Here follows my contribution to breaking the drought on the pre-war list.
Those on the MG list may care to read for (I think) there is also some
interesting MG content which could fall into the trivia category.
Regards
Paul
The first Australian Grand Prix held after the commencement of the second
world war was in 1947. As you would expect much excitement preceeded its
start although the local police were far from enthusiastic.
The then Police Commissioner was quoted at the time as saying: "Mount
Panorama is unsafe for high speeds ... no useful purpose is served by motor
ravcing anyway."
It was then against this background that the event was held late that year
with camera-packing police everywhere and rumors flying that all drivers
would be arrested and charged with dangerous driving on public riads.
The race was a handicap with 29 starters (12 of which were MG's). Back
marker was an Alfa-Romeo giving away 37 minutes to an MG J2. It is reported
that the drivers of the Alfa 'finished a leisurely lunch' after the
starter's flag dropped and the J2 got away before they had to get into
their car.
Considerthe handicapper's dilemma - for the J2 had a capacity of just
847 cc against a competing Mercedes-Benz with a capacity of 7634 cc.
Notwithstanding this, the J2 came tenth in a race time of just over 2hr 44
mins behind a winning MG TC in a corrected race time of 2 hr 39 min 46 sec.
Compare this to today's racing where seconds only separate the first 3 or
so places and practice times are within hundreths of a second of each
other.
I know what I'd prefer to watch.
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