On January 25, 1974, the Ford Motor Company, through
its marketing manager Mr Keith Horner, issued a statement
announcing the company's withdrawal from motor racing,
mainly due to the "greater cost pressures brought
on by developmental needs in emission control and vehicle
safety, as well as fuel economy needs caused by the
world energy crisis”.
Many different interpretations
were put on this statement, ranging from suggestions
that Ford were pulling out because they realised they
wouldn't have a chance of being competitive with the
forthcoming V8 Torana’s, to opinions citing the
parent company in the United States as being responsible
and issuing a directive to the local company. The latter
opinion is undoubtedly near the truth, as Ford Australia
wasn't the only Ford company which stopped or reduced
its competition activities in 1974.
It was a sad occasion
for motor sport in Australia, as Ford had been directly
involved for a long time, and this involvement had
had an immeasurably good effect on the advancement
of the sport - in particular since the first Falcon
GT was introduced. The names GTHO and Moffat were household
words and Ford's competition-oriented image had not
only helped them sell more cars, but their involvement
had resulted in the building of better cars.
Motor
racing improves any breed of motor car - and racing
experience rubs off through manufacturers, subcontractors,
component suppliers and even (hopefully) the dealer
networks, the end result being a better car for the
man-in-the-street. As the Australian Financial Review
said in an article on the Falcon GT in their issue
of March 5, 1973, - "The Roaring Fordies
- it was all buffoonery, but they were great.
For
1974, Allan Moffat was given Fred Gibson's old car,
while Freddie got the spare works machine (remembering
that Allan's car was written off at Phillip Island).
Moffat's Mustang had been sponsored in 1973 by the
toiletries and cosmetics people Faberge, and this was
continued in 1974 for the Mustang and the Falcon.
Fred
Gibson obtained sufficient backing from Castrol to
compete in a couple of meetings, while John Goss and
Murray Carter continued with MeLeod Ford and Shell
respectively. A new model Falcon was released at this
time, the XB series. It was basically the same as the
previous model but with various cosmetic modifications,
although of significance were the standard four-wheel
disc
brakes on the GT model.
Despite a general air of
gloom around the Ford camp after the company's shock
withdrawal from the sport, the year got off to a fair
start with John Goss's second place in the South Pacific
touring car series run in conjunction with the Tasman
series for Formula 500 cars. He won two of the four
rounds, but Peter Brock took out the title.
The Sun-7
Chesterfield series was less than successful for the
Falcons, with only a second and a third for Goss out
of the three rounds he contested, while Fred Gibson
contested only one round and failed to finish. Nobody
was terribly optimistic about Ford's chances in 1974,
what with the factory not being involved and the threat
of a new V8 Torana in the not too distant future in
the background.
Despite this, Allan Moffat won two
out of the first five rounds and was placed in two
others before he disappeared to the USA in May. In
the fourth round, at Amaroo, he demolished the lap
record in practice, but blew his engine on the warm-up
lap, swapping into Fred Gibson's car at ~he last moment
and starting at the rear of the grid.
The series was
fairly uninteresting overall, with usually only a couple
of Falcons entering. John Goss entered in a couple
of rounds, as did Fred Gibson. Murray Carter was the
only driver to consistently show the Ford flag and
was rewarded with places in five of the six rounds
he contested, including a second place behind Moffat
at Sandown Park. Phil Waters created some interest
in two of the rounds by entering his GTHO Phase 3,
but the grand old lady was showing her age, the best
he could manage being a seventh place at Surfer's Paradise.
The series went to Peter Brock, who debuted the new
Torana SLR5000 with a 308 cu.in. V8 engine, late in
the series. Meanwhile, several Falcon sports-sedans
were upholding the marque in some States, these being
the lightweight hardtop of John Goss, and the earlier
models of Russell Kramer 'and Pat Crea, all of these
cars scoring successes during the year. Smart new Brut
33 for Moffat got the publicity and seemed the car
to beat at Bathurst. But there were problems ahead.
In August, Holden introduced
a version of the new Torana SLR5000 specifically designed
for racing. Designated the L34, it featured flared
mudguards for wide
tyres and various engine and suspension
modifications to make it more suitable for development
and the stresses of motor racing. It certainly didn't
help the diminishing confidence of Ford supporters,
as on paper it looked very, very good. It was released
in August.
Allan Moffat withdrew from the touring car
championship trail in May and went to the USA where
he was building up a very expensive and hopefully very
effective Falcon to counter the new Torana’s.
He spent nearly four months over there and actually
did two 1,000km runs at the 7.5 mile speed and endurance
track at the Transportation and Research Centre, Ohio,
in preparation for the Hardie-Ferodo 1000.
The car was
reported to be turning out 440 bhp - about 50 more
than was previously achieved and had reached speeds
of over 160 mph at the Ohio test track. Ford supporters
took heart when details of the new Falcon were released,
as it was obviously going to be a very quick motor
car.
Moffat's race ends in the pits
at Bathurst with a multitude of mechanical problems
before halfway. But Goss and Bartlett were able to
save the day - with advice from Moffat. The
L34 Torana’s made their debut in the first
round at Adelaide and celebrated with a victory by
Colin Bond. However, they were not without their problems,
as Bond finished with gearbox troubles and Peter Brock's
car blew up.
The only Falcon in the race was that of
Murray Carter, who finished second after leading the
race but suffering a blown differential seal which
cost him a win. Allan Moffat returned to racing in
the next round at Sandown, in a new car, but not the
one which had been getting all the publicity - that
was being kept for Bathurst. Anyway, he won, and Murray
Carter, as reliable as ever, came in third. Significantly,
both the Dealer Team Torana’s had big problems.
Only
three Falcons entered for the 1974 Bathurst classic,
again part of the manufacturers championship: Allan
Moffat in the new Brut 33 Falcon with German ace Dieter
Glemser, Murray Carter and Mike Stillwell in the Shell
car; and John Goss and Kevin Bartlett in the McLeod
Ford car. Moffat's car was painted in an eye-catching
overall dark blue with "Moffat Ford Dealers -
an Australian flag and Brut 33 in huge letters on the
side. It attracted an enormous amount of publicity
and was apparently the car to beat. However, nothing
went right for Moffat this time.
In practice he had
only completed a few laps when oil pressure problems
set in, causing him to miss almost all of the remaining
practice time. He qualified a lowly 15th on the starting
grid. To add to Moffat's problems, Harry Firth, managing
the Holden Dealer Team, submitted a 15-point protest
against the car. It was found to be completely legal,
but this little bit of gamesmanship on Firth's part
certainly didn't improve Moffat's already marked psychological
disadvantage.
Of the other Falcon’s, Goss and Bartlett saved
some face by qualifying third fastest, but Torana’s
were well entrenched on the front row, both the Dealer
Team cars being there. On race day, things didn't seem
to be much better, with Murray Carter being late in
arriving at the circuit due to traffic problems.
When
the race started, things looked better for Moffat almost
immediately. Even though the two Torana’s were
clearly ahead, by the end of the first lap, he had
stormed through the field to pick up 10 places to be
in fifth place. Unfortunately Goss had a bad start
and was back to sixth. As the race settled down, the
Moffat Falcon looked to be a chance after all and seemed
to be going well.
Murray Carter had problems almost
immediately and was regularly in and out of the pits
in the early stages with
tyre problems. He ultimately
retired with brake and clutch problems and was never
a threat. On lap 12, the Moffat/Glemser challenge effectively
ended when the car had to pit with ignition troubles.
Eventually just about everything that could go wrong
to a Falcon did, and Moffat retired after slightly
more than half distance after suffering from distributor,
bearing, clutch, gearbox and brake problem.
It was
a sad end to the most expensive and glamorous assault
on Bathurst seen so far. Meanwhile, the Bond/Skelton
and Brock/Sampson Torana’s were doing it easily
with the Goss/Bartlett Falcon in third place, some
three laps behind. Then a series of events occurred
which completely changed the race.
First, Goss punctured
a
tyre on the mountain, and pitted after a dramatic
drive down Conrod Straight with two wheels on the grass
to prevent the wheel from disintegrating. In the pits,
Allan Moffat advised him to put on wet weather tyres
He did - and almost immediately it began pelting with
rain on top of the mountain.
For a few minutes the
spectators witnessed the sight of rain at one end of
the circuit and sunshine at the other. The pits were
suddenly full of cars, as the rain then drenched the
whole circuit. The second thing to happen was that
Colin Bond was black-flagged for dropping oil from
his very smoky Torana He later restarted but was no
longer a threat.
Then Peter Brock, who was miles ahead,
blew his motor and was out. Fourth placed Bob Forbes
suddenly found himself in the lead, but he still had
to make a pit stop. Twenty laps from the end, John
Goss, who had run out of driving time, handed the car
over to Kevin Bartlett to finish the race. Twelve laps
later the Forbes Torana made its pit stop and Bartlett
took the lead, which he kept. He drove masterfully
in the diabolical conditions, keeping Forbes well at
bay.
It was a red-letter day for the Ford people, particularly
after the uncertainty faced by them at the beginning
of the year. It also proved that a private entry could
win at Bathurst, and for Goss personally, it corrected
the injustice done to him in the 1973 race. The remaining
two races of the manufacturers championship were won
by Colin Bond, thus giving the title to Holden.
Goss's
was the only Falcon entered at Surfer's Paradise and
he came fourth after an unnecessarily slow pit stop
cost him two placed, while at Phillip Island Murray
Carter came in a steady second, Allan Moffat losing
his lead when the motor in his Falcon blew. Thanks
to Gossy and KB it wasn't such a bad year for Falcons
after all.
Also see:
GT
Falcon Race Results 1974
Bathurst Race Results 1974
Bathurst Race Program 1974
Bathurst Memorable Moments
