1979 ATCC
T
he ’79 championship started more or less
as the ’78 championship had nished –
with a collision between the Peter Brock and
Bob Morris Toranas. On the second lap of the
rst race of the season, the pair clashed at the
hairpin at Symmons Plains. Brock ended up
the loser in that exchange; each driver blamed
the other. As Bob Morris observed, that sort of
set the tone for the season...
It was John Harvey who took rst blood,
winning at Symmons as Morris dropped to fourth
with gearbox problems, and Brock recovering to
nish fth.
Allan Moffat had blown his engine at
Symmons, the magni cently sinister looking
black Falcon suffering a repeat failure two weeks
later at Calder. Allan Grice became an innocent
casualty of Moffat’s mishap – not only did it spray
oil all over Grice’s windscreen, but bits of broken
351 Cleveland V8 engine managed to puncture
the radiator in Grice’s A9X...
Until then Grice had been looking fairlyhandy,having nishedthirdat SymmonsPlains.
He’d go on to nish second in the next round
at Oran Park but that was as good as it got for
the Craven-Mild Torana driver. As for Moffat,
suspension failure at Oran Park made it three no-
scores in a row. After nishing fth at Sandown,
round four, he quietly withdrew to save his
meagre resources for Bathurst.
In Moffat’s absence, the only Ford driver to
lead a lap of the ’79 championship was Dick
Johnson. This, of course, was before the ‘Rock’
incident, when Dick was a cash-strapped
privateer almost unknown outside of the sport’s
inner circles. He could only afford to do the two
local Queensland races – but Dick’s blue Bryan
Byrt Ford Hardtop led all bar the nal six laps of
the Surfers Paradise round and was unlucky not
to nish second at Lakeside. Dick Johnson’s time
would come.
As far as the title battle was concerned, Oran
Park was some kind of turning point. Morris
dominated; Brock struggled into third place with
gear selection issues (with the HDT imposing
team orders to keep Harvey from passing him).
Morris had prevailed on home Sydney turf, but
Brock had his chance to get one back in the next
round at Sandown.
The Sandown race was a cracker. What began
as a battle between Brock and Morris for the leadThe 1979 ATCC featured a ferocious battle for title
honours between the Bob Morris and Peter Brock A9Xs.
Right, below: It might have been disparaging known
as Formula Torana but the ’79 season wasn’t without
Fords. Allan Moffat withdrew after fi ve rounds but Dick
Johnson was unlucky not to win at Surfers Paradise.