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| John Harvey | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | (1938-02-21)21 February 1938 Sydney,New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 5 December 2020(2020-12-05) (aged 82) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Retired | 1988 |
| Australian Touring Car Championship | |
| Years active | 1965–1986 |
| Teams | Holden Dealer Team |
| Wins | 2 |
| Best finish | 3rd in1979 Australian Touring Car Championship |
| Previous series | |
| 1965–70 1966 1966–72 1969–72 | Australian Drivers' Champ. Australian 1½ Litre Champ. Tasman Series Australian Sports Car Champ. |
| Championship titles | |
| 1966 1971 1972 1983 | Australian 1½ Litre Champ. Australian Sports Car Champ. Australian Sports Car Champ. Bathurst 1000 |
| Awards | |
| Medal of the Order of Australia, 2020 | |
John Francis HarveyOAM (21 February 1938 – 5 December 2020) was an Australianracing driver. He was a topSpeedcar driver for many years in the 1950s and 1960s, winning many championship races including the NSW Championship for three successive years and the Victorian Championship twice before turning his skills to road racing where he had a long and successful career until his retirement at the end of 1988. In 1987 John made history driving the General Motors Sunraycer to victory in the inauguralWorld Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide, the first international race for purely solar powered cars.
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Despite being regarded as one of the best Speedcar drivers in Australia, Harvey switched from speedway to road racing in 1964 following the deaths of a few friends in Speedcar racing, as well as a contentious 6-month suspension received from the Sydney-based National Speedcar Club officials after he was alleged to spin fellow driver Al Staples in a scratch race at theSydney Showground Speedway. Although this decision was later reverted to no suspension at the drivers' meeting, Harvey decided to opt-out of Speedway to go road racing. He would make a short-lived comeback to racing speedcars in 1974 at theLiverpool Speedway in western Sydney after the track promoters changed the 440-metre (480 yd) D-shaped oval from a dirt track to a bitumen track, once again racing for the same car owner he had in the 1960s, Ronald Mackay.
Harvey drove cars such as theAustin Cooper S andBrabham BT14 Ford 1.5 litre. Harvey won the1966 Australian 1½ Litre Championship in the Brabham and in the same year finished runner up in theAustralian Drivers' Championship for 2.5 litreAustralian National Formula cars in the same car, competing against much more powerful machinery, also winning the NSW 1.5 litre Road Racing Championship. He began involvement withBob Jane's racing team in 1967 and moved to Melbourne. Harvey won the1971 and1972Australian Sports Car Championships driving theMcLaren M6BRepco V8 forBob Jane. He drove Jane's Repco V8 poweredHolden Torana inSports Sedan racing in the early 1970s, winning both theToby Lee Series atOran Park and the Marlboro Series atCalder Park Raceway in 1973.
In 1976, Harvey won the first round of theAustralian Touring Car Championship in a one-off drive in a B&D Autos-sponsored Torana L34 atSymmons Plains. Later in the year Harvey was signed up to co-drive withColin Bond in theHolden Dealer Team Torana L34 which finished a close second in theBathurst 1000.
The race-winning #7 Holden was accidentally credited with an extra lap, putting it ahead of the #1 Holden. The error was picked up after the race and the relevant race official offered the Holden Dealer Team, the official factory team, the right to appeal. However, the #7 car was entered byRon Hodgson Motors, one of Holden's biggest dealerships. The Holden hierarchy decided it would be good 'politic' to letBob Morris and British sportscar racerJohn Fitzpatrick keep the win. Holden apologised to John Harvey for this at a testimonial dinner in 2002.
With Bond leaving the Holden team at the end of 1976, Harvey then became the lead driver for the 1977 season.
