will participate in the opening round at the lake in 1984, where he tangled with Tony Edmondson in the last corner of the last lap so that he was fighting for second place at that time French had taken the telephone call from Weissach, Germany Its title had brought him to the attention of Porsche racing chiefs, it was considered for a lecteu r by a team supported by Porsche in a small sports car shindig takes place every year in France.
In early 1984 French received a call that Stuttgart would have a profound effect on his racing career.
After winning the Australian GT Championship, I was invited by Porsche at an awards ceremony in Germany, where I was introduced to the people Kremer by Jurgen Barth and Klaus Bischoff Porsche racing department and in May the Kremer team contacted me to say they had a player available in the 1984 Le Mans 24 hours in one of their 956Bs team.
It was an event with a distinct flavor Australian The Australian attack was led by high-profile Bob Jane-sponsored, John Fitzpatrick entered Porsche 956B Peter Brock and Larry Perkins also attended Allan Grice in a privateer 956B and combination 83 strong winner Vern Schuppan, Alan Jones and Jean Pierre Jarier another 956 Kremer.
Thus, the presence of Rusty French in Le Mans goes almost unnoticed, he was teamed with experienced British drivers David Sutherland and soon to be the TV personality Tiff Needell.
In the French race acquitted himself well in the 370 km h Porsche, sharing Kremer 956B two-hour shifts with regular drivers Needell exploded in the middle of the night with the 956 sustained minor damage to the car is gradually through the field and finished an excellent ninth outright, with French being the second home Australian behind Schuppan Kremer teammates and Jones in fifth.
French was invited to join the Kremer team again for the first Australian round of the World Endurance Championship at Sandown in late 1984, he was teamed up with the German F1 driver Manfred Winkelhock for mercurial race 1000 km.
French remembers Winkelhock as a hell of a driver and the pair finished fifth behind the French Porsche factory was the first Aussie home Unfortunately, Winkelhock would die the following year in a Porsche Kremer 956 at Mosport in Canada.
The record books may say W French, but first Rusty French Bathurst was Hardie Ferodo 500 1968 Gazelle in Hillman with Alton Boddenberg During the French regime was working as director of Dodge trucks for sale Sales Eiffeltower Motors and Jack Nougher landed in Bathurst in 1968, driving a class B saw the advent of the new Datsun 1600 and they dominated the French class and Boddenberg has finished fourth in class from a Datsuns sea.
French was at that time in other events this time of hillclimbs at Surfers Paradise in 1969 in 12 hours gazelles and Valiants However, it would be nearly a decade before he ventured back to Mount Panorama with its own cars he ran spasmotically in the upper tin regular season, but still made the pilgrimage with each October.
French returned to Mt Panorama in 1977 with a brand new XC Falcon Hardtop built for him by the man formerly Moffat Dale Sudholz In partnership with the experienced Kiwi Leo Leonard team debuted the Falcon in the Sandown 500 where ran a wheel bearing in Bathurst Falcon broke a box mounting speed has been replaced in a long pitstop and this meant, although they have been running at the finish, the car was not rated due to insufficient laps to French in 1978 teamed with John Goss operation even repaint the Blue Falcon Goss honor a sponsorship undertaking that was the only ever start the ubiquitous black featuring on own all French cars to date Graham Moore was the co-driver 78 and again at 79, when the Falcon returned to his familiar black livery Falcon 90 laps completed in 78 after many problems and has new unclassified things got worse when the engine blew after only nine laps the following year.
French missed the 1980 race but came back in 81 with his self-prepared XD Falcon Preparation included a number of cars towers this year Although the French didn t get to greet the checkered flag because of the shortened race after the infamous stack McPhillamy Park, he and Leo Leonard were ranked 22 They were 20 laps behind the winning Dick Johnson Falcon and John French.
For French in 1982 teamed with Ford stalwart Murray Carter in his new XE Falcon It was a disaster, with the engine detonated after 25 laps.
