Your Most Memorable Moments...

[XR_Club]

1) First seeing Moffatt's Coca Cola Mustang race at Sandown .. unreal racing machine for its time.

2) Seeing the Moffatt BRUT 33 XB Falcon Hardtop debut at Bathurst, after all the hype ... then seeing what remains as the most embrassing race effort from the same car!

3) Steve Ellery unlapping himself (after being hung up on the Chase corner ripple strip) in last years rain soaked Bathurst in the Super Cheap Auto Racing Falcon .. think about how good a drive that took in those conditions to do that.

4) Watching the Eggenberger Sierras demolish the opposition in the '87 Great Race, only to have CAMS dq them for a totally ridiculous 'local' infringement. No wonder Eggenberger (and most of the worlds top drivers and Team owners at the time) told CAMS to stick it.

5) Watching the skill of men like Geoghean, Beechey, Moffatt, Bond etc muscle the great monsters like the GT's, Monaro's and Valiants around Bathurst from '65 - '80. After that, the sport lost the 'character' from it, replaced by and large these days by corporate imaging and officialdom.

[racer69]

if i remember rightly it was the FIA that eventually disqualified the Eggenberger Sierra's, he obviously had no problems with the Australian Authorities, he managed the Team Petronas Mondeos that raced in Australia in the 1997 ASTC for a few rounds.

And di Ellery actually unlap himself?

[XR_Club]

Hi there racer,

In fact, the FIA, under whose auspices the World Touring Car Champs were (supposedly) running that year, had the Eggenberger Sierras scrutinized not once, but twice, due to pre race protests, lodged ironically enough, by one rather prominent Sierra team here in Aust at the time, and also at the behest of CAMS who reacted to a protest lodged by a certain Holden team.

The Eggenberger Sierras fuel was questioned and found to be absolutely legal, conforming to both CAMS and WTCC regulations, despite what people might have heard post race.

They were disqualified because they ran a front spoiler and flare kit that was 3 mm wider than CAMS allowed. Nothing to do with the WTCC authority, who had allowed the Eggenberger Sierras to run in exactly the same guise all year up to that point, totally legally. Rudi Eggenberger was rightly outraged by CAMS stance that *their* local rules should take precedence over a World Touring Car authority, and certainly in view of the immense expense inherit in bringing over a then two car Team, qualifying Top Ten and passing pre race scrutineering ... the bitterest taste of all was to see who was awarded the Race and the still today, unacceptable circumstances that led to it.
To add insult to injury, the uninformed Neil Crompton took it upon himself to usher in a whole new era of unintelligible reporting babble by starting a frenzy of 'Overseas Fuel Cheats' charges at the Eggenberger team, a situation from which he did not apologize when it was revealed how wrong that allegation was.

Insofar as Steve Ellery unlapping himself at Bathurst last year, I am almost 100% certain he did, or if he did not, there would have only have been one (at the most two) cars he did not unlap from. I'll confirm that with him on Friday at the Circuit in fact .. still, it was a simply unreal drive in conditions only a fish could appreciate!

[Crash Test]

Yeah, he only got to within 2 cars of the lead lap before he pitted. Remember, not only did he spin at the chase, but also lost it at Forrest's.

[Ray Bell]

What a load of rot!

They were canned because their inner guards were closer together than standard. This was done to fit wider rear tyres.

It was something that, once found, could not be ignored..

As for the fuel issue, one of the outstanding things about that was Peter Brock's handling of the press conference when that came up... they were prompting him to say there were cheats and they shouldn't have run it and all this...

Brock said: "These cars have knock sensors and all sorts of things that automatically compensate for the wrong fuel, they wouldn't have gained anything by having something that wasn't legal."

Turned out that some regular Super fuel had got into the supplies at the pits because they ran low.

[racer69]

The FIA also ruled that the car was illegal, and on the friday of the final round at Fuji, made them change the guards, Reudi wasn't to happy, but the question is, why weren't they disqualified from all previous rounds, especially Calder and Wellington, as they were run after the protest was made, not that the changes seemed to make much difference at Fuji.

