Bob Morris A9X on the market

The Torana set to go under the hammer at Donington’s is one of the two A9X hatchbacks Morris used to win in the 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship.

According to Morris, having access to two identical racecars was pivotal to that year’s successful campaign. It gave the team the luxury of being able to have one car back in the workshop being prepared for the next ATCC round while Morris was racing the other car.

The 1979 ATCC was dubbed ‘Formula Torana’ that year, with the Ford challenge having almost completely collapsed in the wake of the company’s exit from racing at the end of 1978. In reality, though, it was really just a battle between two Torana drivers: Morris in the Ron Hodgson entry and Peter Brock in the Holden Dealer Team Torana.

Morris’ championship win in ’79 was a remarkable achievement, being the only time Brock and the HDT were ever beaten in a straight battle by a rival Holden squad in the ATCC.

The ex-Bob Morris A9X Donington Auctions is offering for sale started life as one of the special GMP&A racing Torana LX bodyshells, and was built up into a Group C racer by Ron Hodgson Racing in time for the 1977 Bathurst 1000. It was crewed in that year’s Great Race by superstar American pairing Johnny Rutherford and Janet Guthrie. Rutherford, who died recently at the age of 88, was celebrated in his Bathurst debut as a two-time Indy 500 winner (in 1980 he won at Indy for the third time), but he and Guthrie struggled on the Mountain. Rutherford qualified the car a lowly 26^th before crashing out of the race after just 13 laps.

Morris raced the car during the 1978 ATCC before it served as the team’s second entry at Bathurst, for Derek Bell and Dieter Quester. Unlike Rutherford, Briton Bell and German driver Quester were touring car endurance and road racing specialists, and were on the pace. They qualified fifth, right behind the other, Morris/John Fitzpatrick, Ron Hodgson entry. Unfortunately, though, Bell crashed the car just five laps into the race.

After the ’79 season the repaired Torana was purchased by Western Australian entrepreneur and car collector Peter Briggs. With new touring car rules coming in for 1980, the A9X was no longer eligible for the ATCC; instead, it was briefly raced in Western Australia’s ‘Street Car’ category, on one occasion with Morris making the trip west for one last race in the car.

It then held pride of place in Briggs’ York Motor Museum, where it sat in as-last-raced condition for 37 years.

The car’s current owner first saw it on display during WA’s hosting of the America’s Cup yacht race in 1987. Thirty years later he purchased it at auction. It underwent a mechanical check and overhaul (where needed) by Tasmanian race mechanic and former driver John Walker and returned to the track at the Phillip Island Historic meeting in 2019.

There it was reunited with its ‘sister’ car from the 1979 ATCC win, 40 years after that memorable triumph – along with the winning driver, Bob Morris, who did demonstration laps in both cars.

Now being offered for sale, the car is not only one of the most success A9X Torana racers from the 1977-79 era, but it also among the most preserved, genuine-condition examples from that period.

It’s been included in the auction of the Late Peter Briggs’ collection of vehicles formerly on display at the York Motor Museum. Bidding opens at 10am on Monday, October 5, and runs through to 2pm on October 17. For more info, go to the Donington Auctions website.