French time in Fords Falcon highlighted the difficulty getting their privateers had cars to finish, unlike their counterparts Holden.
A change of direction was needed for 1983 and a link with the owner Re-Car and privateer Commodore Alan Browne provided part of the answer of the case where Browne led second French Porsche 935 GT laps saw joining French Browne in the former Grice VH Commodore at Sandown and Bathurst As fate would have it, Browne never got to run with the French, he gave up the location of its headquarters to the former Bathurst winner Bob Morris, just happened to be in the mountains, helmet in hand, but Morris acclimated player Commodore quickly in Heroes Hardies top 10 and started the car started ninth early in the race Morris was an incredible second until a turn on the escape route was pushed down the field Unfortunately, Morris suffered from motion sickness, a legacy of an injury to the inner ear suffered in the accident 81 Bathurst.
He vomited in his helmet, remembers French, so I ended up having to make two-thirds of the race Despite the setback, the pair finished an excellent outright 8th, the French finally greeted the checkered flag in Bathurst.
In French 1984 was teamed with Queensland driver Geoff Russell, father of the current Fujitsu V8 Supercar Bathurst and David copilot With the French budget consumed by mega Porsche 956s race in endurance racing, the 84 campaign was a Bathurst modest affair, with the car being prepared by the guru Commodore small.
A French terrible qualifying session saw on the field with small fish and he came close to not having passed the first corner.
Walkinshaw was stationary at the start of Jaguar and with all the dust that I almost fell on him, I jinked right and taken to the grass almost demolition of the concrete wall as I passed.
A long PitStop early and high consumption of oil in the whole race meant French and Russell gradually made their way the field at noon, they broke into the top 10 and went on to finish an impressive sixth outright, four laps behind the next placegetter, of 154 laps.
With the advent of Group A, the French looked to highlight a prepared Eggenberger Ford Sierra XR4 Ti to Bathurst in 1986.
We looked to the group A and renting a Sierra Klaus Niedwiedz John Sands will sponsor the car and then when we put the deal together figures have changed and they pulled the pin on it didn t get this Niedwiedz year, but not next year, was disqualified from second in the Sierra Eggenberger in the World Touring Car Championship round at French Bathurst would not return to the race at Mount Panorama for 13 years.
The vagaries of sports car championships in the 1980s is a story in itself Suffice it to say that the change of production sports cars to GT cars, with sports sedan thrown in, then sports car prototype has not offer stability to the series of french competitors Jim Hardman build a third light Porsche 935 with a spare shell Alan Hamilton had lying around, but felt that it would be more competitive against the sports car prototype, he had the air overseas opportunities to race his Porsche.
We took one of the Porsche 935 at Shah Alam in Malaysia and ran into the Rothmans series there, the French contours I think that in 1985 In 1989, we took the 935 now in the specification K3 Kremer in England to race in their Porsche GT sponsored Masterscreen challenge we won outright we ran on all the classic British tracks there.
French never really stopped running the 935, but most modern Porsches fill the void in the 1990s, including 993 and 996 911 RSR model and Rscs models in events like Targa Tasmania.
In 1997, he scored a victory in the Challenge Cup Porsche in the Gold Coast IndyCarnival At the end of the French army had a triple bypass heart that has sidelined for a while.
In the noughties French bought a Dodge Viper ACR to run in the Nations Cup, before switching to a Porsche 996 GT3 in 2003, the last year of the series for 2005, the Australian GT Championship was reinstated and French was in a Lamborghini Diablo GTR.
It was Paul's old car Stokell invited me to lead by Andrew Smith Lamborghini Racing Australia.
We didn t have to repaint that one, it was already dark.
In 2005 French registered three Porsche 935 as historic racing cars and enjoyed winding back the clock and racing against contemporary rivals, it was a fitting at the prestigious classic Phillip Island and even ventured again abroad, winning the Japanese Le Mans classic in 2005 and won the IMSA class in classic Monterey at Laguna classic three consecutive years 2008 2010.
