Bob Morris (racing Driver)
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Robert Morris (born 4 October 1948) is an
Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...
former
racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...
. Morris was one of the leading touring car drivers during the 1970s and continued racing until 1984. Morris won Australia's premier
Touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. The ...
race, the
Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a Touring car racing, touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supe ...
in 1976. He also won the
Australian Touring Car Championship The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the troph ...
in 1979. Morris was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2004.


Early years

Morris got his early start in racing through his father Ray Morris who was racing at the time in early sports sedan racing with a modified
Ford Falcon The Ford Falcon is an automobile nameplate by Ford Motor Company, Ford that applied to several vehicles worldwide. * Ford Falcon (North America), an automobile produced by Ford from 1960 to 1970. * Ford Falcon (Argentina), a car built by Ford ...
. Bob Morris made his Bathurst 1000 debut in 1968 driving a
Toyota Corolla The is a series of compact cars (formerly Subcompact car, subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla was the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has bee ...
with Bruce Hindhaugh in the team backed by Australian Toyota importers AMI that his father Ray also drove for. Morris and Hindhaugh won their class. Morris again registered a class win the following year with Brian Sampson, again in an AMI Corolla. In 1970, spotted by team boss Harry Firth, Morris was picked up by the Holden Dealer Team. He was paired with the HDT's other young charger,
Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
in a Torana GTR XU-1 but a troubled race saw them finish well back in the field. 1971 saw Morris paired with father Ray, taking out fastest lap at Bathurst in a Ford Falcon GTHO but the family team retired early, the big Ford overheating. In 1973 Morris received backing from Sydney car dealer Ron Hodgson Motors and the Seven TV Network for his Torana GTR XU-1 campaign. In the 1973 and 1974 seasons Morris was very competitive in the Sun-7 Chesterfield Series at
Amaroo Park Amaroo Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day north-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1967, the road circuit served as a venue for a variety of competitions including t ...
driving against the Holden Dealer Team's
Colin Bond Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is an Australian former racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...
and other top Sydney drivers. Then in 1975 he won his first Touring Car Championship round at Amaroo.


1976 Bathurst victory

In 1975 Morris finished second at Bathurst in the Ron Hodgson Torana SL/R5000 L34 with co-driver Frank Gardner. The following year Bob Morris, with British touring car ace John Fitzpatrick as co-driver, went one better – winning in a dramatic finish at Bathurst. In the final laps of the 1976 race John Fitzpatrick nursed home the ailing Morris Torana which was trailing smoke. Rival Torana driver Colin Bond was within striking distance of the lead if Fitzpatrick had to pit and there were emotional scenes as chief Ron Hodgson team mechanic, Bruce Richardson, slumped disconsolately in the pits seemingly resigned to seeing victory snatched from the team's grasp. Meanwhile, a nervous Bob Morris paced up and down the pits with fingers crossed but the slowing Ron Hodgson Torana managed to make it to the finish line first with Bond in 2nd place on the same lap. Many believed that Fitzpatrick had nursed home the Torana after it had suffered a broken axle, and indeed this was reported as the reason for the car almost failing to finish. Fitzpatrick later set the record straight when he revealed that a leaking oil seal (which was the cause of the smoke) was making the clutch slip badly. This made it much harder to accelerate the car to the top of the mountain, especially out of The Cutting which is one of the slowest and steepest corners on the circuit. In 1987, motoring writer Bill Tuckey in his book ''The Rise and Fall of Peter Brock'' claimed that there had been a lap scoring error in the 1976 race and that Colin Bond's Torana was the first car to complete the distance. Tuckey claimed
Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. It was ...
declined to challenge the result because a privately entered Holden team had won in such a memorable, emotional finish. He also claimed it was because Bob Morris' major sponsor was Ron Hodgson Motors, one of Sydney's leading Holden dealerships at the time, and Holden didn't want to sour relations with Hodgson. It remains however a contested footnote, Bob Morris denies that this was the case, claiming every other team lap scorers other than the HDT agreed that the results posted by the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) were correct. Despite this, Bond's co-driver John Harvey believes that he and Bond did indeed win the race, despite the official result still showing Morris and Fitzpatrick as race winners.


Touring Car Champion

In 1979 Bob Morris, in an A9X Torana, won a hard-fought
Australian Touring Car Championship The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the troph ...
title ahead of Holden Dealer Team driver Peter Brock. Morris also won the AMSCAR Series, run at Amaroo Park (in a one-off appearance, Morris had a new team mate for the opening round of the AMSCAR series, long time Ford driver
Allan Moffat Allan George Moffat, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-born Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins ...
). At the Bathurst 1000 that year Morris was 2nd fastest qualifier but Brock, in his new A9X Torana, ran away from the field at the start of the race, leading every lap of the event showing the superiority of the HDT by setting the races fastest lap (also the lap record at the time) on the very last lap of the race. Hodgson, having seen his team beat the HDT to the Touring Car title, withdrew from racing, having achieved all he had set out to do. Morris was re-united with Frank Gardner, who was team manager of Allan Grice's Craven Mild Racing team. Morris helped develop a new Holden VC Commodore during the Touring Car Championship, but by the enduros he had left the team and raced Bill O'Brien's Ford XD Falcon during the 1980 endurance season, including the 1980 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 where the Falcon carried one of Channel 7's Racecam units.


