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Originally Posted by ehast13
Don’t forget he was initially hired for his rally abilities (anyone remember the Round Australia win with the then new Commodores),
You mean in in 1969???????
Driving a monaro at bathurst???????????????
Colin Bond was the man when it came to HDT rallying - 3 championships
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Yep, originally hired for Rallycross “and other things” and his first drive for HDT was an Alpine rally even though he had mainly been doing circuit racing before then. There was no doubt that he was no. 2 to Colin Bond’s no. 1 status when he started at HDT. But there is nothing wrong with having a good driver as a backup to your no. 1 and act as an encouragement to push the lead driver along a bit. Wasn’t there a time where he had to miss out on a circuit race because of rally commitments? That’s one of the reasons (as well as injury) why you’d need two good drivers in the team. Bond was pretty good and I’d rate him as one of the best Aussie guys to combine rally and circuit driving at a high level (George Fury did well too and Rick bates seems capable).
It is very hard to compare drivers from different eras and levels with different equipment. Taxi racing is a step back from single seater racing. Think of the open wheelers that have competed in “road” cars when they could fit it in their packed schedules – A.J. Foyt, Jackie Stewart, Gurney, Mark Donahue (a personal favorite, you’ve got to read “The unfair advantage”), Jim Clark, Mario Andretti, Frank Gardiner, etc and it is very hard to pick a standout. And how do you rate the best? Someone who is a showman behind the wheel (Beechey, Villeneuve, Alesi) or someone who strokes it along enough just to win championships (someone along the lines of Alain Prost)