Once Were Warriors

The Sydneysider began his motorsport career in 1962 driving an Austin Healy Sprite in hillclimbs and motorkhanas before progressing to circuit racing at Warwick Farm.

He competed in the 1964 Round Australia Trial with George Shepheard and Andy Frankel, winning the under-25 category. Bond then purchased and raced the ex-Bob Holden Lynx-Peugeot openwheeler while continuing to rally the VW: the latter competition bringing an offer to drive a works supported Mitsubishi Colt.

In 1969, Bond won the Bathurst 500 co-driving with Tony Roberts after receiving an offer from Harry Firth to drive a Holden Dealer Team Monaro 350. The pair followed this win up with victory in the 1970 Surfers Paradise 12-hour touring car event.

Bond also rallied and raced Torana XU-1s with considerable success, winning the 1971, '72 and '74 Australian Rally Championships as well as the Sandown 250 and South Pacific Touring Car Series.

In 1971, F5000 driver Frank Matich offered Bond a position with his team for the following season. But after drives at Surfers Paradise and the Warwick Farm AGP in Matich's aging McLaren M10B at the end of '71, Bond opted to remain with the Holden Dealer Team.

He returned to F5000 in 1979 driving the ex-Kevin Bartlett Brabham BT43 in the Rothmans International Series. Unfortunately, the car was not capable of showcasing Bond's immense ability.

More Holden success came in 1975 with victory in the Australian Touring Car Championship. Two years later, he switched to Ford.

Bond quickly became involved in the blue oval's MK II Escort Rally program and joined Allan Moffat in the Moffat Ford Dealers all-conquering XC Falcon touring car squad. A highlight of the year was participating in the famed 1-2 Bathurst formation finish, a race he and co-driver Alan Hamilton would have won had Bond not been ordered to finish behind the mortally wounded Moffat/Jackie Ickx Falcon.

Bond continued to race his own Falcon in 1978 and drove a works Ford Cortina in the 1979 Repco Reliability Trial.

In the 80's, Bond campaigned a Group A Alfa GTV, Alfa 75 and Ford Sierra. His last Bathurst drive was in 1994 where he shared the sixth-placed Gibson Motorsport VP Commodore with Anders Olofsson.

Bond is currently AVESCO's driving standards adviser and is this year's inductee into the AVESCO Hall of Fame.

Article reproduced courtesy of Auto Action