1972 Hardie Ferodo 500. Bathurst
Sam (Sambo17)
24,475 views
An edit of Live TV and Film highlights
20 Comments
@306champion 2 years ago
Two minute forty second lap times fifty one years ago from production cars. Gotta love it.
@johnbrooks9523 2 years ago (edited)
BROCK WASN'T SUPPOSED TO WIN BATHURST IN 1972.
That wasn't the plan.
Very few enthusiasts know of Moff's prior alliance & racing adventures in the US with Harry in fast Cortinas. They knew each other very well & cleverly set up camps on either side of our Australian Touring Car Racing "battlefield" where each could practice their magic with opposing factory support & fat factory funding. Both were gifted, secretive, elusive & highly intelligent masters in their chosen field. Between them & thanks to them, we witnessed a long period of intense motor racing warfare entertainment which divided the entire nation into rivalry between two military grade - 4 star generals hurling everything they could procure as ammunition at each other at our premier race tracks. Every battle was brilliantly staged & fairly well matched. It really was polarising!
When Harry accepted his role inside the GM fighting headquarters he must have known Holden had secret plans to continue developing a race weapon out of the little 6 cylinder engines & cars that were Australia's best sellers before & after Holden had sent modified 179 EH sedans with factory support for the very first time to win at Bathurst in 1963. EH S4 Holdens stormed home in second & fourth against V8 opposition at Bathurst in 1963. It was a fairly close run thing & Holden had come tantalisingly close to winning that race with their popular little 6 cylinder car. However, second just wasn't good enough. Ford had plans to build V8 Falcons, the V8 Mustang was about to hypnotise the entire motoring world & GMH were still SIX YEARS AWAY FROM TOOLING UP & PRODUCING A LOCAL SUITED TO AUSTRALIA V8. Holden's later HKs, HTs & HGs were too bulky & too heavy to ever go anywhere in a hurry with small 6 cylinder powerplants. Chev powered Racing Holdens were only ever a stop gap measure & it was way too expensive. Holden had already begun marketing their pocket rocket, budget, compact, lightweight LC GTR TORANAS when Harry was brought across from Ford.
Harry had successfully re-engineered piddly little Pomgolian Rockets like Minis & Cortinas & turned them into race winners even on power circuits including Bathurst when Holden roped him in. He'd also been heavily involved in hotting up Early Model Holdens with Triple Pommy Carb set Ups & he was damn good at it. While Harry was winning at Bathurst with the 350 CHEV HDT HT GTS MONAROS he'd refined & tweaked in 1969, he was sending secret detailed plans to Holden Head Office illustrating to Holden engineers precisely what he knew was required in a 6 cylinder Torana BATHURST WINNER. Harry was the resolute master of "underdoggery" who could convert a Fox Terrier into a Doberman Eater & Holden knew this. To beat a 351 V8 Falcon at Bathurst with a teency 6 cylinder Torana as Holden desperately wanted to do, they needed a gifted wiley guru miracle worker/magician. By 1970 Harry had his first evolution GTR XU-1 & he had Bondy trained up nicely as his professional lead driver. The younger & yet to fully develop Brock was a back up to Bond. Brock was usually sent out to harrass Ford drivers, get in their mirrors, frighten the hell out of them & to force them into errors as they overstretched their bulkier heavier cars. Bond was the refined maestro to apprentice Brock. Brock's uncanny ability to learn & adjust caught everyone out. He soon had the capacity to outrace any other established champion Aust racing driver including the very best, Pete Geoghegan, Bob Jane AND SUPREMO MOFFAT! Harry's young apprentice excelled even beyond Harry's anticipation. Brock started beating Bond & winning races which took championship points away from Bond.
By the time the starter's flag had fallen at Bathurst in 1972, both Brock & Bond had detailed instructions drawn up by Harry. Brock was supposed to play his usual sacrificial role as hare, attacker & tail gunner. Bond was supposed to cruise safely to the win.
