Early days
Spencer Martin was a boy from middle suburbia. He was born in 1939 at Ryde Hospital and raised in Epping, in Sydney’s north, attending Marist College at Eastwood. He caught the racing bug early despite his parent’s disapproval.
“My parents were against it and never came to a race meeting,” Martin tells AMC today. “The look of terror on my mother’s face as I was leaving for places like Bathurst; I can still see it. I rst went to Mt Druitt when I was 16. I rode my pushbike out there and later on would catch the bus to Parramatta and then the steam train to the track.”
Martin was apprenticed to Peter Soltan, who raced an MG TC, and rst travelled to Bathurst in 1956. He was soon helping other MG guys and prominent racers of the day like Bill MacLachlan and Jack Murray.
Unfortunately MG TCs were out of reach for a young apprentice like Martin, so he did the next best thing. He bought a halfbuilt special and nished it off. The Triumph Special, as it was known, consisted of a Nota chassis with a KM 200 body and the mechanicals from a Triumph Herald. It certainly looked the part.
“I wanted to race at Bathurst but had to get three stripes. So my rst race was at Gnoo Blas, then I went to Lowood and then Hume Weir. My fourth race was Bathurst (in October 1960). My mate Brian McEwen had a Zephyr and we borrowed a trailer. He would put numbers on the Zephyr and race it so he could get his stripes. We both raced at Bathurst the following year together.”
At the time Martin was probably better known for his panelbeating skills than his
driving. Wanting to learn to build aluminium bodies with Stan Brown, the acknowledged expert of the day, he took a job with Clive Adams and Jack Pryer, who were responsible for the Prad Special, an advanced sports racer that promised much but delivered little.
After a couple of years Martin told Adams he was thinking of leaving. In order to keep him for another year, he was offered the Prad to race. Martin simpli ed the complex racer by installing a Holden engine and axle mated with an MG TC gearbox. In 1961 the Prad was hopelessly outdated against lightweight Lotus and Lolas of the day, but was often the best-placed special.
By 1962 Martin was moonlighting at Joel Wakely’s Boomerang Service Station at Concord, pumping petrol. Wakely was soon paying the Prad’s entry fee and helping with preparation but had bigger plans for the young racer. An employee racing an FX Holden ran out of money so the boss bought it and handed it over to Martin.
The Humpy Holden racing scene in New South Wales was very competitive, with the likes of Warren Weldon and Barry Seton setting the pace, but Martin often had their measure. He also took on Melbourne’s humpy king Norm Beechey and beat him too! At the time Beechey’s was sponsored by Scuderia Veloce and the young Sydneysider came to the attention of its high-pro le owner David McKay.
The race team owner, journalist and ‘man about town’ would soon turn the gifted amateur into a top ight professional and Gold Star champion.