Stories from Super Touring. The 1997 running of the AMP
Bathurst 1000 was the 38th running of The Great Race, the
legendary touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama
circuit in Bathurst, NSW. A major dispute, however, meant
that instead of the usual V8 taking part in the race, Super
Tours would instead be headlining the meeting.
Welcome to the latest episode of Stories From Super Touring.
I'm Levi Riley. And as ever to take a look back
on this interesting story in the history of super Touring
Australian motorsport journalist Aaron Noonan and the regular
team of Adam Jones and Al Clark. Gentlemen, how are we all?
Very good. Thanks very.
Good. Good to be back on another one.
And Aaron, how are you? It's it's currently morning in
in Australia where you are, so how hot?
Is oh great guys thanks to thanks for having me on I really
have. I think the term is long time
listener first time guest is probably the best way to to
describe love what you guys have been doing with the the Super
touring stuff in the 90s Euro because it's an era that is
close to my heart as well. So good to have a chat with you
guys about a a topic that I guess probably doesn't get
enough publicity and coverage over the term over the terms of
the the previous year since it's happened to talk about these two
special races in Bathurst history is pretty cool.
Fantastic. And thank you so much for for
coming on as well and and spending your your morning with
us at Zitvi. I mean coming back to to these
races as you say, what sort of your first memories of of these
two super touring Bathurst 1000 races?
Yeah, they're they're kind of a mixture of of feelings and
memories because it was kind of civil war in Australian touring
car racing at the time. And we had at stake, the biggest
piece of the puzzle being Bathurst, because at the the end
of the day it's the IT, it is to Australian touring car racing
what Indianapolis is to IndyCar, Lemoy's to sports car racing.
Daytona is to NASCAR, it's that Jew in the crown.
So when you when you have a fight over, you know, a prized
piece of land, literally it, it creates headlines and headaches
and it was very political, it was television fuelled.
But the first thing that sticks in my mind is that we got to see
things that we probably never had it not been for that fight
we would have never seen. We would have never seen
Williams Renault come to Bathurst.
We got our first look at 888, who later on established an
Australian offshoot. So we we got to see some
familiar old faces we hadn't seen for a little while.
Guys like Frank Bieler and John Clalland who we were kind of
watching from afar in the British championship on TV here.
But to see them blend in with the local stars of of Super
Touring, the Paul Morris's and the Jeff Brabham's and Brad
Jones and the Audi team and Jim Richards who's a a legend in
this part of the world were stuffed that if it wasn't for
this war we would have never seen that stuff.
So I guess I'm looking for the positives or the negatives.
But we got two really great races that were very different
in terms of those two years because there was AV 8 race and
a A2 litre race. But sadly the the Super Touring
races kind of fall away in the memory banks of most Aussie
fans, so having an episode like this helps to to bring them back
up a bit, which is great. Absolutely.
And Adam coming to you next, what jumps out in your mind
about about these races? I think I had to watch some of
the footage back, obviously, just to sort of remind myself
just how good it was really. But I think some of the things
that that come straight back to me was that the sound of that
screaming Volvo qualifying lap of Rydell.
I mean screaming damp you know Mount Panorama and I just you'd
never this is the one of those sounds you'll never get bored
of. And I think even Ricardo's
mentioned that himself about how good that's, you know, well that
engine sounded but to see that qualifying lap.
But it was huge news because Australian Touring Cars was
massive. You know it was huge and even I
used to watch it all the time. It obviously in the UK, but I
think for the UK stars to, you know, the touring Cars stars to,
you know, arrive at Bathurst and race against, you know, the
Aussie stars as well with the likes of Jim Richards and Co and
then to team up with them as well.
It was like it was a big deal. You know, it was a big, I think
it was a big, big, huge, well orchestrated PR masterstroke,
really just fit in, touring cars in general.
And finally, coming to you, Al, what are your memories of this
story in super touring history? Well, I I must admit to forgive
me, but not not really knowing much about Bathurst before the
Super tourists went there. BTCC was my sort of main passion
and any other motorsport series, including F1, really sort of
took a backseat to touring cars for me.
But yeah, it was I almost I was 13 when the first one, when the
first one happened and I sort of looked at it as another World
Cup or took a shootout or just on the other side of the world.
And it was only when I got older that I really learnt about what
what the the the crazy back story behind these two races.
But I quite like the idea of driver changes and and stuff
like you know that that stuff that didn't happen in a
regulatory and car race. You know it was 160 laps around
a track that's far bigger than any of the British circuits.
It was crazy. It was like the Le Mans of
touring cars almost you know and you know driver changes you know
Alan Menu and Jason Plato in one car it was it was different and
I I really enjoyed that side of it and just the track it was
just it's a magical track isn't it Bathurst and seeing super
tours go around there is is marvellous and and as Adam said
the sound some of them just wonderful.
So yeah, a real, a real unique story in the history of Super
Touring, and we're looking forward to digging in, digging
deep into it. As ever, we've asked our
faithful listeners what they thought of this race meeting on
our social media channels, and there's been quite the response
of this one. Definitely a lot of demand has
been from you guys to cover these two races on stories from
Super Touring, so it's been great getting so many responses
from you all about these particular races.
Start off with Chris Phillips. He says he thought the races
were epic. Quite.
I think similar to what Alex just said, they're a completely
different dynamic to the Sprint races that were prevalent in the
UK and Europe and that there were multiple connotations.
And plus he says what an awesome circuit.
Tyson Davidovsky. He said that although he was
only 6 at the time, he absolutely loved it.
But the he did wish that more of the German and European teams
had got involved, saying that it should have been even bigger
than what it was. Jamie Lemura.
He said that he was there in person for 1998's race and met
his hero Ricard Rydell, which I think would have been a hell of
an experience. Andrew Gregory.
He remembers Murray Walker getting a ride with Brad Jones
in the Audi in the build up and then seeing Plato with a big
grin on his face. He hit top speed in the Laguna
in 1997. That that video that that
Andrew's talking about, there was in a video compilation that
Murray did called Murray's Motorsport Spectacular.
And I'm sure there's plenty of our listeners now are going,
yes, yes, I remember that one and just seeing the joy on
Murray Walker's face as Brad Jones is taking him round in the
Audi. It was just brilliant,
especially when he's he's going at full, full speed.
You you can see even Murray is lost for words and it's a
wonderful video and if you haven't seen it, it's it's well
worth the watch and I'll I'll see if I can share it on our
channels. Yeah, share that.
That'll be a good one. Yeah, it's a really.
It's a really great video to watch.
Adam Haynes, He simply said I'm an Aussie and I absolutely loved
it. Ash Brewster remembers Rydell's
1998 qualifying lap, which a lot of people have been mentioned.
I'm sure we're going to dive into that particular one because
that is a hell of a lap. Whilst Adam Little says that he
remembers the camera angles with nothing like we used to have in
the BTCC in that the you guess the TV coverage completely
different to what we got on grandstand.
And finally we have a great story from Corey Stair.
He said that he was 11 in 1997 and that he and a friend walked
to the track and spent the whole of Thursday and Friday there.
And we're just in awe of seeing the European cars and stars that
he would have normally only ever seen on the television from afar
and said that by first day was always a big day in his house.
TV on all day and a BBQ for lunch.
Which thing sounds pretty perfect?
Is that just a typical weekend, Aaron?
Yeah. Pretty much.
That is the Bathurst 1000 tradition of it's still going
where people get together for the day if they're not at the
track, television on barbecues, beers get togethers.
It's kind of an Australian tradition up there with some of
the other sporting events on the national calendar.
But yeah, I mean, people who aren't motor racing fans, they
don't watch Supercars, they don't watch Formula One.
They still use it as a way to have an excuse for a bit of a
national day. It's not quite a national
holiday here, but it's not far off.
But then again, it feels like it.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, here in Melbourne we
have the Melbourne Cup horse race in early November.
It's on a Tuesday, the first Tuesday of every November, and
it's a public holiday here. That's how crazy we are for
sport. So Bathurst, we should probably
start campaigning for a a public holiday of some sort, you know,
Bathurst Day. It sounds like a good thing to
me. I reckon we should try that.
In 1996, the Touring Car Entrance Group of Australia,
otherwise known as TIGA, signed a deal with US sports agent Mark
Mccormick's International Management Group to market the
Australian Touring Car Championship, which they renamed
to V8 Supercars. The new joint venture company
called Avesco signed a TV deal for 1997 with Network 10, which
included expanded coverage of the championship.
This was not an issue for the regular championship races, but
for the Bathurst 1000, which was organized and promoted by a
consortium that included Channel 7, it was a major issue.
Channel 7 had televised the Great Race since 1963 and had a
contract that was binding well into the 21st century.
Channel Seven were not prepared to drop the race, while Lesco
required a Bathurst race for Network 10 to broadcast Aaron,
It sounds like it's getting quite messy.
Quite early on here was, Was that the case?
