VALE – JOHN HARVEY

Vale – John Harvey

Racing legend John Harvey has passed away at the age of 82.

By HEATH McALPINE

In a statement released by his family on social media, Harvey passed away peacefully surrounded by family at 8:45pm last night after it was confirmed last week he had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Harvey first made a name for himself on the tough dirt tracks of Sydney racing consistently for seven years, but after witnessing the dangers of the discipline and a contentious six-month suspension, the path was formed for a career on the tarmac.

Success was almost immediate as Harvey won the 1966 Australian 1.5-Litre Championship in a Brabham BT14 Ford 1.5-litre and finished runner up in the same car contesting the Australian Drivers’ Championship.

Harvey was then taken under the wing of Bob Jane where he drove a variety of the tyre magnate’s machines including the Brabham BT23E, which nearly took his life. A suspension failure at Sulman Park, Bathurst in 1968 pitched the Brabham into a violent accident, but Harvey recovered to drive Jane’s McLaren M6B Repco V8 to back-to-back Australian Sports Car Championships.

He drove both Jane’s Holden HQ Monaro and Torana GT-R XU-1 in Sports Sedans, winning both the Toby Lee Series and Calder Park Raceway in 1973.

Harvey had contested touring car events for Bob Jane, but focused on this during the mid-1970s, winning the opening round of the 1976 Australian Touring Car Championship driving the privateer B&D Motors Holden Torana L34 at Symmons Plains before joining the Holden Dealer Team for Bathurst alongside Colin Bond.

It was a controversial result as the Holden Dealer Team Torana crossed the line second behind the ailing Ron Hodgson Torana driven by Bob Morris and John Fitzpatrick. Uncertainty surrounding the laps completed by the leading Torana continue to surround the result of the race, with Harvey and Bond acknowledged by some to have won the race.

However, the race began a lifelong relationship with Holden where he played a loyal back up to Peter Brock and was the key to the HDT’s success both on and off-track.

Harvey finally tasted Bathurst success in 1983 alongside Brock and team manager Larry Perkins, who famously took over the second HDT Commodore after their entry had expired early on in the race.

Harvey finished second at Bathurst with David ‘Skippy’ Parsons in a memorable 1-2 for the HDT in the ‘last of the big bangers’ VK Commodore.

A new era dawned when Group A rules were adopted in 1985, but Harvey’s results continued when he finished second at Bathurst in 1986 partnered by Neal Lowe, then later that year won the Pukekohe 500.

He remained with Holden after HDT’s and Brock’s split with the manufacturer in 1987, so too continued his association with Brock’s co-driver Allan Moffat, which spawned an early attack on the World Touring Car Championship.

The duo won the opening round at Monza, then finished fourth in the Spa 24 Hour.

For his last Bathurst, Harvey partnered with another motor racing luminary, Kevin Bartlett in a Bob Forbes Racing Holden Commodore VL SS Group A SV where the pair finished 14th.

Harvey’s impact on Holden is profound as he aided in the founding of Holden Special Vehicles and its associated motor racing program through the Holden Racing Team.

His achievements in the sport were acknowledged through the awarding of a Medal of the Order of Australia earlier this year and his induction into the Australian Motor Sport Hall of Fame in 2018.

He will be sadly missed and AUTO ACTION extends its condolences to the Harvey family and his friends.

Read the statement below released by the Harvey family:

Last night at 8:45 sadly our Dad John Francis Harvey passed away peacefully with his family by his side. Most people will have fond memories of Dad’s amazing racing career & the great memories of him will live on forever. To us he was much more, a wonderful husband, father, grandfather & great grandfather, supporting all of us whenever we needed his guidance & love.

What a life he has lived travelling the world racing with and against the best in the business, always a true gentleman. We all know his most proudest achievement was us. We will dearly miss him but we know the time was right.

John Francis Harvey OAM 21-2-1938 -05-12-2020