Bathurst 1987: That Old Brocky Magic
Another from the vault - and a clip from what turn out (eventually) to be Peter Brock's ninth and last Bathurst win. Coming home third on the day, the "winning" and "second place" Eggenberger Texaco Ford Sierra's were firstly cleared of having illegal fuel by the Tuesday after the race, but found to have illegally modified wheel arches and associated body work to allow them to run larger tyres on their cars. It took until June 1988, but Brock was declared the winner - but in this sequence in the rain in the closing laps of the race, we are reminded just how good the man was. Absolutely superlative car control, mixed with the happy-go-lucky mind of the man. Pure Brock magic!
Bathurst 1992: The Wet Finish
Footage of the finish of the 1992 Tooheys 1000 - this is taken from the live Seven Network broadcast on the day, and is EXACTLY how it was broadcast - no edits.
Craig Lowndes vs Jamie Whincup Drag Race Final (Winternationals 09)
The third drag race, where Craig Lowndes finally gets the car moving smoothly off the line.
Good on Team Vodafone for letting these 2 awesome V8 supercars come down to the drags and fry some clutches!
Sorry for the poor quality video, the letterboxing was done by my DVD camera
HDT Brock Commodores Race Of Champions
HDT VC Brock Commodore Race of Champions held at Bob Jane's Calder Park Raceway in 1980. Footage from old Channel 9 Wide World Of Sports TV Show.
Bob Jane negotiated successfully to have the Australian GP staged at his own Calder Park circuit on November 16, 1980 and as well as bringing Jones and his Championship-winning Williams-Cosworth FW07 back home, also invited rising Italian F1 star Bruno Giacomelli in his V12 Alfa Romeo 179 and French Ligier F1 driver Didier Pironi, to drive a leased Elfin F5000 car. Local drivers in other F5000 cars made up the rest of the field.
To promote their ground-breaking coverage of F1 racing at the time, the Nine Network agreed to telecast the AGP meeting live across Australia not only the F1 race, but a proposed Race of Champions event with 12 of the top drivers competing against each other in two races driving identical cars.
Peter Brock jumped at the opportunity to provide these cars, as coming hot on the heels of his inaugural Bathurst victory in a Commodore the previous month, it provided an unrivalled opportunity to promote his new cars to a national audience. Twelve early-production HDT cars were selected for the race all with manual gearboxes: one Tuxedo black, two Firethorn Red and the rest Palais White the only three colours available in the new Brock range.
Apart from mandatory safety equipment like alloy half roll-cages, safety harnesses and fire extinguishers the cars were otherwise identical to the HDT Commodores already trickling into Holden showrooms around the country. The only exception was their three-spoke Momo steering wheels, which were crudely hand-engraved with each cars SV (Special Vehicle) number, which also matched their racing number.
Because the event was billed as the Race of Champions, the 12 cars prepared for the event were referred to as HDT ROC Commodores. The allocation of cars to the cast of champion drivers for the two Race of Champion events one on Saturday and the other on Sunday was decided by a ballot on Friday and this is how they lined up: RoC SV1 (white) Charlie OBrien; RoC SV2 (white) Tony Edmondson; RoC SV3 (white) Dick Johnson; RoC SV4 (white) Bob Jane; RoC SV5 (white) Kevin Bartlett; RoC SV6 (red) John Bowe; RoC SV7 (black) Peter Brock; RoC SV8 (white) Jim Richards; RoC SV9 (white) Didier Pironi; RoC SV10 (white) Colin Bond; RoC SV11 (red) Jack Brabham; RoC SV12 (red) John Harvey. However only 11 of the 12 cars actually raced, as the one intended for John Harvey suffered engine problems and was withdrawn.
The grid for the first race was in number order, with OBrien on pole and Brabham on the back and when the flag dropped, it was on for young and old.
It was meant to be a fun race, but John Bowe, who finished second behind eventual winner Kevin Bartlett in Saturdays 10-lapper, said it was massively serious for those behind the wheel.
After the event, the 11 race cars were repaired by HDT Special Vehicles, their race and sponsorship stickers removed and were offered for sale by tender to authorised HDT Commodore dealers, with their odometers reading from 379-935km.
Perhaps surprisingly, they were not in particularly high demand at the time and sold for around $15-20,000, with the cars driven by Brock, Brabham and Johnson believed to have achieved the highest prices. The triple World Champions SV11 car reportedly made $18,500.
Above Details From http://www.uniquecarsmag.com.au/news-and-reviews/article/articleid/41865.aspx
Dick Johnson's tangle with the rock in Tru Blu
Dick Johnson's horrifying time in Tru Blu when he tangled with a rock on the racetrack at Bathurst in 1980. Worthy of note, however, is that it's recently come to light that it was an inadvertent incident. No one intended harm to anyone. See my Favourites for the video by 64ORD. Yeah, some may say it was kids, but it WAS actually some drunk blokes who nearly killed a fella. I can only hope those fellas are dead after a life of misery plagued with ill health, money troubles and poor relationships in their social lives.
