RS Motorsport :: Classic Speed Restored

Just read that Fred Gocentas, legendary navigator / co-driver has passed away after a long illness .

Sat alongside Greg Carr in the 70's and 80's in Ford Escorts, Fiats and the odd Lancia. Then sat in with Ross Dunkerton with Ralliart Mitsubishi in the 90's. Recently he was helping out many youngsters getting into the sport. I had the chance to talk to him at the Alpine 2011 and he was very gracious
we had photos with IYK Helen and Myself

RIP Freddy, you will be missed.

John

very sad to hear about FREDDY "da winch"
i was only about 15 yrs old when i did
the opposite lock school of navigation
with freddy as our mentor ,he taught me so much .
it used to amaze me how quiet & unasuming he was in real life
he always reminded me of ben lexan
may all your calls be Straight On & Flat Out over Crest
R,I,P
Fred Godsentus
Ford works team navigator
& multipule australian rally champion !

from brindabella motorsport forum

Australian rallying has lost one of its greats.

I had the pleasure of being invited to a party at Freddie's just after moving to Canberra in 1974. By that time, he was already one of the highly-respected co-drivers, with a very impressive list of results. These included winning the Alpine with Grahame Elliot in 1971, and just missing out on winning Bega with Peter Lang in '74, by one point. This was a guy who operated at the sharp end of serious competition, was able to tell a good story, yet was never pretentious. You had to sit around and listen to others to learn just how good Freddie was in the left hand seat.

Freddie was not scared by scary cars. He navigated for Bruce Hodgson in the Phase 4 GTHO in the '73 Alpine, and for Ed Mulligan in the L34 Torana at Bega in '75 and '76. There were scurrilous stories that, far from being overwhelmed by these beasts (the cars, not the drivers!), Freddie was known to beat his drivers about the head with his route instructions if he felt they were not trying hard enough!

1975 saw Freddie sitting beside Andrew Cowan in the works Lancer, winning the Southern Cross, and backing up a year later for another win. At the same time he was making his mark in Castrols, and formed his famously successful partnership with Greg Carr in the Escort. Amongst many outstanding results with Greg, this led to Freddie being second-placed co-driver in the ARC in both '78 and '79.

In 1979, Greg and Freddie went "seriously international", competing in the RAC Rally in the UK. This was the era when the RAC was still a worthwhile event: running for several days the length and breadth of the UK, daytime and night, gravel and bitumen, with the cream of world rallying competitors.

During the 1980s it was getting harder to keep in touch with Freddie. He had spread his wings to the Asia-Pacific championship, and by the 1990s he was frequently competing in WRC events in works or semi-works cars and with more top-line drivers: Dunkerton, Shinozuka, Taguchi, etc. In 2000 he found his way to the Middle East, competing in Qatar and Bahrain.

The classic rally mob make a bit of a fuss about the "golden years" of rallying. Freddie was not only a star of those golden years, but went on to higher levels of competition, and with a great deal of success. He was a very important person to have in a team, because of what he contributed to the team as a whole. Most importantly of all, he was a good bloke.

Back in the golden years (i.e. pre-1980), Spokes magazine was privileged to have a number of witty contributors. One of them decided to rewrite the famous poem "Desiderata" - the one that starts "Go placidly among the noise and haste ...." The rewrite was advice to co-drivers, essentially encouraging them to keep their heads when all about them was turning to chaos. The final line was rewritten as:

"Strive to be Gocentas".

That was over 30 years ago.