Pelican Parts Forums - Another Aussie icon gone...

Australian motor racing legend Peter Brock has been killed in an accident while taking part in the Targa West rally in Western Australia, motor sport officials have confirmed.

Brock, who had three children, was driving with colleague Mick Hone in a Daytona Coupe when the incident occurred.

A witness to the fatal crash says Brock appeared to lose control of his vehicle on a tight hairpin bend before slamming into a tree.

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He was a dominant figure in Australian motor sport, winning the Bathurst 1000, Australia's most prominent domestic motorsport event, a total of nine times through the 1970s and 80s.

He won six Bathurst 1000 wins in seven years, including his victory in the 1979 event, which he won by a record six laps.

He retired from full-time driving in 1997.

Since 1997, he had made two return visits to Bathurst in 2002 and 2004 and returned to top-level touring car racing as a team owner of ``Team Brock'' in 2002 in the V8 Supercar category. A year later he sold his share in the team to Kees Weel.

In recent years, he occasionally competed in various motorsport events such as the Targa Tasmania.

Known as 'Peter Perfect' and the 'King of the Mountain', Brock retired from full-time racing in 1997 but returned to Bathurst to win a 24-hour race in 2003.

The editor of Wheels magazine, Jed Bulmer, says Peter Brock was the consummate driving professional who won many accolades, but will best be remembered for his mastery of the race circuit at Bathurst.

"You know the great Australian touring car race and a race which is regarded as one of the most difficult touring car races in the world and Peter was the nine-times winner there at what is known these days as the Bathurst 1000," he told ABC radio.

"He had a long and very successful career there, he was the 'King of the Mountain' as he came to be known."

RIP Peter