The Holden Dealer Team (HDT) was
Holden
Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...
's semi-official racing team from 1969 until
1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal ente ...
, primarily contesting Australian
Touring Car
Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof).
"Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s.
Th ...
events but also
rallying
Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...
,
rallycross and
Sports Sedan races during the 1970s. From 1980 the Holden Dealer Team, by then under the ownership of
Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
, diversified into producing modified road-going
Commodores
Commodores are an American funk and soul band, which were at their peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in ...
and other Holden cars for selected dealers via HDT Special Vehicles.
After Holden terminated its association with Brock's businesses in February 1987, the team became the factory
BMW team racing
M3s race team in
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
. Further into 1988, Brock sold off his HDT Special Vehicles road car business, which has nevertheless, under various ownership, continued to modify Holden vehicles to this current day.
The Firth years
After showing an increasing interest in motorsport during the 1960s, Holden decided to form a team to enter both Touring Car and Rally events in 1969. However, Holden's parent company,
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
forbade its manufacturers from officially entering
motor sport
''Motor Sport'' is a monthly motor racing magazine, founded in the United Kingdom in 1924
as the ''Brooklands Gazette''. The name was changed to ''Motor Sport'' for the August 1925 issue. The magazine covers motor sport in general, although from ...
circuit racing events worldwide. Holden was able to circumvent this directive by naming its team the ‘Holden Dealer Team’ which was officially owned by its dealers. In reality Holden bankrolled the entire operation and Holden executive John Bagshaw, who was the driving force behind the establishment of the team, created the financial framework which allowed the HDT to be funded without Detroit's knowledge. Holden appointed former
Ford Works Team manager
Harry Firth
Henry Leslie Firth (18 April 1918 – 27 April 2014) was an Australian racing driver and team manager. Firth was a leading race and rally driver during the 1950s and 1960s and continued as an influential team manager with first the Ford works ...
to run the operation.
The Holden Dealer Team's race debut was made at the
1969 Sandown 3 Hour
The 1969 Sandown Three Hour Datsun Trophy Race was an endurance race for Series Production Touring Cars staged at the Sandown circuit in Victoria, Australia on 14 September 1969.Official Programme, Sandown, Sunday 14 September 1969 It was the four ...
.
[Rare historic HDT Monaro on market, v8sleuth.com.au]
Retrieved 26 September 2017 A single
Holden Monaro GTS350
The Holden Monaro ( ) is a rear-wheel drive coupé manufactured by General Motors Holden in Australia from 1968 to 1975 and later reintroduced from 2001 to 2005. It was also manufactured as a 4-door sedan from 1973 to 1977.
Three generations of ...
was entered for
Kevin Bartlett and
Spencer Martin, the car retiring after suffering brake problems, crashing and catching fire.
[
Harry Firth hired six drivers to contest the ]1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500
The 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 was the tenth running of the Bathurst 500 production car race. It was held on 5 October 1969 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. Cars competed in five classes based on ...
for the Holden Dealer Team including two talented, but relatively untested, drivers in Colin Bond
Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...
and Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
. These two would form the backbone of the team over the next few years. The team's three HT Monaro GTS350’s tasted success, finishing first and third, with Bond winning with co-driver Tony Roberts, while Brock finished third with Des West.
Concerned at the ongoing development of rival Ford's V8 powered XW Falcon GTHO Phase I, in 1970 Firth opted to run a much smaller race car based upon the Holden Torana
The Holden Torana is a mid-sized car that was manufactured by Holden from 1967 to 1980. The name apparently comes from an word meaning "to fly" in an unconfirmed Aboriginal Australian language. The original HB series Torana was released in 19 ...
with a 6-cylinder engine. The LC Torana GTR XU-1 was a match for the larger and more powerful Falcon GT-HO at most circuits, but at Bathurst, with its long straight and steep 'mountain' climb, the car was less competitive, and Ford's Allan Moffat
Allan George Moffat OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins in the Sandown 500 and his four win ...
dominated both the 1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
and 1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6).
The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history.
Events
Ja ...
Bathurst events. However, in the wet 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500
The 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500 was an endurance motor race open to Group E Series Production Touring Cars. The race was held on 1 October 1972 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. Cars competed in f ...
the Holden Dealer Team with its LJ Torana GTR XU-1 broke through Ford's domination, with Peter Brock winning the first of his nine Bathurst victories in a solo drive in the last of Bathurst's 500-mile Series Production race formats During Firths time at HDT Brock had his day winning Bathurst in 1975 on a dry track in his No. 05 Holden L34. This was a win for HDT as well for they masterminded the fastest Holden ever built the L34. The HDT developed L34 got 1st, 2nd, and 3rd that year and the first 7 places in 1976. Never had Holden been so dominant at the mountain. The A9X used the L34 motor for its victories as well as the HDT Commodores. The big brake light car concept brought about by Firth with high-performance small motor dominated Holden's thinking moving from the cumbersome Kingswoods to the Torana-like fleet of foot Commodore of the eighties.
Rallying and Rallycross
Holden had been supporting rally adventures since the early 1960s and had made use of the brand's successes in its advertising ... support had often been arranged via dedicated state 'dealer' teams, however, it was not until 1969 that the whole arena of rallying and Holden motorsport, in general, was grouped together under the management of Harry Firth and the Holden Dealer Team. The new team kicked off in August 1969 with Harry himself behind the wheel of an HT Monaro GTS 253
__NOTOC__
Year 253 ( CCLIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Volusianus and Claudius (or, less frequently, year 100 ...
rally car, but he soon after announced his retirement from active driving, handing over the rally Monaro to his old rival, Barry Ferguson. Colin Bond and Tony Roberts, both of whom had considerable previous rallying experience, then joined in as additional members of the rally team.
In 1970, the rally team ran a Monaro GTS 350 for Bond whilst Ferguson and Roberts each drove the new Torana GTRs. As the team progressed, Colin Bond in partnership with George Shepheard won the Australian Rally Championship
The Australia Rally Championship (ARC) is Australia's leading road motor rally competition. A multi-event national championship has been held each year since 1968.
Competition - to 2010
The Australia Rally Championship takes in some of the c ...
three times in 1971, 1972 and 1974 driving the LC Torana GTR XU-1 and later the LJ Torana GTR XU-1 while team mates Peter Lang and Warwick Smith won in 1973 making for four consecutive titles for the HDT. During this period, Peter Brock proved himself to be very successful in Rallycross races at Calder Park Raceway
Calder Park Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The complex includes a dragstrip, a road circuit with several possible configurations, and the "Thunderdome", a high-speed banked oval equipped to race either clo ...
in Victoria, Catalina Park
Catalina Park is a disused motor racing venue, located at Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia, and is recognised as an Aboriginal Place due to the long association of the local Gundungarra and Darug clans to the area.
...
in New South Wales and in Mallala in South Australia, driving HDT's famous Holden Torana GTR called "The Beast". In Brock's hands this supercharged
In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement.
The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...
version of a LC Torana GTR proved virtually unbeatable. At the time Brock was sweeping all before him in Rallycross, young team mechanic, test driver and sometime race driver Larry Perkins
Larry Clifton Perkins (born 18 March 1950) is a former racing driver and V8 Supercar team owner from Australia.
Biography Early years
Growing up on a farm in Cowangie in the Mallee region of Victoria, Larry, the son of racing driver Eddi ...
also raced Rallycross with the HDT with some success.
LJ Torana GTR XU-1 V8
In 1972, Harry Firth began developing a V8-engined
A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration.
The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and use ...
version of the LJ Torana GTR XU-1, to be able to compete with Ford's anticipated XA Falcon GT-HO (Phase IV) and Chrysler
Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...
's mooted 340 cui V8 Charger
Charger or Chargers may refer to:
* Charger (table setting), decorative plates used to fancify a place setting
* Battery charger, a device used to put energy into a cell or battery
* Capacitor charger, typically a high voltage DC power supply ...
at Bathurst (Chrysler continue to this day to say that the Charger R/T V8 was a myth and that their intention was to continue with the 265 cui Hemi-6, but Ford's GT-HO Phase IV was no myth as 4 examples were built with two surviving as of 2015). The first V8 Torana was fitted with the small block 253 cui (4.2L) V8, but this was soon upgraded to the 308 cui (5.0L) version. This car was built to Series Production rules at the time but Harry Firth had Colin Bond race the car, disguised as a Sports Sedan, at the 1972 Easter ATCC race meeting at Bathurst. Bond took an easy victory in the five lap support race with a lap time some four seconds faster than the team's 6-cylinder Series car ran on the same day. Production plans were terminated following the 'Supercar scare
The Supercar scare was a national controversy that arose in Australia in 1972 in regard to the sale to the public of high performance "homologation special" versions of Australian-built passenger cars.
The reason
Despite the popular belief of ...
' of June/July 1972.
The road handling of the V8 XU-1 remains a contentious point. While Firth maintained until his death in 2014 (at the age of 96) that the V8 actually handled better than the 6 cyl XU-1, his rival at the Ford Works Team, Howard Marsden, believed that the V8 would have brake issues due to its greater speed, as well as other handling problems (with Firth making a similar counter-claim about the Phase IV). While Firth continually dismissed this, Marsden's claims were later backed up by Peter Brock who also raced the car in sports sedans. Brock claimed that while the V8 was faster in a straight line, its handling was in fact terrible due to the extra weight and that the XU-1's chassis was never built to take the greater torque of the V8 engine. Brock also told that the first time both he and Colin Bond used full acceleration in the car in testing, the greater torque of the V8 actually cracked the windscreen.
