Peter Brock died 20 years ago today. Here's the real 'Peter Perfect', described by the people who knew him best...

Peter Brock was a chameleon.

He was also a mirror who reflected what people wanted to see from him, shape shifting between a motorsport hero to the humble mate at the pub in seconds.

Today, 20 years after his death while competing in a road rally in Western Australia, Brock is still the biggest name in Australian motorsport. What made him so unique was the rare gift of making anyone feel special, using just a handful of words or a look and a smile.

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He could give anyone what they craved, from a humble race fan in the pits to a high-powered corporate CEO in a company boardroom It was this ability to morph in response to any surroundings or audience that made him easily the most popular racing driver in Australian history and a hero to thousands of people – including the many families who saluted him with a son called Brock.

But which one of all the Peter Brocks was the genuine article? Was it ‘Brocky’ the racer, or Pete the mate, or PB the corporate spokesman? Or perhaps just the plain old Peter who spent rare private time with his friends and family?

The answer, in reality, is that Brock was each and all of those things. And more. He could easily become what someone – anyone – needed from him. Brock knew what he had and used his luminous appeal to create an image and a career which took him to the top of life.

So, which one was the real Brock? A few months before his death, sitting together watching the rare finches flying through the orchard on his farm outside Melbourne and just chatting about nothing special, I asked him exactly that.

There was a long pause before he replied. “Sometimes I don’t even know myself,” Brock said.

Lewis was the third of the four Brock boys – Neil, Peter, Lewis and Phil – and the closest to Brocky during his later years, including working at the Holden Dealer Team.

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“My introduction to high school was the time when Peter emerged as my protector, a role he assumed for all of my life. I was embarrassed, but deep-down very glad for the safety Peter provided. I trusted him.

“The Brock boys had it all with a recipe for conflict, thrills, loud noises and risky experiments. Advanced communication comprised tin cans connected to strings passing under Main Road in Hurstbridge, trail-blazed through drains by the faithful dog Binky.

“For five quid (about $10) Dad bought an Austin 7 with Peter and that became a brilliant source of engineering education for all. Peter drove this program relentlessly as his driving skills developed to overcome huge mechanical deficiencies. Phil and I were pulled along in his wake as Peter plumbed the depths of this mysterious Pommy creation.

“His will seemed indomitable as he graduated to 48-Series Holdens and the inevitable breakdowns. He kept one Holden on the road at all times – though a few skeletons remained.

“My favourite story does not involve cars, even though Peter was completing his second year of National Service at Kapooka, near Wagga, in 1966 and his future A30 race car consisted of a chook shed of bits waiting to be assembled from HD Holden, Triumph Herald and Austin parts. Each weekend leave, Peter would drag stuff into our Wattle Glen shed and start cutting, welding, etc with his mate Kenny.

“We were at the Templestowe Football Ground playing in the Diamond Valley Footy League, which was a pretty good standard, with Peter as key forward and me as the rover.

“We have a good system where, basically, Peter would get hold of the ball through strong marking and pass it off to me to kick. Peter was an unreliable kick for goal but a brilliant mark, with extremely strong hands. What great fun. He gave me an armchair ride as we accumulated goals.

“He could have had a future in the AFL if he had chosen, but the lure of engineering, design and high-performance engine development in motor racing won the day, with results for all to see.”

Dick Johnson fought a historic Ford-versus-Holden, red-against-blue battle with Brock for a full generation.

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The pair were millimetres apart on the track but kilometres apart in everyday life, where Johnson was the laconic Brisbane working-class-hero and Brock was the slick Melbourne businessman.

The pair first met at the Lakeside racetrack north of Brisbane although, ironically, they were just a couple of barracks apart during their time in the army for national service. It was only years later that they discovered their shared experience.

“I didn’t fall over him like a long-lost brother. Even at that time I didn’t realise that he had been in the army. He was only a couple of huts away from me, but I didn’t know he was there because he was in a different platoon.

“Favourite story? Brock’s mechanical ability was less than zero, to be quite honest. Except he always knew when something was going to blow up …

“So he had a unit at Port Douglas. We were in Cairns for a go-kart thing with (Dick’s son) Steven, who won it.

“Brock has this rubber ducky (boat) and it was pretty quick. He wanted to have a steering wheel, so he hooked it all up to take Steven for a run. He fired it up, gave it full noise and turned the steering wheel full right – and it turned left. Absolutely no idea. No idea at all. All the gear and no idea.” 

Alan Gow is an ultra-successful motorsport entrepreneur and boss of the British Touring Car Championship but met Brock through Peter Janson in 1974, when his business was swimming pools. Gow arranged for a pool for Brock and his then-wife, former Miss Australia Michelle Downes, “but the pool was never actually installed, as the marriage hit the rocks not long after…”

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“The ‘real Brock’ I knew was a guy that was forever looking forward, despite the absolutely enormous adversities he faced immediately following the collapse of his Holden/HDT relationship. He was always positive. We actually had some great, fun times when most others would have plunged themselves into the depths of depression.

