The Hobart Sporting Car Club has confirmed that former speedway and circuit racer John Harvey and motorcycle racer Malcolm Campbell will join Allan Moffat at their fundraising evening on September 22.
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In a career spanning 27 years Harvey initially raced in speedway in the fifties and sixties, winning three consecutive New South Wales championships and two Victorian championships before switching to circuit racing in 1965.
Harvey won the 1966 Australian 1.5 litre championship driving a Brabham and finished second in the Australian Drivers Championship despite racing against the 2.5 litre cars.
In 1967 he joined the Bob Jane racing team, winning the 1971 and 1972 sports car championship in the McLaren M6B Repco V8, and also won the Sports Sedan series at Oran Park and Calder in 1973 driving Jane’s Repco V8-powered Torana.
In 1976 Harvey joined the Australian Touring Car Championship, winning at Symmons Plains in a privately-entered L34 Torana for B & D Autos in Hobart and competed regularly in the championship until 1986 for the Holden Dealer Team. His best result was third in 1979 when he scored six podiums in eight races including a win at Symmons Plains.
He finished second in the 1976 Bathurst 1000 with Colin Bond in the HDT Torana, and third in 1982 with Gary Scott. The following year he claimed a Bathurst win with Peter Brock and Larry Perkins in controversial circumstances.
Harvey had been entered to drive with Phil Brock to back up the Peter Brock/Larry Perkins entry but when the 05 car blew it’s engine, Brock and Perkins took over the 25 car to win the race with Harvey. Brock’s brother never got to drive.
Harvey would go on to finish second with Tasmania’s David Parsons in 1984, and second again with Neal Lowe in 1986. The duo would also go on to win that year’s Pukekohe 500 and finish second in the Wellington 500 in New Zealand.
Harvey left the HDT at the end of 1986 after a disagreement with Brock and retired from competitive driving at the end of 1988.
Malcolm Campbell’s motorcycle road racing career, which started in 1972, has been outstanding locally, nationally and internationally.
In 1981 Campbell won the New Zealand six-hour race, and then in 1983 he won the race again plus the prestigious Castrol six-hour in Australia and the Swann International series.
From then on there was no stopping the champion rider with wins in the Malaysian endurance championship and the Malaysian GP, as well as three Australian Superbike championships.
In 1985 he won the Australian endurance championship and twice beat world 500cc champion Wayne Gardner in the Swann series.
In 1986 Campbell won the Australian GP and the following year won the Australian Unlimited championship before upstaging the established order in Austria in 1988 with pole position for the World Superbike race.
He finished sixth in the 1989 Suzuka eight-hour race and the next year took pole in Hungary for the World Superbike race, finishing an impressive second.
Campbell did compete in 500cc Grand Prix racing, particularly on the radical Elf Honda in France, but the opportunities to continue at the premier level never eventuated.
In 1992 he won the Southern Cross two-hour race at Symmons Plains and was inducted into the Tasmanian Motor Sport Hall of Fame. Then in 1994 he finished second in the Malaysian Superbike championship after a brief retirement.
Recognised for his testing skills, in 1997 Campbell assisted in the development of the Australian-designed and very radical Hunwick Hallam superbike but it failed to achieve the desired outcome.
Outside competition Campbell has been a passionate supporter of road safety for motorcyclists.
In 2000 Campbell was an Olympic torch bearer in Tasmania and was inducted into the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame.