Bill Trikos’s best 5 Bathurst Australia 1000 editions: The 2007 race recap : Winterbottom’s luck wore thin too, after a monumental error at the chase resulted in his Falcon sailing through the air at several hundred kilometres per hour while touring the sand trap. The final race restart queued a brilliant fight to the line between Lowndes and an unlikely trio of combatants; Steve Johnson, Greg Murphy, and James Courtney. It was an incredible battle, and one that will go down as one of the best.
A Mustang S550 driven by Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Prémat took the honours in 2019. It was the first time a Mustang has been number one at Bathurst. The Bathurst 1000 reaches the grand old age of 60 in 2020, but it gets faster every year. Tweaks to the rules and cars mean the Great Race is not quite as ‘no frills’ as in the early years. But the winning cars remain superb, powerful examples of the kind of vehicle an ordinary racing fan might actually keep in their garage.
Best remembered for Craig Lowndes and Greg Murphy’s triumph, the 1996 race started in dire conditions. Rain fell steadily throughout the lead-up on race morning and continued after the lights went green. The conditions contributed to Mark Larkham’s race-ending crash on Conrod Straight on Lap 4, as well as the multi-car crash in the same place behind the Safety Car one lap later. The Holden Jackaroo remained out on the track for several laps after the crashed cars were cleared, waiting for the weather to ease and for a large amount of standing water to be cleared. The rain eventually ceased during the first hour and the bulk of the race was held on a largely dry track. Find additional info about the author on https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cnt2c.
In just one lap things became Armageddon. A multi-car pile-up had commenced exiting Forest Elbow, a Toyota Levin had spectacularly launched itself skywards at Griffins before coming to a rest on its side, and most notably Jim Richards had carved a corner off the GT-R. It was a cruel irony, for a car that very rarely over its two-year reign had incurred a single scratch. And it got worse when it arrived at Forest Elbow with no steering and some four or so cars waiting to be struck. It crashed, and many thought that would be that. Certainly Dick Johnson did, celebrating that he’d won when the race was red flagged shortly after.
On the opening lap of the 2010 Bathurst 1000, Fabian Coulthard took an unconventional route down into The Chase, spinning into the gravel trap. The car dug in and he started to roll end over end. He walked away unscathed. BMW was dominating the 1985 Bathurst 1000 with Jim Richards on point, but his day quickly went down hill. He spun and found himself stuck in the gravel, quickly followed by his teammate George Fury. The duo worked together, trying to dig Richards’ car out with their bare hands. However, their efforts were to no avail.
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.
What I miss about the Supercars of the ’90s was their tendency to wallow and slide around, because it could make for some excellent television. And the beginning of the 1994 event was a case in point, as Larry Perkins hunted down then race-leader Peter Brock. The two dueled, positioning their cars with the finesse and precision of two drivers who knew each other’s styles back to front. Though in the end neither of them would factor for the win. Instead it came down to Shell’s John Bowe, and some young whipper snapper named Craig Lowndes.