Vintage Metal

Doug Todd and the Ballot V8 By Bob Campbell

Long time VSCC member Doug Todd has a varied motor sports history, beginning with racing speedway sedans at Forrestfield. He moved from there to TQs, go-karts then road racing in Formula Ford. Squeezed in there was a very brief stint racing spedway midgets at Claremont. He told the other midget drivers that they were mad and left them to it. Along the way Doug fitted in a few years in the RAAF. He also acted as pit crew for Terry Le Doug with his beautifully recreated Ballot V8, the “Ballott”.

May and Bob Pinkerton and was a flag marshal at Caversham. In fact, he was on duty at the flag point at the other end of the straight when Mick Geneve had his fatal accident in his Chevrolet special that was based loosely on what was left of the Ballot.

Was this when Doug’s interest in (obsession with?) the Ballot began? According to John Blanden’s Historic Racing Cars in Australia , the engine from the wrecked car was sold by the Geneve family and “the remaining debris from the special, together with the remains of the Ballot, were considered junk and taken to a tip and disposed of.” Doug found that the Ballot parts had not been taken to the tip, but had passd through Some of the photos Doug used in recreating the Ballot bodywork.

various hands since the 1959 crash. He was able to trace the chassis and axles plus the cylinder block from the flathead V8 that was replaced by the Chevrolet. At this stage it is worth pointing out that the Ballot was a bit like Grandfather’s axe. So many parts had been replaced that there was very little left of the Targa Florio model Ballot that was imported from France by one Alan Cooper in the early 1930s. The car started life in 1928 with a 2-litre twin overhead camshaft four cylinder engine

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