Peter Brock

Peter Brock
Peter Brock
	Peter Brock in August 2006, the month before his fatal accident
Born	Peter Geoffrey Brock; 26 February 1945; Richmond, Victoria, Australia
Died	8 September 2006 (aged 61); Gidgegannup, Western Australia, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Known for	Racing driver
Spouses	; Heather Russell (m. 1967⁠–⁠1969) ; Michelle Downes (m. 1974⁠–⁠1975)
Partner(s)	Beverly Brock (1978–2005);
Children	2
Relatives	Lewis Brock (brother); Phil Brock (brother)
Retired	2004
ATCC / V8 Supercars
Years active	1972–1997, 2002, 2004
Teams	Holden Dealer Team; Gown-Hindhaugh Racing; Team Brock; Perkins Engineering; Advantage Racing; Holden Racing Team; Rod Nash Racing
Starts	212
Wins	48
Poles	57
Best finish	1st in 1974, 1978, 1980 Australian Touring Car Championship
Previous series
1973; ; 1996; ; 2003–2004	Australian Formula 2 Championship; Australian Super Touring Championship; Australian Nations Cup Championship
Awards
2001	V8 Supercars Hall of Fame

Peter Geoffrey Brock AM (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect",^[3] "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, although he raced vehicles of other manufacturers including BMW, Ford, Volvo, Porsche and Peugeot.^[4] He won the Bathurst 1000 endurance race nine times, the Sandown 500 touring car race nine times, the Australian Touring Car Championship three times, the Bathurst 24 Hour once and was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2001. Brock's business activities included the Holden Dealer Team (HDT) that produced Brock's racing machines as well as a number of modified high-performance road versions of his racing cars.

Early years

Peter Brock was born at the Epworth Hospital, Richmond, Victoria, the son of Geoff and Ruth Brock (née Laidlay).^[5] The family lived in the country town of Hurstbridge (now an outer suburb of Melbourne) and Brock continued to live there throughout his life.^[6] He attended Eltham High School in Eltham, Victoria.^[7] His first car was an Austin 7^[6] that he bought for £5 (A$10).^[8] He claimed that his driving skill improved at this point of his life because the car did not have brakes (or a body, which was removed with his mother's axe).^[8]

Brock was drafted into the Australian Army in 1965 and spent his two years of National Service stationed at the Blamey Barracks near Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. During his time in the army, Brock was against the Federal Government's plan to send conscripts to Vietnam. Brock was in the Medical Corps where he often served as an ambulance driver. According to his brother Lewis, Brock and his mates used to race the ambulances around the base. Although they did not know each other at the time, also stationed at the Barracks from 1965 to 1967 was a young Dick Johnson who from the 1980s would go on to be one of Brock's chief touring car rivals.

It was while on leave from the army in 1966 that Brock first visited Bathurst to watch the 500-mile production car race that was to become the Bathurst 1000. It was after watching the race that he decided that he wanted to become a race driver when he left the army. His brother Phil also became a racing driver, and co-drove with his brother in the Bathurst 1000 on two occasions.

Racing career

During his early career Brock raced some "wild and woolly" creations including the famous blue 6-cylinder Holden-powered Austin A30. Brock rose to public attention in touring car racing.

Bathurst

Brock made his debut at Bathurst in the 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 in a Holden HT Monaro GTS 350 alongside Des West, with the pair finishing third behind their winning HDT teammates Colin Bond and Tony Roberts. He won the Bathurst 500 for the first time in 1972 (the last year the race was run over 500 miles and the last year in which driving solo was permitted).

Brock would win the event a total of nine times between 1972 and 1987, a feat that has not been equalled. His 1979 win was remarkable in that he and co-driver Jim Richards claimed victory by six laps, a record that, due to changes in race regulations introduced in the mid- to late 1980s, most notably the introduction of the Safety Car in 1987, may never be broken, and broke the circuit lap record for touring cars on the 163rd and final lap of the race (the record would stand until Brock himself broke it in 1982). Brock had tried to set the lap record on the final lap of the 1978 race, but he was inadvertently baulked by the Alfa Romeo of Ray Gulson through The Dipper. In 32 starts at Bathurst he claimed pole position a record six times (1974, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1983 and 1989), with all bar his 1989 pole in a Ford Sierra RS500 being for Holden. Brock also sat on pole for the 1997 V8 Supercars race but the time was set by his co-driver Mark Skaife. His record at this race earned him the popular nickname King of the Mountain.

