Dick Ward

Dick Ward started his racing career in the early 1960s, just in time to enjoy the last of the "around-the-houses" races and the final years of Caversham. His first car was an Austin 7 with a fibreglass body, followed by a stripped MGTC. Then in 1964 came the Peugeot Elf , a self-built single seater inspired by the success of Wally Higgs' Peugeot Special, although with a much more sophisticated chassis. It was powered by a supercharged Peugeot 203 engine. He campaigned this car successfully until the end of 1968, then sold it to Bob Innocent.

Left: In the MG at the Albany Hill Climb (Bob Biltoft); Top right: Dick Ward in his Peugeot Elf (Ken Devine collection); Bottom right; Pit crew for the Cobra in the 1965 Six Hour Race (WASCC collection)

He married in 1969 and set off on a round-the-world working holiday. In Canada he bought a tiny Fiat 600D sedan in which, with a luggage box on the roof, he and his wife drove through Canada, the USA and Mexico, and which was then shipped to Europe with them in 1970. He found work in the UK at Radbourne's, importers of exotic vehicles, and was pleasantly surprised to discover a rolled-over Fiat Abarth 850 gathering dust in a corner. It had been raced, and crashed, by a Dutch team. The Abarth was based on the Fiat 600D body, so Dick did a deal, and built the Abarth specialist bits (including the 850cc Abarth twin-cam engine) into his Fiat 600D bodyshell.

Back in Australia in 1971, Dick took the Fiat Abarth racing at Wanneroo Park, with the rear engine cover propped open in approved (and necessary) fashion. The 850cc twin-cam engine didn't have enough power to make the little car competitive against rivals running V8s, who could haul past easily on the steep climb out of Kolb, and replacements for the unique Abarth components proved impossible to obtain. When the Abarth engine died it was replaced by a very hot Sampson Corolla engine, tuned by John Hagarty, which was in turn superseded by a Rotomotion-built Mazda 13B rotary.

Left: Originally a Fiat-Abarth 850cc twin-cam, this car was extensively revised and fitted with a stove-hot Samson Toyota Corolla racing engine and Hewland box. Wanneroo Park, 1976 (Walker); Right: By 1980 it was running a Rotomotion built Mazda Rotary, which transformed the car (WASCC collection).

The rotary engine transformed the little car immediately, and also transformed Dick Ward into a nationally and internationally recognised racing driver. By now the original Fiat-based running gear was long gone, with special rose-jointed racing wishbones and coil-over-shocks mounted on a tubular subframe at the front, and another subframe supporting a Hewland 5-speed and the rotary engine at the rear.

Dick Ward and his small team looked for competition outside Western Australia, and one venture was contesting a season or two of sports sedan racing at Sydney's Amaroo Park. This involved trailing the car to NSW, racing for the weekend, and trailing it back again. This was followed by the Twin-State Challenge, a South Australia vs Western Australia Sports Sedan series. A team of WA cars would be loaded onto a transporter, the drivers, crew and families would board a chartered coach, and head off to the Adelaide International Raceway for one leg of the Challenge, and a team of SA drivers would do the same for the other leg, held at Wanneroo Park. Dick Ward and the tiny left-hand-drive Fiat were dominant.

Top Left: In March 1982 Dick Ward (Fiat Abarth RE rotary) handily won the Jackie Stewart Super Sedan Road Race in Jakarta, and is shown here being congratulated by Jackie Stewart himself. (Dick Ward collection). Top right; another win in his Asian racing, this time in the RX7 (Dick Ward collection); Bottom left: By now he was so famous in the region that his car featured on race programme covers. Bottom right: at home, his first really big win was the Pepsi-Cola 300 km race (Tony Burton/WASCC)

Even more ambitious, and successful, was his venture into Asian racing. An early triumph was winning the sports sedan event at the Jackie Stewart Road Race, held on a Jakarta street circuit in 1981, which was to be the last full season for the tiny Fiat. In 1982 the car was badly damaged at Wanneroo Park, and Dick Ward set about building an all-new car, using an early Mazda RX7 as a base. The new car was built around stout space frame, and then clad in an RX7 skin. The car was built as a left hand drive, because the exhaust manifold is on the right-hand side of the engine. The car was going to be turbocharged, and a red-hot turbocharger inches from the driver's feet wouldn't have been a good plan.

RX7 days: Dick built and raced three different RX7 sports sedans, all left-hand-drive.(All WASCC collection)

Turbocharged or, as later, unturbo'd, the RX7 was a huge success, both in WA and in Asia. Malaysia's Shah Alam circuit, near Selangor, was a particularly good place to race, and he won several international races there. By the time Dick faded out of road racing in the 1990s, he was on his third RX7 racing car.

A few years later, in 2005, Dick re-appeared with his Fiat Abarth Rotary, which he'd restored to as-new, if not better, condition. He promptly set about demonstrating that both he and the tiny car were as potent as ever, this time in the sprint and speed event series, specially the Summer Hill Climb series. And one of his RX7 racers is now being rebuilt at his Go Gear business premises.

Achievements