1937 Australian Grand Prix


The 1937 Australian Grand Prix is a name which has been applied retrospectively to the 1936 South Australian Centenary Grand Prix, a motor race held on the Port Elliot-Victor Harbor road circuit in South Australia on Boxing Day, 26 December 1936.
The 1935 Australian Grand Prix had been held at Phillip Island in April and no succeeding event had been planned. Eventually the Australian Grand Prix would be revived in April 1938 at Bathurst. The stature of 1936 South Australian Centenary Grand Prix, the largest such race held in the three-year gap, saw it later renamed and redated to become the 1937 Australian Grand Prix.
The race was the first road race for cars to be held in South Australia, with special amendments to the Road Traffic Act required to allow the roads to be closed for that purpose. A 7.8-mile course was laid out specifically for the race on sealed public roads between the seaside towns of Port Elliot and Victor Harbor. It was only used for racing on this one occasion. The race, which had 27 starters, was held over 32 laps for a total distance of approximately 250 miles. Like most major Australian motor races of the period, it featured a handicap start, with the slowest cars starting first and other cars starting at timed intervals according to their predicted performance. The race was organised by the Sporting Car Club of South Australia and promoted by Centenary Road Races Limited of Adelaide. It was open to factory built and catalogued racing cars and sports cars, irrespective of engine capacity, however other entries not meeting that description were also considered.
The race was won by pre-race favourite Les Murphy, driving a MG P-type off a handicap of 40 minutes. He finished over ten minutes clear of Tim Joshua driving a similar car with Bob Lea-Wright third in a Terraplane-based special. Fifth placed finisher Ossie Cranston, driving a Ford V8-based special off a handicap of 5 minutes, completed the race in the fastest actual running time of 3 hours 20 minutes and 17 seconds.

Classification

Results as follows.
PosNo.DriverCarEntrantLapsTime
129 Les MurphyMG P-type / MG 0.8LL Murphy323h 57m 36s
232 Tim JoshuaMG P-type / MG 0.8LAI Barrett324h 7m 40s
319 Bob Lea-WrightTerraplane Special / Terraplane 3.5LRA Lea-Wright324h 9m 20s
420 Alec PooleOldsmobile Special / OldsmobileAE Poole324h 10m 29s
515 Barney DentryRiley Special / Riley 1.1LGB Dentry324h 12m 32s
66 Ossie CranstonFord V8 Special / Ford 3.6LOS Cranston324h 15m 47s
735 Ron UffindellAustin 7 Special / Austin 0.7LRS Uffindell324h 19m 19s
827 John SummersMG L Magna / MG 1.1LJ Summers324h 22m 18s
918 Harry BeithTerraplane Special / Terraplane 3.5LHJ Beith324h 24m 01s
1023 John DuttonMG C / MG 0.8LJH Dutton324h 24m 03s
119 Arthur TerdichBugatti Type 37A / Bugatti s/c 1.5L324h 26m 15s
1226 George MartinAC 16/80 / AC 2.0LRH Wilkinson324h 30m 43s
Ret4 Lyster JacksonMG K3 / MG s/c 1.1LL Jackson29
NC33 J. McDonaldAmilcarJ McDonald28
Ret22 Alf BarrettLombard AL3 / Lombard 1.2LAI Barrett25
NC31 Colin AndersonMorris Cowley Special / Morris 1.5LAI Barrett23
Ret17 Jack PhillipsFord V8 Special / Ford 3.6LJK Phillips21
Ret3 Lord William WaleranMG K3 / MG s/c 1.1LJ Snow20
Ret30 Jim GullanWolseley Hornet / Wolseley 1.3LJ Gullan17
NC25 H. AbbottAustin 7 / Austin s/c 0.7L11
Ret1 Jim FaganMG K3 / MG s/c 1.1LJH Fagan10
Ret34 E.M. WinterVauxhall 14/40 Special / Vauxhall 2.3LEM Winter10
Ret21 Hylton DaleBugatti Type 37A / / Bugatti s/c 1.5LHylton Dale9
Ret2 Tom PetersBugatti Type 37A / Bugatti s/c 1.5LTM Peters7
Ret12 George SmithAustin 7 / AustinGC Smith7
Ret13 Les BurrowsHudson Special / HudsonL Burrows7
Ret7 Frank KleinigHudson Special / HudsonWA McIntyre5
DNS14 Bill BullenAlvis / Alvis s/c 1.5LB McN. Clark

The entries of McDonald, Anderson and Abbott were "flagged off", having exceeded the time limit rule.