Bathurst: A special bond
Leeds grew up in Bathurst, living in the historic Tattersalls Hotel (now called the Elephant & Castle) just 3km from the track, so he was inevitably exposed to motor racing from a young age. Growing up in the 1950s – he was born in 1946 – the best time of year was Easter, when the cream of the motorcycle and car racing worlds arrived for a weekend of high-octane racing. The bikes would race on Friday and Saturday, then the big-name car racers moved into town for Sunday and Monday.
“I did all my schooling at Bathurst and grew up there,” he recalls. “My parents owned a hotel and I think that’s where my love of motor sport started. People like Bob Jane, Stan Jones and Ted Gray used to stay at my dad’s hotel, and they would take me up to the car races and I would wander around the pits all day.
“I used to say at school, ‘I’m going to race there one day,’ and all the other kids would say, ‘Don’t be stupid Leedsy.’ ‘No, I’m going to come back and race here.’ That was what I wanted to do.”
Leeds left Bathurst at 18 but never lost the dream. Two years later was preparing for his
rst race on the hallowed bitumen – though not without a bit of skulduggery. “I was desperate to race there no matter what, but to get a CAMS licence you had to have a parent’s signature if you were under 21 and I knew Mum wouldn’t do it, so I forged her signature.”
He had a Mini Cooper S – his rst mechanic was Mick Lambert, who soon moved on to greener pastures with the Geoghegans – and did the required three meetings to get his full licence before Bathurst, starting at Warwick Farm (inset
along with fellow debutantes Barry Jones and Lakis Manticas, who became good friends and co-drivers.
“We were so lucky to come through the era of motor sport that we did.”
It was then off to Bathurst in October for the
1966 Gallaher 500 classic on a shoestring budget with co-driver Mick Crampton, an F2 racer who offered to blueprint the engine and prepare the car. Sandra – soon to be his wife – bought a set of Olympic GT radials and tyre agent Kerry Savage provided credit for the rest. Unfortunately, Crampton stripped a bolt while preparing the car (above) and the exhaust kept dropping down in the race, eventually causing a DNF. Geoff still drove it home despite the noise.
Having exhausted their savings, Geoff skipped the 1967 race but returned in 1968 with Alan Vincent, who funded the outing. They were the sixth reserve and practised but there were only ve withdrawals so they didn’t get a start
(right). They were next in line when the gate shut. “We needed one more car (to pull out). We went to the gate and thought we might get a start, but they said, ‘Nope, sorry guys, bad luck.’ They closed the gate and it was the most depressing thing.”
On a brighter note, Geoff won that year’s 2UW production car series in the Cooper S, beating John French (Alfa) and Digby Cooke (Cooper S) in the nal round at Warwick Farm – thanks to new mate Brian Foley, who was a contracted Firestone driver with his Improved Production Cooper S and handed over his used front tyres. “They were ne for Series Prod. The car handled great and gave me a bit of an advantage over Digby.”
Still with no money, Geoff again missed Bathurst in 1969, then drove a Mazda 1300 in 1970 with Les Carne (right). They were equal fastest in class, but on the fourth lap Les came together with Datsun works driver John Roxburgh on Conrod Straight. “John gave Les a little tap and she’s gone around and over she went, over and over, so that was the end of that.”
Geoff Leeds grew up at Bathurst, only a few kilometres from the Mount Panorama circuit, where he would make more than 20 starts in the Great Race.
“I was desperate to race at Bathurst no matter what, but to get a CAMS licence you had to have a parent’s signature if you were under 21 and I knew Mum wouldn’t do it, so I forged her signature.”