Yeah, it got messy very quickly. Looking back on it, it was one
of those situations. There's probably a couple of
elements that almost predated that, The goings on of late 1996
that kind of got us to the road that set us to two Bathurst
races per year. So TEGA, the touring car
entrance group of Australia, was the teams of the VA Touring Car
Championship at the time. That was their body, their
representation of of, of. They tried many times in the
previous years to be united and they finally got it together
with with Tiga. So the television coverage of
the Australian Touring Car Championship had dropped away in
plenty of states in Australia because Channel 7 was showing it
late at night in many mark routing Victoria.
So it was a cut down one hour highlights version at 10 o'clock
11:00 at night which you know for sponsors and for teams it's
pretty hard to sell that yeah to keep that floating.
So the opportunity to have a Channel 10 deal, to have more
hours to be in, you know, Sunday afternoons in a regular time
slot was was really enticing. And the other element to all of
this was for years at Bathurst. The teams, it's kind of an
interesting one, They paid to race at Bathurst.
They were the stars of the show, but they weren't cut in on the
deal as stars of the show. So if you think of your favorite
band, singer, performer, they're the show aren't they?
Regardless of the arena that they're in or the backing band
or who's at the front door selling the merch.
They're the star and the star gets the big clip of the gate,
the cut of of of the of the money.
But in those days the V8 teams turned up to race for prize
money and and it took a very famous story, it's been told
quite a few times here in Australia over the years.
So Tony Cochran, who later became the the chairman of of V8
Supercars, he was a big part of all of this and he sat the teams
down and said, so hang on a minute, let's.
And they did the numbers on a whiteboard and basically it all
distilled to the fact that they were paying to race and put on
the show at the biggest race of the year.
And he looked at them and said you're crazy like you you're
going to Bathurst, your grand final, your crown jewel.
And you are basically breaking even on it.
Like why are you doing this? This is crazy and it changed the
mindset. So it got to the point where
they went, well, we need a a bigger cut of the pie here
because we are bringing the show.
And without the V eights, there's no show in the Bathurst
1000, so that didn't go down well, as you could imagine.
I think that at the time, the prize pool for the Bathurst 1000
was about $350,000. Australian and Vesco wanted 3/4
of a million because they obviously wanted a bigger
proportion of it. They felt that they were
bringing the show. There was an impasse it it
couldn't be met and and as soon as V Eights did that deal with
Channel 10, they had it in their deal that they had to deliver a
Baathist race as part of the deal.
Now Channel 7 weren't going to give that up because they had so
much equity in you know 30 plus years of that race.
It meant hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of advertising
money to them every year every October.
So what business is going to give that up?
Understandably so. The second that V Eights went to
10, that kind of created the whole path of no return in, in a
way, because seven weren't going to give up something they had a
contract for. And in the end V Eights were
able to do a deal with the council.
Who was the other part of the the consortium that ran the
Bathurst 1000? It was the Australian Racing
Drivers Club, Channel 7 and the Bathurst City Council.
As it was then, it's now the Bathurst Regional Council.
So as soon as the V8 group were able to go to the council and
say, hey, can you hire us out the track because we'd like to
run our own Bathurst race. The council was in a hard place
because they knew that if it wasn't AV 8 race and there was
no V8 race at all that the income that came into Bathurst
every year for that event that week that weekend would drop.
So they kind of made the call and and some of the other
members of the consortium felt that they deserted the ship to
go inside on both sides of the excuse me on both sides of the
fence. But I think they were just doing
a a smart thing for their for their region because they had
this worldwide property that had the opportunity.
So the second that Supercars Vesco which was the Australian
V8 Supercar company, as soon as they got the keys to Bathurst to
have their own race then they could fulfill their contract to
Channel 10. So then they could basically say
Channel 7 ARDC. Everyone else, sorry, we're on
our way. And that's when they turned to
to Toka to put together a field and hence the amp.
Bathurst 1000 of 1996, that was AV 8, Commodore and Falcon Race.
12 months later was BMWs and Audis and Renaults, Peugeots,
Vauxhalls and Volvos. And there's an Alpha in there
and Toyotas and all sorts of stuff.
So it was a very, very big change and it got messy.
There was lots of mud throwing backwards and forwards between
whether it's a Vesco, Toca, the consortium, Channel 7, Channel
10, everyone kind of had a a a horse of the race in some way,
shape or form. But it was really political and
it got really messy really quickly and it was, it was
something that really threatened the future and the fabric of the
race. But I think we largely escaped
unscathed compared to other sports at the time, particularly
rugby league. We were going through a big war
here with Super League at the time where there was 2
competitions in the same year that this was all happening in
in 1997 and we went through it with World Series cricket, with
Kerry Packer and this was just our version of it in Australian
motorsport. There was no resolution to the
dispute insight and as a result of Fesco announced that V8
Supercars would not compete in the traditional by first 1000
held on the October long weekend in 1997.
Adam, I think we've already touched this a little bit, but a
bit of a shock that the V8 would not be in their traditional
Bathurst 1000 slot in October for 97.
Yeah, completely. I think like I said before, you
know the the V8 and the Australian Touring Card
Championship was massive. I remember watching it through
the Skyline days, the Horn Commodore days and it just we
used to love it. But now like Aaron's already
alluded to like it was like the Bathurst is like the Lamont of
of touring car races in in Australia, like huge, huge, huge
event. So to not have the V8, which is
you know the main category of touring car racing at the at
Bathurst, they just go hand in hand, don't they?
So you just expect the V8 to be a Bathurst.
So for that not to happen, I imagine, yeah, there was a roar
and and a lot of upset people, you know that would have been
involved and in that tradition has just been broken.
So I think on the plus side of that is the fact that the the,
you know the the Super tourists came, a lot of the European
drivers, European manufacturers came.
So I'm guessing the only person that really benefited, but I'm
not the only person. I'm sure there was others, but
I'm just thinking of Alan Gow comes to one.
Because obviously going back to the BTCC won a promotional tool
that would have been for him Having the likes of Cleland,
Bailer, Plato, Menu, Rydell, all these great drivers that have
gone out there to to compete with the Aussie guys and share
cars with them in this big endurance race.
And then obviously to come back to the UK sort of, you know, it
would have been a massive talking point, wouldn't?
It as a result of this, Channel 7 contacted Toka Australia.
Toka Australia was an offshoot of Toka which was also headed by
Alan Gale. Toka Australia had started a few
years earlier when BMWA, long time supporter of motorsport
Down Under, felt squeezed out when the new V8 Supercar formula
that replaced the old multi class Australian Touring Car
Championship came in with Gow as one of the three partners.
It was organised as an Australian Super Touring
Championship under the same 2 litre rules that were used to
such great success in Britain and across Europe.
Channel 7 owned the Bathurst 1000, Gal told Auto Sport in
2013. A war started between them and
Tiga who ran the V eights. Tiga wanted more money for
Bathurst and Channel 7 wouldn't pay it.
Tiga said We're not going. Channel 7 wouldn't bent to the
strong arm tactics and they contacted Toker Australia to put
a grid together. Now are you surprised that
Channel 7 went to Gowan Toker, Australia to arrange this
alternative for the Bathurst 1000?
Not really, no. I mean, who else would you go
to? Alan GAO at the time was the
touring car supremo pretty much around the world, wasn't he?
He was. He was well known for being able
to put things together a bit like the sort of the Bernie
Ecclestone of touring cars, wasn't he?
Yeah. It was announced in January 1997
that Super Touring would be the formula used for October's
Bathurst 1000 which was agreed as a six year deal.
At this point the Australian Super Touring Championship had
BMW, Volvo and ALDI works teams with a strong contingent of
privateers running second hand cars from Europe.
Aaron taking us back to that time.
How was the quality and the standard of the Australian Super
Touring series at this point and sort of especially compared to
maybe the European series and and the V8 Supercars
Championship as well? It it was good.
But I in terms of its health, you know no competitor to the
BTCC or or anything along those lines.
But to compare it to the V eights of the time it it it had
a good solid standard probably to try to look at the peak.
I mean we only had two litre super touring here basically
from 94 to 2001. So it's pretty short shelf life,
but 97 was kind of where it's sort 9697 I think where its
peaks in terms of the the strength, the car count, the
quality 97 we had two factory BMWs, 2 factory Audis and a
factory Volvo albeit an older model car that Jim Richards was
driving. We we didn't get the S40 here
until 98 so he was in the older car but there was kind of that
next a good level of privateers or independence.
I think we called it back in the day didn't we, that we're in
that next little tier that on their day could create a
headache for the factory cars. Steve Richards was in a Honda
and then got a Nissan in 97. Cameron McLean got a Vectra for
for that year but then the drop off was pretty deep.
It it dropped away pretty well and I've only just been looking
back at some of the results and the the qualifying times and
things like that from from some of the rounds in in 97 and once
she got past that top five 6-7 it dropped away really quickly.
But there was a good little group of privateers.
Rob Bob Tweedy had one of the John Cleland Cavaliers.
There was an alpha with David Olga that was a a car that
Steven Richards had driven. There was some Kiwis getting
involved in the series as well because they didn't have a Super
Touring Championship, so a few of them came and and played in
Australia. So it was at a good standard,
but I wouldn't say it was at a great standard about to take
over the world. But it was, it was it was
ticking along quite OK. Talking to Steve Richards there
we we spoke to Steve at at Brands Hatch in in July this
year at Super Touring Power and and he said that the the the
ecosystem of the cars from Europe then being sold on
because they wanted to to sell on the older cars because they
were building new cars for the new season and that and that the
Super Touring guys in Australia were more than happy to receive
them and and and race these year old cars effectively.
