Today I have another story about an ex Trans Am Race car that came down under.
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Boss 302 chassis # 9F02M148625, was built by the Bud Moore team as a backup car for the 1969 season. At times the car was driven by Jones, Follmer and also Horst Kwech.
In 1970 it was updated to 1970 specs (still retaining the 69 Bud Moore team livery) and brought to England by Walter Hayes, for Frank Gardner to drive in the UK championship, the rollcage had to be replaced to meet UK rules but other than that pretty much left alone. Gardner took it to 2nd in the Championship,
Later Gardner took the car to South Africa where he and Mike De Udy had a fair deal of success.
In 1971 the car came to Australia and was to be delivered to Barry Sharp who was to race the car in the championship (competing against its sister car, the Moffat Coke car), Under the Jack brabham Ford Banner..
The car suffered from some damage whilst at the wharf and then sat there for a month, during which time a crate of spares for the car “disappearedâ€.
By the time it arrived, the Brabham Ford dealership, had a change of heart and decided it would be better off promoting the Fords they were selling. At this point the running gear from the Boss was transplanted into a 4 door Falcon, thus beginning a downward spiral for the mustang.
The Boss body and rest of the gear was sold to Speedway identity Bruce Maxwell, who prepared the car for Californian Import Mike Klein to race on the local dirt tracks. When Klein returned to the US Maxwell continued to race the car on the dirt ovals for a few years before on selling it.
The car changed hands several times over the years before finally ending up in Tasmania running in the lower speedway classes covered in Bar work.The last few owners having no idea as to the cars pedigree or history.
In 2010 the Bowden family purchased a pile of Boss 302 race gear, believing it to be spares for their ex Moffat coke car which they owned and had restored. But discovered it later to be the contents of the crate of spares that had disappeared from the wharf in 1971 belonging to the ex Follmer/ Jones/Gardner car.
They then began the search for the remainder of the car. Firstly tracking down the original interior including the Bud Moore seat, switch gear, seat belt and gauges which were still in Maxwells possession after being removed by him when preparing it for Kleins speedway tour all those years ago.
Finally after several cold trails and much searching they found what was left of the car rotting in a field in Tasmania, completely unrecognisable.
The car is now sitting in the Bowdens workshop, while they work out how, if at all possible to rebuild the car. If anyone can it’s them, they have saved a large number of notable Racecars from impending doom.
Let’s hope there’s a happy ending.
