Peter Molloy passes away

[Ray Bell]

A few months ago Peter Molloy was given a 'you've got about three months' verdict over his cancer...

Yesterday it became public knowledge that he'd reached the end, though almost nobody has been able to contact him over the past three months.

His career was long and varied. Postings on TNF reveal that he was at work on an Alvis-Terraplane in the Mt Druitt days, while he raced a TR3 and tried John Cummins' Bugatti-Holden at Bathurst before getting a run in a Porsche 356. He realised he wasn't setting the world on fire in that when a Jaguar went around the outside of him in a corner at Lowood and he stuck to spannering and mentoring from then on.

Some of the people he was involved with:

Arnold Glass' 250F, where he worked under John McMillan.

Frank Dent (Dent's Auto Service) taught him how to tune SUs, so his 'apprenticeship' was heading in the right direction. He worked on Graham White's Porsche 356 as well.

Paul Bolton's Hillman Minx, which he helped make a bit of a winner.

P & R Williams employed him and he worked on their Sprites and Minis for Brian Foley, when Foley went out on his own Peter went with him and he was to become acknowledged as a top man around the Minis. He prepared some of the Works BMC cars for endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst.

When John Harvey turned away from Speedway Peter went to R C Phillips and prepared and tutored Harvey in the Mini, then in the Brabham, then as the Brabham grew to a 2.5.

Perhaps I'm missing a step here somewhere, but he was a part of N E Allen Competition Pty Ltd as Niel challenged the leaders in each racing category, his guidance as well as preparation being part of what Niel leaned on in his quest to win titles.

On Neil's retirement he went to Pat Burke Racing and similarly tutored Warwick Brown. Along the way somewhere he started 'Peter Molloy Engines' and specialised in F5000 Chevs. Later he did a Ford for John Goss while others went to him with different engines (Mal Brewster, Corolla 1300, for instance).

Ron Hodgson and Allan Moffat also took him on for periods in the late seventies. And there were times he worked on bikes, including preparing the Wayne Gardner's mount for the 6-hour win which gave him prominence.

By the early nineties he had done a stint at Benetton F1 and returned to Australia to work on Wayne Gardner's Commodores.

I know there are gaps in there, can anyone fill any of them?