Brown

1969 - Bill Brown

Bill Brown's Falcon begins its flip after hitting the bank at Skyline, and thus begins the first lap carnage which claimed one quarter of the entire field.

For the first time on the tight three-two-three grid, there was an enormous amount of horsepower and the investment of 4 major car makers. When the flag dropped, Mike Savva's GTHO from the fifth row pulled left and stormed up the grass (which immediately caused a change in the rules the next year). It was all Ford going up the hill, although just out of The Cutting a red works Falcon pulled off the circuit into a small parking area. It was Allan Moffat, with a gearbox full of neutrals. He let the field go by as he sorted it out - and he missed the first lap Armageddon.

It all began just after the first 10 cars had erupted over Skyline and had started that tightrope act down through the Esses with cold brake pads and full tanks of fuel. At the top of Skyline Savva in the Wollongong GTHO was on the left and Bill Brown in the red Alto Ford started through him on the inside. Savva never saw him and moved across on his line. In flicking the big Falcon right, Brown put two wheels up the bank and rolled. Behind him there was a gap of 100 metres, mainly because the Petrelli car had been spraying oil from its unbedded rings and the cars behind had backed off.

Those cars made it past but as the frantic marshalls waved yellow flags Class E Alfas led an enormous river of arguing cars over the brow. John French arrived at the upside down Falcon and slammed the brakes on. Just as he began to move past Brown he was hit from behind and flipped, and being hit by car after car. As the noise of the multiple collisions died down all French could hear was the marshalls yelling and the sound of petrol dripping into a pool below his head. As a marshall poked his head in French said "For *&#$sake, don't light a cigarette".

The retirements included Brown (Falcon), French (Alfa), Thomson (Alfa), Prisk (Mini), Cant (Capri), Hindmarsh (Cooper S), Cole (Fiat 125), Mander (Cooper S), Forbes (Fiat 125), Haehnle (Mazda R100), Stewart (Toyota 1600), Dickson (Cortina), Savva (GTHO) & Tholstrup (Datsun 1600).