Best Bathurst

[Bigcol]

I noticed in another topic that some of you thought that the 1994 Bathurst was the best one that you had seen.
So here's a topic to let the world know what your favorite Bathurst was and why.

I don't really have a favorite, just one's that meant a little bit more than other's.
Here's my pick's.
1971... One of the most demoralising win's ever recorded against Holden. The might of the GTHO filling 7 of the first 8 position's.
Mind you the next year turned pear shaped when it rained which kept the Torana in the race.
1974... One that Ford was never supposed to win. The V8 Torana's were going to kill the Falcon's, well that's what every one was saying anyway. Somebody forgot to tell John Goss and KB. This pair should have won it the year earlier but for a holed radiator.
1977... What more can i say on this Ford absolutely kicked Holden's head in that day. So much so that after Jackie Ikxs destroyed Moffat's brakes he cruised for the last 20 lap's and still won.
1981... The legend begun. This is a good one . Dick with a budget about a tenth of the size of MHDT and showing every one the way home.
1994... Dick and JB at one stage were as far back as 15th and nearly going to go a lap down. This was Dick's greatest race in my opinion. Dick in the middle of the day during his stint's put this car in the lead. Dick was the fastest man out there all day.
Of the rest 1989 was good seeing a Sierra take the lead on the first lap and never get passed for the duration of the race.
1998 was not to bad but only because HRT fell over it's own feet so badly that day

 

[Rob 18]

Good topic bigcol!
For me it has to be 77 & I'm sure still to this day it haunts Holden like no other. Holden have tried & tried to replicate that result but 27 years on they still haven't achieved this.
94,81 & 89 would be next on the list for obvious reasons.
1992 has to be right up there as well too bigcol & that is probably the best I,ve ever seen Dick drive! Throwing the RS500 with near on 600hp through the rear wheels around a wet & soggy Mt Panorama & actually pulling time back on the Richards Skaife GTR before Richards eventully put the GTR Nissan in the wall. DJ & Bowey both drove brilliantly that day!
Hopefully 2004 will be another we can add to the list.

 

[TRU BLU]

1994 - edge of my seat all day best i had seen Dick drive since the Sierra days. That EB blowing black smoke awesome.
1977 - a great day will never be forgotten
1989 - also a great day after many visits to the mountain it was my first victory at the track. Also a relief as DJR totally deserved that win after dominating for 2 years with sierras
1974- 1973- loved the coupes
1981- totaly deserved after what happenend the year before the car was doing it east even though there was a lot of talk that it was leaking oil. But as Dick explained it only dropped oil when the engine was shut down. Dick was very angry as they lost a lot of time in the pits looking for the problem he said there is nothing wrong with the car
1998- also a great day to see hrt dominate and then end up in the sand so close to the finish is awesome

 

[luvgreens tuf]

Being a one eyed ford man,1977 the 1-2 finish,but after that anything djr won,will do me.

 

[Mitchell]

I was born in 1987, so... 1994 is the first Bathurst i can remember watching, and is definitely my favourite... Ive since watched it back on tape, and those last couple of Laps with Lowndes and Bowe going at it were magic...

 

[Henry]

So many classics from which to pick...
Moffat's domination of 1971...
Brock's first in '72 against a quality field
Moffat and the great "Haberfield Fats" in 1973...
The 1-2...
1981, when justice was done...
1985 and the excitement of the first Group A Great Race...
1989 and one car lead every lap... and it was a Ford....
1994 (my first and so far only pilgrimage to the Hill) was an epic...
1996 and the first twenty-five laps in the wet showed why Alan Jones was once the world's best racing driver
But for sheer drama I reckon 1995 was a RIPPER...
While John Bowe had finally claimed the ATCC crown, to compliment the other titles claimed in his stellar career, and DJR had taken out the Sandown 500, LP's dominance of the sessions leading up to the race was ominous. Despite losing out in the race for pole following Brock's crash in the Top Ten, Perkins contented himself with fastest times in the morning warmup.

Two minutes into the race and the Castrol Holden Team's chances were shot. Larry nursed the car around on a flat tyre - punctured in a skirmish with a slow-starting Lowndes - giving his crew a terse assessment of its condition via the two-way. When he rejoined the race after a lightning stop for fresh rubber and no more than a cursory check of the front end, he was just on two minutes behind the leaders. After a sighter during which he proved to his satisfaction that the car was straight and sound, Larry Perkins went for it. He went for it, just as he had the previous year in a masterful display of car control and fearless determination, lap after lap. Even when Jim Richards, showing fine touch and speed in what he knew was his last race with the Winfield team, passed him to put him a lap down, LP never slowed, never faltered.

He and Russell Ingall, in his Castrol debut, fresh back from Europe went for it for every single clear racing lap they contested that day.

