Driving with Peter Brock

We were at the Lakeside track near Brisbane and Brocky was driving, whisper it, a Volvo - albeit a roll-caged, Super Touring race-car version.

As we approached the first, hairpin corner at the end of the straight I was gripped by a mixture of fear and embarrassment.

I was pretty sure The Great Man had missed his braking marker and was about to stuff up big time and send us both into the weeds at high speed.

Strangely, I wasn't as worried about my own safety as I was fearful for his reputation - surely it was going to be a shameful situation for the much-worshipped King of the Mountain, crashing with a journalist in the car.

A few seconds later, fear was replaced by sheer wonder as Brocky nonchalantly nerfed the car sideways, setting in train a spectacular rear-wheel drift and slamming us around the bend with inches to spare.

I honestly though we'd shared what race drivers call “a moment” until he did it again, on the next lap. And the lap after that.

It was only on the third time around that I realised he was pulling off this berserk bit of driving with one hand, while the other arm rested, in typical Brock style, on the window sill.

All the while he kept up a relaxed, riotous commentary - asking me if I wanted a sick bag and cracking jokes.

This was the hero I'd built up in childhood made real. Years of watching him on the box at Bathurst were burnt into the brain - the wiley, smiley old champion who made the massive challenge of taming Mount Panorama look like a Sunday drive with the family.

Brock never disappointed. To see him at Bathurst in his semi-retirement years was to see a racing rock-star surrounded by groupies.

Children called Brock in his honour were presented, tattoos of his signature were proffered and Peter Perfect had a kind word and a smile for all of them.

In the history of motorsport in this country there has never been anyone like him - so wildly successful and so widely loved.

He will be sorely missed.

Stephen Corby is a senior roadtester for the CARSguide team whose work also appears in the Sunday Telegraph. A version of this review plus more news and analysis can be read in the Sunday Telegraph.

More Corby rantings on non-car stuff can be found on his Daily Telegraph blog.