Brock may drop BMW

Press, 2 June 1988, Page 38

Brock may drop BMW

Australian rumours have it that Mobil and Peter Brock are about to drop the BMW M 3 with which the Mountain King and his team partner, Jim Richards, have been contesting the Australian Touring Car Championship this year. It has been suggested that Mobil will get hold of a pair of Ford Sierra RSSOOs for the Mobilsponsored Brock team to run for the remainder of the Australian season.

With six of the eight championship rounds decided — the next will be at Amaroo Park on June 19 — it is too late for either Brock or Richards to make much of an impression on the series.

In fact, at this stage the RSSOO-mounted Dick

Johnston seems to have it by the throat and it is unlikely that an M 3 will finish better than fourth or fifth on the ladder behind a cluster of Cosworth turbo-engined Sierras.

It could be that Mobil and Brock are looking ahead to the Australian endurance races, the highlight of which will be at Bathurst

The Touring Car Championship will have been decided before the Brock-Mobil team has settled into the Sierras, in any case. A formidable barrier to the. achievement of the team’s objective might be the quest for truly competitive RS5OOs. Another factor that the team must consider is whether it can secure

cars sufficiently durable to be among frontrunners in the longer endurance races.

Certainly, a team switch to Ford would be a bitter pili for the BMW Australia chief, Ron Meatchem, to swallow.

After the JPS Team BMW chief, Frank Gardner, was eased out of his place to make way for Brock after the James Hardie 1000 last year, Meatchem may have burnt one of his strongest motor-racing bridges.

Gardner is now masterminding an RSSOO Australian Touring Car challenge and doubtlessly accumulating Ford knowledge that Brock will sorely need. It is all a bit sad really,

for BMW sales in Australia are flagging badly and sales are what Australian motor racing is all about

In years gone by, motor racing and Brock established a clear-cut image for Holden. Indeed, Brock, immediately after Bathurst last year, told everyone publicly that he would be back this year with another Holden. In the context of current events, that is probably no more than a half-forgotten dream, for it seems pretty definite that the Holden challenge in the upcoming Australian endurance races will be made by Tom Walkinshaw with Larry Perkins and perhaps, Denny Hulme, as featured drivers.