Gary Bould - Kooweerup Motors Anglia
Sports Sedan
A trip down memory lane
By Chris Meaden
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This may seem to be at an obscure car to
do a profile on, but the car had a particular significance to me because
I grew up near the township of Kooweerup and was a school kid at the
time the Anglia was competing.
Bob and Lindsay Hansen owned Kooweerup
motors, which was a minor Datsun dealer as well as a Bob Jane T-Mart
agent. I think it was Bob who had the most interest in motor racing and
constructed the car.
My brother
Peter still has this can opener!
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The Anglia was painted yellow and dark
brown and I think the car was powered by a six cylinder Holden red
motor, probably 186ci. I think the car ran a hillclimbs more than
circuit racing and was reasonably competitive.
Gary Bould
and the Anglia in action
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One of my school friends was David De
Longville whose father, Lawrie, was the Kooweerup postmaster. Lawrie had an
interesting motor racing and knew the Hansen's quite well, particularly
as the post office was almost next door to their garage. Lawrie would
often attend race meetings with your car.
The Hansen
brother's
garage as it stands today
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On one occasion Laurie arranged for me to
come along to Lakeland hillclimb in the Anglia’s tow car with Bob and
Gary, which was a bit of a buzz for an enthusiastic young kid!
On another occasion Laurie drove David
and I to Calder in his noisy old Vanguard (I think it was). This was
the meeting that the Ford Super Falcons were meant to make their debut,
but didn't. An enormous crowd expectantly turned up for the event,
despite the fact it was so cold that it actually snowed at the circuit!
However, due to the massive crowd there was a traffic jam that stretched
all the way back to Melbourne and the trip seemed to take hours and we
actually got there after the snow fell.
I am grateful that
Laurie was kind enough to encourage
my interest in motor racing. Bob Hansen
was also good enough
to hand down
a few of his old ‘Hot Rod’
magazines to
me,
one of which included
a photo of the ex-Norm Beechey
Chevy Impala at the Calder drags. I wish I had have kept that magazine
now...
In the early days of the emerging new Melbourne TV
station Channel 0 (now Network 10) they broadcast
sporting events as a cheap way of filling air time. Amazingly they
broadcast hillclimb events from Lakeland and Templestowe. Not just an
hour or two, but all afternoon! I still remember Brian from Brian's
Speed Shop doing live advertisements from the pits. Oh, how times
have changed!
Channel 0
Outside
Broadcast Van
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Despite Gary competing at many of these hillclimb events, his
runs were rarely witnessed on Channel 0 as they always seemed to
schedule ad breaks just as he was about to have his turn up the hill.
Most annoying!
I don't recall what happened to the car after Gary gave
up racing it. Anyone know?
Bye the way, If you are wondering about the name
Kooweerup, it is an aboriginal name meaning 'Black Fish Swimming'. Over
the years I have seen the name written: Koo-Wee-Rup, KooWeeRup,
Koo-wee-rup, but Kooweerup seems to be popular choice at the moment.
Darren Bould, Gary's nephew, has kindly
supplied the following information about Gary and the Anglia.
"Gary owned the Anglia which the Hansen's built and
ran for him. The motors
were sourced from Repco and were ex-Torana XU1 test engines. Believe it
or
not, they actually got hold of five of these engines which were all
186ci.
The Anglia was a real beast. Apparently it had a tendency to wander
all over the road and had a mind of its own when the brakes were
applied! I
remember as a youngster the first time Gary raced at Sandown. Dad warned
him
to work up to speed given the dangerous circuit that Sandown was in
those
days, with no run off areas. First practice session, first lap into
Shell
corner we heard a huge squeal of tyres and looked up to find Gary
arriving
under the Shell bridge backwards in a big cloud of smoke. Luckily he
kept it
off the armco.
Before racing the Anglia, Gary raced a GT Cortina for about a year.
Gary bought and raced a Farrell Clubman sports car for around a year
after he sold the Anglia. He then started a family and gave up the
racing.
I haven't been able to unearth any info on what happened to the Anglia
after
Johan Moos raced it. I don't recall ever seeing the car again after that
so I
fear it may have been retired/broken up although it could have gone
interstate???
Bob Hansen is still involved in the racing game. Bob is involved in
running the Minda Motorsport Formula Ford team which runs cars in the
very strong Victorian State Racing Series, entering up to four cars at
some rounds and also competing in the odd national series race".
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