SYDNEY - Australian motor racing legend Peter Brock felt the best part of his life was ahead on him and hoped to spend a large part of it helping and inspiring disadvantaged children.
Brock, 61, died today while competing in the three-day Targa West rally near Perth when he appeared to lose control of his high-powered Daytona Coupe in bushland and smashed side-on into a tree.
In a television interview in August last year, Brock said he was feeling good about life and felt he still had a lot to offer the world.
"I would think that I've got a lot to offer the world around me and that the best parts of my life are now beginning to unfold because I know that who I am is being reflected exactly by my actions," Brock told Andrew Denton on the ABC's Enough Rope program.
Brock said he was looking forward to setting up a program to help young people who were interested in making a career out of sport.
"One thing that I'd really like to be able to get involved with is schemes that give kids hope, give them a bit of inspiration, give them a bit of understanding there is another way," he said.
"Perhaps to have some people talking to them that show them that ... successful people aren't always born with a silver spoon in their mouth, that sports people are there exceeding, succeeding in sport because of their determination and their application, their commitment and their courage to press on when there's a lot of reasons why they shouldn't.
"Because I know that I've got a lot of good things that can happen, but it has to be my passion, my energy, my impetus that is going to make it all work."
Brock said he hoped that in nine years' time, at 70 years of age, the initiative would have helped many young people.
"Hopefully what I'm talking about here today will have come to fruition and it will have worked out pretty well," he said.
"I'm feeling pretty damn good about life to be honest with you."
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