suggestion that we had problems with our
tyres or that our engine was down on power
is pure rubbish. Bob Morris has been trying
to win this championship for seven years.
He was t and alert all weekend [a clear
dig at Brock] and went out and won the
race. We just have to cop it sweet.”
Brock might have been naïve to think
that Sheppard could have said anything
else, but relations between the team
boss and his star driver were already
fractious – Sheppo was critical of Brock’s
lifestyle (“He’s living on a diet of tea
and hamburgers”) and accused him of
being distracted by the upcoming Round
Australia Trial – and Brock was furious
that his boss hadn’t backed him up after
Adelaide.
But now, 40 years later, Sheppo is happy to
admit he also thought the Hodgson Torana had
a big engine, and that the series scrutineer – his
disgruntled MHDT predecessor, Harry Firth –
had turned a blind eye that day at AIR.
“Harry was the scrutineer, and every race
meeting we had to pull the engine down,” he
recalls. “We get to Adelaide and Bob Morris goes
(Sheppard whistles) and passes Peter down the
straight, but when we came in after the race for
the CAMS scrutiny, Harry said, ‘Oh, we won’t do
anything; that was a good result.’
“I’m as convinced as I can be that it had a
cheater engine. But we couldn’t, as the factory
team, sook about someone beating us.”
Horsepower, however, wasn’t the only
technical issue Brock was dealing with at AIR.
After years running on Dunlop tyres, the MHDT
had done an exclusive deal with Bridgestone for
1979, and it took six months to get them right.
Once they did, Brock dominated the enduros at
Sandown and Bathurst, but for the ATCC it had
been a problem.
Brock outquali ed Morris seven times out of
eight in the ATCC, but won only three rounds.
And it wasn’t simply a case of Brock using
quali ers, as the Hodgson team suspected. The
MHDT had to use larger-diameter wheels to t
the Bridgstones and that meant lowering the
of suspension travel. Consequently, it oftenhit
the bump stops, which resulted in somewhat
squirrelly handling and made the tyres gooffin
the races.
And that’s what Morris observed in thetitle
decider in Adelaide. “I followed Brock for eight
laps until his tyres appeared to go off,” henoted.
Brock had used Bridgestones as a privateer
in 1975-77, but these were new developments,
and the team had to be patient while waitingfor
the pay-off.
“Bridgestone have put in a lot of time and
effort, and to keep faith we’ve stuck by them,”
Brock told me at the time, admitting that they
had experienced ‘a few minor developmental
problems’ during the ATCC.
For the series decider, Brock was againon
pole, but it didn’t take long on race day forhimto
realise they had once again opted for a tyrethat
would not last.
“Every year we come here we go too softwith
tyres, but we always make the same mistake,”he
wrote in his post-race newspaper column.“After
about ve laps I made certain signs to ‘Shep’
and he just put his hands up and said, ‘Ohhh,
stuuuff...’
“Every now and again I’d have a go at Bob
and close the gap, but it was impossible tokeepup. A couple of times he started to lock wheels
and get a bit out of shape and I’d say, ‘Keep it
up, keep it up’, but I had to ease off from time to
me because of my tyres going off.”
Morris on his proven Dunlops took the
hequered ag just 0.6s clear of his rival and
fterwards hugged Hodgson in delight at winning
is rst national title. Sheppo was magnanimous
n defeat and even invited the victors to MHDT’s
ost-race party, but apparently Brock made
Morrisnonetoowelcome.
Earlierin theyear,Sheppardhadalso
fferedaidandcomfortto oldrivalAllanMoffat,
howasbattlingalongasa privateerwithhis
gingFalconHardtopafterFordhadpulledout
f racing.TheMHDTchiefunderstoodthata
oldendominationwouldnotbegoodforthe
ategoryandofferedMoffatadviceto resolvea
ong-runningoilsurgeproblemthatsawthebig
Falconconsistentlyblowingengines.
“I usedto getonquitewellwithMoffat,”
Sheppardsays.“Hehada problemwithoilsurge
andat OranParkI wentaroundto wherehewas
preparinghiscarandI toldhimwhatwewere
doingwithourcar,whichdidn’thaveoilsurge.I
toldhimif hedidthatonhiscarhewouldn’thave
oilsurge.
“Nextday,outhecomesandblowsup
anotherengine.I saidto him,‘Didyoudoexactly
whatI toldyouto dowithyoursump?’Andhe
said,‘Yep,andI putin someof thatfoamthat
youputin thefueltank.’AndI said,‘Wellthat’s
a goodidea– if youwantto stoptheoilfrom
gettingbackto theoilpick-up!’Thenhesaid,‘Aw,
butyou’vegota frontsump,Sheppard,andours
is a rearsump.’
“WhenwegottheCommodore(laterthat
year),it wasthesame(location)astheirs,soI
rangupandsaid,‘Hey,Allan,wehaven’tgotany
oilsurgeandit’sa frontsump!’andhesaid,‘Aw,
pissoffSheppard.’”
Soonafter,Shepparddidpissoff,leaving
theMHDTandtheCommodoreprogrammeto
Brock,whosetthingsrightbywinningbackthe
ATCCcrown.Buthenevercoulderasethat 1979
victorybyBobMorris,a titlehealwaysthought
shouldhavebeenhis.Autopics.com.auAutopics.com.au