Hi!
The former touring car driver was very
impressive in F5000, in my opinion. Maybe
the best resident Australian from 1974-1978.
In some 1977 Rothmans races he even challenged the VDS steamroller-in a three
year old Matich A53!
How do you rate his F5000 driving ability,
Ray ?

Not quite on a par with his talking ability, but then, nothing could match that!
Certainly one of the better drivers, up with Brown and ahead of Stewart and Bartlett (sorry, KB), which may well have been an age thing.
There's a story about the era in which he induced - or paved the way for - the Jaguar team to come to Bathurst: It's said that he was sitting at the dining table in some fancy place where the announcement of his new sponsorship was made... and he never got up until all had left. He had the coat tails on, but couldn't afford the trousers!
His race with Schuppan at Sandown to win the AGP was a testimony to his ability - as mentioned, Schuppan's car was much newer and a car that was later accepted as being the best of the type. He was the only driver to win both the AGP and Bathurst 1000... sort of like our equivalent of the WDC and Le Mans.

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Life and love are mixed with pain...

Article Courtesy Examiner newspaper

some say a very lucky driver,IMOH a good punter,he won a Tasman race at Sandown and was still good enough in his mid 40s to hold his own in the TWR Bathurst campaign.
Often thought he should have raced sports cars in the States for a wealthy owner/co driver.

Good line, Ray !

But, hats off, he could talk the talk, but he could also walk the walk.....

I interviewed John Goss in my F5000 film, he had some good things to say about Matich F5000 cars; here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOjn2VQLKoA

Enjoy

He did well in the 76/77 Tasman series on a tight budget.

Where's the 'yawn' emoticon?

There wasn't a Tasman Series in 1976/77

The Rothmans Series then.


JG was a very good driver / engineer (this is not a comparison) in the Mark Donohue mould. Did a lot of the development and preparation work himself. Built and ran the Bathurst car, a Sports Sedan and the F5000 with just one other guy working for him.

But talk? John could talk at Olympic level. And never guilty of using one word where seven would do. 'Tent' became 'ground-based facility', for example. But underneath it all, quite a lovely bloke, in my experience.



Bruce Moxon

And even got a car named after him, The John Goss Falcon. A budget special 302 Falcon Coupe.

On a public forum i prefer not to mention a cigarette company due to Victorian laws.
so
Goss did well in a race series in 76/7 on a limited budget.
That was conducted in Australia.

I can remember being at Eastern Creek for one of the 1st Gold Star Formula Holden/Brabham meetings and he was walking around the pits in a race suit.

Must've been on his way to a flight then.




Bruce Moxon

i thought the same.
i was at a Melbourne motor shop a few years ago (god knows why)
Went up to the Jaguar stand and saw this XJS TWR racer,sale guy tells me its the just restored Bathurst winning car owned by John G.
Ended up in an arugment when i told him that car was in the UK and this was Goss's old groupC/A car.This was before the correct car came back to Melbourne.
I think he held the lap record at Sandown for a while in the Matich before Alfie got it under 1 min.
If one looks to that '77 series he did well in an old car.
AGP Oran Park 3rd and within .3 of a second of Jones fastest lap
Surfers 4th
Sandown dnf
Adelaide 3rd

I'd heard that one in reference to his Friday press conference at Bathurst 1986, where he announced Citibank backing for the old nail, now converted from Group C specifications, with Bob Muir as co-driver.

[size="7"][/size]The Rothmans Series ....Under the NSW laws.

And an amazing knack of doing everything on the smell of an oil-rag. He used to come to parties at my place and would arrive with a half-carton of (empty) cans under one arm, would drink all night, and then depart with a full half carton under the arm, and the unashamed line " Davo - just taking a couple of travellers with me, mate"...
Always harmless though, and ready to chat with anyone who'd time to listen.... "How's it going mate?...Oh that's good. Now let me tell you what I've been up to and what's planned for the future..."

He lost his way after about '76 why?

Money ran out. He lost the biggish sponsorship from McLeod Ford (it was costing more and more to run at the front - more than a suburban dealer could really afford to fund).

John usually managed to scrape up enough to fund a Bathurst 1000 effort, but they were underdone, underfunded and running late.




Bruce Moxon

That was about the period that costs really began to escalate exponentially with the advent of serious sponsorship and "professionalism". As had most of us up until then, JG had always basically done it all himself, but can you imagine the cost of trying to build and race an XJS single-handed, even then? I think the Channel 10 sponsorship was more about trying to sell the potential tv exposure to interested sponsors that just didn't quite come to fruition.
The whole juggernaught just crept away from him, leaving behind, him, and many other talented drivers who didn't have the marketing/promotional skills so necessary these days.
Can you imagine today, trying to single-handedly fund, prepare and race a V8SC? I think today a small budget team is a couple of $mill and permanent staff of 15.
A bit sad - he deserved better.

Which is why the sport really has gone downhill. No longer Motorsport but Entertainment. What the John Goss,s of the era achieved will never happen again. No skill, throw money at it!!! Even the Brocks and Moffats worked on the cars, fronted publicity themselves. After about 1980 there was too much money in the sport to the detrimant of the sport. Dicky Johnson was the last of the type and without that rock probably would have faded to obscurity.

Garry Wilmington also ran a Jag in those days, but why? He couldnt run a Ford succesfully on his meagre budget.. And while no champion he was an honest competent preparer and steerer.

Prototype, I love Superwoman but is there a simple way to access your Youtube video? What is the plain english name for it?

While I largely agree with you, it's ironic that Gossy was in there pushing this line...

I remember well one night at the Horsepower Hotel he had me cornered and was telling me how it should be done. "Ma-ate, what you need to do is concentrate on the personalities." he said over and over.



Do you know that Garry won an Amscar round once?

And in a Ford?

Sure, Garry battled, but he was more than just competent in my opinion. Not of the very highest class, but still one who could pull a win if things were going his way just a little.

To buy that Jag he approached two finance companies at the same time and applied for $20,000 loans. Both were approved, he used one to buy Bev out of his house (she'd recently left him) and the other to buy the Jag.

Garry certainly knew how to shave the costs, but he had a very willing team behind him including his two brothers.

So what did Goss do for a job after his racing career ended?

If Garry had a budget we may have seen how good he was.
But racing a Jag was a very expensive exercise and one thing I know you race what is cheap to build and run when you do it with little money. Especially when you are running for top10 finishes. That applies to both Goss and Wilmington. Though I suspect that John had a far better budget. And that GpC Jag would cost a LOT more than a Falcon to run. Gossy may have run near the front with a Ford.Though then he would not have got the TWR ride.

He's a qualified Mechanical Engineer. These days he's maintaining a couple of yachts for Very Rich People. When I say 'yacht', think Pocket Battleship or a small aircraft carrier to give you scale.

John's rebuilt his old Jag and repainted it the same as his Bathurst-winning car. He has also built a replica of his Bathurst-winning Falcon, using the actual spare parts he still had and a spare shell he'd had since the day. Both get trotted out for display laps and both look and sound brilliant.



Bruce Moxon

He also is, or was, doing a bit of finance broking...

I think that industry is finished.

It's called "Formula 5000 Racing Cars, "Version 2"" a convoluted title I know!

Enjoy the film.