[XR_Club]

I certainly do agree that one of the bones of contention was that the inner guards were narrower than normal, but after seeing a post race scrutineering report on this very topic in November of last year, and talking to Garth Wigston and Colin Bond, both of whom now are leading V8 Supercar officials, and also having this confirmed by no less an authority than Dick Johnson AND his Sierra fabricator of the day, Mick Peoples, that the main point of disqualification was the 3mm wider spoiler kit on the Eggenberger Sierra's ... the very same format that was NEVER changed in the whole year of '87, and the very reason that Ford Racing International, Ruedi Eggenberger and Ford fans in general were so sour about the experience.

Also agreed was that when Eggenberger was requested to change the inner guards at Mt Fuji to conform, it made not a whit worth of difference to the performance of the cars .. quite possibly the most dominant Sierra team to compete, although Dick Johnsons '92 Sierra was recognized internationally as the finest example of the RS500 racing at the time.

Cheers,

XR.

[racer69]

They still bent the rules so should have been disqualified. Wasn't Johmson's 1992 Sierra the same car he won the 1989 Bathurst 1000 in, which came second with Gravett/Radisich in 1990.

[Crash Test]

Sure is, it is the one in his museum.

[275 GTB-4]

Check this out!! The good old days!! Pity my photography wasn't better...

[CooperS79]

GTB, where is that?? Warwick Farm?

[Wrighty05]

In no particular oder.

1. Dick in the trees Bathurst '83. One of my first memories of motorsport.
2. Bathurst '85. Awesome event. Some great driving in the latter stages, Brock's windscreenless Commodore being a highlight.
3. Bathurst '87. Firstly some of the best in-car action you'll ever see courtesy of Seton. Brock in the closing stages on slicks in the wet.
4. KB's pole lap in the Camaro 1981. Brilliant.
5. Brock's pole lap in the sierra 1989. Fast looks slow.
6. The wet at the start of the '94 race. Brock, Larry and AJ at it hammer and tongs showing awesome car control and power slides.

[The Tool Man]

Well That just about covers them all for me, Ive been following it all since I was 5 way back in 1977 so I have many many memories, but the crashes that stick in my mind were the Lakeside Crash, Lowndes at Calder in the Commodore and his later comment "I opened my eyes and saw Greg Murphy leaning in the car looking at me! I thought I'd Died and gone to hell" and Tomas Mezera in the Daily Planet / bottle magic car in 1987 launching it and rolling at Caltex Chase.
And I remember been at work giving one of my employees instructions for the rest of the day, as I glanced at the tele and noticed the Morris Larkham accident, been a Larko fan, Im not ashamed to say I not only cried but collapsed as well. Thankfully everything was okay. I remember the building of another car and Larko going out and winning a heat at Calder just weeks later. Coming onto the final turn appearing as if he was going to loose it, and giving everyone heart failure!
There are two many memories and not enough space on the entire web for it.

I think I particularly remembered Lowndes crash for the good sportsmanship shown by other drivers, and the amount of them that just pulled up anywhere and ran over to the car. Mind you the Photo I have it appears as if Larry was checking out the technical bits etc on the underneath of the HRT car !

[FalconEL]

I'll never forget Lakeside 1989. As well as the bad accidents on Sunday, we had Terry Finnigan absolutely destroy his Trojan Boats Commodore in front of us exiting the Kink after he miscued badly in qualifying at about 220kmh and backed it into the tyre wall in front of us. A very violent impact. The car pirouetted through the air, thumped to the ground and caught fire as there was nothing left rear of the back doors. I remember the dazed Finnigan jumping out of the car after he regained his composure and realising the car was on fire. He then jumped up on the bank and leaned up against the fence in front of us.

It was one of the biggest accidents I've seen apart from the Sunday under the Bridge. From memory, in that incident, Glenn Seton and Murray Carter were also involved. Lot of very lucky people to get out of that one as many marshalls risked their lives in the smoke as the field continued (some at unabated speed) for another lap before the red flags came out. Really scary stuff.

For some weird reason I remember having a real sick feeling in my stomach that night recounting the violence of it all that weekend. Certainly had an affect on me being only about 16 at the time.

[The Tool Man]

I was talking on the phone tonight with a friend who attended the AGP and happened to stumble across Bargs in the Paddock on Sunday after race 3.

