Nine-time Bathurst 1000 winner Peter Brock has split with his partner Beverley after 28 years together.
Brock, 60, announced the separation on Monday blaming the heavy demands of his life in the public eye.
The champion race driver, known as the King of the Mountain for his domination of the Bathurst event between 1972 and 1987, said he and Bev would remain friends.
It is with great difficulty and sadness that, after 28 years, Peter and Bev Brock have advised their separation, the pair said in a statement.
As a result of the continual demands on his life in the public eye, Peter finds that he is in need of time on his own.
This is not an easy decision for Bev to accept, although she recognises and supports Peter’s need to take this step.
Both intend to maintain a mutually respectful and amicable friendship in the future.
Please respect the privacy of both parties and that of their family at this time.
The pair did not marry, but Bev took on Peter’s last name many years ago. They have three children – sons Jamie and Robert and daughter Alexandra.
Apart from his success at Bathurst, Brock won three Australian Touring Car championships and took out the Sandown Endurance Classic on nine occasions.
He also won the Repco Round Australia Trial in 1979.
After he retired from motor racing, he and Bev established the Peter Brock Foundation, providing support to a wide range of community programs with a particular emphasis on less fortunate young people.
Bev also wrote a book about Brock’s exploits entitled Peter Brock – Living with a Legend, which was published last year.
In an interview last year, Bev said Brock’s success had placed him on a pedestal for many fans, but she said she wanted to show the champion’s more human side.
People see him as this god, this icon, and what he could do they could never do, she said.
I just wanted them to understand he’s a human like everybody else and he’s had to meet his challenges.
She described him as a determined, philosophical man whose great successes in life and sport have been the result of much hard work.
Everybody sees him as this most amazing, positive person, which he is, she said.
But to be out there and to be positive, he actually goes through some really gut-wrenching, self-examining times where he’s full of doubts just like everybody else.
In addition to details about Brock’s racing career, the book offered an intimate look at the couple’s relationship and life together.
Describing Brock as a red blooded male , Bev reveals how their relationship had until now weathered the constant attention from fans and women who literally threw themselves at the handsome race car driver’s feet.