Matich A50 1971 Australian Grand Prix Winner

The 1971 Australian Grand Prix was a race held at the Warwick Farm Raceway, New South Wales, on November 21. It was the 36th running of the Australian Grand Prix over 45 laps of the 3.621km circuit. Formula 5000 was becoming more established in Australia after confirmation of their class continuance from CAMS. Two new local designs were appearing for the first time.
The Garrie Cooper designed Elfin MR5 and the second was Frank Matich’s designed and built Matich A50. Both cars were powered by Repco-Holden V8 engines. Frank Matich entered the Australian Grand Prix not only with his new car, but also with some useful overseas experience to his credit. After developing and racing the existing McLaren M10s in Australia and the USA, Frank came to the point where no further progress could be made. He set out to build an entirely new car based on his personal experience, design and construction. This new car was to become the Matich A50. ‘A’ for Formula A and ‘50’ for Repco’s 50th year of manufacture. The new A50 full of engineering common sense would hopefully perform faultlessly in its first race, just a week after completion. This would speak volumes for the A50’s design and quality of construction and preparation. Seven local and one overseas F5000 car, five 2-litre cars and ten Formula 2s, made up the 23 starters for the Warwick Farm Grand Prix race.

Several teams were at the Warwick Farm circuit on the days before Saturday’s official practise and were recording some inspiring times. Things were vastly different at the first timed practise session, due to the fact it was wet, described by most as torrential. The afternoon timed practise would be a complete contrast, with the rain stopping and the track drying. Frank Matich in his A50 got down to 1:24.3 to claim pole position. If everyone thought Frank’s efforts in getting a brand new  car to run faultlessly and fastest in practise was remarkable enough, they were stunned with what he and his A50 did in the race.
Matich led from flag to flag, with no serious challengers to him. He set the fastest lap, slowed by up to two seconds a lap in the later stages and still beat his nearest rival home by two-thirds of a lap. Described by Frank Matich, both the engineer and the driver, as an open-wheel version of his highly successful SR4 Sports Car, the Matich A50 dominated its first event, the 1971 AGP barely a week after completion of the car being built. The 36th Australian Grand Prix was the last one to be held at Warwick Farm; as its swansong the 1971 race had witnessed one of the great moments – when Frank Matich put on a display which ranked with anything a professional overseas outfit could do and proved that here in Australia was one of the best in the world.

Item includes certificate and production number plate, mounted to the chassis.