Peter Brock
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Born: | 26 February, 1945 Image:Flag of Australia.svg Hurstbridge, VIC, Australia <tr><th style="text-align: right;">Died:</th><td>8 September, 2006 |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Racecar driver
<tr><th style="text-align: right;">Children:</th><td>James, Robert and Alexandra</td></tr><tr><th style="text-align: right;">Website:</th><td>peterbrock.com.au</td></tr> |
Peter Geoffrey Brock OAM (26 February, 1945 – 8 September, 2006) otherwise known as Peter Perfect, The King of the Mountain or simply as Brocky was one of Australia's best-known and most successful motor racing drivers. Brock was closely associated with Holden for almost 40 years.[1] He won the Bathurst 1000 endurance race nine times, the Sandown 500 touring car race nine times and the Australian Touring Car Championship three times. Brock's business activities included the Holden Dealer Team (HDT) that produced Brock's racing machines as well as a number of modified high-performance road versions of his racing cars.
Contents |
[edit] Early years
Brock was born in the Victorian country town of Hurstbridge (now an outer suburb of Melbourne) and continued to live there throughout his life.<ref name="TalkingHeads">Peter Brock transcript, screened 2006 Sept 11. Talking Heads. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2006-09-19.</ref> He attended Eltham High School in Diamond Creek.<ref>Principals Report: Back to School Day. Parent Newsletter. Eltham High School (2004-05-18). Retrieved on 2006-09-19.</ref> His first car was an Austin 7<ref name="TalkingHeads"/> that he bought for £5 (A$10).<ref name="TheA30">That "evil natured" machine, the A30. Peter Perfect - The Race Days. Peter Brock - The Ultimate Resource (2000-03-13). Retrieved on 2006-09-19.</ref> His driving skill improved greatly at this point of his life because the car didn't have brakes (or a body, which was removed with his father's axe).<ref name="TheA30"/> He ended up trying to stop the car by sliding and anticipating the line.
[edit] Racing career
During his early career Brock raced some "wild and woolly" creations including the famous blue 6-cylinder Holden-powered Austin A30. One of his early successes was to become the 1970 Australian Rallycross champion. Brock rose to public attention in touring car racing.
[edit] Bathurst
In 1969 he raced in the Bathurst 500—as it was then known—Australia's most prestigious endurance road race and won it for the first time in 1972. Brock would win the event a total of nine times between 1972 and 1987, a feat that has not been equalled. His 1979 win was remarkable in that he claimed the flag by six laps, a record that (due to changes in race regulations introduced in the 1990s) will never be broken, and broke the circuit lap record on his final lap. In 32 starts at Bathurst he claimed pole position a record six times. His record at this race earned him the titles King of the Mountain and the Bradman of Bathurst—after cricketer Don Bradman—although Brock himself cared little for the latter title.
[edit] Sandown
Along with his record at the Bathurst race, Brock also claimed victory in the Sandown 500 race nine times, including a string of seven consecutive wins. He won a total of 37 races during his career in the Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar championship, a record only eventually equalled by Mark Skaife in 2006.<ref name="BrockBradmanBathurst">Ray Kershler. "Nine Wins Made Brock the Bradman of Bathurst and a household name", The Saturday Daily Telegraph, News Ltd, 9 September 2006, p. 46. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (in English)</ref>
[edit] Standing in community
As the lead driver for the Holden Dealer Team in a succession of both 6- and 8-cylinder Holden Toranas and, later, V8 Commodores the smooth-talking clean-cut Brock became a household name that transcended motor racing as he emerged to be one of the best-known modern Australia and New Zealand racing drivers, spoken of with the same reverence as Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones and Jim Richards.
Brock and the Holden Dealer Team worked in partnership, with full factory approval and assistance, to produce a number of high-performance modifications to the Commodores under existing CAMS Group C regulations from 1980 to 1988. Some of these were HDT "homologation specials"—one step away from race cars. It was around this time that Brock began his run of six Bathurst 1000 wins in seven years, including his six-lap victory in the 1979 event.
[edit] International racing
Unlike several other Australian drivers, Brock did not seek a full-time racing career outside Australia. He did attempt the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice in privateer vehicles, in 1976 in a BMW 3.0CSL, which failed, and in 1984 in the orange Bob Jane T-Marts sponsored Porsche 956 with co-driver Larry Perkins, running as high as 5th at one stage of the race. The ill-prepared and somewhat underfunded attempt also failed after Perkins crashed mid-race. <ref>Scott, Phil. "Brock at Le Mans", Wheels Magazine, Australian Consolidated Press, September 1984. (in English)</ref> He also won the 1979 Repco Round Australia trial, a long-distance endurance race featuring some dirt road sections completely different to the circuit racing where he made his name.
[edit] Motoring safety campaign
Brock also worked with the Victorian authorities promoting the campaign against drink driving. The most obvious sign of this association was the racecar number 05 which related to the 0.05% blood alcohol limit in Victoria, which he utilised constantly from the mid-1970s. Most cars he raced in, regardless of the motor racing division, bore this number, including the one in which he died.
