Bathurst 1000 - Two Teams Rule the Noughties

As a new decade unfolded it was all hail the new Kings of Mount Panorama

Bathurst in the 1990s belonged to the Holden Racing Team. The most successful touring car team in Australian motorsport history HRT has logged five Bathurst wins to date and four V8 Supercar championships. But it was also during this decade in which a new team emerged to challenge HRT’s might. The new kings, Triple Eight Engineering, went on to win three 1000s in a row and two titles.

New young names blazed trails too: Jamie Whincup, Garth Tander, Mark Winterbottom, Marcos Ambrose and Rick Kelly all become household names. They didn't stop ‘veteran’ Mark Skaife striding Bathurst like a V8 colossus, however, winning four 1000s (for a total of six).

Two Teams Rule the Noughties
Garry Rogers Motorsport had always punched above its weight, but team owner Rogers had also been an excellent talent scout – only to lose his finds to bigger teams eventually. And one of his best discoveries was Garth Tander.

In 2000, the rapid Tander and gritty teammate Jason Bargwanna won GRM’s sole 1000 to date in an VT Commodore. Paul Radisich/Jason Bright were second in a Dick Johnson Racing AU Falcon and Steven Richards/Greg Murphy were third in a Gibson Motorsport VT.

Ex-500cc World Championn Wayne Gardner, showed just how quick he could be on four wheels when (in the wet) he put the Ford Tickford Racing AU Falcon on pole by over one second from Steven Johnson. Bad weather marred the race, which was the slowest since 1974.

Former Formula Ford champion, Marcos Ambrose, returned from racing in Europe and joined Stone Brothers Racing in 2001. The Tasmanian had an immediate impact on V8Supercar, particularly in qualifying.

In 2001 Ambrose put the SBR AU Falcon on pole at Mount Panorama but in the race the car only lasted 42 laps. Honours went to the Holden Racing Team’s Mark Skaife, driving for the first and only time with 1988 winner Tony Longhurst.

It was Skaife’s third Bathurst win but his first in a Holden, which immediately redeemed him with fans after his ‘Godzilla’ Nissan wins in 1991-92. Brad Jones and Scot John Cleland were second in an AU and Greg Murphy/Todd Kelly third in a VX Commodore.

Skaife was back on top in 2002, taking pole position and the race, partnered by his racing mentor, Jim Richards in the lead HRT Commodore. Second was the Perkins Racing pairing of Steven Richards/Russell Ingall and third (in the second HRT) were the Jasons -- Bright and Bargwanna.

Commodores filled the first five places. It was a race of high attrition with big names like Craig Lowndes (who had made a disastrous defection to Gibson Motorsport and Ford in 2001), Tander and Glenn Seton failing to finish.

The 2003 race was probably the pinnacle of the rapid Kiwi Greg Murphy’s career. He and Rick Kelly won the race in their Kmart Racing VY Commodore but more sensationally, Murphy produced the ‘lap of the gods’ in the top 10 shootout.

The Kiwi's time of 2:06.8594 was over one second quicker than an astounded second quickest, John Bowe (BA Falcon). Even more sensationally it was fully two seconds quicker than Skaife’s time the year before.

Lowndes was back, this time in a Ford Performance Racing BA with Glenn Seton. Always the bridesmaid, in the latter's case, they finished second from Steve Ellery/Luke Youlden in a BA Falcon.

Murphy and Kelly backed up to win again in 2004 followed home, again, by Lowndes and Seton. What did Glenn Seton have to do to win Bathurst?

John Bowe and Brad Jones were third in their BA Falcon. In fact, what did Ford have to do to win Bathurst? Positions two to seven were filled by Falcons.

HRT had a below par race with Skaife/Todd Kelly down in 14th. The second car of Peter Brock and British star Jason Plato DNF’d when Plato clipped John Cleland’s limping Ford and rolled.

Brock did not get to start his last Bathurst; he retired from V8s and was killed in a road rally in 2006. It was an event which shocked the nation.

Lowndes snatched pole from Ambrose for the 2005 race but the two Ford drivers were still almost two seconds off Murphy’s ‘God’ lap; Murphy would start third. But the empire struck back with Skaife and Todd Kelly winning from new Kiwi sensation Jason Richards and a young driver that Garry Rogers had rejected, Jamie Whincup.

Steve Ellery scored his second Bathurst podium, with Adam Macrow, finishing third.

The race is best remembered for the bitter feud that developed between Murphy and Ambrose after the two tangled and crashed out on lap 144. The television audience watched their shouting match as the rest of the field roared past their wrecked cars.

