Smoking HOs

Bob Jane’s 427 Camaro ZL1 vs Allan Moffat’s Trans-Am Mustang Boss 302, the winner takes the title. Two brutal muscle racers and two heavyweight big-name drivers – who really didn’t like one other. This clash of touring titans with so much at stake was a hugely anticipated event, and it attracted by far the biggest crowd the Sydney track had ever seen. 

As our retro feature in AMC #125 on this classic race meeting showed, the place was packed to rafters. So big was the crowd that all roads leading to Oran Park that Sunday were gridlocked for hours. 

Oran Park was full to overflowing for the '71 ATCC decider

The 45-lap ATCC title decider delivered a suspense-filled cracker of a contest that had everything – including the spectator driving onto the track in a Valiant road car! In the end a gritty Jane hung on to hold out a grimly determined Moffat to claim the crown.

As a climactic grand-stand finish to a championship, it couldn’t have been scripted better. But if even that wasn’t exciting enough… the action and drama of the preceding race had almost been a main event in itself. This was the 25-lap Toby Lee-Grace Brothers Series event for Series Production cars, the penultimate round of the series before the pre-Bathurst 100-lap final the following month – where the new GTHO Phase III and Valiant Charger E38 models were expected to make their race debuts. 

For the moment, it was Phase IIs vs LC Torana XU-1s and the odd Valiant Pacer, and featuring a stellar lineup of star drivers that included Peter Brock, John Goss, Fred Gibson and Leo Geoghegan. The Toranas dominated qualifying, filling five of the top six grid spots, but in the race Goss showed there is no substitute for cubic inches as the McLeod Ford Falcon GTHO Phase II stormed through to lead the opening lap. Soon Gibson was up to second in his GTHO Phase II, but only after first having to battle past the XU-1s of Graham Moore, Digby Cooke, Don Holland and Brock in the HDT machine. 

The two Fords then took off at the front, and to the delight of the crowd proceeded to engage in a tail-sliding, tyre-smoking battle as both GTHOs struggled to get the power down with big smoky opposite lock slides out of BP Bend. Gibson eventually found his way into the lead; Goss ended up blowing his right rear tyre towards the end.

That left Gibson to take an easy win from Brock, who eventually got the better of Holland. As for Gossy, he simply ignored the flat tyre and didn’t bother stopping, instead completing most of the final two laps with no right rear tyre at all – to the cheers of the appreciative crowd.