Race History of GODZILLA.

[R31Nismoid]

AAhh.. thanks man.

So much about thr R32 GTR... so little about the R31 GTS-R ,

which also stood its own ground back in the 80's

[red900ss]

Thanks for posting it user

That's going straight to the poolroom!

Reading it really brought back the memories of how varied the racing was under the Grp A rules. So much more interesting than watching the Falcodore dinosaurs...

[GraemeWi]

I wrote it. I still have to finish off 1991 with the Wellington street race, Pukekohe 500, and then the 1992 season after that.

Unfortunatly I don't have as much material from 1992 as I would like as I was overseas teaching the english how to drink beer for most of that year and thus my collection of Autoactions, newspapers, videos and memories is a bit sparce!

I'll have a bit of dig around and see if I have anything on the GTS-R years... I think I do somewhere. May also have the R30 Fj-20 years as well. Will be a fair bit of time befor eI do this though as I want to finish the GT-R story first before I extend it at the other end.

Since there is some interest in the race GT-R history and the weekend is set to be wet, I'll put some time into it.

Cheers,

G

[red900ss]

Hats off! GraemeWi

Good effort

[user]

Top stuff! was it you that posted it in the US forum?

[GraemeWi]

Originally posted by user

Top stuff!  was it you that posted it in the US forum?

Cheers!

No it wasn't me on the US forum. I've only posted it to the NZ forum ages ago, and the pdf book. Thanks to the posts above I've got all enthused again and have stacks of papers, magazines and books scattered around the room here. Hopefully I can knock off 1992 this weekend.

G

[R31Nismoid]

**** yeah!

Hats off to you mate!

PM sent on the GTS-R

[phorj]

That was awesome... always wanted to know that stuff, but could never find it anywhere!

PM me some details... coz if you don't mind I'll pinch this off the forums and ost it from home!

I just want to know who to credit, that's all!

Thanks... that's really awesome, you've help me waste 2.5hrs out of the 6 hr work-day today... cheers!

[S15200sxbroda]

anyone know where i can get pics or vids ? cant find any on net or kazaa

[SS8_Gohan]

Originally posted by GraemeWi

I wrote it.  

Cheers,

ahhh, just beat me too it GraemeWi!! I was SCOURING the SDU archives, trying to find the friggen thread u made there AGES ago with all the history u had written up and as no one had given any credit to the writer (not having a go, no one knew who wrote it! )i was about to tell everyone u wrote it, but that i couldn't find the SDU thread. I still can't

Brilliant read again. It's not up at ur site either??

cheers.

[Nismodified]

very much appreciate the time u took to write that.

great read, and it brings a tear to my eye.

[GraemeWi]

Wellington Nissan Mobil December 1 1991.

The Group A scene in NZ traditionally came to life every summer with an influx of the European and Australian teams. Wellington was a street race, with the road being closed on Friday with stands and barriers being installed frantically.

The first session was Friday lunchtime, an un-timed practice session. Skaife was seen to be driving quite hard – sometimes launching the GT-R into the air over bumps in Cable St. Wellington was always a place which made the little BMW M3s shine – they always put on a strong performance, and Longhurst was there with his. Longhurst was unofficially timed at 1m 28.7s, with Skaife at 1m 29.07, 1m 29.34 for Pirro (Schnitzer European M3) and Peter Brock pulling a 1m 30.7s out of his Commodore. The word around the pits after the practice session was that the track was very bumpy especially on Cable St, with Mark Skaife claiming he had to back off the throttle half way down the straight - “All four wheels are coming off the ground. It's unbelievably bad for the car to be in the air so long.” Longhurst used the word “exciting” to describe the bumpy ride. The new chicane was singled out for some negative comment as it allowed no room for error.

The next practice session was Friday night. The organisers modified the chicane by moving some of the tyre barriers further out, making a bit more room to pass though.

The M3 of Pirro ventilated it's block only two laps into the session before it could lay down some quick laps. The modified chicane slowed the track down, with the GT-R recording a best time of 1m 30.33

Qualifying Saturday

The European M3 was back out on the track with a fresh engine and a need to do some quick times. Pirro laid down a 1m 29.01s lap compared to the GT-R's 1m 29.69s. Brock even climbed the time sheets with a 1m 28.35s lap. Tony Longhurst had damaged his M3 when something broke in the suspension sending him into a minor collusion with a wall. As the session progressed, the times got faster. Jim Richards predicted a 1m 26s or 1m 27s lap from the GT-R with Skaife driving on sticky tyres. Skaife cranked out a 1m 27.62s lap followed with a 1m 27.60s. Pirro wrung his M3 and produced a 1m 26.7s lap, showing the speed of the little M3 around the Wellington streets.

The Gibson team reckoned they would have no problem knocking off the M3 in the afternoon practice session, despite the full field being out on the track (the morning session was limited to the Group A cars above 1600cc) The afternoon session was cut short by an incident involving a Corolla, a Commodore and a Porsche bouncing off the walls and each other. The Nissan team only had one lap with their sticky tyres with Jim driving achieving a 1m 28.8s lap which disappointed the team as they were faster on normal race tyres. Longhurst produced his spare M3 and ran a fast 1m 27.99s lap which was good enough for 3rd of the grid.

Sunday Race Day

Overnight the Schnitzer team had slotted in their race engine. Unfortunately it had a bad misfire in the race warm-up, slowing the car by as much as 20s a lap. The team worked hard to fix a faulty sensor for the race start.

The lights went green and the race had dramas with the first 10 seconds. A NZ M3 spun and caused the 20 cars behind to baulk. A Corolla ended up in the wall, ending their race pretty quickly.

At the start of the second lap Skaife had pulled out a handy 3s lead over Pirro, Longhurst, and Brock. A Corolla burst into flame on the front straight, which bought out the pace car for the next 15 minutes. After the debris had been cleared the race resumed at full pace once more. Skaife was able to hold a 3 second lead over Pirro for three laps, the Italian driving the nuts off the M3. Skaife claimed a new lap record of 1m 28.39s, but wasn't able to pull away much.

Skaife reported back to the pits that the GT-R had a handling problem, perhaps a puncture. The GT-R pulled into the pits for new tyres and resumed in 5th place. The GT-R returned to the pits twice more over the following 15 minutes before the team diagnosed a broken front differential – and converted the car to 2 wheel drive for the remainder of the race.

Fred Gibson laid the blame squarely on the bumps in Cable St. “What it boils down to is with out car being so heavy, it's bouncing and crashing down again and it has broken the diff. When we're going so fast down there, in excess of 200km/h and your leaping off the ground like that somethings gonna break.”

Skaife managed to lightly side swiped Pirro's leading BMW when he exited pit lane, there was no major damage, just some paint swapping. Dick Johnson also had problems with the Cable St bumps - “I was only running down there with half throttle so we could keep the wheels on the ground without wheel spinning – but even that obviously didn't work.” he said as his car was being fixed.

Brock made it up to second place when Longhurst pitted with a flat spotted tyre. At the halfway point Pirro had built up a 1 minute buffer back to 2nd place, with nearly another minute back to 3rd. Skaife had managed to get the GT-R up to 7th place despite only having half the normal traction. Longhurst made it through to the lead when Pirro pitted for a driver change and fuel. He lead for one lap until he was caught out with a slower car on the track. Longhurst collided with the slower car sending them both into the wall. TV footage showed Tony's head coming out the widow and his helmet hitting the wall, smashing the chin guard. If he had been wearing his open faced helmet as he normally does, he would have been killed for sure.

