Allan Moffat

Allan George Moffat, OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is an Australian racing driver known for his success in the Australian Touring Car Championship and his four wins in the Bathurst 1000.

Born in Canada, Moffat first came to Australia as a college student with his parents in the early 1960s and has lived permanently in the country since the latter part of that decade, when he embarked on his record-setting racing career. He had already raced in the United States before his move to Australia, his first race behind the wheel of a Triumph TR3.

1965 to 1971

Moffat first entered the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) in 1965, driving a Lotus Cortina. By 1969 he had become a regular competitor and his bright red Coca-Cola-sponsored Trans-Am Ford Mustang was unmistakable at circuits around Australia. He would go on to win 101 touring car races in this car between 1969 and 1972, yet his dream of winning the ATCC in the Mustang eluded him.

Although Moffat and a number of other drivers raced Mustangs for ATCC competition - the five ATCC titles from 1965 to 1969 were all won by Mustang drivers - this car, modified to CAMS Improved Production Touring Car regulations was ineligible for the Bathurst 500 (later Bathurst 1000), which was restricted to standard production cars prior to 1973. Moffat therefore made his debut in that race in 1969 in a Ford works team entered Ford Falcon XW GTHO. He and co-driver Alan Hamilton finished fourth.

The following two years would see Moffat come into his own as one of Australia's most dominant race drivers, and the Falcon GTHO as an almost unbeatable car. For 1970, Ford had made significant improvements to the Falcon XW GTHO Phase II over the previous year's model and Moffat, racing without a co-driver, took the car to two crushing victories in the 1970 and 1971 Bathurst races. In 1971 he became the first driver to lead the Bathurst 500 from start to finish while driving the famed Ford Falcon XY GTHO Phase III.

1972

Moffat looked headed for an historic third straight Bathurst victory in 1972 when Ford unveiled plans for a "Phase IV" Falcon GTHO, even faster and more brutal than the Phase III which Moffat had taken to victory in 1971. The Australian press caught wind of these plans, however, and headlines across the country screamed, "160mph Supercars On Our Roads!" Facing pressure from the media and government not to produce this car, as entering it at Bathurst would also require at least 200 units to be sold at dealerships in Australia, Ford scrapped production of the Phase IV and forced Moffat and other Ford drivers to resort to year-old Phase III cars for Bathurst that year. Peter Brock won the race that year for arch-rival manufacturer Holden, after wet weather and brake dramas hobbled the Fords, and he and Moffat would establish a rivalry of their own in the years to come.

1973 to 1980

In 1973, both the ATCC and the Bathurst endurance race were open for the first time only to the newly introduced CAMS Group C Touring Cars. These mildly modified cars replaced both the existing highly modified Group C Improved Production Touring Cars (which had contested the ATCC since 1965) and the virtually standard Group E Series Production Touring Cars (which had previously contested the Bathurst event). Ford, smarting from the Phase IV controversy the year before, withdrew their factory teams from competition at the end of 1973. This left Moffat and other Ford drivers to form their own privateer teams, despite the company having assisted Moffat to victory in both the ATCC title - his first ever - and at Bathurst (with co-driver Ian Geoghegan) that year. Moffat was the first winner of the Bathurst race following its conversion from a 500-mile event to 1000km.

Moffat struggled through the 1974 and 1975 seasons. He failed to finish Bathurst in those years, and was only moderately competitive in ATCC races. In 1975 he drove a BMW 3.0CSL with Brian Redman to win the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Although he failed to finish Bathurst again in 1976, Moffat returned to drive his Falcon GT full-time in the ATCC that year and won his second title, despite the setback of a transporter fire which destroyed his race car, with several rounds left to run. Moffat also won the inaugural Australian Sports Sedan Championship that year, driving firstly a Chevrolet Monza and later a Ford Capri RS3100.

