Marvin the Marvel – Allan George Moffat OBE – takes the wheel during a Lotus Cortina engine change somewhere in the USA circa 1966-67.
I won’t dwell on Moff’s successful US Racing Phase as I’ve already written about it at ridiculous length here: https://primotipo.com/2020/03/06/moffats-shelby-brabham-elfin-and-trans-am/
It’s interesting to see how the Americans rated him in 1967.
‘Allan Moffat, 27 (born November 10,1939) burst upon the U.S. competition scene in 1965 driving his own Cortina Lotus and has attracted a lot of notice. He has impressive credentials. Five years ago, this native Canadian obtained his first competition license In Australia where his family was living at the time.’
‘The next year, visiting North America, he entered his used Cortina for the first time and won first in class at Mosport. He then went back to Australia and calmly won the country’s 1964 short circuit championship. In 1965 he did it again.’
‘Since early 1966, Moffat has listed Detroit as his home. He took dead aim at becoming recognized by a major team. He used SCCA’s National and Trans-American Championships as his display ground and it worked as he finished the season driving a factory Cortina-Lotus for Alan Mann Racing. His impressive performances have been capped by victory in the 250 mile Trans-American race held at Briar Motorsport Park in New Hampshire in July 1966 and by the central divisional Sedan B-class championship at the end of the season. He then had a famed 45 minute duel with Horst Kwech at the American Road Race of Champions, losing by a nose.’
‘In 1967 Moffat remains loyal to Cortina and is after more sedan honours. He is a bachelor, lists golf as a hobby, and does the major part of his own work on the car.’
The first motor race I attended was the Sandown Tasman round in 1972, the Australian Grand Prix that year. Despite being based in the Castrol tent surrounded by the HDT Torana XU-1s and works Chrysler Valiant Chargers there were only ‘two cars’ of interest to me that weekend: all of the single seaters and Moffat’s Mustang! The factory Falcon GTHO’s had as much presence as the Trans-Am but not its menace or sensual, muscular brutality.
With an Economics degree in my pocket I commenced working for a small chartered accounting firm in Toorak and used to see AM around and about there all the time. His workshop was for many years at 711 Malvern Road, Toorak, he lived in the area and I often saw him schmoozing clients at Topo Gigio and more often Romeo’s. While Topos has been gone for five years, Romeos is still there and Allan is an honoured long-standing guest when there with his wonderful minders; dementia sufferer as he is.
As I got the hang of the working world a bit I developed a keen appreciation of Moff’s commercial skills in addition to his on-track prowess. He was very young when Ford US did a deal with him to run their surplus-to-requirements Lotus Cortinas in 1967. After his works-Ford Oz drives – 1969-73 plus bits and pieces subsequently – came to an end he did deals with Mazda, Holden, Porsche Cars Australia and others that kept him winning and in the public eye.
You have to figure he was trustworthy and gave value for money to his supporters and sponsors…I’m not saying there wasn’t a litigation blip or three along the way.
By early 1975 Allan Moffat had won the Australian Touring Car Championship, the Bathurst classic three times, and more long distance races than you can poke a stick at. So when the FIA wouldn’t let Ronnie Peterson contest (WTF?) the 1975 Sebring 12-Hours in a factory BMW 3-litre CSL there were enough folks in high places in the US who remembered Moffat to suggest him for the drive alongside the versatile and very quick Brian Redman. It was Moff’s first pro-drive of a make other than a Ford.
Moffat did an early stint then Redman took the wheel. Later, BMW’s pair-of-hares, Hans Stuck and Sam Posey joined in too after their car was sidelined; an oil leak led to a blown engine. Redman did about seven of the 12 hours, but it was a shared victory, a crucially important one for BMW too, it was their first big race win in America that gave their market presence and credibility a big lift.
Allan had a 911 SC roadie circa 1979, so the handling characteristics of a 911 Porsche – a triumph of engineering over physics – would not have been a huge surprise to him when Allan Hamilton entered him in a Porsche 934 in the 1980 Australian Sportscar Championship; he won three of the five rounds and the series handsomely.
Doubtless the Dick Barbour Racing Porsche 935 K3 he raced with Bobby Rahal and Bob Garretson at Le Mans in 1980 was a thrill and challenge of a much higher order!
The result was a DNF after piston failure. The crew completed 134 laps, and retired in the 11th of the 24 hours. Dick Barbout entered three 935s, the only one that finished was the pole-car, raced by John Fitzpatrick, Brian Redman and Barbour himself to fifth place. Fitzpatrick, a familiar Bathurst winning name to Australian enthusiasts, put the 935 K3 1980 Kremer machine on pole.
One of the things I loved most about Al-Pal was his propensity to import cars and talent, rather than buy-local. That it drove most of the Taxi-Boganisti of this country nuts made it even better.
The Dekon Chev Monza is a case in point. The irony is that Aussie Export Horst Kwech was a key member of the team that developed and raced the cars in the Ewe-Ess-A. I was there the day he ran the 200 Year USA celebration livery at Sandown in 1976 but I’ve no idea if he won the Sports Sedan feature?