Light rain started to fall on the track which made it very slippery. Most of the major teams opted to remain out on slicks until the rain made it difficult to continue, the leading Pirro M3 ducked into the pits for wets along with Brock who was having difficulty seeing out a badly fogged windscreen. By this stage Jim Richards was driving the GT-R and making people remember why he was known as the 'Rain Master'. He held the GT-R wheel spinning most of the way down the straight and clocked in a 1m 30.45s lap.

The race finished at the 4 hour mark with Pirro and Winkelhock taking the flag in the Schnitzer M3, followed by the Brock and Perkins Commodore 2 laps down, and then the GT-R of Skaife and Richards another 2 laps back. Onwards to Pukekohe next week.

[GraemeWi]

Pukekohe Nissan Mobil December 8 1991

Pukekohe had first seen the GT-R the previous year, this time the car was sorted and fast. The track had also seen some major track work with a resurface and the run onto the front straight cleaned up.

Pukekohe is somewhat of a home track for Jim Richards, he developed his race craft in a series of rapid Anglias, Escorts, and later his infamous Sidchrome Boss Mustang before he shifted to Australia to race full time.

Friday Testing

All the major teams had made it up to Pukekohe after the Wellington race. Only some of the smaller 1600cc Corollas failed to show. Tony Longhurst was back, his race car having been repaired (the car he crashed in practice at Wellington rather than the car that was destroyed during the race) he reported that he was OK apart from a sore rib-cage and neck.

Pukekohe is a much faster and open track compared to the Wellington streets, and the Commodre's and Sierra's were able to stretch their legs on the straights. The Nissan was fast, Mark Skaife clocking an unofficial 59.54s lap, about 2 seconds quicker than pole position last year. Jim was about another second slower, with the team calculating that with a light fuel load and sticky tyres they may be able to pull a 58 or 57 second lap. The team had virtually rebuilt the car since the Wellington race due to the extended period it had run in two wheel drive. The winning Schnitzer M3 from Wellington turned in a 61 second lap, with Longhurst 1 second slower (he admitted to feeling a little off colour at this stage)

Saturday Qualifying

Skaife reported the track to be more slippery than the previous day. As a result the times were not as good as anticipated. A couple of “balls out” attempts saw the GT-R pull some fairly quick laps; 58.86s, 59.19s, 59.10s, then the best of 58.69s. In contrast the Pirro M3 was able to pull a screamer lap of 59.91s. Brock managed a 61.17 lap to claim 3rd on the starting grid.

Sunday Race 8 December 1991.

Jim Richards started the race in the GT-R. It was a fairly slow start by GT-R standards and it was about two laps before he was able to open out a 2 second lead over the second placed Brock who was being hounded by the Schnitzer M3 driven by Pirro. Brock soon had to pit with a flat resulting from a damaged tyre valve which allowed the BMW through to second.

By lap 20, Jim Richards held a handy 20 second lead over Pirro, with 23 seconds back to Kevin Waldock's Sierra, closely followed by Alan Jones (M3) and Dick Johnson (Sierra). Johnson was soon out with a broken rear suspension, Dick quipping “A four wheel-steer Sierra wasn't easy to drive.”

Richards continued to extend his lead over Pirro for the next 20 minutes, at the rate of 1s a lap. Then, the GT-R was forced to pit with a puncture, which came back out onto the track in second place. What followed was a ripper of a drive from Jim Richards as he hunted down the M3 ahead of him. On lap 55 he claimed a new lap record of 59.84s, bettering the previous years GT-R lap record by 1.5s. The quick laps continued, Richards threading the GT-R between slower cars, pulling laps consistently quicker than the old lap record. Pirro was lapping in the 61 second region, attempting to nurse the BMW's brakes and tyres. Pirro eventually pitted to change over to Winkelhock, which allowed the GT-R to retain the lead, with 65 seconds over the second placed Brock, and Longhurst back in third.

Mark Skaife took over the leading GT-R and resumed 21 seconds ahead of Winkelhock, with Larry Perkins over a minute behind, with Longhurst 18 seconds further back. The race was into the last hour when a Corolla burst into flame on the front straight, which bought out the pace car.

After the pace car left the track, the restart was predictable, with Skaife motoring off into the distance, leaving Winkelhock under pressure from Longhurst. It didn't help that the Schnitzer M3 was the latest model and Longhurst's was last years. In turn Larry Perkins came under pressure from the two M3s, Winkelhock slipping past when the Commodore slid at the hairpin.

Skaife took the flag just under a minute ahead of the Winkelhock M3, with the Brock / Perkins Commodore back in 3rd, and the Longhurst / Jones M3 in 4th.

Post race Skaife was modest; “Jimmy did most of the work and I just finished it off”.

January 1992

Rothmans announce they will be sponsoring the Nissan GT-R team under the Winfield colours for the next year. It was part of a Winfield 'superteam' concept which saw Winfield colours on the Nissan GT-Rs, the Tatnell Sprintcars, Jim Read's Top fuel drag car, and 500cc Superbikes. $5 million was committed for the entire super team.

The new year also bought in some changes to the Group A formula in Australia. CAMS modified the format of the ATC series; instead of a single 50 minute race, each round was made up of two heats, and three lap qualifying sprint for the fastest qualifiers to determine the grid positions for the first heat – the grid for the three lap dash was drawn out of a hat. The second heat's grid was based on the finishing order of the first. A complex points system combined the days results over the heats – it was biased in that it rewarded consistency rather than outright placing.

The Nissan GT-R had a new minimum weight of 1,400 kg, a boost restriction to 1.3 bar which was calculated to cut the power to 336kw down from 477kw, along with a limit on compression to 9.5:1. The Commodores and Sierras were given an extra 50kg an an electronic rev limit of 7,500 rpm. This was designed to cut costs as the top tier Commodore teams were using 8,500 rpm in an effort to keep up with the Sierras which resulted in many broken engines. In contrast, the BMW M3s copped an extra 60kg. A CAMS performance review panel was formed to make running changes to the regulations during the series.

[GraemeWi]

Winfield Triple Challenge, Eastern Creek January 1992

Friday Practice

This was the first outing of the Group A cars in their 1992 specification, except for the rev limiters which were not ready in time. Glen Seton in his Sierra was the quickest in the damp practice session, clocking in a 1m 39.05s lap, with Larry Perkins in an old VL Commodore slightly behind. Privateer Commodores filled out the rest of the time sheets, with names like Bob Pearson, and Terry Finnigan ahead of the Shells Sierras of Dick Johnson and John Bowe.

Qualifying

Jim Richards commented on the change in the GT-R compared to the 1991 specification; “Before it used to be a case of slowing for the corners and booting the car out, now without the power, we have to corner faster and go in quickly to get the pace onto the straights.”