BROCK had other ideas, visualised his own potential, conserved his car, played his cards brilliantly, saw Bond get totally wiped out & deployed everything he had learned to get his dinky little Torana over the finish line AHEAD OF AUSTRALIA'S THEN CURRENT BATHURST CHAMPION MOFFAT!
Now, poor ol' Moff. He was a true CHAMPION who worked 365 days a year in his concentrated efforts to win Bathurst & his staggering genius, towering ability, global connections, adminstrative skills, ability to attract sponsors & just plain old hard work had netted him Bathurst wins in 1970 & again in 1971 & he knew precisely what was needed to win THAT annual event to become the most admired champion for another 12 months... Nothing else mattered to Moff. Bathurst was holy ground & Moffat's MECCA.
Moff arrived at Bathurst with FORD'S showcase 351 Cleveland, close ratio Top Loader, Detroit Locker Nine Inch, latest permissable 15" Alloy Wheels, stump pulling - mountain climbing torque & never before seen velocity down Conrod Straight. The 1972 evolution 351 GTHO PHASE 111 FALCON was a formidable weapon & a great clanking mechanical monster designed to intimidate & obliterate 6Pack Chargers & to squash teency little Toranas like bugs. Moffat had already blasted into history by winning the 2 previous annual Bathurst events in GTHO FALCONS where he'd made mincemeat out of Valiants & Holdens & he was all set to make it three years in a row with an even more brutally powerful weapon.
There were oodles of older LC XU-1s & current model LJ XU-1s on the grid that fateful Sunday. No one in their right mind really believed a Torana could win this race. Even the 265 E49 4 speed Charger with incredible horsepower looked the Torana Killer on paper. It was a dead cert, done deal... MOFF was absolutely going to just blast off into the distance & repeat his previous performances. Chargers wouldn't be far behind the winning Falcons.
I was 10 years old, perched on a lounge chair beside my Grandfather for the duration & we watched the live telecast on Channel 7 like we were watching entire worlds collide! That particular televised event really caught my attention. We watched all this unforeseeable drama play out on telly & it was simply immense!
Bond & Moore were our best hopes & both got splattered. "Junior" & massively underestimated understudy Brock just kept the pressure on ALL DAY & god of the sport Moff was coming ungued big time! Queenslander Frenchie in his gorgeous & fast Wid Violet GTHO also struck trouble along with Freddy Gibson & all the while, Brock just plowed on like his life depended on it. HARRY ACTUALLY STEPPED OUT ON PIT STRAIGHT & SIGNALLED BROCK TO SLOW DOWN!
This was all just too bizarre! We just couldn't ever have imagined such drama.
The rest is history & while I never could love the sometimes (maybe often) evasive, smarmy & dismissive Moffat with his grating alien Canadian accent, Groucho Marx black rimmed spectacles & big scary cars, I've learned to respect the man. Moff was every bit the true champion. He worked so very hard to achieve what he did. The results from the 1972 Bathurst event must have really hurt him, haunted him for the rest of his life & hounded him to focus & work even harder.
Brock winning as he did in 1972 was a stunning display of budding talent & this probably actually extended HARRY'S life.
I consider myself very fortunate. I lived in a time & a place when & where two genuine titans waged battle after battle, race after race, year after year & the sparks generated produced Brock, Grice, Gibson, Skaife, Dick Johnson, Larry Perkins & a long list of others who went on as the masters, who Harry Firth & Allan Moffat had set up here for all of us when they decided to fight it out against each other in 1969.
Australian Championship Touring Car Racing became what it has been since & what it is today thanks to these two amazing characters.
Harry has left us. Moffat is now very unwell & we'll lose him soon.
Both are thoroughly worthy of bronze monuments and we should all make an effort to see that happen.
Thankyou for making this stunning 1972 Battle of the titans available. It is a genuine epic with a startling ending!
That wasn't the plan.
