Vale Bob Jane, an Australian motoring legend

Small in stature, Bob Jane was a giant of the Australian motor trade and motorsport.

Jane died last Friday night, aged 88, after a long battle with prostate cancer.

He won four Australian Touring Car Championships, in 1962 and ’63 in Jaguar Mark IIs and 1971 and ’72 in his Chevrolet Camaro, as well as the Great Race four times – the last two held at Victoria’s Phillip Island and the first two run at Bathurst’s Mt Panorama.

He ran race tracks – Calder Park in Melbourne, pumped more than $50 million into the Thunderdome there, and Adelaide International Raceway.

He introduced US-style stock car racing at the Thunderdome, running NASCARs on the big oval – even bringing out top Americans in the early days – and an Australian derivation, AUSCARs.

For several years Calder Park also staged the drag racing nationals, drawing huge crowds.

Earlier Jane had been instrumental in bringing Formula 1 to Australia. He staged Australian GPs at Calder Park featuring the world’s top drivers, although the cars weren’t F1 machines.

He tried to interest the Victorian government in hosting a world championship grand prix but, when it did not take up the idea, he helped South Australian premier John Bannon do a deal with F1 czar Bernie Ecclestone for an event on the streets of Adelaide. A decade later Melbourne pinched it.

Jane fought often and vigorously with the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, particularly during the decade of stock car racing at the Thunderdome.

However, CAMS president Andrew Papadopoulos said on his passing that Jane had been “an influential character in motorsport and made a significant contribution across many years”.

He was one of the first named in the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame in 2016, had been a member of the Supercars Hall of Fame since 2000 and was among 14 in Bathurst’s new Legends Lane last year.

But he had become best known nationally through the Bob Jane T-Mart tyre business, with his face adorning outlets around the country.

In recent years there had been an ugly and very public rift with his most successful child, Rodney, who emerged in control of the T-Marts still bearing his father’s name and image.

In announcing his death at the weekend, the three children of Jane’s last marriage – Courtney, Charlotte and Robert junior – described him as “an Australian icon and champion of the community” and asked for privacy “during this devastating time”.

There has been no word yet on his funeral, which perhaps may be delayed until after next weekend’s Bathurst 1000 at which there are sure to be many tributes.