Harry Firth set the template for team professionalism

On the basis of his character alone, there is little doubt Harry Firth would have felt right at home in charge of a modern day V8 Supercar team.

Firth, the 2007 V8 Supercars Hall of Fame inductee, died last Sunday April 27 at the age of 96 after a battle with cancer.

Known to the media and public as ‘The Fox’ and to his racing rivals simply as ‘H’, Firth is best remembered for establishing the factory-backed Holden Dealer Team and the discovery and tutoring of Peter Brock.

Brock went on to become Australia’s greatest touring car star and remains revered today, seven years after his untimely death. HDT, meanwhile, was the template for slick professionalism that has come to be the accepted standard in the V8 Supercars pitlane.

Firth also led Ford’s factory sedan racing efforts before swapping to Holden and was a highly successful driver on bitumen and dirt, winning what we now know as the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 four times. 

He added two more wins at Mount Panorama from the other side of the pit counter (there was no pit wall in those days) before his time as team boss ended after the 1977 race at the age of 59.

Firth was an intriguing mix according to those who knew him; a loner, intelligent, positive, utterly self-confident, cunning (hence the nickname) and domineering when he wanted or needed to be.

The late Howard Marsden, who was Firth’s Ford opponent in the early 1970s touring car wars, gave motoring journalist Peter Robinson a candid assessment of his character for a Wheels magazine article about Bathurst 1977 titled ‘Harry’s Last Hurrah’.

“He was a one-man band. He conceived the cars, then built them and then prepared them himself. He was more successful when the rules were precise and the cars closer to standard. 

“Perhaps he was the best cheat in racing. Of course, we all cheated. The thing was not to get caught. He’s not as successful today because there is so much racing and he can’t do it all himself.

“His conversation is always dominated by his pet theory of the moment. He keeps coming back to it, almost as if he doesn’t hear a word you’ve said. I think dedicated is a good word for Harry, I respected the man – you had to.” 

Firth’s 1967 Bathurst winning teammate Fred Gibson became a life-long friend and he says he has no doubts about the Firth legacy and that he was a great team leader.

“He was the boss, and whether he was right or wrong he wanted it done his way and back in those days his way was the way to win races,” said the 2004 Hall of Fame inductee.

Gibson himself went on to found and run Gibson Motorsport, one of the greatest teams in the history of touring car/V8 Supercars competition, and foster the career of Mark Skaife, another all-time Australian motor racing champion.

“To me in my career as a driver and then as a team manager and owner I thought a lot about what Harry did and how he did it,” said Gibson. “If you were positive about what you wanted to do and you wanted it done your way then that’s the way it was, because that’s the way Harry wanted it.”

Gibson says he can see elements of Firth character in Roland Dane, the owner of Triple Eight Race Engineering, and also former racer and team owner Larry Perkins, who like Firth combined driving skill, engineering knowledge and an unwillingness to suffer fools.

“He’d be blueing and carrying on with the best of them in pitlane,” Gibson laughed. “There was no way of swaying Harry, if that’s his decision that’s the way it is!”