The big Brock Bathurst auction
An auction of the largest collection of Peter Brock racecars in existence, with the hammer set to fall at Bathurst on the Saturday night before this year’s Bathurst 1000 – Lloyds’ auction of 30 Brock cars from the Peter Champion collection is set to be an event of such significance that it might even overshadow the 2018 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 itself.
The actual location of the auction was yet to be confirmed as went to press. Lloyds hopes to be able to store the cars and stage the auction on site at the Mountain itself, probably in a marquee facility at Harris Park, but various issues (logistic, ticketing and OH&S) mean it may instead be held at Lloyds’ own facility at nearby Kelso, on Bathurst’s outskirts.
The public is welcome to attend the auction and inspect the cars (whether at Mount Panorama or Lloyds at Kelso). It’s expected they’ll be on display and open to the public from at least the Friday morning before the weekend. There’s no admission fee, no need to register to watch – literally just turn up on the Friday or the Saturday. Lloyds is even putting on a free sausage sizzle on the Saturday morning!
“All of the classic car auctions we hold live generally have a few hundred to a few thousand people turn up to watch,” says Lloyds’ digital marketing manager Brett Mudie, “and this will be no exception. Everyone is welcome to come and have a look.
“Most of the bidders will be online rather than in the room, so we would expect that 90 percent of the people at the auction will be watchers.”
For those who won’t be at Bathurst on the first weekend of October, the auction will be live streamed on Lloydsauctions.com.au
It’s set to kick off at 8pm on the Saturday night
(October 6). While the running order was still to be determined, it’s expected that proceedings will round out with the collection’s iconic ‘Last of the Big Bangers’ Group C Commodore VK.
All eyes will be on the day-glo MHDT ’84 Bathurst machine as it goes under the hammer. Lloyds’ head auctioneer Bill Freeman is con dent the VK will attract bids of more than $2 million, which would break all previous Australian records.
“This car has already had enormous interest – we’ve had thousands of enquires every day since the collection has been announced including enquiries from overseas.”
Even if the actual auction doesn’t take place at Mount Panorama, Lloyds plans to perform the official handovers of the vehicles to their new owners at the circuit.