Of the four V8 XU-1 prototypes built, none survived as Holden crashed them in an effort to re-coup the costs involved in its development. Firth claimed that he personally lost some A$55,000 of his own money on the cars with the HDT carrying out almost all of the development work.
LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 and LX Torana A9X
In 1974 Holden was able to keep the V8 engine eligible for racing when it released the larger, but significantly more powerful LH Torana SL/R 5000. Peter Brock dominated the Australian Touring Car Championship
The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the trophy ...
that year, using both a LJ-series GTR XU-1 and then the new LH-series SL/R 5000. Both Brock and Bond suffered engine problems with the new L34 version of the SL/R 5000 at the Sandown 250 and the Bathurst 1000
The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most recen ...
in 1974. Engine problems put the Brock/Sampson Sampson may refer to:
Military
* , several Royal Navy ships
* , several US Navy ships
* Sampson-class destroyer, a World War I US Navy class
* Sampson Air Force Base, near Seneca Lake, New York, closed in 1956
* SAMPSON, a multi-function radar ...
car out on lap 118 of the Bathurst race when it was six laps in front, while the Bond/ Bob Skelton car was black flagged for an oil leak which lost the car time and they eventually finished in fourth place. Despite these failures in the two high-profile endurance races for the year, Holden, thanks largely to the Dealer Team, did win the 1974 Australian Manufacturers' Championship The 1974 Australian Manufacturers' Championship was an Australian motor racing competition for Group C Touring Cars.Conditions for Australian Titles, 1974 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 84 to 89 It was authorised by Confederation of Australian Mo ...
after Bond had won Round 1 in Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
(Chesterfield 250), Round 4 at Surfers Paradise
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
(Chesterfield 300) and the final round at Phillip Island
Phillip Island (Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explorer ...
( Repco 500K).
1974 also saw Dick Johnson make his one and only start for the HDT when he drove the team's spare LJ GTR XU-1 Torana (#2) in Round 6 of the ATCC at Surfers Paradise
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
on 19 May. Johnson, who in the 1980s would become a Ford folk hero and one of the Dealer Team's chief rivals, finished third in the race won by Brock with Bob Morris finishing second.
At the end of the 1974 season Brock left the HDT team, whilst Colin Bond continued on as the team's sole circuit racing driver. The L34 option was homologated for racing in 1975 which cured the V8's oil surge problems and Bond went on to win the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship
The 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title open to Group C Touring Cars.Conditions for Australian Titles, 1975 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 84 to 89 The championship began at Symmons Pl ...
whilst also competing in rally events for HDT in a LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34. While the L34 solved the engine problems, the Torana still had one major weak spot in that the axles on the car were easily broken. In later years drivers such as Bond, Brock, Bob Morris and Allan Grice
Allan Maxwell Grice (born 21 October 1942), known to motor-racing fans as "Gricey", is an Australian former racing driver and politician, most famous for twice winning the prestigious Bathurst 1000 (1986 and 1990), and as a privateer driver of ...
would all tell how carefully they had to drive the cars in order for them to finish races.
HDT's circuit racing presence returned to a two-car status for 1976, initially with South Australian Formula 5000
Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars tha ...
driver Johnnie Walker
Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended ...
joining the team, but following his departure along came former speedway
Speedway may refer to:
Racing Race tracks
*Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta
*Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana
Types of races and race cours ...
and open wheel
An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...
driver John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
* John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
* John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
who would remain with the team until its split from Holden in early 1987. In 1977, Colin Bond departed HDT to join Allan Moffat's semi-works " Moffat Ford Dealers" team where he went on to finish second behind Moffat in both the ATCC and at Bathurst that year. In 1977, John Harvey became the HDT's principal driver with young Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, established_ ...
er Charlie O'Brien
Charles Hugh O'Brien (born May 1, 1960) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Oakland Athletics (1985), Milwaukee Brewers (1987–90), New York Mets (1990–93), Atlanta Bra ...
signed to drive the team's second car.
The 1977 touring car racing season also saw the debut of the LX Torana, the new A9X performance option replacing the L34 version and available in both four-door "SL/R 5000" sedan and two-door "SS 5.0" hatchback body types. Other than the hatchback body, the most visual difference between the L34 and the A9X was that the A9X had a rear-facing bonnet scoop designed to feed cool air to the engine resulting in more horsepower. However, due to teething troubles with this new homologation special, the Holden Dealer Team struggled against the two-car Moffat Ford Dealers team, with Allan Moffat winning both the 1977 ATCC title and also the big one, the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst, though Peter Brock, driving for former racer and Melbourne Holden dealer Bill Patterson, gave the A9X Hatchback a dream racing debut when his privately entered car won the 1977 Hang Ten 400 at Sandown Park
Sandown Park is a horse racing course and leisure venue in Esher, Surrey, England, located in the outer suburbs of London. It hosts 5 Grade One National Hunt races and one Group 1 flat race, the Eclipse Stakes. It regularly has horse racing ...
.
After a solid eight years as team manager of the HDT, and a 29-year career in motor racing that had begun with preparing the 1948 Australian Grand Prix
The 1948 Australian Grand Prix was a motor race held at the Point Cook Aerodrome,Programme, Australian Grand Prix, Australia Day 26 January 1948, Point Cook Aerodrome a Royal Australian Air Force base at Point Cook, just outside Melbourne in Victo ...
winning BMW 328
The BMW 328 was a sports car offered by BMW from 1936 to 1940, with the body design credited to Peter Szymanowski, who became BMW chief of design after World War II (although technically the car was designed by Fritz Fiedler).
Specifications
...
for Frank Pratt, 59-year-old Harry Firth retired at the end of the 1977 season. He later told how he had become increasingly frustrated that Holden weren't listening to his advice on what was needed to be successful in Australian touring car racing. Firth would go on to be the chief CAMS scrutineer
A scrutineer (also called a poll-watcher or a challenger in the United States) is a person who observes any process which requires rigorous oversight. Scrutineers have the tasks of preventing the occurrence of corruption and of detecting genuine ...
for touring cars from 1978 to 1981 alongside Frank Lowndes, the father of Craig Lowndes
Craig Andrew Lowndes (born 21 June 1974) is an Australian racing driver in the Repco Supercars Championship competing in the Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He is also a TV commentator.
Lowndes is a three-time V8 Supe ...
.
Sports Sedans
The Holden Dealer Team debuted a Sports Sedan
A sports sedan (also known as sports saloon in British English) is a subjective term for a sedan car that is designed to have sporting performance or handling characteristics.
History
The term was originally introduced in the 1930s an ...
in 1973, the car using a Repco
Repco is an Australian automotive engineering/retailer company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and was for many years known for reconditioning engines and for specialized manufacturing, for which they gained a high ...
Holden Formula 5000 engine in a Holden LJ Torana
The Holden Torana is a mid-sized car that was manufactured by Holden from 1967 to 1980. The name apparently comes from an word meaning "to fly" in an unconfirmed Aboriginal Australian language. The original HB series Torana was released in 1 ...
body.[Bondy’s Bathurst Beast…, 12 October 2016, primotipo.com]
Retrieved 6 October 2017 The car was driven by Colin Bond
Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...
and Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
.[
The 1976 season saw Bond (who continued to live in Sydney despite the team being based in Melbourne), and his mechanics build a lightweight LH Torana ]Sports Sedan
A sports sedan (also known as sports saloon in British English) is a subjective term for a sedan car that is designed to have sporting performance or handling characteristics.
History
The term was originally introduced in the 1930s an ...
powered by a Formula 5000
Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars tha ...
sourced Repco-Holden
Repco is an Australian automotive engineering/retailer company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and was for many years known for reconditioning engines and for specialized manufacturing, for which they gained a high r ...
V8 engine to race in the inaugural
In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inaugur ...
Australian Sports Sedan Championship
The National Series for Sports Sedans, formerly the Australian Sports Sedan Championship, is a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title for drivers of cars complying with Australian Sports Sedan regulations. This class, essentially a silhou ...
. Due to a quirk in the rules for Sports Sedan racing in Australia, the Torana was restricted to an engine size of just 5.0 litres, while its main opposition (Ian Geoghegan
Ian "Pete" Geoghegan, (26 April 1939 – 15 November 2003) was an Australian race car driver, known for a quick wit and natural driving skills. Sometimes referred to as "Pete" Geoghegan, he was one of the iconic characters of the 1960s and 197 ...
and Bob Jane
Robert Frederick Jane (18 December 1929 – 28 September 2018) was an Australian race car driver and prominent entrepreneur and business tycoon. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a ...
in their HQ Monaro GTS 350's, Allan Moffat's Chevrolet Monza
The Chevrolet Monza is a subcompact automobile produced by Chevrolet for the 1975 through 1980 model years. The Monza is based on the Chevrolet Vega, sharing its wheelbase, width, and standard inline-four engine. The car was designed to accommoda ...
and the Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a series of American automobiles manufactured by Ford. In continuous production since 1964, the Mustang is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Currently in its sixth generation, it is the fifth-best selli ...
of New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
's Jim Richards) were all allowed to run engines up to 6.0 L in capacity. The rule was that cars which had engines of no more than 5.0 L in road going form could only race with a maximum capacity engine of 5.0 L. As the largest engine in the Torana road car range was the 5.0 L 308 V8 engine, this restricted the Torana to using a 5.0 L engine. Bond and his team in Sydney paid for the build costs of the car but ran it under the HDT banner and painted it in the team's Marlboro
Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Marl ...
sponsors colours, though as he told in ''Australian Muscle Car'' magazine in 2015, Harry Firth had done a deal with the various track promoters around the country which paid him appearance money for the car but meant there was very little (if any) prize money left over for Bond. The car only appeared in two rounds of the seven round series, qualifying on pole at Sandown (1.1 seconds faster than Geoghegan despite a power disadvantage on what was a known power circuit), before finishing 3rd behind Moffat and Geoghegan in both heats, and again finishing 3rd in the next round at Oran Park. Despite this, Bond finished equal sixth in the series with Geoghegan.