John Bowe claimed fastest lap with a 1m 36s lap, ahead of Glen Seton's best, 0.78s slower. The two Nissan GT-Rs were just behind. In the second qualifying session saw Dick Johnson and Glen Seton trading fast laps, Dick achieving a 1m 35.83s, and Glen 1m 35.44s. Bowe managed a 1m 35.99 and Larry Perkins wringing out the VL for a 1m 36.53s lap. The GT-Rs were close together in their times and qualified 5th and 6th on the grid, Jim going quicker with a 1m 36.74s with Mark's best being a 1m 1m 37.39s.

Race 1

The first race was a 15 lap event, which was started without a warm up lap prior. There was some confusion on the grid when Glen Seton noticed that Dick Johnson was in full race mode, and hurriedly put his car into first gear just as the flag dropped. Bowe, Perkins and Seton were left squabbling for the same piece of road. Skaife managed to pass Bowe at the first hairpin, while Jim was under pressure from the privateer Pro-Duct Commodore. Dick Johnson in the meantime had pulled out a 1.6 second lead over Perkins and Seton by the end of the first lap. Skaife was just ahead of Bowe. Second lap saw Mark squeeze past Seton, only to have the faster Sierra pass on the straight, Bowe also passed in the same move. Seton was then able to catch up with Larry Perkins and engage in a high speed battle for second. They swapped position several times before Larry got sideways exiting a turn and allowed Glen through. Larry lost oil pressure and dropped out, letting Bowe into 3rd with the two GT-Rs close behind. Glen Seton was able to haul in the leading Dick Johnson Sierra after it began to blister the right rear tyre. Lap 10 saw Seton take the lead, with Dick starting to drop back. Bowe spun his car allowing the two GT-Rs though which then began to stalk the Johnson Sierra ahead. Johnson managed to hold off the two GT-Rs until the last lap, where they both attacked. Jim Richards was able to get second, and Mark third.

Race 2

This race had a warm up lap unlike the first. Some of the teams had made changes between the races – Dick Johnson had changed to a softer spring in the rear to try to help the tyre blistering problem, while the Nissans opted for a slightly softer tyre on the rears.

With the rule changes, the Nissans could no longer blast off the start line like they had in 1991. Jim managed to stay level with Glen Seton until the first turn when the Sierra pulled ahead while Skaife was attached by the two Shell Sierras of Johnson and Bowe.

By lap 2, Seton lead, followed by Johnson who had got past Richards' GT-R, Bowe getting past the GT-R next lap. The top 5 cars remained in the same order for the rest of the race, lapping within 5 seconds. Seton took the win 1.1 seconds ahead of Johnson, 1.2 seconds further back to Bowe and similar gap back to the two Nissans.

Post race saw some developments – few of the teams were happy with the regulations for 1992. Larry Perkins withdrew from the series, claiming the Holdens were penalised in comparison to the Sierras and the GT-Rs. He also claimed that the changes made to the GT-Rs didn't add up: “Everyone is saying that the Nissan only has 450 horsepower but they could keep up with me down the straight at Eastern Creek and I have 540 horsepower!” The GIO GT-R team threatened to withdraw from the series as well. The BMW M3 team wrung their hands and cried foul over their additional 60kg.

Fred Gibson had some comments: “We did some testing last year with the pop-off valve at all different limits of boost, and we got 450 horsepower at 1.3 bar. The engine we had at Eastern Creek had that and you can see from the way the Sierras went by in the straight it's lost a fair bit of power.” He went on to say that in 1991 the compression ratio was varied according to the track. This year they may be able to find a lower optimum ratio. “At the Grand Prix we were probably running 8.5:1, but we were running heaps of boost there. It depends on what spec engine we are running.”

February 1992

The first round of the 1992 ATC was held at Amaroo. Now everyone had the 'official' 1992 spec cars – the rev limiters were fitted to the Commodores and Sierras, along with the additional weight everyone was carrying at Eastern Creek.

The change in the GT-Rs was quite dramatic – the lower power meant the cars had to be driven harder, which resulted in excessive under steer. Mark Gibbs in the GIO team claimed his GT-R had enough under steer for the whole field.

The Saturday qualifying saw some interesting happenings. Skaife clocked in a very fast, low 51 second lap which Gibson claimed was incorrect. Other teams then claimed to have timed him to that speed as well. Amaroo was fairly unique at that time in that there were noise restrictions that caused some cars to struggle to get under the limit. Dick Johnson's Sierras were pinged for being too loud, as was the Longhurst teams BMW M3s.

At the end of the qualifying, John Bowe had pole, with Mark Skaife slightly slower with a 51.32s lap, followed by Jim Richards (51.44s lap). The critics were already starting to point at the GT-R team. The GIO GT-R had a major problem when a fuel pump fault filled the cylinders and the intercooler with fuel – everything had to be checked out before the OK was given, lucky there was no fire.

In the three lap 'Dash for Cash', Bowe started badly, and lost out to Jim Richards and Peter Brock very quickly. Richards and Brock cross the line first and second to claim the front row for the first heat.

Heat 1

Jim Richards started slowly allowing Brock to boom into the lead. The GT-R was quickly shuffled back into third place. By lap three, Brock was well out in front, followed by Wayne Park (Peter Jackson Sierra), Glen Seton (Peter Jackson Sierra), and Trevor Ashby in his privateer Commodore. Further down the order the GT-Rs were able to pick off the Shell Sierras as the tyres started to wear on the rapid Fords, eventually moving into 3rd and 4th - Richards overtaking Johnson like he was standing still. Brock finished first followed by Glen Seton only 1 second behind. Skaife and Richards crossed next, they had been gaining on the first two cars but would have needed another 6 laps or so to have been in a position to take the lead. The GIO GT-R driven by Mark Gibbs came in 8th.

Heat 2

The rules this year meant that the teams were only able to change one tyre on a car between heats, otherwise their grid position was lost and a 10 second penalty imposed, so there was some intense inspection of the tyres between the heats. Some rain fell and caused another quandary – run with full wet tyres or slicks? It also gave the GT-R drivers opportunity to use their four wheel drive to full effect.

The start of the race was graphic. Brock and Seton sat on the grid with wheel spin, while the Winfield Nissans took off. Mark Gibbs made it up to 3rd from his starting position of 8th on the grid before the first corner such was his traction advantage. The three GT-Rs simply took off leaving the rest of the field slipping and sliding around. By lap 18 the circuit had started to dry out and quite a few of the cars were suffering from overheating tyres. Longhurst was able to catch up with the GIO GT-R and briefly take 3rd place until Gibbs was able to retake 3rd when Longhurst was black flagged for excessive noise. Skaife finished first, followed by Richards and Gibbs making a GT-R 1-2-3.

[GraemeWi]

March 1992

Sandown in Victoria hosted the second round of the ATC. The 1992 regulations continued to cause ructions among the teams. Many thought the Winfield GT-Rs had their true form hidden, and were running higher horsepower than CAMS had calculated. Skaife said “The car is surprisingly fast, it's fantastic the way the car stops. It's not easy to drive this car and do the times.”

Qualifying

John Bowe was fast, running some sticky Dunlops for a 1m 13.91s equal to the GT-R the previous year. Skaife and Richards were next, followed by Glen Seton and Dick Johnson. Mark Gibbs the the GIO GT-R was back in 7th, struggling with the boost restricted performance. Gibbs claimed he had almost no throttle response.

