By the time Pete Brock had formed Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) in 1966, he was already highly respected in the automotive industry. His work and successes to date included the following:-

• A spell at the Art Centre College of Design, L.A.

• Youngest automotive designer of General Motors, at 19 years of age.
  (Pete was hired by Chuck Jordan, later the successor to GM's head of styling Bill Mitchell).

• Design work on the Chevrolet Stingray prototype with .

• Chief instructor at the Carroll Shelby Driving School at the Riverside Raceway.

• Designer of the Cobra Daytona Coupe.

• Designer of the De Tomaso prototype featured on the March 1966 Road & Track cover.
  (This was a Shelby/De Tomaso joint venture which failed, and De Tomaso falsely credited Ghia with the prototype's design and manufacture, although Pete Brock designed the car and Carrozzeria Fantuzzi of Italy built it).

• Designer of the Hino Samurai prototype featured on the November 1967 Road & Track cover.

• Designer of the Triumph TR250K that Bob Tullius and Jim Dittemore drove for Kas Kastner at Sebring in 1968.

As the owner of Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE), Pete Brock's first success was at the wheel of the 1300cc Japanese Hino Coupe, which beat the field at the 1966 Times-Mirror event in front of a 100,000 strong crowd at Riverside Raceway. The BRE Hinos took 1st and 2nd places and created quite a stir, both in the USA and Japan - check out the BRE HINO PAGES, which include further details of Pete Brock's Hino Samurai prototype and gives a fascinating insight into Pete Brock's move from Hino to Nissan.

Following the Riverside victory, Toyota, which was on the verge of taking over the Hino Motor Co., offered Pete Brock the opportunity to race their recently announced 2000GT in SCCA racing. In the meantime, however, Carroll Shelby, who had recently lost his contract with Ford, opened a Toyota dealership in El Segundo. At the eleventh hour, the BRE/Toyota deal was pulled, and Shelby was handed the contract. Pete Brock immediately approached Datsun, and with Yutaka Katayama's blessing, the BRE-Datsun partnership was formed.

Justice was seen to have been done, when Frank Monise beat all-comers in 1969. Toyota pulled out of SCCA racing before the 1969 season, while the BRE-Datsun partnership marched on. 

The following linked pages include many rare photographs. The pages chart the team's 1969 and 1970 seasons, during which SCCA veteran Frank Monise and, later, John McComb, campaigned the Datsun 2000 Roadster to Divisional success in the SCCA's D Production class. John Morton also campaigned the roadster over the two seasons, moving up from D Production to C Production in 1970, and onto the 240Z later that season. Although all three drivers qualified the roadster for the ARRC, a National Championship at the whell ofthe Datsun 2000 eluded the team.

THE 1969 SEASON
	Click on images opposite for gallery of colour images and commentary on the 1969 season. Pages feature many rare images.
THE 1970 SEASON
	Click on images opposite for gallery and commentary on the 1970 season.

Following the 1970 runoffs, Pete Brock sold both BRE roadsters to privateers, the Morton car going to BOB McQUEEN, of Smyrna, Georgia, and the Monise/McComb car to GENE FELTON of Atlanta, Georgia. The roadsters were soon to duel again, this time back in D Production, culminating in a battle between McQueen and Felton at the 1971 runoffs at their home track. After leading early in the race, Felton span on lap four, leaving McQueen to take the DP title, a feat he repeated the following year, despite heavy pressure from the semi-works Triumph teams.

The arrival of the 240Z took up much of Pete Brock's energies, and John Morton's consecutive titles in both the 240Z and the Trans Am 510 have all but overshadowed BRE's roadster years. However, the BRE roadsters are remembered with much affection on the West Coast, and the preparation and engineering that went into them helped bring the SCCA Production classes into a new era.

As for Brock's other two roadster drivers, Frank Monise went back to campaign his trusted Lotus XI, which he took to the 1970 runoffs, and John McComb went on to race with Group 44, where he picked up a National Championship with the Triumph TR6. 

Note: Only two BRE roadsters were built - the Morton car survives and she was being raced again in the year 2000 by privateer Bob Dicke, who purchased the car from Ken Glasener (See Below). The Monise/McComb car also came to light in 2001 - owned by John Robinson, whose father took the car to the 1983 Runoffs.

Rob Beddington 

	PETE BROCK'S HINO TEAM SAMURAI BRE's first venture into American club racing, with Pete Brock at the wheel.
	GENE FELTON, D PRODUCTION RACER, 1971 Driving the Monise/McComb 2000, Gene Felton enjoyed a successful year with the roadtser.
	BOB McQUEEN, D PRODUCTION CHAMPION, 1971 & 1972 Driving the Morton 2000, privateer Bob McQueen succeeded where the factory team did not - twice.
	KEN GLASENER, D PRODUCTION & GT-3 RACER Driving the Morton/McQueen 2000, privateer Ken Glasener was a strong competitor in DP before the Roadster was reclassified in GT-3.  There are also pages showing the car under Bob Dicke's ownership.
	THE BRE ROADSTER THAT WASN'T BRE employee Kirk Allegro's Datsun 2000 race car was featured in a TV commercial in BRE colours, alongside a BRE 240Z and Trans-Am 510. Kirk's car was in fact an ex-Dan Parkinson race car.

FROM 1969	POPULAR IMPORTED CARS	SCC 9/96

NOTE:- A number of the photographs on these pages are from the Register's archive, and were the originals used in the 1969 articles above, hence the crop and size markings.

March 2002 In the March 2002 issue of Grassroots Motorsports magazine, the content of these pages was the subject of an article written by Rob Beddington, with the assistance of Pete Brock and using images from the collections of Pete Brock and Jim Kellar.

These pages, unless otherwise stated, are copyright ©1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002 Rob Beddington & The Classic Fairlady Roadster Register. Do not redistribute in any form without the prior permission of the owner.