After Bond left the team at the end of 1976 to join Allan Moffat Racing
Allan Moffat Racing was an Australian motor racing team owned by multiple-championship winning Canadian-Australian racing driver Allan Moffat. The team was highly successful, winning races on three continents including three Australian Touring ...
, the Torana was brought to Melbourne where driver/engineer Ron Harrop was given the job of preparing and driving the car. Harrop changed a few things on the car, which from 1977 was re-painted to mirror the look of the team's touring cars. He would drive the Torana in various events throughout 1977 and into 1978, though it was Peter Brock who last drove it for the team at Melbourne's Calder Park in mid-1978 before it was sold.
The Torana ended up in the hands of Casino sports sedan racer Geoff Russell who campaigned the car in the Australian Sports Sedan Championship as well as sports sedan races at Sydney's tight Amaroo Park
Amaroo Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day north-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1967, the road circuit served as a venue for a variety of competitions including t ...
circuit. Russell later sold the Torana to fellow Sydney racer Des Wall who retained the car until his death. The Torana is currently owned by Des' racer son David Wall who by 2015 had fully restored the car to its 1977 specification and livery.
John Sheppard takes over
John Sheppard took over as HDT team manager following Firth's retirement and one of his first moves was to bring Peter Brock back to the team. Holden had originally wanted to bring Brock back in 1976, though Harry Firth had vetoed the move when he found that Holden were allegedly willing to pay Brock A$40,000 which Firth claimed was twice as much as what he was being paid as team manager. It was a wise decision by Sheppard for Brock dominated the season, becoming the first driver to win the 'triple crown' of the Touring Car Championship, the Hang Ten 400 at Sandown and the Hardie-Ferodo 1000 (with Jim Richards) at Bathurst. He was initially given the team's 4-Door A9X to drive in the opening round at Sandown while John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
* John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
* John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
drove the only Hatchback available at the time. Brock was given a new hatchback Torana to drive for the rest of the season.
Soon after Sheppard took over the team in 1978, the HDT was forced to re-build their new A9X Torana's as CAMS new chief scrutineer Harry Firth refused to pass them for racing. When Sheppard protested that the rules had not changed and that the cars were actually the 1977 cars built by the team when Firth was the boss, Harry waved off the protest as he knew what he had done with the cars and knew they were not legal.
Brock was narrowly defeated by privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
Torana driver Bob Morris for the 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship
The 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title open to Group C Touring Cars.Conditions for Australian Titles, 1979 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pp. 96–97. It began at Symmons Plains and ended a ...
, but went on to dominate the Hardie-Ferodo 1000. Brock qualified on pole position
In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...
, he and Richards lead every lap of the race, Brock set a new lap record on the very last lap of the race (which would not be broken until 1982
Events January
* January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00).
* January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...
) and they won by a massive six-lap margin. Brock's pole time of 2:20.500 was also 1.966-second faster than Morris who was second on the grid.
Before Bathurst, the Holden Dealer Team also entered a three-car Commodore
Commodore may refer to:
Ranks
* Commodore (rank), a naval rank
** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom
** Commodore (United States)
** Commodore (Canada)
** Commodore (Finland)
** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore''
* Air commodore, a ...
team in the 20,000 km Repco
Repco is an Australian automotive engineering/retailer company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and was for many years known for reconditioning engines and for specialized manufacturing, for which they gained a high ...
Round Australia Trial
The Round Australia Trial was a long distance rally (a form of motorsport that takes place on public or private roads), which was run on multiple occasions between 1953 and 1998, circumnavigating Australia. Its early years were tremendously popular ...
which started and finished at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds
Melbourne Showgrounds is located in the inner north-western suburb of Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia, next door to Flemington Racecourse. The largest and most flexible indoor/outdoor venue space in Melbourne the Showgrounds is the home of the an ...
and travelled clockwise around the country over some of the most inhospitable terrain imaginable. The team used the VB model Commodore which were powered by the 3.3L (202 cui), 6 cyl Holden Red motor The Holden straight-six motor is a series of straight-six engine that were produced by General Motors Holden at their Port Melbourne plant between 1948 and 1986. The initial ''Grey'' motor was so dubbed because of the colour of the cylinder block, ...
previously used in the XU-1 Torana's (the six was chosen over the more powerful V8 due to their much lighter weight). Anxious to prove the then new cars reliability, the cars were perfectly prepared and finished first, second and third. Brock, who won the event along with co-drivers Matt Phillip and Noel Richards, has cited this event as his career highlight as it was an event in which many motor racing experts throughout Australia, as well as the media, did not believe he would do well in despite his previous rally and rallycross exploits.
The Brock era
Despite the success, by 1980 Holden was ready to pull the pin on the Dealer Team. Holden believed that since Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
had pulled out of touring car racing at the end of 1978, there was no longer any point in competing against privateer teams driving Holden cars, and they put the team up for sale. As a result of Holden quitting, John Sheppard also quit as team boss and Vin Kean purchased the team, and financed it.
He called on Holden dealers to support him, with the major support coming from Vin Kean in Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
who could see a market for "hotter" versions of the road-going Commodore. In return for providing assistance, Vin would build a special range of modified, high performance Commodores at his Richmond road adelaide premises and provided them for the dealers to add to their range, though the cars were only available through the 54 other dealers around Australia who had agreed to help Vin Kean finance the operation (see section on HDT Special Vehicles below). For the first time, the team really was a 'Dealer Team' rather than a back-door factory team. While Vin was the boss of both the race team and the Special Vehicles operation, he hired Peter Brock to be the front man HDT driver John Harvey as the Special Vehicles workshop manager. Vin Kean was also able to keep the team's sponsors on board including major sponsor Marlboro
Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Marl ...
and minor sponsors Castrol
Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for com ...
, AC Plugs & Filters, Bridgestone
is a Japanese multinational tire manufacturer founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi (1889–1976) in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of , meaning 'stone bridge' in Japan ...
and TAA Airlines. According to Vin he and the team went to the first round of the 1980 ATCC at Symmons Plains in Tasmania with no major sponsor. The car was painted in Marlboro colours, but Marlboro's parent company Philip Morris International
Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational tobacco company, with products sold in over 180 countries. The most recognized and best selling product of the company is Marlboro. Philip Morris I ...
had yet to commit to the new team. Brock ran the new VB Commodore with the sponsors signs on the premise of showing them that the team would carry on its winning ways of the 1970s and after claiming pole and scoring a dominant win at Symmons, Phillip Morris committed to the deal.
Despite the off track changes, the Holden Dealer Team remained as competitive as ever in 1980, with Brock claiming his second and last 'triple crown'. During the final months of 1979 the team had been secretly testing and developing a VB Commodore with a view to the new rules of 1980. This led to a situation where Brock and the HDT virtually had the only race ready car for the start of the 1980 ATCC, which had to conform to CAMS new engine emission regulations which meant the Toranas and Falcons of previous years were out (or had to be significantly modified, running drum brakes on the rear wheels instead of 4 wheel discs and the "low emission" engine heads which produced less power), and the new Commodore and XD Falcon model were in. Other cars had come on during the year, namely the new European style Falcon and the American Chevrolet Camaro Z28
The Chevrolet Camaro is a mid-size American automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, classified as a pony car. It first went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed to compete with the Ford Mustang. The Camaro sh ...
with its powerful 5.7-litre V8. This time the HDT's Bathurst adventure was less straightforward. After only qualifying 3rd behind the Camaro of Kevin Bartlett and Falcon of Dick Johnson (the first time all year the No. 05 Commodore did not claim pole position), Brock chased Johnson's XD Falcon early in the race. Then on lap 15 Brock collided with a small class Isuzu Gemini
The Isuzu Gemini is a subcompact car produced by the Japanese automaker Isuzu from 1974 until 2000. The same basic product was built and/or sold under several other names, sometimes by other General Motors brands, in various markets around the wo ...
on top of the mountain causing an unscheduled pit stop. The damage was only minor but Brock went a lap down soon after leaving the pits and rejoining the track. Within half a lap however, Johnson hit a rock on the top of the mountain and was out of the race, and Brock and Jim Richards fought their way back and by the end of Brock's extended opening stint he was back in the lead and they went on to score their 3rd straight win (and Brock's 5th) while team mates John Harvey and driver/engineer Ron Harrop failed to finish after engine failure. Ironically, Harvey's engine blew just as Channel 7's camera's were following the No. 25 car across the top of The Mountain with commentator Mike Raymond praising the HDT's reliability record. Brock's extended opening stint of the race would later mean Richards actually took the chequered flag. It would be the only time Brock would not do so in his 9 Bathurst victories.
While the Holden Dealer Team was unable to win another Touring Car Championship, the team maintained its excellent Bathurst record over the next few years. Brock won Bathurst again in 1982
Events January
* January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00).
* January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...
with former Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
driver Larry Perkins
Larry Clifton Perkins (born 18 March 1950) is a former racing driver and V8 Supercar team owner from Australia.
Biography Early years
Growing up on a farm in Cowangie in the Mallee region of Victoria, Larry, the son of racing driver Eddi ...
who had been a mechanic/driver with the HDT in the early 1970s under Harry Firth before embarking on a career in Europe until returning home in 1977. Perkins was hired by Brock in 1982 to prepare the race cars and co-drive with the boss in the endurance races. The HDT again won Bathurst in 1983
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...