So you know he said it created a good little ecosystem for the
formula. So yeah, he he was full of
praise of it. And that was probably the thing
that for Australia, once further up the food chain where the car
supply came from, the UK and and Europe in the latter years, once
that kind of died away, we were in big trouble there because we
didn't make them here or we didn't do Super Touring cars.
So yeah, when you're reliant on the the overseas second hand car
market or manufacturer backing that was always going to be a
drama that you know, it unraveled a few years later.
It's funny, they were never made over there, but.
They all seem to live over there now, these super tourists.
Yeah, The funny thing is that there's actually a lot of them
in New Zealand and there's yeah, they they could just about run
their own super touring race from over there.
But I spoke to Steve Richards and and Greg Murphy who was also
over there earlier this. Year.
And they were blown away by how many people at Brands knew them,
remembered the cars that they drove, whether it be two litre
cars V eights, Bathurst. It just blew them.
I think sometimes because we're so far away here in Australia,
we still have that thing, even though modern technology and
communication. You guys can see so much of what
goes on down here now more than ever.
But I think it just blew them away to think that people
remembered things from 25 years ago.
I mean, it's just quite, quite phenomenal.
At the time, Alan Gal reckoned he could add up to 15 others to
the entry list by bringing along drivers from the BTCC and other
championships across Europe. Channel Seven put their hands in
their pockets to bring the cars out, Gal says.
When looking back, they also financially supported a lot of
the running costs. Otherwise it couldn't have
worked. It would have been too
expensive. The cars in the ASTC put on some
very good races and all I had to do was top it up with a bit of
quality from overseas. Adam From a driver's
perspective, this must have been a very tempting opportunity for
the drivers involved in super Touring in Europe.
Absolutely. You wouldn't have had to have
asked me twice, but like 100% like this is the like I said
earlier, this is the world famous Bathurst race.
Like for those that are listening now will some will
understand how big Bathurst is and some weren't but Bathurst is
huge that Aaron has already alluded to earlier on.
It's massive. So from ACV point of view this
is grand, like this is you know this, it doesn't come much
better than this. But for Channel 7 to also help
with the funding side of it and getting the teams and the
drivers over was a great move. They probably wouldn't have
happened without that and and obviously Aaron, I mentioned it
earlier on about, you know it it sort of dwindle out because the
backing wasn't there and but you know this year that when this
happened it was massive. So to get the invite to go over
but it's just I think it it also enhanced the Australian Touring
Car Championship you know bringing over these big names
such as Ryder, Harvey Menu, Baila, you know the list goes
on. So I think it it it because of
the the the coverage that the BTCC got and how big that was as
a championship and with the manufacturing involvement around
Europe. I think it it, I think it held
both sides of the of of of Australian Touring cars and the
British Touring cars. I think it was only a benefit
for everyone involved. I think I don't see how it
wouldn't. After some hard work from GAO,
the BTCC works cars from Peugeot, Renault and Vauxhall
were sent out to Australia along with a Nissan Premera run by
Team Dynamics. Meanwhile, Beeler and Rydell
would join the Audi and Volvo squads out there too.
Alex, That seems like a pretty good line up, a talent from the
BTCC represented there. Absolutely.
So you had 10 drivers going over that were BTCC regulars.
He had two cars from Peugeot to Renault and to Vauxhalls along
with the the the Matt Neal Premiera.
It's it's it's a dream lineup isn't it And then you had as
well obviously menu was going to be racing in the the Williams
Renault that was the reigning BTCC champion.
The previous champion Beeler was going to be racing in the in the
in the Audi there he was the 96 champion one in Europe as well
yes some some really big names there and and if if you were a
fan of the BTCC down under then that would definitely draw your
attention and that sort of thing.
You would think, yeah, I need to get there, I need to watch these
guys because yeah, 10 top quality entries there from from,
from the UK Championship really would would add to the show.
Whilst an impressive line up from the BTCC had come along,
the big names from an Australian perspective were the additions
of 1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones who was
signed to race the second Williams rated Laguna whilst
signing of the legendary Peter Brock made the fan sit up and
take notice. Brock would race a 888 Vauxhall
Vectra alongside Derek Warwick, much of the disappointment of
Vauxhall's stalwart John Cleland, who would race the 2nd
Vectra alongside James Kay prior to the race, Warwick told the
press. When the chance came to drive
with Brockie, I got so excited. The guy is an absolute legend in
Australia and to be his teammate is going to be so good.
Aaron, just how much of an impact did the likes of Jones
and Brock have on the credibility of the event?
For the locals, clearly huge. And the big part of that was
Brock Alan Jones helpful Peter Brocker must I mean he could not
have a Bathurst 1000 without Peter Brock on the Internet list
and and he he actually at the time was contracted to Channel
7. He had a television show with
seven at the time that was kind of one of those I think it was
called police camera action. It was one of those clip shows
with bad driving and stupid stuff on the road that became a
a Wednesday night 730 type TV show.
So he was contracted to 7 and was very much in there and and
he didn't appreciate the fact that he had pressure to not
drive in that race because he was contracted through Tom
Wilkinshaw to the Holden Racing team, the factory Holden team in
in the V8 Supercars. So there was a lot of grief,
There was a lot of drama in the background to get him to be able
to do that event and to do that deal, even to the point where
right up until when they announced that he was driving
that vector, which was sponsored by the Australian Grand Prix
Corporation to promote the next year's Formula One race, which
is a very smart PR move, it was clouded in.
Will it or won't it happen on the morning of the the actual
announcement, But huge to have Brock as part of it because he
gave it validity outside of the fan base, outside of the motor
racing tragics that we all are. The the man and woman on the
street in Australia knows who Peter Brock is and if he's in it
then it's worth watching. It's it.
It's a must. So he was he was box office here
in in Australia and he was a crucial part of the puzzle
because I think that race without him being as part of it
and because he'd announced his retirement that year too.
So he was on a farewell tour from the mid part of the year.
So he it was just this weird scenario where he got two
farewell Bathursts in his retirement year but he came back
anyway a few years later for a couple more.
So it was, it was really crucial though to have Brock as part of
it and I know Cleland was gutted because he'd been to Australia.
He he knew the race he'd driven with Brock before and I think he
really thought that he would be with Brock in the car.
But of course he wasn't a partner in 888, Derek was.
So but I think there was a story from that week in in Bathurst 97
where you know Derek's a Le Mans winner, Formula One driver of
you know what, 100 plus Grand Prix starts, all the stuff he's
done in sports cars and racing here, there and everywhere
around the world. But in Australia, no one cares
because with you're sitting next to Peter Brock at Bathurst in an
autograph signing his line's real long, yours is not.
And I think that, you know, he, I think Derek knew he was a
legend in Australia, but he really got an understanding when
he came to Bathurst that week of wow, this is, this is next level
this guy something special. The 1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 was
the 38th running of the iconic race.
Meeting with the BTCC season, over 10 drivers would make their
way across the seas to join the regulars from Australia.
Many of them were suggesting that the local BMW teams of
Craig Baird, Paul Morris and the Brabham brothers of David and
Jeff would be the cars to beat. Multiple touring car champion
Frank Beale had disagreed, however, saying before the
meeting we don't know how competitive the BMW will be.
It isn't Winkelhook or Chikoso and probably their teams are not
as good as the Europeans. It is difficult to judge Adam.
That's some pretty strong views from Bila there about the the
competitiveness of the Australian team.
What? What do you make of that?
Yeah, it's almost like about halfway through there he sort of
started to backtrack a little bit because he's going to.
We don't know how competitive they are, but you know it's not
exactly Wincock or Chicato, but you know, we don't know where
they're going to be. But then also he's gone, but
he's difficult to judge. Well go on Frank, make your mind
up. But I think he's, he's being
honest. But you know, he knew how good
the BMW Chinits, the team was with Winghawk and Chicato and
but this was all new to him, you know, he'd not really raced
against them yet. So it was difficult to really
judge of, you know, you tell me, I've got all these Aussies in
this, in this car that's more than capital.
Winning the race. Then I'd be going there
thinking, well, these boys have got to be a strong favorites to
win this. You know, this is Bathurst.
This is like going up against, you know, doing the Le Mans 24
Hours and going up against the likes of Tom Christensen.
Yeah, the guy could drive the circuit blindfolded with his
eyes closed, with tab tight, with hands tied behind his back.
So that that's how I would have looked at it with these Aussie
boys in in a competitive car at Mount Panorama.
So odd of Adam as favourites, but again, you don't know until
you know the first practice green light goes.
You have no idea where you where you fare do you?
You you're bringing your your own cars over there and on a
circuit you've you've not driven out in that car in anger.
Yeah yeah it's just a different this isn't this isn't your
normal circuit like Alton Park or Brands Indy or anything like
that. This is Mountain Panorama.
