Australian Muscle Car

Muscle Maniac

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The day the cops mistook Bob Morris for Kingsley Hibbard, the day John Goss met the GG.

Fred Morgan is a largely unsung hero in the history of Holden at Bathurst. Not only is he not as widely known as his achievemen­ts would warrant, but for many years (until we tracked him down for our feature story in AMC #68), motorsport and Holden enthusiast­s who aware of him incorrectl­y knew him as ‘Frank’ Morgan – which was how the press erroneousl­y described him in reports of the 1963 Bathurst 500.

It was in that very rst Great Race at Bathurst that Fred Morgan (along with co-driver Ralph Sach) wrote himself into the records books as the rst driver to score a top-three result in the October classic in a Holden, nishing second in a Holden EH S4 (today we’d say Fred and Ralph Sach scored Holden’s rst Great Race podium, but at the time the outright result was not recognised: they would have been officially recorded as having nished second in class C).

In addition to the Bathurst class placing, Morgan and the EH went on the following year to win class B in the Sandown 6 Hour (this time with co-driver Bruce McPhee – the race was won by Morgan’s ’63 Bathurst running mate Sach, in an Alfa). That ’64 Sandown enduro is generally regarded as the rst of what we know today as the Sandown 500 – so Morgan can be credited as delivering Holden its rst success in that iconic touring car enduro also.

Fred’s EH S4 was actually his work ‘company’ car. Pics from practice day at Bathurst in ’63 show the two-way radio aerial still installed (scrutineer­s ordered its removal for the race) – in the pre-mobile phone era, a two-way radio was how Fred kept abreast of business in his day job as a real estate agent.

Fred was best described as an amateur driver, with a career spanning the veyear period from 1961-’64. Other than the EH, he raced ‘Humpy’ Holdens, a 48-215 and an FJ.

Fred died on Thursday, September 6 after battling alzheimers and dementia for a period of some years. He was 87. Fred’s brother Tommy, who worked on his car and had a major role in his racing, also passed away three weeks prior.

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