Brian Sampson

17/6/1935

Record updated 03-Jun-10

Brian started racing in 1954 and he is still competing! Best known for his win in the 1975 Bathurst race driving with another Australian legend, the late Peter Brock. He has won literally hundreds of races in saloons, sports cars and single seaters.

Brian started racing in 1954 in a hill climb at Tuerong Valley on the Mornington Peninsula. He drove his father’s MG TD sports car.

Since then he has raced at most circuits in Australia, including tracks and hill climbs with names no longer known to the younger generations and even possibly forgotten by some of his own generation! The hill climbs included Tuerong Valley, Mount Martha, Templestowe, Rob Roy, Lakeland and Hepburn Springs.

Race circuits include Fisherman’s Bend, Tarrawingee, Albert Park (original narrow road track—between the trees and no safety barriers), Phillip Island (1950s layout and surface), Calder Raceway (before and after it was sealed), Calder Park (Bob Jane era long and short circuits) Sandown (original circuit), Catalina, Warwick Farm, Amaroo Park, Oran Park long and short layouts, AIR–Adelaide International Raceway, Mallala (original and current tracks), Sandown (revised long and short designs), Surfers Paradise, Mount Panorama, Phillip Island (1970s and 1990s rebuilt circuit), Longford, Baskerville, Symmons Plains, Adelaide AGP Circuit, Calder (revised long and short circuits), Albert Park Current AGP Track and Sentul in Indonesia.

Literally hundreds of wins, both outright and class, have come from competing at all of these venues, from a hard-won 3rd place in the 1958 sports car race at Albert Park in his Supercharged Morris Special to winning, in November 2000, all three Formula Ford races in his RF77 Van Dieman and claiming 3rd outright in the Trans Tasman Challenge in Max Warwick’s beautiful McLaren M10 Formula 5000 at the Sandown Historic Races.

Long distance races were a specialty, beginning with 10th place at Albert Park in the 1955 "Argus" Moomba TT 100 Miles Sports Car Event driving an Austin Healy 100/4 through to 10th at his last Bathurst in 1990 driving with Bill O’Brien in the “Everlast” Commodore. The first long distance success came at the 1959 Armstrong 500 with a first in ‘A’ Class, driving a Renault Gordini with John Connolly.

The most notable was the memorable 1975 Bathurst win, co-driving with Peter Brock, but Brian also is very proud of the 1977 Oran Park Rothman’s 500 win in the Warren Cullen "Pioneer" L34 and his 1978 Rothmans 500 3rd place outright with Peter Williamson in a Toyota Celica. The 1980 Bathurst netted 4th place outright with Alan Browne in the Re-Car Commodore. In total, Brian competed in the Bathurst, Oran Park and Phillip Island Classics 20 times.

The teams that Brian drove for included BMC Australia—Austin Lancer, Rex Emmett — Renault Gordini, Tom Geoghan—Total Team Renault Gordini, Australian Motor Industries—Toyota Corona, Toyota Corolla, Triumph Spitfire, Triumph 2000, the fabulous factory Toyota Celica Sports Sedan, Harry Firth—HDT—L34, Gown and Hindaugh—L34 Warren Cullen Pioneer L34, Alan Browne Re-Car—,L34-A9X and Commodore, Winston Kim—MCB (Melbourne Clutch and Brake) Mitsubishi Starion in Production and Group ‘A,’ Peter Williamson Toyota, and long-time supporter Bill O’Brien of Everlast Industries—Falcon XD and Commodore (shown above finishing in 10th place in the 1990 classic).

Although Brian had many successes in these shared driver endurance events, he actually prefers to control his own cars and racing programs. A list of cars that he has owned is shown below, and it can be seen that, after the first early years, his preference has been for “open wheelers.” His original business, the Engine Reconditioning company Motor Improvements, specialised in modifying and developing BMC motors, Ford 998cc–1600cc and later the Toyota Corolla and Celica motors for the original 1100cc and 1300cc F3, 1600cc F2 open wheelers, 1300cc Clubman and sports sedans. For many years, they were virtually unbeatable and, in fact, are still sought after by historic race car owners around Australia.

Brian is no longer racing in endurance races nor Formula Holdens/F4000. He is very active in Historic racing, and also in the Victorian State Race Series in his Spectrum O6 Formula Ford.

In August 2001 he planned to race at only another twenty-five meetings before retiring. This target has since been overtaken and forgotten, and now, with his renewed level of fitness, enthusiasm and energy, coupled with the fact that he has some cars that he has not yet raced, indicates that there are no immediate plans for retirement.

