PETER BROCK ……Re-visited In 1975 the world changed dramatically for Peter Brock. Gone are the factory team dream drive, the hordes of mechanic's, and the seemingly limitless spares and equipment. Mark Fogarty of Chequered Flag magazine took the opportunity to interview privateer Brock prior to the Manufacturing Championship in 1975. Racing on a shoestring and his venture into Class Driving education are covered in this fascinating snap shot of his life in 1975.

When Peter Brock left the Holden Dealer Team late last year, there were plenty of people who were ready to write him off. It was the general opinion of critics and enthusiasts alike that Brockie, the man who for two years had held an almost folk-hero following, could not make it without the HDT. When he cancelled plans to go to England to race, they frowned all the harder and shock their heads knowingly.

What they didn't realise was that the bearded young man of six years ago (who rocketed to dizzying heights in motor racing and public exposure from the Austin A30 with a Holden engine) had the drive and the patience to go it alone and succeed without the all-powerful HDT. Now he is back into motor racing with a vengeance, and when mechanical failures did not plague him in the ATCC, he proved that none of his old fire had left him…the ability that won him last year's touring car is still there.

Trying to shake off the ever-lurking shadow of HDT, he has taken the on an onerous job, having to fight his former team on a literally shoe-string budget. He has partly succeeded in that he has organised a team and on occasions has pushed HDT number one and former team-mate Colin Bond to the limit. Twelve months ago, when Brock was cresting a wave of incredible success with the HDT, he was the subject of Chequered Flag's first personality interview. A few weeks ago we went back to speak to him on the eve of our first anniversary to see how things had changed for racing driver Peter Brock

CF: How did your involvement with Norm Gown and Bruce Hindhaugh come about? It must've seemed a new world at first after being a works driver for so long, then joining up with a private team. Brock: Well, my intention was, and still is, to do some racing overseas, and while I've been sitting back looking at the situation, assessing things, the overseas situation deteriorated - particularly in Great Britain, where I was considering going - so I decided to hold off for a while.

Bruce Hindhaugh, Peter Brock (in cabin) and Norm Gown. Photo by Mike Jacobson

Bruce and Norm had the car there, so we had a bit of a talk about it one time, and we thought, why not? It was a good challenge as far as I was concerned, and felt that it was about time I got out and applied myself to the task of getting a car going in top-notch condition. We have no big plans over a period of a long time - it is just something we will review from time to time to see what we're doing. They're a great mod of blokes…I'd say these guys are your base motor racing enthusiasts; they just think nothing of working all day and night. If Gowny found a broken piston and a cracked bore at four o'clock in the morning before the race, he'd still have a go at getting the car going. He'd cobble up something, and get it to the track. Nothing defeats him; he's unbelievable, and as a matter of fact the whole crew is like that. It's refreshing to see that they're all so enthusiastic and keen. It is a pleasure to be with them even if you know you haven't got the good equipment. You're having a ball because they're just such a good mob of blokes.

CF: All the things taken into account, are you happy with your performances in the touring car championship? Obviously, it would have been a step drop from being touring car champion one year to be fighting your way through the series the next.

Brock: As I said before, I'm not happy with it because the idea is to have some success on the board. But we've proved the car is reasonably fast. Every time we've put some competitive rubber on it we've qualified very well, and in fact the only time we really had any competitive rubber was in practice at Lakeside and with it we got pole pretty easily. Then again I used similar tyres at Sandown in the Marlboro Masters meeting, and in the damp early on Saturday morning I was under the lap record and then it rained it was just a matter of not having any wet weather tyres. It certainly gives us a bit of hope that things are going to click into place one day and the thing's just going to get up and go. I think you have a run of outs, and I accept that - that's motor racing - and the way I figure it is that if you're going to have bad luck, you might as well have it all at once. Get it over and done with because it just can't keep swinging that way all the time. So you keep plugging away waiting for it all to start happening again.

