Bob Jane
 

Bob Jane, Australian Touring Car Legend and original owner of 2 Camaro ZL-1s (#33 and #52), has passed away at the age of 88.
He won the Australian Touring Car Championship four times between 1962 and 1972, with the 1971 and 1972 wins behind the wheel of his well-known Hugger Orange car (ZL-1 #33) pictured below. He was forced by a rule change to switch the 427 for a 350 for the '72 ATCC season but still won. The other car he imported (ZL-1 #52) was campaigned as a drag car.
Bio here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Jane

Rest in Peace, Bob.
http://www.musclecarmag.com.au/image...ane-Camaro.jpg

Wow Tim! A very accomplished fella. A true profound loss. May he and his family be at peace. 88 is a pretty good run, though...shows these cars are good for ones health?

Thanks Bentley - I certainly hope they're good for our health, if not for keeping money in the bank!
I was fortunate enough to meet Bob when the car was first displayed after the restoration was completed, he would've been nearing 80 at the time but travelled to quite a few major Motorsport events with the car, and evidently very happy to talk at length about it. I also spoke at length then and later to Myles Johnson, who supervised the restoration of #33 (and coincidentally had a hand in sourcing my ex-race car from Merle DuPrey, but that's another story!). I posted a thread some years ago over at Team Camaro with some of the photos I took in 2007 of the newly-debuted car at my home track, Bathurst NSW, here: https://www.camaros.net/forums/35-co...-jane-zl1.html A member kindly added a picture of the #52 ZL-1, which I hadn't seen before.

I knew Bob a little thru drag racing at Calder Park, a race track he owned here in Australia.
We raced there over a nearly 20 year period with some breaks in between due to track closures etc. He was certainly a polarising figure during those days and was the kind of guy who didn't sh1t from anyone!
RIP Bob.