Sunday, September 5, 2010

The old Dick Willis Milano

The Dick Willis Milano GT saw the light of day around the same time as the Sam, Bruce, Moss examples and was pretty quick. Here it is getting out of shape at Silverdale in the 60s.The car later passed on to Bevan Hill in SA and was eventually written off at Mallala. Dick picked up the bits, finding enough to add to a new body to turn it back into a car again. Eventually it was sold to Ken Mitchell who competed in historic events and in recent times it was acquired by Clark Watson and Matthew Liersch in Albury Wodonga (see Vintage Fibre Restorations in Links). Recently I saw an ad in UK for the car for 48,000 pounds. What prompted me to think about all this? A note from Clark, below about Kenny.
The last chequered flag for Kenny!

Some sad news today folks,
Ken Mitchell who campaigned the Milano for many years after restoring the car to it's past glory has sadly passed away while enjoying the Belgian Grand Prix late last Sunday Night 29/8/10 . While the Doctors will no doubt say it was due to a heart attack or stroke I'm fairly confident it was caused by Mark Webber slipping from 2nd to 6th place before the La Source Hairpin on Lap 1.

For those that didn't know, it was Ken's engineering prowess that helped Peter Brock become a household name when they famously built and campaigned the Austin A40 together and remained close friends until Peters untimely demise. Kenny loved a Beer, a Smoke and a laugh. He was a fierce racer and cooked a mean potato.
Ken will be sorely missed by all.

Regards

Clark Watson

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