Multiple champion Gardner has died

Three time BTCC champion and multiple Australian Touring Car champion Frank Gardner has died after a long time of illness. The Australian was 78 years old. TouringCarTimes contributor Nicholas H Lancaster has put together a profile on the touring car legend.

Back in the 1960’s touring car racing was different in the United Kingdom.

For one thing it was called saloon car racing, and for another, the RAC Championship ran to a class system where American muscle-cars like the Ford Falcon, the Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro, regularly led the field.

But snapping at their heels was a whole collection of home-grown smaller machinery — Ford Anglias, Escorts, and Cortinas, the incredible Mini Coopers, and the unlikely looking Hillman Imps.

During the 1967 season many British race fans will remember watching an Australian driver called Frank Gardner master a Ford Falcon on his way to his first British Saloon Car Championship.

It was the first of three British titles in touring cars, which, along with the 1971 Formula 5000 Championship, were the highlights of Frank’s fine career as a driver in Europe.

Born in Sydney, Australia, in October 1930, Frank worked his way over to Europe in the late fifties, with a useful CV that included winning the New South Wales Sports Car Championship in 1957 with a C Type Jaguar, having won 23 out of 24 races over a couple of seasons.

As a youngster Frank was keen on swimming, rowing and sailing and later tried boxing as well, but he was introduced to motor sport by his uncle who ran a large bus company and had campaigned some serious pre-war machinery, including Grand Prix Sunbeams and Bugattis, in major Australian events.

In those days Australian motor sport relied on cast-off European machinery that required plenty of fettling to stay competitive. According to Frank, some of these cars were “so tired that they needed to sit down”, but they provided a sound grounding in engineering and race preparation that would serve Frank well throughout his career.

When he arrived in the UK, Frank joined Aston Martin, working as a racing mechanic on the World Sports Car Championship winning DBR1/300s. Later he moved to the Jim Russell Racing School as a mechanic and began to race again in the popular Formula Junior series.

In 1961 Frank joined fellow-Australian Jack Brabham, and helped to build the first Brabham Formula Junior cars at the World Champion’s Motor Racing Developments concern. Frank continued driving and soon began to show some good form driving a Brabham in Formula Junior for Ian Walker, the well-known British entrant, during 1962/63.

In 1964 Frank moved over to John Willment’s team and raced in Formula 2 with a Lotus and a Brabham. Here he came up against top Grand Prix drivers, including World Champions Jim Clark and Graham Hill, along with the rising star, Jochen Rindt. Frank also began to make his mark in saloon and sports-car racing with Lotus Cortinas and Shelby Cobras entered by the same team.

ith the Lotus Cortina, Frank started running in the British Saloon Car Championship which was to prove a happy hunting ground in the years that followed. During 1964, and the following year, Frank spent most of his time following home the ‘works’ Lotus Cortinas in his Willment entered example, reaching 5th place in the points table in 1965; but better results lay ahead.

In 1966 Frank was busy elsewhere, as a contract with Ford had arrived. He was still driving single seaters, but he also helped Ford tame the mighty GT40 for races such as the Le Mans 24 Hours. The contract with Ford led to the tie-up with Alan Mann Racing that was to prove so successful in touring cars. One day Frank found a Falcon stored away behind the Alan Mann workshop, a leftover from the team of Falcons used on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1963. Frank quickly realised that the Falcon was smaller and lighter than the Ford Mustangs and Galaxies that dominated the scene in those days, so he set to work preparing one for the 1967 RAC Saloon Car Championship.

The Falcon wasn’t an easy machine to master — Frank described it as “completely unforgiving” — and it required a neat and tidy driving style to get the best out of it. Despite that, Frank was very successful with the car, winning the championship outright at a time when the rules often favoured a smaller-engined car facing less competition in its class.

For 1968 there was a change in emphasis as Alan Mann Racing prepared a pair of the new Ford Escorts for the British Saloon Car Championship, using the Ford Cosworth FVA motor (originally intended for Formula 2 use and in effect half of the world-beating Cosworth Ford DFV Formula 1 engine). The small Fords sported huge wheel arch extensions and looked superb in their distinctive red and gold livery. The performance matched the appearance and Frank was able to challenge for outright victory when circumstances allowed.

He started the season in a Lotus Cortina, taking a third place at Brands Hatch to a Falcon and a Porsche 911 (some saloon!) but by mid-season the Escort was available and Frank celebrated by chasing Brian Muir’s Falcon home at Crystal Palace and Mallory Park, finishing less than a second behind the much bigger American import.

At the British Grand Prix meeting Frank used the nimble Escort to great effect around the twists and turns of Brands Hatch, and he lead home the Falcon of pole sitter Hubert Hahne — having a holiday from his usual seat in a BMW — and the impressive 1300cc Broadspeed Escort of future sports car ace John Fitzpatrick.

For the next few races Frank was charged with gaining points in the two litre class, while the big American muscle-cars took the outright wins, but with the championship in the bag, Frank was allowed to go all out for a win in the final race of the season at Brands Hatch. He duly delivered the goods, winning from a couple of Falcons in second and fourth, with Dutch ace Toine Hezemans joining the party in third place in a Porsche 911. It was a great way for Frank to finish off his second Championship winning season.

By the late sixties Frank was still doing a lot of racing besides saloons; appearing in sports cars as well as the new single-seater series — the American V8 powered Formula 5000 Championship — while he was also working as a design consultant for Lola Cars where his testing ability contributed to a string of successful designs.

Meanwhile Frank continued racing the Escorts in 1969, missing out on the Championship to Alec Poole in a Mini Cooper, but for the following year Ford wanted to be back at the sharp end of the grid. They didn’t have a home-grown machine that they could promote at that time, so Frank arranged to import one of the successful Bud Moore prepared Mustangs, a Trans Am winning car complete with the new five litre V8 ‘Boss’ engine. This proved to be an inspired choice and Frank won several races but lost out on the Championship to Bill McGovern who was heading for a hat-trick in the nimble Hillman Imp that dominated the 1000cc Class.

For 1971 Frank switched over to a Chevrolet Camaro and promptly won the top class in the British series. He also found the time to win the 1971 British F5000 Championship in a Lola.

Between 1970 and 1972 in-fighting amongst the bigger cars allowed Bill McGovern to win three titles in a row following a string of dominant performances in the 1-litre class with his Imp, but in 1973 Frank had his name inscribed on the Trophy for the third time after wrestling the mighty 5.7-litre Camaro to several hard-earned wins in the colours of the SCA Freight Company.

Frank then decided to return home to Australia, but he wasn’t ready to hang up his helmet just yet. Driving a highly modified Chevrolet Corvair, Frank won the 1976 and ‘77 Australian Sports Sedan Championships, then moved into team management.

By the 1980’s Frank was running the BMW factory team in the Australian Touring Car Championship, and the team’s lead driver, the talented New Zealander Jim Richards, won the championship in both 1985 and 1987. Frank switched to Ford in 1988 and tasted the champagne once again when Tony Longhurst and Thomas Mezera won the big one in Australia, the Bathurst 1000, in Frank’s Ford Sierra Turbo.

Frank returned to BMW in 1991, and during the Super Touring era Frank’s drivers Tony Longhurst (1994) and Paul Morris (1995/97) won the title three times before Frank finally called time on his career in motor sport.

Frank Gardner’s RAC British Saloon Car Championship record:

1973 BTCC, Chevrolet Camaro, Overall Champion
1972 BTCC, Chevrolet Camaro 5.7, 3rd overall
1971 BTCC, Chevrolet Camaro 5.7, Class A Champion
1970 BTCC, Ford Mustang, 2nd overall
1969 BTCC, Ford Escort Twin Cam, 3rd overall
1968 BTCC, Ford Escort Twin Cam, Overall Champion
1967 BTCC, Ford Falcon, Overall Champion
1965 BTCC, Ford-Lotus Cortina, 5th overall

Overall Frank took 35 wins in the British Saloon Car series and three outright championships, whilst also claiming the 1971 British F5000 Championship.