CF: Have you found any difficulty running as a privateer after being in the Holden Dealer Team and having a lot of things, I suppose, done for you?

Brock: Well, you certainly have to do more leg work, but I probably don't make many more decisions than I used to, particularly tyre choice, suspension setting up…it's all the same. The actual physical work of getting a car to a meeting and getting it on the track in the best way possible, sure there's a lot more involved because, as I said before, with limited budget you don't have mechanics running around everywhere and you're doing it yourself. But it is not new to me because it is exactly the same as when I was racing the old A30. Even for quite a while with Harry, we used to run cars a similar way - very low budget, go to the smaller meetings. It's not all glamour, of course, as anyone would tell you. Behind the scenes there's always a lot of drama, except now I'm physically doing a lot more work on the car.

CF: You are running on a pretty limited budget, yet the Torana seems to carry a few sponsors' decals. I gather those sponsors are putting in only relatively small amounts rather than any major support.

Brock: Yes, there's no big Marlboro or Craven Milds amongst them and as we're gone along in the championship series and we're needed a few bob to keep the car going, we're had a bit of talk with people and come up with a few little sponsors. But, of course, a little sponsor gets a little sign…really, that's what it all boils down to. It's not what we like to have happen, but I don't think I could have found a worst time to have tried to run a car privately in Australia than this year. Fortunately our friends at General Motors have been very good to us, and I've been able to keep the car going and without people like Joe Felice you'd just give up; you couldn't even think of running a car without that help.

CF: So you think next year looks more promising for getting a large sponsor?

Brock: Maybe it does, I don't know. I think a lot of people sit back and say, "We'll see how this joker gets along on his own", which is fair enough, that's business. I think we're shown that the car is competitive. It is as good, if not better than any of the cars around.

CF: A lot has been said, or rather rumoured, about what happened between you and Harry Firth last year. What really happened? Brock: I suppose a lot have thought that there has been a fair bit of drama between Harry Firth and myself. Well, that's just not the case. Harry respects what I am doing, I respect what he's doing, and in fact Harry has helped us out tremendously during the ATCC. Where he could, he lent us wheels, and tyres when he hasn't needed them, to get us on the track. In fact, we do enjoy a pretty good working relationship.

"Harry has helped us out tremendously …" Photo by Mike Jacobson

CF: Well, why did you leave HDT in the first place?

Brock: The reason is, I suppose, just independence. You decide that it is about time you got out and did something on your own because you start doubting your role in life, what you're doing, your abilities, or anything else when you're getting something pretty easy. You start thinking where is the next challenge, and there's no doubt about it that with Harry the superiority his cars commanded was pretty good. It gets to the stage in that situation, I suppose, that it is a bit of a steamroller effort when you're fronting up to a meeting with plenty of mechanics and spares and fresh cars. So you start thinking, "hang on, if I don't win this race something is very, very wrong." It got to the situation where I thought it was about time I made a break, I've been wanting to go overseas for quite a while, and I decided towards the latter half of last year that this is about the time I should be out if I'm going to make a break. Now as it turned out, economically, it has been a poor decision, but I'm a bit of an optimist. I always think that things are better around the corner - I think I'd throw in the towel if I didn't. I believe that things will come good, and I just simply wanted to get out and do my own thing - that's what it all boiled down to.

CF: How does it feel competing against the team you once were the lead driver for?

Brock: As a matter of fact, for the first two rounds of the championship, I was so used to seeing the old pit boards that I had been looking at for the last five years that I was subconsciously looking at it thinking that was for me - but it wasn't! Poor old Bruce (Hindhaugh) was standing up the road with our pit board wondering what I was doing…I wasn't even looking at him for a while. Bondy and I have always been competitive, we're always liked racing against each other and even when I was with Harry pretty often we'd get pretty fair-dinkum. Naturally so, because you're cheating yourself and the crowd if you're just driving around and saying thank you, after you. We'd race, occasionally, and now we do much the same thing. We haven't got involved in any nasty business at all because we're just not that type. We enjoy it. I think my mental attitude is much the same.

