Brock, Peter Geoffrey

[Senna05]

I remember the man as a kid. I met him twice, aged 9 and 13. At age 13, the first thing he said was "William, isnt it? You visited me at oran park in the mobil sierra, right?"..... How the heck could a man with so many fans remember?

I got diabetes in 1997, late september. Dad had organised for us all to go to bathurst to see his last race. Adversely because of this, we missed his last race.

My uncle wrote to him to explain this, and I got a letter from him with a signed shirt, saying that he was sad for my health and that I wasn't there to say goodbye, but that life was about more than seeing "just a race" and that he knew I could get through the tragedy and make my life something special.....

I still have this letter and shirt. The man cared SO MUCH about his fans and was an amazing human....

[pplater]

My Brock moment is one that I'm sure many of us have shared, with the man signing autographs well into the dark hours at a race meeting. My brother and I were the last ones in the queue, and it was really quite something that after all the other 'stars' had packed up and gone away, Peter still had time for me.

I've only seen him win two races, both at Bathurst. In one weekend Peter shared a ute with his son James to victory, and later the Bathurst 24hr. It was a pleasure to witness his oh-so-smooth style around the place he made his own.

[Adam Ronke]

I met Peter on numerous occassions and I remember when I was 5 years old Peter had his 40th Birthday celebrations at Winton, where I was given the job of presenting his birthday cake. I remember this because I felt so privilaged as a young fella to be in the presence of a man that so many people idolised. He truly was a Legend of Australian Motorsport!!

[Pro Racer]

I remember in 2003, I met Brocky in the first Eastern Creek round and got a photo with him and we had a good conversation. Being 13 at the time Brock said "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I said "a mechanic or race driver", and later in the year, we went to the last round of the year at Eastern Creek and got my photo signed. He remembered me and the photo and said "you want to be a mechanic don't you?" and I said "yes" and he signed on the photo 'live your dreams' as he wrote on most things and he said to me "good luck in becoming a mechanic". I was surprised he remembered me considering the amount of autograph's the man signed.

[M-Kart]

My best memory of Brocky occurred at Indy in 1996 - Brocky was racing the Volvo 850 super tourer, and was standing next to the car, in the queue of the competitors to go out onto the circuit. As always, Brocky was surrounded by a group of guys wanting to have a chat, but when he saw me (aged 8 at the time) with a letter for him in my hand (I wrote him a thank you letter for signing an HRT poster for me which my parents had organised as a christmas present). Brocky excused himself from the group of guys, came over and sat down with me, read the letter and had a chat. In fact the officials had to tell him to get in the car for the race! But as he got in the car (still with the letter in his had) he stuck it in his race suit and did the race with it in the car! It was the happiest I had ever been in all of my 8 years of age!

[marcus]

[Rod Birley]

I met Brocky in New Zealand January 1996. I still have the poster which he Dick Johnson and Jim Richards signed, proudly displayed in my office. A really nice trio, true heros and legends.

[alfasud]

I wasn't really a fan in the early days... but always remember meeting Brocky in the paddock at the Nissan-Mobil endurance race at Pukekohe in about 1985 (or was it 86?)... he'd retired the Commodore with engine problems and me and a mate decided to wander over and poke our noses under the bonnet to have a look.

Wouldn't have blamed him if he'd told us both to **** off... but instead he was happy to chat to us, despite having what was obviously a bad day.

Like many others have already noted... a great ambassador for the sport. Will be sadly missed.

[chunterer]

The guy was a hero and inspiration to race fans around the world, not just to his massive fan base in Australia.

I was over the moon when Peter once wrote me a massive letter thanking me for following his progress from England and for joining the Mobil HDT club and said he agreed it would be nice to have a Commodore in the BTCC!

As there wasn't (in 1986) he sent me a metal model car in a parcel and said 'this will have to do for now!'

Great driver, greater man.

[GTRMagic]

My own experiences (and there were quite a few) with Mr Brock have always been positive. He has had that special sparkle that seemed to ignore the world around him, and made the person he talked to feel as if they were the only person of importance at that point in time...

I can remember a number of chats I have had with Mr Brock, whether standing in queues a mile long to see him, or a chat or two while standing on Brocky's Hill at the AGP with Bev.... Mr Brock was always very good for a chat about just about anything, motorsport, the weather, the footy.. or just about being a genuine car nut...

