John Harvey (motorsport)

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John Harvey (born in Sydney) is a retired Australian racing driver. He was a top speedway driver for many years in the 1960’s.

After switching from speedway to road racing, Harvey drove cars such as the Morris Cooper and Brabham BT23 Repco. Harvey won the 1966 Australian 1½ Litre Championship driving a Repco Brabham Ford. He began an involvement with Bob Jane’s racing team in the late 1960's and moved to Melbourne. Harvey won the 1971 and 1972 Australian Sports Car Championships driving the McLaren M6 Repco for Bob Jane. He drove a Repco V8 Torana in sports sedan racing in the early 1970’s. In 1973 Harvey, in the Repco V8 Torana, won the competitive Toby Lee Sports Sedan Series at Oran Park.

In 1976 John Harvey unexpectedly won the first round of the Australian Touring Car Championship in a one-off drive in a B&D Autos-sponsored Torana L34 at Symmons Plains. Later in the year Harvey was signed up to co-drive with Colin Bond in the Holden Dealer Team Torana L34 which finished a close second in the Bathurst 1000. With Bond leaving the Holden team at the end of 1976, Harvey then became the lead driver for the team for the 1977 season.

In 1978 Peter Brock re-joined the Holden Dealer Team and became No.1 driver with Harvey driving the No.2 car. This established the pattern for almost a decade. The Harvey car effectively becoming Brock’s backup. Although Harvey won the Bathurst 1000 in 1983 in a dealer team Holden Commodore it was in controversial circumstances as Harvey was told after stepping out of the car at the first pitstop that he would not be required for the rest of the race, as Brock and his co-driver Larry Perkins took over the car (their Commodore having retired from the race).

Harvey split with Brock by 1987, being unhappy with Brock’s flirtation with ‘New Age’ ideas like his ‘Energy Polariser’. Harvey told his side of the story of the split in Bill Tuckey’s 1987 book The Rise and Fall of Peter Brock.

In March 1987 Harvey teamed up with Allan Moffat to drive a Commodore to a surprise victory in the first round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship at the famous Monza circuit in Italy. After finishing seventh, the pair were promted as the first six BMW M3s were disqualified from the race.