, though it was under somewhat controversial circumstances. The rules at the time permitted 'cross-entering' which meant that after Brock's pole winning car dropped out on only lap 8 with an engine failure, both Brock and Perkins transferred into John Harvey's car, leaving Peter's younger brother Phil, who was to be Harvey's co-driver, without a drive. The trio then went on to win the race in what was actually the 1982 race winning VH Commodore SS. The controversy was that although the rules permitted drivers cross-entering in other cars and indeed this had actually been seen previously, it was the first time that car swapping had resulted in winning the race. For 1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
, which was the last year for CAMS locally developed Group C
Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs.
It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...
touring car regulations, Brock and Perkins made it three in a row and the team made it a 1–2 the No. 25 car of John Harvey and new recruit David Parsons (who was in the car at the finish) crossed the line right behind, but 2 laps back, Brock in a form finish.
During 1984, members of the Holden Dealer Team, including drivers Bathurst winning co-drivers Brock and Perkins, launched an assault on the 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1984 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 52nd Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 16 – 17 June 1984. It was also the third round of the 1984 World Endurance Championship.
The works Rothmans Porsche team boycotted the 1984 Le Mans rac ...
in France driving a , Porsche 956
The Porsche 956 was a Group C sports-prototype racing car designed by Norbert Singer and built by Porsche in 1982 for the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was later upgraded to the 956B in 1984. In 1983, driven by Stefan Bellof, this car est ...
B supplied by 1976 Bathurst winner John Fitzpatrick and sponsored by former ATCC and Bathurst champion, retail tyre entrepreneur Bob Jane
Robert Frederick Jane (18 December 1929 – 28 September 2018) was an Australian race car driver and prominent entrepreneur and business tycoon. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a ...
. Running under the name of "Team Australia", the team also ran in the lead up race to the event, the 1000 km race at the Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Towcester, Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 ...
in England where they finished 22nd (second last) after losing a lot of time in the pits early in the race repairing a broken rear upright. At Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
Perkins qualified the Porsche in 15th position. As a former Formula 1
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
driver, Perkins was the name driver as far as the sports car
A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...
and formula racing
Formula racing (known as open-wheel racing in North America) is any of several forms of open-wheeled single-seater motorsport. The origin of the term lies in the nomenclature that was adopted by the FIA for all of its post-World War II single- ...
oriented European motoring press were concerned. In a complete reversal of the situation in Australia, Brock was regarded by the media merely as a saloon car driver from the Antipodes who was along for the ride. Perkins started the race and along with Brock had the car up to 5th place after a few hours before being forced to spend some 45 minutes in the pits after the car lost a wheel during Brock's second stint, putting them out of winning contention. The team fought back and were still hopeful of a respectable finish when their race came to an end at just before 2 am after Perkins crashed the car in the Esses after a clash with the Brun Motorsport {{Unsourced, date=December 2016
Brun Motorsport GmbH was a Swiss auto racing team founded by driver Walter Brun in 1983. They competed as a Porsche privateer team in sports car racing for their entire existence, running in a multitude of internati ...
Porsche 956 of Massimo Sigala
Massimo Sigala (born 7 January 1951) is an Italian former racing driver and co-founder of the Trident Racing
Trident Racing is a motor racing team that competes in single-seater formula racing. It was founded in 2006 in order to compete in the ...
while trying to make up lost ground, the resulting damage put an end to Team Australia's race. Ironically, Perkins had clashed with the same 956 during practice, but the car was undamaged on that occasion.
After returning from Le Mans, the team had built two new VK model Commodore's for the end of season Australian Endurance Championship
The Australian Endurance Championship is an Australian motor racing title which has been awarded by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport in numerous years and for numerous categories since 1981.
History Touring cars
The title was first ...
races and the Group C support race at the Australian Grand Prix
The Australian Grand Prix is an annual motor racing event which is under contract to host Formula One until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Grand Prix has moved frequently with 23 different venu ...
at Calder. The cars were painted in Marlboro's "day-glo" colours and were regarded as the best looking of the Dealer Team's Commodores. Brock had noticed the Marlboro day-glo paint scheme on one of the rival Porsche 956's at Silverstone and had decided at that point that the HDT would use that same paint scheme on the Bathurst Commodores. Brock's own No. 05 won three of the four races it was entered in, the wins being the Castrol 500 at Sandown, the James Hardie 1000 and the Motorcraft 300 at Surfers Paradise
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
.
While it has been widely reported that the No. 05 VK Commodore was undefeated in Brock's hands, this is actually untrue. The car did finish first in all three Endurance Championship races it competed in, however Brock's fourth and last race in the car saw him finish second to the factory backed
In motorsports, a factory-backed racing team or driver is one sponsored by a vehicle manufacturer in official competitions. As motorsport competition is an expensive endeavor, some degree of factory support is desired and often necessary for suc ...
Nissan Bluebird Turbo
The is a compact car with a model name introduced in 1957. It has been Nissan's most internationally recognized sedan, in multiple body styles, and is known for its dependability and durability. The Bluebird originated from Nissan's first vehic ...
of George Fury
George Fury (born 31 January 1945, in Hungary) is a retired Australian rally and racing car driver. For the majority of his career Fury was associated with Nissan, twice winning the Australian Rally Championship, and twice runner up in the Aust ...
in the support race for the 1984 Australian Grand Prix
The 1984 Australian Grand Prix was a race for Formula Mondial racing cars, held at Calder Park Raceway in Victoria, Australia on 18 November 1984. It was contested over a distance of 160.9 km (100 laps x 1.609 km) or an even 100 mil ...
at Calder Park in Melbourne.
Group A
In 1985
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...
Australian touring car racing now ran under the FIA
FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used.
Fia or FIA may also refer to: People
* Fia Backst ...
's International Group A
Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived vehicles intended for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles w ...
formula, rather than the indigenous Group C production car regulations that had been in force since 1973. This led directly to the Holden Commodores becoming less competitive against the imported Nissan
, trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...
s, Volvo
The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...
s, BMWs and Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...
s. 1985 also saw a change in sponsorship for the team with Mobil
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
...
taking over as title sponsor from Marlboro
Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Marl ...
. Brock explained in a magazine interview that other than for financial reasons, the change of sponsor was partly motivated by the growing anti-smoking lobby in Australia (Brock himself had given up smoking in mid-1984 after becoming ill when he returned from Le Mans) with the team finding it harder to justify handing out posters to kids with Marlboro cigarette signage prominent.
The team's 1985 season started off in January with the Wellington 500
The Wellington 500 was a street race for touring cars which took place at Wellington City in Wellington, New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s. The 1987 event was a round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship.
The final running of the race w ...
and Pukekohe 500
The Pukekohe 500 was an endurance motor racing event first held in 1963 at Pukekohe Park Raceway, Pukekohe, New Zealand, Pukekohe, New Zealand.
History
The Pukekohe 500 had its origins in the W.D. & H.O. Wills, Wills Six-Hour race that was first ...
races in New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
where Brock and Perkins failed to figure in the results their under-developed Group A Commodore. Despite only one win during the 1985 season in the cars Australian debut which saw Brock win Round 2 of the 1985 ATCC at Sandown (the team missed the opening round at Winton as the car was still in transit from NZ), Brock nearly pulled off an upset podium at Bathurst, retiring due to a broken timing chain
In a piston engine, either a timing belt (also called a ''cambelt'') or timing chain or set of timing gears is used to synchronize the rotation of the crankshaft and the camshaft. This synchronisation ensures that the engine's valves open and clo ...
three laps from the end of the race while running a strong second behind the much more powerful, V12 V12 or V-12 may refer to:
Aircraft
* Mil V-12, a Soviet heavy lift helicopter
* Pilatus OV-12, a planned American military utility aircraft
* Rockwell XFV-12, an American experimental aircraft project
* Škoda-Kauba V12, a Czechoslovak experim ...
Jaguar XJS
The Jaguar XJ-S (later called XJS) is a luxury grand tourer manufactured and marketed by British car manufacturer Jaguar Cars from 1975 to 1996, in coupé, fixed-profile and full convertible bodystyles. There were three distinct iterations, w ...
, driven by 1974 Bathurst winner John Goss and German Armin Hahne
Armin Hahne (born September 10, 1955 in Moers, West Germany) is a German racing driver, best known for his exploits in touring car racing. The highpoint of his career was winning both the 1982 and 1983 Spa 24 Hours driving BMW's. Another highli ...
entered by European Touring Car Championship
The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World T ...
winners Tom Walkinshaw Racing
Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) was a motor racing team and engineering firm founded in 1976, in Kidlington, near Oxford, England, by touring car racer Tom Walkinshaw.
The company initially handled privateer work before entering works touring car r ...
(TWR). The single-row timing chain had been shown up throughout the year as a weak point of the Commodore's, something which would not cause a problem with the upgraded 1986 car which would have the more durable double-row timing chain.
By 1986, a homologated SS Group A version of the VK Commodore, originally intended to be released in 1985 but delayed due to the unavailability of parts which prevented HDT Special Vehicles from making the required 500 before 1 August homologation date, made the Commodore much more competitive, and Brock was able to sign longtime rival Allan Moffat
Allan George Moffat OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins in the Sandown 500 and his four win ...
to the team. The HDT, taking advantage of Group A regulations, also ran a car for Brock and Moffat in the 1986 FIA Touring Car Championship (formerly the European Touring Car Championship). Due to the liberal nature by which European regulators enforced the rules (and strong rumours that the TWR Rovers and the factory Volvo turbo's were nowhere near legal), the HDT was not as competitive as they hoped, but they still achieved some successes, such as co-winning the Kings Cup team's prize at the Spa 24 Hours
The 24 Hours of Spa is an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies.
