This year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 features a special tribute to nine-time race winner Peter Brock, including a range of cars from his incredible career set to be on-hand at the track in ‘Peter’s Pitlane’ for fans to enjoy.
Among the cars to be assembled this year at Mount Panorama is a very special Mobil Holden Dealer Team Commodore from the Group A era of the race’s history.
The #05 VK Commodore is the very car that Brock and his long-time rival Allan Moffat drove together in the 1986 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, marking the one and only time these two icons of the Mountain shared a car in the Great Race.
The marriage no one saw coming
Holden fans very nearly choked on their cornflakes in late-1985 when it was announced that Brock had signed a new co-driver for his Holden Dealer Team – none other than long-time Ford, and later Mazda, rival Moffat!
Out of a drive in the wake of Mazda’s withdrawal from the sport, Moffat was signed to join Brock for an assault on the 1986 European Touring Car Championship and the local endurance races.
Their relationship started with a win on the streets of Wellington in New Zealand and rolled into the European rounds before the jewel in the crown that October – the James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst.
There was plenty of attention on this ‘dream team’ that had a brand new VK Commodore racecar to take to the Mountain classic – but before that came the matter of the Castrol 500 at Sandown where the new metal made its debut.
Dubbed ‘HDT 14’, their #05 VK Commodore was slightly different in specification to the one driven by Brock at Bathurst 12 months earlier.
The 1986 car was the first Group A Commodore homologation special, an evolution of the ‘85 car with a new 4.9-litre V8 engine, five-speed gearbox and some subtle aerodynamic aids, including a rear boot lid spoiler.
Dropping below the traditional five-litre engine capacity also allowed the Commodore to shed 75 kilograms under the rules of the era.
Run in those days on the widely unpopular infield layout at Sandown, the ‘500 proved to be a Nissan Skyline benefit as the Fred Gibson-run team came home 1-2.
Brock had put the #05 Commodore on pole position in the Saturday Shootout, though he and Moffat battled a difficult handling car and came home fourth, one lap down on winners George Fury and Glenn Seton.
When the Mountain bites...
The 4.9-litre, V8-powered, blue, white and red Holden featured in one of the biggest accidents at Bathurst in October 1986, when Moffat launched the car into the concrete wall at McPhillamy Park during Friday practice – and that seemingly set into motion the issue that delayed the car on Sunday afternoon.
Post-accident the smashed chassis was sent into town and a show car in Melbourne raided for parts to be sent up.
Virtually everything from the firewall forward was removed and replaced on the #05 Commodore and Brock himself drove the car back to the circuit with a police escort just under 24 hours after the accident.
Brock and Moffat were allocated 11th on the grid given the car was a non-starter in Saturday morning’s ‘Hardies Heroes’ Top 10 Shootout but that didn’t slow the former.
Within three laps Brock had sliced from 11th to run in second place behind eventual winner Allan Grice, proving the repaired Commodore was just as good as before Moffat’s accident.
Ultimately Brock and Moffat finished fifth, delayed by six-odd minutes after splitting the oil cooler on the notorious speed humps then in place in the pit lane.
It was deduced post-race that the weary crew, while undertaking the repair job from Moffat’s crash, hadn’t checked the ground clearance of the car, so a regular pace over the speed hump was a tad too much and thus the oil cooler was damaged.
The ’86 Bathurst Commodore was used by Brock for the remainder of the season and the early part of 1987 by the Mobil HDT team boss.
Crashed by teammate Gary Scott during private practice at Lakeside, it was rebuilt as a VL Commodore and raced by Neil Crompton in his Mobil HDT Racing debut at Oran Park later that year alongside Jon Crooke.
The duo finished fourth in the Castrol 500 at Sandown, matching the Brock/Moffat result in the same chassis in the same race from the previous year.
Friends not enemies
Brock and Moffat regularly expressed their deep respect for one another post-retirement, a respect that grew into a firm friendship.
“I found to my great delight that Moffat and I got along very well,” Brock said upon his retirement from racing in 1997.
“It worked out great. He was a solid contributor to our objectives and he was terrific to work with. We could bounce things around really well. I enjoyed it.
“It was very much ‘The Odd Couple’ in many respects because we’d been such bitter rivals over the years, but we got to like one another and found out we had a lot in common. Now we are quite firm friends; in fact, Moffat’s probably my closest friend in motor sport.”
The Repco Bathurst 1000 will be held at Mount Panorama on October 8-11. Tickets are on sale now.
In collaboration with V8 Sleuth, Supercars.com is highlighting Peter Brock, who will be honoured at the 2026 Repco Bathurst 1000. The nine-time Bathurst winner will be celebrated via a series of tributes, with several of his famous cars on display at the Mountain. The Peter's Pitlane exhibition is outside the National Motor Racing Museum between Thursday October 8 and Sunday October 11.
