Leo Geoghegan

Leo Geoghegan
Leo Geoghegan in 2011
Nationality	Australian
Related to	Tom Geoghegan (father) Ian Geoghegan (brother)
Australian Drivers' Championship
Years active	1963–73
Teams	Geoghegan's Sporty Cars Total Team
Best finish	1st in 1970 Australian Drivers' Championship
Previous series
1960 1962–63 1965–71 1965 1973–74	Australian GT Championship Australian Formula Junior Tasman Series Australian 1½ Litre Champ. Australian Formula 2 Champ.
Championship titles
1960 1963 1970 1973 1974	Australian GT Championship Australian Formula Junior Ch. Australian Drivers' Champ. Australian Formula 2 Champ. Australian Formula 2 Champ.

Leo Geoghegan is a retired Australian racing driver. he is the elder of two sons of former New South Wales car dealer Tom Geoghegan, who went on to become two of the dominant names in Australian motor racing in the 1960s. While his brother Ian "Pete" Geoghegan had much of his success in touring car racing winning five Australian Touring Car Championship's, Leo spent much of his racing career in open wheel racing cars and sports racing cars.

Leo also drove Group E Series Production Cars and Group C touring cars at the annual Bathurst 500/1000 endurance race for the Ford Works Team, Chrysler Australia and the Holden Dealer Team.

Leo and Ian Geoghegan drove their Ford Cortina GT500 in the 1965 Armstrong 500 at Bathurst while wearing business suits as part of a sponsorship deal with a Sydney clothing store.

His best finish at Bathurst for the endurance race was second in 1967 driving a Ford XR Falcon GT with his brother Ian. The pair were flagged in first, but a protest by team mate Harry Firth saw the brothers relegated to second after a re-count of the lap charts. Unfortunately for Leo and Ian, just two hours after the start their Falcon ran out of petrol after it had passed the pits. Leo, who in the car at the time, was able to drive through the back gate into the pits to be refueled, which led the lap scorers to mistakenly credit the #53 Ford with a lap it did not complete. The race was then awarded to Firth and his co-driver Fred Gibson. To this day Leo Geoghegan believes that the lap scorers had it correct the first time and that he and his brother should be in the record books as Bathurst winners in 1967.

Other career highlights included victories in the following:

• 1960 Australian GT Championship
• 1962 Bathurst Six Hour Classic
• 1963 Australian Formula Junior Championship
• 1968 Surfers Paradise 6 Hour
• 1969 JAF Grand Prix (Formula Libre)
• 1970 Australian Drivers' Championship
• 1973 Australian Formula 2 Championship
• 1974 Australian Formula 2 Championship

Leo Geoghegan was the principal driver for Chrysler Australia during the period (1970–1972) when the company supported Valiant Pacer and Valiant Charger Series Production touring car teams.

In addition to being a multi-Australian championship winning driver, Geoghegan has the rare distinction for an Australian of having won an international grand prix, specifically the inaugural JAF Grand Prix in 1969 held over 40 laps of the 6 km (3.728 mi) Fuji Speedway. Driving his ex-Jim Clark Lotus 39-Repco V8 in the race held for Formula Libre cars (which included Formula 2 and 1.6 litre cars) by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF), Geoghegan was part of a large Australian contingent including Alec Mildren Racing with their drivers Kevin Bartlett and Max Stewart (Bartlett driving a 2.5L Mildren-Alfa Romeo V8, and Stewart driving a 1.6L Mildren-Waggott), Garrie Cooper in his own Elfin 600-Repco, and Glynn Scott driving a Bowin P3-Ford Cosworth. The Australian's all qualified at the front end of the grid, with Geoghegan third. He purposefully made a slow start so as not to strip the new gears in his Lotus and drove a steady race. As others fell out, he passed Stewart to take a lead he was not to lose. Geoghegan also set a new F2 lap record during the race with a 1:52.67 for an average of 119.7 mph.^[1][2]

Today Geoghegan is an enthusiastic supporter of historic motor racing.

• 

  Geoghegan finished 2nd in Class D in the 1971 Hardie-Ferodo 500 in this Chrysler VH Valiant Charger R/T E38

• 

  Geoghegan won the 1974 Australian Formula 2 Championship in this Birrana 274

Career results

References

1. ↑ Results of the 1969 Grand Prix of Japan Retrieved from www.formula2.net on 2 September 2009
2. ↑ 1969 JAF Grand Prix
3. ↑ Max Stahl, Racing Car News Championship Yearbook No. 1, (1972), page 36
4. ↑ Sports Sedans, Oran Park Toby Lee Series, Australian Competition Yearbook, pages 144-154