 

Cars Owned and Raced by Brian Sampson Cars still owned are shown in blue (bold)
Years	Car	Class	Engine	Cap’y	Previous Owners
1950s	Morris Special	Sports Racing	Morris S/V	1100	Lyn Evans, Bob Jane
	Austin A/30	Appendix J	BMC A	1100	Used car yard
1960s	Austin Lancer	Appendix J	BMC B	1600	Repossession yard
	Morris Elite	Appendix J	BMC B	1920	Austin distributors
	Ford Super Anglia	Appendix J	Ford 113E	1290	Ex police car
	Hillman Rally Imp	Appendix J	Hillman	1000	Ex U.K. works car, Rootes Motors, Norm Beechey
	Toyota Corona	Appendix J	Corona	1600	A.M.I. Racing
	Elfin Streamliner	Sports/Racing	MI Corolla	1100	Elfin Cars— body and chassis
	Elfin Ford FJ	Racing AF2	Ford	1500	Andy Brown
1970s	Elfin 600 F3	Racing AF3	MI Corolla	1100	Elfin Cars—Rolling Chassis
	Toyota Corolla	Sports Sedan	MI Corolla	1300	Team Toyota
	Cheetah Mk 4	Sports Sedan	MI Corolla	1300	New from Brian Shead
	Cheetah Mk 5	Racing AF3	MI Corolla	1300	New from Brian Shead
	Cheetah Mk 6	Racing AF3	MI Corolla	1300	New from Brian Shead
	Cheetah Mk 6	Racing AF2	MI Celica	1600	Converted from AF3 car
	Toyota Celica GT	Sports Sedan	Celica GT	1600	Team Toyota
1980s	Austin Lancer	Hist App J	BMC B	1600	Used car yard
	Cheetah Mk 6	Formula/Atlantic	Ford BDA	1600	New from Brian Shead
	Cheetah Mk 8	Racing AF2	MI Ford	1600	MI SOHC conversion fitted to BDA
	Ralt RT4	Formula/Atlantic	Ford BDA	1600	Re-Car, Alan Jones
	Chevron B8	Hist Group O	BMW	2000	Max Warwick, Peter Woodward
	Cheetah Mk 4B	Hist Group O	Ford T/C	1600	Colin Milne, Peter Macrow
	Cheetah Mk 5	Racing AF2	MI Corolla	1300	Derek Pringle, Peter Roach
	Cheetah Mk 6	Racing AF2	MI Celica	1600	Tom Crozier, Mike Stillwell; being converted to Hist Q
	Cheetah Mk 8	Racing AF2	VW Golf	1600	Vince McLauchlin
	Cheetah Mk 7	Racing AF2	MI Celica	1600	Rick Fabri
	Elva Mk 8S	Hist Group M	BMW	2000	Winston Kim, John Ould, Peter Brennan, Brian Carty
	Chevron B29	Hist Group Q	Ford BDA	1600	David Oxton, Brian Redman
1990s	Cheetah Mk 9	Formula Holden	Holden V6	3800	Peter Glover
	Reynard 913	Racing AF2	VW Golf	1600	Arthur Abrahams
	Lola Buick T87/50	Formula Libre	Buick V6	4200	Robert Bailey, Bob Minogue, Alan Hamilton
	Dallara 393	Racing AF2,	VW Golf 1600	1600	Simon Hardwidge
		Now AF3	VW Golf	2000
	Lola T91/50	Formula Holden	Holden V6	3800	Barry Ward
	Dallara 391 – Alfa	Racing AF2	Alfa Romeo Twin Spark	2000	Sam Astuti
	Elva Courier	Hist Sports SA	BMC B	1930	Winston Kim, Ian McDonald
2000s	Van Dieman RF77	Hist F/Ford	Ford	1600	Mike Beeley
	March 77B	Hist Group Q	Ford BDA	1600	Brian Robertson, Danny Sullivan, Colin Giltrap NZ
	Spectrum O6	Formula Ford	Ford	1600	Ken Douglas, Ray Stubber
	Palliser WDF3	Hist F/Ford	Ford	1600	Peter Finlay, Peter Hill, Andrew Makin
	Lola T342	Hist F/Ford	Ford	1600	Mark Bisset, USA import
	Spectrum 011	Formula Ford	Ford	1600	New car, delivered 2006
	Paliser Formula Ford
Being rebuilt — owned but not yet raced
	Brabham BT35	Hist Group O	Ford T/C	1600	Kurt Seeburg, Paul England
	Ralt RT3	Hist Group R	VW Golf	1600	Sean Cussell, Lucio Ceasario, Bob Power, Graham Watson
	Ralt RT3	Hist Group R	VW Golf	1600	Keith Morling, Wayne Ford
	Elfin 623	Hist Group Q	MI Corolla	1300	Ross Gordon
	Van Dieman RF86	Hist F/Ford	Ford	1600	Neville Wills