I grew up on a diet of late 70's and 80's Australian touring cars where names like Peter Brock, Dick Johnson & Allan Moffat did battle in more road going style of cars all-but with a truckload more power. None of this modern parity racing in V8 Supercars, just drive it like you stole it from the dealer(or were given the car from the dealer in many cases) with different cars obviously suited to different tracks and many classes run in the same race. Not to say cars weren't prepared professionally, they certainly were with custom engine builds and cars given thorough going over. In Moffat's book he talks about having a 'magic surface plate' allowing millimetre-fine accuracy and helping to build stronger straighter cars than anyone else, leagues ahead of the times in 1979.
My first and only time I've seen Moffat on track in real life was watching a practice session at Bathurst in 1988 as a 10 year old. My family took a vacation to Port Macquarie and Canberra. My dad who's always been a Motorsport enthusiast racing go karts and competing in Sprints and Hill Climbs himself organised a brief stopover in Bathurst on the way through to watch a practice session in the lead-up to the Bathurst 1000. 2 things stick out in my mind, 1 being Brock getting it all crossed up at the final corner, gathering it up and standing on the loud pedal taking off down the start finish straight. The other was Allan Moffat in a Eggenberger Motorsport built ANZ RS500 Sierra leaving the pits and laying down 2 liquorice strips. Eggenberger being the leadding Sierra development house in Europe at the time. Sadly Ruedi Eggenberger passed away a couple of days ago aged 79.
The autobiography is written by Allan Moffat and John Smailes who might be better known for his distinctive voice commentating for the Australian Rally Championship.
As a motoring enthusiast I found the book a light enjoyable read. I was a bit disappointed with what I felt was a cheap shot at Bowden's who now look after his iconic Coke Cola Trans Am mustang. Something to do with the car being 'fettered with' and not being the same as when he drove it back in the day. I also thought Dick Johnson was omitted with only a couple of passing comments with the focus largely on Moffat vs Brock battles who Moffat has obvious great respect for.
Moffat also addresses 'that crash' at 200kph at Skyline in practice for the 1986 Bathurst 1000 when he joined Brock's team.
I knew Moffat was Canadian but I wasn't aware of how extensive his racing overseas was. His focus was always Australia but had many races in the USA, Europe and Macau.
All in all I'd say it's a good read that adds another perspective to motorsport in the 70's, 80's and 90's from both a driver and team owner perspective. Moffat doesn't mince his words and calls is as he sees things, admitting that possibly he could have gotten further my taking a more amicable approach, on the other hand maybe that's just part of what helps top performing drivers.
