1937 Australian Grand Prix

1936 Australian Grand Prix
handicap race
Race details
Date	26 December 1936
Location	Port Elliot-Victor Harbor Circuit [1] near Victor Harbor, South Australia
Course	Temporary road circuit
Course length	12.55 km (7.8 miles)
Distance	32 laps, 386.16 km (240 . [2] miles)
Weather	Sunny
Fastest lap
Driver	Tom Peters	Bugatti
Time	5:47
Podium
First	Les Murphy	MG
Second	Tim Joshua	MG
Third	Bob Lea-Wright	Terraplane Special

The 1937 Australian Grand Prix is a name which has been applied retrospectively to the 1936 South Australian Centenary Grand Prix, a motor race held on the Port Elliot-Victor Harbor road circuit in South Australia on Boxing Day, 26 December 1936. ^[3]

The 1935 Australian Grand Prix had been held at Phillip Island in April and no succeeding event had been planned. Eventually the Australian Grand Prix would be revived in April 1938 at Bathurst. The stature of 1936 South Australian Centenary Grand Prix, the largest such race held in the three-year gap, saw it later renamed and redated to become the 1937 Australian Grand Prix. ^{[3] [4]}

The race was the first road race for cars to be held in South Australia, with special amendments to the Road Traffic Act required to allow the roads to be closed for that purpose. ^[3] A 7.8-mile (12.55 km) course was laid out specifically for the race on sealed public roads between the seaside towns of Port Elliot and Victor Harbor. ^[3] It was only used for racing on this one occasion. The race, which had 27 starters, was held over 32 laps for a total distance of approximately 250 miles (400 kilometres). Like most major Australian motor races of the period, it featured a handicap start, with the slowest cars starting first and other cars starting at timed intervals according to their predicted performance. The race was organised by the Sporting Car Club of South Australia and promoted by Centenary Road Races Limited of Adelaide. ^[5] It was open to factory built and catalogued racing cars and sports cars, irrespective of engine capacity, however other entries not meeting that description were also considered. ^[5]

The race was won by pre-race favourite Les Murphy, driving a MG P-type off a handicap of 40 minutes. ^[6] He finished over ten minutes clear of Tim Joshua driving a similar car with Bob Lea-Wright third ^[7] in a Terraplane-based special. Fifth placed finisher Ossie Cranston, driving a Ford V8-based special ^[7] off a handicap of 5 minutes, ^[6] completed the race in the fastest actual running time of 3 hours 20 minutes and 17 seconds. ^[8]

Classification

Winner Les Murphy (MG P-type), pictured during the race.

The Hudson Special which was driven by Frank Kleinig. Pictured in 2012

1936 South Australian Centenary Grand Prix plaque, located at Lions Information Bay, Adelaide Road, Victor Harbor, South Australia.

Results as follows. ^[2]