Imagine how lacking in colour Oz touring car racing would have been without Moffat’s imported Lotus Cortina, KarKraft Mustang, Cologne Capri, B52 Falcon Hardtop (sort of), Dekon Monza and the Mazdas. Moffat in a ‘fuckin Rice Burner’ was more than the fanatical Bathurst Fruit Loops could take…priceless it was!
Moffat’s powers of lobbying and schmoozing officialdom came to the fore in and around the racing of the Mazda RX7 in the Australian Touring Car, and Manufacturers Championships…but let’s not go there.
He won the first ATCC round for a Japanese car at Lakeside on April 3/4 1982, and then brought home the bacon by taking three of the five Australian Endurance Championship rounds in 1982, and the 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship, winning four of the eight rounds, taking both titles.
The century old, Hiroshima based multinational rewarded Moffat’s success with his final drive at Le Mans in 1982. He shared a Mazda RX-7 254i GTX IMSA class machine (above) to 14th place sharing the drive with Japanese racers, Yojiro Terada and Takashi Yorino.
Nobody who was around can forget the tragic self-immolation of Peter Brock in 1986-87 over ‘his Energy Polariser (magnetism and chrystal placement) that enhanced vehicle performance’ debacle.
But before that, .Brocky threw his mate and intense rival – thanks to the recommendation of John Harvey, Brock’s tight-hand-man and a personal friend of Moff – Moffat a motor racing lifeline in the form of a Holden ride for selected rounds of the ‘86 Euro Touring Car Championship and Oz long distance enduros.
Larry Perkins, already working for Brock, was of course the logical choice for the ride but he left Peter over the Polariser, as far as he was concerned Brocky was just jerkin’-the-gherkin.
When the combination of a particularly potent brew of Hurstbridge wacky-bakky, the influence of Witch-Doctor Eric Dowker, a Messiah Complex and whatever else got the better of Brock – a staggering Australian in every respect – General Motors Holden pulled the plug on him in February 1987; it was entirely the appropriate remedy for them of course.
Moffat told his biographer, John Smailes, ‘If I’d been in the position where I had General Motors in my hip-pocket, I would never, never, never have put myself above them. That’s not corporate cowardice; it’s just common sense. Peter could have lived to fight another day (if he backed down on the polariser fitment to the Commodore Director and subjected the car to GM’s homologation processes). Who knows? In some parallel universe he might even have got the polariser up.’
‘John Harvey, the last man standing, resigned, I went with him. There seemed nothing, really, to stay around for. Ten months later Peter won Bathurst again. Despite all that had gone down, he had accomplished a rise from the ashes that made my Project Phoenix all those years ago look paltry.’
In the short term Brock had his creditors to deal with. Without a car, and still intent in contesting some of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship rounds – Brock and Moffat did four rounds in ’86 as preparation for ’87 – Moffat acquired, via an intermediary, Brock’s new, unraced 1987 05 car, a Holden VL Commodore SS Group A.
Showing his commercial skills again, Moff quickly, in not much more than a month, pulled together some sponsors, popped the Commodore on a plane and contested four rounds of the 1987 WTCC with John Harvey as co-driver. They sensationally and famously won the first round at Monza after the first six cars home – BMW M3s – were pinged for being illegally light on the evening after the race!
Moffat’s 1987 European Safari results are as follows: 22/3/87 Monza 500km Q10 and first, 19/4 Jarama 4-Hours Q11 DNF lost wheel on lap 78, 10/5 500km de Bourgogne-Dijon Q10 DNF blown engine on lap 44, and 1-2/8 Spa 24-Hours Q18 fourth.
When Allan got home he had a Ford Sierra RS500 for Bathurst, while Brock had the winning car…
Etcetera…
Al-Pal using all the road to stay ahead of Bob Jane on the exit of Mountford corner during the March 1965 Longford Tasman round; Lotus Cortinas both, Moff’s ex-works, Jano’s locally developed.
These blokes dooked it out on-circuit for years of course, I wonder at what meeting they first swapped-paint!?
Moffat in the Cologne Capri at Oran Park in 1976. If the sight of it didn’t move the erectile tissue the sound of it most certainly did.
The price was right of course – FoMoCo supplied – but otherwise the relatively heavy 3.4-litre, quad cam, four-valve, injected Cosworth Ford GAA powered long distance coupe lacked the cubes’-and-pubes’ – cubic inches and torque – for Australian Sports Sedan racing.
With a need for big V8 punch out of our predominantly point and squirt type of tracks the Capri was never going to be a consistent winner. And so it proved. So he bought the Monza, but then Ford cracked the shits so he put the Monza aside and jumped back into the ‘Crappy. I wonder how many meetings he did in both of these cars as a consequence of all of that?
Sensational car the Capri of course!: https://primotipo.com/2015/04/09/australias-cologne-capris/
Credits…
Allan Moffat in America Facebook page, Mathieu Heurtault, Randall Wilson, Robert Davies, Autoweek, Brian Stratton, an1images.com, Bob Williamson Collection, Russell Stuckey Collection, ‘Climbing the Mountain’ Allan Moffat and John Smailes
Finito…
primotipo... 