Very few enthusiasts know of Moff's prior alliance & racing adventures in the US with Harry in fast Cortinas. They knew each other very well & cleverly set up camps on either side of our Australian Touring Car Racing "battlefield" where each could practice their magic with opposing factory support & fat factory funding. Both were gifted, secretive, elusive & highly intelligent masters in their chosen field. Between them & thanks to them, we witnessed a long period of intense motor racing warfare entertainment which divided the entire nation into rivalry between two military grade - 4 star generals hurling everything they could procure as ammunition at each other at our premier race tracks. Every battle was brilliantly staged & fairly well matched. It really was polarising!
When Harry accepted his role inside the GM fighting headquarters he must have known Holden had secret plans to continue developing a race weapon out of the little 6 cylinder engines & cars that were Australia's best sellers before & after Holden had sent modified 179 EH sedans with factory support for the very first time to win at Bathurst in 1963. EH S4 Holdens stormed home in second & fourth against V8 opposition at Bathurst in 1963. It was a fairly close run thing & Holden had come tantalisingly close to winning that race with their popular little 6 cylinder car. However, second just wasn't good enough. Ford had plans to build V8 Falcons, the V8 Mustang was about to hypnotise the entire motoring world & GMH were still SIX YEARS AWAY FROM TOOLING UP & PRODUCING A LOCAL SUITED TO AUSTRALIA V8. Holden's later HKs, HTs & HGs were too bulky & too heavy to ever go anywhere in a hurry with small 6 cylinder powerplants. Chev powered Racing Holdens were only ever a stop gap measure & it was way too expensive. Holden had already begun marketing their pocket rocket, budget, compact, lightweight LC GTR TORANAS when Harry was brought across from Ford.
Harry had successfully re-engineered piddly little Pomgolian Rockets like Minis & Cortinas & turned them into race winners even on power circuits including Bathurst when Holden roped him in. He'd also been heavily involved in hotting up Early Model Holdens with Triple Pommy Carb set Ups & he was damn good at it. While Harry was winning at Bathurst with the 350 CHEV HDT HT GTS MONAROS he'd refined & tweaked in 1969, he was sending secret detailed plans to Holden Head Office illustrating to Holden engineers precisely what he knew was required in a 6 cylinder Torana BATHURST WINNER. Harry was the resolute master of "underdoggery" who could convert a Fox Terrier into a Doberman Eater & Holden knew this. To beat a 351 V8 Falcon at Bathurst with a teency 6 cylinder Torana as Holden desperately wanted to do, they needed a gifted wiley guru miracle worker/magician. By 1970 Harry had his first evolution GTR XU-1 & he had Bondy trained up nicely as his professional lead driver. The younger & yet to fully develop Brock was a back up to Bond. Brock was usually sent out to harrass Ford drivers, get in their mirrors, frighten the hell out of them & to force them into errors as they overstretched their bulkier heavier cars. Bond was the refined maestro to apprentice Brock. Brock's uncanny ability to learn & adjust caught everyone out. He soon had the capacity to outrace any other established champion Aust racing driver including the very best, Pete Geoghegan, Bob Jane AND SUPREMO MOFFAT! Harry's young apprentice excelled even beyond Harry's anticipation. Brock started beating Bond & winning races which took championship points away from Bond.
By the time the starter's flag had fallen at Bathurst in 1972, both Brock & Bond had detailed instructions drawn up by Harry. Brock was supposed to play his usual sacrificial role as hare, attacker & tail gunner. Bond was supposed to cruise safely to the win.
BROCK had other ideas, visualised his own potential, conserved his car, played his cards brilliantly, saw Bond get totally wiped out & deployed everything he had learned to get his dinky little Torana over the finish line AHEAD OF AUSTRALIA'S THEN CURRENT BATHURST CHAMPION MOFFAT!
Now, poor ol' Moff. He was a true CHAMPION who worked 365 days a year in his concentrated efforts to win Bathurst & his staggering genius, towering ability, global connections, adminstrative skills, ability to attract sponsors & just plain old hard work had netted him Bathurst wins in 1970 & again in 1971 & he knew precisely what was needed to win THAT annual event to become the most admired champion for another 12 months... Nothing else mattered to Moff. Bathurst was holy ground & Moffat's MECCA.
