The touring car mateship of your era is often lovingly recalled. Any moment which still leaves you with warm and fuzzy feelings?

“I was delighted when I was able to talk Colin Bond into becoming my team-mate in ’77-’78; the ‘77 finish was very much Colin’s contribution to be able to keep his car really right on the money the whole time and we had that fabulous finish. That was a delightful association.“I raced against Peter Brock for 25 years and in that time we had just two minor scrapes – scrapes that cutting polish got rid of back in the pits. That side of the sport doesn’t seem to be so efficiently promoted in today’s environment. I had a great deal of regard for Brockie. I was extremely sad when he passed away. I was conscious in the early ‘70s that he worked for Holden and I worked for Ford; I had my job, he had his ... but we didn’t have to crash into each other to prove the point. To be fair, though, V8 Supercars today is so much more competitive – the cars are designed to be as mechanically equal as possible, with each camp having exactly the same components.”

Moffat Bathurst 1977 Moffat Bathurst 1977
Image: Chevron Library.

What was your most frightening crash?

“In 1986 – while co-driving with Peter in the HDT Commodore at Bathurst – I didn’t notice how close to the edge of the road I was drifting. Earlier in the day, another car had gone into a gravel pit on the right-hand side of McPhillamy Park and dug a nice rut in the sand. I slipped my right rear tyre into this rut and the car – at 170km/h – instantly turned left and went straight into the barrier on the left-hand side of the Skyline straight. But the car didn’t stop on the flat, it launched itself, with the front tyres shooting over the top of the barrier. I thought, ‘Truly, I’m going to be the first Australian astronaut,’ because all I could see was blue sky in front of me ... I knew below me was an 800-foot drop. Fortunately, the car’s gear box managed to really grab hold of the top lip of the barrier and the car fell back down onto the circuit. I didn’t get hurt, but I remember thinking, ‘Mmm, that would’ve been an awfully wild ride if I’d gone all the way over!”