Frank
Gardner

Frank Gardner was born in Sydney on 1 October 1931. He travelled to England late in 1958 and worked as a racing mechanic for Aston Martin, becoming part of the team that won the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans. He also worked at the Jim Russell Driving School, where he prepared the cars. In 1961 he won his class at Le Mans, sharing a Lotus Elite with David Hobbs.

Gardner made his Formula One World Championship debut in July 1964 with Brabham, starting one race that year. In 1965 he started seven more for the same team. He was entered by BRM in 1968 but did not start. His eight starts brought no championship points. In non-championship events he finished third in the 1965 Mediterranean Grand Prix at Pergusa and fourth in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch that year, and he was third in the 1971 International Gold Cup at Oulton Park.

In the Tasman Series he finished third in 1967 and 1972, and in 1972 he won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Pukekohe in a Lola T300-Chevrolet. He took the European Formula 5000 title in 1971. In the British Saloon Car Championship he was champion in 1967, 1968 and 1973, and runner-up in 1970.

In the mid-1970s he returned to Australia for good and won the 1977 Australian Sports Sedan Championship. He then became a team manager, running JPS Team BMW, which won the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1985 and 1987 with Jim Richards. Tony Longhurst's team won the 1988 Bathurst 1000 with Gardner involved as a consultant. From 1991 he again led a BMW team until he stepped down in 1998. His last race as a driver came at Bathurst in 1983. He was honoured in the Order of Australia for his services to motor racing, and died in Queensland on 29 August 2009.

Source: Wikipedia, “Frank Gardner (racing driver)”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.