Moff arrived at Bathurst with FORD'S showcase 351 Cleveland, close ratio Top Loader, Detroit Locker Nine Inch, latest permissable 15" Alloy Wheels, stump pulling - mountain climbing torque & never before seen velocity down Conrod Straight. The 1972 evolution 351 GTHO PHASE 111 FALCON was a formidable weapon & a great clanking mechanical monster designed to intimidate & obliterate 6Pack Chargers & to squash teency little Toranas like bugs. Moffat had already blasted into history by winning the 2 previous annual Bathurst events in GTHO FALCONS where he'd made mincemeat out of Valiants & Holdens & he was all set to make it three years in a row with an even more brutally powerful weapon.
There were oodles of older LC XU-1s & current model LJ XU-1s on the grid that fateful Sunday. No one in their right mind really believed a Torana could win this race. Even the 265 E49 4 speed Charger with incredible horsepower looked the Torana Killer on paper. It was a dead cert, done deal... MOFF was absolutely going to just blast off into the distance & repeat his previous performances. Chargers wouldn't be far behind the winning Falcons.
I was 10 years old, perched on a lounge chair beside my Grandfather for the duration & we watched the live telecast on Channel 7 like we were watching entire worlds collide! That particular televised event really caught my attention. We watched all this unforeseeable drama play out on telly & it was simply immense!
Bond & Moore were our best hopes & both got splattered. "Junior" & massively underestimated understudy Brock just kept the pressure on ALL DAY & god of the sport Moff was coming ungued big time! Queenslander Frenchie in his gorgeous & fast Wid Violet GTHO also struck trouble along with Freddy Gibson & all the while, Brock just plowed on like his life depended on it. HARRY ACTUALLY STEPPED OUT ON PIT STRAIGHT & SIGNALLED BROCK TO SLOW DOWN!
This was all just too bizarre! We just couldn't ever have imagined such drama.
The rest is history & while I never could love the sometimes (maybe often) evasive, smarmy & dismissive Moffat with his grating alien Canadian accent, Groucho Marx black rimmed spectacles & big scary cars, I've learned to respect the man. Moff was every bit the true champion. He worked so very hard to achieve what he did. The results from the 1972 Bathurst event must have really hurt him, haunted him for the rest of his life & hounded him to focus & work even harder.
Brock winning as he did in 1972 was a stunning display of budding talent & this probably actually extended HARRY'S life.
I consider myself very fortunate. I lived in a time & a place when & where two genuine titans waged battle after battle, race after race, year after year & the sparks generated produced Brock, Grice, Gibson, Skaife, Dick Johnson, Larry Perkins & a long list of others who went on as the masters, who Harry Firth & Allan Moffat had set up here for all of us when they decided to fight it out against each other in 1969.
Australian Championship Touring Car Racing became what it has been since & what it is today thanks to these two amazing characters.
Harry has left us. Moffat is now very unwell & we'll lose him soon.
Both are thoroughly worthy of bronze monuments and we should all make an effort to see that happen.
Thankyou for making this stunning 1972 Battle of the titans available. It is a genuine epic with a startling ending!
@markperkins8858 2 years ago
This is the most amount of footage from the 1972 Bathurst it's increadble what is put there.i hope there is more out there of the 1974bathurst 1000 because brock was ahead by 6 laps at lap 111laps I knew he blue his engine up but I don't care.ive only ever seen 29mins of the 74bathurst I know Ford one but I don't care it was still a great race.
@johnbrooks9523 2 years ago
What appears to be a familliar face at the 1.05 mark actually is a familliar face. Except this is the recognisable face of the father. This is Frank Lowndes, father of Craig. Frank was employed by Harry within the HDT. We know his input was significant since Brock thanks him from the winner's podium after the race.
Seconds later after we see Frank, we see gifted Sydneysider Fred Gibson who had won Bathurst previously when Harry Firth had welcomed him in as his co-driver in a Ford Works GT Falcon.
