John French

[Rob 18]

Good old Frenchie is almost as much of a legend as Dick himself in my opinion. The great stories you read about him are quite unbelievable like filling up the centre console of the GT with oranges so he could eat while racing around Mt Panorama. I think I heard about him taking hamburgers with him to eat while doing the lunch time stint with DJ one year..[8D][8D]

To let you know how much Dick Johnson thought of his old mate Father French, here is part of an interview with DJ before the 1981 James Hardie 1000.

"I have had a few offers of good sponsorship to put someone else in the car but last year I promised Frenchie that we were going to come back & win Bathurst & that's what we plan to do."

When you look back now after nearly 25 years, I think DJ had a fair bit of admiration for his old mate & I'm sure he still does to this day. Does anybody know how John is going these days?? I haven't seen any sign of him since DJ launched the AU in 99 on the True Blue video. He must be about 70 odd now wouldn't he???

 

[Bigcol]

Frenchy still has a Alfa dealership in Wooloongabba

 

[Rob 18]

Cheers Col..

 

[ROB17]

Yes I remember seeing him at the media conference at DJR when Dick announced his retirement. He hasn't changed much at all since he last drove with Dick at Bathurst in 1984. I think he would be closer to mid-70's. Anyone know John French's actual age?

 

[Henry]

Righto, a brief scan reveals that John French was born in 1931, making him 50 when he won Bathurst in 1981. Over the course of his remarkable career, he drove with both the works Ford and Nissan teams, starred in a tremendous solo drive in a near-brakeless Phase III on a wet track to finish second in the 1972 Hardie 500, terrorised Queensland racing in a variety of cars, including humpy Holdens and Alfas, and all the while maintained a great sense of fun and humour.

Fred Gibson tells a story of the Bathurst race in 1972; as noted early in this thread, Father French was a great one for carrying a cut lunch in the car to keep the worms quiet during the course of the day. He encouraged Freddie to do much the same, with the result that when Fred rolled the GTHO early in the piece, the interior of the car was coated evenly in sandwich. Gibbo shared a Bluebird with Father in 1983 at Bathurst (a drive that Frenchie admitted was all about the money) forcing DJ to look further afield for a co-driver (the choice of Kevin Bartlett was inspired: imagine how that pairing might have performed over a longer period, or if the car hadn't been totalled in HH), and Fred wanted to have the car signwritten "Fred Gibson and his Dad", which appealed hugely to Father.

 

[Beejay]

Ah, so that's what a statistician can do....

Nice story mate !

Try looking for Centaur Waggot as well...

 

[Henry]

Yep, quite a car by all accounts... I'll take "great unknowns" for $50, thanks Eddie... who is Tim Harlock?

Loved the yarn about the Alfa in 1974...

 

[Bigcol]

What about a Hartnett

 

[Henry]

now there's a whole other story... did anyone ever read "Big Wheels, Little Wheels"... Sir Laurence Hartnett's autobiography? And I think that Tim Harlock's creations might've been a mite quicker than Larry Hartnett's...

 

[Henry]

Great feature in the latest AMC mag on "Father"....

 

[Beejay]

Yes, and the RPO83 article was a pearler. The last days of the FoMoCo works team. Pity there wasn't more about Bathurst '73. I still think the XA GT's chances were under-rated.

 

[Henry]

The XA, my favourite Falcon!

I find it remarkable that there exist so many pictures of the works Fords running in formation: a formidable sight, and one which seems lost forever. They really must've been something.

Also interested to read in "Australia's Greatest Motor Race" that Tuckey felt that the #9 Flacon had a slight miss for most of the day. The photos of #9 post-Phillip Island paint a sad picture, sitting unloved, unwanted and broken in the car park at Mahoney's Road.