CF: You'll be contesting the Manufacturers Championship, but what about Bathurst? Is that going to be the big one for you?

Brock: We're going to run in a couple of ManChamp races to beat the car into shape and get the pit crew running smoothly, and just get ourselves organised. But obviously, Bathurst is the big one, and right now that's what we're thinking of.

CF: Who will be co-driving with you?

Brock: That hasn't been decided at this stage. And I suppose until we work a few things out, I would just have to sit back and say that I can't disclose who it will be at the moment because of possible problems we'll have in contracts and all that sort of business. We're thinking about Bathurst pretty seriously, and getting all our equipment ready, and getting all tuned up for it.

CF: What about the sports sedan you're trying to get moving? Brock: Well, I do want to build my own little car. The obvious thing is that to have a car that is capable of going out to the sports sedan races and trying to pick up a few bob because that's the only place there's any money in racing. The car won't be a world beater - it will be good, reliable little car, and in fact would be a latter day A30. CF: Something like a six cylinder Gemini? Brock: Oh, now, where would get a yarn like that from?

"Now where did you get a yarn like that?" Photo by Mike Jacobson

CF: Well, is it true or not?

Brock: The acoustics are pretty bad in this room and I can't quite understand what you are talking about…

CF: I'll speak up a bit, then. Anyway, your involvement in these class driving courses you're conducting - how did you get involved in this, and what are you trying to achieve with them?

Brock: I'm basically trying to talk to young people about the problems of driving a car on the road in 1975, and they like to hear a bit about motor racing so we talk about it and the obvious parallels you can draw between motor racing and driving on the road. We also talk about the things that are different, of course. We actually discuss class driving, and I answer a lot of questions about their cars and their problems and what's happening to them. We're just trying to make people aware of the problems of driving on the road. The task now is far greater than people ever thought it was; in fact, we're found nowadays that driving a motor car is pretty complicated. People aren't being taught properly, and I'm just trying to make them aware of the fact, that they can do a lot better and they can go out and they can stop having crazy accidents just through lack of judgement or self-control or experience. In fact, I'm just trying to pass on a bit of my experience to them, and give them a few years instant experience so they can go out and think about what they are doing rather than just hopping in a car and going crazy.

CF: What sort of response have you had from discussions, and do you think you see any direct result from them?

Brock: We've been carrying out surveys…a questionnaire form is filled in by people coming to see these question nights, and it appears that they have got the right message. Which is that they are going to think about their driving, they think there's more to class driving than driving fast, slow, or carefully. They think that it means driving defensively, having the right attitude, and keeping self-control. Now this is good, so the response is very good, and if they can just keep this sort of thing up, we're going to help people get the right attitude to driving. We're trying to promote them to do a little bit of advanced driving, particularly through the Goulburn Valley Driver Training complex and other things like club gymkhanas, a little bit of motorsport if they want, trial riding…generally, to get it out of their system on the road. We're had an average of about 700 people coming to the discussions per night, which is exceptional. We didn't believe the attendances would keep raising, we thought they'd drop off, but in fact they have increased and we're very, very happy. They're promoted by the Lions Club and 3KY, the Melbourne radio station, and I think we're got it off pretty pat now. Our philosophy has evolved, we know what we want to say to people. It has been very good to me personally because it gets the old grey matter going and you start getting into it and start thinking about why people are doing different things and trying to understand the whole complex situation. I find it very, very rewarding.

Interview courtesy of Mark Fogarty…thanks mate.

Chequered Flag Magazine
August 1975 - 60c

Despite the obvious frustrations during the ATCC, Brock and his Spartan team were able to re-group and take out the two most prestigious events on the Touring Car calendar, Sandown (the first of seven wins on the trot) and Bathurst. A superb effort in the Manufacturers Championship certainly diminished the disappointments of the ATCC and turned detractors into believers.

Mr  HDT 
April 2001