Description

The 1974 Australian Drivers’ Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title for drivers of Australian Formula 1 and Australian Formula 2 racing cars with the winner awarded the 1974 CAMS “Gold Star”.

Although grid sizes remained small, an influx of new hardware improved Australian F5000 in 1974. Kevin Bartlett, Warwick Brown and Graeme Lawrence all had new Lola T332s and defending champion John McCormack had an Elfin MR6. But it was Max Stewart in his Lola T330 that had proved to be the best of the locals in the 1974 Tasman Series, winning two races, and he continued his good form into the Gold Star Series, winning the first five races, including the Australian GP. Kevin Bartlett was his closest competitor, as he had been when Stewart last won the title in 1971, but this time his only victory was in the final race of the season at the 1974 Australian Gold Star Phillip Island Classic Cup.Kevin Bartlett was driving what was effectively a new Lola T332 built for him to replace the T330 he crashed at Pukekohe earlier in the year in January.

For the Phillip Island round Bartlett’s F5000 Lola T332 Chevrolet 5.0L V8 qualified in 1st position with a lap time of 1m 34.9s. ahead of Max Stewart’s Lola T330 (2nd place) and Jon Davison’s Matich A50 (3rd place). On race day, November 24, Bartlett drove a faultless race, leading from start to finish and completing the 22 race laps in a time of 37m 17.8s ahead of Max Stewart and Kurt Seeberg. Bartlett ended the season in 2nd place overall with 25 points (1 win) behind Series Champion Max Stewart who amassed 51 points with 5 out of a possible 6 victories.