Even as others faltered, through mechanical attrition (HRT and Winfield), driver error (Coke), stupid clashes (sadly, #17 - fighting foolishly for the lead with half the race yet to run)the Castrol boys went for it

When a late pace car put the 5th (IIRC) placed Perkins in sight of the race lead,m the fight was on, the steely-eyed Perkins - already a four-time victor at Bathurst, a former FF and Euro F3 champion, the man who Tom Walkinshaw left in a Jag XJR sorts car one dark, cold, rainy night at Le Mans simply because of the men entered in that car, Larry was the one who could do it and do it well - slammed past his rivals in quick succession, and hared off in grim and unrelenting pursuit of Glenn Seton.

Glenn hadn't given up though. At the green, he gave it to the leading Falcon, gave to it harder than he had all day, and ran away and hid. The #11 car wasn't in the hunt...
...until the note of the #30 car's small-block Ford went flat and hoarse, a valve spring surrendering to the Big Ask.

And Larry was through, unchallenged to the flag, back from the dead, from a lap behind, for a win like no other before or since.

Yeah, '95 was a good'un.

 

[Bigcol]

quote:Originally posted by Henry

So many classics from which to pick...
Moffat's domination of 1971...
Brock's first in '72 against a quality field
Moffat and the great "Haberfield Fats" in 1973...
The 1-2...
1981, when justice was done...
1985 and the excitement of the first Group A Great Race...
1989 and one car lead every lap... and it was a Ford....
1994 (my first and so far only pilgrimage to the Hill) was an epic...
1996 and the first twenty-five laps in the wet showed why Alan Jones was once the world's best racing driver
But for sheer drama I reckon 1995 was a RIPPER...
While John Bowe had finally claimed the ATCC crown, to compliment the other titles claimed in his stellar career, and DJR had taken out the Sandown 500, LP's dominance of the sessions leading up to the race was ominous. Despite losing out in the race for pole following Brock's crash in the Top Ten, Perkins contented himself with fastest times in the morning warmup.

Two minutes into the race and the Castrol Holden Team's chances were shot. Larry nursed the car around on a flat tyre - punctured in a skirmish with a slow-starting Lowndes - giving his crew a terse assessment of its condition via the two-way. When he rejoined the race after a lightning stop for fresh rubber and no more than a cursory check of the front end, he was just on two minutes behind the leaders. After a sighter during which he proved to his satisfaction that the car was straight and sound, Larry Perkins went for it. He went for it, just as he had the previous year in a masterful display of car control and fearless determination, lap after lap. Even when Jim Richards, showing fine touch and speed in what he knew was his last race with the Winfield team, passed him to put him a lap down, LP never slowed, never faltered.

He and Russell Ingall, in his Castrol debut, fresh back from Europe went for it for every single clear racing lap they contested that day.

Even as others faltered, through mechanical attrition (HRT and Winfield), driver error (Coke), stupid clashes (sadly, #17 - fighting foolishly for the lead with half the race yet to run)the Castrol boys went for it

When a late pace car put the 5th (IIRC) placed Perkins in sight of the race lead,m the fight was on, the steely-eyed Perkins - already a four-time victor at Bathurst, a former FF and Euro F3 champion, the man who Tom Walkinshaw left in a Jag XJR sorts car one dark, cold, rainy night at Le Mans simply because of the men entered in that car, Larry was the one who could do it and do it well - slammed past his rivals in quick succession, and hared off in grim and unrelenting pursuit of Glenn Seton.

Glenn hadn't given up though. At the green, he gave it to the leading Falcon, gave to it harder than he had all day, and ran away and hid. The #11 car wasn't in the hunt...
...until the note of the #30 car's small-block Ford went flat and hoarse, a valve spring surrendering to the Big Ask.

And Larry was through, unchallenged to the flag, back from the dead, from a lap behind, for a win like no other before or since.

Yeah, '95 was a good'un.

Sorry Henry i remember this race for all the wrong reason's.
Seto retiring 9 laps from the finish.
Granted it was probably Perkins[)] finest hour but the fact that he was only around 100m behind the leader's at the first safety car period is an absolute travesty. I have said it on a lot of different forum's that a track just over 6km's long should have 2 or 3 safety car's. With technology the way it is today it could be done quite easily. That way every body has to race hard all day, not just cruise till late in the day. Perkins[)] and Ingall[}] were given a 6k freebie that day

 

[mick]

like to join in but the state im in at bathurst can never remember and when i do get home i dont want to remember the hangover last,s for a week

 

[TRU BLU]

Good points about the safety car at Bathurst bigcol i totally agree with you.
I cant put 1995 anywhere near my top Bathursts either im still feeling the pain its another one that got away from us just like 1999 and 2000

 

[Henry]

I didn't worry too much about which car had won at the time (if a Holden had to win, Larry was more than good enough for me) as the race held enough drama and emotion to hold it up as an epic in my books. Re the pace car, I recall that somewhere in the midst of it all, LP caught a dud one (I think this was where Richo put the lap on him to start with).

