Allan Moffat, a four-time Australian Touring Car champion and four-time Bathurst 500/100 winner, passed away aged 86 in Melbourne on Saturday after a lengthy battle with dementia.
Moffat’s passing was confirmed by his family in a post on his Facebook page.
“It is with deep sadness that the Moffat family announces the passing of Allan Moffat OBE, who died peacefully at 11:05 this morning, surrounded by his loved ones, after a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer’s disease,” it read.
“Allan Moffat leaves behind an extraordinary legacy, not only as a champion driver, but as a respected mentor, advocate, and friend to many. He will be remembered for his unwavering passion, competitive spirit, and the profound impact he had on motorsport in Australia and around the world.”
Moffat was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in Canada. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Melbourne, and in his early 20s, he started racing in a Triumph TR3. After a couple of notable results in a Lotus Cortina, and feeling the need for a wider motorsport experience, he moved to the US and spent time with Team Lotus, most notably as a 'gofer' for the Indianapolis 500-winning team behind Jim Clark's 1965 victory.
He would later describe the experience of working with the likes of Colin Chapman and the Wood Brothers as “like going to motor racing university”.
By 1969 he had returned to Australia to join Ford's production racing squad, where his mechanical empathy and eye for detailed preparation were to prove invaluable. Later that year he returned to the US and found his way into the office of Jacque Passino, who oversaw Ford's motorsport program. Seven new Trans-Am racers were being built for the 1969 season. Moffat was hoping one of the older, superseded cars might be passed on to him for a good price.
Passino exceeded his expectations and gifted Moffat with one of the new Boss 302 Mustangs under construction at Bud Moore Racing in South Carolina. Moffat and his new weapon returned to Melbourne and, for the next five years, won 78 from 188 races – though ironically never an ATCC title.
Bathurst though was where Moffat would make his mark. He should have won the 1969 event but for an overcautious call for a tyre change. He did win the race in 1970 and again in ’71, and the first of the 1000km, two-driver races in 1973. In between, he had to give best to his greatest rival when Peter Brock won the 1972 500 in a Holden.
Even if playing the bad guy to Brock's golden boy was a personality mismatch for Moffat, he embraced the role and the two drove touring car racing to the forefront of the sport down under, both becoming household names in the process.
The pair dominated the headlines, Moffat taking the 1976 and '77 ATCC titles, adding a fourth Bathurst 1000 win in the latter year (with Jacky Ickx co-driving). But even after a crushing season, Ford withdrew from racing, and with support hard to find, Moffat turned to another make, Mazda, to continue racing. In an RX-7, he took his final ATCC crown in 1983 and also the endurance titles in ’82 and ’84, but crucially, the little rotary just could not take him to another Bathurst victory.
He and Brock teamed up in 1985, taking on the endurance races, and then in 1986 the ETCC rounds in a Group A Holden Commodore. Plans to compete in the WTCC the following year looked shot when Brock and Holden split at the start of the year, but Moffat stepped in and salvaged the car; with veteran co-driver John Harvey and a small team, he won the opening round of the series at Monza, after the six BMW M3s that finished ahead of the Aussie saloon were disqualified for technical breaches.
Moffat acquired Eggenberger Ford Sierras for the rest of his driving career, taking one more win in Japan in 1989, with Klaus Niedzwiedz. Two days after his 50th birthday and typically, with little fanfare and no announcement, he retired from driving, to run his team until 1996 and combine TV commentary and endorse his sponsors, in much the same manner as Sir Jackie Stewart and Sir Stirling Moss.
Moffat, an Australian citizen since 2004, was awarded an OBE in 1978 and inducted into the Sports Australia Hall of Fame in 2018. His two sons Andrew and James both raced, the latter a race winner in V8 Supercars and a runner-up at Bathurst in 2014.
In 2019 Moffat confirmed he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and he spent his final years in a care facility in Melbourne.
He is survived by his sons and grandchildren Max and Isla, as well as many friends in the sport and countless fans.
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