Introducing Laurie Sellers
2003-09-24 by Laurie Sellers
Hello fellow Marcos enthusiasts, My name is Laurie (Laurence) Sellers. I am 54 and live in Sydney Australia. I am the proud new owner of a Marcos 1800 GT chassis number 4026 which is currently on the high seas making its way to Sydney from England. I recently purchased the car from Mike Bennion who has owned and raced it in Europe for the past few years. The car was originally prepared by David Methley with all the good stuff to full FIA race spec. Up until now I have been racing a 1960 MGA in Group Sa, which is our class for Production Sports Cars up to and including 1960. The MGA has a racing log-book with competition history going back to 1982 and it has a very successful track record. I typically race against other MGA's, Elva Couriers, Sunbeam Alpines, Triumph TR3As and a Jaguar XK150. Despite the fun I have had in the MGA, I felt ready to move into something with a much better power to weight ratio. I have often admired the Marcos 1800 GT belonging to Roger Ealand who is a racing friend, ex UK but now residing here in Australia. Roger, whom many of you may know, has owned his car for quite some years and has had several well-documented successes in it. I couldn't help noticing how often Roger was at the pointy end of the field. The Marcos qualifies for Group Sb racing which is our class for Production Sports Cars built between 1961 and 1969. There are other options of course, but after doing extensive research I felt that the Marcos would be the best all round choice. Apart from the fact that I just love the shape of it, it has one of the best specifications and one of the most interesting histories of any car of the period. Decision made, it was Roger who recommended that I speak with David Methley, and David who put me on to Mike Bennion and the deal was done. I have not seen the car in the flesh yet, but have quite a few digital photo's. Obviously I can't wait for it to arrive, which will be at the end of October. I will need to do a little bit of work to it to bring it up to the required standard of the Historic Sports and Racing Car Association (HSRCA) of Australia, but that only involves some minor additions to the trim ..such as a passenger seat!. My plan is to race it in all HSRCA events next year starting in January, so it will become a regular competitor at Eastern Creek, Oran Park, Wakefield Park, Winton and Phillip Island Raceways. I will find myself competing against Roger at some of those meetings so it will be fun to have two Marcos's now running around the Australian raceways. Although I expect there will be a big gap between us for quite a while as I get used to the car and try to match Roger's very quick lap times. I will post an update now and then to let you all know how things progress. Best regards Laurie Sellers Chassis # 4026