The 'Dash for cash' three lap event was notable for Mark Skaife jumping the rolling start and running away to a lead. He incurred a stop-go penalty and a $2,000 fine for his trouble. Bowe blew his engine which meant he would start from 6th for the race. Johnson claimed pole with Glen Seton and Wayne Park claimed the following two spots on the grid, with Richards and Skaife behind.

Heat 1

Richards blasted away from the second row to take the lead immediately, Skaife one row further back managed to make second place ahead of the slower starting rear wheel drive cars. Dick Johnson was in third and was able to pass Skaife after the first corner, the Sierra having a superior speed advantage. Bowe followed and overtook both Skaife and Johnson to be 2nd by the start of the second lap. Bowe overtook Jim Richards' GT-R to take the lead by the third lap. Richards fell back to Johnson who was able to overtake the GT-R on the straight. Bowe finished the race about 9 seconds in front of Johnson, with Skaife and Richards following. Mark Gibbs finished 8th in the GIO GT-R who had gearbox troubles during the race. The team slotted in a new gearbox in time for heat 2.

Heat 2

At the start of the second heat, Skaife made a bad start, but Jim Richards was able to take the lead ahead of Bowe. As in the first race, Bowe was able to cruise past Richards' GT-R on the straight, as did Johnson. At the end of the first lap it was Bowe from Johnson, Richards, Skaife and Gibbs who have made a very good start. By the 7th lap Johnson was having difficulty keeping the two GT-Rs behind him as the Sierra's tyres were starting to go off. Jim Richards made an attempt on lap 10, but the faster Sierra was able to accelerate away. Crossing the start / finish line he made another attempt, this time Johnson tried to close Richards out which resulted in the Sierra being nudged into a spin. Bowe finished in the lead, two seconds ahead of Skaife who had passed Richards on the last lap. Gibbs finished 4th, a fair way back but still 10 seconds ahead of the 5th and 6th placed Commodores of Brock and Crompton.

Symmons Plains in Tasmania hosted round 3 of the ATC. Meanwhile the CAMS performance review panel had seen fit to trim 20kg from the BMW M3, but nothing to slow down the rapid Sierras. The Friday practice session showed that there were now three fast Sierra teams, with Colin Bond setting the fastest time with a 56.08s lap, quicker than Bowe, Johnson, and both of the Winfield GT-Rs (Skaife and Richards set the same time).

Qualifying

Bond lost an engine which slowed him up a bit in the time stakes. Bowe continued his strong qualifying performance and claimed provisional pole with a 55.69s lap, Bond's was a little slower with a 55.75s lap, which was equalled by Glen Seton. Johnson was 4th fastest, followed by Mark Gibbs in the GIO GT-R. The Winfield team were struggling. Skaife was 1.2 seconds slower than pole which was good enough only for 8th of the grid. Jim was back in 11th. He conceded his lap of 57.34s “was about as good as a Nissan will do around here.”

Heat 1

Seton won the start from Johnson, who was shuffled back by the fast starting GIO GT-R – it didn't last for long as Johnson and Bowe quickly overtook the GT-R on the next straight. Brock and Skaife moved closer the the GIO GT-R. Shortly Brock was able to take the GIO GT-R for 4th place on the straight, but started having brake problems when a brake bleed nipple leaked robbing him of brake pressure. Bowe managed to overtake Johnson for 2nd place, while Seton kept a consistent lead over them both. Skaife was able to overtake the Brock Commodore, two laps later it slid off the road thanks to it's brake problems.

Bowe continued to chase Seton for the lead, until lap 18 when Bowe spun in his own oil when his engine let go. Glen Seton won, about 4 seconds clear to Johnson, with Skaife a further 2 seconds back.

Heat 2

Dick Johnson's Sierra wasn't in the best of health after the first heat, it had terminal engine problems and had a new donk transplanted in before heat 2. As a result of a lack of time and spare engines, Bowe's car was withdrawn. At the start, Seton and Johnson managed to contain Skaife – they boxed him in which slowed him down a fair bit. Longhurst was right up there, looking for room around the outside of the Johnson Sierra. Longhurst was level with the Nissan down the back straight but Skaife used his position on the track to keep his inside line. Neil Crompton in the second of the Brock Commodores slipped by Longhurst. Longhurst then had another go down the outside only to find that Gibbs in the GIO GT-R had forced his way through, and left Longhurst level with Wayne Park in the second Seton Sierra.

On the second lap Seton had a good lead over Johnson and Skaife. Johnson's new engine wasn't producing the power he was used to so by lap 4 Skaife was able to pass the Sierra. Johnson then fell back and came under pressure from Crompton's Commodore. Colin Bond had stormed though the field from the rear of the grid – remember he didn't start heat 1so he had fresh tyres and a fresh engine. On lap 6 Bond passed both Crompton and Johnson in one move and set out after the second placed Skaife.

Bond eventually caught up with Skaife and out braked him to take second place. Seton finished with a 2 second break back to Bond, with Skaife another 3 seconds behind for 3rd. Wayne Park finished ahead of Richards who managed 5th. Mark Gibbs in the GIO GT-R ended up in 9th position.

April 1992

Round 4 of the ATC moved to Winton. Skaife led the points table followed by Jim (remember that the points rewarded consistency rather than outright placings). Still the critics were hounding the Gibson GT-R team. Brock thought they were downplaying their potential at Symmons Plains and they should win an acting award. Fingers were pointing at Fred Gibson saying he was hiding the performance of the cars. Gibson countered by saying that his drivers were having to drive harder, and their placings (and Mark and Jim's ATC points) were as a result of other cars failing.

Friday Practice

Skaife clocked up the quickest time, just ahead of Bowe. Skaife's time was 1m 01.10s which was half a second quicker than the pole time last year which was set by Richards in the GT-R.

Qualifying

Richards had some sticky Yohohama rubber help him to a 1m 00.70s lap. Skaife managed a 1m 01.00 lap to stitch up the provisional front row for the GT-Rs. Just a little slower was Larry Perkins who had withdrawn from the full series just to contest the local rounds. He explained his Commodore was well balanced which helped him to be a mere 0.03 seconds slower then Skaife. Gibbs qualified his GT-R 10th, with bad under steering issues.

The dash for cash run was a Skaife benefit. He ran away from the start and kept the lead. Richards finished 3rd, just behind Seton.

Heat 1

At the start it was another demonstration of the GT-Rs launching ability. They took off leaving Seton on the grid wheel spinning and going nowhere fast. By the end of the first lap, Skaife led Richards by 2.3 seconds with Seton on the rear bumper of Jim's GT-R. There was a freight train behind Seton, all the way back to position 15. By lap 5 the GIO GT-R made it up to 7th place and then applied pressure to Johnson. Up front Richards had pulled out a gap between himself and Seton, and had closed up a bit on Skaife.

The GIO GT-R spun on lap 10, the under steer problem spitting him off. The infield team GT-Rs swapped the lead between themselves before slowing down for the last few laps and letting Skaife take the flag. Seton was five seconds behind them, followed by a reasonably happy Larry Perkins.

