13 FRANK GARDNER

CHAMPION: 1967, 1968, 1973

There was no nonsense with Frank Gardner. The gruff Aussie, who had moved to Europe to chase his motor racing dreams in the early 1960s, was a highly successful single-seater racer and started eight grands prix in a John Willment Automobilesrun Brabham, and won the European F5000 championship in 1971.

He was also a race winner in Formula 2 and the Tasman category, and he had been a class winner at Le Mans in the early 1960s.

In touring car terms, it was his partnership with Alan Mann Racing which cemented his success in the British Saloon Car Championship. He took a Ford Falcon Sprint to the title in 1967 and then became the first man to successfully defend the crown when he switched to a Ford Escort in 1968. He also prevailed in 1973 at the wheel of a Chevrolet Camaro.

Aside from those three outright triumphs, Gardner also took the class spoils on six occasions between 1967 and 1973.

He returned to Australia in 1975 to continue his driving career at Bathurst and in the Australian Sports and Sedan Championship, which he claimed in 1977. After stepping away from the driving seat, he successfully ran teams in Aussie series and took Supercar titles when the series ran for Super Touring models in 1994 and 1995 (with Tony Longhurst) and 1997 (with Paul Morris). Both were in BMWS. A Frank Gardner-run car also won the Bathurst 1000 in 1988, with Longhurst and Tomas Mezera in a Ford Sierra RS500.