Jack Murray (racing driver)

[2] In the 1964 Senior Trials Championship Jack came second and Dave Johnson, good friend and fellow inductee into the Australian Rally Hall of Fame won best navigator.

[2] Murray enjoyed testing motor vehicles and oils, as well as travel — any opportunity or excuse where a group of mates could get together and set off on an adventure of some kind.

Over the years 'Gelignite' Jack competed in seven round Australia trials and many adventure trips testing cars, lubricants and drivers.

At noon on Friday 26 April 1968, Jack and Evan set off from Essendon Airport, Melbourne, to race a Morris 1100 cc ‘S’ against a light plane around Australia.

[2] Murray and his radio mate John Pearce teamed up again to undertake a 'Race the Train' dash from Sydney to Perth.

Throughout his 21 years of driving at Bathurst, Jack achieved many scratch, handicap or class placings: first (1), second (2), third (7), fourth (6), fifth (4), sixth (1), seventh (1), ninth (1), thirteenth (1), fifteenth (1) and thirty-fourth (1).

In 1965, almost 20 years after first racing at Bathurst, the 'old men in wheelchairs' Murray (58) and Bill McLachlan (48) placed fifth overall and third in class driving a Ford Cortina Mk 1 GT 500.

[2] This 24-hour event was staged over 2 and 3 May, starting and ending in Sydney and ran through the Blue Mountains and the back roads behind the Jenolan Caves.

Firing a few questions at him and then sweeping him into the back of the Customline, Murray slid the car into the bush at the pointed out place and commenced a fearful dice down to the control.

[14] When interviewed by a news team shortly after the crash, every second word of Jack Murray's response had to be expurgated, a source of delight to many.

Evan even opened his book Journeys with Gelignite Jack (first published in 1966 by Rigby) with the story: As another concerned competitor slowed to a stop next to the overturned wrecked Plymouth in '53, the ever-present dust cloud drifted on by.

Murray won this little-noticed 24-hour event losing only 5 points, run entirely within New South Wales,[17] followed by another, sponsored by Kriesler,[18] an Australian manufacturer of car radios and other consumer electronics.

The two Murrays took boxes of gelignite on the trial with the intention of clearing any fallen trees or other obstacles blocking the narrow outback roads.

Despite his 'larrikin' image, Murray was a total professional when it counted, a non-smoker, teetotaler with a powerful, athletic build who never took foolhardy risks.

So, he turned around and went through a route check the wrong way and thought he would have copped a penalty, but the bog section was eventually cancelled.

'[2] Murray and Neville Vale were forced to pull out shortly after leaving Birdsville, when their Fiat 1100[b] ('Little Ghost') broke an axle.

'Gelignite' Jack in Car No 54C with Roy Denny as navigator placed fortieth in a Peugeot 404 plate HYT 276, with the loss of 333 pts.

[2] 'Gelignite' Jack took part in this event with Evan Green and George Shepheard as the BMC works team in an Austin 1800,[20] arriving in 21st place.

An enthusiastic service mechanic over-tightened a wheel bearing, and the hub collapsed near Curnamona, South Australia.

Evan commented at the time, "But for losing a wheel, Jack Murray, George Shepheard [veteran Australian driver] and I might have won.

Murray and Evan Green, as drivers, teamed up with Hamish Cardno (of Motor magazine) as navigator in the London to Mexico Marathon.

With Cardno driving, the Triumph left the road, rolling and spinning down a hill near Rouaine in the French Alps.

While showing initial promise, Car No 68 was plagued by bad luck that culminated in a crash involving a tractor and other mayhem near Agra, India.

Murray, his elder son John with mate Jeff d'Albora competed in a Dick Smith-sponsored Holden Commodore No.28, with number plates JM456 as used on the old 'Grey Ghost', finished 23rd or 29th, depending on your source.

However, in 1958, Murray met Dorothy Rosewell (born 1931), real estate agent, business woman and fellow competitor in the Ampol Trial of that year.

In many ways Murray led dual lives and crammed the experiences, travel, sports and sheer zest for life of at least two men into his 76 years.

'Gelignite' Jack Murray was admitted to St Vincent's Hospital in October 1983 with a cardiovascular disease and died ten weeks later on 11 December 1983.

As a young man, Murray was a champion amateur wrestler[29] and was a member of the North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club.

Jack was a life member of the NSW Water Ski Association and holds the distinction of being one of a group of seven who first barefooted in Australia.

[2][3] Murray, together with Canadian born scientist Professor Harry Messel, taught Wernher von Braun, former Nazi SS Officer and "father of the American space program" to waterski on the Hawkesbury River.