They say necessity is the mother of invention, and we desperately needed to do something to promote this new sports car which really wasn’t that sporty – or popular. So there we were at our advertising agency, Mullins Clarke and Ralph (MCR). We’d decided not to go ahead with the rally program (for a whole heap of reasons) but we had to come up with a way of projecting some sort of sporting flavour into this car, the Triumph TR7, which was really just a two-door version of the Triumph Dolomite.
Jack Heaven was there, the director of sales and marketing, along with Bill Nolan, the account manager for Jaguar Rover Triumph, and Malcolm McFee, who was head of the agency. And our marketing manager, Russell Turnham, and me. And Jack was saying “what can we do?”
Bill Nolan pulled out copy of English magazine Autosport, and in there was a story about BMW racing BMW M1 sportscars as a support category in the F1 Grand Prix races with amateurs and professional drivers. He said: “why don’t we have a look at something like this?”
We looked at the story and then Jack looked at me and said “let’s do it. You’re in charge. Just make it happen.” There was nothing I could say apart from “yeah, OK” but I admit I was wondering how I would do it.
At this stage I was in marketing, not PR. It was 1979. I had finished my apprenticeship as a fitter-and-turner with Leyland in 1974 but had gone straight into the marketing department.
As it turned out, it wasn’t just me having to make it happen. Bill [Nolan] had some motor racing experience and he knew Ivan Stibbard, who was the general manager of the Australian Racing Drivers Club, which at the time ran Amaroo Park Raceway and Bathurst. Bill and I went out to Amaroo to meet with Ivan, told him our plan and, luckily, he liked it. We decided
