Marv’s Garage: the race “Peter Perfect” was born

We all have our moments of greatness, but legends are made when a truly iconic person has theirs. Among a glittering career, Peter Brock’s demolition of the 1979 Bathurst 1000 in his Holden Torana A9X is probably it. For international viewers, the Bathurst 1000 is the closest thing Australia has to a religious festival. We would come to the mountain and pray for Holden or Ford (in between drinking our body's mass in beer). And our heroes drove cars that were related to what Dazza and Shirl drove to work each day.

The A9X was the final, ultimate iteration of the Torana, Holden's mid-size car (about the size of a Monza), and GMH used all their experience to turn the homologation special into a rocket for our Aussie Group C touring car regulations. Available as a 3dr hatch or 4dr sedan, the 308ci V8 Toranas gave up the grunt to Ford's full-size 351ci Falcons, but were lighter and more nimble. And it made for amazing racing.

In 1979 everyone was chasing Brock, already a 3-time winner, and he put on a masterclass so hard it made even the staunchest Ford fans applaud. Brock was 2-seconds clear of the next fastest car in qualifying, and 4-secs up on his main Ford rival Moffat. From the flag drop Brock pissed off in the distance and left everyone else wondering what the hell happened. He led the most laps during the race, had the highest speed down Conrod Straight, and then he topped his legacy off in the perfect way.

On the final lap (163) of the tortuous 6.17km mountain circuit, Brock broke the lap record. It was nothing short of a demolition of everyone else entered that weekend, and it stamped him forever as one of the greatest touring car racers of all time.

After 1000km of flat-out racing in a car based on a production model, he passed 7 cars to win the race by a record 6 lap margin. It was his 4th win at Bathurst of the 9 he accumulated ('72, 75, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 84, 87) and capped an amazing year where he pretty much won everything.

A nation had its heart broken when he died suddenly in 2006 in a racing crash, and memories of Bathurst 1979 were where many of us went immediately upon hearing of Brock's death. Like any of us Brock was far from a perfect human being, but everyone respected an amazing natural talent, and a man who could charm a shark into biting itself.