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The Bathurst 1000 is a 1000 km motor race for touring cars, conducted at the Mount Panorama circuit near Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. The race has a long and colourful history, having been conducted for numerous categories such as production cars, Group C, Group A, Super Touring and currently the popular V8 Supercar category. It was first held at Bathurst in 1963, replacing an earlier endurance race at Philip Island in Victoria, over a 500 mile distance. It changed to the present distance in 1973. Makes as diverse as Mini, Jaguar, BMW, Volvo, Nissan, Ford and Holden have tasted sucess at "The Mountain". However, the strongest and longest-running rivalry at the mountain has been between the two local makes, Ford and Holden. Between 1985 and 1992 saw the race running under international Group A rules. Imported turbocharged cars, first the Ford Sierra turbos dominated the race during the late 1980s. In 1987, the race was a round of the short-lived World Touring Car Championship, and competitors in that championship raced against the local teams. The resulting culture clash was considerable; local scrutineers, who had been applying the Group A regulations as written, repeatedly disagreed with European teams (notably that of Rudi Eggenberger) and the global organising body (FISA, the ancestor of the FIA) who were considerably more lax with their interpretations. Eggenberger's cars ran 1-2, only to be disqualified months later due to bodywork irregularities, and awarding the race to local legend Peter Brock for the ninth (and last) time. Brock's nine victories are by far the most Bathurst wins by an individual. Local Sierra teams won in 1988 and 89, and losing in 1990 to the local favourite Holden Commodores only after all the leading Sierras broke down. In 1991 and 1992, turbocharged, four-wheel-drive Nissan Skyline GTRs won. The 1992 victory was particularly controversial. Already disliked by the parochial Bathurst crowd, the race was stopped after a huge storm caused a number of crashes, including that of the leading Skyline. The race was awarded to the Skyline (Jim Richards and Mark Skaife), who had led the lap previous to the race halt, much to the vocal displeasure of the crowd. Richards memorably called the crowd "a pack of arseholes" from the winner's podium. The moment was fateful, helping to precipitate the gathering split in Australian touring car racing between the internationalist Super Touring category and the Australian-centred V8 Supercars.
WinnersPhillip Island
Mount Panorama
See alsoExternal link
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