Before Peter Brock had won his nine Bathurst races and three Australian Touring Car Championships, he actually raced at the legendary Macau Guia Circuit.
Macau is one of the motorsport world’s oddities snaking its way through the mountain side just outside the gambling capital of Asia.
Brock, Holden Dealer Team manager Harry Firth and a Torana GTR XU-1 went to Macau to take on the touring car support race as part of the Grand Prix weekend in 1971.
The Torana was modified slightly from Series Production specification although it was outgunned compared to the European Touring Car Championship standard contenders Brock was up against.
Dieter Glemser led the list of Brock’s rivals as an ETCC winner and the Spa 24 Hour in a Ford Capri RS2600, but it was the Australian leading the way in opening practice.
Firth’s pre-event preparation of catching a taxi and completing laps with Brock might have given him the early edge.
Brock didn’t continue this run in qualifying or the Heat and Final, with the honours going Glemser’s way, but he still finished second by the end of the weekend.
Following this race, it was less than a year later when Brock took his maiden Bathurst win, with the Macau trip kickstarting his sporadic international career including trips to Le Mans, Spa and the ETCC.