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KevinA
New Zealand
668 Posts |
 Posted - 05/06/2019 : 06:58:00
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Alan Tomlinson. 1940, Lobethal in a T type special according to
http://www.lagler.com.au/lobethalgp.htm
The little West Aussie came over on a ship, with his car. It was an MG T special, supercharged. Evidently Tomlinson's engineering capabilities, at a mere 22 years old, were exceptional. This is hard for us to imagine, in an era long before one of kids racing karts to learn vehicle dynamics. His preparation was more befitting of a modern F1 star, without the minders and PR people. He walked the circuit in the weeks prior to the event. and drove a spare MG T around it, practising section by section. He paid particular attention to that 5km stretch from the perilous Gumeracha corner to the Start-Finish hairpin. He knew that this section would be the key for a driver in an outclassed car, if you were brave enough.
"Alan Tomlinson... was in a handy sixth place at the end of the tenth lap when his MG Special touched the rear wheel of (Jack Boughton's Morgan monoposto, going in to the esses). The MG swerved violently and careered across the road, hurtled down a five foot bank, passed narrowly between a guide post and a light pole, broke through the fence, and struck a tree stump in the camping reserve. The impact threw Tomlinson clear as the car stood on its nose, turned over several times and came to rest embedded in the three-foot bole of a gum tree. Tomlinson was rushed to the Lobethal Hospital and later to Royal Adelaide with fractured ribs, possible internal injuries and severe shock. He had been lucky that the fence had not decapitated him".
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J3766
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