September 8, 2016 marks 10 years since Australian motor racing legend, Peter Brock, died tragically in a tarmac rally in Western Australia.
Brock was at the wheel of a Daytona Coupe when the car left the road and hit a tree, ending the life of this country’s biggest motorsport name.
Ten years on, we remember Brock and his achievements fondly, as does RallySport Magazine founder, Jeff Whitten.
Jeff’s “unforgettable moments” story about Brock appeared in RallySport Magazine soon after his death, and we believe it’s worth reprinting here.
There will never be another Peter Brock. RIP.
UNFORGETTABLE MOMENTS – The death of a legend.
Peter Brock and the Daytona Coupe he was driving when he crashed in WA.I have never been a Holden fan, never had a passion for the General’s red cars, and never cheered when a Holden crossed the finish line at Bathurst or anywhere else for that matter.
In fact the only Holden I’ve ever owned was a Sunbird bought in Perth after the finish of Rally Australia one year, simply to get my family home during an airline strike that looked like lasting for weeks. The Sunbird was bought at 4.30pm in the afternoon, and by 5.30pm we were stranded on the side of the road 50 kilometres out of Perth, with a terminally ill engine.
But despite my dislike of all things Holden, I have to admit to shedding a real tear while watching the television coverage of Peter Brock’s state funeral on September 19. Call me old and emotional, but somehow, during that two-hour service, it highlighted for me just how mortal we all are, and the tears started to flow. But why?
Apart from a brief experience at Alice Springs in 1999, I had never really met Peter Geoffrey Brock. Sure, he was about the same vintage as me, and seemed to have the same sort of values as I did. His professional motor racing career spanned roughly the same years as my amateur career did, and I was on hand at Winton to see him debut that famous blue Holden 179-powered Austin A30 sedan that he began to race there, and at the Hume Weir circuit later. So in some ways there was a little affinity there.
Brock’s famous split with Holden over the Energy Polarizer episode got him offside with GMH. For a while he changed tack, becoming involved with several other makes of vehicle including (strangely) doing special builds of cars that could not be at more opposite ends of the spectrum – Brock Falcons and Lada Samaras.
He also drove Volvos, BMWs and Ford Sierras, but his heart was always with the Holden lion. Gradually he earned the respect of GMH again and once more became their favourite son.
His much-publicised win of the 1979 Repco Round Australia Trial showed that he had talent not only on the racetrack, but on loose surfaces as well. His ability to preserve his cars over thousands of kilometers of outback Australian roads then led to many starts in the now-defunct Australian Safari off road events.
I was invited to a media release in Alice Springs of the 1999 Australian Safari that year and, along with a few other journalists, found myself in a restaurant in the main street of town for a “get to know you” dinner and to meet Safari legends Bruce Garland and Peter Brock, both of whom had entered the event. The restaurant was obviously well known to both Garland and Brock, because the staff welcomed them warmly.
We all ate kangaroo steaks that night, washed down with a variety of local wines and beers, but Brock, a tea-total vegan, stuck to his salads and herbal tea, so he was in total control of his faculties while others got considerably merrier as the night went on.
Brocke led home a Holden 1-2-3 in the 1979 Round Australia Trial.Amid much urging from the staff, Brock and Garland ended up straddling the exposed timber cross beams high up in the roof, riding the beams on saddles, just like they were riding a bucking bronco. It seemed that this activity was a requirement every time the pair were in town, and went on for quite some time, accompanied by the cheers of those of us below.
The noise and merriment drifted out into the street, attracting the attention of a local Holden supporter and his wife who were passing on their way home from a night out. The word had spread that Brock was in town, and the guy burst through the front door in anticipation.
“How long are you going to be here?” the guy asked Brock. “Just about to head off,” Brock replied. “Why?”
“I’d just like to get your autograph on my jacket, but I’d have to race home and get it,” the local said. In typical Brock fashion, the answer came back, “Not a problem mate, I’ll wait till you get back.”
Brock was that sort of person, signing autographs or mixing with his fans was never any trouble, and he was always available for a genuine chat with those he came in contact with.
As the night’s merriment at the restaurant ended, all 10 of us piled into Brock’s Jackaroo for the trip from the restaurant back to the motel. There were three of us in the front seats, four in the back and three jammed into the load area, and it was highly illegal, but Brock steered the Jackaroo back to the motel before the police could be notified of this escapade. We all got out of the vehicle with sides sore from laughing.
Of those who were on that media gig, Peter Brock and I were the earliest risers the following morning (perhaps because we were the only ones sober), while others slept their hangovers off in their rooms. There were only two of us in the motel restaurant at that hour of the morning and Brock extended an invitation for me to join him over breakfast.
That breakfast lasted for over two hours and was one of the most enlightening conversations that I have ever had. Our topics of discussion ranged from his motor racing career, his famous 05 campaign, the up-coming Sydney Olympics and the part he had been invited to play as an ambassador, the problems of disadvantaged youth, the Brock Foundation, his old A30, the Australian Formula One Grand Prix, and dozens of other subjects not necessarily motorsport related.
I came away from that breakfast mightily impressed with his outlook on life and his ‘can do’ attitude. Brock, like all of us, was not without his faults, but he was so full of life, full of energy and full of great new ideas, that he can be forgiven for that.
It is doubtful that Australia will ever see the likes of another Peter Brock again. I doubt that anyone of us can name another race or rally star who would spend hours signing autographs long into the night for his fans, despite the pressure of being asked to be at some other more important function at that time.
Brock truly was one in a million. Ironic, isn’t it, that he was killed not on a race track, but on a public road closed for a tarmac rally?
Peter Brock was quoted as advising his children to always bite off more than you can chew in life, then to chew like hell! It’s an ethos that I think fitted Brock’s life perfectly, and one that all of us would do well to practice in our own lives.
I forgive Peter Brock for driving so many Holdens to victory over the years when they should have been Fords, and I’ll always treasure those unforgettable moments that I spent in his company in The Alice.
I doubt that he would have remembered me after that meeting, but I sure as hell remember him.
- Jeff Whitten, September 2006
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