Peter Brock, 9 time Bathurst champion, 9 time Sandown champion, 3 time Australian Touring Car Champion, Bathurst 24 Hour winner, Repco Round Australia Reliability Trial winner.

[MattV]

Peter Brock was my, still is my, childhood hero. I am 27 years old.

My first sporting memory was the 1984 Bathurst, and Dad took me to the James Hardie buidling in town where they had the car on display after the race. From there I was hooked. Remember when you had your when I grow up jobs? Well I wanted to be a motor racing driver - just like Brocky.

I was too young to understand the split from Holden in 1987 and I deliberately haven't tried to find out about it now. Same as I haven't and won't read Bev's book. I don't want to taint my memory of the man.

What is that memory?

The bloke who would sign autographs in the dark after having been at the track from 6am. I remember clearly Eastern Creek and Oran Park 1997 - his final year. I reckon he signed something for me at 8pm at night for me that night at Oran Park.

The bloke who wouldn't let anyone go without getting that autograph or that photo they were after. The image of him being dragged away whilst still signing by members of the team or Bev are clear in my mind.

The bloke I could stand and listen to his stories, about motor racing, about life for hours on end.

The bloke with the most positive outlook on life, and keen to pass this on to everyone he met.

And finally, the bloke who didn't have to be all of the above, yet was.

[Kerri]

I have never been a holden or Brock fan ever, for the last 25 years I have been associated with Ford.

For the last 35 minutes I have been watching a tribute to Brock on Sky News Active and I cannot believe the things this man knows and has done in his life.

Say what you will about that, but this guy had the ability to bring you into his way of seeing things from a farm boy at age 7 to his current views on how race cars are today, even as a female it intrigues me how easily he explains how he understood cars and how they worked and behaved, whether it be a truck or tractor on a farm, a road car, or a top level race car.

It would be great for all to hear this interview because it has certainly opened my eyes up to what made this talented man tick.

He was a natural, his whole way of thinking about life seemed so simple and yet he manages to educate the most uneducated person about the simple facts about life, cars and racing.

I never really bothered to look at the man as anything other than that guy who raced holdens, but now I see he was alot more than that.

[billybanana]

I've spent all day looking thru pictures and watching old Bathurst videos. My folks gave me an old Rank Arena b&w tv as a kid and being brought up in WA I'd get up at the crack of dawn to watch the start of Bathurst and wouldn't move from the floor all day.

This photo seems to sum up Brocky perfectly. Always there for the fans..

[deeks6]

I'll just share one story which really sums up Peter Brock in my humble opinion:

I had the pleasure of spending a Bathurst weekend with none other than Peter Janson's entourage in his double decker bus. All the trappings - booze, food, girls etc and it happened to be e great race for Janson as well - it was the year he followed Brockie around for the last few laps culminating in his glorious 360 degree spin at the finish which saw Brockie not being filmed taking the flag. Now any normal human being would get a bit annoyed at this, I'm sure.
Later on in the evening, after much frivolity, one of the girls (my sister in fact) suggested that we really should congratulate Brock and see what they were up to. The Captain stood up said very loudly "Everybody ... off to Brocks". The entire party (maybe 30 of us) marched over to the Holden tent to do just that. Upon reaching the entrance, we were told in no uncertain terms by the man guarding it to **** OFF. Brock spied Janson and Adrian and intervened - "Everybody in" he said. Now we were 73 sheets to the wind I can tell you but he was a trusting soul, PB. He didnt have to do that and could well have pretended not to notice but he was'nt that sort of guy.
Funny conclusion - Brock said to Janson that he knew what he was doing (getting his sponsors on TV) but that he was cruising to make sure the car was OK. The Captain said "Cruising? ****, I was driving my arse off to keep up".

[John Turner]

I have copied and edited these few posts from the huge thread in the Tribute forum. I have removed some of the personal emotional content for obvious reasons but please rest assured that the original posts are complete, and reside where they should be; in the Tribute thread for this great and iconic driver.

These posts above tell us much about the man, Peter Brock, and his incredible connection to both his fans and motor racing spectators in general, but what about Peter Brock, the racing driver? This thread provides the opportunity to provide details of his achievements on track, and the manner of those achievements.

[marcus]

nothing to do with any annivesaries or important dates (that I know of) but reading this thread and seeing that picture of Peter Perfect has brought a tear to my eye.

Im a proud aussie and try to be a tough Bloke but in the end all I can say is


I love you Brocky