1947 Australian Grand Prix

The 1947 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula Libre motor race held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, near Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia on 6 October 1947. The race, which had 22 starters, was held over 38 laps of the six kilometre circuit, for a total race distance of 241 kilometres.

1947 Australian Grand Prix
Formula Libre handicap race
Race details
Date 6 October 1947
Location Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst, New South Wales
Course Temporary road circuit
Course length 6.12 km (3.84 mi)
Distance 38 laps, 241.35 km (150 mi)
Weather Sunny
Fastest lap
Driver Alf Barrett [1] Alfa Romeo Monza [1]
Time 3 min 6 sec [1]
Podium
First
  • Bill Murray
 MG
Second
  • Dick Bland
 Mercury Special
Third
Mercedes-Benz
Race winner Bill Murray (MG TC) contesting the 1947 Australian Grand Prix
Lex Davison (Mercedes-Benz 38-250) placed third on handicap, set fastest race time and won the Over 1500cc Championship

It was the twelfth Australian Grand Prix and the first to have been held after the conclusion of World War II. Racing in Australia resumed in 1946, but it took until 1947 for a group, in this case the Australian Sporting Car Club, to take on the running of the Grand Prix. Police opposition to racing at Mount Panorama led to the postponement of the race from Easter to October.[2]

The race, a handicap event as was the tradition in the immediate post-war period, was won by Bill Murray racing his MG TC. Murray took the lead on the last lap of the race after a tyre failure on Ray Mitchell's Jeep/Ford Special caused the race leader to slow dramatically. Mitchell limped home for fourth position. Future Grand Prix stars also passed Mitchell, second was taken by Dick Bland in his Mercury Special. Bland would claim two more podiums over the four years but a win would be elusive. Third was taken by Lex Davison driving a 7.6 litre Mercedes-Benz SSK 38/250.[3] Davison would go on to become the Grand Prix's most prolific winner, even though his career would be cut short by his death at Sandown in 1965, Davison would win the race four times. Davison also completed the race in the shortest time, a prelude to the future of the race over the next decade and a half.

Alf Barrett (Alfa Romeo Monza) started the race from scratch, 37 minutes after the first starter, Les Burrows (MG J2).[2] Barrett retired on lap 29 with valve trouble, having earlier set the fastest lap of the race at 3 minutes 6 seconds.[1] He also achieved the fastest speed of 123.5 mph through the flying quarter-mile.[4]

The Under 1500cc Championship was awarded to Alf Najar and the Over 1500cc Championship to Lex Davison, both titles being decided on net race time,[4] disregarding handicaps.

The race was watched by 20,000 spectators.[5]

Classification

Results as follows.[6]

PosNo. [7]DriverCar / engineLapsTimeHandicap
(minutes)
1 21 Bill Murray MG TC / MG 1.3L 38 2h 39m 46s 25.5
2 7 Dick Bland Mercury Special / Mercury 3.7L 38 2h 40m 22s 15.0
3 5 Lex Davison Mercedes-Benz SSK 38/250 / Mercedes-Benz 7.6L 38 2h 40m 33s 10.5
4 11 Ray Mitchell Jeep/Ford Special / Ford 3.6L 38 2h 41m 09s 17.0
5 23 Tom Sulman Sulman Singer Special / Singer 1.0L 38 2h 41m 48s 28.0
6 15 Alf Najar MG TB Special / MG 1.3L 38 2h 41m 37s 19.5
7 14 Harry Monday Mercury Special / Mercury 3.9L 38 2h 41m 59s 17.0
8 17 John Barraclough MG NE Magnette [5] / MG 1.3L 38 2h 42m 10s 21.0
9 13 Dougal MacLachlan MG TA Special / MG 1.4L 38 2h 43m 55s 19.5
10 28 [4] Les Burrows MG J2 / MG 0.8L 38 2h 44m 37s 37.0
11 19 Ron Ward MG TB / MG 1.3L 38 2h 45m 37s 25.5
12 27 Bruce Myers Riley Imp / Riley 1.1L 38 2h 46m 01s 34.0
13 18 Bill Nunn MG TB / MG 1.3L 38 2h 47m 55s 25.5
14 22 Elliott Forbes-Robinson MG TC / MG 1.3L 38 2h 48m 28s 25.5
Ret 1 Alf Barrett Alfa Romeo Monza / Alfa Romeo 2.4L 28 [1] Scratch
Ret 9 Jack Murray Bugatti Type 39 / Ford 3.6L (DM Special) [7] 28 15.0
Ret 2 Frank Kleinig Kleinig-Hudson 8 Special / Hudson 4.2L 26 6.0
Ret 20 George Pearse MG TB / MG 1.3L 22 25.5
Ret 26 Len Phillips Austin 7 / Austin 0.8L 20 31.0
Ret 3 Hope Bartlett Dixon / Riley 1.8L 7.5
Ret 4 Ron Ewing Buick Special / Buick 3.8L 10.5
Ret 16 Walter Mathison Jaguar SS100 / Standard 2.7L 20.0
DNS 8 Alec Mildren Ford V8 Special / Ford 3.6L 15.0
DNS 12 Dennis Curran Mercury Special / Mercury 3.9L 17.0
DNS 29 Ken Tubman MG K3 / MG 1.3L 15.0
DNS 24 Len Golding MG NE / MG 1.1L 28.0
gollark: While you're here, consider some x where x^2 mod 384 = 8.3. Continue considering it. This is NOT to distract you.
gollark: So they should line up.
gollark: "Bad" inasmuch as you were seemingly saying that "balanced" outcomes were always the "good" ones earlier.
gollark: I don't see why you would want more disease unless:- you value human suffering or some adjacent thing- you think it would reduce total disease over time, which is irrelevant if you just entirely wipe it out with technology™- you value "balance" or something as a goal in itself, which seems bad
gollark: Also vaguely patronising I think, but hard to tell.

References
  1. John B Blanden, Historic Racing Cars in Australia, 1979, page 18
  2. Medley, John (1986). "1947". In Howard, Graham (ed.). The Official 50-race history of the Australian Grand Prix. Gordon, NSW: R & T Publishing. p. 116. ISBN 0-9588464-0-5.
  3. Stefan Bartholomaeus, Mercedes-Benz in Australian motorsport Retrieved from www.speedcafe.com on 20 September 2012
  4. Australian Grand Prix, Australian Motor Sports, 15 October 1947, pages 26-28
  5. Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842–1954), Tuesday 7 October 1947, page 8 As retrieved from nla.gov.au on 15 May 2016
  6. Medley, John (1986). "1947". In Howard, Graham (ed.). The Official 50-race history of the Australian Grand Prix. Gordon, NSW: R & T Publishing. pp. 116–124. ISBN 0-9588464-0-5.
  7. Australian Grand Prix - Final Acceptances, Australian Motor Sports, 15 October 1947, page 5
Preceded by
1939 Australian Grand Prix		 Australian Grand Prix
1947		 Succeeded by
1948 Australian Grand Prix
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