 In 1969 Harry Firth was considered by those at Ford to be 'too old' and was replaced as Ford Works Team boss by Al Turner, an American more known in Drag racing than circuit racing.Within a short time he had crossed over to General Motors Holden (GMH) to become manager of the new Holden Dealer Team, which despite the "Dealer" name (and Harry's claims on the ABC's Four Corners program in 1970 that as team boss he worked for a so-called "Dealer's Council"
) was actually a full works team backed by Holden and set up by GMH executive John Bagshaw.Because of General Motors worldwide factory ban on motorsport at the time (dating back to the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans disaster that killed 80 people), the team's cash flow from Holden had to come through the 'back door' to avoid alerting GM headquarters in Detroit.