History
The Spa 24 Hours was ...
with Allan Grice
Allan Maxwell Grice (born 21 October 1942), known to motor-racing fans as "Gricey", is an Australian former racing driver and politician, most famous for twice winning the prestigious Bathurst 1000 (1986 and 1990), and as a privateer driver of ...
's Australian Racing Team. The HDT's best FIATCC finish were 5th places in Round 2 at Donington Park
Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...
and Round 3 at Hockenheim
Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" () and Bertha Benz M ...
, but the car was generally out-paced by Grice's privately entered Commodore prepared by longtime Roadways Racing
Roadways Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian Touring Car racing in the 1980s. It also competed in the 1986 European Touring Car Championship.
Roadways Racing
Roadways Racing’s origins can be traced back to ...
chief mechanic/engineer, Les Small who had seen how the European teams operated and had followed suit.
Brock and John Harvey also contested the 1986 ATCC in their new Group A Commodore's, with Brock finishing as the highest placed Commodore driver in the series in 4th place. Brock's only win for the year was in Round 6 of the ATCC at Surfers Paradise. It would prove to be the final ATCC race win for a Holden until Brock won Heat 1 of Round 1 in 1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
at Amaroo Park. Brock and Moffat then teamed up in the Endurance Championship, finishing 6th at Surfers due to tyre problems, before Brock qualified the No. 05 Commodore on pole for the Castrol 500 at Sandown. The pair were favourites at Sandown, having won 12 of the previous 14 Sandown enduros between them. However minor problems in the race saw them finish a lap down in 4th place. They again went to Bathurst as favourites but missed out on a place in Hardies Heroes due to Moffat's crash on the top of The Mountain which resulted in the car needing a complete new front end. A strong run in the race with Brock moving form 11th to 2nd in the first 3 laps (though he was unable to catch Allan Grice for the lead) only saw the pair finish one lap down in 5th place largely thanks to a mid race pit stop which lost them over 2 laps due to a leaking oil cooler which had to be by-passed causing the 4.9-litre V8 to run hot for the rest of the race. The team's second car driven by John Harvey and 1986 team engineer/driver Neal Lowe finished 8th at Sandown before going on to finish in second place at Bathurst behind the Les Small prepared Commodore of Allan Grice and Graeme Bailey
Graeme Alfred Bailey (born 11 July 1943 in Ourimbah, New South Wales), is an Australian retired racing driver, best known as co-winner of the 1986 Bathurst 1000.
Career
Group C
Bailey's career emerged in the late 1970s, becoming a front runn ...
.
By 1987 the relationship between Brock and Holden had soured, primarily over the controversial 'Energy Polarizer' device Brock was installing in the HDT road cars ( see below). Moffat and Harvey both left the team, and HDT's 1987 international campaign was limited to a single car assault on the Spa 24 Hours
The 24 Hours of Spa is an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by TotalEnergies.
History
The Spa 24 Hours was ...
, and team did not pose a threat in that year's ATCC. That year the Bathurst 1000
The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most recen ...
was a round of the World Touring Car Championship
The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sin ...
and Eggenberger Motorsport
Eggenberger Motorsport was a Swiss motor racing team that competed in the European Touring Car Championship in the 1980s.
History
In 1982, Eggenberger Motorsport won the 1982 European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) with Umberto Grano and Helmut ...
's turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500
The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth is a high-performance version of the Ford Sierra that was built by Ford Europe from 1986 to 1992. It was the result of a Ford Motorsport project with the purpose of producing an outright winner for Group A racing in ...
s dominated the race, finishing 1–2. Brock's own car failed early but he and co-driver David Parsons were cross-entered into the team's second car, which started the race in new recruit Peter McLeod
Peter Gerard McLeod (born 6 May 1948 in Newcastle, New South Wales) is a retired Australian racing driver, best known as co-winner of the 1987 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, and for driving the distinctive yellow and black Slick 50 Mazda RX-7 ...
's hands and made up ground in the wet conditions, and eventually finished in third place behind the two Sierras. Like 1983 a driver (in this case Formula 2
Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name return ...
racer Jon Crooke) missed out on a Bathurst win when the lead car retired and its drivers transferred to the second car. Six months after the race was held, the Sierras were formerly disqualified for running illegal bodywork and Brock, Parsons and McLeod became the victors giving Brock his record 9th Bathurst win.
The team continued under the direction of Alan Gow
Alan Gow (born 9 October 1982) is a Scottish former footballer. As a player he played as either a striker or an attacking midfielder.
Gow started his senior career with his hometown club Clydebank, and continued with Airdrie United after th ...
, with continued support from Mobil
Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999.
...
, but without the assistance of Holden, new automotive partners had to be found. At the end of 1987, Frank Gardner had gone into a short-lived retirement and shut down the JPS Team BMW
JPS Team BMW is a former Australian motor racing team that ran from 1981–1987. The team's main focus was touring car racing but also ran in sports sedans and GT cars as well. The team, under the management of former British Touring Car Cham ...
. The team bought the JPS team assets and became the official team for BMW Australia. However, by 1988, the naturally aspirated
Naturally may refer to:
;Albums
* ''Naturally!'', an album by Nat Adderley
* ''Naturally'' (Houston Person album)
* ''Naturally'' (J. J. Cale album)
* ''Naturally'' (John Pizzarelli album)
* ''Naturally'' (Sharon Jones album)
* ''Naturally'' ...
, 2.3L BMW M3
The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986.
The initial model ...
was no longer competitive against the much faster Ford Sierra's (especially in the ATCC where shorter races saw the M3's unable to challenge with the Sierra's) and Brock, Jim Richards, David Parsons and emerging talent Neil Crompton
Neil Crompton (born 30 July 1960) is a well-known Supercars presenter and commentator.
Racing career Highlights
According to the official V8 Supercars website, Crompton has competed in 357 various motor racing events, finishing in the first ...
(also one of Channel Seven's lead commentators) found themselves fighting for scraps rather than the wins the JPS team had achieved in 1987. The Mobil team's only win during 1988 was when Brock and Richards won the Pepsi 250 at Oran Park with Parsons and Crompton finishing 4th.
The team's first time at both the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races with anything other than a Holden were forgettable. Although Richards qualified the lead M3 in 4th at Sandown
Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom with the resort of Shanklin to the south and the settlement of Lake, Isle of Wight, Lake in between. Together ...
, his time was over 3 seconds slower than Dick Johnson's pole time in his Sierra. After oil problems in the race for both cars, the No. 05 M3 of Brock, Richards and Parsons eventually finished in 8th place at Sandown while the team's second M3 failed to finish. For the Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst, the nature of the track and the improvement from the Sierra's (plus the introduction of the new Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV
The Holden Commodore (VL) is a mid-size car that was produced by Holden from 1986 to 1988. It was the final iteration of the first generation of the Holden Commodore and included the luxury variant, Holden Calais (VL). Between February 1986 and ...
and Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R
The is a brand of automobile originally produced by the Prince Motor Company starting in 1957, and then by Nissan after the two companies merged in 1967. After the merger, the Skyline and its larger counterpart, the Nissan Gloria, were sold in ...
turbo) saw the M3s even less competitive than they had been previously. Richards qualified the No. 56 M3 (running in Class B saw the team forced to give up using No. 05 for 1988) in just 16th place, some 6 seconds behind Johnson. The Brock/Richards car had a new BMW Motorsport
BMW M Motorsport (formerly BMW Motorsport) is the division of BMW responsible for motorsport-related activities, including works-run competition programmes in touring car racing, sports car racing, motorcycle racing and Formula E.
The current orga ...
engine for the race as well as a newly homologated 6-speed gearbox. Unfortunately however the race proved to be something of a disaster. The No. 56 car only lasted 89 laps before retiring with engine failure, while the No. 57 car (which had qualified 24th) was out on just lap 68 with similar problems. Brock finished off 1988 by driving his M3 to 4th place in the Group A support race at the 1988 Australian Grand Prix
The 1988 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Adelaide Street Circuit on 13 November 1988. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1988 Formula One World Championship, and the last race for which turbocharged engi ...
in Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
.
By the 1989 ATCC season Brock was forced into the unthinkable and spent the next two years racing Ford Sierra RS500s to be competitive. The turbocharged Sierras had quickly become the car to have in touring car racing, and Brock's cars were supplied by English Sierra expert Andy Rouse
Andrew Rouse (born 2 December 1947) is a British racing driver, most notably in the British Saloon Car Championship. He won the BSCC in 1975, 1983, 1984 and 1985.
Andy Rouse is one of the most successful drivers ever to appear in the BSCC. His ...
, with Brock's own 1989 ATCC car the one Rouse had used to win the 1988 RAC Tourist Trophy at Silverstone. Rouse also supplied the team with the latest technical information for the cars and was Brock's co-driver at Bathurst in 1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
and 1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
, the pair recording a DNF in 1989 and a 4th-place finish in 1990. Limited budget forced the team into a merger with Miedecke Motorsport in 1990, the merger was made all the more easy as Andrew Miedecke's team also ran Rouse supplied Sierras.
The venture with Ford was not without success. Brock won his first ATCC race since the 1986
The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations.