Peter Brock also won the second (and last) Bathurst 24 Hour race in 2003 driving a 7.0L V8-powered Holden Monaro 427C for Garry Rogers Motorsport. Brock won the race, which although not the Bathurst 1000, he regarded as his tenth Bathurst win driving alongside V8 Supercar drivers Greg Murphy, Jason Bright and Todd Kelly. The #05 Monaro won the race by less than half a second from the 2002 race winning GRM Monaro 427C driven by Nathan Pretty, Garth Tander, Steven Richards and Cameron McConville. The two Monaros finished 12 laps in front of the third-placed Porsche 996 GT3 RC of Peter Fitzgerald, Paul Morris, John Teulan and Scott Shearman.

Sandown

Along with his record at the Bathurst race, Brock also claimed victory in the traditional lead up race to Bathurst, the Sandown 500, nine times, including a string of seven consecutive wins from 1975 until 1981. He won a total of 37 races during his career in the Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar championships, a record only eventually equalled by Mark Skaife in 2006 and beaten in 2007.^[9]

Other Australian Racing

Brock had a brief foray into Open wheel racing when he raced a Ford powered Birrana 273 to 8th place in the 1973 Australian Formula 2 Championship. Although he had some minor, non-championship wins in the car, his best placing in the national championship series was second behind series champion Leo Geoghegan in Round 2 or Oran Park in Sydney. Brock's HDT boss Harry Firth later told that he let Brock race the Birrana to get formula racing "out of his system". Later in early 1984, Brock tested a Ralt RT4 with a view to possibly driving one in the 1984 Australian Drivers' Championship and the end of year Australian Grand Prix (which at the time were run to Formula Mondial rules), and put in some competitive lap times at Calder Park. However, he later decided that with the road car business, touring car commitments and the planned Sports Car races at Silverstone and Le Mans, he simply could not devote enough time to the project to make it worth doing.

Brock and the Holden Dealer Team worked in partnership, with full factory approval and assistance, to produce a number of high-performance modifications to the Commodores under existing CAMS Group C regulations from 1980 to 1987. Some of these were HDT "homologation specials", one step away from race cars. It was around this time that Brock began his run of six Bathurst 1000 wins in seven years with a pair of hat trick wins from 1978 to 1980 (with Jim Richards) and 1982 to '84 (with Larry Perkins and John Harvey), including his record-breaking six-lap victory in the 1979 event.

While Brock was always typecast in a Holden, he did have 'brief flirtations' with other makes in touring car racing. After his 1987 Holden split, he campaigned a BMW M3 in 1988, becoming the official BMW Australia backed team for the year (his only win in the BMW would be in the 1988 Pepsi 250 at Oran Park), before driving a Ford Sierra RS500 in 1989 and 1990. As the turbo-charged Sierras were the Group A cars to have at the time it was seen as a logical move to return to the front end of the field.

During 1988 Brock also campaigned a V8 Ford XF Falcon in the Calder Park Thunderdome-based AUSCAR series, though unlike touring car rivals such as Jim Richards, Allan Grice and Brad Jones, Brock's foray into Superspeedway racing was brief.

With the increasing costs of running two Sierras, and with the teams technical support from the UK-based Andy Rouse also stopping thanks to Rouse moving to drive for Toyota, Brock returned to driving a Holden in 1991, teaming with former HDT co-driver Perkins (who had left the HDT in mid-1985) to run a pair of VN SS Group A Commodores. The association with Perkins Engineering only lasted for one year, though Brock continued to run the ATCC driving in Commodores.

A further flirtation away from Holden was in 1994 when he raced a Volvo 850 in the one-off Eastern Creek 12-Hour. He also competed for the same Volvo Dealer Racing team in the Australian Super Touring Championship in 1996, finishing 6th in the championship with a best finish of second in Round 7 at Lakeside in Brisbane.

