KLAYING
“Many people don’t realise that I never actually named
the car. You see, at the time I was an apprentice bricklayer
and I used the car for work while racing on the weekends
– on the back window I had the word ‘Bricklayer’ and my
contact details, along with a picture of Yosemite Sam.
“In 1984 I got out of bricklaying and so took that off the
windows. That didn’t go down well – when I turned up at
Calder Park soon after the officials there told me I had to
put it back on as everyone knows the car as Bricklayer!
“So, we repainted the car and put the name down the side
of the car in the same font.
“I guess this shows that a lot of all of this kind of ‘just
happened’, but since then it has raced every year since
1978 and I think it is probably the longest continually-
raced car, especially with the same driver.
“I remember what Collin Russell used to say when he
was a commentator at Calder Park: ‘17 years, same driver,
same car, same wife!’ It is 40 years later now and it is still
the same!”
While the Bricklayer is undeniably beautiful, she has
undergone at least one major makeover in her time.
“It has been a good journey but gee, the car has had some
engines in it – it would have to be 15 over the 40 years, all
different sizes,” Cooper explained.
“It has had one big overhaul. In 1991, we tech-inspected
the car and there was that much rust hanging out of it
that our Division Director of the time, Lindsay Whitchurch,
turned around and said, ‘you have to do something about
that car – it wouldn’t be so bad, if you weren’t beating
everyone!’ It was looking pretty shabby, I had stickers
over the rust holes! With a direction to clean it up before
the start of the next season, we had to get to work.
“Luckily for us, ‘Bluey’ Wilson who had fit the V8 into the
car in 1979 had an association with David Ryan from Rare
Spares. We put in a proposal with them and they tipped
a lot of money in to get where we are now – we have just
celebrated a quarter of a century together on the quarter
mile, which I think is pretty special.
“That rebuild in 1992 was an interesting one – in the lay-
off before the Winternationals we got ready to do the
rebuild, pulling it all to bits and then, the panel beater
wasn’t ready! So, we put it all back together again for the
Winternats – where we would normally have had six bolts
we had two, panels were just basically hung on it and
the inside was all undercoat and had just the one seat –
7