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Post by Bundy on Jul 30, 2012 12:09:38 GMT 10
Count down is currently on the V8 supercars official site: At no. 1 is my favourite (for obvious reasons - got me interested in the V8s; first ever race watched) When Seton’s Ford Gave Up The Ghost
TODAY we kick off the countdown of 50 Awesome Bathurst Moments and we rewind back to the 1995 Tooheys 1000 and the heartbreaking tale of Glenn Seton coming so close to winning the race that ultimately eluded him in a Hall of Fame career.
Seton had a bonus placed on the line if he could win that year – $30,000 cash or the Cortina that his father Bo had won the race in back 30 years beforehand in 1965.
Paired with David ‘Skippy’ Parsons in the #30 PJ Falcon, Seton was in the box seat late in the race, leading with just 10 laps to go when his engine cried enough and he could only watch as Larry Perkins swept by to collect the lead and, eventually, victory.
With his car limping to a halt on the approach to The Cutting, Seton could only sit and speak to Channel 7’s commentators via his in-car camera of the devastation of coming so close, yet not winning The Great Race.
It was a heartbreaking way to lose a motor race and played out for all to see on national television but, the grace of the 1993 and 1997 Australian Touring Car Champion shone through as he honoured the request to speak to Channel 7 live on air during his most crushing of career moments.
It was awesome television, but in such a sad way …
Always a contender in the race, Seton would never win the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and had his last start in 2010, though he did finally score a win in a Falcon on Sunday at Bathurst last year in a Touring Car Masters race.
And, appropriately, it was with the #30 on his door …
Keep checking back to the BigPond Sport V8 Supercars website every day for the next Awesome Bathurst Moment as we count down to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
www.v8supercars.com.au/championship/newsarticle/when-setons-ford-gave-up-the-ghost/tabid/70/newsid/12690/default.aspx
2nd Memorable moment in the count-down: When Sir Jack Got Rammed By The Dolomite
OUR second of 50 Awesome Bathurst Moments today comes from the 1976 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Mount Panorama.
Three-time Formula 1 World Champion Jack Brabham and fellow F1 great Stirling Moss were brought out of retirement to share an L34 Torana for that year’s Bathurst classic.
It was a PR bonanza to have two of the biggest names in world motorsport lining up on the grid in Australia’s ‘Great Race’, with Moss making his return to racing after a major accident in 1962 that had stopped his career in its tracks.
They had a denim-stitched-painted blue Torana for their Mountain expedition and Brabham qualified the car 10th on the grid – not a bad effort for his touring car debut – and it was be the 1959, 1960 and 1966 World Champion that started the race.
But then came a problem as the field set off on the 163-lap journey – Brabham had somehow jammed his gearbox and selected two gears at once!
As the field roared off the grid around him, Brabham worked desperately to rectify the problem and get his car moving.
But the Torana went nowhere and was slammed into from behind by Ballarat driver John Dellaca, who had started 36th in his Triumph Dolomite and was unsighted by the pack of cars between he and the stalled L34.
It was a total disaster!
Both cars were able to be repaired and return to the race, though the Torana only completed 37 laps before its engine blew.
Moss limped back to the pits, but in doing so covered the track in thick blankets of smoke, earning the ire of his fellow drivers!
Keep checking back to the BigPond Sport V8 Supercars website every day for the next Awesome Bathurst Moment as we count down to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
www.v8supercars.com.au/championship/newsarticle/when-sir-jack-got-rammed-by-the-dolomite/tabid/70/newsid/12694/default.aspx
Shame as that would have been awesome to see those two greats of the sport put in a drive which was capable of matching their world championship winning feats...
At no.3 on the count-down list it is the JPS BMWs of Richards and Fury... When The BMWs Played Sandcastles
OUR third of 50 Awesome Bathurst Moments today comes from the 1985 James Hardie 1000 at Mount Panorama.
Jim Richards and the JPS BMW team had swept all before them in the first year of Group A rules and had dominated the Australian Touring Car Championship – but their luck at Bathurst went the other way.
In an amazing sequence of events, both team cars – driven by Richards and George Fury – slipped off on oil and into the sand trap at Hell Corner – at the same time on lap 40!