Moffat re-established his dominance in 1977 with a two-car factory-supported team under the Moffat Ford Dealers Team banner. He won his second consecutive ATCC title that year, the third of his career, but this performance was overshadowed by the crushing 1-2 victory of Moffat and team-mate Colin Bond at Bathurst. By the mid-point of the race, Moffat and Bond led by over six laps from the rest of the field. Late in the race, Moffat's car encountered brake problems and had to slow, allowing Bond to catch up for the cars to complete the final lap of the race side-by-side and cross the finish line in tandem, with Bond allowing Moffat to stay barely in front. This moment is remembered as one of the most famous in Australian motor sport history, and still regarded by many as Ford's finest hour. The following year Moffat received an Order of the British Empire in 1978 for exceptional services to motor sport.

Moffat was unable to repeat his 1977 successes over the following three years. Moffat and Bond split at the end of the 1978 season and Moffat retired from the 1978, 1979 and 1980 Bathurst races (his last in the local Ford product) and did not win the ATCC title in those years as Holden began to gain a manufacturer's edge with their Torana A9X, which was lighter and more nimble than the heavy Falcons.

In 1980 he competed in various cars and in various countries. He drove a Porsche 934 turbo to win the Australian Sports Car Championship. He also drove at the Le Mans 24-hour race, sharing a Porsche 935 turbo with Indycar legend Bobby Rahal, where they were forced to withdraw whilst in fourth place. He also did a guest drive for the Marlboro Holden Dealer Team taking 3rd place in the Sandown 400km race. The event was marked by the fact that it was Moffat's second only time in a Holden and that he was driving in the same team as his arch rival Peter Brock.

1981 and beyond

Much to the dismay of his mostly Ford-biased fans, Moffat left the "Blue Oval" brand in 1981 to drive a Peter Stuyvesant-sponsored Mazda RX-7 as both the ATCC and Bathurst began to exhibit a shift towards lighter touring cars with less raw power. Moffat drove the RX-7 to four consecutive top-six finishes at Bathurst between 1981 and 1984, and won his fourth and final ATCC title in 1983. Moffat also competed at the 24 Hours of Daytona in an RX-7, taking a class win in 1982 with co-drivers Lee Mulle and Kathy Rude. That same year he again competed at LeMans in a factory RX-7-based sportscar, achieving a class win. In 1985 he took his own RX-7 that he campaigned previously in Australia to Daytona for the 24 Hour race, sharing the car with Australian drivers Gregg Hansford, Kevin Bartlett and Peter McLeod.

After sitting out the 1985 Australian season Moffat returned to Bathurst for three more years in 1986, 1987 and 1988, the first in a Holden Commodore with Peter Brock and the final brace in Ford Sierras with Cosworth engines. These cars dominated the ATCC circuits for most of the late 1980s and won Bathurst twice in 1988 and 1989. In 1987, after Peter Brock split with Holden, Moffat purchased the VL Commodore that Brock had intended to take to Europe to compete in the World Touring Car Championship. In the first round of the 1987 WTCC, held in Monza, Italy, Moffat and his co-driver, ex-HDT driver John Harvey, took a surprise opening round win as a result of the leading BMW M3's being disqualified. Later that year Moffat and Harvey drove the same Commodore to 4th place outright and a class win at the Spa 24-hour race.

Moffat's last race was in 1989 driving with Klaus Niedzwiedz, winning the Fuji 500km race in Japan. He retired from competitive motor racing that year. He has since worked as a TV commentator and a spokesman for BMW and appears at various Ford club events across Australia.

On 2 February 2004, he received Australian citizenship in a ceremony at the Australian Grand Prix Corporation offices in Melbourne. He had been eligible for citizenship since the early 1970s but, in his own words, "one way or another I never followed it through." The citation itself was given by his old friend and sparring partner, Peter Brock.

Although Moffat has lived permanently in Australia for over 35 years, his broad Canadian accent has remained intact and continues to be his trademark. Moffat is a Director of the Australian Institute for Motor Sport Safety (AIMSS).

Career results

External links

* [http://www.allanmoffat.com.au Official Allan Moffat Website]