Tony Gaze (left) of the 1953 crew, with Richard Davison (son of Lex Davison) and Gary Poole of the 2013 crew.
Tony Gaze in the seat of a WW2 Spitfire.
A young Tony Gaze in uniform of the RAF.
Spitfire flyby salute to Tony Gaze over Geelong Grammar school, 15 Aug 2013
2013 Holden and team departs over start ramp at Glasgow |
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Monte Holden legend Tony Gaze Remembered
Left to right - Tony Gaze with Lex Davison and Stan Jones beside their 1951 Holden 48-215 at the completion of the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally
Australia's
first international grand prix driver, Tony Gaze, who conquered the
grueling 1953 Monte Carlo Rally with fellow greats Lex Davison and
Stan Jones died on July 29th at 93 years of age.
Tony
was the Patron of the 2013 trip
back in time, planning the blue print for the Holden replica car
building and watching every move the team made.
Following life
as a WW2
Spitfire ace, where he flew close to 500 sorties, including
wingman to Sir Douglas Bader and Johnnie Johnson, trusted for his
skilled tactical brain, his heroism and his unswerving loyalty, keeping
them safe in dogfights.
He
was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross three times (one of only 48
to have that honour) and was the first Australian to fly jets in
combat. After 18 years flying Spitfires, he took up gliding.
After the
war In 1952 he entered the World Championship, at the time for F2 cars,
making his debut in the Belgium GP, in which he finished 15th. He
retired from both the British and German GPs and failed to qualify in
the Italian, but finished sixth at Goodwood’s Easter Meeting.
That year he also entered a Jaguar XK120 in several sports car events,
and a Maserati 8CM in Formula Libre races.
He went on to compete
in non-championship European races in a Ferrari 500/625 F2 car before
taking in many 1954/55 winter events in Australia and New Zealand. In
the latter’s international GP he took third place. On his return
to England he established the Kangaroo Stable, the first Australian
international motor racing team, equipped with three of the Aston
Martin DB3S, the car in which the future triple World Champion Jack
Brabham would find fame.
A special 'racing legend farewell'
to Tony was marked with a Spitfire fly past over some 300 onlookers at his old school Geelong
Grammar on 15 August.
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| Updated 17 August 2013
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