A trip down memory lane By Chris Meaden
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.
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.
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.
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!
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”.