Holden team sweeps board

Press, 30 August 1979, Page 11

Holden team sweeps board

General Motors received a huge boost for Holden Commodore sales that it could only have dreamed about when three Commodores finished first, second and third in the gruelling Repco roundAustralia trial earlier this month. Peter Brock, winner of the Hardie Ferodo Bathurst 1009 km classic last year, was principle driver in the winning car, and he was followed home by fellow Australian, Barry Fergusson, with Shekhar Mehta (Kenya) third. The fourth car, the Volvo of a top Australian rally driver, Ross Dunkerton, came home three and a half hours behind Mehta’s Commodore, which illustrates the dominance of the new Holdens in the 20,000 km marathon.

Of the 181 starters in the event 92 were classified as finishers, but only 13 completed the whole route, with four Commodores among these. The first three Commodores were prepared by the experienced Marllwro Holden Dealer Team, headed by the experienced Sydney engineer, George Shepheard. The cars had mildly modified 3.3 litre, six-cylinder motors, fourspeed manual transmissions and four-wheel disc brakes. The only attention they received on the assembly line was extra body-welding at crucial points. The lighter, faster Fords and Datsuns set the early pace in the trial, but they soon dropped by the wayside as the incredibly punishing roads took their toll. The Commodores also had their share of trouble, with Mehta blowing his car’s clutch and Fergusson getting bogged.

However, Mehta was able to get to Fergusson’s car to pull it free thanks to the team’s efficient radio communications. Brock also lost time on one stage when he crashed off the road and damaged his Commodore’s steering. The large H.D.T. service crew soon had the car straight again and Brock was able to continue on hi* winning way. The only other problems were replacing headlights broken by slow kangaroos.