BATHURST legend Allan Moffat may have started his first Great Race in 1969 as a Ford factory team driver, but he had intended on contesting the historic first 500-mile event at Mount Panorama as a rookie six years earlier.
Moffat had lodged an official entry for the 1963 race in a Volkswagen Beetle – which was rejected by the organisers, the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club.
This historical gem was unearthed by journalist David Hassall while researching his forthcoming book, The Boss: The Inside Story of Allan Moffat and his Trans-Am Mustang.
The incredible 432-page large-format book, which covers the Mustang (and Moffat’s early career) in extraordinary detail, can be pre-ordered on the V8 Sleuth Superstore now here.
Moffat nominated his best friend, fellow Volkswagen Australia marketing trainee Gordon Bingham, as his co-driver for the 1963 Bathurst race despite the fact they had only minor club racing experience.
They expected technical and financial support from their employer, but instead had to invest the proceeds from selling his Triumph TR3 – the first of many difficult encounters with Bob Jane – into a Beetle shell Moffat had wangled out of VW Australia’s PR department.
Bingham and Moffat worked tirelessly on the car until it was reckoned everything was just right and ready to tackle George Reynolds, whose Beetle had won its class at Phillip Island the previous year, but at a Sandown meeting Moffat was 10 seconds a lap slower than Reynolds, and the car was shelved when their Bathurst entry was rejected.
A Beetle won Class A in the first Bathurst 500, driven by a chap named Ford – Bill Ford.
At the end of the year, a penniless Moffat returned to Canada and forged his racing career in North America, but returned to Australia with the famous Trans-Am Mustang in 1969.
Bingham went the opposite direction, being transferred to Canada the same year after rising through the ranks at Volkswagen Australia. He married a Canadian, while Canadian-born Moffat married an Australian.
VW chose Bingham to head its fledgling US Porsche division, then in 1975 he helped create BMW North America as vice-president of marketing, where he hired Moffat for the Sebring 12 Hour. BMW scored an historic victory in the race, which helped launch the German brand in America.
Until their passing in 2003 and 2023 respectively, Bingham and his sister June remained close friends with Allan and Pauline Moffat.
