Peter Williamson Bathurst Motor Racing Museum

[Squalled]

Hey TOCA,

Towards the middle and late last year, The Bathurst Motor Racing Museum had a showcase of the late great Peter Williamson's Toyota's with his contribution to 7 Sports RaceCam technology which was developed in the 70's, introduced at the 1979 Bathurst 1000 and lead the way for the future of in car camera's that we now have in various forms of Motorsport.

I visited the museum for the first time in October last year not long after the exhibit had been introduced to the museum. I managed to get some quick photo's of the showcase as I follow historic motor racing quite closely these days, especially the periods between the 70's, 80's and 90's. It was great to see some of the cars he drove throughout his long career with Toyota.

[Col Ford]

Thanks for sharing your photos, brings back a lot of memories for me of my Celica years and the man who got me into Celicas, Peter Williamson.  Good to see Peter's racing legacy acknowledged with that great collection of cars.

[Squalled]

18 hours ago, Col Ford said:

Thanks for sharing your photos, brings back a lot of memories for me of my Celica years and the man who got me into Celicas, Peter Williamson.  Good to see Peter's racing legacy acknowledged with that great collection of cars.

No worries mate! Always enjoy watching him on RaceCam with his hilarious commentary of other rivals like the old Group C Camaro and Volvo at Bathurst.

[Tony Prodigy]

I have been always wanting to go visit that museum. Those pics sure bring back memories !

[campbeam]

I will always remember the axe being used on the boot so they could refuel the car plus the commentary. Not happy Jan.

10 minutes ago, Tony Prodigy said:

I have been always wanting to go visit that museum.

Presumably the museum is not open at the moment and now we have to stay at home as much as possible. When all the travel and meeting restrictions are lifted, guess you will just have to go.

[Tony Prodigy]

5 minutes ago, campbeam said:

I will always remember the axe being used on the boot so they could refuel the car plus the commentary. Not happy Jan.

Presumably the museum is not open at the moment and now we have to stay at home as much as possible. When all the travel and meeting restrictions are lifted, guess you will just have to go.

Yeah, feels like Communist China right now. Prisoners in our own country..

The commentary was great stuff with the Legendary Mike Raymond. He was The Man !

Not only the voice of the Chanel 7 commentary team but also the voice for the Liverpool Speedway ads. Remember that ? "Be There" !

I could hear the Speedway errupt every Friday night when I lived in Merrylands. God they were loud !! It's since been closed down of course with greedy developers moving in ruining the landscape with tacky high rise buildings, over crowing an already over crowded Sydney.. I digress.

[Squalled]

Yeah unfortunately it did close a few weeks ago but will definitely be worth a visit once the travel restrictions are lifted. 

I have to say my personal favourite would have to be when Peter was coming out of the dipper behind one of the BBQ Galore Camaro's and he kept saying how ugly it was. After watching a lot of his Bathurst races in the Celica, he did extremely well up against even the bigger V8s at Bathurst. He really showed the Celica's capability.

I sadly never grew up through this era but heard his voice from a young age while watching re-runs with my Dad. I later found out who is was after hearing his voice quite a lot and have taken quite a keen interest in historic touring car racing in the last year a half. Very sad that he passed away last year.

[campbeam]

1 hour ago, Squalled said:

he did extremely well up against even the bigger V8s at Bathurst. He really showed the Celica's capability.

I do recall how competitive he was going across the mountain then down into Forest elbow. Really hauled in those bigger vehicles and made then look ungainly in their handling in that stretch of the track, then the V8s would get away down Conrod straight.

Ah memories of a different time.

[Squalled]

2 hours ago, campbeam said:

I do recall how competitive he was going across the mountain then down into Forest elbow. Really hauled in those bigger vehicles and made then look ungainly in their handling in that stretch of the track, then the V8s would get away down Conrod straight.

Ah memories of a different time.

Was quite the driver considering it wasn't his main profession. The V8s would haul down the full length straight before Murray's corner where Peter would usually overtake or even gain some car lengths closer to the bigger cars.

[campbeam]

1 hour ago, Squalled said:

Was quite the driver considering it wasn't his main profession.

Good point. I remember him as being a car dealer and not sure to what extent he had any support from Toyota. 

I am also remembering a mechanic named ***** Johnson how he appeared at Bathurst as an unknown.