12 replies to this topic

[Ray Bell]

Bad news from Richard Carter...

 

Tony left us last night after a long and very uncomfortable stint with Parkinsons Disease and, latterly, dementia. An Australian resident since the sixties, Tony came from New Zealand originally and brought with him a flair for innovation and sound engineering.

 

In his earliest days he formed Competition Cars with, if I recall, Mike Champion. He started building U2 Clubmans and raced one himself, but had a bad crash at Oran Park and was seriously injured. Next came the Simmons Hustler Clubmans, very much along U2 lines but with improvements, and while developing these he decided to make his own composite wheels.

 

Just two of these Clubman cars were built, but many thousands of wheels issued from his workshops, which moved and grew as time went by. The Hustler Formula Ford came next, then the Seca3 Clubman built for Bob Martin, who'd taken over the first Hustler when Tony got out of it.

 

While all of this was going on, he still found time to invent, design and build a beach-cleaning machine for one of the Sydney councils. But it was the wheels which kept his name to the fore, with both road and race cars becoming home to those thousands which were churned out.

 

He ultimately passed the wheel business on to one of his colleagues.

 

Through all of this, Tony was pretty predictable. Friendly and humble, but ready to advise and guide, a man who's been missed for some years and now even more badly so.

 

I'm sure Lynton Hemer can add many good period photos to this thread...

[Lola5000]

RIP Tony, What wonderful pleasure Tony gave thousands of car owners with the Simmons wheels .

[ellrosso]

RIP Tony Simmons and condolences to his friends and family. Huge contribution to Oz motorsport with his wheels especially.

[lyntonh]

The three cars, two Hustlers and Seca 3.

 

 

[Ray Bell]

The pictures are of Bob Martin at Oran Park in the Hustler SC1; John Maroulis (I think) in the second Hustler SC1, built for Tony Oxley; and Bob Martin in the Seca3 leading what looks like a couple of Welsor Fords (Peter Lander, Ray Kaleda?) and David Seldon.

[lyntonh]

The pictures are of Bob Martin at Oran Park in the Hustler SC1; John Maroulis (I think) in the second Hustler SC1, built for Tony Oxley; and Bob Martin in the Seca3 leading what looks like a couple of Welsor Fords (Peter Lander, Ray Kaleda?) and David Seldon.

Spot on....

[Paul Hamilton]

There was a lot more to Tony's motorsport involvement than has been covered to date in this thread.  I first met him in the late '60's post the Competition Cars interest and the major Oran Park crash already mentioned and I am therefore a bit hazy on his early time in Australia.  However there was certainly a major commitment to maintenance of the various Ferraris owned by the Oxley family and the Chevron B8 raced by Tony Oxley for whom he later bult the second of the Hustler SC1 clubman cars.  

 

The Oran Park crash in an early U2 was a very serious thing and marked a significant point of change for Tony.  Prior to that his performances at the wheel had brought him to the attention of David Mackay and led to several drives for Scuderia Veloce in small production touring cars.  The Mackay connection may have led to a much more significant competition career for Tony but it all came to nothing after the crash in which he sustained quite serious head injuries.  Following an extended recovery period he did return to competition driving the first of the Hustler clubman cars but his major focus was by then on the engineering side of the sport an area in which he demonstrated great innovative skills.  Although he remained a fast and competent driver I doubt that he ever recovered the flair which had earlier brought him to attention.  Tony's personal sporting activities were scaled back during the mid to late 70's because of his commitment to the very successful wheel manufacturing business he had founded but the fire never really went out and he always retained a particular interest in the best quality Italian machinery.

 

With the Simmons Wheels business well established in profitable operation by the mid 1990's Tony tracked down one of his original Hustler clubman cars and returned to an active involvement in historic racing.  In subsequent years he raced a variety of interesting cars including a B38 Chevron F3 car, a B36 Chevron sports car (owned by Allan Cruikshank), a sports 2000 car, an RT4 Ralt and ultimately a BT6 Brabham Formula Junior.  In 2011 he took the Brabham to the UK and Europe to compete at the Goodwood revival meeting and various of the Lurani Trophy events for FJ cars basing himself at a farm close to the Mallory Park race circuit.  His efforts that year had the support of various visiting HSRCA mates and I well remember the day he used my diesel Ford Focus rental car to find his way around the Goodwood circuit at a test day in preparation for the revival meeting.   

 

In subsequent years his declining health forced the termination of his competitive activity and a gradual withdrawal from social contacts.  His passing has now brought to finality a loss many of us have long felt during his years of decline.  Tony was a very fine engineer, a competent and skillful racing driver and the very best of mates who is sadly missed by many of those of us who remain.

[Ray Bell]

Thank you for filling in the later period, Paul...

 

I'd forgotten much of it and wasn't able to give a lot of thought to anything as I got the message from Richard just prior to having to leave to go on a job from Brisbane to Mackay. I had been tempted to mention the preparation of the Chevron, but didn't know about the other Oxley family cars and without sufficient knowledge I thought it better rely on others and you've done a great job of bringing that to attention. One thing about the Chevron is how its immersion in the Warwick Farm lake led to Tony getting serious with his rollover protection in the Clubman cars, as can be seen in the photos above, the Maroulis pic and the Seca3 pic show how he's surrounded the drivers with protection.

 

Likewise with his Historic Racing, I knew he'd retrieved and rebuilt his original Hustler and raced it, but was unsure about the later cars. One thing missed, however, is that he also built a new chassis for the Oxley Hustler after Joe Ius (or Uis?) revamped the front end preparatory to fitting a 128 engine - which never happened. Tony's reconstruction of that car led to it resuming a competitive life in the Historic ranks as well. Joe's redesign of the front of the chassis was aimed to making it suitable for the much lower-profile tyres which had come in since its heyday, but as it became Historic and original profiles were to be refitted the original chassis design was better suited.

 

By the way, I have a notion that the pic posted by Lindsay is actually Tony Oxley, I'm pretty sure the Simmons/Martin car was always red, changing to brown when raced by Bill Nibbs.

 

I knew nothing about his racing in England, to know he did this gladdens my heart. It would have been the realisation of a dream for Tony and it's great that others were able to help him in that quest.

[TerryS]

Re Tony Simmons racing in Europe, he went over in 2011 for four months.

 

4 Aussies went led by the ever-enthusiastic Roger Ealand. They took their formula Junior cars.

 

The four were:

 

Tony Simmons (Brabham BT6)

Roger Ealand (Koala)

Bill Hemming (Elfin)

Kim Shearn (Lotus 20)

 

Roger was the President of the Australian Formula Junior Association (AFJA). A real livewire and sadly missed in many circles. He also later organized the Speed on Tweed Event

 

They towed the cars behind camper vans or just vans. They had a marvelous time camping at or near the circuits.

 

They competed in various rounds of the UK, European and Italian FJ Championships.

 

The tales of their adventures and exploits were beautifully told in the quarterly journal of the AFJA.

 

This is the winter 2011 edition for informative reading.

 

newsletter55-2011.pdf (australianformulajunior.com)

[WonderWoman61]

Rest in Peace Tony Simmons

[ReWind]

Are his life dates known? (DoB, PoB, DoD, PoD)

[Ray Bell]

Once again, thanks to Richard Carter...

 

Tony was born in Whangarei, NZ on August 30, 1942. He died at his home in Darling Point, Sydney, on September 10, 2023.

[ReWind]

Thanks, Ray.