In 1978,Peter Brock re-joined the Holden Dealer Team and became No.1 driver with Harvey driving the No.2 car. This established the pattern for almost a decade. The Harvey car effectively became Brock's backup, notably winning the1978 Rothmans 500 event at Oran Park teamed with Charlie O'Brien. In 1980 Peter Brock took over the Holden Dealer Team, deciding John Harvey would not contest the ATCC races and contest only the endurance races at the end of the year. Peter Brock teamed with John Harvey (1980, 1981) for the CRC 300, winning both. This arrangement continued until the advent ofGroup A in Australia in1985, though Harvey did run in rounds of the1984 ATCC, driving Brock's #05 when Brock and Perkins were attempting to winLe Mans. Harvey would then run selected rounds in the1985 ATCC, as well as rounds of the1986 ATCC.
Harvey's biggest win came with the HDT at the1983 James Hardie 1000. Originally to be partnered with Brock's brother Phil, Harvey qualified his #25Holden VH Commodore (the car in which Brock and Perkins had won the1982 race) in 5th place (Brock claimed pole in #05). After just eight laps, Brock's car blew its engine, seemingly putting him and Perkins out of the race. However, due to the pair being cross-entered in #25, Brock and Perkins then took over from Harvey for the rest of the race (leaving Phil Brock without a drive). The race win was controversial at the time as many felt Brock and Perkins should not have been allowed to move into the HDT's second car after theirs retired. Under race rules at the time, however, cross-entering was allowed and had actually been used in previous 1000s, though this was the first time drivers had moved from one car to another and had gone on to win the race.
Harvey would go on to finish second atBathurst the following year in the last race for theGroup C touring cars in what was a 1-2 form finish for the Dealer Team with Brock/Perkins bringing in theirVK Commodore home first in front of Harvey's co-driver, 25-year-old TasmanianDavid “Skippy” Parsons. Harvey would finish second again two years later for the HDT. Driving aVK Commodore SS Group A, he teamed with HDT driver/engineerNeal Lowe to finish second behind the Commodore ofAllan Grice andGraeme Bailey.
Harvey won the 1986 Pukekohe 500 with Neal Lowe in their new Group A SS VK Commodore, and the pair finished second to HDT teammates Brock andAllan Moffat at the 1987 Nissan 500 Wellington.
Harvey split with Brock by 1987, being unhappy with Brock's flirtation with ‘New Age’ ideas like his ‘Energy Polarizer’. Harvey told his side of the story of the split in Bill Tuckey's 1987 bookThe Rise and Fall of Peter Brock.
In March 1987, Harvey teamed up with Allan Moffat to drive their HDT built (and covertly bought by Moffat)Holden VL Commodore SS Group A to victory in thefirst round of the1987World Touring Car Championship at the famousMonza circuit in Italy. After finishing seventh, the pair were promoted as the first sixBMW Motorsport backedBMW M3's were disqualified from the race for being some 50–80 kg underweight (after a protest from a privateer M3 team, the works M3's were found to have been fitted with lightweightcarbon-fibre andkevlar body panels). Later at the Spa, 24 Hours in August, Moffat, and Harvey achieved a class win and finished 4th outright behind the works BMW Team M3's. Sydney driver Tony Mulvihill had also been listed to drive the #5Rothmans sponsored Commodore at Spa, though he was caught out by the notoriousArdennes weather in qualifying and failed to qualify for the race. This forced Moffat and Harvey to drive the 24 hours with just the two of them while most other teams used at least 3 drivers.
After Moffat abandoned the Commodore in favor ofAndy Rouse'sFord Sierra RS500, Harvey missed the1987 James Hardie 1000 which was a round of the WTCC. It was the first Bathurst race Harvey had missed since1972. The race was also the 9th and last Bathurst 1000 win for his longtime teammate Peter Brock.
Shortly after the Brock breakup John was appointed lead driver of the GM Sunraycer team and made two trips to the US for testing and race team preparation. He was recommended for his professionalism and discipline by Ray Borrett (Holden's reliability and “skunkworks” motor sport engineer). Ray was involved in the development of Sunraycer in the US and became the race team manager.