Heat 2

As the starting positions for heat 2 are decided by the finishing positions of heat 1, the Winfield GT-Rs had the front row of the grid to themselves. Predictably they lead away from the start, and finished the race in a 1-2 formation with Skaife crossing for maximum points. Behind them was a trail of bent cars and damaged egos. Johnson had been pushed into a spin and had to pit for fresh tyres, Bowe and Alan Jones clashed leaving Jones with a bent steering arm, Longhurst broke his grill pounding the back of Bowe's Sierra. Seton clashed with Alan Jones as well, pushing him off the track to claim his place on the road. Longhurst gave Bowe a real shunt and pushed him off the track causing Bowe to spin. Gibbs claimed 8th.

Longhurst was fined $5,000 for 'a most unfair practice' and breach of Code of Diving Conduct, but he said it was worth every cent.

[GraemeWi]

May 1992

Round five of the ATC was at Lakeside in Queensland. The CAMS Performance review panel had been working hard since the previous round. They loaded the Sierras with an additional 50kg and punished the Skylines with 100kg of additional weight to carry around. The new weight penalty for the GT-Rs causing much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Mark Skaife claimed that the GT-R was now the heaviest touring car in the world, and that in endurance race trim (full load of fuel, water brakes etc.) the GT-R would weigh in at 1,700kg. Fred Gibson threatened to withdraw the cars from Bathurst, claiming the extra weight was making wheels crack. The GIO team went as far as to withdraw their GT-R and bring last years Commodore out from the chicken shed, as they were cracking wheels with their heavy GT-R and had to wait for some new stronger wheels to be made.

Qualifying

The Shell Sierras were running at their home trck so naturally they topped the time sheets. Dick Johnson recorded the best lap, 52.90s, just a few hundredths of a second faster then team mate Bowe. Longhurst was quick in the M3, he had lost 20kg from his cars weight, and the other cars had been penalised by comparison. He claimed third fastest with a 53.29s lap. Larry Perkins was also quick (the Commodores remaining status-quo in the weight) with a 4th fastest 53.37s. The best of the GT-Rs was Skaife, 10th fastest, 53.85s. The extra weight forcing the team to use a harder tyre.

There was some heated debate in the post qualifying press conference, Larry Perkins laying it on thick that the Winfield team were 'sandbagging'... “It was the greatest sham of all time...I don't think the weight makes any difference. The Nissan is a superior car, but lets not think it's uncompetitive.” Skaife bit and responded “You come and drive the car in the morning Superstar and see for yourself!”. Jim Richards also responded: “People may think we are fudging, but that's as fast as the car will go. We've still got a good car, but it's a lot tougher for us now.” Fred Gibson showed a print out of Skaife's gear change points as proof that they were slower than before.

Heat 1

Bowe lead away from the start, there was a fair amount of squeezing in the mid field with the GIO Commodore spinning and presenting mobile obstacle for the following cars. Perkins took it up to Bowe, with Longhurst in the rapid M3 right behind. Johnson dropped out with a broken half-shaft. On lap three Perkins snatched the lead from Bowe. (hmm it's 1992 and Larry is driving a VL Commodore – a five year old design, the Sierra RS500 was one year older than that). Skaife had made it up to 5th on the road, and was starting to catch up to Glen Seton ahead of him.

Longhurst eventually got past Bowe, and quickly gained on the leading Commodore of Perkins who was starting to suffer with his tyres going off. Larry was unable to hold back Longhurst. Further back Skaife had taken Seton for 4th, and was closing on Bowe rapidly. Bowe had ambitions on the ailing Perkins, and attempted to squeeze past, but Perkins moved back and Bowe had to back off or be hit, it was enough for Skaife to get past them both. Longhurst took the flag followed by Skaife about 4 second behind.

Heat 2

With the one tyre rule, many of the top cars from heat 1 had damaged tyres, so they started from the read of the grid. This group included Skaife and Perkins, who had blistered their tyres badly. This left some space on the grid and Jim Richards was on the second row so was in a very good position given the GT-Rs launching ability.

Richards' GT-R took off and lead for the first three laps with a small gap back to Bowe and Longhurst. On the fourth lap Skaife had moved up to 11th from the back of the grid. After 10 laps Richards was able to extend his lead over Bowe, who was being hassled by Longhurst. The M3 driver was being over cautious after the $5,000 sting from his actions last round o took his time to get past Bowe. Eventually he managed to do so when Bowe was boxed in by a lapped Supra. Longhurst set out to catch Richards up ahead. Unfortunately the extra weight in the GT-R caused Jim to make a small mistake at a sweeping corner and ran wide into the dirt, it was enough to let Longhurst through. Bowe once again got into a scrap with the Alan Jones M3 and was nudged into a spin. Longhurst claimed the flag, followed by Richards, and then the Jones and Morris BMW M3s, Bowe, Johnson and Skaife. Lakeside was very much a M3 benefit. But in the championship points table, Skaife led followed by Richards, and a very distant Seton.

Round 6 moved to the Eastern creek track. The Friday practice session was wet and didn't really lend itself to being a form guide – Mark Skaife was fastest, but many of the other top drivers didn't even get out on the track.

Qualifying

Bowe was fastest, following the qualifying trend he had set this year, 1m 35.21s. The HRT team had made a rare appearance which wasn't rewarded when Tomas Mezera wrote off the Commodore after sliding off the track into a wall. The good news was that Skaife was second quickest – 1m 35.24s, just 0.03s slower then Bowe. The extra weight they were running enabled the team to balance the GT-R with more corner weights. Perkins was right behind him with a 1m 35.41s. Johnson and Longhurst followed in the speed stakes. The Shell team had some interesting radar figures – Johnson was pulling 253km/h, Seton 252km/h, Perkins 258km/h, Brock 253km/h. Longhurst was faster than the GT-Rs, 244km/h compared to Skaife's 241km/h (the M3 was a 2.5 naturally aspirated engine, compared to the GT-Rs 2.6 litre twin turbo)

The GIO GT-R was back, and quicker than the works cars on the front straight – which was noted by the critics. Gibbs was quoted as saying “I'm never going to complain about this car again” after driving the previous years Commodore at the Lakeside round. He was 9th fastest with a 1m 37.07s lap. Jim Richards was back in 12th – he had a new GT-R with an engine that was slightly down on power. The older car he had been using all year had been sold to a Asian team.

Heat 1

Skaife used the open front straight to lead – leaving Bowe and Johnson behind. Further back were Perkins, Gibbs and Longhurst. In lap 3 Bowe slipped past Skaife. Johnson and Perkins tangled in a passing move when Perkins got sideways and punched the Sierra in the door, putting them both off into the dirt. Two laps later Longhurst out-braked the Skaife GT-R to take second place and set out chasing down Bowe 3.5 seconds ahead. The leaders finished in the same order, Bowe, Longhurst, Skaife – further back by 10 seconds, followed by Richards and Gibbs.

Heat 2

Skaife blasted off the line to lead away from the start, Bowe close behind, followed by Richards and Gibbs, who then slipped past Richards on the second turn. Johnson was once again hit and spun off the track, taking one of the faster Sierras out of the equation. Seton pounced on Richards and used his quicker acceleration to pass the GT-R. Bowe also tried to do the same thing to Skaife but didn't complete the pass. Next lap Seton took the GIO GT-R. Longhurst followed, pushing Gibbs and Richards one more place down. On lap 5 Bowe was able to pass Skaife for the lead when he ran wide onto the straight. The race finished with Bowe loading Skaife by 1 second, trailed by Longhurst, Seton, Jones and Richards.

