THE HISTORY of the Bathurst 1000 is filled with incredible individual performances; drivers extending themselves beyond what should be possible in order to win the biggest race in this part of the world.
Picking the best of them is also a challenge because in my eyes, what makes for a brilliant driving performance can be a very personal thing.
Sure, there’re are standouts that are so blindingly obvious that they often go without saying, but often there are more subtle, under-the-radar drives that not everyone sees but leave an impact on the individual watching them occur.
In the leadup to this year’s Great Race, I’ve had a think about what stands out for me in the annuals of my own Bathurst history. So here’s a rough Top five (or six) of my favourite Bathurst drives.
There are, of course, many more on my list – but to get through them you’d need a novel!
JOHNSON & SIMONSEN, 2007
THE 2007 1000 was a pretty dull race until the well-reported thrilling final few hours, and when the rain came several drivers stood out. Craig Lowndes was one, but for a few brief moments it looked like Steven Johnson was going to return the famous #17 to the top step of the podium as he sliced past Lowndes in the rain as the race reached its dramatic conclusion. Steven had always been a consistent Supercars performer – but this drive was absolutely one of his finest.
Mirroring that was the performance by the late Dane, Allan Simonsen. Driving the sister Triple Eight Falcon to Lowndes and Whincup, the eventual winners, Simonsen had four Bathurst starts to his credit prior to 2007 but the GT ace wasn’t an acknowledged Touring Car racer. But when the rain fell he was inspired; pulling big moves and surviving the conditions when much bigger Supercars names fired cars off into the weeds left, right and centre. Few talk about Simonsen’s V8 drives, but this was mighty.
LOWNDES EPIC TRIPLE, 2010
CRAIG Lowndes could fill a list of great Bathurst drives, but his 2010 performance stands out as one of his most impressive. When co-driver Mark Skaife’s back gave way at the midpoint of the race, Lowndes jumped in the car not knowing at the time that he wouldn’t get back out until he crossed the line.
79 unbroken laps in the car saw CL beat home his teammates for a famous, gutsy victory in one of the greatest single stints since the race became a two-driver race in 1973.
BROCK’S AIR CONDITIONING, BATHURST STYLE, 1985
PETER BROCK had a habit of having the best machinery at Bathurst which by 1985 had seen him already claim eight of his eventual nine Great Race wins. However, when the Group A era dawned in 1985 the Mobil HDT Commodores were far from the car to have; instead, the might of the three-car Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar attack were the clear benchmarks on raw speed.
That didn’t stop the King of the Mountain though, as he hauled the Commodore into contention over the day and worked himself into a position to challenge late in the race. The history is well known: after his team smashed a broken front screen out of the car, rules mandated the rear had to go as well so Brock charged into the lane to have the rear window fly-kicked out in quick time before resuming his pursuit.
It put pressure on the Jag’s that they didn’t need and it was only a broken timing chain that ended Brock’s charge. At the time some claimed he’d given up, unwilling to lose a race that he essentially owned, but I don’t buy that for a second. History shows that the chase of the British Brigade probably did more for Brock’s reputation than a comfortable multi-lap victory in clearly superior machinery.
LAP OF THE GODS, 2003
A SEMINAL Bathurst moment came on the Saturday of the 2003 event when Greg Murphy did something scarcely believable. A dominant Sunday was one thing – he and Rick Kelly led most of the race including all but eight of the final 61 laps – but it was the famous ‘Lap of the Gods’ that sealed this deal for this remarkable performance.
There’s nothing more challenging or impressive than a Bathurst shootout lap and Murphy’s famous 2003 effort will go down in history forever as perhaps the best ever, if not just for the time – but by how far ahead it moved the goal posts over a field that was already lapping at record pace.
Only four drivers, Murphy included, had ever tipped their way into the 2m07s at Bathurst before this day, one of them John Bowe who had matched Murphy’s 2m07.95s qualifying benchmark with his own stunning shootout performance in the OzEmail Ford. But then came the flying Kiwi in Car 51 and set a new benchmark that would take a decade to overhaul. Still Bathurst’s greatest ever lap.
CRAIG LOWNDES, 2006
Craig Lowndes’ emotional drive to victory in the 2006 race remains an emotional Bathurst moment to this day. Pursued by Rick Kelly, the pair traded fastest laps in the closing stages, driving as hard as they could without making a single mistake. Relentless pressure and the weight of everything going on around him failed to stop Lowndes, who finally secured his second Great Race win ten years after his first. He would win five of the next ten from there.
From the emotional moments of standing with Bev Brock on the grid, to driving the ’72 Bathurst winner before the race to being asked if he was even OK to start, this was a flawless performance from Lowndes as impressive mentally as it was in the execution of his formidable talent on the big hill.
Given the circumstances around it, the pressure he faced in the race and outside of the cockpit and the storyline playing out, this is one of the great performances
HERE COMES LARRY, 1995
I wrote earlier that Craig Lowndes could fill an entire list of these moments so it’s not ironic that he plays a role in perhaps my favourite: It was he who hit Larry Perkins’ Castrol Commodore on the rush to Hell Corner as the 1995 classic got underway, setting in motion a train of events that would culminate in one of the greatest comeback stories in Bathurst history.
After a stop to replace a tyre, Perkins was placed a lap down by the Winfield / Gibson Motorsport Commodore of Mark Skaife and Jim Richards just before the first round of pit stops and things looked bleak for he and co-driver Russell Ingall.
However, a plan to drive flat-out for the entire distance and see how things played out slowly saw things coming their way.
After carving through the field, the incredible 1995 race culminated in the remarkable sequence of events seen in the closing stages as Perkins first dispatched Alan Jones on conrod, then Brad Jones and ultimately Glenn Seton – by then stranded on the side of the road on the exit of Griffins bend.
Against the odds and in typical no-BS Perkins style, this was a blinder.
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