Alec Graham Mildren (19 August 1915 – 28 August 1998) was active in Australian motor racing as a driver from 1938 to 1961, and subsequently as the owner of Alec Mildren Racing.

Racing career

Mildren began his racing career in an

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

in 1938Mike Kable, ''Alec Mildren wins CAMS 1960 Gold Star award'', The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday, 14 November 1960, page 17 and then raced a variety of cars including a Singer, a Ford Special, an

MG TB The MG T-Type is a series of body-on-frame open two-seater sports cars that were produced by MG from 1936 to 1955. Known as the Midget, the series included the TA, TB, TC, TD, and TF models. Although the design was contemporary in the 1930s, i ...

and two

Riley Riley may refer to: Businesses * Riley (brand), British sporting goods brand founded in 1878 * Riley Motor, British motorcar and bicycle manufacturera 1890–1969 * Riley Technologies, American auto racing constructor and team, founded by Bob ...

s. These were followed by a series of

Cooper Cooper, Cooper's, Coopers and similar may refer to: * Cooper (profession), a maker of wooden casks and other staved vessels Arts and entertainment * Cooper (producers), an alias of Dutch producers Klubbheads * "Cooper", a song by Roxette from ...

s, with Mildren placing second in both the

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

and 1959 Australian Drivers' Championships. A

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914 in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

powered

Cooper T51 The Cooper T51 was a Formula One and Formula Two racing car designed by Owen Maddock and built by the Cooper Car Company for the 1959 Formula One season. The T51 earned a significant place in motor racing history when Jack Brabham drove the car ...

was campaigned during 1960, Mildren winning the 1960 Australian Grand Prix and the 1960 Australian Drivers' Championship. He retired from racing during 1961. Australian Gold Star 1961, www.oldracingcars.com
Retrieved on 28 May 2014

Career results

Alec Mildren Racing

Max Stewart Waggott TC4V 4 Graham Ruckert

In late 1963 Mildren announced the formation of Alec Mildren Racing. The team met with success in Australian endurance races, winning the

1964 Sandown 6 Hour International The 1964 Sandown 6 Hour International was an endurance race for saloon cars complying with FIA Group 1 regulations.Peter Bakalor, Alfa Triumphant, Modern Motor, February 1965, pages 34 to 37 & 96 to 97. Report includes a Results section listing th ...

, the

1965 International 6 Hour Touring Car Race The 1965 International 6 Hour Touring Car Race was a six-hour endurance race for touring cars held at the Sandown Park circuit in Victoria, Australia on 21 November 1965.Official Programme, Sandown, Sunday, November 21, 1965 The race, which was ...

and the

1967 Surfers Paradise Four Hour The 1967 Surfers Paradise Four Hour was an endurance race for “Production Touring Cars”, held at the Surfers Paradise International Raceway in Queensland, AustraliaK Shaw, 4 Hour shambles at Surfers, Australian Auto Sportsman, May 1967, pages ...

with

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian carmaker known for its sports-oriented vehicles, strong auto racing heritage, and iconic design. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, it is a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe and one of 14 brands of mu ...

s. Kevin Bartlett won the

1968 Australian Drivers' Championship The 1968 Australian Drivers' Championship was a CAMS-sanctioned national motor racing title open to racing cars complying with the Australian National Formula or the Australian 1½ Litre Formula.Conditions for Australian National titles, CAM ...

in an Alec Mildren Racing entered

Brabham Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham ( ), was a British race car, racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. It was founded in 1960 by the Australian driver Jack Brabham and the British-Australian designer Ron Ta ...

and the 1969 Australian Drivers' Championship in the team's

Mildren Mono The Mildren name was used on a series of racing vehicles constructed for, or acquired by, Australian racing team owner Alec Mildren during the 1960s and early 1970s. Mildren Maserati The Mildren Maserati was a one-off sports car which was built in ...

. The latter was one of a number of cars raced by the team under the Mildren marque name. Max Stewart won the

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

Australian Formula 2 Championships in the team's Mildren Waggott and then won the 1971 Australian Drivers' Championship in the same car, entered by Alec Mildren Racing in early rounds of the series and by Max Stewart Motors in later rounds. Racing for Alec Mildren at the Bathurst Easter meeting in 1967, Kevin Bartlett set the first ever lap of the then 6.172 km (3.835 mi)

Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit, officially Mount Panorama/Wahluu via dual naming, is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race ...

with a time of 2:17.7 in a 2.5-litre Brabham Coventry-Climax during the NSW Road Racing Championships. For his efforts Bartlett was awarded 100 bottles of champagne to add to the 20 bottles he had been awarded for winning the pole with a time of 2:17.2. On the same day Bartlett also drove one of Mildren's

Alfa Romeo GTA The Alfa Romeo GTA is a coupé manufactured by Italian automaker Alfa Romeo from 1965 to 1971, in both racing ("Corsa") and road ("Stradale") versions. Design In 1962, the successor for the popular Alfa Romeo Giulietta was introduced. This car w ...

's to victory in the

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. The ...

race over the

Ford Mustang The Ford Mustang is a series of American Car, automobiles manufactured by Ford Motor Company, Ford. In continuous production since 1964, the Mustang is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Currently in its Ford Mustang (seventh ...

Bob Jane Robert Frederick Jane (18 December 1929 – 28 September 2018) was an Australian race car driver and prominent entrepreneur and business tycoon. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a ...

who while having a power advantage with the Ford

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...

, ran out of brakes at the end of the 4th lap. During the race Bartlett reduced Under 2.0 Litre lap record by some 9 seconds in the process, leaving the new mark at 2:44.9. According to Kevin Bartlett, the reason that the Mildren team cars were always painted yellow was because Alec Mildren sometimes confessed that as he got older, his eyesight wasn't 100% anymore. One day while boarding a plane at

Kingsford Smith Airport Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport — colloquially Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney Airport or Mascot Airport — is an international airport serving Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district, in the subur ...

in Sydney, Mildren noticed one of the airport service vehicles standing out as it was painted bright yellow. After seeing this he went and found out where they got the paint for their service vehicles and from then on, the Mildren Racing cars stood out in their bright DCA yellow against other racing cars of the day which were generally either black, white, racing (dark) green or racing (dark) blue.

Business interests

A family car dealership company, which was established by Mildren in 1953 and would later have prestige dealerships for

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and

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

Mildren Prestige operated up until 2017.About Mildren prestige, www.mildrenprestige.com.au
Retrieved on 28 May 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mildren, Alec 1915 births 1998 deaths Australian racing drivers