Peter Brock's fascination with Holdens
went back a long way - to 1949 in fact.
As Peter himself put it, “a knock-kneed
boy with two of his friends stood on a
dusty corner in the middle of a one-horse
town. They were waiting with great anticipation,
not game to take their eyes off a place
in the distance. A place towards the city,
down a narrow road which meandered past
the railway station, down a gentle slope
and past the local garage near where they
were standing, waiting”.
Naturally enough Peter Brock held many
fabulous memories of the first time he
laid eyes on the Holden 48/215; in this
case the first he would see would be the
new car for the local Strathewen postmaster. There was good reason for Brock to remember
his first sighting of the 48 series Holden,
after all it was sold by his father Geoff
from a small garage in Hurstbridge.
The Brock family would soon take delivery
of their own Holden, resplendent in fine
black duco. From that moment on, Brock
set about turning his fascination of cars
into a motor racing dynasty. Throughout
the 1960’s Brock would recount the
excitement of watching the 48’s,
FJ’s, FE’s and EH S4’s
taking part in motor racing events throughout
the country.
His first race special was
anything but, a rather ubiquitous Austin
A30 with which he set about transplanting
the running gear from a wrecked HD 179
manual. With 240 horsepower on tap, and
in a slight 1600lb body, the little Austin
was a rocket. Harry Firth would provide Brock
with his first big break, inviting him
to join the Holden Dealer Team. Brock went
on to race some of the best machinery the
General had to offer, from Monaro’s
to Torana XU-1’s, L34’s, A9X’s
and all manner of hot Commodores.
9 victories
at Mount Panorama would cement his position
as “King of the Mountain”,
and we at Unique Cars and Parts are terribly
saddened by his passing. Thanks Peter,
for so many wonderful memories.
