1938 Australian Grand Prix
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Formula Libre handicap race | |||
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| Date | 18 April 1938 | ||
| Location | Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst, New South Wales | ||
| Course | Temporary street circuit | ||
| Course length | 6.12 km (3.84 mi) | ||
| Distance | 40 laps, 244.8 km (153.6 mi) | ||
| Weather | Sunny | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | ERA | ||
| Second | Terraplane Special | ||
| Third | MG | ||
The 1938 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held at Mount Panorama Circuit on 18 April 1938. The race had 30 starters. The race was held over 40 laps of the six kilometre circuit for at 241 kilometres.
It was the tenth Australian Grand Prix and the first to be held in New South Wales. This meeting was essentially a revival of the Australian Grand Prix title which had not been used since April 1935. The track utilised was the newly completed Mount Panorama Circuit, a dirt surface tourist drive which climbed the slope of Mount Panorama in the Bald Hills to the south of the city of Bathurst. The Grand Prix was used as a headline for the debut race meeting at the rural New South Wales venue. With a circuit length of just over 3.8 miles it was the shortest circuit to host the Australian Grand Prix to this time.
The revived format was much the same used previously at Phillip Island, handicap start, with the slowest cars start first and faster cars starting at intervals according to their predicted pace. The meeting was enlivened by two visiting British drivers, Peter Whitehead and Alan Sinclair who had brought with them supercharged Grand Prix racing machinery, respectively an ERA and an Alta.
While Sinclair was unable to start the race, Whitehead did and it was quickly realised that his position as the scratch handicap competitor was too generous and by races end had driven through the field. The only driver who had offered any resistance was Les Burrows driving a 1933 Terraplane-based racing car. However Burrows slowed near the end, his engine reducing in power sufficiently to allow Whitehead to sweep by to take victory despite Burrows starting the race 15 minutes earlier.
Results as follows.
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