In the ultimate story of bad team luck, Richards had been leading the race and was looking good to complete the 163 laps in three pit stops and thus be a winning shot against the other contenders who looked to have to do four stops, but that mattered for little as he and Fury were then forced to dig their own cars out of the sand!
This, of course, was in the days before Safety Cars, so the race roared on without them.
Eventually they were permitted assistance to remove the cars and rejoin the race, but too much time had been lost.
Richards and co-driver Tony Longhurst eventually finished fourth, three laps down on the winning Jaguar of John Goss and Armin Hahne.
It was a case of what might have been for the BMW crew that year on the Mountain …
Keep checking back to the BigPond Sport V8 Supercars website every day for the next Awesome Bathurst Moment as we count down to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
www.v8supercars.com.au/championship/newsarticle/when-the-bmws-played-sandcastles/tabid/70/newsid/12695/default.aspx When you consider just how dominant they were in the regular ATCC championship, almost seems cruel to deny them the big one at Bathurst! |
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Post by wrighty05 on Aug 9, 2012 22:23:35 GMT 10
Some of these have been great.
Murphy's lap of the gods was today.
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Post by Bundy on Aug 9, 2012 23:04:07 GMT 10
Some of these have been great. Murphy's lap of the gods was today. Yeah I've been enjoying them too...here is that Murph one you mentioned. OUR 13th of 50 Awesome Bathurst Moments today comes from the Top 10 Shootout for the 2003 Bob Jane TMarts Bathurst 1000 – and it’s one that will be forever burnt into the memories of those who witnessed it.
Kiwi Greg Murphy had won Bathurst twice before, but in 2003 he and young co-driver Rick Kelly were considered big chances for the race in their Kmart Racing Commodore.
They had been fast throughout practice and qualifying, but no one – not even Murphy – could have predicted what would happen when he rolled out onto the track on Saturday afternoon in the Top 10 Shootout.
By the time the #51 Commodore flew through the first timing sector, it was clear that this lap was something very, very special.
By the end of his 6.213-kilometre run, Murphy had not only take pole, but become the fastest man in history (at that point) to lap the Mount Panorama circuit, punching out a mind-bending 2m06.8594s lap to be more than a second faster than John Bowe.
It was simply off the charts!
All of Murphy’s rivals knew how special the lap had been, so much so that they filled pit lane to clap the pole-sitter back down pit lane after his run.
It remains one of the most unbelievable moments in Bathurst 1000 history.
Despite the mark no longer being the fastest time ever set by a V8 Supercar, it will forever hold a special place in race history considering the quantum leap it was on his rivals and that it was set under the spotlight of the Saturday afternoon fight for pole position.
It was dubbed Murphy’s ‘Lap of the Gods’ and, amazingly, could have been better had he not missed a gearshift exiting the Dipper – true!
Murphy and Kelly went on to win the race the next day, leading 120 of the 161 laps to convert the pole into a dominant victory.
Keep checking back to the BigPond Sport V8 Supercars website every day for the next Awesome Bathurst Moment as we count down to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
www.v8supercars.com.au/championship/newsarticle/when-murphy-clocked-his-lap-of-the-gods/tabid/70/newsid/12754/default.aspx
Interesting that one of the 'memorable moments' has been the Richards v Richards 2 ltr touring car battle in 1998...while it was a good race, I am not sure it qualifies for memorable moments for 'V8' Bathurst races  |
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Post by wrighty05 on Aug 10, 2012 11:06:44 GMT 10
It's just Bathurst, doesn't matter if it's v8's or whatever.
The Nissan that was featured today in 1992 wasn't a V8!
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Post by Bundy on Aug 10, 2012 11:41:03 GMT 10
It's just Bathurst, doesn't matter if it's v8's or whatever. The Nissan that was featured today in 1992 wasn't a V8! But at least it competed in ATCC where the series was all encompassing to all categories of cars while the Australian Super Touring Championship being a break-away series, you couldn't truly class their Bathurst in the same breath as the V8s one. Here is the one you mentioned:
OUR 14th of 50 Awesome Bathurst Moments today comes from the 1992 Tooheys 1000 and one of the most lively podium presentations ever seen at Mount Panorama.
In the last Bathurst 1000 run to Group A rules, the Nissan duo of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife claimed victory, despite Richards crashing amid a major downpour and the race being red-flagged and stopped.