So you know this is you know then then boys know that
circuit. So I think it was yeah he I
think all the the BTCC guys would have gone there knowing
that they weren't really going to be favourites for it.
I think you just go there and and hope to do the best job you
can and hopefully have a result. So yeah, it's a it's a tough one
to go there. Not it's always difficult when
you go into a champ, like into any championship or any race
where you you don't know the you know your competitors as well as
your regulars on every other race weekend that you're
competing with. In the practice sessions prior
to qualifying, another first happened with local legend Peter
Brock rolling a car for the very first time after just setting
the fastest time. In Wednesday's practice session,
Brockie was going quicker again when he clipped a curb on the
way into the Chase s s and ended up on his roof.
The locals couldn't believe it. Peter Perfect had made a
mistake, Alex. That must have been a pretty big
shot for the High Court fans, do you think?
Yeah, Brockie rolled his Vectra. I didn't realize he'd never
rolled the car before, but it's actually the car that John
Cleland's got and he said that it's still got the marks in the
roof where where it's on the inside of the car.
It adds value. It does add value to it though.
And yeah, he's very proud of that as well.
But yeah, he he rolled his rector and I quite like the way
afterwards. He sort of nonchalantly just
said, yeah, rolling with the car was just another tick in the box
that I hadn't done in life and now I have.
But JC did tell me a rather funny story, and I don't know
how true it is. Maybe Aaron can can verify it,
but basically there's the the there's a garage at at Bathurst
where the college kids repair the cars, any damage on them.
And basically working on Brockie's car was such a big
deal that it basically pushed its way into the front of the
queue and that the students were fighting over repairing it.
And basically there was already ABMW in there to be repaired and
that got pushed back and that didn't run until Friday.
But Brockie's car was straight out straight, straight away,
pretty much after being fixed. I don't know how true it is, but
it wouldn't shock me. Because.
The power of Brock at Bathurst and and they used to have a
smash repair team of TAFE students who as part of their
trade learning would be at Bathurst and they put lots of
cars over the years back on the track.
It's not really a thing anymore because the race teams are so
professional now and you don't really have the privateers like
back in the day. But there's actually still at
the National Motor Racing Museum at Bathurst.
At Mount Panorama. It's just outside the final
corner on the track. There's a bunch of amazing race
cars and and memorabilia. One of the panels from the
Vectra from that rollover is still there and I'm pretty sure
it's signed by Brock and it says I did this.
So yeah, there's a bit of super touring left behind at Bathurst.
That's brilliant. That's brilliant.
We. Need to let John know because
he's missing the. He He won't pay cash for it,
though. He's tight.
As. With the race weekend at
Bathurst a little different to a normal race weekend, who better
than our expert on today's show to explain the qualifying format
for the Great Race? Aaron, do you want to guide us
through that format for both qualifying and and the race at
this special event? It was a bit of a long run up to
to get to that Sunday race. So in those days at Bathurst on
track started Wednesday of race week, so practice on Wednesday,
not for, you know, qualifying positions, but then Thursday, a
couple of qualifying sessions, then into Friday with a couple
more. So basically it really is a
chance for a lot of the European drivers to get their eye in,
learn the track. Of course, a lot of these cars
had not run there before, so they were trying to understand
gear ratios and all those sorts of things that computer
simulations come a long way to be able to almost do the test
before you actually go to the the racetrack.
But then the big part of of Saturday, traditionally at
Bathurst since the late 70s is the top 10 shootout.
And in those days actually it was in the morning on Saturday
morning. In latter years, In the last 20
years, we've had it on Saturday afternoon, more so for
television reasons, to roll into the the Evening News more than
anything. The power of television sounds
like a good create a Bathurst war, doesn't it?
But the Top 10 Shootout was the focal point Saturday after
Saturday morning. Then there was a like a a
practice session Saturday afternoon, a brief warm up
session Sunday morning and then the race itself at 10:00 AM
local time. So 161 laps, 1000 kilometers and
and get it done. So long lead up like long time
to be at the track rolling into a race like that.
But in latter years, in a couple of years after that they trimmed
the Wednesday away and did away with it.
Because I think it got to the point where particularly for the
V8 teams who raced so regularly, it was a cost scenario where you
know you have another day running, you have to be set up a
day earlier, you have to accommodate and feed everyone
for another day. It all adds up to the bill that
probably doesn't really add to. For the show, so it got trimmed
back to start from Thursday's, which is the format that it
still has. After such strong practice times
everyone expected Alan Menu and his Renault to dominate
qualifying and on Thursday morning when he set a time over
a second quicker than anyone else, it looked like that would
come to fruition. But at the end of Friday
afternoon Jeff Brabham picked this time but there was no cause
for concern at Renault as they had been spending the time since
Menu's hot lap on perfecting a race set up.
Things got a little more tense for them though when Paul Morris
took a second out of his team mates time to take top spot.
Menu tried to hit back but he made a slight mistake at the
chase and lost time, meaning he had to settle for second, only
two hundredths behind Morris Morris was surprised to edge
out. Menu.
There is no way I expected that, he explained.
I thought there'd be a second or so quicker than anything we
could do. But we have been improving and
it's a great effort by the guys. Adam, I think a great efforts.
An understatement there. Were you surprised to see Morris
edge out menus dominant Renault that year with a year old BMW as
well? Yes and no.
Like I said earlier you've got the you know these European guys
coming over that have never raced there.
But as Aaron said obviously they get tons of track time.
So it benefits the European guys more so than than the Aussies,
the local guys. But yeah that's a that was a
massively good effort a been an Aussie on home soil would have
helped us. The knowledge of the circuit
would have been completely invaluable, but it was.
It was clearly a quick, established driver.
As Aaron, you'd have to correct me on this if I'm wrong, but
he's Paul Morris, like one or two people alongside Shane
Bergen to have won all three major events at Bathurst,
winning the Bathurst 1006 Hour and 12 Hour.
Yeah, he is. Yeah, he's.
So he's clearly capable. Yeah, totally.
And he nearly won the 24 Hour race, too.
He finished third in a Porsche. Yeah.
So like you look at, you look at those stats and you thinking,
well, my money would have been on him to begin.
With an impressed menu, acknowledged Morris Lap.
All credit to Paul, it was a brilliant lap.
I'm disappointed because the car could have done it, but I
didn't. Both Peugeots made the top five
with Harvey 3rd and Patrick Watts in fifth.
Derek Warwick was in between them with 4th on the grid and
with that the grid was set up beautifully for the 161 lap
race. Paul Morris would lead the pole
car away with Plato starting the race in the menu.
Plato entry from second on the grid.
Morris soon took the lead into the first corner, but Plato took
that off him after a stunning move around the outside of the
BMW into the BP cutting. The engines roar.
They're ready to go a great race for 97.
Is away and Paul Morris takes the lead from Jason Plato, but
there's 161 laps to go as they come down to and round L corner,
starting the climb up Mount Panorama, up mountain straight.
Everybody's getting round the first corner.
Well that's good and they stream up towards Revco Ben the first
right-hander, and then into the BP cutting and Jason Plato
passes Paul Morris to take the lead in the Renault Laguna.
Behind him in the Peugeot Four O 6, it's double world champion
Paul Radisich Morris retakes the lead.
It's terrific stuff. On the 1st of 161 laps and
coming up in the background you can see Peter Brock is in fourth
position in the red and White and Vauxhall Vectra.
Alex, that was some move there on the first lap of that race
from Plato. Yeah, it was a great move,
wasn't it, for a for a rookie at Bathurst, some who'd never raced
a racing lap there before. You know, Morris took the lead
into hell and I thought, OK, the race might settle down now, but
but no, fair play to Plato. He drafted past him and hung it
around the outside at the cutting and and yeah, some move
you have to say a real move and not only that Plato then.
Really dominated. He he did really well.
He was. Flying around the around the
circuit. Plato quickly extended his lead,
setting a scorching pace with the Englishman stretching out a
comfortable lead before pitting to hand over to team mate Alan
Menu with a 30 second advantage. At this point the safety car was
deployed, eroding the Swiss drivers lead.
Ironically, the safety car was brought out in response to Alan
Jones crashing in the sister Laguna.
There was a mongrel patch of oil, Jones said after the race.
I just came up through the cutting, hit the oil and
understeered into the fence. Aaron, That must have been a
real shame for the the home hero there.
Yeah, and and what a an Australian quote mongrel patch
of oil, I mean. I was just going to say that
sounds like a very Australian thing to say.
Very Bathurst and not BTCC isn't it?
But yeah it it really it sliced the the Williams Renault team in
half and Allen was driving with Graham Moore who was the
Australian privateer been doing Bathurst for for many years.
He was the guy that helped bring together that whole deal to get
the Williams Renault team to come to Bathurst that year.
He was a big part of that whole process and project of putting
together the funding and and bringing those cars out here.
So to have a banner head name like Alan Jones out within, I
think it was 38 laps from from memory.
One of the privateer BMWs drew by a couple of Kiwis had
deposited itself across the road and it was actually the car that
Tony Longhurst had won the championship in in 94.