International racing

Brock's first international race came in 1971 when Harry Firth made a late decision to enter the HDT in the Guia touring car Race at the Macau Grand Prix. Driving one of the team's old Series Production LC Torana GTR XU-1s, Brock finished second behind 1971 European Touring Car Champion Dieter Glemser, who according to Brock in his regular "Auto Action" column, drove a full works Ford Capri 2600. Ford rival Allan Moffat also raced in his GTHO Falcon, but struggled throughout the meeting with tyre troubles and wasn't a factor in the race being some 20 seconds per lap slower than the Torana. Brock claimed that scrutineering was almost non-existent at Macau, while Firth would describe Glemser's Capri and the Alfa Romeo GTA of third placed Hong Kong driver Albert Poon as "pretty damned rude" for not being strictly production cars as they were supposed to be.

Unlike several other Australian drivers, including Alan Jones and Larry Perkins, Brock did not seek a full-time racing career outside Australia. He did attempt the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times in privateer vehicles, firstly in 1976 in the Team Brock BMW 3.0CSL which was bought in South Africa in late 1975 and shipped to Melbourne, where it was completely stripped and rebuilt. His co-driver was former Aussie and UK resident Brian Muir with the BMW lasting 17 hours before a head gasket blew. He then returned for the 1981 race teamed with former HDT teammate Colin Bond and Bathurst co-driver Jim Richards in the Porsche Cars Australia #74 Porsche 924 Carrera GTR but while the team practiced, they were only named as a reserve, not participating in the race itself.

While at the 1983 Australian Grand Prix meeting at Calder Park, sports car racer and 1976 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 winner John Fitzpatrick challenged Brock, that having won everything there was to win in Australia he should try his hand overseas with the 'big boys', meaning Le Mans. After millionaire businessman and racer Bob Jane got involved with sponsorship through his Bob Jane T-Marts, a deal was completed to race a Porsche 956B rented from John Fitzpatrick Racing in 1984. This car was a well-worn 956, chassis number 956-102 previously seen in J. David and Skoal Bandit colours. With regular HDT co-driver Larry Perkins, Brock finished 21st at the 1000 km of Silverstone after spending time in the pits fixing a broken rear suspension. The pair then drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Perkins qualified the car 15th with a time of 3:35.340 which was 18.29 seconds slower than the pole winning works Lancia LC2 of Bob Wollek (Brock was 2 seconds slower than Perkins, though his times were set on race tyres while Perkins was given a set of qualifiers). After a good start by Perkins in the hot conditions, Team Australia were running as high as 5th at one stage of the race before retiring after Perkins crashed in the Esses on lap 145 while trying to make up for lost time, which included a lost wheel while Brock was in the car, and a broken rear bolt which caused Perkins to almost spin the Porsche at close to 350 km/h (217 mph) while racing flat out through the kink on the famous Mulsanne Straight.^[10] The Team Australia assault on the race, and the fortunes of the other Aussies including 1983 winner Vern Schuppan, 1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones and Allan Grice, was covered extensively in the Peter Mckay/Barry Naismith book "LeMans The Australian Assault".

While in Europe in 1984, Brock was in the unusual situation (for him) of being the second billing in his driver pairing with Perkins. From 1974 until 1977 Larry Perkins had made 11 starts in F1 and, to the large number of European motoring press covering the two World Endurance Championship races, ex-F1 driver Larry 'Larrikins' Perkins was the star driver with Brock seen as nothing more than a saloon car driver. According to Perkins, "The Porsche exercise at Le Mans was great although PB (Brock) struggled with the 'Euro media' because no one knew who he was!"

