THEY were the frontmen of the final years of a glory era for Ford in touring car racing; one the star driver, the other the team manager.
But that doesn’t mean that Allan Moffat and Howard Marsden got along.
In fact, they fell out after the final race of that era, the outcome of which was the third and final strike against Marsden in Moffat’s mind.
The story is told in the latest edition of Australian Muscle Car Magazine, which contains the first of a two-part Muscle Man feature on Marsden.
Born in England, Marsden worked for touring car and Formula 1 teams in the 1960s before coming to Australia to work for Frank Matich.
In mid-1971, Ford Australia recruited Marsden to take over its factory racing program, led by its GTHO series production cars, and with a pool of drivers led by Moffat.
The pair had already had a run-in over tyres in America back in the 1960s when Moffat raced in the Trans-Am Series.
The next strike came with the decision to delete the spoilers from the Phase III GTHO for the 1972 Bathurst 500, a decision that made the cars less stable in the tricky wet conditions that presented on race day.
Moffat pits the spoiler-less XY Falcon GTHO during the ’72 ManChamp race at Surfers Paradise. Marsden is at the front-right corner. Pic: Supplied
The last came during the 1973 Phillip Island 500, a race that proved to be the last for Ford’s factory touring car team before the manufacturer pulled the plug on the operation.
Moffat, locked in a battle with Peter Brock as they each tried to claim crucial points for the Manufacturers Championship title, badly flat-spotted a tyre under brakes for the old hairpin beyond what is now Miller Corner.
“I came into the pits complaining about a vibration,” Moffat recalled. “I was very reluctant ever to quit, but it was really shaking and I came in.
“I could see the mechanics shaking their heads, but Mr Marsden waved me out and one lap later the tyre blew at Southern Loop.
“I went off into the bush and thought, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna go through these bushes’. I didn’t realise there was a lake on the other side.
“The car actually stopped about (three metres) from falling in the lake. I was bloody lucky. That wasn’t too happy a day.”
The crash left Moffat with a broken sternum and a distaste for racing at the circuit due to its then very rough surface, while it also destroyed the XA Falcon which had won that year’s Bathurst 1000.
Moffat also blamed Marsden for Ford’s decision to quit racing, a charge the latter denied.
The cover feature for AMC Issue 154 focuses on the first performance-badged Holden, the X2 variant of the HD.
Along with the Muscle Man profile on Marsden, other features include a look at Tasmanian racer’s Garth Wigston’s famed XW GT road car, Don Holland’s Group C XU-1 Torana that continues to race to this day with his son at the wheel, plus an excerpt from an upcoming book on Lella Lombardi.
Click here to buy Issue 154 of Australian Muscle Car Magazine.