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Sport and politics shouldn’t mix, it is said – even if what happens in the real world is often quite the opposite. To take one recent example, the result of the South Australian state election a few months ago means we will see the return of the Adelaide 500 Supercars street race (that’s assuming the incoming ALP government doesn’t break that particular pre-election promise...). We’re not aware of any motorsport-related promises from Labor or Liberal in the election campaign going on right now, but back in 1980 the Malcolm Fraser-led Liberal/Country Party federal government went to the polls pledging $2 million (a tidy sum 42 years ago) to construct a ‘world class’ motorsport facility near Canberra. The Fraser government was duly returned, and while his administration did deliver the funds for what became the Fairbain Park motorsport precinct, the talkedabout grand prix-level venue (there was talk of the new track hosting a round of the F1 World Drivers’ Championship in 1982) never eventuated. Not exactly a broken promise, but… In 1974 motorsport and politics literally did mix out on the track, with Murray Carter’s Falcon XA GT Hardtop and Laurie Nelson’s Valiant Charger E49 both carrying Liberal Party signage in that year’s Phillip Island round of the Australian Manufacturers’ Championship, the RE-PO 500K. It wasn’t a mere show of political support from

Carter and Nelson, either. In the new Murray Carter book, Cuppa Tea Motors, Murray claims it was a paid sponsorship deal for the teams to carry Liberal logos on their cars – although, Murray also says, the money from the Liberal Party never materialised… But then as Malcolm Fraser himself once famously observed, life wasn’t meant to be easy…