With the GT-R crashed on the side of the road, the race results were backdated a lap and Richards and Skaife picked up victory, prompting angry outbursts from fans as they stood on the podium to collect the trophy.
After a mentally taxing day (one that had also seen the death of his friend and former Formula 1 World Champion Denny Hulme due to a heart attack early in the race), Richards let rip on the fans below the podium.
What he called them remains an infamous part of Bathurst history – it’s probably so well known that we don’t need to even type the words!
Ten years later, in 2002, Richards and Skaife would again team up to win at Bathurst, though in a Holden Racing Team Commodore. And Jimmy would call them all "lovely, lovely people!"
Keep checking back to the BigPond Sport V8 Supercars website every day for the next Awesome Bathurst Moment as we count down to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
www.v8supercars.com.au/championship/newsarticle/when-jim-called-them-a-pack-of/tabid/70/newsid/12755/default.aspx
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Post by commodore30s on Aug 10, 2012 16:58:33 GMT 10
But at least it competed in ATCC where the series was all encompassing to all categories of cars while the Australian Super Touring Championship being a break-away series, you couldn't truly class their Bathurst in the same breath as the V8s one. To be fair, it was the V8Supercars who broke away. V8Supercars broke away from the 'traditional' Bathurst 1000 run by the ARDC in 1997 because they didn't agree with the terms they were competing under, so V8s did a deal with the Bathurst council and started their own 1000km race at Bathurst from 1997 onwards. The traditional Bathurst 1000, organised by the ARDC, had no choice but to turn to the Super Tourers in 1997 for their 35 year old race to carry on. The race carried on for 2 years before it folded. Seeing as the 'new-for-1997' V8 Bathurst reigned supreme, over the ensuing years the history of both events have been merged into one. Hence why the 2012 Bathurst organisers as celebrating the race this year as "50 years of Bathurst" and not the "50th race" |
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Post by Bundy on Aug 10, 2012 19:32:22 GMT 10
But at least it competed in ATCC where the series was all encompassing to all categories of cars while the Australian Super Touring Championship being a break-away series, you couldn't truly class their Bathurst in the same breath as the V8s one. To be fair, it was the V8Supercars who broke away. V8Supercars broke away from the 'traditional' Bathurst 1000 run by the ARDC in 1997 because they didn't agree with the terms they were competing under, so V8s did a deal with the Bathurst council and started their own 1000km race at Bathurst from 1997 onwards. The traditional Bathurst 1000, organised by the ARDC, had no choice but to turn to the Super Tourers in 1997 for their 35 year old race to carry on. The race carried on for 2 years before it folded. Seeing as the 'new-for-1997' V8 Bathurst reigned supreme, over the ensuing years the history of both events have been merged into one. Hence why the 2012 Bathurst organisers as celebrating the race this year as "50 years of Bathurst" and not the "50th race" Fair enough. |
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Post by wrighty05 on Aug 12, 2012 9:11:47 GMT 10
HDT 1-2 in 1984 is today's memorable moment.
Pure bliss
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Post by Bundy on Aug 13, 2012 16:44:43 GMT 10
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Post by HDT05 on Aug 13, 2012 18:28:54 GMT 10
HDT 1-2 in 1984 is today's memorable moment. Pure bliss Love this one, was a great result. |
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Post by wrighty05 on Aug 14, 2012 0:00:58 GMT 10
HDT 1-2 in 1984 is today's memorable moment. Pure bliss Love this one, was a great result. You want to see why Brock was superior to Johnson as a driver, watch the first few laps of that race. |
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Post by Bundy on Aug 15, 2012 20:49:55 GMT 10
The next memorable Bathurst moment - 1981 Bathurst, when Bob Morris triggered a big crash
When The Big Wreck Stopped The Race
OUR 19th of 50 Awesome Bathurst Moments today comes from the 1981 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst and the circumstances leading up to Dick Johnson’s breakthrough victory at Mount Panorama.
With Johnson’s co-driver John French leading the race in the #17 Tru-Blu Falcon XD by 45 seconds, 1976 winner Bob Morris was pushing hard in his brand new Bob Jane T Marts-backed Falcon.
He came across Christine Gibson on lap 121 and caught her Falcon at the top of the Mountain, attempting to make a pass on the entry to McPhillamy Park.