[edit] Other activities
Brock, who lived hard in his early years, changed his lifestyle considerably after the failed 1984 Le Mans attempt left him physically and emotionally drained.<ref>Fogarty, Mark. "Brock at ease with public role", The Age, 2006-09-10. Retrieved on 2006-09-15.</ref>
Brock began to consult health practitioner Eric Dowker. He gave up alcohol and cigarettes, and became a vegan.<ref name="rope">Interview transcript. Enough Rope with Andrew Denton (18 July, 2005).</ref> Brock began publicly supporting and, eventually, began to fit to all Holden Dealer Team specials a device called the "Energy Polarizer" containing crystals and magnets that, it was claimed, improved the performance and handling of vehicles through "aligning the molecules".
The overwhelming majority of the Australian motoring community regarded the device as pseudoscience.<ref name="rope"/> Brock also recommended tyre pressures of 22psi (150kPa) for his polariser-equipped vehicles, a level which many regarded as near-dangerously low. Holden, fearing the consequences of being associated with the device and a resulting breakdown in communications over Brock's plans for new models, cut ties with Brock and set up an alternative racing/modification operation, Holden Special Vehicles. During this period, Brock also became involved in the importation and even the modification of the Lada Samara, a cheap Soviet-built hatchback a world away from the high-performance V8-powered Commodores he was famous for.<ref>[Andrew]. I'd rather a Lada! (Review excerpts from Australian motoring magazines). Retrieved on 2006-09-15.</ref>
After his work with Lada, Brock, during the period 1988-1990 sold around 200 personally modified EA-series Ford Falcons, Fairmont Ghias, Fairlanes and Mavericks through Austech Automotive Developments.<ref>[Terry]. EA-series Ford Falcons, Fairmont Ghias, Fairlanes and Mavericks.. Retrieved on 2006-11-20.</ref>
While Brock was always typecast in a Holden, he did have 'brief flirtations' with other makes in touring car racing. After his 1987 Holden split, he campaigned a BMW M3 (1988), and a Ford Sierra (1989-90). By 1991 he and Holden, having patched up their relationship, were back together. A further flirtation of Brock's was in 1994 when he raced a Volvo 850 in the one-off Bathurst 12-Hour. He also competed for Volvo in the Australian Super Touring Championship in 1996.
[edit] Retirement activities
Brock continued to race in privately-supported teams for some years afterwards, but returned to the factory Holden Racing Team in 1994. Brock retired from full-time driving in 1997.
After his nominal 'retirement' he made two returns to Bathurst (2002 and 2004) and competed in the Nations Cup for highly-modified and exotic cars in 2004. In 2002, he returned to top-level touring car racing as a team owner with the entry of "Team Brock" into the V8 Supercar category. However, he sold his share in the team to Kees Weel at the end of 2003.
He occasionally competed in various enthusiast-level motorsport events such as the Targa Tasmania. The team's vehicles are actually constructed by Holden Special Vehicles. His smooth on-camera persona and familiarity to older Australians continued to sell products, including Mobil Oils and Bridgestone tyres, as the controversy of the Energy Polarizer had been largely forgotten.
He achieved a tenth Bathurst win, in a manner of sorts, in 2003, when he won, with Greg Murphy, Jason Bright, and Todd Kelly, a 24-hour endurance race held at Bathurst for "production cars" (in the case of Brock's vehicle, heavily modified) in a Holden Monaro Coupe [2].
[edit] Media work
Due to his extraordinary success on the racing track Brock became the Australian racing driver with the highest-profile as he undertook several media commitments. When not racing he often appeared on New Zealand television screens as a presenter; hosting motoring shows such as TV3's Police Stop (1996-1998) and TVNZ's Love that Car (2000).
He was also due to star in a racing film King of the Mountain alongside Shannon Noll in early 2007.<ref>Staff author. "Pete in a panorama", Herald Sun - Carsguide, News Ltd, 21 July, 2006, pp. G19. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (in English)</ref>
Brock has been the subject of two DVD documentaries—The Legend (1997 - updated 2004) [3] and 35 Years on the Mountain (2005) [4] .
[edit] Personal life
Brock married Heather Russell in 1967. The marriage ended in divorce two years later.<ref name="WivesFastLane">Ray Kershler & Rupert Guinness. "Wives in the fast lane", The Daily Telegraph, News Ltd, 15 October, 2005, p. 31. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (in English)</ref>
Several years later Brock met 1973 Miss Australia pageant winner and Channel Seven weather presenter Michelle Downes. They married in April 1974 but this marriage was to be even shorter than his first, ending after only one year.<ref name="WivesFastLane"/><ref>"Miss Australia Divorce", The Daily Mirror, 4 August, 1975.</ref> In 2006, Downes claimed Brock repeatedly beat her, and forced her to have an abortion.<ref>The Age Saturday Novernber 18, 2006, p.11</ref>
Brock next entered into a relationship with Bev McIntosh, the wife of one of his motor racing team.<ref name="WivesFastLane"/> After his two failed marriages Brock was hesitant to marry McIntosh.<ref name="WivesFastLane"/>
Although the couple never married, Peter always called Bev his "wife", and she changed her surname to Brock by Deed Poll. They had two children together, Robert and Alexandra. Her oldest, James, is Bev's son from a previous marriage.
