Bathurst 1000 - The Great '80s
Johnson became a household name but Brock was the one that rocked the 1980sThe 1980s was arguably the greatest decade of the The Great Race. While it’s always hard to compare eras, ponder these facts: Peter Brock won five of the 10 races, cementing his place in the Mount Panorama pantheon; Dick Johnson became an ‘overnight’ sensation and a serious player in touring car racing; and the reign of the ‘Big Bangers ended when the rules changed from Group C to international Group A regulations in 1985. In no other era did passions run as high as a wave of European teams eager to claim one of racing’s biggest prizes tripped Down Under...
The Great ’80s
The 1980s started off as the ’70’s had finished with the all-conquering combo of Peter Brock, Jim Richards and their VC Commodore winning the race by a lap.
But it was at the expense of and exciting ‘newcomer’ Dick Johnson who had started on the front row. Johnson’s spectacular ‘rock’ crash on lap 17 (in car #17) while easily leading the race in his privateer XD Falcon, his emotional response on television and subsequent wave of support (and money!) from fans and Ford, set Johnson on the road to legend status.
An “under pressure” Johnson repaid the fans' faith in 1981. He started on the front row again, pipped again by Kevin Bartlett’s mighty Camaro, and this time he and veteran co-driver John French got lucky. The race was stopped by a crash that blocked the track on lap 121.
One lap down was Allan Moffat who had switched to the tiny but quick Mazda RX-7 (with Brit Le Mans ace, Derek Bell). Brock and Richards had mechanical trouble and finished 18 laps behind winner Johnson.
“It was a fantastic car… The Falcon had a lot of grunt, but the ‘team’ consisted of [mechanic] Roy and I, and my brother Dave in his spare time. We’d never been a factory team or had the might of Ford or General Motors behind us and being the ‘Scrooge’ I am, I’m sure we could have spent a lot more money on things and done a lot better [earlier]…" -- Dick Johnson
Brock was back on top in 1982 with a new co-driver, Larry Perkins – fresh from racing in Europe including a few starts in uncompetitive F1cars.
Perkins had only planned to manage the Holden Dealer Team but was convinced to race and would become a Bathurst legend. The pair's VH Commodore was a lap ahead of the second-placed Commodore of pole-man Allan Grice and Alan Browne, with the sister HDT car of John Harvey/Gary Scott third.
The Johnson/French XE Falcon was disqualified for a technical infringement.
Johnson was back in the headlines in 1983 after a death-defying crash into the trees during the top-10 qualifying shootout. He clambered from the car and was driven back to the pits by Peter Brock (who then scored pole) but reportedly did not remember the crash or the lift back at the time!
Brock won in controversial circumstances after he and Perkins took over the sister Commodore of Harvey/Phil Brock after their car failed. A bitter Phil Brock didn’t do a lap.
Second quickest in the shoot-out was rally ace George Fury in a Nissan Bluebird Turbo…
Billed as ‘The Last of The Big Bangers’, the 1983 race was the last under local Group C regs and Brock/Perkins and HDT won their third consecutive 1000 by two laps – this time from the sister car of Harvey/David Parsons.
Moffat and Greg Hansford were third in a Mazda RX-7 also two laps down. Tellingly, the shootout and therefore pole position was won by Fury in his turbo Bluebird, while Scot Tom Walkinshaw was tenth quickest in John Goss’ V12 Jaguar XJS.
Walkinshaw must have enjoyed his experience because he turned up in 1985 with his three-car factory Jaguar squad, an army of mechanics and tons of spares… Group A rules had brought big-time European racing to Bathurst.
Walkinshaw repaid Goss with a drive and the local won with German Armin Hahne, despite dealing with a broken seat towards the end of the race.
Walkinshaw and Brit Win Percy were third and their love affair with Australia and Bathurst would soon become serious. Johnson with Larry Perkins finished a fighting fifth in their out-gunned Ford Mustang and, with Mazda withdrawing from racing, Allan Moffat did not race, which was criminal.
