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Beast Mark
2 Sports Sedan – Sandown 1973
With
the creation of the Beast Mark 2, HDT proved that if you plonked a F5000
V8 donk into a gutted-out GTR body and bolted on huge slicks, it will
go very fast! The trick was to keep the mother pointed straight.
At Sandown in 1973 Brock blitzed his opposition with this crude 490
bhp Sports Sedan. Three wins from three races.
During this period, the Sports Sedan category
was really starting to attract all the top drivers and saw the development
of many wild and innovative race vehicles. Indeed, the crowds
loved this form of racing.
With this V8 beside him, Brock didn’t need a heater
to keep him warm during those cold Melbourne race meetings.
Picture
– Racing Car News
“Hard
Yakka”
This
should have been the publicity shot for “Hard Yakka” work ware.
Poor old Chivas (he was 52 in 1973) had to push the race leading
XU1 into the pit area, when team tactic’s backfired and he ran
out of fuel down Conrod. Perhaps the Fox was influenced
by Chivas who remarkably ran the 500 in 1972 on one pitstop in
his Charger. Anyhow, to make matters worse, Chivas tried
to clutch start the car coming up the hill into the pits, this
had the effect of immediately washing off any speed he had to
roll over the pit lane line.
Who will forget the TV scenes where Brock
and the HDT crew are yelling encouragement to Chivas to, |
PUSH…PUSH…PUSH!
Had he not got it to the line without outside help, the car would
have been disqualified. Meanwhile the Moffat/Geoghegan Falcon
Hardtop went into a lead they never surrendered.
National TV saw a frustrated Brocky push
an exhausted Chivas out of the way to get into the drivers seat.
Before this tactical blue, Brock and Chivas had the race shot
to pieces.
As usual, Brock gave chase and thrashed
his car around the mountain, but was unable to make up all the
time they lost. |
We was robbed,
came the cry! 
| Brock
and Chivas was the team to beat at the mountain in 1973. A
team with a great blend of talent and experience and prepared by
the best blokes in the country. We had that race won by a
country mile, was the conclusion by all of us on the top of the
mountain. However we waited, and waited, and waited.
Where the bloody hell is Chivas???? Something has gone
wrong!!! No surely not………..no…no. Nobody could hear
the circuit microphones anyway so we had no frigging idea. |
“Who’s
got a radio?” came the plea. . Indeed none of us could imagine
the drama that the TV world was witnessing with old Chivo pushing
the XU1 up pit lane with the crowd and HDT team screaming encouragement.
Didn’t the Ford guys give us hell that afternoon! Come to
think of it, it lasted longer, much longer… that night, and that
fortnight, those months and bugger me, all bloody year! YUK.
Us Holden blokes don’t rub it in like you
rotten Ford guys! Or do we…hehehehehe |
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