The two collided and bounced off the outside fence back into the middle of the track.
Given this was in the days before a sand trap was installed on the exit of the high-speed left hander, the cars simply had nowhere to end up other than back on the track.
The result was chaos as following cars ploughed into the accident scene, some at quick pace, forcing race organisers to red flag and stop the race.
Morris’ Falcon was junked and other cars were massively damaged, including the Commodore driven by now Fujitsu Racing/GRM team owner Garry Rogers that had been running in the top five.
Amazingly, no one was seriously injured in the accident, which was missed by TV viewers on the live telecast as Channel Seven were in a commercial break at the time!
With the race red-flagged for the first time in its history, confusion reigned over exactly who had won.
With the race backdated to the last completed lap, Johnson and French were declared winners with Morris and John Fitzpatrick second, despite their new Falcon being a write off.
This win also, of course, was repayment by Johnson to the scores of TV viewers who had donated money to get him back on the track after his infamous ‘rock’ incldent in 1980.
Keep checking back to the BigPond Sport V8 Supercars website every day for the next Awesome Bathurst Moment as we count down to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000.
Don’t forget too that the V8 Supercars Facebook page has a ’50 Awesome Bathurst Moments’ promotion where fans can post, upload and comment on all 50 of our chosen Bathurst moments but also upload their own photos and share experiences with other fans
www.v8supercars.com.au/championship/newsarticle/when-the-big-wreck-stopped-the-race/tabid/70/newsid/12777/default.aspx Wrong choice of word?  |
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Post by donk on Aug 15, 2012 20:57:23 GMT 10
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Post by Bundy on Aug 16, 2012 12:44:07 GMT 10
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Post by wrighty05 on Aug 16, 2012 13:22:02 GMT 10
From memory 1995-1997. 1998 they split Bowe and Johnson, but Johnson missed out. In 1992, Bowe had the quicker time than Johnson. Johnson still would've made the 10 with his time. Then he went and put it on pole. |
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Post by commodore30s on Aug 16, 2012 17:43:37 GMT 10
Johnson always seemed to raise his game at Bathurst (and Lakeside) in the later years In 1988 and 1991 they cross-entered Bowe in different cars so he qualified them in the shootout with DJ in his regular steed, then would switch (or plan in '88s case anyway) to #17 part-way through the race. It wasn't really until 1991 that Bowe started to show a real edge of Dick Johnson pace wise, and from 1992 onwards he led the team. As mentioned in alot of cases from then on Bowe did the quicker qualifying lap, but Johnson always did the shootout. When you consider just how dominant they were in the regular ATCC championship, almost seems cruel to deny them the big one at Bathurst! Richards did plenty of winning that year. He also clean swept all of the AMSCAR rounds, and won the Nissan Pulsar Super Challenge to boot as well. |
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Post by Bundy on Aug 16, 2012 17:58:47 GMT 10
Johnson always seemed to raise his game at Bathurst (and Lakeside) in the later years In 1988 and 1991 they cross-entered Bowe in different cars so he qualified them in the shootout with DJ in his regular steed, then would switch (or plan in '88s case anyway) to #17 part-way through the race. It wasn't really until 1991 that Bowe started to show a real edge of Dick Johnson pace wise, and from 1992 onwards he led the team. As mentioned in alot of cases from then on Bowe did the quicker qualifying lap, but Johnson always did the shootout. Same could be said for a number of famous pairings in the 90s, Perkins/Ingall comes to mind. Ingall would often qualify it and then Perkins even up until 1999/2000 I think he would still do the top 10 shoot-out and wouldn't do a bad job either...I guess in the same sort of way how Johnson used to step up and perform at Bathurst. When you consider just how dominant they were in the regular ATCC championship, almost seems cruel to deny them the big one at Bathurst! Richards did plenty of winning that year. He also clean swept all of the AMSCAR rounds, and won the Nissan Pulsar Super Challenge to boot as well. Very cruel indeed! |
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Post by wrighty05 on Aug 17, 2012 11:27:10 GMT 10
Channel 6 Camaro today.
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Post by wrighty05 on Aug 18, 2012 9:07:01 GMT 10
Dick putting it into the trees at Forrest's Elbow today
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Post by Bundy on Aug 21, 2012 0:29:35 GMT 10
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;D
