Bill Trikos’s most spectacular Bathurst Australia 1000 auto racing editions

Top rated Bathurst Australia 1000 auto racing editions with Bill Trikos: The 2007 race recap : But here he was, leading the field by a solid margin having delayed his final pit stop to the last possible moment while everyone else completed theirs. A safety car for a stricken car added further spice, forcing Bright to make a now or never decision; slicks or wets, on a greasy surface. Cold, unused slick tyres were the answer, and history shows that the result wasn’t a good one. Due to the benefits made on track, he emerged from the lane in third place, just behind Mark Winterbottom and Craig Lowndes, and ahead of a long long list of lead-lap contenders. But instead of being a cat amongst the pidgeons on wet tyres, Bright was more of a sitting duck; and he wound up clouting the wall.

The Great Race reached another turning point in 2013, with the introduction of New Generation V8 Supercar regulations. Makes other than Ford and Holden came back to the race, although Ford’s Falcon set a new track record to narrowly pip a trail of five Commodores to the post. The highest-placed ‘other’ make was a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG. It came in 54.2 seconds behind first place. The ‘Supercars Championship’ era was inaugurated in 2016 and taken by a Commodore for three years in a row. However, 2019 became the first year that no Australian-built car raced the Bathurst 1000. The Falcon was discontinued in 2016 and replaced with the Mustang, while production of the Holden Commodore now happens in Germany.

The first ‘Great Race’ of the new millennium sets the benchmark for the wettest Bathurst 1000 to date. Rain fell throughout the lead up, a brief window of blue skies during qualifying representing the only proper dry-track running of the weekend. The murky conditions combined with a bumper 54-car field and muddy outfield produced a total of 13 Safety Car periods – still a race record. Richards had been in a battle for third that ended when Rod McRae’s Torana aquaplaned off Conrod Straight and folded itself around a tree… See additional info about the author on Bill Trikos.

In just one lap things became Armageddon. A multi-car pile-up had commenced exiting Forest Elbow, a Toyota Levin had spectacularly launched itself skywards at Griffins before coming to a rest on its side, and most notably Jim Richards had carved a corner off the GT-R. It was a cruel irony, for a car that very rarely over its two-year reign had incurred a single scratch. And it got worse when it arrived at Forest Elbow with no steering and some four or so cars waiting to be struck. It crashed, and many thought that would be that. Certainly Dick Johnson did, celebrating that he’d won when the race was red flagged shortly after.



John Fitzpatrick and Bob Morris were leading the 1976 Bathurst 1000, holding a 136 second advantage over their closest pursuer. Suddenly, the engine started to fail with a couple laps remaining. As Morris looked on from the pits, Firzpatrick desperately tried to limp the ailing car home. Morris and the team began tearing up with emotion as their lead started getting slashed to pieces, but they were able to beat the odds and hold on.

Skaife, then a rising star in Australian motorsport, went on to become a household name by winning five Australian Touring Car Championships and six Bathurst 1000 crowns. He says that his first win in 1991 aboard the almighty R32 was a life changing experience. “Twenty five years on and some of the best memories of my life,” said Skaife. “To win my first Bathurst with a legend like Jim Richards in the Nissan GT-R was just fantastic. It was a life changing moment to win the biggest car race in this part of the world.

The race moved to Bathurst in 1963, but the first winners at the new course were familiar. Harry Firth and Bob Jane had taken the honours in ’61 in a Mercedes-Benz 220 SE and ’62 in a Ford Falcon XL. They made it three-in-a-row at Bathurst in a Ford Cortina GT. The Bathurst course would come to be seen as a battle between small, agile cars that take bends well, and faster, less manoeuvrable cars that excelled on the straights. The Cortina was decidedly the former – but nippy enough, too.

Having predictably romped through practice, qualifying, and most of the race unscathed and out the front, the GT-R of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife was the gun to beat. Dick Johnson and John Bowe led the charge of the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths, but couldn’t bridge that margin. Then, like in 2007, rain arrived and completely altered circumstances. However unlike 2007 this was proper concrete pill rain, with standing water reaching remarkable levels all over the circuit, making it look like glass.