Thanks to Seton's poor run, Skaife climber higher on the points table.

[GraemeWi]

The converted airfield Mallala was the venue for round 7. It was something of a special track for the Winfield team, the début of the GT-R had been here 2 years ago, and had won in convincing style last year.

In practice, Bowe once again claimed top lap time, the GT-Rs slightly slower suffering with under steer problems.

Qualifying

Jim Richards set the hot time with a 1m 08.80s lap that was quicker than last years GT-R pole (remember last year they were 100kg lighter and had no boost restrictions.) Skaife was second fastest with Bowe just a bit slower. Interestingly, Bowe was quicker than he was last year, despite the extra weight and the 7,500 rpm limit. Mark Gibbs qualified a strong fourth, despite having a sick engine. Bowe managed to claim pole in the dash for cash race, but had GT-Rs beside and immediately behind him on the grid.

Heat 1

As predicted the GT-Rs launched hard and Skaife lead into the first corner followed by Richards, Bowe and Gibbs. At the hairpin Gibbs attempted the inside line and pushed Bowe off the track, also managing to get past Richards before the end of the first lap. It was a GT-R 1-2-3. Skaife worded away and was able to develop a buffer between himself and the two car sandwich of Gibbs and Richards. Longhurst was working hard and got past Seton's Sierra to take up 4th place.

On lap 9 Richards GT-R was losing coolant and he retired with a blown head gasket. This gave Longhurst a free spot and he moved up to attack the GIO car. Longhurst passed Gibbs with two laps left but was unable to make a substantial dent in Skaife's lead. Skaife crossed three seconds ahead of Longhurst. Gibbs and Perkins followed. Bowe had been working hard to get past Perkins in the late stages of the race but it had come to nothing when an attempted shunt backfired and he lost 2 places.

Heat 2

The Gibson Winfield team worked hard between heats to replace Jim's engine with a fresh unit – the job normally took four hours but the crew managed to do it in two. He would start from the rear of the 15 car grid. Skaife made a nice start, leading the Longhurst M3 into the first corner. Gibbs powered though and pushed Longhurst back to third, it was another three laps before Longhurst was able to pass Gibbs to regain his second spot on the road.

By lap 10 Richard had managed to reach 5th place behind Bowe and slotted past to take 4th and set out to chase down the Gibbs GIO GT-R ahead. Richards got by Gibbs, and the race finished in that order; Skaife, Longhurst, Richards, Gibbs, and Bowe.

June 1992

Waneroo in Western Australia was the destination for the 8th round of the ATC. Seton was the fastest Sierra in practice, heading Bowe, Johnson and Bond.

Qualifying

Bowe once again topped the time sheets with a quick 57.78s, Bowe saying it was about as close as a perfect lap could be. Johnson was slightly slower than his team mate, clocking in with a 58.39s lap. Seton was third fasted following an engine expiring in the morning. His team mate Wayne Park was 4th fastest, just enough to be ahead of Perkins. The Winfield Nissans were having a pretty bad time, Skaife had a dose of the flu and was substantially slower than Bowe, and sneezed his way to a 59.37s. Richards was having handling issues with his GT-R, they were swapping springs and changing the torque split front to read in an effort to dial out the excessive under steer he was finding in the GT-R. Gibbs had exactly the same issues and was 12th fastest.

Heat 1

The Sierras at the head of the field made a good start, though Richards was able to blast his way into 4th. Gibbs run up the rear of Colin Bond's Sierra, causing a heavily crunched front end but it was only cosmetic damage. The Shell team took off into the distance, followed by Park, Richards, Seton, Skaife and Longhurst. Richards was able to get past Park's Sierra and make up one place on the road, but Seton moved up to attack Richards. Seton was unable to get past Richards, the better traction of the GT-R helping it out of the corners better than the two wheel drive Ford. Bowe finished, followed by Johnson, Richards, Seton, and Longhurst. Skaife finished 7th, while Gibbs was well down thanks to a snapped tyre valve.

Heat 2

There was a bit of repair work needed to the GIO car between the heats, the bonnet had to be flattened back down and the front end bent back into shape. Richards had some softer springs put into his GT-R in an effort to help it handle better. At the start Bowe lead away, but Johnson was swamped by the rapidly starting Richards, with Skaife, Seton and Longhurst following. Skaife was able to zip past Johnson on the third lap, which meant the order was Bowe, Richards, Skaife and Johnson. Behind Johnson there was a pack of cars struggling for position, Longhurst and Seton rubbing guards. Longhurst and Jones slipped past the Sierra eventually who then went onto take on the slowing Dick Johnson. Seton managed to displace Johnson as well with a move that ended with the Shell Sierra spinning.

Richards was gaining on Bowe, and Skaife was still in third. But just a few laps from the end he broke third gear which caused him to spin, it took painfully long time for him to get back on the track where he finished in 11th place. Richards continued to challenge Bowe for the lead, making a couple of attempts down the inside of corners once pushing Bowe's car sideways, but Jim backed off to avoid ploughing into him and he trailed Bowe by 0.27 seconds at the finish. Longhurst, Jones, Perkins and Seton followed.

[GraemeWi]

The points table left just Skaife and Richards with the championship, either of them could win it at the next round – there was nobody within range to challenge them.

Oran Park was the venue of the final round of the ATC for 1992. The series had been compressed to allow for the all important Channel 7 coverage of the Barcelona Olympics to go without interruption.

Jim Richards went into the final round as the defending Touring Car champion from last year. To win he needed Skaife to fail. Skaife just needed to finish to win the championship.

Friday practice showed Skaife was fastest, followed by Bowe, and Longhurst. Mark Gibbs broke a diff in his GT-R which slowed him down a fair bit in the practice session.

Qualifying

Bowe again pulled a quick lap out of the bag, it was a scorching 1m 09.97s. Skaife and Richards were fractionally slower with Longhurst, Gibbs and Perkins next. Gibbs had some strange electrical problems with his GT-R, at one stage it stopped and the team was unable to work out what was causing it.

Dash for Cash

Longhurst won the draw and had Perkins alongside him on the grid. Gibbs was right behind him and barged his way alongside Longhurst as the lights went green. They contacted a couple of times which pushed them both off into a spin and allowed Bowe, Skaife and Richards to finish ahead of Gibbs.

Heat 1

Skaife lead away Richards, Gibbs, Seton, Perkins and Bowe who had made a terrible start off pole. By lap two Skaife had a 2 second buffer over Richards and Gibbs who were scrapping over second place. Seton, Perkins and Bowe followed, though Bowe shortly smacked into a wall which removed him from the mix. Gibbs made it past Richards, but there was now a three second gap ahead to the leading Skaife GT-R. They continued on until lap 9 when Richards was able to get past Gibbs on a corner. Behind them Longhurst was moving up, he had managed to get past Perkins who had his tyres starting to go off the boil. The race finished with a GT-R 1-2-3 with Skaife, Richards and Gibbs taking the honours.

Heat 2

The finishing positions of heat 1 determine the grid for the heat 2, so there was an all GT-R front row. At the start the three GT-Rs had a clear gap of 50 meters over the other cars in the field. Skaife, Richards and Gibbs lead, with Seton, Perkins and Jones following. On lap seven, Richards had a handy five second gap back to Gibbs who was coming under some pressure from Jones and Seton. Perkins having dropped back, not able to continue his initial race pace.