He asked Bargs about the car and he reckons he has never seen the ever excitable Bargs so excited. Bargs apparently said there are a number of contenders for the 2004 championship, Skaife, Ambrose,Ingall, Tander, Murphy, The Kelly Boys, Johnson, Bright,and HIMSELF amongst others. He loves the cars and the engines and hes ready to go racing at Adelaide.

[Crash Test]

Hot dog, more really really old stuff!

Top 3 from last year-

1. Bathurst 24hr
2. Speed on Tweed
3. Rally QLD

[The General]

Watching the 1986 bathurst race when Mike Burghman ( i think) had that huge crash on conrod. That VK had nothing left from the windscreen onwards.

I think it was a cop first on the scene. Pretty sure he died instantly.

[deeks6]

In no order whatsoever:

- Murf, Larko and Bartlett Bathurst shootout laps
- Seton in the skyline in the wet (in-car)
- Dick when the wing collapsed Bathurst easter round
- First appearance of Moffat Trans Am (still the best looking race car ever)
- Moffat/Bond 1-2
- DQ of Sierras 87...don't kid ourselves, they didnt take us seriously after that local yokel performance.
- Brock lap record on the last lap
- The Kids wild ride at Calder (and his presence of mind to take his hands off the wheel)
- His shootout lap at Sandown 02 in his crapheap AU
- Moffat (Mustang) and Pete (Falcon) Bathurst ATCC
- Dick and the Rock and the subsequent appeal that got him back in town
- The big wet Bathurst 94...exciting opening
- The big wet in 02 with Captain Chaos (great drive)
- The Larko/Morris hit...scared the **** out of me because Larko's a family friend
- Skaife and Ingall at the creek
- Alan Jones telling Skaife at Symmons to go overseas if he wanted to shoot his mouth off "son, if you were any good..." or something like that.
- Barry Sheene on the telly
- Longhurst punching Morris at Winton
- Gricey's 86 Bathurst (an inspired drive, one of the best...even if he was in a Holden)
- The red flag with the Godzilla resting on the fence...it was laways gonna get ugly after that.
- The Kid (Lowndes) vs the old Pro Bowe in the closing laps of 94...fantastic
- Jane vs Moffat at Warwick Farm (I think it was 71) all-out war. They had to stop Janey from going back out and punting Moff into a fence.

I could probably go on ... but could'nt we all?

[Bigguy]

Here's one...
Sitting in Janson's double decker at Sandown and seeing Larry roll Janson's Torana in front of us.. then overhearing the GMH boss, who was also in the bus, instruct one of his minioms to get another body shell to Janson on Monday!

[Crash Test]

Just a bit of a post script for the Lakeside 89 people. There's a DVD out now , Classic ATCC crashes 85-92, and it has the big one under the bridge, the aftermarth of the Finnigan shunt, the Production car gaurdrail flattener, and the formula ford flip out...

[pplater]

2001 Bathurst- Icy sleet falling from the sky, I was on the fence at forrests elbow when the field came around on slicks. Then lowndes stuffed it into the wall, and the marshall gave me one ofthe green headlight covers.

2002 Bathurst 24hr- seeing brake discs glow for the first time at the elbow

2002 Bathurst 24hr- Bowe tapping through the gears in the PHR 360GT...

[Dirk]

1. Super Tourer scuffle between Longhurst and Morris at Winton
2. Craig Lowndes accident at Calder, Huge
3. Larko and Morris crash at Oran Park – scary stuff!!
4. Unfortunate accident of Don Watson at Bathurst
5. 1995 (I think it was???) Bathurst watching Lowndes and Murphy almost take the win at Bathurst, one of the most exciting finishes I have seen.

[Dirk]

Oh and who could forget Easter Creek Main Event 2003, Ingall vs Skaife!!

[Dingo]

Originally posted by Dirk
5. 1995 (I think it was???) Bathurst watching Lowndes and Murphy almost take the win at Bathurst, one of the most exciting finishes I have seen.

Dirk, you're thinking of 1994 with Lowndes and Brad Jones...1995 Lowndes and Murphy only did 10 laps IIRC.

Stupid backmarker cutting off Lowndes......

[Dirk]

Yeah well something like that, I just remember Lowndes going hard at it and almost getting there. Awesome race!