“To come back from getting the biggest kicking and public humiliation in your professional career and win Bathurst in that same year shows just who the real Peter Brock was.”

His favourite Brock story?

“The Brock Lada. We managed to get out of the huge, expensive commitment on the HDT facility in Bertie Street, Port Melbourne through Peter agreeing to put his name to a run of ‘Brock Lada’ cars for the importer (who agreed to take over the facility). It took a fair bit of convincing, but Peter was pragmatic enough to realise that if he didn’t do it, he would be personally sued for a lot of money that he didn’t have and would probably have gone bankrupt.

“The car was known as the Lada Samara Deluxe by Brock. But Peter privately called it the ‘Doreen Deluxe’ because, without that car, he would have lost his beloved property situated near Doreen (well actually Nutfield, but the ‘Nutfield Deluxe’ didn’t have the same ring to it). 

Phil Scott was the leading motoring journalist of his generation, both at Wheels and Fairfax newspapers. He had the best BS detector in the business and was the first to write an accurate and impartial report about Brock’s controversial Energy Polarizer.

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“It was part of Brock’s M.O. to befriend and flatter media and sponsors, and he did it so well — until he believed you’d crossed him. Then he would blow-up deluxe.

“The bloke had extraordinary ability to drive a touring car fast and an otherworldly connection with Mount Panorama, but at the end of the day he was an athlete – a roads scholar not a Rhodes scholar – and the pedestal he was put on, the fawning and hero worship, went to his head.

“The Polariser saga was evidence of that hubris. As his son said in the 2018 feature film directed by Kriv Stenders: ‘Who the f**k that does that?!’”

Robert Brock is the second of the Brock children, between Jamie – who did well as a racer after arriving with Bev when she joined forces with Peter – and Alexandra.

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Now 46, he is working as a service advisor at a Ford dealer in Broken Hill, after several years living on Conrod Straight at Bathurst. He recalls his own near-miss with motorsport: “Dad encouraged the idea of me racing, but I talked myself out of it. That was a personal choice.

“I was always afraid of living in Dad’s shadow. It wasn’t until after few years after he passed that I realised I was looking at it the wrong way. It was like I was making my own name. He said life was always interesting and an adventure.”

Robert’s school friends never believed he was the son of ’that’ Peter Brock, until they met his dad. “It was like two different lives,” he recalled.

“Favourite memory? It’s more like favourite memories. People don’t realise how much of a goofball and nerd Dad was. For all his skills, he could not handle chopsticks. He could draw and paint and sculpt and do some beautiful watercolours, but he could not use chopsticks.”

Legendary Holden powerhouse John Crennan interacted with Peter Brock in four phases, starting in 1978 in motorsport merchandising at GM-Holden, then as national marketing manager, then at the Holden Racing Team and finally with Team Brock in touring cars.

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“There is not the slightest doubt in my mind that Peter was – and remains – the most profoundly valuable marketing asset in GM/GM-H’s history from the time of their incorporation in 1926.

“The Peter Brock I worked with in these four cycles embracing nearly a quarter of a century went something like this in terms of ratings. He gets an A+ rating as a racing car driver, as a celebrity with film-star appeal to his fan base, as the celebrity with sponsor appeal all the way from the bottom to the top of the corporate ladder, and as the idol of approximately 18,000 Holden employees and every staff member of all 500 Holden dealerships.

“Peter passed all the very demanding criteria of the Aussie pub test despite his superstar status and successes throughout his entire career – so I give him an A as a magnet for the interest and attention of all the media on everything from car magazines to Women’s Weekly. As a businessman? He gets a C.

“Behind the scenes on awkward/delicate business matters seeking to have his management company handle any problem issues, he gets a B–.

“Beyond the adulation generated by Peter’s winning ways on the racetrack, he had many other natural talents that captured maximum impact with his fans as a pin-up boy and heart-throb and hero for all Holden devotees. However, his one action which always struck me as his most powerful weapon was the 20-second experience he would create for each and every one his fans who patiently stood in the vast queues for his autograph.

“Peter would ask their name, have something positive to say and always look them directly in the eye and thereby always ensure in that 20-second engagement he’d never fail to generate an overwhelming level of personal delight for the recipient of his autograph.”  

Mick Hone was one of Brock’s closest mates through the final years of his life. He was also his co-driver in the catastrophic Targa West rally.

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The pair met through their shared friendship with John “’”Slug”’” Harvey, who was Brock’s sidekick at the Holden Dealer Team and his racing teammate. Hone owned a motorcycle dealership and a race team, and they would spend time at the track before sharing regular cuppa sessions at the shop in later years.

“I never knew the real PB. Nobody ever did,” Hone said. “He was a different cat. An icon. He was very generous with his time and advice. He was very kind to me. I was lucky to know him, and I could boggle at all the things he could do that I couldn’t – like driving fast. 

“There were lots of things he was great at, and it probably took me a long time to realise he was human. I know he abhorred ‘Perfect Pete’, and certainly he was not.”

