This was the car that helped launch Peter Brock into the main game
The Holden GTS 350 Monaro that Peter Brock drove in his Bathurst debut, finishing third behind winner and team-mate Colin Bond, is heading for auction in late September with Graysonline.
The significant Australian motorsport artefact from the 1969 James Hardie 500 has been with its vendor, a private collector and fifth owner for two years.
After Falcon won its first Bathurst with Harry Firth and Fred Gibson in an XR-GT 1967 and Holden its first the following year with the GTS 327 Monaro of Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland, it was one-all heading to Bathurst in 1969.
With Ford launching its Phase 1 GT-HO explicitly for Bathurst, the General retaliated with the GTS Monaro in the HT model, now sporting a 350ci V8.
By now Harry Firth was heading the Holden Dealer Team (HDT) with American Al Turner managing the Ford squad. Both teams enlisted a couple of Bathurst rookies, Holden grabbed Peter Brock who’d been racing barely two years and Ford nabbed touring car ace Allan Moffat.
History shows that while the Monaro was the underdog against the GT-HO, the Fords spent the race shredding their tyres, allowing Colin Bond and co-driver Tony Roberts to sweep to victory in the 500-mile classic.
Peter Brock and Des West finished third, Moffat was fourth and the last of the HDT Monaros of open-wheeler specialists Peter Macrow and Henk Wolders finished sixth.
After the race the West/Brock Monaro was bought by Ray Morris for son Bob (1976 Bathurst winner) to race.
Since then the 43D numbered HT Monaro GTS 350 has passed through five owners and in the mid-2000s underwent a restoration.