Just a little bit of news that I saw and thought worthy of note in relation to an iconic name in Australian Motor Sport History that is good to see back in the winners circle with a new generation . I know
@Vassago takes an interest in ATCC History....
GEOGHEGAN Grandson a triple winner this weekend at SMP's T86 races
First a bit of background..... Max Geoghegan, grandson of the late five-time Australian Touring Car Champion Ian 'Pete' Geoghegan, made his race debut in the Hyundai Excel series at QIR a year ago, but put the family name back in the winners circle with a win on debut.
Max Geoghegan leads a pack of Excels, winning on debut.
Max is a friend of T888 race winner Broc Feeney, who has been giving Max driver coaching. Max had grown up loving Motor Sport but never got into karting or anything. He decided last year to have a go in the Excel series 'for a bit of fun' knowing friends in the series. He is also friends with Nash (son of Paul) Morris.
He bought the Excel on a Wednesday, took it out to the Morris Family testing grounds at Norwell on theThursday and rocked up to practice at QIR on the Friday. On the Saturday he came 6th, but Sunday he came 3rd and followed up with a win in the 3rd race of his debut weekend. Broc Feeney and Broc's Father Paul were Max's crew and helpers, helped him set up the car, with Broc giving Max tips on what he was doing well and where he could be better. Things have got even better since that auspicious debutr for Max in the Excel....
The tips from Broc must have worked because now Max has moved on this year and has organised to race in the Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia Scholarship Series (T86) He was racing this last weekend at Sydney Motorsport Park in the inaugural Shannons Trophy Series round.
Max Geoghegan took a Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia Scholarship Series clean sweep this last weekend..
Max won the first race of the weekend on Saturday, and and then came out and did the same in both Sunday’s races, giving him a clean sweep for the weekend Apparently in the third race he spent much of the final lap side by side with the leader and regular competitor Lachlan Bloxsom before edging ahead on the run to the line and holding on for the win. As a result of the weekend the motorsport press was praising his weekend successes
Sounds like the guy has some talent and could well be on his way to a successful career in Motorsport. I presume he will be continuing in the Toyota series I wish him all the best. T86 seems to be a popular step on the ladder to Supercars of late.... I know Feeney, Will Brown and Declan Fraser all ran in T86 as their careers progressed.
Whether he can match the feats of his late Grandfather time will tell.... Ian 'Pete' Geoghegan won 4 straight ATCC Titles from 1966 on in big powerful Mustangs, having won his first title in 1964 driving a Cortina GT. Ian in turn had got the motorsport bug from his Father Tom, a successful Sydney car dealer who was also a competitor.
Ian (Pete) finesses the Mustang into The Viaduct at Longford
Of course Ian's brother Leo had also got the racing bug....his career was more towards open wheelers, and he collected a swag of some ten titles in his career. Leo actually started in Touring cars with a black Holden, affectionately known "Old Number One" in 1956. He raced that for a few years before racing (Lotus) Sports Cars and then Open Wheelers with a couple of very successful Lotuses. (So successful that the Geoghegan's became the Lotus distributor in Australia..) .... Leo also bought and raced the ex Jim Clark Tasman Series Lotus 39 Climax. That always suffered engine issues and was converted to run a 2.5 litre Repco V8.
"Old #1" Holden.... Leo Geoghegan Bathurst 1958
Leo always liked Bathurst so Touring cars were still a one or two off annual foray (the 6 hour and the 500mile/1000ks). Ian and Leo did drive Bathurst together, finishing second driving a Ford XR Falcon GT in 1967. Actually they took the chequered flag first, but a protest by teammate Harry Firth saw the brothers relegated to second after a re-count of the lap charts. (Unfortunately their Falcon had run out of petrol after it had passed the pits. Leo was able to drive through the back gate into the pits to be refuelled, which led the lap scorers to mistakenly credit the Ford with a lap it did not complete – although Leo always disputed this.)
Ian and Leo Bathurst 1967
Anyway I digress, this was meant to be more about Max! If Ian was Max's Grandfather I guess Leo would be Max's Great Uncle.
Max himself is the son of Ian's second son Chris.....Chris never raced himself, but he was very much involved in his brother (and Ian's eldest son) Michael's exploits in Formula Ford in the late 1980's and early 90's. Michael was however after his career was a well known Motorsport identity. I know Michel and Paul Morris were best friends having met racing against each other in Formula Ford. Sadly Michel passed away a couple of years ago in his 50's, from natural causes.
By my reckoning that family tree makes Max a 4th generation of Racing Geoghegans.... Starting with Max, then his Uncle Michael, Grandfather Ian and brother Leo, and Max's Great Grandfather Tom Geoghegan, all involved as drivers. Max's Great Grandfather Tom Geoghegan was, after he stopped racing himself, very much the driving and guiding force behind Ian and Leo's racing careers... theirs being of course the most successful Geoghegan's in racing terms. But yeah a multi generation famous Aussie racing family.
Not sure we have other 4 generation Aussie racing families.... Dick Johnson is 3, with Dick, son Steben and now Grandson Jett Johnson racing in TA2. Seton also 3, with Barry Glen and now Aaron. Brabham of course with Jack, Gary David and Geoff, now Matthew. There are others but I am not going to list them all here.
From his debut win last year in Excels.