Did you hear the one about the taxi driver, the mechanic and the ambulance driver? No? Well, it’s actually not a joke – rather, it’s the background of the Garard family, who helped pioneer Holden’s participation in 1960s rallying. They were also among the fastest rally drivers of the decade, and they, together with ace Victorian rally drivers Bob Watson and Tony Roberts, literally laid the foundations for Holden’s success in rallying in the 1970s with the Holden Dealer team.
Brothers Greg and John Garard, along with younger brothers Don and Ross, as well as patriarch Jack, cut a swathe through NSW rallying back in the day. As a measure of how good they were, it was Greg Garard who broke the vice-like grip Barry Ferguson had on the coveted…