Peter Brock

At 61 years old, Peter Brock physical status not available right now. We will update Peter Brock's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), otherwise known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was one of Australia's best-known and most successful motor racing drivers.

Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, although he raced vehicles of other manufacturers including BMW, Ford, Volvo, Porsche and Peugeot.

He won the Bathurst 1000 endurance race nine times, the Sandown 500 touring car race nine times, the Australian Touring Car Championship three times, the Bathurst 24 Hour once and was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2001.

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.

Early years

Peter Brock was born at the Epworth Hospital, Richmond, Victoria, the son of Geoff and Ruth Brock (née Laidlay). The family lived in the country town of Hurstbridge (now an outer suburb of Melbourne) and Brock continued to live there throughout his life. He attended Eltham High School in Eltham, Victoria. His first car was an Austin 7 that he bought for £5 (A$10). He claimed that his driving skill improved at this point of his life because the car did not have brakes (or a body, which was removed with his mother's axe).

Brock was drafted into the Australian Army in 1965 and spent his two years of National Service stationed at the Blamey Barracks near Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. During his time in the army, Brock was against the Federal Government's plan to send conscripts to Vietnam. Brock was in the Medical Corps where he often served as an ambulance driver. According to his brother Lewis, Brock and his mates used to race the ambulances around the base. Although they did not know each other at the time, also stationed at the Barracks from 1965 to 1967 was a young Dick Johnson who from the 1980s would go on to be one of Brock's chief touring car rivals.

It was while on leave from the army in 1966 that Brock first visited Bathurst to watch the 500-mile production car race that was to become the Bathurst 1000. It was after watching the race that he decided that he wanted to become a race driver when he left the army. His brother Phil also became a racing driver, and co-drove with his brother in the Bathurst 1000 on two occasions.

Personal life

Brock married Heather Russell in 1967. The marriage ended in divorce two years later.

Several years later, Brock met 1973 Miss Australia pageant winner and Channel Seven weather presenter Michelle Downes. They married in April 1974 and divorced after only one year. In 2006, Downes said Brock assaulted her on a number of occasions, and forced her to have an abortion.

Brock next entered into a relationship with Beverly "Bev" McIntosh, the wife of a member of his motor racing team. After two failed marriages Brock was hesitant to marry McIntosh and 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 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. "Even Allan Moffat said it's okay for him—it's us mortals that have the problem," she said. Bev described Brock as an imperfect but never violent man.

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. 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".

After splitting with Bev, Peter began a relationship with Julie Bamford, whom he had met through his former partner Bev some 20 years previously. 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.

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.

After his return from Le Mans, Brock began to consult Melbourne-based chiropractor Eric Dowker. He gave up alcohol and cigarettes and became a vegetarian, 5 years after that he became a vegan. Eventually he returned to being a vegetarian.

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Racing career

Brock raced some "wild and woolly" designs, including the famous blue 6-cylinder Holden-powered Austin A30. Brock is being paid more attention in touring car racing.

Brock was first at Bathurst in a Holden HT Monaro GTS 350 with Des West, finishing third behind their winning HDT teammates Colin Bond and Tony Roberts. He won the Bathurst 500 for the first time in 1972 (the first year the competition was run over 500 miles and solo driving was permitted).

Brock has won the tournament nine times between 1972 and 1987, a record not equalled. His 1979 victory was remarkable in that he and co-driver Jim Richards won by six laps, a record that, most notably, the introduction of the Safety Car in the 1990s, would never be broken, and the circuit lap record for touring cars was broken until Brock himself broke it in 1982). Brock had hoped to record the lap time on the final lap of the 1978 race, but the Alfa Romeo of Ray Gulson had him wrongfully baulked him by The Dipper. He won pole position in 32 starts at Bathurst (1974, 1977, 1978, 1983, 1989, and 1989), with all except Holden's 1989 pole in a Ford Sierra RS500 being for Holden. Brock sat on pole for the 1997 V8 Supercars race, but Mark Skaife set the time. His success in this sport earned him the coveted title King of the Mountains.

Peter Brock finished the second (and last) Bathurst 24 Hours race in 2003, piloting a 7.0L V8-powered Holden Monaro 427C for Garry Rogers Motorsport. Brock won the championship, but not the Bathurst 1000, but not the Bathurst 1000, he regarded as his tenth Bathurst victory during the race alongside V8 Supercar drivers Greg Murphy, Jason Bright, and Todd Kelly. The #05 Monaro took the race by less than half a second from the 2002 race champion GRM Monaro 427C, driven by Nathan Pretty, Garth Tander, Steven Richards, and Cameron McConville. The two Monaros rode 12 laps in front of the Porsche 996 GT3 RC, a third-placed Porsche 996 RC of Peter Fitzgerald, Paul Morris, John Teulan, and Scott Shearman.

Brock also won the Sandown 500, nine times, from 1975 to 1981, along with his record at the Bathurst race. During his time in the Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar championships, he won a total of 37 races, a record that was only broken by Mark Skaife in 2006 and then defeated in 2007.