Pos	No.	Driver	Car / Engine	Entrant [6]	Laps	Time
1	29	Les Murphy	MG P-type / MG 0.8L	L Murphy	32	3h 57m 36s
2	32 [9]	Tim Joshua	MG P-type / MG 0.8L	AI Barrett	32	4h 7m 40s
3	19	Bob Lea-Wright	Terraplane Special / Terraplane 3.5L	RA Lea-Wright	32	4h 9m 20s
4	20	Alec Poole	Oldsmobile Special / Oldsmobile	AE Poole	32	4h 10m 29s
5	15	Barney Dentry	Riley Special / Riley 1.1L	GB Dentry	32	4h 12m 32s
6	6	Ossie Cranston	Ford V8 Special / Ford 3.6L	OS Cranston	32	4h 15m 47s
7	35	Ron Uffindell	Austin 7 Special / Austin 0.7L	RS Uffindell	32	4h 19m 19s
8	27	John Summers	MG L Magna / MG 1.1L	J Summers	32	4h 22m 18s
9	18	Harry Beith	Terraplane Special / Terraplane 3.5L	HJ Beith	32	4h 24m 01s
10	23	John Dutton	MG C / MG 0.8L	JH Dutton	32	4h 24m 03s
11	9 [10]	Arthur Terdich	Bugatti Type 37A / Bugatti s/c 1.5L	AJ Terdich [11]	32	4h 26m 15s [8]
12	26	George Martin	AC 16/80 / AC 2.0L	RH Wilkinson	32	4h 30m 43s
Ret	4	Lyster Jackson	MG K3 / MG s/c 1.1L	L Jackson	29
NC	33	J. McDonald	Amilcar	J McDonald	28
Ret	22	Alf Barrett	Lombard AL3 / Lombard 1.2L	AI Barrett	25
NC	31	Colin Anderson	Morris Cowley Special / Morris 1.5L	AI Barrett	23
Ret	17	Jack Phillips	Ford V8 Special / Ford 3.6L	JK Phillips	21
Ret	3 [6]	Lord William Waleran	MG K3 / MG s/c 1.1L	J Snow	20
Ret	30	Jim Gullan	Wolseley Hornet / Wolseley 1.3L	J Gullan	17
NC	25 [12]	H. Abbott	Austin 7 / Austin s/c 0.7L	H. Abbott [11]	11
Ret	1	Jim Fagan	MG K3 / MG s/c 1.1L	JH Fagan	10
Ret	34	E.M. Winter	Vauxhall 14/40 Special / Vauxhall 2.3L	EM Winter	10
Ret	21	Hylton Dale	Bugatti Type 37A / / Bugatti s/c 1.5L	Hylton Dale	9
Ret	2	Tom Peters	Bugatti Type 37A / Bugatti s/c 1.5L	TM Peters	7
Ret	12	George Smith	Austin 7 Special / Austin	GC Smith	7
Ret	12A [13]	Les Burrows	Hudson Special / Hudson	L Burrows	7
Ret	7	Frank Kleinig	Hudson Special [14] / Hudson	WA McIntyre	5
DNS	14	Bill Bullen	Alvis / Alvis s/c 1.5L	B McN. Clark

The entries of McDonald, Anderson and Abbott were "flagged off", ^[15] having exceeded the time limit rule. ^[2]

Notes

Winner's average speed: 68.5 miles per hour (110.2 km/h) ^[11]

References

1. Front cover, Official Programme, SA Centenary Grand Prix, 26 and 29 December 1936
2. Medley, John (1986). "1952". In Howard, Graham (ed.). The Official 50-race history of the Australian Grand Prix. Gordon, NSW: R & T Publishing. pp. 92–103. ISBN   0-9588464-0-5.
3. John B Blanden, A History of the Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, page 129
4. "Recognition" of the race as an Australian Grand Prix had occurred prior to the running of the 1948 Australian Grand Prix as a list of AGP winners published on page 11 of the Programme for that race includes an entry for "1937 – Victor Harbour – L Murphy".
5. Centenary Grand Prix – Regulations for SA Event, The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday, 21 August 1936 page 7 As retrieved from trove.nla.gov.au on 12 March 2013.
6. John B Blanden, A History of the Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, page 132
7. John B Blanden, A History of the Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, page 147
8. John B Blanden, A History of the Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, page 148
9. John B Blanden, A History of Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, pages 132 & 143
10. John B Blanden, A History of Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, page 134
11. Speedster Murphy Collects Another Grand Prix, The Referee, Thursday December 31 1936, Page 19, as archived at trove.nla.gov.au
12. John B Blanden, A History of Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, page 136
13. Barry Lake, on page 106 of his book "Half a Century of Speed", explains that Burrows was allocated No. 13 but raced with No. 12A
14. John B Blanden, A History of Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, pages 132 & 137
15. John B Blanden, A History of Australian Grand Prix 1928–1939, pages 148 to 150

Further reading

• Horn, Caroline (6 January 2024). "Australia's forgotten grand prix was a coastal road race. Now memories are being revived". Australia: ABC News. Retrieved 6 January 2024.

External links

• Grand Prix won at 68½ mph, The Mail, Adelaide, 26 December 1936, trove.nla.gov.au

Preceded by 1935 Australian Grand Prix	Australian Grand Prix 1937	Succeeded by 1938 Australian Grand Prix