Jones forced his way past Gibbs on lap 13, sending Gibbs spinning off the track, it was just a racing incident though rather than anything malicious from Jones. Skaife finished first, followed by Richards making a nice GT-R 1-2. Jones in his M3 was nearly 20 seconds further back followed by Longhurst. Bowe and Gibbs were next.

It was quite a good day for Mark Skaife, he had won the ATC (becoming the youngest winner of the ATC to date) and also won the single seater Australian Drivers Championship at the same meeting, and become the youngest winner of the ATC to date.

It was a very interesting series, I guess it will never be known if the Gibson team were in fact sandbagging mid-series. Certainly their performance improvement in the later half of the series could be explained by luck, suspension development and hard driving. There still remains the wild-card question of the GIO GT-R which was faster at times, faster than the works cars. Anyway, debate is futile as the team had cleaned up the championship and had the points to prove it.

Fred Gibson then set about work to try and level the playing field for the Bathurst event. He made a submission to CAMS to have the weight and boost penalties removed, arguing that the cars would be highly stressed with the additional weight they were forced to carry. CAMS turned down his submission forcing Fred had to play tougher. He threatened legal action against CAMS under the trade Practices Act unless they reviewed the weight penalties, and also suggested the team not turn up to Bathurst (which was unlikely as it is the biggest event of the year.) Bob Forbes, the owner of the GIO team stood by Gibson in solidarity – he would also pull the team's GT-R from Bathurst if Gibson pulled his team out. CAMS called their bluff and no legal action occurred. The GT-Rs would race at Bathurst with their 1,500kg minimum weight and the 1.3 bar pop-off valve limiting boost.

July 1992

The Bathurst entry list is to be expanded with a new class for the 1993 specification Falcon and Commodore. Seton and Johnson have Falcons being built, and a number of Holden teams are intending to enter, a 1993 car including HRT and Brock.

August 1992

August had a media 'test day' at Bathurst, with many of the leading teams bringing their cars along. Fred Gibson was asked what specification his GT-Rs were running, he replied: “No comment.” Skaife cryptically admitted “We are not down at the Oran Park weight, but we're not down at last year's weight.” It was observed they were not running with the 1.3 bar pop-off installed.

Unofficial times were:

Skaife (GT-R) 2m 13.67s

Bowe (Sierra) 2m 13.71s

Richards (GT-R) 2m 14.88s

Johnson (EB Falcon) 2m 16.95s

Percy (VP Commodore) 2m 17.20s

Gibbs (GT-R) 2m 17.85s

After the Bathurst test day, there was the final AMSCAR round [i'm missing details of the first two AMSCAR rounds in 1992] . Nissan had won the AMSCAR title last year and were intending to do the same this year.

Qualifying

Gibson reported he had the GT-Rs back to their normal specification after the media day (so we can conclude that they were lighter than the CAMS weights during the test.) Skaife was fastest and got pole with a 50.88s lap, faster than the pole time back in the first round of the ATC – which was 51.32s. Richards was second fastest with a 51.02s followed by Longhurst who had done an unofficial 50.60s in testing. Mark Gibbs qualified 6th fastest, and had a fresh engine after the Bathurst test day.

Heat 1

Skaife had a bad start when the experimental clutch he was using slipped at the start. Richards and Gibbs lead Bond into the first corner. On the second lap Skaife was able to make 5th as he squeezed past the M3 of Paul Morris. Longhurst meanwhile had slipped past Bond and was making progress on the GIO G-R of Gibbs. Longhurst made it past Gibbs and set out after Richards, but Skaife by now had made it up through the field after his poor start was right behind him. Skaife took 2nd place from Longhurst on lap 6 and then the M3 was pushed back another spot when the GIO GT-R got past. That was the finishing order of the first heat.

Heat 2

The start was similar to the first, with Richards taking the lead while Skaife battled his slipping clutch. Gibbs and Longhurst were busy contesting 3rd place, Gibbs had lots of over steer and they contacted. Longhurst was pushed off the track for his trouble. Gibbs had damaged an oil cooler in the incident and had oil on his tyres which further enhanced his poor handling GT-R. Richards lead Skaife and Morris over the line at the finish – there was very little between them. Jim Richards claimed the AMSCAR title for 1992.

[GraemeWi]

September 1992

The Sandown 500 has traditionally been a part of the Bathurst build up, but recent years has seen the event fade with some of the teams opting to give it a miss. None of the GT-Rs showed, but there were some of the new 1993 specification cars out for the first time. Larry Perkins won in his VL Commodore (now two generation out of date) ahead of the newer Chev powered VP Commodores. Seton's Falcon was in trouble – breaking a tail shaft and having major brake problems.

Wheels Magazine got Jim Richards to do a back to back test of his race GT-R and a stock road going GT-R. The results were quite interesting. The road car was measured with a 5.4 second 0-100km/h, and 13.7 400 meter sprint. It's 0-60km/h time of 2.2 second was better than any Group A race car Wheels had tested (which included Johnson's Sierra and Perkins' Commodore.)

Jim's race GT-R turned in a 0-100km/h time of just 3.2 seconds and ran the 400 meters in 10.9 seconds. They used 8,000 rpm launches in the road car, and 8,200 rpm in the race car. The road car was able to pull cornering G's of 1.17, while the race car with it's better tyres and suspension could pull 1.46G. The magazine then went on to mention that of the 100 GT-Rs imported into Australia by Nissan for the domestic market, 37 of them remained unsold after a year.

October 1992 Bathurst

And so it all began. The weekend before Bathurst arrives along with the first of the keen campers and the teams trickling into town. Everyone waits for the first session on the Wednesday to see who is going to be fastest, and who is going to last.

Wednesday practice showed the Nissans were the quick ones.

Qualifying

The official qualifying started on Thursday, the Skaife / Richards entry was under the 2m 15s mark. Johnson / Bowe, Mezera, and Longhurst were also fast in the morning session. In the afternoon Bowe was quickest, still fractionally slower than the GT-R had been during the morning.

The best times were:

Skaife / Richards (GT-R) 2m 13.82s

Perkins / Harrington (Commodore VL) 2m 14.08s

Johnson / Bowe (Sierra) 2m 14.56s

Niedzwiedz / Hansford (Sierra) 2m 14.98s

Longhurst / Cecotto (M3) 2m 15.26s

Seton / Jones (EB Falcon) 2m 15.53s

Mezera / Jones (VP Commodore) 2m 15.74s

Gibbs / Onslow (GT-R) 2m 15.75s

Brock / Reuter (VP Commodore) 2m 15.98s

Percy / Grice (VP Commodore) 2m 16.13s

Olofsson / Crompton (GT-R) 2m 16.17s – this was the second Gibson car.

Saturday Qualifying

The top ten run off on Saturday represented the last opportunity to improve the top drivers grid position. Dick Johnson grabbed pole with an awesomely quick lap of 2m 12.893s – the quickest a Sierra has every lapped the mountain, and only just fractionally slower than Skaife's pole time last year.

The GT-Rs were having a hard time with the extra weight they were carrying, and the boost restriction. The teams spent time carefully preparing the cars for the race on Sunday.

