By Dave Di Somma , Harness News Desk
It’s four decades since Tony Herlihy was crowned World Champion and no he does not remember it like yesterday.
“I mean it was 40 years ago,” says Herlihy, “c’mon there’s been a few races since then!”
What he does recall though was the elation of victory.
“I was picked up on a few shoulders and what have you .. it was great to win obviously.”
“It’s like any sport if you are at the top it’s a great thing”
It was 1985 and the World Driving Championship was held jointly by Australia and New Zealand. The two Kiwis involved in the championship were Herlihy and Robert Cameron.
Cameron went in as defending champion, having won at Macau in 1983.
Herlihy’s recollection of the specifics is a bit hazy but he knows it went to the wire.
“I ran fourth and he ran fifth – that sort of thing – in one of the late races,”
Records show that Herlihy scraped home with 104 points with Cameron on 103.
“I was only young at the time,” says Herlihy, “it was a big deal.”
Herlihy would have been 26 then.
At the time he was New Zealand’s leading driver, having won the 1985 premiership with a record 112 wins. He was the second youngest to win it behind Maurice “The Maestro” Holmes.
He has gone on to be New Zealand’s most successful driver ever with 3715 wins (as of September 2025).
1985 was the first of four World Driving Championships Herlihy competed in. He was seventh in 1987 (Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway), fifth in the USA in 1995 and sixth in Sweden and Finland in 2001.
“They are a great experience, the comraderie and you end up with some lifelong friends,” says Herlihy.
So how does he rate Blair Orange’s chances of becoming the seventh Kiwi to win the WDC this year?
“He’s a definite chance.”
But there is more to the Championship than local knowledge and racing in familiar conditions.
“There’s a lot of luck involved,” says Herlihy, “if you are lucky enough to draw a nice horse in a few of the heats it certainly helps because they are all good drivers.”
So what he rate winning the WDC compared to all his achievements in the sport?
“I’m not saying it’s a New Zealand Cup but it rates right up there.”
Herlihy of course knows the experience of winning both, having taken out the country’s biggest race three times with Chokin (1993), Christopher Vance (1991) and Luxury Liner (1988).
