1987 Spa 24 Hour
The World Touring Car Championship was a major attraction, particularly for those Australian racers from the Holden Dealer Team who had ventured to Europe with their Commodores the year before. This included HDT refugees Allan Moffat and John Harvey who jettisoned themselves from the troubled Peter Brock out t (just after the Energy Polarizer saga culminated in the split between Brock and Holden), bought one of their newly built Commodores and set about campaigning it in the WTCC funded by Moffat’s credit card! Their shoestring European campaign, including an historic against-the-odds win in the rst round at Monza, Italy, was told in the pages of AMC #38, although Mulvihill’s involvement during the Spa 24 Hour race only garnered a paragraph in the lengthy feature article. Below is Mulvihill’s take on this momentous event where Moffat and Harvey splashed their way to an incredible fourth outright behind three factory-backed BMW M3s.
“I had got to know (team manager) Mick Webb well during the Moffat (Mazda RX7) days – we’d buy second-hand tyres from him. He organised for us to build a (Jonespeed) motor for Moffat to use at Wanneroo, just to see what it was like. They were looking for a third driver for Spa. Mick mentioned it to me, I said I was interested. He said ‘what can you bring to the table?’ What about an engine built by Neill Burns at Perkins Engineering? So an engine was built and used at Spa.”
“Allan was nothing but a gentleman to me. He had a rental car that he wanted me to use to learn the track. It was like nothing you’ve seen before and you have to drive at night. So for three days I drove around there at night and did a lot of laps. Harvey basically ignored me and didn’t give me any assistance at all. That saddened me. It was like he didn’t want me there. In the wet practice sessions I was holding my own. David Parsons was driving the HDT Commodore and I was pretty much keeping up with him. I hadn’t heard of the 110% rule, and I don’t think the rest of the team considered it. Then it dried out and everyone went faster. I was caught out on older tyres and I didn’t qualify. It was not by much. Mick Webb took it up with the officials. In my opinion I think they may have been trying to nobble the team after their success earlier in season. Had the team been aware (of the 110% rule) they would have sent me out on qualifying tyres. I copped it. I didn’t complain or piss off. I stayed and helped the team during the race. I was shattered. It took a lot of effort to get there and it painted me as a useless driver who couldn’t qualify. Otherwise, I enjoyed the experience. Their Commodore was totally different from mine. The handling and balance was so much better and it was easier to drive.”