ONE of the pair of Ron Hodgson Racing Torana A9X hatchbacks that helped Bob Morris clinch the 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship has emerged for sale.
Being offered by Chris Bowden’s Ecurie Bowden here, the car made two Bathurst 1000 starts and featured a range of big-name international pilots across its three years of period racing between 1977 and 1979.
The car was Morris’ Sydney-based A9X during the 1979 season and contributed to clinching that year’s Australian Touring Car Championship and toppling the mighty Holden Dealer Team by taking victory in Round 3 at Oran Park.
Morris started from pole position, set the fastest lap of the race and led all 41 laps of the Oran Park South Circuit on his way to leading home Allan Grice, Peter Brock and John Harvey.
The 1976 Bathurst winner also used the car in rounds of the Amaroo-based AMSCAR Series that year. Morris won the Sydney series in addition to his ATCC victory.
“This ATCC-winning GMP&A A9X hatch is a unique opportunity to buy a car that was one of the greats, during one of our greatest motorsport eras,” says the Ecurie Bowden website.
“Bob’s 1979 win has gone down in history not only as a significant accomplishment, but it is further accentuated by how he beat Brock and HDT at the very peak of their powers.
“For the car to be subsequently museum preserved, post career, is extremely rare and its combination of survivor condition, crystal clear provenance and stellar driver line up and race career, makes it a blue-chip collector car, to either be further preserved, or respectfully raced at the popular Heritage Touring Car historic races, where it would be a most welcome addition.”
The A9X hatchback being offered for sale was debuted at the 1977 Bathurst 1000 in the hands of Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford and Janet Guthrie, who had become the first woman to race in the ‘500 five months prior to arriving in Australia.
Morris drove the car in the 1978 Australian Touring Car Championship, won the Calder round and finished a narrow runner-up to Brock in the pointscore.
The car returned to Bathurst that year with another international driver line-up, German star Dieter Quester and Brit Derek Bell. Bell featured in the early race fight among the lead pack at the wheel of the #27 Torana but crashed out in the very early laps.
A further trip to Mount Panorama followed in 1979 and the car was entered as Ron Hodgson Racing’s #1 car for Morris and Quester. Used in practice, it was withdrawn from race day as the team focused on the sister #7 hatchback.
Sold to enigmatic Western Australian-based millionaire Peter Briggs, the ex-Morris A9X was run a handful of times at Wanneroo in 1980 and subsequently retired to his York-based motor museum of cars.
The car sat for over 30 years before it was auctioned in 2017 and purchased by its current owner.
A sympathetic mechanical overhaul was commissioned with Tassie motorsport legend John Walker and the car’s only outing since has been demonstration laps at the 2019 Phillip Island Classic historic event.