Events January
* January 1
** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles.
**Spain and Portugal ente ...
when he stormed to victory in the final round of the 1989 ATCC at Oran Park to claim 3rd in the championship behind the Shell Sierra's of Dick Johnson and John Bowe. Brock went on to claim his last Bathurst pole position at the 1989 Tooheys 1000, but a rear hub failure caused the No. 05 car's retirement on lap 81 while the team's second Sierra (#105) driven by Brad Jones and Paul Radisich
Paul Radisich (born 9 October 1962, in Auckland) is a retired New Zealand racing driver and businessman of Croat origin. He has competed in saloon cars for many years — both European-style tourers and the V8 Supercars of Australia and New ...
finished in 9th place. At the end of the year, Brock and Radisich drove the Sierra to victory in the Nissan-Mobil 500 Series in New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. Brock also claimed pole position for the Group A support races at the 1989 Australian Grand Prix
The 1989 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Adelaide on 5 November 1989. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1989 Formula One World Championship.
The race took place in wet conditions, with only 70 of the schedul ...
in Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
, though he only managed to finish 2nd and 5th in the two races after a couple of spins caused by his Bridgestone
is a Japanese multinational tire manufacturer founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi (1889–1976) in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of , meaning 'stone bridge' in Japan ...
tyres not handling the hot conditions during the Saturday race, or the very wet conditions on the Sunday.
The team was again a force in the 1990 ATCC although they suffered a setback when Miedecke rolled his Sierra in at Mallala after an accidental clash with the Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard ou ...
Sierra of his old open wheel
An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...
adversary John Bowe. Consistent placings, and a win in Round 7 at Wanneroo
Wanneroo is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Wanneroo.
Geography
As it is on the Swan Coastal Plain, the Wanneroo wetlands stretch parallel to the coastline and to the north and south of the suburb.
Education
W ...
where his tyre wear was actually helped by falling turbo boost, saw Brock finish 2nd in the championship. Brock had a chance of defeating former team mate Jim Richards (now with the Nissan team) for the title in the final round at Oran Park, but a poor start which saw him drop to 6th by the first turn cost him his chance, though he did eventually finish the race second behind Richards who was driving the new 4WD
Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
, twin-turbo Nissan GT-R
The Nissan GT-R (Japanese: 日産・GT-R, ''Nissan GT-R''), is a high-performance sports car and grand tourer produced by Nissan, unveiled in 2007. It is the successor to the Skyline GT-R, a high performance variant of the Nissan Skyline. Alth ...
. Brock actually proved that his Sierra was the only car that had the speed to match Richards in the race, but his poor start saw him have to fight through the field which allowed Richards to build a lead big enough to win the race and the title.
With Rouse going on to race Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
's in 1991, the team faced the prospect of going it alone with the expensive Sierras without the latest technical information. At the end of 1990, Brock concluded a deal that would see him close his team and take his sponsorship to Perkins Engineering
Perkins Engineering was a team contesting the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series, operating as an active racing team between 1986 and 2008. From 2009 onwards, the involvement of Perkins Engineering in the championship wounded back into ...
to race a Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SV
The Holden Commodore (VN) is a full-size car that was produced by Holden from 1988 to 1991. It was the first iteration of the second generation of this Australian made model, which was previously a mid-size car, as well as the first Commodo ...
.
HDT Special Vehicles
The original cars built by HDT Special Vehicles for road use, through the early and mid-1980s under Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
's direction and had approval from Holden (based on the VC, VH, VK, and VL series Commodore, plus WB series Statesman), quickly gained an enthusiastic following. Some of these were "homologation
Homologation (Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work fr ...
specials" required to meet both Group C
Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs.
It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...
and Group A
Group A is a set of motorsport regulations administered by the FIA covering production derived vehicles intended for competition, usually in touring car racing and rallying. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, Group A vehicles w ...
racing regulations. All HDT vehicles were individually numbered, with only 4246 produced.
HDT and Brock's association with Holden ended sensationally in 1987, after Brock began fitting a device known as the "Energy Polarizer" to his range of vehicles. This device was a small box with crystals and magnets encased in an epoxy resin, which Brock claimed improved the performance and handling of vehicles through "aligning the molecules". Brock was also quoted as saying that the Polarizer "made a shithouse car, good." Regarded as pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...
by Holden and the vast majority of the Australian motoring community, a new VL-series based "Director" model was then released in February 1987, which incorporated not only the Polarizer, but also a new independent rear suspension system developed by HDT without Holden's approval. Holden ended its association with Brock upon his refusal to submit this model to Holden for testing purposes, despite numerous chances to do so. Brock instead told Holden through the media that the relevant specifications were available in a magazine article which detailed the Director's pre-launch tour of Europe and North America in 1986, where it was compared to cars from BMW and Opel
Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...
. Holden subsequently retaliated by deciding to not honour warranties on any cars modified by HDT.
Brock would go on to claim that Holden had wanted to end its association with HDT to establish its own brand of Commodore-based up-market models, and that the company was jealous of his large public profile and HDT's success in improving their standard cars without the resources available to General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
. In 1987, therefore, in a partnership with the British-outfit Tom Walkinshaw Racing
Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) was a motor racing team and engineering firm founded in 1976, in Kidlington, near Oxford, England, by touring car racer Tom Walkinshaw.
The company initially handled privateer work before entering works touring car r ...
(TWR), created Holden Special Vehicles
Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) was the officially designated performance vehicle division for Holden. Established in 1987 and based in Clayton, Victoria, the privately owned company modified Holden models such as the standard wheelbase Commodore, ...
(HSV). Since that time, HSV has been producing factory-approved modified Commodores for general road use as well as for Group A racing homologation.
Because of their heritage and rarity, the original Brock-era HDT Commodores have a substantial place in Australian motoring history, and have become highly collectible. After Brock's death during a motorsport event in 2006, HDT vehicles became ever more sought after. In 2010, for example, a "Polarizer"-equipped HDT Director was expected to be sold at auction for over , compared to its original list price of that rendered it the most expensive new Australian-made car when launched in 1987.
Since May 2007, Peter Champion, a good friend of Peter Brock, purchased the HDT Special Vehicles business and relaunched a range of high-performance vehicles. Enthusiasts in many Australian States have formed HDT Owners Groups, which conduct regular concourse events, showcasing the various HDT models over the years.
Brock era cars
The following is the range of high performance HDT cars produced under Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
's direction and with approval during the 1980s (by Commodore series reference and in sedan form unless otherwise stated):
*VC COMMODORE HDT – 5.0-litre V8
*VH COMMODORE SLE TOP 30 – 5.0-litre V8
*VH COMMODORE ADP sedan and wagon – 4.2-litre or 5.0-litre V8
*VH COMMODORE SS GROUP ONE – 4.2-litre V8
*VH COMMODORE SS GROUP TWO – 4.2-litre V8
*VH COMMODORE SS GROUP THREE – 4.2-litre or 5.0-litre V8
*WB STATESMAN DE VILLE MAGNUM – 5.0-litre V8
*WB STATESMAN CAPRICE MAGNUM – 5.0-litre V8
*VK COMMODORE LM5000 – 5.0-litre
*VK COMMODORE ADP sedan and wagon – 4.9-litre or 5.0-litre V8
*VK COMMODORE ADP (SL GROUP A) – 4.9-litre or 5.0-litre V8
*VK COMMODORE SS – 4.9-litre or 5.0-litre V8
*VK COMMODORE SS GROUP THREE – 4.9-litre or 5.0-litre V8
*VK CALAIS DIRECTOR – 4.9-litre or 5.0-litre V8
*VK COMMODORE SS GROUP A – 4.9-litre V8 (nicknamed ''Blue Meanie'')
*VK COMMODORE SS GROUP A GROUP THREE – 4.9-litre V8
*VL CALAIS LE – 6-cylinder Nissan (RB30E) 3.0-litre or (RB30ET) 3.0-litre Turbo, or 4.9-litre V8
*VL CORSA (COMMODORE LE) – 6-cylinder Nissan 3.0-litre or 3.0-litre Turbo
*VL COMMODORE SS GROUP A – 4.9-litre V8
*VL COMMODORE SS GROUP A "Plus Pack" – 4.9-litre V8
*VL COMMODORE SPORT – 6-Cylinder Nissan (RB30E) 3.0-litre, or (RB30ET) 3.0-litre Turbo, or 4.9-litre V8
*VL CALAIS SPORT – 6-Cylinder Nissan (RB30E) 3.0-litre, or (RB30ET) 3.0-litre Turbo, or 4.9-litre V8
The range of high performance HDT cars produced by HDT independent of Holden include (by Commodore series reference and in sedan form unless otherwise stated):
*VL HDT DIRECTOR – 4.9-litre or 5.6-litre V8
*VL HDT GROUP THREE – 4.9-litre V8
*VL HDT DESIGNER SERIES sedan and wagon – 6-cylinder Nissan 3.0-litre or 3.0-litre Turbo, or 4.9-litre V8
*VL HDT AERO – 4.9-litre, 5.6-litre
*VL HDT BATHURST – 4.9-litre or 5.6-litre V8
In addition to the above, various other 'one-off' HDT cars were also manufactured between 1980 and 1988 period. Chief among these is the MONZA
Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...
coupe fitted with a 5.0-litre V8 that was displayed around Australia in 1985 with plans for production, which never eventuated. John Harvey later reported that Peter Brock, who had first driven an Opel Monza road car when he hired one as his personal transport while in France competing at Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
in 1984 and was impressed with its handling (and that it had been built on the same platform as the VB-VK Commodores which made it easy to slot in a V8 engine), was keen to add the Monza to HDT's range. Brock has also previously raced the Bob Jane
Robert Frederick Jane (18 December 1929 – 28 September 2018) was an Australian race car driver and prominent entrepreneur and business tycoon. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a ...
