| Harry Firth, OAM | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | Henry Leslie Firth 18 April 1918 Orbost, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 27 April 2014 (aged 96) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Awards | |
| 2007 | Supercars Hall of Fame |
Henry Leslie Firth, OAM (18 April 1918 – 27 April 2014) was an Australian racing driver and team manager. Firth was a leading race and rally driver during the 1950s and 1960s and continued as an influential team manager with first the Ford works team and then the famed Holden Dealer Team (HDT) well into the 1970s. Firth’s nickname was "the fox", implying his use of cunning ploys as a team manager.[1]
Firth won the Bathurst 500, including its predecessor at Phillip Island, four times (twice in the final two races held at the Island and twice at Bathurst). He also won the Southern Cross Rally and the Australian Rally Championship. He was inducted into the Supercars Hall of Fame in 2007.
Firth has often been described as a 'bush engineer', someone who could probably build a race winning engine from nothing more than a roll of wire, while leading Australian Motoring journalist and former part-time racer Bill Tuckey once wrote of Firth that as a driver, engineer and team manager, he was "As cunning as an outhouse rat".
Firth was awarded the Medal of the order of Australia on 26th January 1999 for services to Motor Racing as a driver, team manager and engineer. https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/887108 On 27 April 2014, Firth died in his sleep surrounded by his family, he was aged 96.