That was a car that was used for quite some years in in Super
Touring after that. But yeah, it's it lost its lunch
and AJ found it and caught the concrete and that was that.
Game over for car 23. It was, it was quite a nasty hit
actually, wasn't it? It's I think what was more
shocking is that we didn't really see accidents like that
in the new European tracks. Certainly in the BTCC you didn't
have walls right up to the tracks like that it.
So to see a touring car hit the wall like that was was quite
shocking. Two more safety car periods LED
Menu to feel that they were bringing them out on purpose to
bunch up the pack. One of those really didn't need
to be a safety car, Menu said after the race.
It felt like they were deliberately bringing the safety
car out. The lead that the Renault had
lost became even more critical when the brake pads needed to be
replaced. At the halfway point on the
race. After a delay on the right
front, the remaining Renault Laguna had dropped to 5th place
Adam. It seems like quite bad luck for
the Rooney pair at this point in the race, doesn't it?
Yeah, he did. I think that you could see the
impact of the first car with Alan Jones hitting the wall,
that it looked like it totalled the car.
To be honest. I think he'd bent the front end
over because it was just there's no room to slow down and he
just, you know, he'd finish the car off and then obviously got
Alain and and Jason coming in for their pit and it was painful
to watch because I've watched it back and they spent was it about
3 minutes in the pits or something like that.
It was the lost so much time but it was when they were changing
the pads and and I think the piston had gone too far and he's
always that danger. But to me, I'll just look at
that and just think that's just the inexperience and I don't
want to do Williams a disservice here because this is William's
grown printing in we're talking about here, but.
Yeah. But I think this is the
difference, probably the fact that they're not used to doing
these length, these long races that they, you know, there's a
short races at best they'll change, you know, a set of front
tyres during one of the races. So if it's just come in,
obviously it's all planned the rehearsed it, but it's now under
pressure, everything's hot, you've got to change the brake
pads and it can easily go wrong. I've been in GT races before
where this is an an, you know 24 hour races where this is, this
is normal and things have gone wrong because you don't really
get a second chance, you know that.
I mean Aaron, you made no more than me, but if I'm not sure if
was it the issue with the piston going too far and they couldn't
get the the piston back in the in the caliper?
From memory, I reckon that's what it would have been off the
top, yeah, I. Think it was it's.
A common thing. Common thing.
Yeah, it's a common thing, but it's one of those once that
mistakes happened. Yeah, stuffed, aren't you?
Yeah, it's not an easy. Fix back.
Hence why they lost a ton of time and but you're up against
guys that are used to doing this and I think that was the
difference. That was the difference.
But yeah, it was bad timing for both cars.
I I like that this is probably the first time we see Stroppy.
Allen for the first time in quite a while, because obviously
1997 went his way quite beautifully, didn't they?
And he won the. Title in.
The BTC Theatre Canter and and we didn't really see Stroffy
Allen very much. And Stroffy Allen really came to
the fore in 98, but he certainly showed his face in October 90. 7
here as well. The new leaders were Cameron
McConville and Brad Jones, with the Audis running well despite
suffering from having to run with the FIA mandated 4 wheel
drive weight penalties. Alex, those weight penalties
would really hamper a car, especially around a track like
Mount Panorama. Yes, I mean, Audi had spent the
season lamenting those, those sort of weight penalties at at
the tight, twisty British tracks.
So yeah, the type of layout the Bathurst was, it would have
exacerbated it to a degree that I don't think even Audi would
experience before. So yeah, it wouldn't have been
fun it. Would have been massive because
you think about the impact it had on a short circuits like
Brands Indy for example and then all of a sudden you've got
you've got Mount Panorama that like you know the punishment.
You know, you think how many laps they do around there, like
for 1000 kilometres, it's not the the overall time lost
through that extra weight over that complete distance would
have been huge. With 55 laps to go menus pace
was bringing him back into contention but he made a mistake
and went bouncing off the track 4 laps later and his Laguna came
to a halt with a diff failure. We did a diff on Thursday so I'm
not sure if the off fire had damaged it but it probably
didn't help, the dejected Menu said.
When the Aldi's made their final pit stops, this dropped them to
3rd and 4th behind the BMWs. After a race full of excitement,
Craig Baird crossed the line to take victory with Paul Morris
ahead of the Brabham brothers in the second BMW.
However, Paul Morris and Craig Baird were later disqualified as
Baird had breached the race regulations which limited anyone
driver to a maximum of three hours continuous driving.
Instead they were placed 27th and last.
A late race error saw the BMW Motorsport Australia team leave
bed in the car at the final pit stop instead of putting Morris
in the car for the run to the chequered flag.
This mistake ultimately cost the Team A12 finish for BMW.
Aaron probably feels like it's best to come to you at this
point and ask you to explain the rules behind the driver times
and and why this was such severe penalty, excluding the Morris
bed entry. The rule at the time was that,
and I think I'm pretty sure it's still in place to the same
degree. No driver could drive
continuously for more than 3 1/2 hours.
So when you consider that that year's race took six hours, 41
that pit stop, that last pit stop where Baird stayed in the
car, was the pit stop that lost them the race.
Yes, they crossed the line first, but the race time ran, so
Baird was in the car for three hours, 59 minutes continuously.
So he was over by 29 minutes. In the end, it wasn't even a
close. A couple of.
Minutes, you know. Oh, 30 seconds.
Oh, we got unlucky. Yeah, it was, it was not that
case. It was a massive a massive
amount over. So the rule's the rule.
It's really quite clear. But the great strange element to
all of it was that I I can only guess and and I know you've
spoken to Craig on your pod and I've had him on my V8 salute pod
as well. I'm with him.
He's the driving standards advisor here for the Supercars.
So get to a fair bit of him and if the feeling was, well, let's
not put pull in the car. Craig's in the rhythm, Craig's
driving well, you know, let's not risk that last pit stop with
the driver change or fumbling the belts or anything that could
go wrong. But the minute he drove out of
that pit lane, they were cooked. They and some of the teams in
the pit lane knew because they were looking at the clock and
went hang on a minute, he's been in there for a long time now
since I think Morris did 67 laps at the start of the race.
So Craig had been in the car from that point onwards.
So I think other teams had a bit of an inkling that, hang on a
minute, I can't believe they've just done that, like they're not
going to actually be able to do this.
So the great army was, had they stuck Morris in the car, taking
a little bit longer to do it, yes, they may have lost some
track position, but there was a safety car later on anyway.
That was probably the fastest car in the race as well.
So a 1/2 went totally begging there.
And I think they tried to argue at one stage that, well, it's
not continuous driving time because he was in the pits not
driving. And they tried to argue that
that was a, you know, trying to argue the wording of the rule.
But yeah, that one was never going to fly.
So I guess the only saving grace for them was the fact that they
had a second car that finished second in the race.
Yeah, if they were to lose the win, BMW is still going to win
regardless. I did feel for for for Bearder
when when I was chatting with him about it for a for a piece
we did a couple of years ago and it it was, it was interesting
actually because he said yeah, yeah, obviously it's it's, it
was gutting, he said. But still finished first on the
road and the performance put in was still noticed by BTCC guys
that were there. Yeah, and and ultimately, yeah,
ultimately, yeah, that's what he said.
He got my job, you know, Dick Bennett's picked him out for the
for the Ford for the Ford Drive in 98, and he said he thought
that the performance at Bathurst in 97 contributed a lot to that.
After a pretty successful race in 1997, there was less interest
from teams and competitors from Europe in the second running of
the race under Super Touring regulations.
For 1998, despite a large number of entries, there were only nine
truly competitive cars on the grid.
There are just six of those coming from the BTCCA.
Number of factors were deemed to conspire to keep the entry list
down but unlike in 1997, the organisers were not paying
people to come and drive in the race.
Questioned over the weekend, Alan Gallon said Of course we
would have liked some more depth last year it cost the organisers
a lot. People were getting paid to take
part. Aaron Was it understandable that
there were less entries in 1998 due to the organisers trying to
cut down on the costs of hosting the event?
Well, Channel 7 was still tipping in a lot of money there,
so that that underpinned getting 888 back, the Volvo team proper.
Because the previous year was the the local Australian Volvo
team, sort of topped up with Ricard and Jan Nielsen and some
engineers and some support. But it was the full shebang
TWRBTCC team that came out in 98.
Then you had the Audi factory team.
We'd lost the BMW factory team in Australia at the end of 97,
so they weren't there anyway to have a BMW factory presence in
in 98. But while the Super Touring side
of it went down from a contender side, the whole field went up
because the look of 97 with I think 25 cars was a bit thin.
Yeah, So they actually topped up the field and they added
production cars with the Class and Schedule S Touring cars from
New Zealand which were New Zealand's touring car category
of the time, which was a 2 liters type category, but a much
more production based, lower cost category of car.
And that brought from memory 10 or 11 cars across the ditch to
to Australia. So the field was about 40 cars
for the next year, but the the quality was still really good of
the cars that were at the front, but again outside the top eight
or nine, yeah, it it did drop away.
So you know no factory Peugeot team that next year, no factory
Renault team. So a couple in, a couple out.