[GraemeWi]

Sunday Race Day

A bit of rain was falling as the field took to the track for some warm-up laps. It went bottom up for Longhurst when his co-driver smacked into a wall and damaged the M3 – it was repaired in time for the race though with no lasting damage. Brock broke a tail shaft in his new Commodore, Unfortunately the team didn't have a spare VP shaft, but could make one up out of two VN shafts in time for the race.

At the start of the race, the field took off, except for Brock who had snapped his new tail shaft. Johnson managed to hold back Larry Perkins in the fast starting Commodore. Perkins then lost a heap of places when he grabbed 5th gear instead of 3rd. At the end of the first lap, Johnson lead Skaife, Gibbs, Mezera, Niedzwietz, and Perkins.

Skaife took Johnson at the end of lap 2 on the pit straight. Niedzwietz was able to make up a couple of places and took the Gibbs GT-R on lap 5. Gibbs started slowing and slid down the order until he was in 11th place. The problem was the GT-Rs windscreen was covered in oil, which the pit crew tried to get rid of by throwing buckets of soapy water at as it drove past the pits, the officials stopped them from that after a while.

After 10 laps Skaife had a handy lead of 5.2 seconds between the GT-R and the Dick Johnson Sierra. Another 10 seconds behind Johnson was Niedzwietz in another Sierra. By lap 20 the lead was out to 19 seconds, with Percy in the HRT VP Commodore now up into 3rd place.

At 11am the clouds got dark and the rain started. Nearly everyone dived into the pits for full wet weather tyres, except for the Nissan GT-Rs which remained out on the track, quite safe with the four wheel drive. This bought the Olofsson / Crompton GT-R up to second place. The Johnson / Bowe car was now more than 1 minute behind Skaife.

Much of the field were having difficulty with badly fogged windscreens (these days all the windscreens have heater elements in them), one team even smashing out their back window in an effort to clear the mist off the windows.

The lead Nissan pitted on schedule, and resumed with Richards driving, lapping four seconds a lap faster then the Johnson / Bowe car was able to. Not long after the 33rd lap, Denny Hulme passed away as his M3 drifted off the track and ran along the wall on Conrod straight. This bought out the pace car. Up until then Richards had almost managed to lap the Johnson / Bowe Sierra, but it all was lost when the pace car bunched the field.

When the pace car left the track, Richards lead Bowe by 6 seconds, one lap later it was 27 seconds. The leading GT-R managed a lap 15 seconds faster than Bowe. Crompton in the second GT-R was also lapping quickly in the rain. The rest of the field was 1 lap down.

In the early afternoon Gibbs picked up a large dent in the side of the GT-R when a Sierra had emerged from the spray on the track and was unable to avoid hitting Gibbs, the damage was only cosmetic.

At the 53rd lap point, the two Winfield Nissans were still leading, with Longhurst, Bowe and the GIO GT-R following. The pace car came back out on the track after Colin Bond's co-driver had clipped the back of a Commodore on Conrod, sending the Holden into the wall. Richards was just about to put Bowe a lap down when the pace car joined.

Richards used the pace car to pit for a load of fuel and a brake pad change. The rain was actually helping the GT-R conserve it's brakes. Skaife resumed the driving duties. The second car came in shortly afterwards for brake pads as well and a driver change with Olofsson returning to the wheel. Longhurst and Johnson where out there going for 3rd place, Longhurst had problems with his gear knob that had come off and was stabbing his hand with every gear change. Glen Seton gave an interesting account of the conditions: “You're just guessing down the straight, as soon as you get behind someone the heat from the car causes the windscreen to instantly fog. All you can do is to stick your head out the window and watch the white lines on the side of the track – that's how bad it is.”

By lap 71, Skaife still lead Crompton by 20 seconds, with a gap of five seconds back to Johnson. The rain was now blowing in sideways in a strong wind, the pace car came out again only 25 minutes after it had last been out – a Commodore had crashed at Forrest Elbow. There was a little debate weather to red flag the race at this point – the flag marshals couldn't see each other, but a report from a nearby town said the rain was going to back off.

Onslow in the GIO GT-R ran into the side of another car and damaged an oil cooler in the accident, he was able to get round into the pits to have it bypassed. Quite a few of the teams pitted to change from the wet tyres to slicks in the improving conditions. Skaife and Crompton continued leading, both of them on wets which were starting to over heat in the drying conditions. Skaife dived in for a tyre change and resumed still in the lead. Crompton did the same shortly afterwards.

As the laps climbed into the 90's, the track dried out and Bowe was able to make some ground on the Nissans, this was the best opportunity as he couldn't match them in the wet, but the dry was a distinct advantage to the Sierra. On lap 93 he dived past the Olofsson GT-R for second place. Skaife pulled out a few faster laps to maintain a buffer of about 30 seconds between the GT-R and the Sierra of Bowe.

At the 113 lap mark the Olofsson GT-R pitted for brake pads, fuel, and a driver change. The pads were inspected and found to be only half worn so there was no need to do a full pad change in the lead car. Crompton resumed, and shortly afterwards Skaife pitted for a driver change to Richards and fuel – no need for pads. Bowe was briefly in the lead.

Jim Richards had some dramas though – “I had a rag which I was using to keep the screen clean, only it got hooked up in the extinguisher and set it off! I would down the windows and got rid of the stuff.”

Bowe pitted on lap 117, for Johnson, pads, fuel, and a top up of oil. By 4pm Johnson was over a minute behind Richards, with the second GT-R about 50 seconds behind Johnson. A report came though of torrential rain and hail approaching.

On lap 144 Skaife was heard to exclaim “It's raining! Good stuff!” in the pits as he watched TV. Richards was out on slicks and it was hosing down. Over the top of the hill Richards had encountered a wall of water, the GT-R was uncontrollable and slid into the wall. The left front suspension was broken.

The track was in chaos – there was a large incident on top of the hill with three Commodores and a Corolla going into the walls. There was another Commodore in the wall near Forrest Elbow. After another two Commodores slid into the stricken car near Forrest Elbow, the GT-R limped onto the scene and aquaplaned into the mess. At that point the race was red-flagged.

The rules are quite clear – when a race is red-flagged and cannot be restarted, the results are taken from one lap previous. That meant that the lead Winfield GT-R had won. Richards said “I was going about half a mile an hour in low gear, then it accelerated off the track. I had no idea we had won. I expected a punch in the mouth when I got back but instead we won the race!” The second GT-R claimed 3rd place behind the Johnson / Bowe Sierra.

There was a very hostile reception on the podium that afternoon. The crowd was ugly, and Johnson wound them up in his second place acceptance speech. Jim was very upset when he took the podium “I'm just really stunned for words. I can't believe the reception. I thought Australian race fans had a lot more going than this. This is a bloody discrace.This is going to remain with me for a long time, you're a pack of arseholes!” he told the booing crowd. The corks remained in the champagne.

An upset Skaife later said in the post race press conference: “I just felt that what we got out there wasn't warranted. I feel sorry for Dick and John – their car was running at the end but rules are rules. Winners are grinners, and the rest can go to hell.”

And so closed a chapter in Australian motor racing history. The Group A formula had come to an end, the next year would bring a new series of Holden vs. Ford competition.