VALE Brian Sampson

Australian motorsport has lost one of its most enduring figures in Brian ‘Sambo’ Sampson, who passed away on 17 November, aged 88. While perhaps best known for partnering Peter Brock to victory in a privateer L34 Torana at the 1975 Bathurst 1000, to note just this achievement is to do Sampson’s long motorsport resume a massive disservice.

After a few starts in hillclimbs, Sampson made his track debut in the family’s Austin-Healey 100 at Albert Park in 1956. Barely out of his teens at the time, this was the start of a circuit racing career that would continue into the new millennium.

As a youngster, Sampson worked for his father’s engine reconditioning business and proved to be mechanically adept. That was demonstrated in a Morris-engined special he fabricated new pistons, valves, camshafts and other parts for, also adding a supercharger. Later, those skills transferred to engine upgrades for fellow racers that Sampson offered through his own business, Motor Improvements.

After racing Austins and Renaults in the early 1960s, Sampson proved integral to Toyota’s motorsport presence in Australia, turning Corollas and Celicas into winners, while also developing a Toyota engine for Formula 3 racing in partnership with Brian Shead’s Cheetah chassis that was highly successful. That later morphed into a Formula 2 car that won the Australian title in 1979.

In 1968, Sampson added to Motor Improvements with the purchase of Eddie Thomas Speed Shop. The name change to Speco Thomas came a year later and the business is still in operation today.

While he stopped regularly racing Touring Cars in the 1980s and had his last Bathurst start in 1990, Sampson continued to race open wheelers – just for the love of it – until he was well into his ‘70s. Competing in state-level Formula Ford and historic open wheel categories, Sampson regularly raced with #78, so it was fitting that he was still wearing that number when he turned 78 in 2013. Reluctantly, he hung up the helmet the same year.

In 2012, Sampson was inducted into the ‘Just Auto Legends’ and spent time talking to JUST CARS about his motorsport career and other topics (look for the video on YouTube).

JUST CARS extends its sympathies to Sampson’s family and friends.