Hone’s memories have not dulled over the past 20 years and he still gets very emotional while talking about the crash.

“When I was lying in the ambulance … I was pretty f**ked. Shaken, dusty, whatever you want to call it. Discombobulated. I was laying there thinking about all the things I’d done with Brock, and they all just flooded around. It was amazing. 

“I have spoken about it, and it’s 20 years. But I don’t dwell on it. I beat myself up a lot thinking about it. About what I could have done. But I got through the journey. I had to decide how to deal with it. It happened. I can’t do anything about it. I can’t turn the clock back. I’ve had plenty of time to churn and think and reflect. I still don’t understand it.”

“I could see the gravy train from that day 20 years ago went off the rails. I probably learned some more life lessons about all the people who lived on his gravy train. And when it derailed…

“Without doubt, the thing that has stayed with me the most was the respect he showed to everyone. He would be there in the dark if there were people who were there and wanted to sit and have a chat and get something signed. That respect is something I’ve tried to emulate. I’ve matured and realised everyone has a story. 

“After a while you see stories, and see how things work, and you can be nicer and cut people a bit of slack. Don’t just take everybody as you see them. Respect was the big thing for me.”

Craig Lowndes is Brock’s successor in motorsport and Australian sport, a three-time touring car champion and seven-time winner of the Bathurst 1000.

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He was nicknamed ’The Kid’ when he was recruited by the Holden Racing Team, partly because he quickly became Brock’s young sidekick. He learned about racing and winning, but also about the importance of life with the fans.

The pair grew up in the same area in northern Melbourne, even played for the same football team, and had a common background working with tools and motorsport from an early age…

“I first met him when I was 10 or 12, and my dad Frank was working at the Holden Dealer Team with Harry Firth. He was always relatable. He was a person I could approach and annoy in some ways.

“My favourite memory was when he sat me down in 1994 and described a lap of Bathurst. From that point onwards my whole, not career, but my performance completely changed.

“He opened up the knowledge of what it takes to drive a lap of Bathurst. Without me having to find it. It was fun, but it was very serious in a way.

“He even described going down Conrod Straight, to look to look to the west to see what weather was coming.”

Graeme ‘Mort’ Brown was a long-term member of Team Brock from being on spanners in the workshop, then as team manager, and then as a tyre guru with Bridgestone.

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“I met him the week after the 1979 Round Australia rally. I was employed by John Sheppard on the race team. He came back to earth to driving touring cars again.

“I was one of the dickheads on the mountain (Panorama) watching it all. It was a bit of Hollywood, but that soon changed. There are so many stories that can’t be printed …

“I think it was in 1980, when Brock still drank and smoked – he gave it all up in ’84 – and we went up the mountain. We got a car full of mechanics, he’d put on a plain jacket with a hat pulled down, and there was a big Ford camp and a big Holden camp. In the Ford camp they said ‘Dickie [Johnson] is a good bloke, Brock can’t drive’. Brock was in a corner, looking like a hobo. Then they got talking.

“The next day we sent up some Holden HDT flags and they were flying them on their Ford bus. And Brock waved to them when he went past in the race.”

Julie Bamford was Brock’s partner through the final months of his life.

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During that time, Brock looked like a teenager with his first real crush. That’s the effect he and Bamford had on each other.

“I fell for the guy who was not the racing car driver. The real Peter. My heart has always been on my sleeve,” Bamford said. “I did meet Peter in 1984. And there was an instant something. But the whole Polarizer thing was going on.

“It was an immediate thing, as we both said, but we fought it off for a long time.”

The pair were in the same orbit but never acted on their early attraction.

“He’d ring up and say ‘I’m thinking about retirement’. And I was privy to a lot of stuff going on. He said ‘You’re the only one who cares about me so much’.

“It took until 2005 for him to say ‘I’m out of here’ and to come around my place. It was a fairytale for just over 12 months. There was lots of fun along the way.

“I never knew anyone who did so much or moved so fast. It was sensational. I had an awe about that. Things are meant to happen. It was 20 years of knowing him. It was almost like a completion of something.

“And then I went along for the ride.”

She also learned about Brock’s effect on other people.

“Someone at my local supermarket said ‘I’m such a fan’. You were the only person in the room when he was talking to you.

“I gained a lot of sense of myself from him. We did share the depth of the spiritual side, and the curiosity of what we are doing here.

“Once he put his arms around me at the kitchen sink and said, ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’ I think he knew something with his higher self.”

Bamford prefers to talk about their happy times, but the tragedy and heartbreak of Brock’s death still looms large.

“If I hadn’t gone to the morgue I would still think something was wrong. I needed the reality of that,” she said. “I met Peter when I was 32. And I’m 72 now. Now I think, ‘How lucky was I?’

“Let me tell you, there is no-one else. It’s a hard act to follow. There was so much to him. I went on the joyride and I still don’t believe it. 

“Would I do that all again? Yes, of course I would.”