When Brock rode a Ford powered Birrana 273 to 8th place in the 1973 Australian Formula 2 Championship, he had a brief foray into Open wheel racing. Despite winning some minor, non-championship awards in the car, Leo Geoghegan's second best result in the national championship series came in second, behind series champion Leo Geoghegan in Round 2 or Oran Park in Sydney. Harry Firth, Brock's HDT chief, later told Brock that he allowed Brock to race the Birrana to get formula racing "out of his system." Brock began testing a Ralt RT4 in the early 1984 Australian Drivers' Championship and the end of-year Australian Grand Prix, putting in some fast lap times at Calder Park, and even Rendering one in the 1984 Australian Drivers' Championship and the Australian Grand Prix (which were then run to Formula Mondial rules). However, he later realized that with the road car industry, touring car sales, and the upcoming Sports Car races in Silverstone and Le Mans, he simply couldn't have enough hours to devote to the task to make it worthwhile.

From 1980 to 1987, Brock and the Holden Dealer Team collaborated in partnership, with full factory permission and assistance, to produce a variety of high-performance CAMS Group C regulations. Some of these were HDT "homologation specials," just one step away from racing cars. Brock had two hat trick victories in seven years from 1978 to 1984, as well as his first six-lap victory in the 1979 tournament.

Although Brock was never typecast in a Holden, he did have 'brief flirtations' with other manufacturers in touring car racing. He campaigned a BMW M3 in 1988, becoming the first BMW Australia-backed team for the year (his only victory in the BMW will be in the 1988 Pepsi 250 at Oran Park) before heading to a Ford Sierra RS500 in 1989 and 1990. At the time, the turbo-charged Sierras were the first Group A vehicles to have, and it was seen as a logical step to return to the front end of the field.

Brock fought a V8 Ford XF Falcon in the Calder Park Thunderdome-based AUSCAR series in 1988, but unlike touring car rivals such as Jim Richards, Allan Grice, and Brad Jones, Brock's foray into Superspeedway racing was brief.

Brock returned to driving two Sierras in 1991, despite increasing costs of running two Sierras and the UK-based Andy Rouse's technical assistance, joining Perkins (who had left the HDT in mid-1985) to lead a pair of VN SS Group A Commodores. Brock was with Perkins Engineering for one year, but Commodores continued to operate the ATCC.

In 1994, he ran a Volvo 850 in the one-off Eastern Creek 12-Hour, bringing his flirtation away from Holden. In 1996, he served for the same Volvo Dealer Racing team in the Australian Super Touring Championship, finishing 6th in the championship with a best finish of second in Round 7 at Lakeside in Brisbane.

Harry Firth, a late decision to enter the HDT in the Macau Grand Prix in 1971, was Brock's first international race. Brock finished second behind 1971 European Touring Car Champion Dieter Glemser, who, according to Brock in his regular "Auto Action" column, drove a fully functioning Ford Capri 2600. Allan Moffat, a Ford competitor, also rode in his GTHO Falcon, but was unable to recover during the race due to tyre problems, which wasn't a factor in the event being 20 seconds per lap slower than the Torana. At Macau, Brock said scrutineering was practically non-existent, while Firth would describe Glemser's Capri and third-placed Hong Kong driver Albert Poon as "pretty damned rude" for not being strictly production vehicles as they were not supposed to be.

Brock, unlike several other Australian drivers, including Alan Jones and Larry Perkins, did not pursue a full-time racing career outside of Australia. He attempted the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times in privateer cars, firstly in 1976 with the Team Brock BMW 3.0CSL, which was bought in South Africa and moved to Melbourne, where it was completely stripped and rebuilt. Brian Muir, a former Aussie and UK resident, was co-driver on the BMW for 17 hours before a head gasket burst, causing the leak. He was back for the 1981 race, alongside former HDT teammate Colin Bond and Bathurst co-driver Jim Richards in the Porsche Cars Australia #74 Carrera GTR, but the team was only designated as a reserve rather than participating in the sport itself.

When John Fitzpatrick, a sports car racer and 1976 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 champion, beat Brock in Australia, he suggested the 'big boys', implying Le Mans. A deal was concluded between billionaire businessman and racer Bob Jane T-Marts in 1984 to race a Porsche 956B rented from John Fitzpatrick Racing. This was a well-worn 956, chassis number 956-102, that had been seen in J. David and Skoal Bandit colors. Brock finished 21st in the 1000 km of Silverstone after spending time in the pits repairing a broken rear suspension. The pair then rode in Le Mans for 24 hours. Perkins qualified the car to a time of 3:35.340, which was 18.29 seconds slower than Bob Wollek's pole winning times, but Brock was 2 seconds slower than Perkins, though his times were set on race tyres, while Perkins was given a series of qualifiers). Team Australia were competing in the Esses on lap 145 after Perkins crashed in the hottest weather, prompting Perkins to almost spin the Porsche out of the kink in the famous Mulsanne Straight, with Perkins missing a wheel while Brock was in the car and a missing rear bolt, which caused Perkins to crash in the Esses on lap 145. In the Peter Mckay/Barry Naismith book "Le Mans The Australian Assault," the Team Australia assault on the race and the fortunes of the other Australians, including 1983 champion Vern Schuppan, 1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones and Allan Grice, was extensively covered.

