The end of the Lion

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emailBy: Phil Branagan | 10 hours ago

Since 1985 the streets of Adelaide have seen some extraordinary days in Formula 1 and V8 Supercars, but none as remarkable as what happened one Sunday in 2016.

The city had a deluge; in fact, two deluges, so big as to red-flag the 250km race twice and, at one point, flooding pitlane so badly that half the garages lost electricity. That forced engineers to plot the progress of their $400,000 race cars and track the incoming weather by peering at their cellphones, praying that their batteries would last.

What emerged from this chaos, of course, was a fairytale. Nick Percat had won before – on debut, at Bathurst, as a co-driver five years before. But that was with the crack Holden Racing Team and the team he now drove for, LD Motorsport, was the lowest-funded in the pitlane. The car was second-hand, the budget modest, and Percat started the race from 15th on the grid. But then it rained – and team manager Barry Hay had read the rule book.

After the race resumed for the second time many teams came to a terrible realization; the rule requiring them to put a minimum amount of fuel in the cars during the pitstops stayed in place despite, inevitably, a shortened race. As drivers one by one peeled into the pitlane to take on fuel they didn’t otherwise need, Percat’s Holden Commodore took the lead. He had pitted for enough fuel and he stayed there – and won.

The crowd went mad, for good reason. Percat was an Adelaide local; better yet, his father worked at Holden’s assembly plant in the suburb of Elizabeth. The win was especially sweet for car owner Lucas Dumbrell, who had been a promising driver himself until a crash in an open-wheeler confined him to a wheelchair.

For once, the Holden vs Ford rivalry was set aside to celebrate a great day. But, just for once.

The contest between Australia’s two main automotive brands has been more than the cornerstone of motor racing down under for 50 years. It has been a part of the fabric of Aussie life. For generations most families had either a Holden or a Ford in their driveways, and even the ones who did not supported one brand or another.

And now, Holden is departing, not just motor racing but the automotive marketplace.

This is not like Pontiac’s exit from NASCAR in 2004. It’s not like any IndyCar team departing the series – or even the Penskes failing to qualify for the Indy 500 in ’95.
Peter Brock on his way to the 1984 Bathurst win with Larry Perkins in the iconic No.5 HDT Holden VK Commodore. Image by Holden

To Australians, Holden is bigger than that. Not having Holdens on the track or in the showrooms would be like the Dallas Cowboys quitting football. Or the New York Yankees moving to Athens – the one in Greece, not the one in Georgia.

Motor racing in Australia is popular because of the Holden vs Ford rivalry. In the 1960s, Touring Car racing was dominated by, mainly, monied car dealers importing fast cars to race – firstly Jaguars, then Ford Mustangs. Then along came a Canadian, Allan Moffat, with a TransAm Mustang that had been gifted to him by Ford HQ in Detroit. He was not interested in retailing cars; he wanted to race them as a professional racing driver, and the game was about to change.

Moffat raced the car everywhere he could. At the same time, Ford Australia increased its commitment to Production Car racing’s biggest event, the Bathurst 500, with the bespectacled Moffat as its lead driver. In a locally-developed four-door Ford Falcon, he won two 500s in a row, and Holden needed to strike back.

In 1972, it did. A dark-haired youngster from Melbourne drove through a storm, solo, to win his first major race. He was Peter Brock – good-looking, charismatic and as fast as lightning. He had put Holden on top, and Australian motor racing had its greatest rivalry.

Behind the scenes, the rivals actually admired each other, but they knew how to play the game. Their teams signed with different oil and tire sponsors; they even flew on rival airlines. The crowds fell into line; if you were a Holden fan, you backed Brock (and some of the other Holden men); on the Ford side, it was the same – Moffat and his Ford offsiders, or nothing at all.