MOTOCROSS legend Craig Dack has revealed a little-known plan by the late Peter Brock to encourage him to switch to four wheels with Brock’s touring car team.
The four-time Mr Motocross victor, who was inducted into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame during the annual ceremony at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix in March, shared the tale on the latest episode of the Rusty’s Garage podcast.
“Neil Crompton and I knocked around quite a bit. We don’t see each other as much now but we’re still good friends,” Dack said.
“He was a big fan of motocross and for people that don’t know he was quite a good rider too.
“One day we were down in Victoria and he took me to Brock’s garage (workshop) I guess it was.
“He took me out the back to meet Peter, who was working on a clay model of the front of a car. He was in a white suit and a mask. And that’s how I met Peter for the first time!
“We sorta just became friends then. Brock was still in the prime of his career. I was going to watch some of the touring car races. He was coming to some of my races.
“(It happened at) the end of ’88 I think it was. It was about November and I was going to Europe the next year to do the World Championship in 1989.
“I already had everything sorta squared away and Peter rang me out of the blue and said, ‘Hey Craig, the touring cars is full of established guys and we want to put someone in our program, a young guy to foster and build up and train for the future – and we want that to be you!’
“It was something really strong to consider of course but I already had commitments to go to Europe so I said, ‘No I can’t do it because I have to honour my commitments’.
“So who knows? A sliding doors moment. It could have been a whole different world for me. I’m not regretting anything I did for sure.”
The two-part feature episode covers Dack’s time as a successful rider and his three decades of team ownership since, in which he netted more titles and helped to guide the careers of several riders, including a young Chad Reed as he set out to conquer the United States, plus his immense pride at entering the Hall of Fame.
There’s also a funny story of an Aerobics TV show stunt that went wrong which saw the Godfather of Aussie Supercross promotion Phil Christensen fielding calls about ticket refunds because fans thought they wouldn’t get to see ‘the Dack Attack’!
Click here to listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of Craig Dack on Rusty’s Garage.
