Australian Muscle Car – July 01, 2019

Willmington’s Falcon clipped the Mazda in the
high-speed kink and Moffat headed for a large
bush that unfortunately concealed a metre-wide
tree stump. The Mazda stopped instantly and
violently, and Moffat was taken away with a
broken hand and sternum.
After three months on the sidelines, Moffat
returned for the enduranceraces,winningat

Oran Park and  nishing second at Sandown,

third at Bathurst and second at Surfers to wrap

up the Australian Endurance Championship.

Mazda’s  nal shot at winning Bathurst

ended almost before it began when Steve

Masterton (Falcon) hit Moffat after the start

and sent the Stuyvesant RX7 (interestingly,

back on carburetors) into a wall of death act

onthe barrier before Hell Corner. Another

ccident further back caused a restart, but

herepaired RX7 had a fractured oil line

ndwas out after only 15 laps. Thankfully,

withjust such a setback in mind, the team

adentered a second car and Moffat and

Hansford raced hard all the way to the end,

butthey were no match for the dayglo MHDT

Commodores.

As a  nal send-off, Mazda sent one of the

RX7s to Daytona, where Moffat and Hansford

were joined for the 24 Hour by Kevin Bartlett and

PeterMcLeod,a prominentMazdadealerand

racerwhohadhelpedclinchthatrstAustralian

manufacturers’title.Thecarransuperblyandwas

in ninth place outright at the 16-hour mark, well

clear of its class rivals, when McLeod crashed.

The car was repaired but the engine later

swallowed a stone and retired.

Andthatwasallshewrote.Theoften

It was apt that an exotic era of local touring car racing ended for Moffat with a trip to the famed Daytona 24 Hou

race in 1985 with one of his own cars. This colourful time – mirroring Rothmans executive Ian Kleeman’s jacket

(left) – still draws adverse reaction from fans today, as you will read in next issue’s Muscle Mail.

Moffat Collection