29 Facts About Colin Bond

Colin John Bond was born on 24 February 1942 and is an Australian former racing driver.

Colin Bond quickly found success, winning the 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 mile race at Bathurst, New South Wales in a Holden Monaro.

Colin Bond was a particularly versatile driver, finding success in the Australian Rally Championship, winning the title in 1971,1972 and 1974 driving a Holden Torana.

Colin Bond won the 1975 Australian Touring Car Championship in a Holden Torana and was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2002.

The nimble 6-cylinder Torana GTR XU-1 debuted in late 1970 and in 1971 Colin Bond began racking up an impressive list of race and rally titles in his Torana.

Colin Bond secured the Manufacturer's Championship for Holden by winning 3 out of 5 rounds, including the Sandown 250 enduro in his XU-1.

Colin Bond won the Australian Rally Championship and the Southern Cross Rally, along with the South Pacific Touring Series that year.

Late in 1971 Colin Bond had a couple of drives with Frank Matich's F5000 team.

One was in the Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm and driving in a wet practice session Colin Bond put in lap times seconds faster than his more experienced F5000 rivals.

Colin Bond won the Catalina Park rallycross series, while on the bitumen he won the Toby Lee Series and Sun-7 Gold Medal.

In 1974, as well as winning his third national Rally Championship, Colin Bond won his third consecutive Sun-7 Chesterfield Series against a strong challenge by Bob Morris.

Peter Brock left the Holden Dealer Team at the end of 1974 so for the 1975 season Colin Bond was the team's No 1 driver.

At Bathurst Colin Bond claimed pole position from the Ford XB Falcon GT Hardtop of Allan Moffat and led for much of the early part of the race until a broken axle at half distance put him too far back to challenge the similar Torana Peter Brock and Brian Sampson.

Colin Bond was involved in a dramatic finish in 1976 at the Bathurst 1000.

In 1987, motoring writer Bill Tuckey in his book The Rise and Fall of Peter Brock claimed that there had been a lap scoring error in the 1976 race and that Colin Bond's Torana was the first car to complete the distance.

Colin Bond came close to becoming the first driver to achieve victories for both Holden and Ford Motor Company at the Bathurst 1000.

Colin Bond was driving the second of Moffat's Ford XC Falcon GS500 Hardtop's, with Moffat driving the lead car which was experiencing mechanical problems in the closing laps of the race.

Colin Bond has stated in interviews since then that he regretted not taking victory from Moffat.

Moffat himself later revealed that during the race he had offered Colin Bond a drive in his Falcon which would have seen Colin Bond not only win the race but finish second as well.

Colin Bond confirmed that he turned down Moffat's offer, preferring instead to stick to his own car which was co-driven by open wheel driver Alan Hamilton.

From 1977 to 1980 Colin Bond ran the Ford works rally team, with Greg Carr and Colin Bond driving the very competitive BDA Escort.

Colin Bond was third in the 1981 and 1988 Australian Touring Car Championships, 1981 in a Ford Capri Mk.

Colin Bond drove a great variety of machinery during this period including the Ford Capri, Chevrolet Camaro Z28, Triumph TR8, Alfa Romeo GTV, Alfa Romeo 75, Ford Sierra RS500, Toyota Corolla, and Porsche.

Colin Bond teamed with then open wheel racer Andrew Miedecke to drive a John Fitzpatrick Racing Porsche 962 in the 1984 Sandown 1000.

Colin Bond would claim that racing the 962 was "A lot of fun".

Colin Bond made an impact on the Touring Car Championship in 1990, winning two consecutive rounds of the championship at Lakeside and Mallala driving a Caltex sponsored Ford Sierra.

In 1994 Colin Bond was lured back for one last tilt at the Bathurst 1000 by Fred Gibson, manager of the Winfield Racing Team.

Colin Bond finished in 6th place on the same lap as the winning car.

Colin Bond retired as a driver in 1994, but continued to contribute to the sport as a driving standards observer for V8 Supercar until he was replaced by Tomas Mezera after the 2006 season.