-owned Chevrolet Monza
The Chevrolet Monza is a subcompact automobile produced by Chevrolet for the 1975 through 1980 model years. The Monza is based on the Chevrolet Vega, sharing its wheelbase, width, and standard inline-four engine. The car was designed to accommoda ...
in the Australian Sports Sedan
A sports sedan (also known as sports saloon in British English) is a subjective term for a sedan car that is designed to have sporting performance or handling characteristics.
History
The term was originally introduced in the 1930s an ...
and GT championships in the early 1980s. While it was thought that the V8 Monza coupe would be appealing to Holden fans, especially as it resembled the appearance of the popular hatchback Toranas of the late 1970s (visually the car was essentially the Opel Monza GSE with the VK Commodore's distinctive 5-slot grille to give it a more Australian look), the reasons that the car was not brought to market included that it was by then an old mid-1970s model and the projected high production costs would not have made it a viable project.
With the HDT modifications to the Monza coupe which included the Group III 5.0 litre V8 engine (which was in fact lighter than the 3.0 litre 6 cyl Opel engine it replaced as well as being set back closer to the firewall for better weight distribution), a 5-speed manual Borg Warner
BorgWarner Inc. is an American automotive supplier headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The company maintains production facilities and technical systems at 93 sites (as of June 6, 2022) in 22 countries worldwide and has around 49,000 employ ...
TG5 transmission and Corvette
A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...
styled front disc brakes (later adopted to the Holden VL Commodore
The Holden Commodore (VL) is a mid-size car that was produced by Holden from 1986 to 1988. It was the final iteration of the first generation of the Holden Commodore and included the luxury variant, Holden Calais (VL). Between February 1986 and ...
turbo and V8 models), the sale price of the car was projected to be approximately $45,000. Despite 8 pre-production orders being taken for the car upon its public debut at the 1984 Canberra Motor Show, the sale price would prove to be another reason that only one HDT Monza was ever built. As a comparison, the 1985 Holden VK Commodore SS Group A "Blue Meanie" had a sale price of just under $26,000. The only HDT Monza ever built went up for auction in Sydney in May 2016 and was expected to be sold for as much as AU$
The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Island s ...
120,000.
Pennisi brothers ownership
Brothers Len and Sid Pennisi bought HDT Special Vehicles in 1994 and moved the Head Office to Sydney. The brothers reastablised the brand and continued building new HDT vehicles including VN VP VR VS VT VX VY VZ also restoring and servicing previous HDT models and supplying parts and accessories at their state of the art premises in Revesby NSW. The podium finish for Brock in the 24hr 427 Monaro inspired the new HDT owners, to develop a range of HDT Aero sedans, Magnum utes and Sport vehicles including the Monaros, also carrying the Monza name.
Three of these Monza vehicles were produced during the early part of 2000. These new branded Monzas were built to different specifications, with the most powerful and highly developed type being the R/T variant, which had seen track work on most club days at Eastern Creek.
New Generation cars
Since 2007, a relaunched HDT has been offering a 'New Generation' of high performance road vehicles based on the Holden Commodore (VE)
The Holden Commodore (VE) is an executive car that was produced by Holden from 2006 to 2013. It was the first iteration of the fourth generation of the Commodore. Its range included the luxury variants, Holden Berlina (VE) and Holden Calais (VE ...
. These cars form HDT's new "Heritage Series", which adopt a "retro" look based on the iconic range available during the Brock era.
The first of these 'New Generation' cars is called the VC Retro sedan, appropriately styled upon Brock's first public release vehicle, the Commodore (VC)-based sedan of late 1980.[HDT Special Vehicles – The Story](_blank)
, Official Website.
Heritage Series
, Official Website.
The following is the range of high performance HDT cars produced under Peter Champion's ownership of HDT and based on the VE series Commodore:
* VC RETRO – based on VE Commodore SV6, SS, and SS-V
* VC RETRO 30TH ANNIVERSARY – based on VE Commodore SS and SS-V
* VH RETRO – based on VE Commodore SV6, SS, and SS-V
* VK GROUP A RETRO – based on VE Commodore (re-nicknamed ''Blue Meanie''; 30th Anniversary model limited to 30 units)
* VK GROUP 3 RETRO – based upon VE Commodore SS and SS-V
* VL Group A Retro – based upon VE Commodore SS and SS-V.
Championships
This is a list of championships and series won by the Holden Dealer Team from 1969 to 1987 in touring car racing
Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States.
While the cars do not move ...
, rallying
Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called ''rally racing),'' navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. ...
and rallycross.
Australian Manufacturers' Championship
The Australian Manufacturers' Championship was a motor racing title awarded by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) to the winning car manufacturer in an annual series of races held throughout Australia. Whilst the first two champi ...
results have not been included as that title was awarded to the manufacturer (e.g. General Motors-Holden) rather than to an individual driver or team.
In addition to the series mentioned on the list the Holden Dealer Team also contested various Sports Sedan series, as well as two rounds of the 1984 World Endurance Championship with a Porsche 956
The Porsche 956 was a Group C sports-prototype racing car designed by Norbert Singer and built by Porsche in 1982 for the FIA World Sportscar Championship. It was later upgraded to the 956B in 1984. In 1983, driven by Stefan Bellof, this car est ...
B.
Bathurst 500/1000 Wins
Sandown Endurance Wins
Endurance Wins
Other touring car endurance race wins by the Holden Dealer Team (1969–1987) include:
* 1970 Rothmans 12 Hour at Surfers Paradise
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
– Colin Bond
Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...
and Tony Roberts (Holden HT Monaro GTS350
The Holden Monaro ( ) is a rear-wheel drive coupé manufactured by General Motors Holden in Australia from 1968 to 1975 and later reintroduced from 2001 to 2005. It was also manufactured as a 4-door sedan from 1973 to 1977.
Three generations ...
)
* 1971 Castrol Trophy at Warwick Farm
Warwick Farm is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
Warwick Farm is located 30 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Liverpool and is part of the South-we ...
– Colin Bond ( Holden LC Torana GTR XU-1)
* 1971 Phillip Island 500K The 1971 Phillip Island 500K was an endurance race for Group E Series Production Touring Cars held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria, Australia on 24 October 1971. The event was staged over a race distance of 106 laps, totalling . ...
at Phillip Island
Phillip Island (Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explorer ...
– Colin Bond (Holden LC Torana GTR XU-1)
* 1972 Chesterfield 250 at Adelaide International Raceway
The Adelaide International Raceway (also known as Adelaide International or AIR) is a permanent circuit owned by Australian Motorsport Club Limited under the auspices of the Bob Jane Corporation. The circuit is located north of Adelaide in So ...
– Colin Bond (Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1
The Holden Torana is a mid-sized car that was manufactured by Holden from 1967 to 1980. The name apparently comes from an word meaning "to fly" in an unconfirmed Aboriginal Australian language. The original HB series Torana was released in 19 ...
)
* 1973 Chesterfield 300 at Surfers Paradise
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
– Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
(Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1)
* 1973 Phillip Island 500K at Phillip Island – Peter Brock (Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1)
* 1974 Chesterfield 250 at Adelaide International Raceway – Colin Bond ( Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000)
* 1974 Chesterfield 300 at Surfers Paradise – Colin Bond (Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000)
* 1974 Repo 500K at Phillip Island – Colin Bond (Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000)
* 1975 Chesterfield 250 at Adelaide International Raceway – Colin Bond ( Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34)
* 1976 Rover 500K
The 1976 Rover 500K was an endurance race for Group C (Australia), Group C Touring Cars. The race was held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia on 28 November 1976 over 106 laps, totalling 501.4 kilo ...
at Phillip Island – Colin Bond (Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34)
* 1978 ABE Copiers 250 at Oran Park – John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
* John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
* John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
( Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback)
* 1978 Rothmans 300 at Surfers Paradise – Peter Brock (Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback)
* 1980 CRC 300 at Amaroo Park
Amaroo Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day north-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1967, the road circuit served as a venue for a variety of competitions including t ...
– Peter Brock (Holden VB Commodore
The Holden Commodore (VB) is a mid-size car that was produced by Holden, from 1978 to 1980. It was the first iteration of the first generation of the Holden Commodore.
The car was officially launched on 26 October 1978 with showrooms receiving ...
)
* 1980 Adelaide 300 at Adelaide International Raceway – Peter Brock (Holden VB Commodore)
* 1981 CRC 300 at Amaroo Park – Peter Brock and John Harvey (Holden VC Commodore
The Holden Commodore (VC) is a mid-size car that was produced by Holden, from 1980 to 1981. It was the second iteration of the first generation of the Holden Commodore.
Overview
The VC Commodore was launched on 30 March 1980 and is primaril ...
)
* 1981 Adelaide 250 at Adelaide International Raceway – Peter Brock (Holden VC Commodore)
* 1983 Humes Guardrail 300 at Adelaide International Raceway – Peter Brock (Holden VH Commodore
The Holden Commodore (VH) is a mid-size car that was produced by Holden from 1981 to 1984. It was the third iteration of the first generation of the Holden Commodore.
This new Commodore was an evolution of the previous Holden VC series model ...
SS)
* 1984 Motorcraft 300 at Surfers Paradise – Peter Brock (Holden VK Commodore
The Holden Commodore (VK) is a mid-size car that was produced by Holden from 1984 to 1986. It was the fourth iteration of the first generation of the Holden Commodore and introduced the luxury variant, Holden Calais (VK) sedan.
Overview
The ...
)
* 1986 Wellington 500
The Wellington 500 was a street race for touring cars which took place at Wellington City in Wellington, New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s. The 1987 event was a round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship.
The final running of the race w ...
at Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
( NZ) – Peter Brock and Allan Moffat
Allan George Moffat OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins in the Sandown 500 and his four win ...
