Bill Thompson Australian Motor Racing Champion
AN IMPRESSIVE motorsport book that latterly caught my eye, did so not only with its daunting size and historic photography, but with its subject matter. Bill Thompson— Australian Motor Racing Champion is a lavish homage to someone of whom I, and probably you, had never even heard.
Thompson, born in Sydney in 1906, was a three-time winner of the Australian Grand Prix (1930, '32-'33). Adelaide-based historic racer Kent Patrick relates Thompson's life and career with intriguing sidetracks and wry understatement that betray Patrick's former role as a stipendiary magistrate.
William Bethel "Bill" Thompson had a comfortable upbringing, though the larrikin kid left his expensive school at 16 to commence a career with various motor importers.
A 1925 tour of England's Brooldands circuit, followed by the opening of Sydney's treacherous concrete bowl at Maroubra, only fuelled Thompson's belief that he had been born to join the era's heroes like AV. Rimer, R.G. 'Phil' Garlick and Hope Bartlett.
Through his small, specialised garage, Thompson met a patron in professor Dr Arthur Burkitt, who funded a 1.5-litre Bugatti Type 37. They had missed the first Australian Grand Prix in 1928 by three months but Thompson, with Burkitt as riding mechanic, enjoyed immediate class success in various hillclimbs, dirt ovals, beach sprints and, at his second attempt, Maroubra.
Thompson was skilled, and blessed with top-flight machinery. Patrick's accounts of all the leading cars of the day are fascinating, often enhanced by asides on their current whereabouts: the front axle of Bartlett's Sunbeam, for example, is today part of a boat mooring.
In the 1929 AGP, the Thompson/Burkitt Bugatti retired after only five laps on the dusty, packed-dirt surface. What Thompson dismissed as a "blow-up", here invites a full page's discourse on the intricacies of Bugatti monobloc engines.
Burkitt bankrolled a new Bug, the supercharged 37A, in plenty of time for the 1930 AGP. After a costly early stop to cure a misfire, Thompson stormed back from 10th to second place. He inherited the lead when arch¬rival Arthur Terdich's 37A threw a rod on the 11th of 31 laps, and won the AGP.
Thompson was forced to sit out the following year's Depression-wracked race. His 37A had been 'sold' to Hope Bartlett, but the car would return, after a court battle, to Thompson the following year. The fully rebuilt 37A started the 1932 race as favourite and, despite an oil leak, Thompson duly became the first double winner of the AGP.
Six months later, the 37A was almost written off at a hillc_limb event. Thompson left his struggling Sydney garage to join new Riley importers Empire Motors, which brought him an ex-works Brooklands Riley for the 1933 AGP.
On a wet, choppy circuit, the Riley threatened to shake itself to pieces. But ahead of Thompson, the leading trio of Bugattis failed one by one, handing him his third AGP. It would be his last AGP win, but in both 1934 and '35, driving a K3 MG for his new employer Robert Lane, Thompson would miss victory by less than 30 seconds.
So, in six AGP starts, Thompson won three times, finished second twice and failed to finish once. Four times he set the fastest lap.
By mid-1935 Thompson had largely retired from racing. He took a job with Shell and, in late-1938,
the result of a long friendship with General Thomas Blarney, became a provisional lieutenant with the Australian Army Reserve.
Officially, he was involved in the sourcing of marine engine parts. Patrick cites evidence that Thompson was recruited for espionage. In either of these roles, he was aboard a US Air Force Coronado flying boat when it suffered a mild crash-landing in the Marshall islands in March, 1945. Thompson drowned in the accident.
The book concludes with comprehensive chapters on the whereabouts of the cars significant in Thompson's career. Here is revealed why the topic of Bill Thompson is so close to the author's heart:
his own Bugatti 37A beats with many of the parts from Thompson's most famous racer.
Michael Stahl (Wheels Magazine)
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