BILL BROWN (Porsche 911S 2300 cc)
With the crowd bathed in winter sunshine, watching the battle for the annual Sydney Gold Cup, the Porsches of Bill Brown and Brian Foley lead the Mustang of Pete Geoghegan (out of shot) through Robin Orlando Corner at Oran Park on August 9, 1970. (Photograph by Nigel Foote)
Brown, Foley and Jim McKeown ordered Porsches after the car had proven its reliability in the hands of Alan Hamilton the previous year, taking him to second place, one point behind Geoghegan in the 1969 Australian Touring Car Championship.
The new 911S version had phenomenal acceleration off the line, leaving the Mustangs to find a way past, which of course they usually did on the straights. Geoghegan won this battle, with Moffat second and Bill Brown in third place – it was a scintillating race which fielded no less than ten different types of machinery. It was the variety of the cars that made motor racing so much more interesting than it is today.
Bill Brown was always spectacular to watch, and he was the survivor of one of the most terrifying accidents in the history of motor racing – a monumental roll-over in his Falcon GTHO along the wooden fencing at Mount Panorama, Bathurst, during the 1971 Hardie Ferodo 500.