Darryl Wilcox was born in Hobart in 1946 and has lived most of his life at Huonville.

During his long and illustrious career Darryl raced a number of Holdens, most of which have appeared in the familiar Wilcox Blue colour.

Darryl’s first time at a race meeting was at the Hillwood Hillclimb in 1963, where he went to watch fellow Huon Valley resident Ian Smith run his Cooper S.

Darryl ended up having a couple of drives himself, which was followed shortly afterwards by a run at the Domain Hillclimb.

Darryl’s first circuit racing event was at Baskerville in late 1963 where he managed to circulate without embarrassing himself.

He took his car to Hume Weir in 1966, winning the Hume Weir 200 Race, followed by second

place in the event in 1967 –during that time, Darryl held lap records at both Hume Weir and Calder.

He subsequently returned to Calder in an EH Holden, taking out six cylinder races, and after driving consistently and competitively against fierce competition, won the 1972 Calder Six Cylinder Series.

 After Darryl had been campaigning the EH for some time on the mainland, a group of local Huonville RSL mates raised money to bring Darryl and his car back to Tasmania to race at Baskerville, where the car ran with the leaders.

Returning to Melbourne, Darryl built a Torana sports sedan.

After the car was completed, the decision was made to return to Tasmania, as Darryl missed the quality of life South of Bass Strait.

Darryl was named 1976 Tasmanian Motor Sport Sportsman of the Year with the headlines in The Mercury newspaper labelling him “School bus driver / Huonville driver success”.

After a short retirement, Darryl returned to competition in 1992, when Barry Cassidy persuaded him to drive a HQ Holden at Calder, followed by a drive of Dr Andrew Blakeney’s Holden A9-X Torana in Targa Tasmania in 1993.

During that Targa event, Darryl was fastest on the Symmons Plains stage and was running in top 10 outright when the gearbox broke on Tarraleah Stage on the last day.

Darryl also raced the same car successfully at Symmons Plains.

In 1994, he bought a Holden Monaro shell - the car required a lot of work - and of course was painted in the traditional Wilcox Blue.

It is in this car, that Darryl became a familiar face in both Group N and tarmac rally events.

In recognition of Darryl’s countless hours of work at the Baskerville circuit he was presented with

life membership by the Hobart Sporting Car Club, who subsequently named their clubrooms in his

honour.

Darryl has competed in a number of Targa Tasmania and Targa Wrest Point events.

Although he never started in a race at Bathurst, he took part in official practice with the Gary Rogers and Roadway teams, recording competitive times.

Driving Roger Stanley’s A9-X, Darryl also qualified in sixth position and ran as high as third in a Symmons Plains round of the Australian Touring Car Championship.

Retired at the time of induction, Darryl limits his activities to regularity events in his Wilcox Blue early model Holden at the Baskerville Historics meeting and with his brothers as Team Wilcox in Baskerville 1000 events.

Profile by Dennis Burgess