Man on Road

Bob Bird was never a Victorian Rally Champion,

but he was always a champion bloke.

Bob Bird with Warwick Smith 1973 Monash Midyear Rally

I would have first meet Bob Bird in 1972 when I tagged along with my brother Chris taking photos of Victorian Rally Championship rallies.

Bob, navigated by Warwick Smith was punting a quick, abet a little rough around the edges Mk 1 Cortina, sponsored by Tanti Auto Services from Mornington.

1972 VADC 2 Day Trial - Chris Brown pic

1972 Experts Rally - Chris Brown pic

Bob and Warwick cleaned up the Victorian Clubman Championship that year, with a 1^st – Blue Ribbon Rally, 2^nd - Classic Rally, 2^nd - George Derrick Trial in the three rounds they were allowed to enter due to scoring too many points in the VRC that year. In the George Derrick they also finished 2^nd O/R in the VRC event.

Second in the Clubman Series that year in another quick Mk1 Cortina was the crew of George Fury & Monty Suffern - they went on to do a bit in rallying!

1973 Penfolds Rally - Chris Brown pic

For 1973 Harry Firth offered to lease Bob the old Holden Dealer Team XU-1, the Lena Mint green one with rego BOI812 that had just taken Colin Bond and George Shepheard to the 1972 Australian Rally Championship.

Bob and Warwick contested the Victorian Rally Championship in that car for the next three years with mixed results.

1973 Monash Midyear Rally - Bruce Keys pic

1976 saw Bob and Warwick move up to the Southern Cross Rally winning force and campaign a very neat and clean Lancer with immediate success as they secured 2^nd in the championship behind Bob Waterhouse and Paul Patterson in a Datsun 1600. That was Bobs best VRC result.

1976 Mountain Rally - Bruce Keys pic

1976 North Eastern Rally - Bruce Keys pic

Bob then stepped back from regular driving and encouraged Warwick to build a Lancer as he could see their potential and pushed Warwick to contest the Victorian Rally Championship as a driver himself. And he did that with almost immediate success taking out the 1978 & 1979 titles with Paul Patterson.

This started a new era for Bob helping other, mostly up & coming crews with their own rally careers, through his Automotive Hardware business in Seaford.

Bob gladly opened his workshop doors and bins of hardware, including many crates of new surplus hardware from Nissan Manufacturing in Clayton. Those he helped included Warwick Smith, Hugh Bell, Graeme Wise, Tony Allen, Denis Woods and Chris and myself (I think I still have some 10cm x 15cm sticky foam protection pads!) and no doubt many more.

For 1979 Bob started driving Roger McKinnon’s Toyoparts Corolla KE35 as a build up for the Repco Round Australia Trial which they were entering together. Bob with Trevor Boyd entered a number of VRC events before the Repco preparing the car and they also ran in the VADC Amateur 100 afterwards where I saw first hand another endearing quality Bob had in bucketloads – sportsmanship.

This event saw the continuation of the title fight between Smith/Patterson & Brown/Brown for the 1979 VRC. At the end of daylight division break we lead the event but then on the first stage of the night division Chris beached the 180B SSS on a Heathcote stump and we had to winch it off, Bob, a couple of cars behind, ignoring the title implications, stopped to help us back on the road. To him, he just saw a fellow competitor in trouble and stopped to help – a sign of a true sportsman.

The Repco Round Australia Trial in 1979 proved pivotal to Bobs’ next career move as he meet the Japanese Subaru crew of Noriyuki Koseki, Yoshio Takaoka, Hiroshi Okazaki who ran an early model Subaru Leone. They told Bob about the huge Japanese scrap car industry and the near endless supply of generally low km engines, transmissions as well as panels.

Simon Brown Pic

After the Repco Bob took the idea of importing used engines and other mechanical parts to fellow Victorian rallyist Rex Muldoon and soon after they made a trip to Japan and API International was born. To this point most used Japanese parts importing into Australia had been a mix of panels and mechanicals being sold to the motor trade, Datspares for example, where I worked, concentrating on panels for the crash repair and insurance trade, whereas Bob and then Rexs’ idea was just engines and transmission targeting mainly car owners and rally people with direct sales and fitting.

API International grew very quickly with a large warehouse/showroom on Princes Hwy Springvale and soon other branches around Melbourne. I understand Rex’s “adventuristic” financing ideas did not sit well with Bob, as well as the - not unusual – clash of two strong willed people in the same premises saw Bob leave the business around six months later.

API International with Bob & Rex employed many Melbourne rally people and sponsored a number of Melbourne rally crews including HRA member, Mike Welsh who handled all the artwork for API’s signage and extensive advertising campaigns. Mike actual told me the other day that he introduced the two sometime before the Repco when Rex was looking for marketing ideas for his Piranha Ignition franchise.

Bob then went on to start up a power tool import & sales company, Trax Tools which allowed him to continue to support his two favoured car clubs, CCRMIT and the Cerberus Car Club by sponsoring both clubs VRC rounds for a number of years.

These included the 2001 Cerberus Car Club Strzelecki Stages VRC round directed by Alan Mackay.

2001 Strzelecki Stages - Michael Finger pic

Then the 2002 CCRMIT President’s Trial VRC round based at Rawson, the old Thomson Dam construction camp up from Morwell.

I have a clear memory of that Presidents Trial weekend; being old CCRMIT members, Katrine & myself along with my brother Chris and Steve Hollowood and our families “did a control”. The next morning the old CCRMIT gang gathered in the dining room for breakfast including Bobs great friends Dave & Fran Lambie, Peter & Val Davis and others and I can see Bob Bird there as well.

Bob Bird was a great rally competitor,

perhaps the best not to win the Victorian Rally Championship

but he should be remembered as a helper of many

and a champion bloke!