Brabham history

Sir,

In your July auction pages you mention Frank Matich’s Brabham BT7A, stating that he bought the car in 1964 and campaigned it in all the Tasman Series races through to 1969. This is incorrect. He purchased the car in 1963 and ran it under the Team Total Oil banner until mid-1965. He was very quick in the car and started from the front row of the grid in several Tasman Championship races, but the car was unreliable and I think his best finish was a third place. He then sold the car to New Zealander Red Dawson in mid-1965. Red was a South Auckland car dealer who cut his racing teeth driving pre-war American V8 stock cars on the city’s dirt ovals. He raced the Brabham from 1965 to 1969 with only a modicum of success.

Dawson sold the BT7A to a local who, in late 1969, inverted the car at his second race meeting and, as far as I know, it did not appear again until recently. Further information on the car is available in Classic Kiwi Motorsport Vol 2 from Parkside Publishers in Auckland. Gerard Richards, Auckland, New Zealand