By Mark Bisset
Date posted: September 14, 2022
Niel Allen, one of Australia’s first F5000 aces and long-term Bathurst lap record holder died in Sydney after a battle with dementia.
Although it has been a few weeks since Allen passed away on August 6, aged 80, we thought we should publish AUTO ACTION’S Mark Bisset’s wonderful VALE to Allen which appeared in the latest issue of AUTO ACTION.
Allen commenced racing a Triumph TR3A in 1962 at about the same time the 21-year old’s (born September 4, 1941) nascent N.E Allen (Real Estate) Pty. Ltd development business came to the notice of Sydney’s senior property tzars.
He progressed through an Austin Healey 100-6 and a furiously-quickly driven Jaguar E-Type, which doubled as his road car, before getting more serious with a Lotus Elan 26R. His battles with fellow factory-racing-Elan pilot Fred Gibson thrilled Sydney racegoers in the mid-sixties.
By 1967-68 Allen raced at elite level in touring cars, sportscars and single-seaters; Ford Mustang, Elfin 400 Chev and Brabham BT16 Climax. They were among the fastest, most demanding cars in the land which Niel drove with great vigour and skill.
When he was too busy with business commitments Gibson stood in for him.
At the end of the ’68 Tasman Cup he bought Piers Courage’ F2 McLaren M4A Ford FVA. It was in this car he had the mother and father of high-speed accidents during practice for the July Gold Star round, when he lost-it through Lakeside’s kink, took flight, then landed end-over-end spreading expensive shrapnel over 100 metres.
The only thing which saved his life was the six-point harness – the first fitted to a racing car in Australia – installed in the McLaren not long before by Sydney’s Dr Michael Henderson, author of Motor Racing in Safety.
The racing world looked carefully – forensically – at this accident and the role played by the harness in saving Allen’s life. Such belts were fitted to all GP cars between mid-1968 and the end of 1969.
Allen’s penchant for McLarens extended to Formula 5000 which was adopted for the 1970 Tasman Cup. He bought a new M10B Chev, and with it, won the final round at Sandown in front of other hotshots including Frank Matich, Graham McRae, Kevin Bartlett and Graeme Lawrence.
F5000 cars weren’t Gold Star eligible that year so race-fans were denied an epic battle between Allen and Matich, but Allen took his 500bhp roller-skate to Mount Panorama’s Easter meeting. Over the bumpy circuit, two-humps-and-all, he set the lap record of 2:09.7 seconds, thrilling those fortunate enough to witness it.
By the 1971 Tasman, Allen and Peter Molloy had one of the quickest McLaren M10Bs on the planet. Niel won the NZ GP at Pukekohe and the Teretonga International. He was in a winning position to be the first Australian to lift the cup but mechanical ailments at Sandown when in the lead, and at the Surfers Paradise final round cruelled his chances.
Matich, the fulltime professional, could never believe the way Allen could switch from business to racer mode, but Niel retired at the end of the Tasman series, selling his two M10Bs to Kevin Bartlett and Alan Hamilton.
He had second thoughts 12 months later, but a flirtation with a Lola T300 comeback resulted in a Surfers Paradise practice crash and broken bones.
With that, Niel Allen focused on his family and business interests, riding the ups-and-downs of a very competitive and sometimes unpredictable industry.
Auto Action’s historic editor Mark Bisset has written an extended feature on Allen which will be published in our next issue of the magazine on sale September 22
Image by Autopics.com.au
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