When Brock was in Europe in 1984, he was in the bizarre situation (for him) of being the second billing in his driver pairing with Perkins. Larry Perkins, Jr., had made 11 starts in F1 and beyond, to the large number of European motoring publications covering the two World Endurance Championship races, with Brock seen as nothing more than a saloon car racer. "The Porsche training at Le Mans was fantastic, but PB (Brock) had trouble with the 'Euro media' because no one knew who he was," Perkins said.

In the 1977 Spa 24 Hours, Brock rode a Vauxhall Magnum with British driver Gerry Marshall to a surprising second place. He shocked many more when he won the 1979 Repco Round Australia Trial in a 6cyl Holden VB Commodore, alongside co-driver Noel Richards and Matthew Philip. Many in the motoring press regarded Brock as a circuit racer and that few in the media ignored his extensive Rally and Rallycross experience with the Dealer Team in the early 1970s. His inclusion in the media was seen simply as a publicity stunt carried out by Holden and the race organisers in order to foster enthusiasm in the campaign. The Repco was a long-distance endurance run that took place clockwise around Australia with some dirt road sections completely different from the circuit racing where he made his name. In 1995 (sponsored by Brock's long time backer Mobil), the Round Australia Trial was revived, with Brock Racing Team Matt Baker still competing for Holden in a Holden Racing Team-prepared VR Commodore. In the trial, Brock, a teammate (and former Australian Rally Champion) Ed Ordynski, came in third, placing him third.

Brock began racing in his own privately funded Advantage Racing Commodores in 1992 and 1993 before joining the factory Holden Racing Team in 1994. Following the 1997 Australian Touring Car season, Brock retired from full-time driving.

He made two returns to Bathurst after his nominal'retirement'. Craig Baird, the team's lead driver, helped Brock reach a 23rd-place finish in the teams Commodore VX, but Brock fell 25 laps behind due to engine temperature issues. He then rejoined the Holden Racing crew for the 2004 Bathurst 1000, working with Jason Plato in a Commodore VT. After Plato's participation in a spectacular crash with the Brad Jones Racing Falcon of John Cleland, the pair failed to finish, while Cleland's Commodore was limping to the pits on lap 29. After Plato had started the car and was supposed to hand over to Brock a few laps after the crash, the Falcon started rolling and caused enough damage to the HRT to be out on the track, with Brock struggling to get a drive in his last Bathurst race.

Brock also rode a Holden Monaro 427C for Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM), winning four out of four races in what was deemed a one-off appearance in the 2003 Australian Grand Prix support series in Melbourne. In 2002, he drove his second Monaro built and operated by GRM, a GT-type championship for highly modified and exotic road cars, before starting his own team for himself and son James (with Monaros supplied by GRM). He won the Bathurst 24 Hours in 2003, his tenth Bathurst endurance victory, rather than the 5.7L Gen III as used by the Monaro V8 (the controversy came from no other vehicle in Nations Cup) being able to run a different size engine from the production model it was based on. When the Monaro first appeared at the 2002 Bathurst 24 Hours, Triple Nations Cup champion Jim Richards dubbed it a "Better V8 Supercar."

He returned to top-level touring auto racing in 2002 as a team sponsor with Rod Nash Racing in V8 Supercar Commodore, and rode in that year's Bathurst 1000 as a branding exercise. For 2003, the 'Team Brock' branding exercise was revived, this time with Paul Weel Racing, but this time, Brock's role was more as a mentor rather than a racer. Brock and the team parted company at the end of the season, frustrated with the lack of control he had over a team bearing his name.

He has participated in various enthusiast motorsport tournaments, including the Targa Tasmanian, where the Monaros was actually built by Holden Special Vehicles. As the scandal surrounding the Energy Polariser had been largely ignored, Mobil's smooth on-camera persona and familiarity with older Australians, including a 2000 United States television commercial) and Bridgestone tyres.

Career results

(Key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Key) (races in italics indicate the fastest lap) - The key is shown by the bold's) (Races in italics indicate the fastest lap.)

(Key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate the fastest lap) (key) — (key)

(Key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate the fastest lap time) (key) (key) (key) (Key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (key) (Races in italics indicate the fastest lap)

† Not eligible for series points

(Key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate the fastest lap) (key) -

Peter Brock won the Bathurst 500/1000 a record nine times, including winning the 1979 Bathurst 1000 by a slim margin of 6 laps (which remains the race record as of 2017).

* Super Touring race

Brock won the Sandown Endurance race a record nine times during his career, with seven wins in a row from 1975 to 1981. He appeared on the podium in 1990 (2nd) and 1996 (3rd).

Peter Brock's other touring car endurance races (not including Bathurst or Sandown) include:

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