But Channel 7 was still footing a lot of the bills here.
But this is where it got to the point of, well, how long can
they sustain this for Because it costs a lot of money to get
cars, equipment, people, resource from one corner of the
world to the other. And I mean if you look back at
the 97 race, the British Championship finished, I think
it was September 21st at Silverstone, 2 weeks later was
Bathurst. So cars were air freighted in
that, you know, it's not like they put them on the boat.
I mean we've had a recent World Tour TCR event here in at
Bathurst in Sydney and Macau was the following weekend.
Yet Lincoln, Co and some of these other teams had other cars
on the water going there before, you know, because they weren't
going to turn around from here. So when you're air freighting
things and you've got to get them there quickly, the bills
skyrocket and I reckon come 98, it didn't work for a lot of
teams in the UK and it was starting to add the bills up
here at this end to go, this is probably not all that
sustainable for for moving forward.
But still, I mean the quality that we got for 98 was still
very good though, although it wasn't growth on what we'd had
in 97. There was talk of the race
gaining World Cup status for 1999, but Roland Dane of 888
poured water on that idea. People aren't going to come out
for nothing, whether you call it the World Cup or the Bathurst
1000. Alex, was Dane right with that
assessment? I mean, it's quite a cynical
view, but I do think he's right on this one because the amount
of times there obviously there were three World Cup events in
93, in 94 and 95 and they tried to revive it at Kailami in 98
and the teams weren't that interested and they weren't
interested until they knew what sort of TV deal was going to be
put out for them and what sort of sponsorship.
And again, it's the same, exactly the same situation as
we've got here. It was all about funding and
money. You know, you could, you could
call the the Bathurst 1000 Super Touring race, the World Cup, but
unless it was worth their while, you weren't going to get teams
to come out and do it. And yeah, that was always going
to be the struggle. And as Aaron said there, you
know, if you're flying cars out, that's crazy and that's silly
money and it's just not viable. It was getting to the point
where it was so expensive to run a Super Touring race team that
the teams just couldn't afford. Doing it, the squads just
couldn't afford the extra expense, and unless they were
going to be reimbursed for that either through TV sponsorship
deals, you know, funding from TV companies like Channel 7, then
they weren't going to do it. So no Roland Dane was spot on.
You could call it whatever you like if if it wasn't worth the
team's while, they wouldn't do it.
There were 28 Super Tours in varying states of repair, taking
part in the 1998 iteration of the race, with 15 production
based entries from New Zealand and Australia.
A handful of these were run by highly professional outfits, but
most were regarded by drivers as mobile chicanes, with Brad Jones
the most vociferous. We need to have a split here
with the 15 fastest cars in their own session.
Every time we got Bolt we throw away two and a half 1000 lbs for
the set of tyres. There was one car that I flashed
at about 700 times but he was so concentrated on keeping his car
under control he didn't have time to look.
The now retired Peter Brock, meanwhile, said that getting
past all the little guys is all part of the deal at Bathurst.
Adam is our driver in the room. What?
What side of this argument are you on?
I do understand Brad's comments and if you are involved in in
raising the funds and you're involved within the team that
way. In terms of you know, I've been
in the situation where we tried to raise the sponsorship and I
didn't know with the the touring car championships that I did.
I didn't know if I was going to be there the next race or not.
You know it was all there on paper and it's all but we had to
live almost like day-to-day really to to know if we're going
to survive to the next one. But so I was very conscious of
costs and damage and all those sort of things.
So I do, I do get it and it is massively frustrating, massively
frustrating. But then obviously you've got
the the professional paid drivers that that wouldn't even
cross their mind to even think like that.
But you have to remember this is Mount Panorama and this is
Bathurst. This isn't a 20 lap Sprint race
around brands you know this is an endurance race.
Always has been, always will be. You know, this is, I think, the
fact that there were touring cars.
It's almost like the drivers were forgetting that it was an
insurance race. Yeah.
Well, I guess the other thing too, just quickly just to throw
in, is that Brad Jones owned his team his cars, so when two and a
half £1000 is coming out of the pocket, he's coming out of his.
Pocket. He has a lot more.
So he's the driver slash owner, which is very different to if
you're just a hired gun driving the race car trying to set a lap
time. So and Bradley is very frugal
with his pennies and has done a very good job running his race
team for many years. But that that quote that you
just read out before, I would never question that.
That was a Brad Jones quote. Let's put it that way.
Qualifying in 1998 saw what many call the greatest Super Touring
lap of all time. Ricard Rydell took pole position
at the wheel of his Volvo S40, the blue and silver car.
All my shaving the concrete walls that passed across the top
of the mountain. It resulted in a pole time 1.5
seconds quicker than anyone else.
Aaron, that's some lap isn't it? From Rickard.
It was nuts. I was there in 98 and I think
people had to rub their eyes and look at the screen again because
it was, it was so much quicker than what anybody else had had
wheeled out. And I mean in the end it was
214.92 which if you ponder you know, naturally aspirated front
wheel drive, 5 cylinder 300 ish horsepower.
If you go back only I think it was about 89.
Brock had Olin of S1 of the X Andy Rouse cars at a 15/8 so you
know with 500 plus power. So I mean it was it was 1.48
seconds quicker than Steve Richards in for all intents and
purposes as close to a factory Nissan Premier as you were going
to get at that wasn't a factory premiera it was a team Dynamics
car but with a lot of help because Steve was the test
driver for Nissan in British Touring cars that year.
So but Rick cars that was was just I mean you get I watched
the vision and it's kind of one of those we know it's fast
because we know the time and we know what happens but it's just
millimetre perfect it's just poetry in motion it just flows
it just goes to the right part of the track at the right time.
It's and it's really unfair in Australia because if you if you
asked a race fan to name their top five Bathurst Shootout laps
of all time, this one probably doesn't get in the five.
Because on the stupid touring race that didn't have the level
of exposure that the V8 races have, they'll talk about Greg
Murphy's Lap of the Gods in 2003, where he was a second
faster than everyone and and put in an amazing lap.
They'll talk about spectacular laps where guys were massively
sideways, slow but spectacular, but this is one of the best laps
of Bathurst that you'll ever see.
It was, it wasn't just the margin.
I mean it was kind of how it all clicked together and and it's
just one of the the amazing things of Bathurst that you just
had to sit there and whether you're you're like the Volvos or
you didn't or you like Rydell or you didn't or whoever you were a
fan of, you just had to clap and applaud that effort as a
sporting performance. It was.
It was next level and 1.48 seconds, yes, it's a six
kilometre track, so there's a bit of time if you've got an
advantage to, you know, stretch that out.
But that was that was phenomenal.
That was something really special.
Watching that back, that lap the other day, what made it even
greater? Watching back as, as Aaron just
said, the way Ricard drove that lap was beautiful.
It was poetry in motion, but what added to it was hearing the
dulcet town. Yeah, not only the sound, the
sound of the Volvo, but also the dulcet tones of Mr. Murray
Walker describing the lap of the Swedish florist as he called
Rick. And just as as the lap went on,
you could hear in his voice the sheer, you know, he could see
what a special lap he was witnessing and you could just
tell in his voice it was just getting octaves and octaves
higher with with every corner. It was just it's a it's a
special. Lap And it was.
The the courage was good. The way it was edited and the
way it was obviously in car, you got obviously outside and the
sound to go with it, you got Murray's voice.
It was just all one of those, Yeah.
Like I said, just one of those moments where just all just a
beautiful piece to watch. The lap started with him
describing going for pizza with Ricard Rydell the the night
before and then five off days later coming around the final
corner. He's just like.
Wow. Ricard Rydell.
He's just wonderful. It kind of blended too, didn't
it? The the Bathurst Australian and
the BTCC elements. So you had our track, the
reigning British Touring Car champion in the, you know, the
car, the Volvo. I don't think it was the
specific car that he'd driven that year.
But you know, one of them, Murray Walker, the voice of the
BTCC who you know had a huge he was the voice of Formula One for
Australian fans because Channel Nine took the feed of of of
Murray's commentary. So we kind of blended in that
moment all of the best elements of Super Touring, BTCC and
Bathurst all at once and it kind of with an amazing on track
performance. So it kind of I think that's why
it probably strikes a chord for us hardcore racing fans in
Australia. But for you guys in the UK,
because it had elements of familiarity to us all that made
it special rather than it being if that was Jim Richards doing
the lap in a Volvo at Bathurst. It probably doesn't have the
same cachet for for UK fans, but because it was Ricard that
probably helped click that together into something that,
you know, 25 years on where we're still, you know, jabbering
on about it like it happened yesterday.
It was a wonderful day for the Richards family with Jim
Richards joining Ricard on pole position.
While second on the grid was his son Stephen Richards.
He was sharing an RML Nissan Premiera with Matt Neal.
Alex, That must have been a nice evening in the richest
household. Probably that night.
You can imagine it, can't you? The pride that Jim Richards
would have had. Not only was he on pole for the
Bathurst 1000, but, you know, when he looks across the grid
and he looks down the times on the timesheet, there's his son
Stephen Richards. Second, it's yeah, that that
that must be a really, really special feeling for the family.
