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1954 Australian Grand Prix
1954 Australian Grand Prix
Formula Libre race
Race details
Date	7 November 1954
Location	Southport Road Circuit, ; Southport, Queensland
Course	Temporary road circuit
Course length	9.17 km (5.7 miles)
Distance	27 laps, 247.6 km (153.9 miles)
Weather	Sunny
Pole position
Driver	Rex Taylor;
Fastest lap
Driver	Dick Cobden
Time	3'52
Podium
First	Lex Davison;
Second	Curley Brydon;
Third	Ken Richardson;

The 1954 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held at the Southport Road Circuit^[1] near Southport in Queensland, Australia on 7 November 1954. The race was held over 27 laps of the 5.7 mile (9.17 kilometre) circuit, a total distance of 153.9 miles (247.6 km).^[2] It was the nineteenth Australian Grand Prix and the second to be held in Queensland. With no suitable permanent circuit available, a course was mapped out on roads in sparsely settled coastal land 2.5 km south west of Southport,^[2] and just to the north of later circuits, Surfers Paradise Raceway and the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit. The Grand Prix race meeting was organised by the Queensland Motor Sporting Club and the Toowoomba Auto Club in conjunction with the Southport Rotary Club.^[1] The race, which was open to Racing and Stripped Sports Cars,^[1] had 28 starters.

The race was won by Lex Davison, later to become the most successful driver in the history of the Australian Grand Prix. It was Davison's first win in the Grand Prix having finished in the top three as far back as 1947. Davison drove a Formula 2 HWM re-engined with a 3.4 litre Jaguar engine. Davison finished a lap clear of Curley Brydon's MG TC special and two laps ahead of third placed Ken Richardson in a Ford based special. The gaps were caused by attrition amongst the fastest drivers. Jack Brabham was out on the second lap with a broken engine in his Cooper; Rex Taylor was black flagged for receiving outside assistance after spinning his Lago-Talbot; Dick Cobden retired his Ferrari after a spin and Stan Jones crashed heavily while leading after the chassis of his Maybach Special failed. It would be the last race for Maybach Mk.II, with Charlie Dean's team rebuilding it as Maybach Mk.III.^[3]

Classification

Results as follows.^[2]

Pos	No.	Driver	Car	Entrant^[1]	Laps	Time / Remarks ^[2]
1	77	Lex Davison	HWM F2 / Jaguar 3.4L	A.N. Davison	27	1h 50m 18s
2	43	Curley Brydon	MG TC Special / MG s/c 1.3L	H. Brydon	26
3	9	Ken Richardson	Ford V8 Special / Ford 3.9L	K.B. Richardson	25
4	8	Eldred Norman	Triumph TR2 / Standard s/c 2.0L	E. deB. Norman	24
5	31	David Griffiths	Triumph TR2 / Standard 2.0L	D. P. Griffiths	24
6	29	Frank Tobin	Rizzo Riley Special / Riley 1.5L	Frank Tobin	23
7	4	Charlie Whatmore	Jaguar Special / Jaguar 3.4L	Chas. Whatmore	23
8	46	Stan Coffey	Cooper T20 / Bristol 2.0L^[4]	S.F. Coffey	23
9	10	Owen Bailey	MG Holden Special / Holden 2.4L	O. Bailey	23
10	2	Charlie Swinburne	Cooper Mk.IV / Norton 0.5L	C. Swinburne	23
11	21	Bill Pitt	Jaguar XK120 Special / Jaguar 3.4L	J. C. Anderson	22
12	1	Fred Zambucka	Maserati 8CM / Maserati 3.0L	F. Zambucka	22
Ret	16	Snow Sefton	Ford V8 Special / Ford 4.2L^[5]	Snow Sefton	21	Black flag
Ret	14	Noel Barnes	MG TC Special / MG 1.3L	N. F. Barnes	19	Overheating
Ret	92	Doug Whiteford	Ford V8 Special / Ford 4.4L	D. Whiteford	17	Blocked jet
Ret	79	Arthur Griffiths	Wylie Javelin / Jowett s/c 1.5L	A. Griffiths	15	Head gasket
Ret	87	Stan Jones	Maybach Special Mk.II / Maybach 4.3L	S.J. Jones	13	Crashed
Ret	15	John McKinney	MG TC Special / MG 1.3L	J. McKinney	11	Fire
Ret	74	Ian Mountain	Peugeot Special / Peugeot 1.5L	I. Mountain	11	Overheating
Ret	49	Dick Cobden	Ferrari 125 / Ferrari s/c 2.0L	R. Cobden	10	Crashed
Ret	3	Wal Anderson	Holden Special / Holden 2.3L	W. S. Anderson	9	Seized oil pump
Ret	56	Jack Murray	Allard J2 / Cadillac 5.3L^[6]	J.E. Murray	8
Ret	23	Gerald Downing	Riley Imp Special / Riley	G. J. Downing	8	Overheating
Ret	78	Rex Taylor	Talbot-Lago T26C / Talbot-Lago 4.5L	R. Taylor	6	Black flag
Ret	37	Holt Binnie ^[7]	MG TD Special / MG 1.4L	Martin Motors	6
Ret	20	Gordon Greig^[8]	Austin-Healey 100 / Austin-Healey 2.7L	G. Greig	4	Valve
Ret	86	Bill Wilcox	Ford V8 Special / Ford 4.0L	W. Wilcox	3
Ret	6	Jack Brabham	Cooper T23 / Bristol 2.0L^[9]	Jack Brabham	1	Engine
DNS ^[10]	28 ^[1]	Frank Kleinig ^[10]	Hudson Special ^[10]	F. Kleinig ^[1]	-	Battery ^[10]
DNS ^[2]	12 ^[2]	Alec Mildren^[2]	Riley Special ^[2]	A. G. Mildren ^[1]	-	Oil cooler ^[2]

Pole position: Rex Taylor^[1] (Allocated by the race organisers prior to the event)^[2]
Winner's average speed: 83.7 mph (134.7 km/h)^[2]
Fastest lap: Dick Cobden (Ferrari), 3:52s, 88.45 mph, 142.3 km/h^[2]
Attendance: More than 60,000^[11]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Official Souvenir Programme, 19th Australian Grand Prix, Southport Road Circuit, Queensland, 7 November 1954
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l Howard, Graham (1986). "1954". In Howard, Graham (ed.). The Official 50-race history of the Australian Grand Prix. Gordon, NSW: R & T Publishing. pp. 192–204. ISBN 0-9588464-0-5.
^ John B.Blanden, Historic Racing Cars in Australia, pages 229 & 230
^ Coffey's car is listed in the Official Souvenir Programme as a Dowidat Spanner Special
^ Sefton's car is listed in the Official Souvenir Programme as a Mercury Special
^ Murray's car is listed in the Official Souvenir Programme as a Cadillac Allard
^ The driver is listed as both Binnie and Brinnie in "The Official 50-race history". The name in the Official Souvenir Programme is "H. Binnie".
^ Howard uses both Grieg and Greig. The Official Souvenir Programme uses Greig
^ Brabham's car is listed in the Official Souvenir Programme as a Redex Special
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Australian Grand Prix, Australian Motor Sports, November 1954, pages 228 to 235
^ 60,000 at Southport motor race, The Courier Mail, Monday, 8 November 1954, as archived at trove.nla.gov.au