Civil war of 1979
It’s the 40th anniversary of the hard-fought 1979 ATCC. It was a sometimes bitter civil war between two Holden camps: Peter Brock and the factory Holden Dealer Team versus Bob Morris and the Ron Hodgson Motors squad. Now, respective team chiefs John Sheppard and Peter Molloy weigh-in with some stunning revelations of just how intense things became.
There may not have been much Ford opposition but it was still one of the most hotly contested ATCC title fights ever. It was a fiercely fought and sometimes bitter civil between two Holden camps: Peter Brock and the factory Holden Dealer Team vs Bob Morris and the Ron Hodgson Motors squad.
Later this year in the Supercars Championship, the 60th Australian Touring Car Champion will be crowned. While winning the ATCC is isn’t something that usually comes easily, in some years it’s been particularly hard-won.
The most recent of those was James Courtney’s 2010 win. Courtney was lead driver for a Dick Johnson Racing out t that was cash-strapped and literally
ghting to survive. The opposition was Jamie Whincup and Triple Eight – at the time was the dominant force in V8 Supercars, and the factory Ford team which supplied DJR with its racecars. Only the very brave would have bet on Courtney and DJR that year.
Jim Richards’ 1990 win was mostly achieved in the HR31 Nissan Skyline, a difficult-to-drive and generally unloved turbo straight-six which no one expected would be able to get on top
of a battalion of Ford Sierra RS500s. It’s true that Richards sealed the title with what was the rst race win for the new all-wheel drive Nissan GT-R R32, but it was Richo’s deft
touch at turning the HR31 sow’s ear into a silk purse that delivered the silverware. And then there was 1979. That year, Bob Morris and Sydney Holden Dealer Ron Hodgson combined to take on Peter Brock and the might of the factory Holden Dealer Team. They’d fallen short in 1978 but, in a series-long contest that was no less asymmetrical than Courtney/ DJR vs Whincup/888 Ford battle in 2010, they managed to prevail in the nal round.
It’s true the Hodgson team was well funded and well led by Peter Molloy. But they were up against the factory team in identical Torana A9X equipment, at a time when Brock was arguably at the peak of his powers. For all Brock’s achievements, he only won the ATCC on three occasions. But as a factory HDT driver, there was only one time when he was beaten to the title by another Holden driver.
1979 ATCC
The ’79 championship started more or less as the ’78 championship had nished – with a collision between the Peter Brock and Bob Morris Toranas. On the second lap of the
rst race of the season, the pair clashed at the hairpin at Symmons Plains. Brock ended up the loser in that exchange; each driver blamed the other. As Bob Morris observed, that sort of set the tone for the season…
It was John Harvey who took rst blood,
winning at Symmons as Morris dropped to fourth with gearbox problems, and Brock recovering to nish fth.
Allan Moffat had blown his engine at Symmons, the magni cently sinister looking black Falcon suffering a repeat failure two weeks later at Calder. Allan Grice became an innocent casualty of Moffat’s mishap – not only did it spray oil all over Grice’s windscreen, but bits of broken 351 Cleveland V8 engine managed to puncture the radiator in Grice’s A9X…
Until then Grice had been looking fairly handy, having nished third at Symmons Plains. He’d go on to nish second in the next round at Oran Park but that was as good as it got for the Craven-Mild Torana driver. As for Moffat, suspension failure at Oran Park made it three noscores in a row. After nishing fth at Sandown, round four, he quietly withdrew to save his meagre resources for Bathurst.
In Moffat’s absence, the only Ford driver to lead a lap of the ’79 championship was Dick Johnson. This, of course, was before the ‘Rock’ incident, when Dick was a cash-strapped privateer almost unknown outside of the sport’s inner circles. He could only afford to do the two local Queensland races – but Dick’s blue Bryan Byrt Ford Hardtop led all bar the nal six laps of the Surfers Paradise round and was unlucky not to nish second at Lakeside. Dick Johnson’s time would come.
As far as the title battle was concerned, Oran Park was some kind of turning point. Morris dominated; Brock struggled into third place with gear selection issues (with the HDT imposing team orders to keep Harvey from passing him). Morris had prevailed on home Sydney turf, but Brock had his chance to get one back in the next round at Sandown.
The Sandown race was a cracker. What began as a battle between Brock and Morris for the lead
soon became a three-way ght as rstly Moffat joined in, followed by (as the Ford faded) Harvey. As Brock’s brakes started to go off, he was overhauled by both Morris and Harvey. For the next 10 laps Harvey attacked Morris, eventually making his move into the esses. But Morris held rm and held his line, and Harvey ended up in a very high-speed spin that happily did not end in a high-speed crash.
Morris took the win, ahead of Garth Wigston’s A9X and Brock. It was the halfway point in the championship, and Morris led Brock by 12 points – almost the equivalent of a round win.
At Wanneroo the Brock and Harvey HDT Toranas were joined by the local HDT entry of Wayne Negus. They made it a HDT 1-2-3 off the start, with Harvey eventually falling into the role of Brock’s protector as Grice began to challenge. Eventually Harvey spun, but got the position back later when Grice’s gearbox began to play up. As for Morris, he didn’t gure, a clash with Negus leaving him lapped in fourth place.
The trip west hadn’t done Morris’ title hopes any favours, but nor did anything good come from the following round’s weekend in Surfers Paradise. As Morris trailed home in fourth at some distance, Brock had to overcome the locals – Johnson and Charlie O’Brien’s A9X. Eventually Brock pressured O’Brien into a small mistake, and victory was his.
Two rounds to go and Brock was in front by six points. Harvey remained in contention, just
ve adrift of Morris. But already it was clear that Harvey’s role primarily was to play foil to Brock in the ght against Morris.
Morris went to Lakeside in desperate need of a win. When Brock missed his gear change off the start, Morris seized the opportunity to claim that victory. His only challenger was Johnson, but that threat was de ated literally when the Ford suffered a wheel failure. Brock ended up a lowly fth, with a one-minute penalty for being push started after a shambolic tyre change.
The only positive spin Brock could put on Lakeside was that the lowly two points would be his dropped round score (only a driver’s top seven results from the eight rounds counted for points).
It meant that into the nal round at the old Adelaide International Raceway – the very next week after Lakeside! – Morris was
ve points clear of Brock – but only three on corrected points. It was more or less winner take all in Adelaide.
Bob Morris had been here before. He and Brock had gone into the nal round the previous year separated by just four points. But that day Morris failed, bowing out of the contest after clashing with Brock in what Morris himself conceded was a questionable overtaking move. There’d be no such errors in 1979.
Brock took pole for the nal, making it six poles to Morris’ one. But the Morris camp was unconcerned. They’d deliberately set the car up to perform best when the tyres were at their worst, in anticipation of Brock’s tyres going off later in the race. And that’s exactly how it panned out. This time Morris more carefully chose his moment to attack Brock, and once he was in front it was all over.