Brock racer for sale

The Holden Rodeo off-road racer in which the late, great Peter Brock contested his last Australasian Safari in 2004 is up for sale.

One of two built by Todd Kelly’s Kelly Motor Sport for the event, the Gen III 5.7-litre V8-powered Rodeo 4x4 has not been raced since Brock drove it. It is being sold because of Kelly Racing’s transformation from privateer Holden V8 Supercar team to factory-backed Nissan Motorsport.

The Rodeo has sat on a mezzanine in Kelly Racing’s workshop at Braeside ever since Todd and his brother Rick established the team five years ago, but has now been moved out as the team’s new Nissan Altimas are moved in..

It has been fully repaired since Brock, who raced with navigator Ross Runnalls, crashed into a tree late on day three of the Safari while leading. While out of contention for a result, the Rodeo was repaired and the nine-times Bathurst 1000 winner went on to finish the eight-day race. Teammate John Hederics won in an identical Rodeo.

That vehicle was purchased by long-time off-road racer and former V8 Supercar team owner Kees Weel, who also took over the Holden Rally Team from Kelly.

Mr Kelly said Brock, who died in September 2006 in a crash at Targa West racing a Daytona sports coupe, enjoyed driving the Rodeo.

“He loved beating about in the bush, he loved it,” said Mr Kelly. “He was right on the pace in the Safari but unfortunately clipped a tree and that put him out of contention.

“At the end of the deal for the rally team with Holden I asked if I could keep this car of Brock’s and restore it, which I did over the next two years. I pretty much race-prepped it back to race trim again - how it was when it entered the Safari.

“It has sat here at work but now we have converted to Nissan, my little baby will have to go somewhere else.”

While based on the production-spec V6 Rodeo that Brock raced in the 2003 event, the 2004 version was a full-on race, built in the Kelly family workshop in their hometown of Mildura.

“We took the body off the chassis, we cut the whole firewall out and did a fair bit of work to the interior,” Mr Kelly recalled.

“We cut the actual chassis in half, put an independent rear-end on it, double-skinned it all, left fairly standard front suspension in it and then grafted the Gen III Holden V8 into it, got a bell-housing and proper triple-plate clutch, made our own flywheels, put a six-speed sequential Holinger gearbox in it and Albins – who now do the V8 Supercar transaxle – made all the CV joints and all the gears for the internals of the transfer case.”

The restoration has included all-new CV joints and boots, a complete paintwork re-spray and new mud-flaps.

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