Bev wrote Peter's biography<ref>Brock, Bev (2004). Peter Brock: Living with a Legend (in English). Sydney: Macmillan Australia.</ref> herself in 2004 after finding most potential authors had incorrect preconceived notions about him. She also expressed a desire to show his human side, to encourage others that they, too, can achieve their goals.<ref name="BrockyMarriage">Stanford, James. "Brocky marriage", Herald-Sun, News Ltd, 30 October 2004, p. W29. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (in English)</ref> "Even Allan Moffat said it's okay for him—it's us mortals that have the problem," she said.<ref name="BrockyMarriage"/>
Brock split with Bev in May 2005 after 28 years together. Alexandra gave birth to their grandson Oliver on 28 June 2006, two months before Brock's death.<ref>Mike Edmonds, Luke Dennehy & Chloe Adams. "Brock to drive solo", Herald-Sun, News Ltd, 3 May 2005, p. 20. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (in English)</ref>
According to Bev, Brock was not an entirely faithful partner. She has described in a book her eventual tiring in the early 1990s of his relationships with "one too many secretaries".<ref>"Brock's affair shattered my family: mate", The Australian, News Limited, 12 September 2006. Retrieved on 2006-09-16. (in English)</ref>
After splitting with Bev, Peter began a relationship with Julie Bamford,<ref>Rebehah Devlin, Andrew Capel & Doug Robertson. "Brock's new model", The Advertiser, News Ltd, 10 October 2005, p. 44. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (in English)</ref> whom he had met through his former partner Bev some 20 years previously.<ref name="BrockFeud">Power, Emily. "Brock feud erupts: Jilted man comes out swinging", Herald-Sun, News Ltd, 17 March 2006, p. 17. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (in English)</ref> Subsequently Bamford's estranged husband Ron McCurdy, who had once been a close friend of Brock's, assaulted Brock during a chance meeting outside the Peter Brock Foundation's office.<ref name="BrockFeud"/><ref>Haberfield, Ian. "Brock 'had it coming': Jilted husband has no regrets", Sunday Herald Sun, News Ltd, 2 July 2006, p. 4. Retrieved on 2006-09-08. (in English)</ref>
[edit] Death
At 11.50am (AWST) on 8 September, 2006, while driving in the Targa West '06 rally, Brock was 3 kilometres from the finish of the second stage of the race at Gidgegannup, about 40km from Perth, Western Australia <ref>"Australian Motor Racing Legend Dies in Targa West", Confederation of Australian Motorsport, 8 September, 2006.</ref> when he skidded off a downhill left-hand bend on Clenton Road for over 50 metres in his 2001 Daytona Coupé<ref>"Racing legend Brock killed in car crash", ABC News, 8 September, 2006.</ref> and hit a tree. 61-year-old Brock was killed instantly. His co-driver, Mick Hone, was taken to hospital in a serious but stable condition.<ref>"Peter Brock killed in crash", The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 September, 2006.</ref> <ref>"Motor racing legend Peter Brock 'reportedly killed'", The West Australian, 8 September, 2006.</ref> Video footage of the crash (provided by a fan and the in-car camera) are being reviewed by Western Australian police to help determine the cause of the accident.
Brock's children accepted the offer of a Victorian state funeral, with former partner Bev telling ABC Radio:
- "[Brock] was loved. He was in the public eye, and everything had to be done with a flourish and with a bang. It's probably the way he would want to go out, (and) he would want to be remembered."<ref>"Brock family accepts state funeral", News.com.au, 9 September, 2006.</ref>
The editor of Wheels Magazine, Ged Bulmer, said that Brock would be remembered for his nine victories at Bathurst, for "He had a long and very successful career there, he was the 'King of the Mountain' as he came to be known."
Brock was farewelled with a state funeral<ref>"'Remarkable' Brock's hard road", The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 September, 2006.</ref> at Melbourne's St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral, on 19 September, 2006. There will also be a permanent memorial at Peter Brock's "home" raceway, Sandown Raceway, placed there on 22 September.<ref>"Brock's body returns to Melbourne", The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September, 2006.</ref>
Ironically, Brock's casket was driven from Melbourne Airport in a Ford hearse, although Brock himself had once said he would "prefer to throw up than back a Ford down a driveway". Funeral directors organising his farewell had arranged for a Holden Statesman hearse to bear him to his final, private cremation. [5]
In honour of his achievements and in recognition of his contribution to Australian motorsport, the Bathurst 1000 winner's trophy now carries his name. In 2006, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup became the first winners of the Peter Brock Trophy.
[edit] Awards
In addition to his racing championships, Brock's efforts to society have been recognised in various ways:
- Member of the Order of Australia (9 June 1980)—AM QB80. For service to the sport of motor racing. [6]
- Australian Sports Medal (24 October 2000) [7]
- Centenary Medal (1 January 2001) For outstanding service to the community through fundraising. [8]
- National Service Medal (14 February 2006) - For Military Service (?-1967)[9] [10]
