Race of Champions

In 1980 Peter Brock had a stroke of genius.

What better way to promote his new HDT Special Vehicles VC Commodores than to invite a group of top professionals to race them at the Australian Grand Prix meeting?

The Calder meeting on the weekend of November 15 and 16 was to be televised nationally so this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Twelve cars, all manuals, were prepared. One was black, three were firethorn red, the rest white. Apart from mandatory safety equipment like a half roll cage, race harness and fire extinguisher, plus some extra dyno tuning, these were identical to the road Commodores sold by HDT.

The final difference was the Momo steering wheel, allegedly hand-engraved with each car’s SV number by Peter Brock himself. In the end only 11 cars competed. The one intended for John Harvey had engine problems and had to be withdrawn.

Two races were held, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, billed as the Race of Champions. The only international competitor was French Formula One star Didier Pironi (in Australia contesting the AGP in a Formula 5000 Elfin MR8-Chev. Jack Brabham came out of retirement to have a bash (literally, as it turned out!), while Dick Johnson crossed the corporate fence to race a Holden for the first time since the mid '70s.

It was mainly intended as a bit of fun to support the Grand Prix, but the racing was definitely full-on, with plenty of bumps and thumps, some intentional. Brabham usually gets singled out as the wildest driver on the weekend. John Bowe was declared winner on the results of both races, in front of Kevin Bartlett and Brock. 

It made for good television, and guest commentator Jackie Stewart was his usual entertaining self, describing an incident between Jack Brabham and Didier Pironi as “a kiss that would have knocked most people’s teeth out.” The quote of the weekend.