Brock also drove a Vauxhall Magnum with British driver Gerry Marshall to a surprise second place in the 1977 Spa 24 Hours. He also shocked many when he won the 1979 Repco Round Australia Trial driving for the HDT in a 6cyl Holden VB Commodore along with co-drivers Noel Richards and Matthew Philip. The shock came as many in the motoring press regarded Brock as a circuit racer and seemed forgot about his extensive Rally and Rallycross experience with the Dealer Team in the early 1970s. The press saw his inclusion merely as a publicity stunt by Holden and the race organisers in order to generate interest in the race. The Repco was a long-distance endurance rally that drove clockwise around Australia featuring some dirt road sections completely different to the circuit racing where he made his name. The Round Australia Trial was revived in 1995 (sponsored by Brock's long time backer Mobil) with Brock again racing for Holden in a Holden Racing Team prepared VR Commodore. Brock finished 3rd in the trial which was won by teammate (and former Australian Rally Champion) Ed Ordynski.

Retirement activities

After 1991 when teamed with Perkins Engineering, Brock continued to race in his own privately supported Advantage Racing Commodores in 1992 and 1993, before joining the factory Holden Racing Team in 1994. Brock retired from full-time driving following the 1997 Australian Touring Car season.

After his nominal 'retirement' he made two returns to Bathurst. In 2002 he paired with Team Brock lead driver Craig Baird to a 23rd-place finish in the teams Commodore VX, Brock finished 25 laps down due to engine temperature problems. He then returned to the Holden Racing team for the 2004 Bathurst 1000, teaming with Jason Plato in a Commodore VY. The pair failed to finish after Plato was involved in a spectacular accident coming out of Caltex Chase with the Brad Jones Racing Falcon of John Cleland while Cleland was lapping the Commodore (which was limping to the pits with a blown tyre) on lap 29. The clash caused the Falcon to roll and enough damage to the HRT car to be out on the spot with Brock failing to get a drive in his last Bathurst race after Plato had started the car and was due to hand over to Brock a few laps after the crash.

Brock also drove a Holden Monaro 427C for Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM), winning four from four races in what was thought to be a one-off appearance in the support races for the 2003 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. This led to him driving a 2nd Monaro built and run by GRM in the Australian Nations Cup Championship, a GT-type championship for highly modified and exotic road cars in 2003 before setting up his own team for himself and stepson James in 2004 (with Monaros supplied by GRM). He achieved a tenth Bathurst endurance win in 2003 at the Bathurst 24 Hour, when he won, with Greg Murphy, Jason Bright and Todd Kelly in his GRM Monaro, controversially powered by a 7.0L 427 cui V8 engine rather than the 5.7L Gen III as used by the production Monaro CV8 (the controversy came from no other car in Nations Cup being able to run a different size engine from the production model it was based on. Triple Nations Cup champion Jim Richards labelled the Monaro as a "Better V8 Supercar" when it first appeared at the 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour).

In 2002, he returned to top-level touring car racing as a team patron with Rod Nash Racing in V8 Supercar Commodore and drove in that year's Bathurst 1000 with the team was renamed 'Team Brock' as a branding exercise. The 'Team Brock' branding exercise was revived for 2003 this time with Paul Weel Racing but this time Brock's role was as a mentor rather than a driver. Frustrated with the lack of control he held over a team bearing his name, Brock and the team parted company at the end of the season.

He occasionally competed in various enthusiast-level motorsport events such as the Targa Tasmania with the Monaros he drove actually constructed by Holden Special Vehicles. His smooth on-camera persona and familiarity to older Australians continued to sell products, including Mobil (including a 2000 United States television commercial) and Bridgestone tyres, as the controversy of the Energy Polariser had been largely forgotten.

Other activities

Motor safety campaign

Brock worked with the Victorian authorities promoting the campaign against drink-driving. The most obvious sign of this association was the race car number 05 which related to the 0.05% blood alcohol limit in Victoria, which he utilised constantly from the mid-1970s. Most cars he raced in, regardless of the motor racing division, bore this number, including the car in which he died.

