From memory - (and that isn't always reliable), George did hold the fastest lap time in the turbo Bluebird up until the chase was added in conrod straight - to slow down the cars and keep them from becoming air borne near the bridge, and inturn, made the track longer.
I think it was Mike Burgmans death which was the decision maker to create the chase in con rod straight.
Yeah, the 2'13.85" lap that George did for pole in 1984 was the fastest timed lap on the old layout (Brock's race lap record was a 2:15-something from memory).
Caltex Chase was indeed a bandaid for what had gone on the year before, and addressed a number of concerned regarding Conrod Straight, and latterly what was then the JPS Bridge.
Up until the Supercar era, Conrod had been the site of the only car racing fatalities on Mt Panorama, and up until 1986, there had been three of them, all around the second hump, and were widely attributed to the effect of a cross-wind on a car getting tippy-toey on the crest of the hump. There had been some similar, fearsome accidents in touring cars there - Rod McRae's effort in the late stages of the 1974 race, CLive Benson-Brown, and Jim Keogh's LARGE spins in 1983 and 1982 respectively....
In 1982, when the JPS bridge was erected, Brock theorised that the bridge caused an interference in airflow at a critical point, where the quickest cars were flat, and preparing for braking, and had his own very hairy moment there. He voiced his concerns that year, during the Hardies Heroes driver briefing, commenting that the bridge footings would cause the worst of damage to any car unfortunate enough to hit it at speed - a harbinger of what would come four years later.
In 1986, drivers were complaining of how lumpy Conrod was: Peter Williamson had a MASSIVE crash under brakes on the Thursday of race week... and then Burgmann's accident in the race. Apparently the Burgmann car got air, landed off-line, and speared off, hitting the bridge at an estimated 220km/h, a massive impact. It was the first fatality in The Great Race, which by then was the only race at the track. With the world arriving the following year, and the cars going ever faster, it was time to do SOMETHING. The Chase was by no means a popular fix, but has since provided some of the most breathtaking moments in motorsport, with the kink being rated possibly the fastest corner on a track ANYWHERE.
Anyhow, the increase in length meant that it was 1990 before a car got close to George's mark, and funnily enough, Tony Longhurst only
matched it, rather than surpassing it!
