The birth of the Holden Dealer Team
In the early ‘60s most of Holden’s engineering staff were competing in trials, club racing and hillclimbs in their own ‘staff discount’ cars. But there was still not a lot interest from management in competition. The thing that changed all that was when Ford got serious after a disastrous launch for its new Falcon.
“When Ford decided to convince the public that Falcon, and Fords generally, were t for Australia,” Watson says, “part of the strategy was starting a rallying program. That saw Ford winning just about everything with no competition, and that ultimately prompted Holden to try to do something to ght it.”
This was 1964, and the birth of the original Holden Dealers Trials Teams. It was initially just on a Victorian basis, but it would grow to include ‘dealer assistance’ in other states. It was the brainchild of John Bagshaw, later to become the architect for Holden’s motor sport forays for decades to come.
The Victorian Holden Dealer Team enlisted three prominent dealers: Bib Stillwell, Preston Motors and Bill Patterson. The dealers had their names on the cars, but they were, in reality, still GM cars and prepared at Fishermans Bend.
The GM-H Car Club was told it could have one of the cars and to nominate a team, so the club had a series of selection trials. It came down to three potential crews: Watson and McAuliffe, Marc McInnes and his co-driver Peter Haas, and Tony Roberts and Mike Osbourne.
“In the end I won the selection and Jim and I got the car,” Bob explains.
“Jim and I would be in the Preston Motors car and a little while later Leo Squires was dropped from the Bill Patterson car and Tony Roberts got that car, while Mal McPherson was in the Stillwell car.
“I really fell on my feet. I was in the right place at the right time, at Holden just when they decided to go rallying.You’ve got to be lucky,” he smiles.
The team was run initially by John Riebe from the sales department. Acccording to Watson, Riebe knew very little about motorsport. In time he would be replaced by Peter Lewis-Williams. He had racing experience and had worked with Norm Beechey. He would go on to become known as the man who wrote the cheques for Holden’s motorsport activity when he left Holden to work for George Patterson Advertising. To distance Holden from GM’s racing ban, Lewis-Williams would be employed by Patterson’s so the costs could be hidden in ‘marketing.’
Being selected for the rally team paid almost immediate dividends for Watson as the young engineer and his navigator in their EH S4 won the 1964 Akademos Rally, a round of the Victorian state championship and one of the toughest events on the calendar. But Ford was still dominating the overall championship, with factory drivers Harry Firth and Frank Kilfoyle tieing for the ‘63 title, Kilfoyle taking 64 and Firth 65.
But then the tide soon turned, and in 1966 Tony Roberts became the rst to win a title for the Victorian Holden Dealers Trials Team, taking the state championship in an X2 HD Holden. Then Reg Lunn, driving the Stillwell car took the 1967 title, starting the year in the X2 HD and completing the title in the new HR with its bigger 186S engine (with a stronger crank, hotter cam, twin carbies, a limited slip diff and the four-speed oor shift Opel gearbox).
In the absence of an Australian Championship, Holden was also channelling assistance to the Garard Brothers, Greg and John, in their HR in NSW, through Liverpool dealer Pat Cullen, to John Flood in WA and Allen Larsen in Queensland. The Garards broke the ve-year dominance of Barry Ferguson and his VWs, winning the ‘67 NSW title for Holden. Flood won the WA title that year as well, and Larsen the Queensland crown.
Through all this Watson spent a lot of time in the USA during 1967 as part of his work in developing the coming HK model GTS 327 Monaro.
Back behind the wheel of the HR 186S at the start of the 1968 season Watson, with McAuliffe alongside, won the opening two rounds to build a strong lead in the Victorian Championship chase. This was before the team switched to the new HK model with the 307ci Chev V8 under the bonnet. The V8 Kingswood would change the dynamic, and Watson and McAuliffe would clinch the state title, his rst championship win and Holden’s third in a row. But things were changing.
“The 307 Chev and was mated to the Powerglide two-speed auto, and it was startlingly quick, given the horsepower and the fact it weighed about 1600kg,” Watson says.
“You would leave it in rst till about 70 mph and then shift to second. It would do a standing quarter mile in under 15 seconds.”
Brian Sampson (our Muscle Man in AMC #106) had done some of the development work but, like all Holdens back then, the car only had rear drum brakes and it was difficult to stop in a long stage.
It was also a big car, and despite winning the VRC in ‘68 he could only manage fourth in the ARC against the nimble Cortinas.
“You would leave it in first till about 70 mph and then shift to second. It would do a standing quarter mile in under 15 seconds.”