Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed...

[Henry]

Bathurst 1983 was a very ordinary sort of meeting for DJR. The Hardie's Heroes crash obviously ruined the whole shooting match, by desroying the Greens-Tuf Falcon, just as things were starting to look good for the team's chances. Their race in the replacement Harris/Cooke Falcon was an absolute non-event, but at least Andrew Harris was rewarded for his assistance by snaring the Rookie of the Year award for his finishing position in the ex-Barry Lawrence Commodore.

However from there on, there was little joy for either Dick Johnson Racing or Andrew Harris as a series of events unfolded in the wake of the 83 Great Race that made all concerned wonder if they wouldn't have been better off staying at home for the October long weekend that year. Can anyone recall what happened in the week following Bathurst 83?

As another little turn on things, identify the previous connection between DJR, the Harris/Cooke Falcon XE and Mount Panorama crashes. There's a couple of degrees of seperation.

 

[Rob 18]

quote:Originally posted by Henry

As another little turn on things, identify the previous connection between DJR, the Harris/Cooke Falcon XE and Mount Panorama crashes. There's a couple of degrees of seperation.

The Harris/Cooke Falcon was involved in a similar incident as #17 the year prior in the hands of its former owner Bob Morris. Final practice on saturday afternoon, Forest Elbow to if I remember correctly. The car was considered to be to badly damaged to race on Sunday & was withdrawn from the event.
The car was later sold to Andrew Harris who repaired the George Shephard built XE Falcon & the rest now is Bathurst history.

 

[Doug]

Funnily enough, george Shepard was DJR crew chief in 83, and sang high praises of the Ex Morris Falcon, which was in turn a dog. Furthermore, the trailer carrying the wreck of greens tuf Mark 1 rolled on its way back to brisbane.

 

[Henry]

Yep, the Morris/Fitzpatrick XE hit the wall at Forrest's Elbow in the last practice session in 82, bouncing back into the door of an Rx-7 driven by one Paul Jones (who drove the very same XE in the 84 race BTW).

After the 83 race, the wreck was loaded onto Andrew Harris' trailer for the trip back to Daisy Hill, while Kermit Mark 2 rode in the transporter (part of the whole deal was that Dick would give the car a freshen-up post-race). The hitch on the trailer carrying the wreck borkew and the whole shooting match fell in a heap, wiping out some old lady's garden and fence (which Dick had to pay to get fixed). When they finally arrived back in Qld, they found that they had been burgled while they were away... similarly, so had Andrew Harris' workshop.

As for Kermit Mark 2... it had been a dog. All the XE's had aerodynamic dramas in 1982, and it took a good while for anyone to get a handle on the Watts linkage rear end, which was a real bugger for bump steer initially (not helped by the big rubber they were trying to squeeze on their rims). She all came good in the end though...