This year also sees the French back to a national Australian series, the Porsche Carrera Cup reborn.
I ran Carrera Cup in 2003 and 2006 in Asia with Geoff Morgan and Peter Boylan including car this year, I have five Porsche Carrera Cup I intend to participate in seven rounds Carrera Cup championship this year in class Elite against the likes of Nathan Tinkler and Peter Hill We all do similar lap times and I'm happy to be there as a midfield runner, I have the pleasure to drive good cars as fast as I can get them around the track.
RF I always had Rusty as a nickname since I was 10 years old because I had red hair and freckles, I guess W French was my given name, but because my father was W everyone Rusty french used because they could not have the same house two Walters My CAMS license must have been the name W french, I think they took the details of your driving license at the time.
AMC Despite your love Porsches, I think, deep down you are a Ford man.
RF I have long had a love Ford V8s Before the Falcons, most of my speedway cars were Ford power that I had a little low for Fords Except I guess when I was working for Chrysler, I still had my the early days there was a model 1932 B, Customlines even a star pattern I had in the army and then a succession of Falcon GT and GT-HS.
AMC a few notable exceptions, you always ran black cars Why.
RF I've always been a lover of black cars since my days Customline I was black before many well-known cars like BMW JPS Even my road cars are not always black color for a good, clean.
AMC Your main donor for many years was John Sands then Skye Sands But they were two very different sponsors, they weren t.
RF I knew the director John Sands manages through another contact, it was a bit of a car nut, and we began in the days XD Falcon and they went to the Porsche and Commodore Besides greeting cards, they were promoting other things like Corgi toys and games Sega Textron they belonged to at the time and were sold; the name is no longer my own Skye Sands mining sand mining and quarrying I started to Skye in the Mornington Peninsula in 1973 and have spread in landfill operations, and a transfer station recycling of waste.
RF Winning the Australian GT Championship 1983 and be invited to race in Le Mans It was an opportunity to do something a little out of my depth we qualified ninth at Le Mans and that's where we finished we all did our relay two hours I would have done eight hours of running and during the night Tiff was a stop and lost a little time, I did half the endurance race Winkelhock Sandown with a great driver killed the next year all endurance race, it is the team combination as V8s race today, it is very near, it can be won and lost in the pits.
AMC I understand you received facial burns in a light aircraft accident.
RF Yes, that was in 1992 I suffered severe burns to face and hands I still ongoing limitations, for example, I have not full use of my right hand, I had a lot of skin grafts and it was long before I came enough to drive, let alone the race.
AMC He must have made you think about your own mortality.
RF You realize that I was lucky to get out of this, do not do a lot of these accidents It makes you realize I my late father that I had an obligation to my wife and five year my daughter, so you make your run with this in your mind, I can be a better driver before the accident, but I'm happy to still be able to run now I recently visited a young man in the burn unit of the royal Alfred hospital where I treated, the son of 22 years of friends I know and they wanted me to have a conversation for him so he can see what someone looks after having suffered burns similar to what is now his last mother told me that he thought his world had come to an end, but it was inspired by my recovery and the fact that I have a beautiful family and there is life after an accident, I'm very lucky.
AMC What do you think of today's race are you following the V8 Supercars.
RF Well, Rod Nash is a neighbor and a friend, and he leads his team Bottle-O stable AMT It is our spoof Cup car in his carrier for the V8 rounds Regarding today's race, well I think there is too much racing in Australia, for example, the Clipsal 500 clashes with the Phillip island classic, while the Monterrey classic California clashes with Winton Historics.
AMC Do you have intentions to race some of your old racing cars, such as Pantera and cars of Group C you have in your collection.
RF No, I just restore you can bring them to the historical events, but I'm not so interested in running these cars, they're too slow, I like to run something faster.
The man in black Australian Muscle Car Magazine, black, australian 1983 Australian Championship.
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