(Holden VK Commodore SS Group A
The Holden Commodore (VK) is a mid-size car that was produced by Holden from 1984 to 1986. It was the fourth iteration of the first generation of the Holden Commodore and introduced the luxury variant, Holden Calais (VK) sedan.
Overview
The ...
)
* 1986 Pukekohe 500
The Pukekohe 500 was an endurance motor racing event first held in 1963 at Pukekohe Park Raceway, Pukekohe, New Zealand, Pukekohe, New Zealand.
History
The Pukekohe 500 had its origins in the W.D. & H.O. Wills, Wills Six-Hour race that was first ...
at Pukekohe Park Raceway
Pukekohe Park is a horse racing, motor racing, and community events facility located in Pukekohe, New Zealand, approximately south of the Auckland CBD, in the Auckland Region of the North Island. The venue, owned by Counties Racing Club Inc. ...
(NZ) – John Harvey and Neal Lowe
Neal (Neil) is a given masculine name and surname of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an Anglicisation of the Irish Niall which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "hono ...
(Holden VK Commodore SS Group A)
* 1987 Wellington 500 at Wellington (NZ) – Peter Brock and Allan Moffat (Holden VK Commodore SS Group A)
In addition, the HDT's VK SS Group A Commodores of Neal Lowe, Kent Baigent and Graeme Bowkett (18th) and Peter Brock, Allan Moffat and John Harvey (22nd), teamed with the Australian National Motor Racing Team Commodore of Allan Grice
Allan Maxwell Grice (born 21 October 1942), known to motor-racing fans as "Gricey", is an Australian former racing driver and politician, most famous for twice winning the prestigious Bathurst 1000 (1986 and 1990), and as a privateer driver of ...
, Michel Delcourt and Alex Guyaux (23rd) to win the prestigious Coupe du Roi (King's Cup) at the 1986 Spa 24 Hours.Gricey's King's Cup Story (Spa 1986)
/ref>
Drivers
Those who drove for the Holden Dealer Team in its many guises in touring car racing during its 21 years of competition (1969–1990) include (in order of appearance):
* Spencer Martin (1969)
* Kevin Bartlett (1969)
* Peter Macrow (1969)
* Henk Woelders
Henk is a Dutch people, Dutch male given name, originally a short form of Hendrik (given name), Hendrik. It influenced "Hank" which is used in English-speaking countries (mainly in the US) as a form of "Henry (given name), Henry". People named "He ...
(1969)
* Des West
Des is a masculine given name, mostly a short form (hypocorism) of Desmond. People named Des include:
People
* Des Buckingham, English football manager
* Des Corcoran, (1928–2004), Australian politician
* Des Dillon (disambiguation), severa ...
(1969)
* Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
(1969–1974, 1978–1993)
* Colin Bond
Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...
(1969–1976)
* Tony Roberts (1969–1970)
* Christine Cole (1970)
* Sandra Bennett (1970)
* Bob Morris (1970)
* Larry Perkins
Larry Clifton Perkins (born 18 March 1950) is a former racing driver and V8 Supercar team owner from Australia.
Biography Early years
Growing up on a farm in Cowangie in the Mallee region of Victoria, Larry, the son of racing driver Eddi ...
(1971–1972, 1982–1985)
* Doug Chivas
Doug Chivas (c.1922–2004) was an Australian rally and racing car driver. Chivas drove the first Lotus Mark 6 in Australia in the early 1950s winning many races.
Career
In the 1960s and 1970s he drove for some of the most important racing and ...
(1973)
* Leo Geoghegan
Leo Geoghegan (16 May 1936 - 2 March 2015) was an Australian former racing driver. He was the elder of two sons of former New South Wales car dealer Tom Geoghegan, both of whom become dominant names in Australian motor racing in the 1960s. Whi ...
(1973)
* Dick Johnson (1974)
* Bob Skelton (1974)
* Brian Sampson (1974)
* Johnnie Walker
Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended ...
(1975–1976)
* John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
* John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
* John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...
(1976–1987)
* Wayne Negus (1976–1977)
* Charlie O'Brien
Charles Hugh O'Brien (born May 1, 1960) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Oakland Athletics (1985), Milwaukee Brewers (1987–90), New York Mets (1990–93), Atlanta Bra ...
(1976–1977)
* Ron Harrop Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald.
Ron or RON may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character
* Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character
*Ron Douglas, the protagonist in ''Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...
(1977–1980)
* Jim Richards (1978–1981, 1988)
* Allan Moffat
Allan George Moffat OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins in the Sandown 500 and his four win ...
(1980, 1986–1987)
* Vern Schuppan
Vernon John Schuppan (born 19 March 1943) is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Schuppan drove in various categories, participating in Formula One, the Indianapolis 500 and most successfully in sports car racing.
Although he consider ...
(1981)
* Gary Scott (1982, 1987)
* Phil Brock
Phil may refer to:
* Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names
* Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil"
* Phil, Kentucky, United States
* ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film
* -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as a root term ...
(1983)
* David Parsons (1984–1985, 1987–1988, 1990)
* David Oxton
David Oxton (born 22 December 1945) is a former New Zealand racing driver. Oxton spent the majority of his career racing open wheel cars in New Zealand and Australia but did drive touring cars late in his career.
Career
Oxton's career started ...
(1985, 1987)
* Neal Lowe
Neal (Neil) is a given masculine name and surname of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an Anglicisation of the Irish Niall which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "hono ...
(1986)
* Kent Baigent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
(1986)
* Graeme Bowkett
Graham and Graeme may refer to:
People
* Graham (given name), an English-language given name
* Graham (surname), an English-language surname
* Graeme (surname), an English-language surname
* Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer
* Clan G ...
(1986)
* Jon Crooke
Jon is a shortened form of the common given name Jonathan, derived from "YHWH has given", and an alternate spelling of John, derived from "YHWH has pardoned".Neil Crompton
Neil Crompton (born 30 July 1960) is a well-known Supercars presenter and commentator.
Racing career Highlights
According to the official V8 Supercars website, Crompton has competed in 357 various motor racing events, finishing in the first ...
(1987–1988)
* Peter McLeod
Peter Gerard McLeod (born 6 May 1948 in Newcastle, New South Wales) is a retired Australian racing driver, best known as co-winner of the 1987 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, and for driving the distinctive yellow and black Slick 50 Mazda RX-7 ...
(1987)
* Brad Jones (1989)
* Mark Larkham
Mark "Larko" Larkham (born 29 December 1963 in Griffith) is a retired Australian racing driver, former racing team owner and television commentator.
Open wheelers
Mark Larkham's first impressions on the national racing spotlight was finishing ...
(1989)
* Paul Radisich
Paul Radisich (born 9 October 1962, in Auckland) is a retired New Zealand racing driver and businessman of Croat origin. He has competed in saloon cars for many years — both European-style tourers and the V8 Supercars of Australia and New ...
(1989)
* Andy Rouse
Andrew Rouse (born 2 December 1947) is a British racing driver, most notably in the British Saloon Car Championship. He won the BSCC in 1975, 1983, 1984 and 1985.
Andy Rouse is one of the most successful drivers ever to appear in the BSCC. His ...
(1989–1990)
* Andrew Miedecke
Miedecke Motorsport is an Australian motor racing team that is competing in Australian GT. It has previously competed in touring car racing between 1987 and 1989, and an earlier form of the team also competed in open wheel racing between 1981 ...
(1990)
* Tony Noske
Tony Noske is a former Australian motor racing driver and transport company proprietor.
Motor Racing
Having competed in sprintcars, Tony Noske entered four rounds of the 1987 Australian Touring Car Championship with a Perkins Engineering built H ...
(1990)
See also
*Holden Dealer Racing Team
The Holden Dealer Racing Team was an Australian motor racing team, covertly backed by General Motors-Holden's through their dealer network so as to get around GM's worldwide ban on the company being involved in motorsport. The HDRT contested t ...
(1968 team run by Scuderia Veloce
Scuderia Veloce was an Australian motor racing team founded by journalist racer David McKay (journalist), David McKay. The team, which competed in many motor racing categories in the 1960s, is regarded as the first professional motor racing ope ...
, not associated with the HDT)
*HSV Dealer Team
The HSV Dealer Team, previously known as the K-Mart Racing Team, was an Australian V8 Supercar team. The team ceased operations at the end of 2008, with Walkinshaw Racing and Kelly Racing being formed by owners and staff of the former team. The ...
(2005-2007 team run by Walkinshaw Racing
Walkinshaw Andretti United is an Australian motor racing team based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton. The team currently fields two Holden ZB Commodores in the Supercars Championship for Nick Percat and Chaz Mostert, along with a Porsche ...
)
External links
Brock Commodores Fact Files
References
{{Reflist
Championships
* Giant Killers 1972
* Giant Killers 1973 – pgs 35, 51
* Racing Car News, October 1972
* Racing Car News, November 1972
* Australian Motoring News, 9 March 1973
* https://web.archive.org/web/20081024020246/http://www.bowdensown.com.au/cars/hodgsonxu1.html
* Australian Competition Yearbooks 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978
* Australian Competition Yearbook Number 8 (1979)
* Australian Motor Racing Yearbook Number 10, 1980/81
* The History of the Falcon GT (Stewart Wilson) © 1978
* Sydney Morning Herald – 19 August 1973 – pg 15
Australian auto racing teams
Holden in motorsport
Auto racing teams established in 1969
Auto racing teams disestablished in 1990
Sports teams in Victoria (Australia)
1969 establishments in Australia
1990 disestablishments in Australia
Official motorsports and performance division of automakers