A bloke called John Bowe debuted at Bathurst in a turbocharged Volvo 240T but it only lasted 122 laps.
Gary Scott’s turbo Nissan Skyline RS DR30 might have claimed pole for 1986 but only a tenth behind was the redoubtable Allan Grice who proved there was still life at Holden.
Grice and Graeme Bailey won in their VK Commodore SS Group A from the similar HDT car of Harvey/Neal Lowe, but the Scott/Terry Shiel Nissan was third and on the lead lap.
Johnson/Hansford were a lap down keeping the Ford flag flying coming in fourth in their Mustang followed by Brock – paired with old sparring partner Moffat – in a VK Group A.
Sadly, Mike Burgmann died in a horror accident on Conrod Straight. The track was later changed with the addition of the Caltex Chase chicane lengthening the track slightly and reducing the race by two laps.
“The Mustang was a great little car. It’s just unfortunate the power-to-weight ratio was not the most desirable but the handling, braking and stability was superb. It was a damn good car…” -- Dick Johnson
For 1987, Bathurst became a round of the World Touring Car Championship and the top European teams headed Down Under. It was another controversial race.
The rapid German Eggenberger Motorsport Ford Sierra RS 500s dominated qualifying and the race, Brit Steve Soper and Belgian Pierre Dieudonne took the flag two laps ahead of the sister car of Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz. But both cars were disqualified due to a technical infringement and after a long legal battle the win went to the Brock/Parsons/Peter McLeod Commodore. It was Brock’s ninth victory.
The local factory Nissan Skyline DR30s of Glenn Seton/Bowe and Fury/Shiel were classified second and third.
In the Tooheys sponsored 1988 race, it was the turn of the Aussie Sierras to rule Mount Panorama with Tony Longhurst and Tomas Mezera winning by a lap from Dick Johnson/John Bowe (cross-entered with John Smith/Alfredo Costanzo in the third Dick Johnson Racing Sierra).
Colin Bond and F1 world champion Alan Jones were a further two laps behind – also in a Sierra.
The rapid turbocharged Sierras claimed the first eight positions on the grid but their fragility was exposed during the 1000 kilometres. Peter Janson and Trevor Crowe were fourth in a BMW M3 and, proving privateers still had a chance, the VL Group A Commodore of Brian Callaghan/Barry Graham was sixth but nine laps down.
The decade had begun with Dick Johnson making headlines and it ended the same way in 1989, with Johnson and Bowe winning the 30th Bathurst 1000 in the Sierra RS500 from the Allan Moffat-entered Sierra of Niedzwiedz/Frank Biela.
A lap back, in third and fourth respectively, were the Jim Richards/Mark Skaife and Fury/Anders Olofsson in Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-Rs. Sixth and seventh were the new Holden Racing Team VL Group A Commodores of Perkins/Mezera and Win Percy/Neil Crompton.
Tom Walkinshaw had indeed fallen in love with Australia and formed a new factory Holden team but it would be many years before it really tasted success.
Read more about Bathurst 50 years - The Seventies
Read more about Bathurst 50 years - The Sixties
Images supplied by www.autopics.com.au
1. Brock / Perkins - Bathurst 1982 - 1st Outright - Holden
2. Dick Johnson - Falcon Bathurst 1980
3. D. Johnson / J. French - Ford Falcon XD - Bathurst 1980 - Photographer Darren House
4. The Start of the James Hardie 100 - Bathurst 1981 - Photographer Lance J Ruting
5. Brock / Perkins Bathurst 1982 1st Outright Holden Commodore
6. Brock / Perkins Bathurst 1984 1st Outright Winner Holden Commodore VK
7. Hahne / Goss - Bathurst 1985 - Jaguar XJS
8. T. Longhurst / T. Mezera - Bathurst 1988 - 1st Outright - Ford Sierra RS500
9. Brock, Moffat, Bond, Fury, Grice, Seton, Perkins and more - Bathurst 1989
10. D. Johnson / J. Bowe - Bathurst 1989 -1st Outright - Ford Sierra RS500
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