seconds over the weekend.
“I think Bob Morris was a highly underrated
driver,” Cannon says. “He deserves a lot of
accolades for what he achieved in ’79 in beating
Peter Brock and the HDT. Now that I’ve got to
know him, I think he would have been good at
any sport. He’s ercely competitive, he’s smart,
he’s an elite person.”
Getting both Hodgson A9Xs to Phillip Island
for the weekend had its logistical challenges but
Cannon says the enthusiasm with which the cars
were received by fans made it worth the effort.
“It’s fun seeing people light up when they see
the Toranas. They’ve seen a lot of the #05 Brock
cars but these ones haven’t been together since
’79. We let people sit in them and take photos –
they love it; it’s great.”
Cannonsayshe’dalwayswantedanA9X
when he was younger but at the time had not
been in a position to own one.
“My interest in Toranas goes back to when I
was a kid,” he says. “My father was an ex- ghter
pilot in the 75th Squadron, so he as a pretty cool
rooster, and he had a white Aston Martin. One
day he was driving and having an argument
with my mother. She’d seen this orange Torana
GTR in a caryard they went past and said ‘Oh
look at that – doesn’t that look good!’ And dad
said, ‘That’s the most disgusting thing!’ Mum
went back later that afternoon and bought that
car! She used to drive it while smoking Peter
Stuyvesant cigarettes with white gloves on! Later
I learned to drive in that car, and that’s where my
love of Toranas began.”
Cannon says he’ll continue to race the Hinton
carin localHeritageTouringCarevents,butwould like to take it to the Goodwood Festival –
perhaps with Bob Morris.
The ‘old’ car might end up doing the odd sprint
event, but Cannon is reluctant to do much more
than that given the unique timewarp factor of
this A9X racer – apart from a check-over of the
engine, the car remains as last raced, almost
40 years ago. Cannon says you can still see the
‘Rutherford’ American ag Bathurst ’77 livery on
the roof showing through under the ’79 Hodgson
green/white/blue ’79 colours.
“You know, it’s pretty extraordinary when
you think about the amount of top drivers from
around the world that drove these two cars apart
from Bob Morris himself – Allan Moffat drove one
once at Amaroo Park; there was John Fitzpatrick,
Dieter Quester, Derek Bell, Johnny Rutherford.
“They’retrulyspecialcars.”It’s pretty extraordinary when you think about the amount
of top drivers from around the world that drove these two
cars apart from Bob Morris himself – Allan Moffat, John
Fitzpatrick, Dieter Quester, Derek Bell, Johnny Rutherford.