The Shannons Club was saddened to hear of the recent passing of 1950s Australian motor racing great and high-profile Holden dealer Reg Hunt.
Born in Manchester, England in 1923, Reg learned the ropes of car and motorcycle sales through his family’s business, along with developing a passion for motor sport as his mother and grandfather were keen motorcycle racers. His grandfather also raced at Brooklands.
Following the second world war, Reg started competing in the popular UK sport of mud trials, scoring many victories in a self-developed trials car that taught him valuable driving and car preparation skills.
In 1949 he escaped the doom and gloom of England’s post-war austerity to start a new life in Australia. He settled in Melbourne where he promptly established a car sales business and resumed his motor racing career with membership of the Light Car Club of Australia.
Hunt’s talent was soon apparent. He smashed class records in local hillclimb events before contesting the 1953 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in an Allard J2 sports car, finishing well down the order due to gearbox trouble.
The following year he delegated his local business duties to return to his homeland with a new 500cc Cooper single-seater. He proved competitive in British and European Formula 3 against established stars the calibre of Stirling Moss and Graham Hill, highlighted by a decisive victory over Hill at Brands Hatch.
Reg returned to Australia the following year with an ex-Fangio Maserati A6GCM, in which he was short-odds favourite to win the 1955 AGP at South Australia’s Port Wakefield circuit against local luminaries Jack Brabham (Cooper-Bristol), Stan Jones (Maybach Mk 3) and three-times AGP winner Doug Whiteford (Lago-Talbot). Hunt ran away with the race until slowed by engine trouble, finishing second to Brabham.
For 1956 Reg again visited the Maserati factory in Modena, this time to purchase a sublime 250F. He clocked quicker lap times than the factory’s top Italian drivers during test sessions and on his return to Australia dominated Albert Park’s Moomba meeting, smashing his previous lap record by six seconds.
Albert Park later hosted the 1956 AGP, in which Hunt finished a fighting fourth and best of the 'Aussies', beaten only by international star Peter Whitehead (Ferrari) and Maserati works drivers Jean Behra and winner Stirling Moss.
Hunt then surprised fans when he quit racing at his formidable peak to focus on family and business interests. Highlights of his success included an enormous 12-acre used car dealership in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick containing thousands of cars and eventually becoming Australia’s largest Holden retailer.
Reg sold his vast automotive empire in 1998, by which time he had also collected hundreds of classic cars and motorcycles. In his mid-70s at the time, Reg decided that he could no longer justify the expense of maintaining them and most of his vast collection found new homes through the Shannons Melbourne Motorshow Auction in 2004.
The expatriate Englishman, who many say hung up his helmet way too early, will be remembered as one of Australian motor sport’s finest drivers of the 1950s era. He possessed a rare and enviable skills-set that combined prodigious speed with crash-free driving; the latter playing a pivotal role in surviving one of the most dangerous periods in the sport’s history.
To Reg Hunt’s family, friends and many fans, the Shannons Club extends its sincere condolences.