While without the benefit of the pace car, the 11 Commodore may never have been in the hunt for outright honours, the "no pad change" strategy certainly stole a huge march on the rest of the pack. Perhaps the single pace car is a flawed procedure, but then as now, it was all we had... you play the cards you're dealt, and that day they fell Larry's way. (actually I forget where I heard this one - may have been attrubited to Dick at some stage - but it certainly describes how the game went that day for DJR... "If sh!ts were trumps, I'd have had a full hand!")

 

[Bigcol]

quote:Originally posted by TRU BLU

Good points about the safety car at Bathurst bigcol i totally agree with you.
I cant put 1995 anywhere near my top Bathursts either im still feeling the pain its another one that got away from us just like 1999 and 2000

I couldn't believe how empty i felt when i saw the first picture on the tv of the Rat with the wheel hanging out of the guard.
One of the mate's just said "this is in the bag" just as "i said don't count you're chicken's till they hatch" it was over.
I think it was also 9 laps from the finish which has been a bit of a hoodoo for Ford over the year's with Seton's engine in 95

 

[n/a]

. I have not seen a lot of Bathursts races so for me it will be 2002. Why 02? I never seen HRT's pitcrew suffer such great deal of anxiety and fear when Skaife/J Richard's car's water temperature at a record high. More and more plastic bags being sucked into the radiator as the final few laps ticks by as gusty winds blow those bags into the race track. No body would know if Skaife could finish the race. It was unbelievable that Skaife/ J Richard's did win under such extraordinary circumstances.

 

[Bigcol]

Hoonstoppers it was probbaly lucky i wasn't there.
I would have got down to Woolies real quick and stole a couple of thousand plastic bags and dumped them all out in front of Skaife
Revenge for the rock

 

[n/a]

quote:Originally posted by bigcol

Hoonstoppers it was probbaly lucky i wasn't there.
I would have got down to Woolies real quick and stole a couple of thousand plastic bags and dumped them all out in front of Skaife
Revenge for the rock

Please No! Skaife started racing in Nissans but the V8 formula forced him to choose to drive with Holdens. Brock was a Holden man through and through. If you were there at Bathurst that year, you could have brought a few pair of sessors along with the plastic bags you mentioned at Woolworths superemarket and throw all you have got in front of Brock instead.

 

[Rob 18]

[/quote] Brock was a Holden man through and through.
[/quote]

Except for his time with Ford & BMW & Volvo & Porshe & etc, etc. One thing about Peter Brock and that he does whatever is best for Peter Brock & usually nothing & nobody else matters.

 

[n/a]

So why did Brock decided to drive a career in mostly holdens unlike Jim Richards, John Bowe? Brock was made famous for racing Toranas and Commodores. Ford, BMW Volvo etc were surely what he also has driven but wasn't successful with those. Skaife was successful with driving Nissans and Holdens so I don't regard Skaife as a holden man through and through. We can also laid claim that Dick Johnson is a Ford man through and through even though he raced in National Associations Stock Car Auto Racing, Holdens and Mazdas (

Brock had a unfair advantage in Bathurst 1980 because of someone acted didn't care about true sportsmanship fair dinkum motor racing. I'm not saying Brock cheated, he deserved the win, however Johnson that year was as competitive as any but was clearly robbed of any result. It was never fair what happend to Johnson.

 

[Bigcol]

Hoonstoppers Brock had an unfair advantage most of his racing career with the then Holden Dealer Team.
Their budget was way bigger than anybody's and Holden had a win at any cost attitude. Holden didn't care how much they had to spend
.An attitude that saw them win a heap of lop-sided Bathurst's were there was 3 and 4 times the amount of torana's than Falcon's.At the time of the super car scare Holden kept thge development of the V8 torana in full swing, when Ford and Chyrsler had pulled the plug on race special's like the GTHO's and E49's.
Brocky, Richo snr and Perkins would not have won as many Bathurst's if the level of proffessionalism and competition was as high back then as it is today.

 

[n/a]

Bathurst 2002 was arguably the best race for Skaife and Holden fans. everything was in Skafe/J Richard's favour until the dying stages. Luckily Mobil 1 provided all the protection they need. They were able to kept the engine going despite the high water temp.

 

[Doug]

After reading your posts on both sites, Hoony, I have to ask - Do you work for Mobil, if not, You should!!

 

[n/a]

bigcol, you might also consider one of the reasons why Brock had won 9 times at Bathurst is because he excels in the wet.