Car Modifications

Brock began publicly supporting and, eventually, began to fit to all Holden Dealer Team specials a device called the "Energy Polariser" containing crystals and magnets in an epoxy resin that, it was claimed, improved the performance and handling of vehicles through "aligning the molecules".^[11] The device was based on the principles of orgone energy pseudoscience.^[12] The "Polariser" is being sold once more in an official HDT, Brock tribute upgrade pack.^[13]

The overwhelming majority of the Australian motoring community regarded the device as pseudoscience,^[14] and Brock's promotion of it drove away HDT drivers like John Harvey, Allan Moffat and Larry Perkins.^[12] Brock also recommended tyre pressures of 22psi (150kPa) for his polariser-equipped vehicles, a level which many regarded as near-dangerously low. Holden, fearing the consequences of being associated with the device and a resulting breakdown in communications over Brock's plans for new models, cut ties with Brock and set up an alternative racing/modification operation, Holden Special Vehicles. During this period, Brock also became involved in the importation and even the modification of the Lada Samara, a cheap Soviet-built hatchback a world away from the high-performance V8-powered Commodores he was famous for. The Lada deal came at the right time for the Brock organisation as it saved the struggling outfit from potential bankruptcy.^[15]

After his work with Lada, Brock, during the period 1988–1990 sold around 200 personally modified EA-series Ford Falcons, Fairmont Ghias, Fairlanes and Mavericks through Austech Automotive Developments.^[16]

Media work

Due to his extraordinary success on the racing track Brock became the Australian racing driver with the highest-profile as he undertook several media commitments. When not racing he often appeared on New Zealand television screens as a presenter; hosting motoring shows such as TV3's Police Stop (1996–1998) and TVNZ's Love That Car (2000). In Australia, Brock hosted a show similar to Police Stop known as Police Camera Action which was shown on the Seven Network (1996–98).

Brock has been the subject of several DVD documentaries—The Legend (1997; updated 2004),^[17] Peter Brock - Nine Times a Champion, Holden First Around Australia (Repco Trial VB Commodore), 25 Years of HDT Special Vehicles Collectors Edition (2006) and 35 Years on the Mountain (2005).^[18] He was also due to star in a racing film King of the Mountain in early 2007.^[19]

The Peter Brock Foundation

He announced to a packed race track he was forming 'The Peter Brock Foundation', a philanthropic organisation funded by corporate sponsors and donations from the public. Aimed at disadvantaged youth and others experiencing difficulties in Australia. As of 2021 the Foundation still continues operating and has financed many activities and people.

Standing in community

As the lead driver for the Holden Dealer Team in a succession of both 6 and 8 cylinder Holden Toranas and later, V8 Commodores Brock became a household name that transcended motor racing as he emerged to be one of the best-known modern Australia and New Zealand racing drivers, spoken of with the same reverence as Formula One World Champions Jack Brabham, Alan Jones and Denny Hulme.

In 1986, Brock was crowned King of Moomba by the Melbourne-based festival committee.^[20]

His public standing was dented by controversy over his promotion of the "Energy Polariser" and domestic violence allegations levelled by an ex-wife, with calls to keep him out of the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame.^[21]

Personal life

Relationships

Brock married Heather Russell in 1967. The marriage ended in divorce two years later.^[1]

Several years later, Brock met 1973 Miss Australia pageant winner and Channel Seven weather presenter Michelle Downes. They married in April 1974 and divorced after only one year.^[1]^[22] In 2006, Downes said Brock assaulted her on a number of occasions, and forced her to have an abortion.^[23]

Brock next entered into a relationship with Beverly "Bev" McIntosh, the wife of a member of his motor racing team.^[1] After two failed marriages Brock was hesitant to marry McIntosh^[1] and although the couple never married, Peter always called Bev his "wife", and she changed her surname to Brock by deed poll. They had two children together, Robert and Alexandra. Her oldest, James, is Bev's son from a previous marriage. Bev wrote Peter's biography^[24] herself in 2004 after finding most potential authors had incorrect preconceived notions about him. She also expressed a desire to show his human side, to encourage others that they, too, can achieve their goals.^[25] "Even Allan Moffat said it's okay for him—it's us mortals that have the problem," she said.^[25] Bev described Brock as an imperfect but never violent man.^[26]

Brock split with Bev in May 2005 after 28 years together. Alexandra gave birth to their grandson Oliver on 28 June 2006, two months before Brock's death.^[27] According to Bev, Brock was not an entirely faithful partner. She has described in a book her eventual tiring in the early 1990s of his relationships with "one too many secretaries".^[28]

