HTCAV – VALE Jim McKeown

Words: Chris Ralph

Photos: Various

While many articles on Jim’s exploits are available online, including a comprehensive FaceBook page - Jim McKeown Racing - run by his son, Dean, this is one incomplete account - from a personal perspective…

In 1964, I was a spindly young flag marshal at South Australia’s wintery, windswept Mallala race circuit, staring as the Neptune Racing Team set up in the paddock.

Three cars, all the same dark blue with white GT stripes, included Jim McKeown in a Lotus Cortina, Norm Beechey in a Holden S4 and Peter Manton in a Mini. All raced in matching blue polo shirts, with matching blue helmets carrying white GT stripes and matching slacks, socks and loafers (no race suits or roll cages then…these guys were heroes!). This setup looked like the start of something big. This was… professional.

Jim was right there at the start. He helped light the wick that blew touring car racing into the stratosphere, overtaking open wheelers to become Australia’s premier racing category.

And he would fan the flames at the front of the grid for another ten hectic years.

McKeown vs Moffat - Mallala

Jim and the Lotus showed they were a perfect fit for the tight Mallala circuit.

Two years later, in a hectic battle with Allan Moffat’s similar car at the 1966 SA Touring Car Championship, absolutely no quarter was given. “There wasn’t much left of either of our cars when we finished,” Jim said.

I witnessed this breathtaking racing, even phoning in the results live over the Adelaide radio. Little did I know then that I would one day meet my hero through the HTCAV, spend time socially with him on the Gold Coast and recently, read a motor sport eulogy at his Celebration of Life in Melbourne.

The start of a legend

In the 1950s, Jim bought a lucky ticket in a Moomba Festival raffle. He won a Ford Zephyr and 500 gallons of petrol. He kept the juice, but flogged the Zephyr to buy a blue Austin Healey 100/4 to race and hill climb. Decades later, Jim restored another Healey and it was one of his proudest moments to see son Dean use that car to chauffeur Max Verstappen in the driver’s parade for this year’s Australian F1 GP.

After the Healey, Jim raced two cars fitted with the demon Repco Holden head: a Holden sedan; then a fibreglass bodied Sports and GT Special, the ‘Coad Vauxhall’.

In the early ’60s, Jim’s exploits in a pushrod Cortina GT caught the eye of the Neptune Racing Team.

Tinkerer and thinkerer

As that team morphed into the black-liveried Tridents, and finally the yellow and red Shell Racing Team, Jim’s Lotus Cortinas always had the edge. Why? Jim wasn’t just a gun driver. He was a tinkerer - and a thinkerer.

Behind the doors of his Kilsyth garage, Jim experimented with the help of Melbourne’s best engineers. Every available weight reduction and race tweak was carried out; to the point that his Lotus Cortina engine was rumoured to be the fastest in the world.

Dudded in the US

In 1967, Allan Moffat struck a deal with Ford Racing in the US where he, Jim – and Jim’s engine – would contest the Trans American 300 at Daytona.

Two factory race-ready Lotus Cortinas would be supplied. Alan would drive one with Jim’s engine, Jim would drive the other.

Records show Jim was the fastest qualifier, even without his secret weapon under the bonnet. In the race, Alan was leading the Under 2-Litre Class when the flywheel came loose, while Jim’s car had the gear lever come off in his hand.

The pair had been dudded; the cars supplied were tired and nowhere near race-prepared. Boo, hiss.

The Jim McKeown Porsche years

But Jim was impressed enough by Kar Kraft to order a Boss 302 Mustang for 1970 after it was clear Cortinas were no longer competitive.

Shell had allowed him a budget of $10,000 (a huge sum in those days), but they already had drivers in V8s, so the Mustang was a no go - Jim would stay their “middle capacity” man.

Undeterred, Jim raced ‘round to Hamilton Porsche to order a 911, the same as what Alan Hamilton had used in the Australian Touring Car Championship to good effect – third in 1968 and second in 1969.

It’s too late to import a whole car, so Hamiltons take an Irish Green 911S off the showroom floor. It’s in Shell yellow by the time all the good bits come from Germany and is ready to go for the first ATCC round of 1970 at Calder Park in March.

This time, Jim’s nemesis is renowned Sydney driver Brian Foley, also in a 911S. Jim’s yellow Shell car and Foley’s red Chesterfield Porsche are inseparable all season.

Jim takes two round wins, including one by a whole lap at a wet Symmons Plains, but two DNFs create a sense of ‘what might have been’ as he finishes second in the ’70 ATCC, behind team-mate Norm Beechey.

In the 1971 ATCC season, Jim finishes every race, takes two podiums and comes in fourth overall behind the Ford and Chevy V8s. The Porsches’ time was up, though. Even without the power deficit, a tiny back seat no one could ever fit into no longer qualified the 911s as ‘touring cars’.

Porsche Sports Sedans

For ’72, the Porsches found a new home in Sports Racing-Closed, aka Sports Sedans. Alan Hamilton, Jim and Brian Foley were back - hard at it again - in stoushes that defined a golden era for the category.

