Whaddayaknow?

AJ’s Monaro

Twelve years before Alan Jones became the 1980 World Champion, he very nearly won the newly-released Holden Monaro’s rst major race, the 1968 Sandown Three Hour. If not for releasing the HK GTS 327’s bonnet when he pitted mid-race in expectation of his crew checking under the hood during the stop, the then 21-year-old would have etched his name in the racing history books much earlier than he did.

Instead, his efforts on September 15, 1968 have largely been forgotten – including by the man himself, as you won’t nd this tale in Jones’ latest book. The much anticipated autobiography AJ: How Alan Jones Climbed to the Top of Formula One was one of the best reads of 2017. AJ, in typical style, took us on a rollicking, warts-and-all ride on his stellar journey to being a Formula One World Champion. It’s quite literally warts-and-all, including where he had those warts and how he got them!

AJ’s disdain for his later touring car career in Australia is evident in his book. Likewise, the role tin-tops played in his formative years, before he headed to the UK, was dispatched in less than a page. Indeed, his one signi cant result in touring cars before his departure to the old dart isn’t even mentioned!

For the record, Alan Jones and co-driver Clive Millis nished second outright in the 1968 Sandown classic in a Holden Monaro GTS 327. On paper it seems like a signi cant milestone, but in reality all was not as it seemed.

That year marked the rst production car endurance race held at Sandown – the ’64 and ’65 Six Hours were run to International Group 1 and 2 regulations – and it wasn’t the warm-up to the Bathurst 500 that it became in later years. There were no factory-backed Fords or Holden Dealer Racing Team GTS 327s and many of the Three Hour runners weren’t even entered for the Mountain classic.

The class of the Sandown eld was the Alec Mildren Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV of John French and Doug Chivas. The Alfa was a lap up on the eld when a wheel fell off nine laps from the nish. This left the Monaro of rally regulars but racing rookies Bob Watson/Tony Roberts in the lead despite nishing the race brakeless, barely holding out Millis in the Monaro and Alan Hamilton in a Porsche 911 Sportomatic(!) It was that kind of race. That year’s Bathurst winner Bruce McPhee nished three laps behind the winner after encountering brake dramas.

Mystery surrounds the Jones/Millis Monaro. The Bright Blue Metallic-coloured Monaro was entered by Lloyd Holyoak Motors, a Holden dealer from Warrandyte on the then northern fringe of Melbourne. Holyoak was a former chairman of the North Melbourne (Kangaroos) AFL team. Childhood friend of Jones, Ron Simmonds recalls that Holyoak was an old friend or employee of Stan Jones (father of Alan). Jones Senior was a top class single-seater racer in his day and had owned a Holden dealership before he went broke. He also believes that Jones never owned the Monaro. There is conjecture that the Monaro may have been his Mum’s car!

AMC spoke to Clive Millis about his involvement with the Monaro, but unfortunately the 81-year-old couldn’t add much background. He remembers the race on what was a busy day for the experienced single-seater racer who had nished fourth in the Gold Star feature in his El n Mono.

“AJ did the rst half and I nished the race,” Millis recalls. “Alan came in with no problems at all. Everything was OK, but he pulled the bonnet release lever. The crew didn’t open the bonnet, it was still sitting on the rst catch. I went out and then they black agged me for the bonnet. I came into the pits to secure the bonnet. We lost the race by eight seconds; could have won by 20 seconds if not for the extra stop.”

There was no entry for Bathurst. Jones would have to wait more than a decade before he drove at the Mountain. Millis never did the big race though he did race at three Easter Bathurst meetings in single-seaters and a Mazda RX2. He was a Mazda dealer, after all.

We asked Millis whether Jones showed something special in the Monaro at Sandown 50 years ago.

“We were both doing about the same times,” Millis says. “There was nothing much in it but I thought he was ace. He kept in touch a bit. I caught up with him at the 1976 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. He nished eighth in a Surtees and I thought he did a great job in what was a terrible car. But he was ropeable with himself; he thought he had driven like an old woman. I told everyone to keep an eye on him as he will be world champion one day.”

Interestingly, Clive Millis tells us that he had never been interviewed about the ‘68 Sandown Three Hour before we called him for this article! While we successfully tracked down Millis,

AMC was unsuccessful in our efforts to contact Jones for his recollections on Sandown ‘68.