The 1939 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held on a street circuit centred on the South Australian town of Lobethal

Lobethal, South Australia

Lobethal is a town in the Adelaide Hills area of South Australia. It is located in the Adelaide Hills Council local government area, and is nestled on the banks of a creek between the hills and up the sides of the valley. It was once the centre of the Adelaide Hills wool processing industry, which...

 on 2 January 1939. The race had 17 starters. The race was held over 17 laps of the fourteen kilometre circuit, the longest ever used for the Grand Prix, and one of the fastest, for a race distance of 241 kilometres.

It was the eleventh Australian Grand Prix

Australian Grand Prix

The Australian Grand Prix is a motor race held annually and is held to be the pinnacle of motor racing in Australia. The Grand Prix is the oldest surviving motor racing competition held in Australia having been held 76 times since it was first run at Phillip Island in 1928. Since 1985 the race has...

 and the second since the 1938 revival of the Grand Prix. The track utilised was three country roads which in a triangle formation took in the nearby village of Charleston

Charleston, South Australia

Charleston is a small town in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. It is situated on the Onkaparinga Valley Road between Woodside and Mount Torrens, on the main route from the Adelaide Hills to the Barossa Valley...

. The advantage of using these country roads, for the first time the Grand Prix was held on a bitumen sealed surface instead of dirt roads.

The race was won by relatively unknown Westeran Australian racer Allan Tomlinson in one of the best individual performances in Australian Grand Prix history, racing his supercharged MG T to victory. Bob Lea-Wright's Terraplane Special finished in second position ahead of Jack Phillips Ford Special. The fastest time over the race distance was recorded by Jack Saywell driving a Grand Prix Alfa Romeo.

Later in 1939 Australia would decalre war on the AXIS powers. As World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 enveloped Australia, motor racing wound down and would not resume until the mid 1940s. The Australian Grand Prix would rise again in 1947

1947 Australian Grand Prix

The 1947 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held at Mount Panorama Circuit on 6 October 1947. The race had 24 starters. The race was held over 38 laps of the six kilometre circuit for at 241 kilometres....

.

Classification

Results as follows.

Pos	No.	Driver	Car	Laps	Time
1	12	Allan Tomlinson	MG TA / MG s/c 1.3L	17	2h 00m 27s
2	19	Bob Lea-Wright	Terraplane Special / Terraplane Terraplane The Terraplane was a car brand and model built by the Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan between 1932 and 1938. In its maiden year, the car was branded as the Essex-Terraplane; in 1934 the car became simply the Terraplane...	17	2h 02m 31s
3	15	Jack Phillips	Ford Special / Ford Ford Flathead engine The Ford flathead V8 was a V8 engine of the flathead type, designed by the Ford Motor Company and built by Ford and various licensees...  3.6L	17	2h 02m 46s
4	3	John Snow	Delahaye Delahaye Delahaye automobile manufacturing company was started by Emile Delahaye in 1894, in Tours, France. His first cars were belt-driven, with single- or twin-cylinder engines. In 1900, Delahaye left the company.-History:...  135 / Delahaye Delahaye Delahaye automobile manufacturing company was started by Emile Delahaye in 1894, in Tours, France. His first cars were belt-driven, with single- or twin-cylinder engines. In 1900, Delahaye left the company.-History:...  3.6L	17	2h 04m 11s
5	17	Les Burrows	Hudson Special / Hudson Hudson Motor Car Company The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors. The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was dropped.- Company strategy...	17	2h 04m 38s
6	1	Jack Saywell	Alfa Romeo P3 Alfa Romeo P3 The Alfa Romeo P3, P3 monoposto or Tipo B was a classic Grand Prix car designed by Vittorio Jano, one of the Alfa Romeo 8C models. The P3 was first genuine single-seat Grand Prix racing car and Alfa Romeo's second monoposto after Tipo A monoposto . It was based on the earlier successful Alfa Romeo P2...  / Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...  2.9L	17	2h 06m 48s
7	6	John Crouch	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Le Mans / Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...  s/c 2.4L	17	2h 08m 33s
8	2	Alf Barrett	Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 / Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of cars. Founded as A.L.F.A. on June 24, 1910, in Milan, the company has been involved in car racing since 1911, and has a reputation for building expensive sports cars...  s/c 2.4L	17	2h 09m 11s
9	20	R. Curlewis	MG TB / MG 1.3L	17	2h 09m 57s
Ret	23	R. W. Manser	MG N MG N-Type The MG N-type Magnette was produced by the MG Car company from October 1934 to 1936. The car was developed from the K-Type and L-Type but had a new chassis that broke away in design from the simple ladder type used on the earlier cars of the 1930s being wider at the rear than the front and with the...  / MG 1.3L	14
Ret		J. O'Dea	MG P / MG 0.8L	14
Ret	24	Russell Bowes	MG N MG N-Type The MG N-type Magnette was produced by the MG Car company from October 1934 to 1936. The car was developed from the K-Type and L-Type but had a new chassis that broke away in design from the simple ladder type used on the earlier cars of the 1930s being wider at the rear than the front and with the...  / MG 1.3L	10
Ret	25	Jack Boughton	Morgan 4/4 Morgan 4/4 Morgan 4/4 was the Morgan Motor Company's first car with four wheels. It appeared in 1936. Its model designation "4-4" stood for four wheels and four cylinders. Earlier Morgans had been three-wheelers, only, typically with V-twin engines...  / Coventry Climax Coventry Climax Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer.-History:The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed to Coventry-Simplex by H...  1.1L	10
Ret	13	Tim Joshua	Frazer Nash Frazer Nash Frazer Nash was a British sports car manufacturer and engineering company founded by Archibald Frazer-Nash in 1922. It produced sports cars incorporating a unique multi-chain transmission before World War II and also imported BMW cars to the UK. After the war it continued producing sports cars with...  / Meadows Henry Meadows Henry Meadows of Wolverhampton, England were major suppliers of engines and transmissions, to the smaller companies in the British motor industry...  1.5L	7
Ret	31	J. Wilson	MG L MG L-Type The MG L-type was produced by the MG Car company in 1933 and 1934.This 2 door sports car used a smaller version of the 6 cylinder overhead camshaft, crossflow engine which now had a capacity of 1086 cc with a bore of 57 mm and stroke of 71 mm and produced at 5500 rpm. It was...  / MG 1.1L	7
Ret	16	C. R. E. Downing	Riley Brooklands / 1.5L	5
Ret	4	Frank Kleinig	Kleinig-Hudson 8 Special / Hudson Hudson Motor Car Company The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors. The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was dropped.- Company strategy...  4.2L	3
DNS	7	Alan Sinclair	Sunbeam Special
DNS	10	Colin Dunne	MG K3 / MG s/c 1.1L
DNS	11	Jim Gullan	Ballot Ballot (automobile) Ballot was a French automobile manufacturer who made cars between 1921 and 1932.The Ballot brothers, Edouard and Maurice, founded their company in 1905. Before World War I they manufactured automobile and marine engines. The company was re-founded as Etablissements Ballot SA in 1910.Edouard...
DNS	21	John Summers	MG N MG N-Type The MG N-type Magnette was produced by the MG Car company from October 1934 to 1936. The car was developed from the K-Type and L-Type but had a new chassis that broke away in design from the simple ladder type used on the earlier cars of the 1930s being wider at the rear than the front and with the...  / MG 1.3L