Race day developed into a microcosm of the 1998 BTCC
season, with Volvo and Nissan battling hard this time over 161
laps. The first running in 1997 was
notable for the BTCC cars coming over, setting the pace but
struggling to stay reliable. In 98, the BTCC cars redeemed
themselves with the beefed up front wheel drive cars coming
through to dominate. Jim Richards took the start for
the Volvo team with son Stephen starting in the Nissan Premiera.
Jim converted pole position into the lead, but Stephen soon
overtook and LED the first lap. He's very close to starting time
of the 1998 Mathurst 1000. Another history making moment.
Father and son Jim Richards, Steven Richards Volvo Nissan.
Front row of the grid Who Will Win the race to the first corner
that remains to be seen. Volvo, Nissan Volvo Then two
vectors 2. Audis, a Honda ABMW and a Ford
Mondeo. They are the top 10.
The flag is were dropped and the way they go and Jim Richards is
first down the block. He's got to run in the inside of
the health corner, Steven Richards powering up on the
outside but won't be able to get round him.
He's trying, he's trying, but he will not get there up towards.
Volvo made the right-hander and it's it's Steve Richards on the
inside. He's got the advantage on the
right hand then, but he takes the lead from his father Jim
Richards, with Russell Eagle in the Vectra in third position,
swarming all over the boot name of the Volvo challenging at the
start of the race. So it's this, our leading Volvo
second Vectra in third position, climbing up towards the highest
point of the course. And Steve Richards of course,
knows this track absolutely magnificently.
He's raced here many times before and his car's beautifully
set up for him. Australian touring car * Russell
Ingle held onto 3rd in the Holden Vectra for a bit before
his tires fell off, leaving it to A2 horse race between the
richest family. Aaron I think we've lightly
delved into this, but a few thoughts on your ends on Jim and
Steven Richards and their place in Australian motorsport
history. Yeah, the probably the first
thing that you would expect to think of and discuss is them as
racing drivers. But Jim and Steve, the whole
Richards family, they are amazing, fantastic people at the
core who have passion for the sport like you wouldn't believe.
But then the skill set to go with it.
I mean so many people are passionate about it and love it,
but I mean between them they've got 12 Bathurst 1000 wins, which
is kind of ridiculous when you when you really think about it.
But they were kind of in this amazing period at Bathurst where
from about 97 to 2000 they just were always on the podium.
And it helped that there were two races for two years, so they
were able to to do that. But I've got to share with you a
little story from the 98 race that is a real heart warmer
because you you mentioned before in the shootout Ricard did the
lap in the Volvo, Steve did the lap in the Nissan.
So of course race teams being so competitive and looking for an
advantage over one another. I think the media kind of
particularly the local media thought wouldn't it be great if
Jim and Steve started the two cars in the race on Sunday
morning. What a great story, what a great
build up, what great PR and it actually ended up getting
brokered. A deal got brokered by David
Rose who was a a guy from Tasmania, long time on track
commentator at at Australian motor racing events and he used
to do the pit lane quite a lot at at at Bathurst and supercar
races and and stuff like that. I can't remember which of the
teams he went to 1st but he went to one with the proposition of
hey, if the other guys put their Richards in, will you put your
Richards in. I can't remember if he went to
Volvo first or to to team Dynamics for the for the Nissan
team, but the answer came back, OK, we'll do it if they do it.
And you would think that somewhere along the line
sometimes people could go a bit AWOL of these things and you
know, say one thing and do the other.
But they all held to their word and Jim was in the Volvo and
Stephen was in the Nissan for the start of that race.
So you can thank David Rose for helping bring that together
because that's a pretty cool Baatha story and a part of of
the Richo's Bathurst history, which is pretty cool.
And then of course they they battled all day long to to fight
for the win, but they started there side by side on the grid.
But I think we outside probably talk so much about, you know,
the family and what they think of it and what they thought of
it. It's probably now that we're 25
years removed. Steve's son Clay is racing now
in Toyota 86 is here and it's done a bit of TCR in Australia
this season. But they can look back on that
stuff when it's all done and dusted and they're not racing
anymore. And you know like is that ever
going to happen again? Probably highly unlikely in our
lifetimes at the Bathurst 1000 that you know Jim at the times.
Ninety 80s, he's probably about 50 and Steve's around 30 ish or
you know mid to late 20s. You don't really see those sort
of age gaps in the field in supercars very often, let alone
a father and a son these days. So it's a really special story.
It's something really cool that springs into my mind when you
when you mention those two guys and and that race particularly.
The pair remained close into the first pit stops, but a slick
stop by the TWR crew got Rydell out ahead of Nil and switching
their positions. Rydell struggled to bed in the
tyres and Nil soon caught up, with the next few laps being
absolutely glorious. The two were battling hard
around the mountain as they battled for the lead of the
race. Look at this, because here is
the Volvo with the Nissan right up behind it.
So Ricard Rydell in the lead now and Matthew Neal challenging
him, the British Touring Car Champion of 1998 league.
And Matthew Neal is having a go at him.
I don't know whether this is wise at this stage in the race
of your experience, not on those opening laps for him, Mary, he's
he's having a bit of an aggressive go here.
Rydell is settling himself down. He won't like the fact that he
sees a Nissan flashing in his rearview mirror, but let's just
see how these two unfold. I wouldn't be as aggressive at
this particular point, but obviously Neil doesn't want to
let him get away. I know Rydell's making that
Volvo pretty wide actually at the moment and it was
interesting. I know the team had said that
one of the reasons that they wanted Richards to start the car
was because Neil had actually raced against Rydell before and
knew a lot more about the way that he drove and therefore if
they were going to be on the circuit and close together, that
was a better way to keep it. At the end of lap 41, Matt Neil
took the lead, squeezing ahead into Murray's.
He was now leading a touring car race for the very first time in
his career. And what a race it was to lead
Adam. You know Matt the most out of us
here. This surely, would have been the
best moment in his career yet. Yeah, I think so.
What a massive highlight for him.
I think to to not only lead his first race, but what a race to
do is that, you know, this isn't just like I said, Alton or
Brands or Darlington. I think that would have been a
special moment for him. But to go and do it at Bathurst,
Yeah, absolutely great. And he's such a lovely, lovely
guy. So he couldn't have happened to
anyone nicer really. He would have upped his profile
within the BTCC massively and well, right.
Generally, you know, obviously within Australia and and all the
other fans that would have been watching this event.
So, you know, it was a massive plus for him for that week.
Absolutely. Yeah, really good.
As as we said earlier with with Craig Baird, you know winning
there made people in the BTCC paddocks sit up and take notice
or winning on track anyway. Yeah, I think this race, this
particular race is the time that most people sat up and took Matt
more seriously than than he had been taken.
Because obviously he was racing year old privateer cars in the
BTCC for the last 6-7 years and it was only in 98 where you know
running with that 97 Nissan he was starting to ruffle the
feathers of the works teams and and then sort of at the end of
98 then he's come to Bathurst and he's racing with the
championship winner. You know that would have done
major. Major were things to his
reputation and then after this race he was considered for the
the second Volvo seat alongside Rydell for 99 before Rademacher
took it. So yeah, it certainly boosted
his profile in in touring car paddocks. 10 laps later, the
safety car came out with a Peugeot in the wall.
Neil and Rydell raced into the pits and Rydell came out in
front. There had already been terror in
the pit lane as Derek Warwick had a misunderstanding with the
stock board pulling away with the fuel.
Bowels are still attached with fuels splashing all over.
There was a pit lane fire which burned the mechanic's leg and
left another having inhaled dust from the extinguishers.
The Audi pair of Cameron McConville and Brad Jones were
the only cars able to keep up with the fly Nissan and Volvo,
but as in 1997, the weight penalties were keeping the Audis
from being fully competitive. Aaron, this was another pretty
cracking Bathurst race here, wasn't it?
Yeah, as a race, it's one of the best because you had the Volvo
and the Nissan barely separated by, you know, more than a couple
of seconds for the whole day. Which just, you know, that never
really happens in a race like this.
So it it it was an interesting one too because at the time on
the very same day the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix was at
Phillip Island and of course that was not televised by
Channel 7. It was televised by Channel 10.
So you kind of had this interesting, you know, bike fans
and car fans a kind of probably different demographic but it
certainly didn't help things at at the end of the.
The Bathurst organizers. But it was a great race meeting.
That's the first race meeting that I went to as a working
journalist. I was a teenager still who
Australian Motorsport News had given an opportunity to as a bit
of a cadet reporter. And I covered the schedule S New
Zealand touring cars and I was back out the back of the pits of
the 888 garage when the Cleland Warwick car went up in in
flames. So I was out of there very
quickly. I can give you the tips, but it
was a great race meeting because there was, it was a close race
and it went all day. Yes, it wasn't as competitive as
we would have liked it to have been, but there was a feeling
that I don't think we realized it at the time, but that was the
last Super Touring Bathurst 1000.
Yes, there was a Super Touring Bathurst event the next year,
but Channel 7 closed the purse strings and and stopped funding
the the overseas cars. But there was a NASCAR race that
weekend too. A lot of people won't know that
that two litre Bathurst Super touring race had a a 100
kilometer NASCAR supporting race on this Saturday that Russell
Ingle won just for something rare and unique to to fill in.
