Australian Muscle Car

A true Larry kin

-

G rech joined John Sheppard’s Volvo Dealer Team for 1986. It was a case of stepping out of the frying pan and into the re, with Sheppard clashing with former team owner Mark Petch and driver Robbie Francevic.

He resumed an alliance with Perkins when he establishe­d Perkins Engineerin­g in Moorabin with only a bare bodyshell, which became the Enzed Commodore.

“Larry was the hardest bastard I ever worked for, but I learned so much from him. He was hard but fair. But you had to do it his way.”

By then Holden had dropped Brock, and Perkins was tasked with running the factory race team for TWR and Holden in 1988. It was to be a poisoned chalice.

“Tom was racing Commodores in England, and one day a 20-foot container turns up and they roll out their Pommie-built special, which was a disaster. It was all cloak and dagger stuff; they went into the workshop next door and they had their own blokes from the UK. We went up to Bathurst and it all got a bit spiteful.”

To cut a long story short, Tom’s car was fatally awed, with unequal-length rear suspension arms that kept binding and failing. But the British crew refused to accept any Aussie advice and, sure enough, it broke again in the opening laps of the race.

Perkins and Denny Hulme were still in contention for a win or podium late in the day when suddenly Walkinshaw appeared in their pit dressed for action and demanding to drive the nal stint.

“I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘There’s no way he’s hopping in that car.’ Denny was waiting to get in the car and he warned me, ‘He’ll break the car, you can’t let it happen, we’re winning.’ And we were. Larry had PBR make us rock-hard pads that would get through the whole race, but (eventual winner) Longhurst had to do a pad stop, which went badly and they lost about a lap, so we were bolting.

“LP pits and Denny gets in, and LP sees these blokes and wants to know what they’re doing. Anyway, they go out the back of the garage and have a massive blue, and LP walks back and says, ‘Boys, he’s going to hop in the car, it’s in the contract. He’s demanding he drive and there’s nothing I can do about it.’ He was lthy. We all were.

“Tom’s car was totally different, so we had to shoe-horn him in and quickly show him where everything was. Then the headset gets pulled off my head and his team manager takes over. Tom’s on the radio complainin­g about the brakes, so he’s braking with the engine – just throwing it back from fth to second and over-revving the thing – and of course what happens…”

A rocker stud broke. Tom pitted, Larry did a lap and parked it. “By the time he came down pitlane, Walkinshaw was on a chopper out of there.”

The relationsh­ip with HSV ended soon after and a disgusted Grech went on a six-month motorcycle trip around Europe. He returned to Perkins Engineerin­g in 1989 just in time for Bathurst, the pair of cars running under the Holden Racing Team banner for the rst time.

 ??  ?? Above, right: Working as a mechanic for Larry Perkins was demanding, Grech says, but he learned a lot from the legendary driver/engineer.
Above, right: Working as a mechanic for Larry Perkins was demanding, Grech says, but he learned a lot from the legendary driver/engineer.
 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia