World News – AU – Australian motorsport great, Bathurst winners dead

Australian motorsport star John Harvey, a 1983 Bathurst 1000 winner, died of lung cancer at the age of 82.

« Last night at 8:45 am, our father, John Francis Harvey, sadly passed away peacefully with his family at his side, » reads a family declaration on John Harvey’s Facebook page.

« Most people will have fond memories of Dad’s amazing racing career, and the great memories of him will live on forever.

« To us he was much more, a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather who supported us all whenever we needed his guidance and love.

« What a life he lived when he traveled the world with and against the best in the business, always a true gentleman.

« We all know we were his proudest achievement. We will miss him very much, but we know the time was right. « 

It was announced last month that Harvey, born in Sydney in 1938, had terminal lung cancer.

Harvey’s racing career began in the 1950s as a top speedway driver. In the mid-1960s, he switched to road racing under the legendary Bob Jane and had a particular passion for open wheelers. The open wheel Australian 1. The 1966 5-liter championship and the 1971 and 1972 Australian sports car championships were among his titles.

In the mid-1960s he was involved in touring cars and in 1976 won his first championship race with a private driver Torana in Symmons Plains. That same year he finished second in the Bathurst 1000, along with Colin Bond.

His best-known triumph, the Bathurst victory in 1983, took place under extraordinary – and quite explosive – circumstances.

Harvey dated Phil Brock, Peter Brock’s brother, in the # 25 VH Commodore for this edition of the legendary Mt Panorama race. Peter Brock drove with Larry Perkins and the four drivers were on the Holden Dealer Team (HDT).

Harvey started the race in the team’s second car, while Peter Brock drove the famous 05 car from pole position – until a disaster struck.

After just eight laps, ‘Peter Perfect’ pulled his HDT car into the pits, smoke poured from the engine. His race seemed to be over until a reckless move was made.

It was then within the rules for a pair of drivers to switch to another car within their team, which Peter Brock and Perkins did. Harvey pitted from second place and his driving in that race was over.

Brock and Perkins took the lead on lap 48 and won the Bathurst 1000 by more than a lap over Allan Moffat and Yoshimi Katayama.

After the first eight laps in the winning car, Harvey was named race winner alongside Peter Brock and Perkins. They were the first trio of riders to be crowned Bathurst 1000 champions.

Phil Brock, who was not allowed to drive, missed it; a particularly brutal turn of events, given his brother’s central role. For Peter Brock it was his seventh of nine Bathurst victories. and his fifth in six years.

That was just one colorful chapter in Harvey’s racing career. He was second three times in the Bathurst 1000 and finished second in 1976, 1984 and 1986. At the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1979 he was third and drove an HDT Torana.

He won his class and finished fourth in the Spa 24 Hours in 1987 with Allan Moffat and Tony Mulvihill. In the same year he won the opening lap of the World Touring Car Championship in Monza again with Moffat.

Harvey retired from motorsport after the Bathurst 1000 in 1988. In addition to his racing successes, Harvey was also a key figure in the Holden Special Vehicles program and in the Holden Racing Team outfit in V8 supercars. He had motor oil in his blood until the end.

Harvey was inducted into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2018 and received an Order of Australia (OAM) medal for service to motorsport that year.

John Harvey, motorsport, touring car racing, Larry Perkins, car racing, Peter Brock, Bathurst 1000