1954 Australian Grand Prix


The 1954 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held at the Southport Road Circuit near Southport in Queensland, Australia on 7 November 1954. The race was held over 27 laps of the nine mile circuit, a total distance of 153.9 miles. It was the nineteenth Australian Grand Prix and the second to be held in Queensland. With no suitable permanent circuit available, a course was mapped out on roads in sparsely settled coastal land 2.5 km south west of Southport, and just to the north of later circuits, Surfers Paradise Raceway and the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit. The Grand Prix race meeting was organised by the Queensland Motor Sporting Club and the Toowoomba Auto Club in conjunction with the Southport Rotary Club. The race, which was open to Racing and Stripped Sports Cars, had 28 starters.
The race was won by Lex Davison, later to become the most successful driver in the history of the Australian Grand Prix. It was Davison's first win in the Grand Prix having finished in the top three as far back as 1947. Davison drove a Formula 2 HWM re-engined with a 3.4 litre Jaguar engine. Davison finished a lap clear of Curley Brydon's MG TC special and two laps ahead of third placed Ken Richardson in a Ford based special. The gaps were caused by attrition amongst the fastest drivers. Jack Brabham was out on the second lap with a broken engine in his Cooper; Rex Taylor was black flagged for receiving outside assistance after spinning his Lago-Talbot; Dick Cobden retired his Ferrari after a spin and Stan Jones crashed heavily while leading after his chassis failed. It would be the last race for the Mk.II Maybach special, Charlie Dean's team rebuilding it as the Maybach III.

Classification

Results as follows.
PosNo.DriverCarEntrantLapsTime
177 Lex DavisonHWM F2 / Jaguar 3.4LA.N. Davison271h 50m 18s
243 Curley BrydonMG TC Special / MG s/c 1.3LH. Brydon26
39 Ken RichardsonFord V8 Special / Ford 3.9LK.B. Richardson25
48 Eldred NormanTriumph TR2 / Standard s/c 2.0LE. deB. Norman24
531 David GriffithsTriumph TR2 / Standard 2.0LD. P. Griffiths24
629 Frank TobinRizzo Riley Special / Riley 1.5LFrank Tobin23
74 Charlie WhatmoreJaguar Special / Jaguar 3.4LChas. Whatmore23
846 Stan CoffeyCooper T20 / Bristol 2.0LS.F. Coffey23
910 Owen BaileyMG Holden Special / Holden 2.4LO. Bailey23
102 Charlie SwinburneCooper Mk.IV / Norton 0.5LC. Swinburne23
1121 Bill PittJaguar XK120 Special / Jaguar 3.4LJ. C. Anderson22
121 Fred ZambuckaMaserati 8CM / Maserati 3.0LF. Zambucka22
Ret16 Snow SeftonFord V8 Special / Ford 4.2LSnow Sefton21
Ret14 Noel BarnesMG TC Special / MG 1.3LN. F. Barnes19
Ret92 Doug WhitefordFord V8 Special / Ford 4.4LD. Whiteford17
Ret79 Arthur GriffithsWylie Javelin / Jowett s/c 1.5LA. Griffiths15
Ret87 Stan JonesMaybach Special Mk.II / Maybach 4.3LS.J. Jones13
Ret15 John McKinneyMG TC Special / MG 1.3LJ. McKinney11
Ret74 Ian MountainPeugeot Special / Peugeot 1.5LI. Mountain11
Ret49 Dick CobdenFerrari 125 / Ferrari s/c 2.0LR. Cobden10
Ret3 Wal AndersonHolden Special / Holden 2.3LW. S. Anderson9
Ret56 Jack MurrayAllard J2 / Cadillac 5.3LJ.E. Murray8
Ret23 Gerald DowningRiley Imp Special / RileyG. J. Downing8
Ret78 Rex TaylorTalbot-Lago T26C / Talbot-Lago 4.5LR. Taylor6
Ret37 Holt BrinnieMG TD Special / MG 1.4LMartin Motors6
Ret20 Gordon GreigAustin-Healey 100 / Austin-Healey 2.7LG. Greig4
Ret86 Bill WilcoxFord V8 Special / Ford 4.0LW. Wilcox3
Ret6 Jack BrabhamCooper T23 / Bristol 2.0LJack Brabham1