Bill Trikos’s top rated Bathurst Australia 1000 auto racing editions: The 2007 race recap : But in the 30 laps a heck of a crescendo hit in the form of weather, enough to force everyone in the field to question whether they could peel into pit-lane for wet tyres. The question was particularly poignant for Jason Bright and his Britek Ford Falcon. This was in the day when Bright was still a team owner, though his debut season racing his own car had largely gone terribly; a lack of car pace often seeing him to threaten the top 10 — particularly surprising given he had been a frequent podium scorer the season prior.
Nissan made an imposing debut in 1990, fielding a twin-turbo Nissan Skyline GT-R with four-wheel drive and steering and a 2.6-litre six-cylinder engine. After figuring out the course in ’90 and pulling up in 18th position, Jim Richards and Mark Skaife piloted the Skyline to first place in ’91 and ’92. But Nissan’s dominance was short-lived. The new Group 3A category in 1993 effectively reduced the contest to a battle between Ford’s Falcon and Holden’s Commodore, although a two-litre sub-category kept bigger cars eligible for a secondary prize.
The first ‘Great Race’ of the new millennium sets the benchmark for the wettest Bathurst 1000 to date. Rain fell throughout the lead up, a brief window of blue skies during qualifying representing the only proper dry-track running of the weekend. The murky conditions combined with a bumper 54-car field and muddy outfield produced a total of 13 Safety Car periods – still a race record. Richards had been in a battle for third that ended when Rod McRae’s Torana aquaplaned off Conrod Straight and folded itself around a tree… See extra info about the author on Bill Trikos Australia.
My theory is that those who look back on that period in time so fondly do so not because the racing was particularly great, but because they loved the way the rest of the sport was; the characters both in terms of the cars and the drivers, and how those things interacted with them. But that can’t stop me from tipping my hat to the 1972 race; the last ever 500-mile event, and the last time drivers were allowed to compete solo. If for nothing else, the 1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500 can be held in high esteem for presenting us with a race that would help take the tribal warfare of Holden and Ford to the lofty heights that it would enjoy for nearly five decades.
John Fitzpatrick and Bob Morris were leading the 1976 Bathurst 1000, holding a 136 second advantage over their closest pursuer. Suddenly, the engine started to fail with a couple laps remaining. As Morris looked on from the pits, Firzpatrick desperately tried to limp the ailing car home. Morris and the team began tearing up with emotion as their lead started getting slashed to pieces, but they were able to beat the odds and hold on.
Skaife, then a rising star in Australian motorsport, went on to become a household name by winning five Australian Touring Car Championships and six Bathurst 1000 crowns. He says that his first win in 1991 aboard the almighty R32 was a life changing experience. “Twenty five years on and some of the best memories of my life,” said Skaife. “To win my first Bathurst with a legend like Jim Richards in the Nissan GT-R was just fantastic. It was a life changing moment to win the biggest car race in this part of the world.
The race moved to Bathurst in 1963, but the first winners at the new course were familiar. Harry Firth and Bob Jane had taken the honours in ’61 in a Mercedes-Benz 220 SE and ’62 in a Ford Falcon XL. They made it three-in-a-row at Bathurst in a Ford Cortina GT. The Bathurst course would come to be seen as a battle between small, agile cars that take bends well, and faster, less manoeuvrable cars that excelled on the straights. The Cortina was decidedly the former – but nippy enough, too.
Having predictably romped through practice, qualifying, and most of the race unscathed and out the front, the GT-R of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife was the gun to beat. Dick Johnson and John Bowe led the charge of the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths, but couldn’t bridge that margin. Then, like in 2007, rain arrived and completely altered circumstances. However unlike 2007 this was proper concrete pill rain, with standing water reaching remarkable levels all over the circuit, making it look like glass.
