Moffat won four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six times the Sandown 500, and four times the Bathurst 500/1000. He was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in October 2018. Moffat and Peter Brock are the only drivers to have won the Great Race at Bathurst in both its 500-mile and 1000-kilometre formats.
Moffat and Jon Leighton drove a Ford Cortina Lotus to fourth place in the 1964 Sandown 6 Hour International at Melbourne's Sandown Park, the first of what would eventually become the Sandown 500. He first entered the Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) in 1965, driving a Lotus Cortina.
He then spent time in the United States, driving in the Trans-Am Series in 1966. He won the 3rd round, the Bryar 250 at the Bryar Motorsports Park, outright in an Under 2L division Lotus Cortina on 10 July 1966, leading home Bruce Jennings in a Plymouth Barracuda by over a lap. Moffat subsequently drove Ford Mustangs for Carroll Shelby in Trans-Am alongside co-drivers including Horst Kwech and Harry Firth. He competed with Kwech in the Trans-Am class at the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, and drove four Trans-Am races in a Mercury Cougar for Bud Moore Engineering.
By 1969 Moffat had returned to Australia full-time. His bright red Coca-Cola-sponsored Ford Boss 302 Mustang — supplied new from Ford's "Kar Kraft" facility and finished by Bud Moore Engineering — became unmistakable at circuits around Australia. With Tom Hamilton and chief mechanic Lou Mallia, Moffat won 101 championship and non-championship touring car races from 151 starts between 1969 and 1972, including the first-ever win by one of the seven factory Boss Mustangs at the Southern 60 at Sandown in May 1969.
Despite this record, the ATCC title in the Mustang eluded him: he finished outside the top ten in 1969, sixth in 1970, second in 1971, and third in 1972. The car, modified to CAMS Improved Production Touring Car regulations, was ineligible for the Bathurst 500, which was restricted to standard production cars prior to 1973.
Moffat therefore made his Bathurst debut in 1969 in a Ford works-team Ford Falcon XW GTHO with co-driver Alan Hamilton, finishing fourth. For 1970, Ford Australia improved the Falcon XW GTHO Phase II and Moffat, racing without a co-driver, took crushing victories at both the 1970 and 1971 Bathurst races, as well as the 1970 Rothmans 250 Production Classic. In 1971 he became the first driver to lead the Bathurst 500 from start to finish, in the Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III.
In 1972, Ford scrapped production of a planned "Phase IV" Falcon GTHO after media coverage — sparked by Sydney journalist Evan Green's article headlined "160mph Supercars on Our Roads!" — prompted government pressure. Moffat and other Ford drivers reverted to year-old Phase III cars. Peter Brock won that year's race for Holden, beginning what became the defining Moffat–Brock rivalry in Australian touring car racing.
In 1973, both the ATCC and the Bathurst endurance race moved to CAMS Group C Touring Cars for the first time. Moffat won his first ATCC title in 1973 and, partnered with Ian Geoghegan, won the 1973 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 — making them the first winners of the Bathurst race after its conversion from a 500-mile event to 1000 km. The night before Round 6 of the ATCC at the Adelaide International Raceway, Moffat's GTHO Falcon Phase III was stolen from Stillwell Ford in the suburb of Medindie. Murray Carter loaned Moffat his GTHO Falcon; Moffat finished second from the rear of the grid and retained the championship points lead. The stolen Falcon was later found abandoned in the Adelaide Hills after the thieves ran out of fuel.
Following Ford Australia's withdrawal from factory racing after 1973, Moffat competed as a privateer in 1974 and 1975, placing third in the 1974 ATCC. He also won the 1974 Sandown 250 and the 1975 Rothmans 300.
On 21 March 1975, Moffat drove a BMW 3.0CSL alongside Hans-Joachim Stuck, Brian Redman, and Sam Posey to win the 12 Hours of Sebring for the factory-backed BMW Motorsport — regarded by many as the 3.0CSL's crowning achievement in racing.
Moffat returned to the ATCC full-time in 1976 driving an XB Falcon GT Hardtop and won his second championship, despite a transporter fire that destroyed his race car mid-season and forced him to borrow a car from rival John Goss for two rounds. He also won the inaugural Australian Sports Sedan Championship that year, driving a Chevrolet Monza and later a Ford Capri RS3100.
In 1977, Moffat re-established dominance under the Moffat Ford Dealers Team banner with a two-car factory-supported operation. He won his third ATCC title, backed by new teammate Colin Bond who had switched from the Holden Dealer Team. The season was crowned by the 1977 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst, where Moffat's co-driver was Belgian Formula One driver and four-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx. By mid-race, the Moffat/Ickx car and the Bond/Alan Hamilton car led the field by over two laps. Late in the race Moffat's car encountered serious brake problems due to Ickx's hard driving, allowing Bond to close. The two cars completed the final two laps side by side and crossed the finish line in tandem, with Bond allowing Moffat to stay barely in front for a 1–2 victory for Ford — regarded as one of the most famous moments in Australian motor sport history. Moffat received an Order of the British Empire in 1978 for exceptional services to motor sport.
