It was with great sadness that the Shannons Club heard of the passing of Australian motor sport legend Harry Firth on Sunday April 27. He was 96.
In a luminous motor sport career that spanned several decades, Harry Firth excelled as a race and rally driver, car preparer, team manager and driver talent spotter.
Nicknamed ‘The Fox’ for his cunning tactics, Firth began to make a name for himself as a skilled race and rally car tuner and driver in the 1950s upon his return from overseas military service in WWII.
After winning the 1961 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island with Bob Jane in a Mercedes Benz 220SE, Firth forged an alliance with Ford Australia in the early 1960s as the company’s motor sport contractor, based at his humble Firth Motors workshop in Auburn, Melbourne.
It was a partnership that achieved great success, including three outright wins in Falcons and Cortinas in the Armstrong/Gallaher 500 races at Phillip Island and Bathurst. He also developed the Cortina GT 500 ‘Bathurst Special’ which won the 1965 Armstrong 500.
In 1968 Firth claimed the inaugural Australian Rally Championship in a supercharged Cortina Mk II and also masterminded a three-car Falcon GT assault on the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon, which resulted in the Aussie works cars finishing third, sixth and eighth and winning the coveted Teams Prize.
The following year he retired from driving and split with Ford, after its motor sport operations were brought in-house under American Al Turner. Firth simply jumped ship to arch rival GM-H and together with the company’s shrewd sales and marketing boss John Bagshaw established the Holden Dealer Team.
Firth gained instant revenge on his former employer’s new GT-HO Falcon by winning the 1969 Bathurst 500, with an HDT-prepared Monaro GTS 350 driven by Tony Roberts and young Sydneysider Colin Bond whose prodigious talents Harry spotted in the local rally scene.
Bond and another early Firth sighting - Peter Brock - soon evolved to become the HDT’s lead drivers and together with his team management and vehicle development skills enjoyed great success from 1969. By 1977 both Brock and Bond had moved on and Harry announced his retirement as HDT boss at the end of that year.
Highlights of HDT's prolific winning streak under Firth included two Bathurst 500’s, three Australian Rally Championships, two Australian Touring Car Championships and three Manufacturers Championships, plus numerous other successes in major rallycross, rally and touring car competitions.
Some of Holden’s greatest competition cars of the 1960s and 1970s were developed with crucial input from Firth, including the LC and LJ Torana GTR XU-1s, the stillborn LJ Torana XU-1 V8, LH Torana L34 and LX Torana A9X.
After leaving HDT, Firth continued to have a strong involvement in local motor sport when he accepted the role of CAMS National Chief Scrutineer from 1979-1981. He also received the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to motor sport, CAMS Membership of Honour, Australian Sports Medal and was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame.
Harry Firth may be gone but he leaves behind a tremendous legacy in Australian motor sport which will never be forgotten. The Shannons Club extends its sincere condolences to the Firth family and friends.
