53 Facts About Peter Brock

Peter Brock won the Bathurst 1000 endurance race nine times, the Sandown 500 touring car race nine times, the Australian Touring Car Championship three times, the Bathurst 24 Hour once and was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2001.

Peter Brock was born at the Epworth Hospital, Richmond, Victoria, the son of Geoff and Ruth Brock.

The family lived in the country town of Hurstbridge and Peter Brock continued to live there throughout his life.

Peter Brock claimed that his driving skill improved at this point of his life because the car did not have brakes.

Peter Brock was drafted into the Australian Army in 1965 and spent his two years of National Service stationed at the Blamey Barracks near Wagga Wagga in New South Wales.

Peter Brock was in the Medical Corps where he often served as an ambulance driver.

Peter Brock made his debut at Bathurst in the 1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 in a Holden HT Monaro GTS 350 alongside Des West, with the pair finishing third behind their winning HDT teammates Colin Bond and Tony Roberts.

Peter Brock won the Bathurst 500 for the first time in 1972.

Peter Brock had tried to set the lap record on the final lap of the 1978 race, but he was inadvertently baulked by the Alfa Romeo of Ray Gulson through The Dipper.

Peter Brock sat on pole for the 1997 V8 Supercars race but the time was set by his co-driver Mark Skaife.

Peter Brock won the second Bathurst 24 Hour race in 2003 driving a 7.0L V8-powered Holden Monaro 427C for Garry Rogers Motorsport.

Peter Brock won the race, which although not the Bathurst 1000, he regarded as his tenth Bathurst win driving alongside V8 Supercar drivers Greg Murphy, Jason Bright and Todd Kelly.

Peter Brock had a brief foray into Open wheel racing when he raced a Ford powered Birrana 273 to 8th place in the 1973 Australian Formula 2 Championship.

Later in early 1984, Peter Brock tested a Ralt RT4 with a view to possibly driving one in the 1984 Australian Drivers' Championship and the end of year Australian Grand Prix, and put in some competitive lap times at Calder Park.

The association with Perkins Engineering only lasted for one year, though Peter Brock continued to run the ATCC driving in Commodores.

Peter Brock competed for the same Volvo Dealer Racing team in the Australian Super Touring Championship in 1996, finishing 6th in the championship with a best finish of second in Round 7 at Lakeside in Brisbane.

Peter Brock claimed that scrutineering was almost non-existent at Macau, while Firth would describe Glemser's Capri and the Alfa Romeo GTA of third placed Hong Kong driver Albert Poon as "pretty damned rude" for not being strictly production cars as they were supposed to be.

Unlike several other Australian drivers, including Alan Jones and Larry Perkins, Peter Brock did not seek a full-time racing career outside Australia.

Peter Brock did attempt the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times in privateer vehicles, firstly in 1976 in the Team Brock BMW 3.0CSL which was bought in South Africa in late 1975 and shipped to Melbourne, where it was completely stripped and rebuilt.

Peter Brock's co-driver was former Aussie and UK resident Brian Muir with the BMW lasting 17 hours before a head gasket blew.

From 1974 until 1977 Larry Perkins had made 11 starts in F1 and, to the large number of European motoring press covering the two World Endurance Championship races, ex-F1 driver Larry 'Larrikins' Perkins was the star driver with Peter Brock seen as nothing more than a saloon car driver.

Peter Brock drove a Vauxhall Magnum with British driver Gerry Marshall to a surprise second place in the 1977 Spa 24 Hours.

Peter Brock shocked many when he won the 1979 Repco Round Australia Trial driving for the HDT in a 6cyl Holden VB Commodore along with co-drivers Noel Richards and Matthew Philip.

The Round Australia Trial was revived in 1995 with Peter Brock again racing for Holden in a Holden Racing Team prepared VR Commodore.

Peter Brock finished 3rd in the trial which was won by teammate Ed Ordynski.

Peter Brock retired from full-time driving following the 1997 Australian Touring Car season.

Peter Brock then returned to the Holden Racing team for the 2004 Bathurst 1000, teaming with Jason Plato in a Commodore VT.

The clash caused the Falcon to roll and enough damage to the HRT car to be out on the spot with Peter Brock failing to get a drive in his last Bathurst race after Plato had started the car and was due to hand over to Peter Brock a few laps after the crash.

Peter Brock drove a Holden Monaro 427C for Garry Rogers Motorsport, winning four from four races in what was thought to be a one-off appearance in the support races for the 2003 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

The 'Team Peter Brock' branding exercise was revived for 2003 this time with Paul Weel Racing but this time Peter Brock's role was as a mentor rather than a driver.

Peter Brock occasionally competed in various enthusiast-level motorsport events such as the Targa Tasmania with the Monaros he drove actually constructed by Holden Special Vehicles.

Peter Brock worked with the Victorian authorities promoting the campaign against drink-driving.

Peter Brock began publicly supporting and, eventually, began to fit to all Holden Dealer Team specials a device called the "Energy Polariser" containing crystals and magnets in an epoxy resin that, it was claimed, improved the performance and handling of vehicles through "aligning the molecules".

Peter Brock recommended tyre pressures of 22psi for his polariser-equipped vehicles, a level which many regarded as near-dangerously low.

Peter Brock was due to star in a racing film King of the Mountain in early 2007.

In 1986, Peter Brock was crowned King of Moomba by the Melbourne-based festival committee.

Peter Brock's public standing was dented by controversy over his promotion of the "Energy Polariser" and domestic violence allegations levelled by an ex-wife, with calls to keep him out of the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame.

Several years later, Peter Brock met 1973 Miss Australia pageant winner and Channel Seven weather presenter Michelle Downes.

In 2006, Downes said Peter Brock assaulted her on a number of occasions, and forced her to have an abortion.

Peter Brock next entered into a relationship with Beverly "Bev" McIntosh, the wife of a member of his motor racing team.

Peter Brock expressed a desire to show his human side, to encourage others that they, too, can achieve their goals.

Peter Brock has described in a book her eventual tiring in the early 1990s of his relationships with "one too many secretaries".

Peter Brock, who lived hard in his early years, changed his lifestyle considerably after the failed 1984 Le Mans attempt left him physically and emotionally drained.

Peter Brock gave up alcohol and cigarettes and became a vegetarian, 5 years after that he became a vegan.

On 8 September 2006, while driving in the Targa West '06 rally, Peter Brock was 3 kilometres from the finish of the second stage of the race at Gidgegannup, about 40 kilometres from Perth, Western Australia, when he skidded off a downhill left-hand bend on Clenton Road for over 50 metres in his 2001 Daytona Sportscar and hit a tree sideways, in the driver's door.

The 61-year-old Peter Brock died within a couple of minutes of the impact.

Peter Brock's children accepted the offer of a Victorian state funeral, with former partner Bev telling ABC Radio:.

Peter Brock was farewelled with a state funeral at Melbourne's St Paul's Anglican Cathedral, on 19 September 2006.

The Peter Brock Trophy was first incorporated for the 2006 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.

Lowndes had long been regarded as Peter Brock's protege, and was a teammate of Peter Brock in 1996.

Two roads in Sydney have been named Peter Brock Drive: in Oran Park as part of the housing development that replaced Oran Park Raceway, and in Eastern Creek, near Sydney Motorsport Park.

Peter Brock finished on the podium in 1990 and 1996.

Peter Brock's other touring car endurance race wins include:.