Harvey's last Bathurst 1000 was in1988 where he teamed withKevin Bartlett in aHolden VL Commodore SS Group A SV to finish in 14th after qualifying 22nd. Early in the race, Harvey had been dicing with Brock, now racing a BMW M3. Harvey almost didn't get to drive in the 1988 race. At the time he was working for theTom Walkinshaw ownedHolden Special Vehicles and Walkinshaw had a rule that barring himself, senior management could not participate in dangerous activities such as being a race driver. Walkinshaw finally relented and let Harvey race at Bathurst, originally offering him the lead driver role in the HSV team's 3rd car, something which Harvey turned down stating that"I had been the number two behind Brock for eight years and I wasn't about to become the number three".
During Round 7 of the1988 Australian Touring Car Championship at Sandown, and despite being part of the management team at HSV, Harvey was on hand to be part of Allan Moffat's team for the weekend (complete with a Moffat teamANZ Bank jacket). From 1988 Moffat was racing a Ford Sierra RS500 built bySwiss aceRuedi Eggenberger. Ironically, Harvey's old HDT teammate Larry Perkins through hisPerkins Engineering was running the factory-backedHolden team in the 1988 ATCC under the name of Holden Special Vehicles.
In February 1988, Harvey drove the new VL Commodore SS Group A SV which was the pace car driver for the first-everNASCAR race held outside of North America, theGoodyear NASCAR 500 held at the then-new,A$54 millionCalder Park Thunderdome in Melbourne.
Following the 1988 Tooheys 1000, Harvey retired from competitive motorsport to concentrate on his work with Holden and HSV.
In 2018, CAMS awarded Harvey a place in the Motor Sport Hall of Fame.
In the2020 Australia Day Honours, Harvey was awarded theMedal of the Order of Australia for service to motor sports.[1]
Harvey died on 5 December 2020, aged 82, from a battle with lung cancer.[2]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 |  Mobil Holden Dealer Team | Holden VK Commodore SS Group A | MNZ | DON | HOC | MIS | AND | BNO | ZEL | NUR | SPA 22 | SIL | NOG | ZOL | JAR | EST | NC | 0 |
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Allan Moffat Racing | Holden VL Commodore SS Group A | MNZ 1 | JAR Ret | DIJ Ret | NUR | SPA ovr:4 cls:1 | BNO | SIL | BAT | CLD | WEL | FJI | NC | 0 |
† Not registered for series & points
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | DC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Bob Forbes Racing | Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV | BAT 14 | WEL | PUK | FJI | NC | 0 |
| Year | Team | Co-drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Bob Jane Racing | drove solo | Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 | D | 57 | DNF | DNF |
| 1977 | Holden Dealer Team | drove solo | Holden Torana LX SS A9X Hatchback | A | NA | DNF | DNF |
| 1978 | Holden Dealer Team | drove solo | Holden Torana LX SS A9X Hatchback | 6000cc | 128 | 2nd | 2nd |
| 1979 | Holden Dealer Team | drove solo | Holden Torana LX SS A9X Hatchback | A | 128 | 2nd | 2nd |
| 1981 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | Vern Schuppan | Holden VC Commodore | A | 117 | 4th | 4th |
| 1982 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | Gary Scott | Holden VH Commodore SS | D | 108 | 4th | 4th |
| 1983 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | Peter Brock | Holden VH Commodore SS | Over 3000cc | 127 | DSQ | DSQ |
| 1984 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | David Parsons | Holden VK Commodore | Over 3000cc | 127 | 3rd | 3rd |
| 1985 | Mobil Holden Dealer Team | David Parsons | Holden VK Commodore | A | 78 | DNF | DNF |
| 1986 | Mobil Holden Dealer Team |  Neal Lowe | Holden VK Commodore SS Group A | B | 125 | 8th | 8th |
| Year | Team | Co-drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Mobil Holden Dealer Team | Peter Brock Allan Moffat | Holden VK Commodore SS Group A | Div.3 | 412 | 22nd | 10th |
| 1987 | Allan Moffat Racing | Allan MoffatTony Mulvihill | Holden VL Commodore SS Group A | Div.3 | 468 | 4th | 1st |
For service to motor sports.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Winner of theBathurst 1000 1983 (withPeter Brock andLarry Perkins) | Succeeded by |
