Bob Holden – the man who won’t give up By Paul Watson ob Holden is a legend of Australian motor sport and a hero of Peugeot lovers. But his success was won only through a combination of self- Bmotivation and persistence. Bob was born in 1932 at Notting Hill and lived at Oakleigh, near the Dandenong Road-Ferntree Gully Road intersection. As a child he had multiple medical problems, including the debilitating poliomyelitis, which all but crippled him. Walking with the aid of sticks was painful and his gait was ungainly. So Bob chases Len Lukey and an FJ Holden at Phillip Island, 1957. Bob Holden collection he spent a lot of time reading. “My mother used to go to the library and get books for me to read. When I had gone through the books from A to Z she joined another library and I “My fi rst road race, would you believe, was up Wheelers Hill, and I was went through that. So I read everything and anything and I developed my the only one who could get to the top.” He used to ride his bike to tech, 25 own speed-reading system. I learned about things that other people did, like miles (40km) each way. people-handling, good things, bad things, mechanical things.” Then Bob’s competitive streak really took over and he started entering At school Bob was a good student and when he was 13 he was invited to races all over Victoria, improving bit by bit until he was winning. “My nearly- take an entrance exam for a technical course. He was successful and enrolled next-door neighbour Bobby Dalton and I used to race together. My mother in civil engineering at Frankston Tech in Melbourne’s south. used to follow us and bring us home with our bikes.” When the boy next door got a pushbike, Bob decided that he would learn Bob won many long-distance races, including the Melbourne-Heyfi eld to ride. Because parental permission was not forthcoming, he persuaded his and the Colac-Warrnambool. friend next door to leave the bike propped up against the fence that divided But when Bob was 16 the boys were invited to compete in Adelaide, Bob’s the properties. When he was supposed to be in bed asleep, Bob crept out of mum was not interested in an interstate drive. “She’d take us to Mildura, but the house, stacked some boxes against the fence and climbed over, dropping not to Adelaide. onto the bike. “So I bought this Austin A40 panel van and had it delivered to home, Night after night he spent hours learning to ride, until he became quite because I couldn’t drive a car. I started to teach myself at night, driving profi cient and was able to demonstrate that he could become more mobile around the block. with a bike of his own. “I would go out to [the very long and steep] Wheelers “Our place in Oakleigh was right next to the police station and courthouse Hill, where there was a bypass road so farmers could get up the hill in their and the old sergeant spotted me driving and said, ‘We’re going to have to do old trucks. I would ride down the hill, then ride up as far as I could, then, something about this. I’ve got a sort of a permit for you, using your funny feet because I couldn’t get off the bike, I’d turn back and go up the bypass road, as an excuse, as long as you stay within a certain block’. On my 17th birthday then go home. Eventually I got to the stage where I could reach the top of he called me in and told me he’d organised a licence for me. Wheelers Hill. up give Bob Holden, the man who won’t “The fi rst time I ever competed in a motor car was not an organised event Bob’s course at Frankston Tech led to him working at the Frankston against other drivers. I can’t remember which club it was. They called it a Shire’s drawing offi ce, doing their engineering work. “That gave me entree pre-Christmas club run to Phillip Island, and it ended up with a hillclimb in to the SEC [State Electricity Commission] drawing offi ce, where I worked the sand dunes, on my 17th birthday in 1949, the fi rst day that I was offi cially with Geoff Strachan.” (Geoff was a keen PCCV member and followed Bob’s allowed to drive a motor car and that’s how it started.” career closely, compiling fi ve scrapbooks of pictures, newspaper articles and Bob’s last bike race was along the Great Ocean Road, where the wind race programs.) was so strong that several competitors, including Bob himself, were blown Bob started delivering cars between Melbourne and Adelaide for two into a drain. Bob injured his knees, bbrothers who were car dealers and which made it painful to ride. wwas given a 203 that was worn So the Austin A40 van was Bob competes in a hillclimb, driving lights and all. Bob Holden collection oout after years of doing the Alice replaced with an MG TC, but that SSprings-Kapunda mail run. car was not without its challenges. The car was the fi rst of several “Harry Firth was Mr MG in those 203s that Bob used as road cars days and I took every MG for sale during the week and raced on the in Melbourne for him to check them weekends. They featured multiple out. I’d get one grunt and that would carburettors, reworked cylinder mean ‘no’. Then the Head brothers heads and extractors, sometimes a in Murrumbeena, who used to race supercharger as well. Rileys, had a car that they’d stripped In an effort to fi nd more speed down to the chassis to rebuild for a from his car, Bob wrote to Peugeot guy that died and they gave it to me in France in September 1955, asking for next to nothing. They loaded it for advice and hints on what the into the back of a truck and dumped European 203 owners were doing to it in my backyard. their race cars. “So I joined the Australian Peugeot replied that the Motor Sports Club and there were modifi cations Bob had made were lots of young kids at university who exactly what was required. Peugeot needed somewhere to work on their aalso informed Bob that 403 sleeves cars. So I’d let them work on their cars at my place and in the meantime they and pistons could not be fi tted to a 203 block, but they did send him a brochure could teach me how to put this pile of junk together. Twelve months later I on the newly released 403. was getting paid to fi x their cars.” Bob joined the PCCV on 28 October 1955. He also belonged to the Bob used the MG for hillclimbs and other events with the Australian PCCNSW, but the early club records have been lost. Motor Sports Club. “I didn’t do gymkhanas because I’m not a natural driver. I didn’t want to know about them. To me they were not the way to go because I’d taught myself to drive in my own funny little way. I can’t even to this day do heeling-and-toeing and that sort of stuff. It doesn’t happen for me.” Bob Holden, the man who won’t give up give Bob Holden, the man who won’t also gave Bob the address of the makers of the Constantin supercharger, which was a popular after-market fi tting to 203s and 403s in France. In October 1956, Bob entered his 1498cc 203 in the NSW Road Racing Championship at Bathurst. He came home second, behind the Holden of Leo Geoghegan. Later in the meet, he entered a sedan and sports car handicap race, taking fi fth place. The race was won by David McKay (Simca), with Bill Cooke (403) second and Norm Saville (203) unplaced. Bob’s cars were always competitive. An article in the local Oakleigh newspaper in 1957 said Bob had “entered all major hill climbs and road races in Victoria, NSW and South Australia in the last two years and drove in the Western Australian Grand Prix meeting. He won the Australian Motor Sports Club Invitation Trial and holds hillclimb records won at Hepburn Springs in May this year and Templestowe in March this year. He has class wins at Rob Roy and Collingrove. He won the saloon car championship at Port Wakefi eld at Easter last year and won classes at Albert Park, Fishermen’s Bend, Phillip Island, Bathurst and Orange.” Bob said: “I see from looking in my scrapbooks that there was one race at Phillip Island [Monday January 28, 1957] where I fi nished second to Stan Jones [father of Formula One champion Alan Jones] who drove a Holden. The same thing happened at Fishermen’s Bend. There were times when we raced at Fishermen’s Bend on Friday and Saturday, drove all Sunday night, raced at Port Wakefi eld or Collingrove hillclimb on the Monday and were back at work in Melbourne on the Tuesday morning.” On one occasion Bob drove thirty-six-and-a-half hours, non-stop, to a race meeting at Caversham, near Perth, “a fantastic race track, probably one of the best”. He then came home in the same time, towing a trailer.