Don Elliott’s first experience in motorsport was racing a speedboat as a 16 year-old, because he wasn’t old enough to obtain a car license.

Despite his tender age, Don turned out to be e very capable speedboat driver.

But it was only a matter of time before he progressed to car racing, where he soon met with considerable success.

 In 1954 he raced a Jaguar SS100 and held all the Tasmanian records that year.

He won the Tasmanian Hill Climb Championship in 1955 and 1957 in the Jag and in 1958 in a Holden Special

Don was a founding member and committee member of the Hobart Sporting Car Club and helped the club enormously in its formative years.

When Donald Gorringe needed the spectator bridge from the old Longford Grand Prix circuit moved to Baskerville, Don Elliott used his trucks and men to transport it to Baskerville and help erect it.

And in 1984, it was Don, who along with Ian Harrington and Ralph Bottomly purchased the Baskerville circuit to assist the HSCC in keeping the track alive.

 Don also competed in trials and raced in many events including the first Redex Round-Australia Trial in 1953, competing in an Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire.

He won his class in the 1957 Mobilgas Round-Australia Rally - this time in a Morris 1000.

In 1958 he and navigator Peter Kemp won every major trial in Tasmania, completing the Ampol Trial amazingly without the loss of a single penalty point.

Don was also very quick on the circuits and won the 1959 Tasmanian road racing championship and at various times held lap records at Baskerville. 

Don finished competitive driving at the end of 1964 when he took over the reigns at Elliott Cranes.  But he couldn’t stay away from motorsport for on and took on the role of team and owner-manager, assisting firstly Robin Pare and then Tony Edmondson with their racing careers and later Mark McLaughlin.

Tony Edmondson (who has also been inducted into the Tasmanian Motorsport Hall of Fame) went on to win back to back Australian sports sedan championships in 1980 and 1981.

Mark McLaughlin went on to be runner-up in the Australian Formula Two championship in 1986  and 1987.

Don also purchased Elfin Sports Cars in 1983, installing Tony Edmondson and Jon Porter as managers.

In 1993 the last of Elfin was auctioned off.

Many fine race cars have past through the Elliott stable including an SS100 Jaguar, Repco Holden Special, Cortina GT and Lotus, Anglia Super, Mustang, the ex-Bryan Thompson Camaro, Elfin ME5, a Repco-powered BMW 2002, the John McCormack-built Charger, an Alfetta GTV, Trowbridge Vee, and Elfin 852 Golf to name a few.

Profile by Andrew Lamont

Photographs by Lindsay Ross @ oldracephotos.com