RACE OF CHAMPIONS

WHAT BETTER way to promote Australia’s newest highperformance road car than by racing it? That was the thinking behind the Race of Champions at the Australian Grand Prix at Calder Park in November 1980. It was a very public debut for the then-new HDT Commodore created by Peter Brock’s HDT Special Vehicles. Lining up on the grid that weekend were 11 identical – except for colour – VC HDT Commodores. (The plan was to race a dozen, but one car suffered problems.). Kevin Bartlett won the first race on Saturday, with a young bloke by the name of John Bowe coming second. After starting some way back on the grid, Peter Brock won Sunday’s second race in his lone black car. The races demonstrated just how good the original Brock Commodore was. Back then, Australia was Kingswood Country. Motorists were only just getting used to the term ‘Radial Tuned Suspension’ and testers were in awe of even a base-model Commodore L’s chassis dynamics. So putting a dozen road cars onto a track was a visionary idea. This is the car that Australia’s first F1 Champ Sir Jack Brabham raced. Numbered 11, it’s now owned by John and Donna McCoy-Lancaster who restored the car during 2006/07. Big thanks to both of them and their mate for bringing the car to our photo shoot.