In his last year of full-time racing, Jim drove a monster mid-engined 2 litre Turbo 911 producing 474hp and weighing a mere 670kg. Gladiatorial stuff, but rule changes banned the car – a factory 908 under the skin - at the end of 1975. Approaching 40, Jim retired as a professional racing driver after just over a decade behind the wheel.

Mr Nice Guy

If you expected the man at the heart of such success to be a bombastic self-centred hero, go to the back of the grid. Jim’s warrior nature on track was contained within a truly nice guy.

“Jimmy Mac” as he was known, was a member of a close-knit bunch of racing mates. The first thing they all say is what a great bloke he was.

His great mate John Mann remembers a sports sedan race at Hume Weir with Jim leading in a Porsche, himself in a Repco V8 Cortina and a bloke called Harry Lefoe stuck between them in a tiny Hillman Imp with a big Ford V8.

“I had this little blowfly stuck to my bum,” said Jim. “I know mate, I was tryin’ to swat him for you…” said John. Laughs and the camaraderie bonded these two, and all their other race mates.

Larry Perkins recalls Jim sharing a Volkswagen with his uncle George Reynolds in the Armstrong 500 twice - in ’62, when they won Class D for cars under 900 quid, and ’63.

Ten years later, he’s bending elbows in the Sandown pub after a race meeting, starting a long friendship. “What a top man,” Larry says.

Untold Bathurst tales

President of the Victorian Historic Racing Register, Ian Tate, has some inside stories from the time he was working for the great Harry Firth, running two FoMoCo XT Falcon GTs at the 1968 Hardie-Ferodo 500. Harry had retired from driving and picked Jim to co-drive one of the cars with Spencer Martin.

Fitted with a tricked up automatic, the McKeown/Martin Falcon qualified in 7th, but in the race, the car’s left rear wheel bearing failed, the axle spearing up through the boot lid at Griffins Bend.

Undeterred, Jim took the long walk down the Mountain, grabbed tools and parts, walked back up and got to work on the car - with racing just a few feet away. He got going again, finishing 12th in class.

Meanwhile, the other team car (a manual) had a stone go through the radiator while contending for the outright win, ultimately finishing 7th in class.

Mechanics are down in the dumps, so Ian borrows a brand-new GT off the local Ford dealer and takes them into town to drown their sorrows.

After a feed and a few, Ian’s behind the wheel on a wet intersection, gives it a boot - and bang, he whacks a car. The cops are called - and bang, he’s in the clink.

Guess who casually wanders up and bails him out…

Historic Racing

Ian also remembers Jim racing historics in an Elfin Streamliner: “Watching his car control as he came over Lukey Heights was a masterclass,” says Ian. “Some competitors complained his engine was over capacity. I told them he could have pulled a plug lead off and still beaten them…”

I met Jim for the first time when he’d built a Lotus Cortina to run in the HTCAV. My own Cortina GT (bought years beforehand, coincidentally in Team Neptune colours) was sidelined because of the 1990’s recession “we had to have”.

On the way back from Winton one Sunday night, our group came across Jim and his great mate and mechanic Alan in a roadside café. And we found this motor sport hero was a real gentleman… Jim.

Back to Porsches

In 2000, Jim returned to racing one more time for a stint in the Australian Porsche Cup. He came 6th in his last race as a back injury put paid to that last hurrah.

However, seven years later, he’s back in his race suit at Calder on a foggy morning, ready to track test a newly built replica of his signature yellow Porsche from 1970. Jim had given every assistance to owner Mark Johnson and David Belford from Classic Road and Track during the build - now it was time for the shakedown.

"I'll just do a couple of slow laps,” Jim offered. He did a few more, then a few more - getting quicker each time.

Eventually he’s back, a huge grin on his face. “It’s just like my old car,” he said, “felt exactly the same - I even kept looking in the mirror for Foley!”

Jim followed the Porsche’s fortunes and drove it again in spirited ‘parade laps’ with his old mates and rivals at a Muscle Car Masters meeting in Sydney a decade or so ago.

“Gonna need a bigger boat…”

In the meantime, I had built a BMW 2002 for historic touring car racing, and become friendly with another BM driver, the late Peter Martin from Main Beach on the Gold Coast. He and his wife introduced us to their close friends. None other than… Jim and his partner Toni.

These fantastic hosts took us for trips on 'McKat', Jim's monster PowerCat boat. He’d ordered a maximum horsepower motor. And then fitted two. Jim would stand McKat on its rear so all you could see was sky. Great fun.

I never did tell him about the gawky, goggled-eyed young flaggie at Mallala 50 years earlier. He was just such a relaxed and unassuming guy. It was a pleasure to be in his company and I simply forgot.

The right kind of horsepower

There was a saying in the ’80s: ‘He who has the most toys wins’. The biggest houses, the biggest horsepower.

Jim qualified as a winner. He had all the toys and trappings. And all the great memories of someone who had ridden a remarkable wave of motorsport history - from the very beginning, at the very front.

But he had something more. He had a hero’s understanding that possessions and achievements belong only to a moment in time.

He’d been unwell, in pain for years. He knew that all we need to pack for the big journey is what’s in our hearts.

And I believe that for his next adventure, Jim McKeown will have plenty of that sort of horsepower under his right foot.