A leading Melbourne socialite, Captain Peter Janson is better known to motorsport fans as a leading privateer at Bathurst partnering such drivers as Larry Perkins, Kevin Bartlett, David ‘Skippy’ Parsons and John Harvey, while also completing his early racing career in rallying.
Dressed in his red velvet smoking jacket and his foxhunting hat, usually with a cigar in hand, Janson has tales to tell. From changing his name to NGK in order to circumvent advertising rules set by CAMS to jump starting a race by a minute and still winning due to the time penalty being the same, here are just couple of The Captain’s many stories.
The first tale is of Janson on a Southern Cross Rally defeating Datsun’s imported guns, but unbeknownst to his rivals he had an ace up his sleeve….
“I was racing old ‘Saggy Sarah’ (ex-HDT Torana GTR XU-1) at the Southern Cross,” Janson explained.
“We came in the first night and the tyres were f***ed, everything.
“I said to go round to Rauno (Aaltonen) and Shekhar (Mehta) (the two Datsun works drivers) service area because I knew they chuck the tyres straight off their car.
“I told my manager to go and find out of Rauno or Shekhar’s, which tyre suits ours, go back over at 10 o’clock, they’ll be a big pile pick a few, plus a couple of spares.
“We rallied on those all the way through in the two fast forest stages and I was off the planet, they were both watching us.
“I asked why they were there and they said, ‘you’ve just beaten us’.
“‘That’s alright, isn’t it?’ I responded.
“‘No, it’s not alright, we’re paid to beat people like you!’
“Rauno asked what tyres I was running and I said, ‘the same as yours’.
“It wasn’t until years later he came and stayed out here, I told him about it. He pissed himself laughing.”
Another yarn also relates to his rallying and how Janson’s co-driver had a wild ride.
“I remember Mike Mitchell co-drive with me in the Alpine Rally,” Janson said.
“I was in the XU-1 going up the mountain. I said to Mike, ‘the big straights and the gates we’ve got to open I reckon if I had you on the back (we used to have a foot peg and two handles on the back) I’ll put you on there.
“He said ‘I like that’, so every gate we got to, he jumped off and open the gate, they were five.
“We got going and each gate was open. Of course the tongues out, I’m gone, there’s no tomorrow, I forgot all about him on the back.
“At the top, I’ve completed the stage in so many minutes and the official asks where’s your navigator? Uh oh.
“I looked behind, the bogong moths were in and he was covered in those.
“I had to prise his fingers off, ‘it was the greatest thing, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever had happen in my life’ he remarked!’”
The final story regards a Bathurst where Janson was so relaxed, he decided to make himself at home in the BMW M3 on his way to fourth in the race.
“Going up The Mountain, once I hit The Cutting, I was so much faster than all the other cars over the top,” Janson explained.
“I’d get a drag down Conrod and do nothing, so I had a big Cuban cigar. I pulled it out and cut it, steering with my knees, I got it lit and it was terrific.
“Up over the top, I was in my element.
“Going past the pits Tatey asked if I was alright, ‘we’re on fire’ and I said, ‘what do you mean?’
“He said, ‘there’s a lot smoke coming out of the cabin’. ‘No’, I said, ‘I lit a cigar’.
“‘You what!!!’
“I got fined $5000.”