After splitting with Bev, Peter began a relationship with Julie Bamford,^[29] whom he had met through his former partner Bev some 20 years previously.^[30] Subsequently, Bamford's estranged husband Ron McCurdy, who had once been a close friend of Brock's, assaulted Brock during a chance meeting outside the Peter Brock Foundation's office.^[30]^[31]

Lifestyle

Brock, who lived hard in his early years, changed his lifestyle considerably after the failed 1984 Le Mans attempt left him physically and emotionally drained.^[32]

After his return from Le Mans, Brock began to consult Melbourne-based chiropractor Eric Dowker. He gave up alcohol and cigarettes and became a vegetarian,^[14] 5 years after that he became a vegan.^[33] Eventually he returned to being a vegetarian.^[34]

Death

On 8 September 2006, while driving in the Targa West '06 rally, Brock was 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the finish of the second stage of the race at Gidgegannup, about 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Perth, Western Australia,^[35] when he skidded off a downhill left-hand bend on Clenton Road for over 50 metres (160 ft; 55 yd) in his 2001 Daytona Sportscar^[36] and hit a tree sideways, in the driver's door. The 61-year-old Brock died within a couple of minutes of the impact.^[37] His co-driver, Mick Hone, was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition. Video footage of the crash (provided by a fan and the in-car camera) was reviewed by Western Australian police to help determine the cause of the crash. Coroner Alastair Hope decided that his death was caused by high speed and that no coronial inquest would be held.^[38] The video was not released to the public.

Brock's children accepted the offer of a Victorian state funeral, with former partner Bev telling ABC Radio:

"[Brock] was loved. He was in the public eye, and everything had to be done with a flourish and with a bang. It's probably the way he would want to go out (and how), he would want to be remembered."^[39]

The editor of Wheels Magazine, Ged Bulmer, said that Brock would be remembered for his nine victories at Bathurst, for "He had a long and very successful career there, he was the 'King of the Mountain' as he came to be known."

Brock was farewelled with a state funeral^[40] at Melbourne's St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral, on 19 September 2006. A permanent memorial was placed at Peter Brock's "home" raceway, Sandown Raceway, on 22 September.^[41]

Estate

Brock left three wills and a complex estate.^[42]^[43]^[44] The court battle between his family members was protracted and took over three years to complete.^[45]

Legacy

In honour of his achievements and in recognition of his contribution to Australian motorsport, the Bathurst 1000 winner's trophy now carries his name. The Peter Brock Trophy was first incorporated for the 2006 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. The race was won by Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup driving a Ford BA Falcon. Lowndes had long been regarded as Brock's protégé, and was a teammate of Brock in 1996. Lowndes and Whincup would go on to win three Bathurst 1000s in succession, matching the feat that Brock achieved twice.

Next to the site of his most famous motor racing achievements at Mount Panorama, a memorial statue was built adjacent to the National Motor Racing Museum in Bathurst. Unveiled in 2008, the statue features Brock standing on his 1984 Bathurst-winning Holden VK Commodore.^[46] Two roads in Sydney have been named Peter Brock Drive: in Oran Park as part of the housing development that replaced Oran Park Raceway, and in Eastern Creek, near Sydney Motorsport Park.^[47]^[48] In 1997 the Skyline section at the top of the Mount Panorama race track was renamed Brock’s Skyline in his honor.^[49]

A two-part television miniseries entitled Brock was aired on Network Ten in October 2016, with Matthew Le Nevez playing the title character.^[50] However, the miniseries received criticism for trivialising and titillating his life.^[51]

Awards

In addition to his racing championships, Brock's efforts to society have been recognised in various ways:

Member of the Order of Australia (9 June 1980) – AM QB80. For service to the sport of motor racing.^[52]
Bent Spoon Award (1986) Awarded by the Australian Skeptics for his promotion of the "Energy Polariser" device.^[53]
Australian Sports Medal (24 October 2000)^[54]
Centenary Medal (1 January 2001) For outstanding service to the community through fundraising.^[55]
National Service Medal (14 February 2006) – For Military Service (1965–67)^[56]^[57]^[58]
Simeone Foundation Spirit of Competition Award (2016)^[59]