50 years on: Moffat's Brutiful Sandown victory

Supercars Hall of Famer Allan Moffat is celebrated for his four ‘Great Race’ wins at Bathurst in the 1970s, however it’s often overlooked he was just as successful when it came to the traditional lead-up race at Sandown in Melbourne.

The Ford – and later Mazda – star won the Sandown enduro six times and this year marks the 50th anniversary of his win in the Brut 33 Falcon XB GT in 1974.

The win was Moffat’s third Sandown enduro win, however the first driving one of his own team cars given his 1969 and 1970 wins came at the wheel of official Ford Motor Company-backed and run Falcon GT-HOs.

Ford had withdrawn its official backing from Australian touring car racing at the end of 1973, leaving Moffat very much on his own as a privateer entrant.

He pulled the pin on campaigning against the Holden Toranas mid-way through the Australian Touring Car Championship, instead electing to send his Falcon coupe to the United States to conduct testing and preparation away from prying eyes.

The project was code-named ‘Project B52’ and saw the big Ford V8 muscle car completely overhauled by a small team of former Kar Kraft technicians, the same former Ford Special Vehicles division that had built Moffat’s famous Coke Mustang some years prior.

The end result was a new-look Brut 33-backed blue Falcon that hit the track for the Sandown 250 (as the race was then known) in early September. The race that year constituted the second round of the endurance series, then known as the Australian Manufacturer’s Championship.

Up against the new SLR/5000 L34 Toranas of the Holden Dealer Team’s Peter Brock and Colin Bond, Moffat qualified his new-look Ford third behind the Holden duo. Despite pressure from the pair of Torana aces, Moffat ran away to win the race as the new V8-powered Holdens hit problems.

He crossed the line after 130 laps (250 miles, 400 kilometres), two laps in front of the Ron Hodgson Motors Torana XU-1 of Bob Morris and John Leffler with the Shell-backed privateer Falcon of local Murray Carter coming home third, a further lap behind. Moffat went on to win the Sandown enduro three more times, but never again in a Falcon.

He won in 1982 and 1983 in his Mazda RX-7s and then again in 1988 driving with Gregg Hansford in an ANZ Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth.

Moffat’s son James will be in the field for this year’s Penrite Oil Sandown 500 aiming for his first Sandown 500 win as he once again shares the Monster Energy Tickford Mustang with Cam Waters.