Gregg Hansford

I haven't seen anyone mention Gregg Hansford around Ten Tenths much in the past. Gregg was a Champion Motorcycle race who raced in Europue for the factory Kawasaki team. After a major accident Gregg came back to Australia and started racing Touring Cars. It took a while but he finally achived success with Larry Perkins when they one the 1993 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst.

Unfortunatly Gregg was killed at Phillip Island at the wheel of a Mondeo Super Touring Car in 1995.

Gregg was and is one of the very few pepole that I have never heard a bad word said about, one of those guys that everyone liked...............

Ah, I remember hearing of his accident...sad news :(

He is often overlooked in Australian motor racing history, despite being a Bathurst winner...

It was a very sad day indeed and gregg was by all accounts a fantastic guy , I didnt see much of his bike racing but he was very good in a car and just when things seemed to be finally going his way with a good super touring car drive and the long distance races in the V8's he was sadly taken from us.

A fine driver and a really nice guy to boot , he is and will be sadly missed.

Originally posted by colinbond
I haven't seen anyone mention Gregg Hansford around Ten Tenths much in the past. Gregg was a Champion Motorcycle race who raced in Europue for the factory Kawasaki team. After a major accident Gregg came back to Australia and started racing Touring Cars. It took a while but he finally achived success with Larry Perkins when they one the 1993 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst.

Unfortunatly Gregg was killed at Phillip Island at the wheel of a Mondeo Super Touring Car in 1995.

Gregg was and is one of the very few pepole that I have never heard a bad word said about, one of those guys that everyone liked...............

Tried searching 10/10ths for Hansford?

Hansford, did he race the black Beemer, M3?

I remember when it came across the news that Gregg had been killed in an accident, my brother & i just sat there in shocked silence for quite sometime trying to let the news sink in.

Greg Hansford

The weirdest thing was , as I remember it,he died in an accident that one would have thought he would have survived easily. Didn't he cop a hit in the drivers door ?

Yeah, he spun at turn 1 at Phillip Island in the RPM Ford Mondeo, and was hit in the drivers door by Mark Adderton, similiar to the accident that claimed Keith Odor in German Super Touring later in the year.

Hansford was great on a motorcycle, but the thing that impressed me about his car racing career was how competitive he was with only limited time behind the wheel.

With the Moffat Mazda team between 82-84 he only drove in the enduro's (except for some late ATCC races in 1983), and was extremely competitive. His drives at Bathurst in 1993 and 1994 with Larry Perkins, for a 1st and a 3rd, were superb, once again as a once a year driver.

A pity that when he finally got a full-time Touring Car drive in the Mondeo in 1995 (his only full-time chance previously was with Dick Johnson in the Shell Sierra's in 1987), ended in tragedy at the first race.

Actually lost control out of T1 and then hit the tyre & earth wall between T1 & 2 and bounced back into the path of Adderton. The initial impact was extremely big and the subsequent hit in the door didn't help.

A sad day for those of us who were there on the dy and witnessed the crash and capped off bad 6 month period where 4 drivers died in race cars (2 crashes & 2 medical problems).

Greg was indeed a great guy with an in check ego it is often rare for famous motorsportsmen.
Greg,s death was probably the hardest thing I had faced in 25 years of motorsport.
He was killed in the lead car of a 2 car team owned by Ross Palmer Motorsport[RPM] the other car being driven by my son Darren.
He was also my close friend and to have an incident like this happen in your teams first outing certainly makes you think long and hard.
Primarily a HANS device would have helped,however he also sustained seriousinternal injuries from the failure of the side intrusion protection.
In memory of Gregg and for the good of the sport I started on a 7 year campaign for the introduction of HANS systems in Australia.
Unfortunately their final adoption by motorsport regulators came too late for 23 year old Stewart Mc.Coll [VW Works Golf R32]who lost his life at the Same Track in a round of the Australian GTP series this year.
HANS systems were finally approved 1 week before his death.
For all racers and team owners the eventual compulsory adoption of head and neck systems will go a long way to making our sport a lot safer.
RIP Greg and Stewie.

I agree Greg handsford was certinaly a gentleman in motorsport.

I was reading an old Auto Action today and reading the comments of Kenny Roberts who said on hearing of Greggs passing, that Hansford was one of the greatest racer he raced against

The tribut at the funeral by his son was incredibly moving. It is worth seeing again- does anyone have a copy of it?

there is a previous post.....could a mod maybe combine the threads (please?)

From memory, the main reason Adderton hit Hansford in the drivers door was that Phillip Island had been extremely dry and when Hansford hit the tyre wall and came back onto the track there was a huge dust cloud and Adderton could not see where Hansford's car was.

There was an in-car video from Phil Wards Mercedes (I think), or maybe the car behind Ward that showed the initial lose. It was in the first couple of laps of the race and Gregg's Mondeo was struggling to get the rear tyres to any sort of temperature, leading to the oversteer lose and impact with the inside bank of turn 1.

I spent a bit of time with Gregg at Bathurst in 1993 and 1994. Lovely guy, quiet, unassuming, and fast. He was going to get limited sprint round outings in 1995 in a 2nd Castrol Commodore. The Triple Challenge at Eastern Creek in 1995 was the first and only outing before his untimely death.

I think of Gregg, and his youngest son Harrison who now must be about 10, every time I see Gregg's partner, Carolyn Donovan on TV in the 'Devine Homes' ads.

R.I.P. Gregg.