But it was a a great event. The weather was great all week I
remember and to be among again having British touring car teams
there with with AAA, with TWR, with team dynamics.
I mean they were always so great to deal with and that still goes
on these days in the 12 hour with the GT3 teams that come to
Bathurst and the the world Tour recently.
Always great to deal with, always super helpful and I think
they're just thrilled to be there.
They're thrilled to be at such a great race and such a great race
track. So it was a a very big event
from that sits in my mind pretty well because of you know that
impressionable age of teenagers that I was at the time and but
clearly the the the power was with the V8 Supercars.
Their Bathurst races had been better attended better probably
better better promoted and and bigger overall.
But still, where the 98 race sits in the the history of the
race is something pretty special with all of the the elements
that we've discussed. And one little thing I wanted to
tell you too, the Nissan that finished second is the Matt Neil
Carr that he won that that British Touring Car race with
the next. Year.
In 99, when he won the 250,000 LB bonus at Donnington, that was
the same car. It had been like a test car
during 98 that a bit of a last minute deal pulled that all
together to get it to Bathurst for Steven and Matt to drive.
So it's a pretty special car with Bathurst flavour and BTCC
history as well. So it's still around, but yeah,
pretty, pretty cool when you look back on where some of those
cars and some of those things have have ended up in the
aftermath. Ricard Rydell took his and Jim
Richards Volvo to victory, with both him and the Neil Richards
combo in the Nissan setting unprecedented pace in the
scorching hot sun. I was looking after the gearbox
in my first and the Swede stated.
But after that between US and the Nissan we were flat out all
race. This was one of the hardest
races I've ever done. Alex was that one of Rickard's
finest races and probably finest race weekend performances with
with qualifying added in as well.
Absolutely, Yeah, it was. It was a wonderful performance
from Rickard and and it's not just our opinion that that was
one of Rickard's finest races. It's one of his opinions as
well. Because obviously as we we spoke
to him about Bathurst a couple of a couple of episodes ago and
and he said that the Bathurst weekend is one of the highlights
of his career. That three laps was wonderful
racing wasn't it so good. I I love the the the the the the
clip where the commentator is saying oh you know I would hold
back, hold back, you know hold back and then there's Matt and
Neil just absolutely terrorizing the back of Rochelles.
Also, even after such a brilliant 1998 for Ricard,
winning the British Championship and doing so well, this was the
crowning glory. Both races were really exciting.
The menu Plato Renault looked set to waltz away in 1997 but
proved fragile and it was left to the local BMWs to beat the
Aldi's, with the Brabham brothers inheriting victory
after the sister 320 eye of Craig Baird and Paul Morris was
excluded. When Baird exceeded the maximum
driving time allowed in 98, the beefed up front wheel drive cars
got their revenge with Rydell and Jim Richards narrowly
winning in a hastily imported Volvo S40 from another BTCC car,
the Nissan premier of Matt Neal and Rick Richard's son Stephen.
The race stumbled on in short and format with no international
entries in 1999 and that was it. Channel 7, realizing that
importing a field of foreigners just didn't make sense from a
commercial perspective and I think we've already touched on
this a little bit. Would you start as a fair
description of how it went and and ended for the Super touring
era at Bathurst? Yeah, as soon as Channel 7
closed the purse strings and and wasn't going to to invest in
bringing out cars and teams and and drivers, you know at
Baathist 1000 with a field of local super tours wasn't going
to cut it as the Baathist 1000 either And and that year there
began another another scenario where the 1000 just wasn't
viable in that way. So there was an attempt to top
the field up again with what was being dubbed Junior Tour as kind
of a a cost entry V8 Commodore and Falcon series, which was
coming out of the cars that used to race in Oscar on the the
Thunderdome. Sort of our version of NASCAR
with with Aussie cars and clearly V8 Supercars were
aggrieved by that because they said well hang on, we've
invested in the Holden and Ford thing, that's our thing.
These guys are trying to pass off this as a cheap imitation of
AV8 supercars and there was various issues and dramas which
we could go into and a whole another pod, a whole another
day. But in the end it was a 500
kilometre Super Touring race, non championship but it was part
of a festival of motorsport. I was there that weekend and it
was it was wet, it was dismal, it was depressing.
They they pulled the pin on the race on Sunday afternoon for the
two litre cars because it was wet and foggy and they were
driving around behind the safety car more often than they were
racing. And in the end it was kind of
like the race that got put out of its misery because they
called it and and everyone went off and and went home but and
that was Super Touring at Bathurst done and dusted by the
end of of 1999 and Channel 7 had actually done a deal to be a
multi year broadcaster of the Super Touring Championship here
and also through that still had that long term contract for the
Bathurst 1000 but the the writing was on the wall.
They didn't have the cards. V8 Supercars had all the cards
they had Bathurst they had the momentum they had in the hearts
and minds of fans the Bathurst race and and two leaders super
touring at Bathurst as we all departed in October 1999.
That was it. It was the championship
continued for, you know, another sort of season spread across the
2000 and O1 calendar years. But then seven were out, which
meant Toka was out, which meant Super Touring was all over and
the circus packed up and that was done.
That was all over. Everyone got their way in the
end, Alan Gale told Auto Sport in 2013.
Channel 7 had proved they wouldn't be dictated to and V
Eights had shown themselves as the most attractive form of
motor sport in Australia. This was the story of Super
Touring car racing taking over Bathurst.
Whilst the two meetings provided 2 excellent races, the plan was
not sustainable and the V8 soon returned to the great race.
Now it's that time in the show where Producer Dan asks us all
the question and checks of we have been paying attention to
this story last time out. When looking back at Pembury
1993, Adam got a point for getting Ian Khan correctly, so
it's currently 31 to the regulars, So I'll hand it over
now to Producer Dan, Have you got your question?
I have and seeing as there's a three one result of the moment,
I've got a two point question. There's two parts to this.
So if you get each of these right you get one point.
So it could be level, but then it might not be level.
So let's see how much you've been paying attention.
In the 97 race there were quite a few British train car regulars
who raced in it and there's a few that haven't been mentioned.
So who was the British Touring Car regular who finished 10th
and also What Car were they in? Yeah, so I've got a feeling it's
Julian Bailey. It's correct.
And What Car was Julian in? It was.
I remember this. It was an FAI insurance
sponsored Honda record with Warren Luff and it was the car
that had been driven by Stephen Richards for Gary Rogerson
previously. It's all correct and you've made
it 3-3. So you see to help.
Do you see to help? Unbelievable.
That's impressive. Yeah.
It was a it was one.
He was one of the few that did manage to finish the race in 97,
but of course in between all the excitement with the manufacturer
teams and all their other guys shipped in from the British
Training Car Championship. Obviously poor Julian got missed
out a bit, but certainly not by you.
And that means as we head towards the end of the year,
it's three points for the regulars and it's three points
for the guests. That's just a draw.
Excellent draw. I was adamant that you were
going to be asking a question about Rob Gravett because we
didn't mention Rob in this episode.
But I do think he deserves a bit of a shout out because he did
really well in the Lee Brooks car in 98.
He was. He was ruffling the feathers of
the top three in that. 96 Honda and yeah, yeah yeah, I thought
he did did really well that race and obviously the sadly retired,
but he showed some good pace. And with that, I would like to
thank Aaron Noonan for joining us to look back at this story
from Super Touring. We hope you've enjoyed being on
the show. Hope we didn't wake you up too
early for this one on your side of the world, but.
No, not at all. That love the guys love what
you're doing with your pods and keeping the the Super touring
story alive. You're doing an awesome job.
So thrilled to get asked. Thrilled to have a chat with you
guys about a a little era of of Bathurst history and super
touring history. That's pretty cool.
It's pretty special and no, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks guys. No, thanks for coming on.
Thanks for coming on because appreciate it.
We, we, we've, we've got quite a lot of listeners from your part
of the world and we've had quite a few requests to look back at
these two races and personally I don't think we couldn't have
done it without without an expert like yourself coming onto
the show to do it justice. So so really appreciate it.
Even if you did take two points off us at the end, though.
Look, I'm all about just evening things up, and then you guys can
fight about the rest of the points for the next episode, OK?
And our thanks as ever go to you guys for listening to the show.
And if you did enjoy today's episode, please make sure to
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And your five star reviews really help the podcast grow.
And here's a few of our recent reviews.
So First off, we've got a user under the name Big Shaq, he
says. I'm loving these memories from
the best days of touring car racing and it's great to have
Adam on as a regular two now. I think he once beat Fernando
Alonso in a race. Adam, Is there any truth on
this? Is there a story to this?
Yes, obviously it wasn't in a Formula One race but it was my
last karting year so I did karting for 10 years and it was
it was probably actually my last ever Kart race because it was in
98. I'd already won the scholarship
I think to go over to do the Alpha Filiere championship in
France for 99, but in 98 it was the Ayrton Centre Memorial World
Cup event trophy event at Suzuka.
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So until then, goodbye.