The GTHO that powered home in second & would have won, had Brock's Torana failed was brilliantly driven by Queenslander John French who later teamed up with another Queenslander, Dick Johnson to win Bathurst in a Falcon.
This epic little "movie" is a veritable treasure trove showcasing the dawn of an era which set us on a decades long relentless battle between arch rivals Ford & Holden.
We've since seen dozens of these fierce battles play out annually.
In 1977 Moffat ran out of Brakes & should never have won. His hired in team mate Bond in a similar car demonstrated his supreme mechanical sympathy when he ran the same distance in a virtually identical car & managed to preserve his brakes. Bond could easily have won in 1977, but elected to let his boss win by waiting for him. Bond wasn't just a brilliant driver, he was a gentleman who respected those around him.
In this footage you'll see Brock lock his brakes & skid his left front tyre into Hell Corner on the very last lap. Another sympathetic driver who had driven fast enough to win & not destroyed the vitally important brakes in his car. Both Brock & Bond were gifted drivers who could read Braille with their backsides. Harry was the guru & he knew who to employ.
When Brock crosses the finish line, we see a HDT team member applauding Brock as he roars past. This is Harry's Chief Mechanic Ian Tate. Ian's achievements & contribution to Australian Touring Car Racing are so extensive, it's mind boggling.
When you recognise the faces seen in this great little presentation & you know who these gifted people were & what they were up to back then, this presentation appears as the truly golden little nugget it really is.
Thankyou Sam for once again giving us pure gold!
Seconds later after we see Frank, we see gifted Sydneysider Fred Gibson who had won Bathurst previously when Harry Firth had welcomed him in as his co-driver in a Ford Works GT Falcon.
The GTHO that powered home in second & would have won, had Brock's Torana failed was brilliantly driven by Queenslander John French who later teamed up with another Queenslander, Dick Johnson to win Bathurst in a Falcon.
This epic little "movie" is a veritable treasure trove showcasing the dawn of an era which set us on a decades long relentless battle between arch rivals Ford & Holden.
We've since seen dozens of these fierce battles play out annually.
In 1977 Moffat ran out of Brakes & should never have won. His hired in team mate Bond in a similar car demonstrated his supreme mechanical sympathy when he ran the same distance in a virtually identical car & managed to preserve his brakes. Bond could easily have won in 1977, but elected to let his boss win by waiting for him. Bond wasn't just a brilliant driver, he was a gentleman who respected those around him.
In this footage you'll see Brock lock his brakes & skid his left front tyre into Hell Corner on the very last lap. Another sympathetic driver who had driven fast enough to win & not destroyed the vitally important brakes in his car. Both Brock & Bond were gifted drivers who could read Braille with their backsides. Harry was the guru & he knew who to employ.
When Brock crosses the finish line, we see a HDT team member applauding Brock as he roars past. This is Harry's Chief Mechanic Ian Tate. Ian's achievements & contribution to Australian Touring Car Racing are so extensive, it's mind boggling.
When you recognise the faces seen in this great little presentation & you know who these gifted people were & what they were up to back then, this presentation appears as the truly golden little nugget it really is.
Thankyou Sam for once again giving us pure gold!
@amraceway 2 years ago
The last year of series production cars at Bathurst. From 1973 on they were not true production cars as non factory parts were allowed to be fitted.
@markwaters3050 11 months ago
There's a guy just before Brock at 00:01:07 who looks like he could be Lowndes' dad, or grand-dad! LOL
@makattak3550 1 year ago (edited)
If that was a Holden that rolled at 11 50, all the panels would of flown off......
@markwaters3050 11 months ago (edited)
Isn't it incredible that these drivers and officials could get around accidents with complete safety, and God forbid, without a damned safety car inhibiting good planning and driving?
Our "Great Race", even over enduro race length, is still determined by the random application of the "safety car".
Our "Great Race", even over enduro race length, is still determined by the random application of the "safety car".
1972 Hardie Ferodo 500. Bathurst
Sam (Sambo17)
24,475 views
An edit of Live TV and Film highlights