Skaife was back to his qualifying best in 2006, edging Jason Bright by three-tenths in his HRT VZ Commodore in the shootout. But this was the year that Triple Eight Engineering made its mark on the mountain. The rising force had signed Lowndes and Whincup and the pair would own Mount Panorama for the next three years.

The Kelly brothers, Todd and Rick, were finally paired together and they finished second in their family-owned HSV Dealer Team VZ Commodore. Former F1 test driver James Courtney and Seton were third in a Stone Brothers BA Falcon.

A new top gun emerged in 2007 -- Ford Performance Racing’s new driver Mark Winterbottom claimed pole in the shootout. Winterbottom was last out and calmly bested Skaife’s time by 0.1sec.

In one of the most dramatic races at Mount Panorama, rain on lap 142 caused five cars to crash at McPhillamy Park – including Winterbottom and Skaife. A desperate battle for the win was fought out by Lowndes, Steve Johnson, Greg Murphy and James Courtney over the last two laps with Lowndes winning his third Bathurst 1000 and co-driver Whincup his second.

Winterbottom was again the man to catch over a single lap at Bathurst in 2008. Quickest in qualifying, he was just pipped by Garth Tander (teamed with Skaife in at HRT) in the shootout.

Again the FPR ace and Steven Richards got close but didn’t win the race because the Triple Eight Falcon firm of Lowndes and Whincup triumphed again, just. The fast-finishing ‘Kiwi VE’ of Murphy and Jason Richards was only two seconds behind, with Courtney/David Besnard in a Stone Brothers Ford a further three seconds in arrears.

It was a dismal day for HRT, however -- Tander/Skaife finishing 12th a lap down, and the Baird/Seton Commodore retiring on lap 146. It was Seton’s first Bathurst in a Commodore and Skaife announced his retirement from full-time racing soon after.

An on-form Tander scored pole again in 2009 from Lowndes and Winterbottom and took that form all the way to the top the podium with new teammate Will Davison.

The race started in the rain and was interrupted by eight safety car periods, mostly due to rain-induced dramas.

A crash on lap 157 brought out the final safety car and the race restarted on lap 159 with just three laps to go with Tander leading and and inspired Jason Richards hunting him down. Tander was able to hold on for the win from Richards/McConville in a Brad Jones Racing VE Commodore and Lee Holdsworth/Michael Caruso in the Garry Rogers VE.

With the quickest drivers logging low 2min 7sec laps in practice, it was expected that Greg Murphy’s miracle 2min 6sec qualifying lap record would fall in 2010. It didn’t!

Jason Bright missed a ‘six’ by 0.0003sec in practice but pole went to Winterbottom with a 2:07.5377sec lap. Triple Eight dominated the race with Lowndes (paired with Mark Skaife) taking his fifth 1000 (Skaife his sixth). Whincup, driving with Steve Owen, made it a Triple Eight one-two and McConville scored his second podium in succession, coming home third with Tander in the lead HRT Commodore.

Triple Eight’s result was the first Bathurst team one-two since the Holden Dealer Team in 1984. At 6h 12m 51sec, the race was the shortest since 1991 by seven minutes. It was also the first time the average speed had topped 160km/h.

Rain late the shootout for the 2011 Bathurst 1000 ruined the chances of the quickest drivers in qualifying to score pole position, which went to Greg Murphy in a Kelly Racing VE Commodore

But it was a dream race for young Nick Percat, co-driving with Garth Tander in his first Bathurst. The pair won by a whisker from Triple Eight’s Lowndes/Skaife and Murphy/Allan Simonsen.

It was an all-Holden podium and the winning margin of just 0.3sec was the closest non ‘form finish’ in the race’s history.

Images supplied by www.autopics.com.au

1.The Start of the Supercheap Auto 1000 - Bathurst 2006
2. Garth Tander / Jason Bargwanna - Holden VT Commodore - 1st Outright Bathurst FAI 1000 2000 - Photographer Craig Clifford
3. The Start of Bathurst 2001
4. M. Skaife & J. Richards Holden Commodore VX - Bathurst 2002 - Photographer Craig Clifford
5. M. Skaife / T. Kelly - Holden Commodore VZ - Ist Outright Bathurst 2005
6. C. Lowndes / J. Whincup - Ford Falcon - 1st Outright Bathurst 2007 - Photographer Craig Clifford
7. C. Lowndes / M. Skaife- Holden Commodore VE Bathurst 2010 - Photographer Craig Clifford
8. G. Murphy / R. Kelly - Holden Commodore - Bathurst Winner 2003 - Photographer Craig Clifford

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Bathurst 1000 - Two Teams Rule the Noughties

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