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Bathurst - Mount
Panorama
Bathurst
is 210 kilometres west of Sydney, it has a population of less than 30,000
and is relatively unknown except for a famous race at a place a short distance
from the town called Mount Panorama. The six kilometre anti clockwise track
which is normally a public road was first used in 1938, with Easter Sunday
motorcycle racing. However World War II intervened and put a stop
to racing until 1947 when the Australian Grand Prix was held there and
was used again in 1952 and 1954 for this event. However these days the
feature event of the Mount Panorama circuit is the Bathurst 1000 (ex 500
mile now kilometre), which started in 1963 and was held on the first Sunday
of October each year for touring cars. That was until someone decided
that Super Tourers were the real Touring Cars but 155,000 people who watched
trackside in 1999 reckon the real cars come out to play in November, the
V8's
The
Great Race was first held in 1960 at Phillip Island as the Armstrong 500
and was originally over 130 laps or 500 miles and designed as the ultimate
endurance test for production cars. The early races were put into
classes according to the cost to the public, that way the public knew what
their buying dollar would bring in terms of performance and reliability.
The
First winner was this PAX Vauxhall Cresta.
John
Roxburg/Frank Coad
The Bathurst
circuit was found after the Phillip Island circuit was rutting and crumbling
and in such a state of disrepair it would cost to much to rebuild.
The thought was that the larger engined cars would be harder on tyres and
brakes and even out any power advantages with the four cylinder cars being
far more economical on all aspects. But the Mini Cooper S victory in 1966
was in fact the last time a normally aspirated 4 cylinder car has taken
outright line honours at the Bathurst classic.
This
was the last nomally aspirated 4 cylinder to win.
Bob
Holden/Rauno Aaltonen
In 1967
the XR Falcon V8 won for Harry Firth and Fred Gibson (now Gibson motorsport
boss) with the new Holden Monaro GTS taking out the following year. 1969
saw what was billed as the decider as the Ford V8 and the Holden V8 had
one a peice, the Monaro GTS 350 took this one out and the Ford verses Holden
was in full swing. Allan Moffat then dominated the race in 1970 and 1971
to create the Falcon GTHO legend. Holden had by this stage dropped the
V8 from its racing program to race a cheaper to build light weight car
powered by a six cylinder, triple carburetted engine, the LJ Torana XU-1
in which Peter Brock won in 1972 thanks to its superior fuel economy and
handling in the wet conditions.
The
winning HDT HT GTS 350 Monaro
Colin
Bond/Tony Roberts won in 1969.
Bathurst
was now seen as the most important race to the three major car companies
(Ford, Holden and Chrysler) with the catch phrase being, "What wins on
Sunday sells on Monday".They all had there road version specials under
way, Ford had the Phase Four Falcon GTHO, Holden the XU-2 (a V8 powered
LJ Torana) and Chrysler had the Charger V8 but the government getting worried
over the public getting on the roads with these weapons decided to ban
such projects (this included V8 Recreational Vehicle's).
Bathurst
became metric in 1973 and was lengthened to 1000 kilometres (630 miles)
with Brock in his Torana looking the likely race winner Doug Chivas was
told to stay out and do another lap but this led to the XU1 running out
of fuel while coming down Conrod Straight and he had to push it the last
bit into there pits which allowed Moffat to take the lead and the win in
a XA Falcon GT. The XB Falcon GT won in 1974 driven by Goss and Bartlett
leading home two new Holden Torana V8's. Holden reversed these back to
back wins with there own, 1975 it was Peter Brock as a privateer who needed
to win the race just to pay the bills and in 1976 it was Bob Morris.
SLR 5000 (Peter Brock/Brian
Sampson) in '75
SLR
(Bob Morris/John Fitzpatrick) in '76
Moffat
then engineered the famous classic Ford 1-2 victory in 1977 but after Brock
returned to the Holden Dealer Team he won from 1978 - 1984 with the only
miss being in 1981 when Dick Johnson won a shortened race (120 laps). The
race was stopped after Bob Morris and Christine Gibson in XD Falcons collided
at McPhillamy Park to cause a multiple pile up and blockage to the track.
The track was widened at McPhillamy Park after this.
A9X
(Peter Brock/Jim Richards) in '78
XD
(Dick Johnson/John French) in 1981
One of
the most spectacular crashes was during qualifying when Dick Johnson went
through the trees at Forest Elbow in 1983, safety fences were installed
all the way around the circuit and the pit entrance moved from Pit Straight
to the end of Conrod Straight before the next event.
1984
saw the Group A's for the first time but not as outright contenders as
they ran in a class of there own with the Rovers winning and Brock and
Perkins taking there 3rd Bathurst in a row. The Group A's started from
the front of the grid for the first time in 1985 anf this was bad for the
Ford Falcon, Nissan Bluebird, Mazda RX7 and the Chevrolet Camaro which
were replaced with Jaguars, BMWs and Volvo Turbos. The BMW, despite winning
the Australian Touring Car Championship, ran second to the Tom Walkinshaw
Jaguars in 1985. Allan Grice drove a Commodore to the win in 1986 during
which a fatal race accident on Conrod Straight with Mike Burgmann hitting
the Bridgestone bridge. Next year the Caltex Chase was added to the
circuit, not to limit the speed down Conrod Straight but to reduce the
length of time cars travelled at high speed. The subsequent addition of
the chase reduced the number of laps at the Bathurst 1000 classic to 161.
Alan
Grice/Graeme Bailey winning Commodore.
Two European
Ford Sierra Turbo's arrived in 1987 and blitzed everyone but the race officials
when there was an irregularity in the fuel so the win was handed to a surprised
Peter Brock. The Sierras were often described as hand grenades but they
held together in 1988 and 1989 but broke in 1990 to give the Commodore
another win. Nissan had fully developed the ultimate Group A race car,
the twin turbo six cylinder 4WD Nissan GT-R, these were lightening and
Nissan won twice, in 1991 and in 1992 when torrential rain lashed the circuit
and caused chaos as cars on slick tyres spun off the circuit at an alarming
rate. The race was red flagged after the 143rd lap only for the sun to
reappear within ten minutes!
The
rules were changed to proclude cars like Godzilla and the Ford verses Holden
battles were renewing interest again in touring car racing. By 1993 turbos
were no more and Larry Perkins became a hero by beating former Nissan drivers,
Jim Richards and Mark Skaife. In 1994 Johnson and John Bowe won the race
in a Falcon over a 20 year old rookie, Craig Lowndes, and in 1995 Perkins
reaffirmed his hero status when he drove from last place to win maybe the
greatest drive ever.
The
1996 race commenced in a downpour, but 22 year old Craig Lowndes and 24
year old Greg Murphy weren't phased and dominated to become the youngest
drivers to win, and Lowndes became only the second driver, after Peter
Brock, to win the Touring Car Championship, Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000
in the same year, all in his rookie year.
This what the rest of
the field saw of Peter Brock
and patners in '72 '75
'78 '79 '80 '82 '83 '84 '87
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