Australian motorsport hero and tyre giant Bob Jane has died aged 88.
The name synonymous with rubber and racing fought prostate cancer and a stroke in recent times.
The four-time Australian Touring Car Champion, and four-time Bathurst winner when it was known as the Armstrong 500, Jane later became the name and face of one of the country’s biggest tyre retailers, Bob Jane T-Marts.
Jane leaves children Courtney, Robert and Charlotte, as well as the present tyre business owner Rodney Jane.
The first T-Marts store opened in Melbourne in 1965, and Bob Jane was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2000.
Jane also became quite the dealership owner, eventually running Southern Motors.
He also held the title of Holden’s biggest dealer in Melbourne in the 1960s, and the T-Marts business was Goodyear’s biggest retailer in the world.
Jane raced bicycles as a young boy in Melbourne’s north east, and eventually started his first “Autoland” store in the 1950s.
In the early 1960s Jane, relatively fresh to motorsport with help from legendary racing team owner Harry Firth, suffered fractures in a crash in an early Holden.
Although this was merely a small delay from getting into a racing road-going E-Type Jaguar.
It was the golden era of motorsport when racers spent their weekly business earnings driving fast cars on the weekend.
Bob Jane also bought the then-struggling Calder Park Raceway, which he turned into a motorsport Mecca, including NASCAR events, drag racing, rallycross and hosting rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship.
Jane won his fourth and last touring car title in 1972.
But the long list of cars he raced, in all shapes, sizes, colours and configurations – many of which still make it to historic racing events today – are just stickers compared to his passion and personality which grew motorsport in Australia like few others.
“What he did was to raise the level of preparation from rich-guy-racing-on-weekends to a professional level, one that sponsors would want to be associated with,” writes Phil Branagan in his obituary on the Supercars website.
“While maintaining his businesses, Jane made a huge contribution to turning a wealthy man’s pastime into a professional sport,” Branagan adds.
“What Jane did do was think big, crash through and make what might have looked impossible happen.”
Jane will be honoured on the Mount Panorama circuit at this year’s Bathurst 1000, October 4 to 7.
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