Much to the dismay of Ford fans, Moffat left Ford in 1981 to drive a Peter Stuyvesant-sponsored Mazda RX-7 as the ATCC and Bathurst shifted toward lighter touring cars. He drove the RX-7 to four consecutive top-six finishes at Bathurst between 1981 and 1984, including second in 1983 and third in 1984. He won his fourth and final ATCC title in 1983 and also won the 1982 and 1984 Australian Endurance Championships with the RX-7.
Moffat also competed at the 24 Hours of Daytona in an RX-7, taking a class win in 1982 with co-drivers Lee Mulle and Kathy Rude. In 1982 he competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a factory RX-7-based sportscar, finishing sixth in class alongside Japanese co-drivers Yojiro Terada and Takashi Yorino.
In his bid for the 1983 ATCC title, Moffat turned down a factory Mazda drive at the 1983 24 Hours of Le Mans because the ATCC final at Lakeside clashed with the French classic. Going into that race in second place behind the Nissan Bluebird of George Fury, Moffat finished third behind teammate Gregg Hansford and race winner Peter Brock to claim the ATCC by just six points.
In 1984, a crash at Surfers Paradise when his Mazda was hit while lapping the XD Falcon of Gary Willmington at high speed resulted in a fractured sternum and a broken finger. The RX-7 was a write-off.
In 1986, Moffat joined longtime rival and friend Peter Brock and the Holden Dealer Team. The two won the 1986 Wellington 500 in New Zealand in the brand-new Holden VK Commodore SS Group A. They then went to Europe to race in the FIA Touring Car Championship, recording fifth-place finishes at Donington and Hockenheim. At the 1986 Spa 24 Hours, Moffat, Brock, and John Harvey won the prestigious "Kings Cup" teams prize alongside Allan Grice's Commodore, though finishing 22nd overall after two head gasket failures.
The partnership with Brock ended when Holden cut all official ties with Brock over his public launch of the VL Commodore-based HDT Director. Moffat then purchased the brand-new Holden VL Commodore SS Group A that Brock had intended to take to the World Touring Car Championship, shipping it to England for preparation. At the first round at Monza, Moffat and co-driver John Harvey qualified ninth and finished seventh on the road. Hours after the race, the Rothmans-sponsored Commodore was declared the winner after works BMW M3s (which finished 1–6) were disqualified for being underweight. However, as Moffat's team had not paid the $60,000 championship entry fee imposed by series promoter Bernie Ecclestone, they did not receive championship points. At the Spa 24 Hours that year, Moffat and Harvey drove to a fourth-place finish overall and a class win.
Moffat obtained a customer Ford Sierra RS500 built by Swiss touring car tuner Ruedi Eggenberger, identical to the works Eggenberger Motorsport cars. He and Gregg Hansford won the 1988 Enzed 500 at Sandown in what proved to be Moffat's last ever win in Australia. At the 1988 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst, Eggenberger joined the team along with German driver Klaus Niedzwiedz. The Sierra qualified fourth and led for approximately 100 laps before a vapor lock caused by excessive cooling during a safety car period forced retirement on lap 129 of 161, with a one-lap lead and 32 laps remaining. Moffat later called the 1988 Bathurst "the one that got away."
He entered and qualified for the 1989 Tooheys 1000, but decided not to race as the lead team car driven by Niedzwiedz and Frank Biela had a better chance at victory. Moffat's last race and last race win came in the 1989 InterTEC 500 km at Fuji Speedway in Japan, co-driving with Niedzwiedz. He retired from competitive driving after Fuji, having made a promise to himself and his wife Pauline that he would not race beyond his 50th birthday; the Fuji 500 was run two days after his 50th.
Beyond his four Bathurst wins, Moffat won the Sandown Endurance race six times — the only driver to win it under three different national regulations: Series Production (1969, 1970), Group C (1974, 1982, 1983), and Group A (1988).
Moffat continued as team owner and manager of Allan Moffat Enterprises, running the RS500 Sierras until the demise of Group A at the end of 1992. He subsequently entered a Ford EB Falcon for the 1993 and 1994 Tooheys 1000 and the 1996 AMP Bathurst 1000, the last occasion a Moffat-built car raced at Bathurst. Moffat also worked as a TV commentator for Channel 7 and as a spokesman for BMW, and appeared in television advertisements promoting FPV GTs.
Moffat received Australian citizenship on 2 February 2004 in a ceremony at the Australian Grand Prix Corporation offices in Melbourne, with the citation given by his former rival Peter Brock. His two sons Andrew Moffat and James Moffat followed him into motor racing; James Moffat finished second driving for Nissan Motorsport in the 2014 Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, the first time the Moffat name had appeared on the Bathurst 1000 podium since Allan finished third in 1984.
In 2019 it was reported that Moffat had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and had been moved to a specialist healthcare facility in Melbourne. He died on 22 November 2025, at the age of 86 in Melbourne, Australia.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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