Collision at 1981 Bathurst

Bob Morris was involved in a dramatic collision at the notorious McPhillamy Park corner during the 1981 Bathurst 1000. Morris' Falcon, when running in 2nd place, came together with the Falcon of Christine Gibson leading to a six car pile-up that blocked the track. The other cars involved were the Commodores of Garry Rogers and Tony Edmondson, the
Gemini Gemini most often refers to: * Gemini (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Gemini (astrology), an astrological sign Gemini may also refer to: Science and technology Space * Gemini in Chinese astronomy, the Gemini constellat ...
of David Seldon and the pole winning Chevrolet Camaro Z28 of Kevin Bartlett, with others such as John Goss in his
Jaguar XJS The Jaguar XJ-S (later called XJS) is a luxury car, luxury grand tourer manufactured and marketed by British car manufacturer Jaguar Cars from 1975 to 1996, in coupé, convertible#variations, fixed-profile and full convertible bodystyles. Ther ...
narrowly avoiding the accident by stopping in time. As the track was blocked and the race had gone past 75% of the full distance, the officials declared the race over 43 laps short of the full distance (race regulations did not allow for a restart) and so the Bob Morris/John Fitzpatrick car was awarded 2nd place behind the similar Falcon of Dick Johnson and John French. The crash though would have repercussions for Morris' racing career. Morris would have balance issues that affected his ability to race, but the talent was always there. 1982 would see a two car 'super team' with
Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...
World Champion Alan Jones, but with the two drivers steering different cars, Morris a V8 powered Ford XE Falcon, Jones a rotary powered
Mazda RX-7 The Mazda RX-7 is a front mid engine, Rear-wheel drive, rear-wheel-drive, rotary engine-powered sports car, manufactured and marketed by Mazda from 1978 through 2002 across three generations, all of which incorporated the use of a compact, light ...
. The partnership dissolved at the end of the 1982 season, in particular after a disappointing Bathurst which saw the very competitive Falcon badly damaged in a crash on Saturday afternoon by his co-driver John Fitzpatrick when a wheel broke and sent the car into a concrete wall, the car irreparable for the Sunday morning start, though Morris would line up in his grid position during the pre-race sitting in a chair with 4 wheels surrounding him. The other reason for the end of the team was Jones' decision to make an abortive comeback to Formula One in . Morris made a comeback to motor racing at the 1983 James Hardie 1000. Originally he had planned to enter a Holden VH Commodore SS, but negotiations to buy the spare Holden Dealer Team car fell through only weeks before the race. He went to Bathurst anyway, only as a spectator (though with his driving suit and helmet, just in case), but was offered the drive in the Commodore to be driven by its owner Rusty French, and former Re-Car team owner Allan Browne. Never a serious racer and admittedly uncomfortable in the car, Browne spotted Morris in the pits and after talking to him offered to step aside to allow the 1976 winner to race. Despite not having previously driven the car, Morris was immediately 6.3 seconds faster than French and managed to move the car from 31st to 10th in qualifying, enough to qualify for Hardies Heroes. He would eventually start 9th following the Hardies Heroes crash of Dick Johnson who destroyed his Greens-Tuf XE Falcon at Forrest's Elbow. Incredibly, thanks to some car swapping, Johnson started the race from 10th position in a replacement Falcon which was re-built overnight. Ironically this Falcon was the same car that John Fitzpatrick had crashed in practice which saw it a non-starter in 1982. In the race, Morris diced early with the RX-7 of Allan Moffat, but brake problems due to the brake fluid boiling saw Morris and French finish in 8th place, nine laps down on the winning HDT Commodore of John Harvey, Peter Brock and Larry Perkins. Morris returned to full-time touring car racing part way through the 1984 season in a Barry Jones prepared RX-7. After first winning Round 3 of the
Amaroo Park Amaroo Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day north-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1967, the road circuit served as a venue for a variety of competitions including t ...
based AMSCAR Series, he went on to qualify 2nd a week later at Oran Park for Round 5 of the 1984 ATCC. With his RX-7 fitted with a road standard gearbox, Morris pulled off a surprise win in his first ATCC start since
1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...
. It was to be Morris' 9th and last ATCC round win. Morris had his final start at Bathurst in the 1984 James Hardie 1000 in what was the final
Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...
Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (known for sponsorship reasons as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a Touring car racing, touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supe ...
. Morris qualified the RX-7 in 9th place after "Hardies Heroes". Partnered with car owner Barry Jones, the pair failed to finish after suffering repeated gearbox problems throughout the race, including replacing the gearbox in the early laps. The Morris/Jones Mazda only completed 97 of the races 163 laps. That year Morris retired from competitive driving, at the comparatively young age of 36, to live on his property at Kangaroo Valley. Bob Morris stayed semi-involved with the sport and at the 1987 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst was the driver of the races first ever
Pace car In motorsport, a safety car, or a pace car, is a car that limits the speed of competing cars or motorcycles on a racetrack in the case of a ''caution period,'' such as an obstruction on the track or bad weather. The safety car aims to enable th ...
. The pace cars had been introduced to Bathurst that year to conform to the FIA's
World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sing ...
rules, of which Bathurst was a round in
1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...
.


Career results


Complete Australian Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)


Complete Bathurst 1000 results


References

*Australia's Greatest Motor Race 1960–1999 (Chevron) © 2000 *''Racing Car News'' October 1976 *https://web.archive.org/web/20081024020246/http://www.bowdensown.com.au/cars/hodgsonxu1.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Bob 1948 births Australian Touring Car Championship drivers Bathurst 1000 winners Living people Racing drivers from Sydney Sportsmen from New South Wales Australian Endurance Championship drivers Racing drivers from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen