10 OF THE GREATEST BATHURST MOMENTS FOR HOLDEN
THE FIRST WIN
Bruce McPhee and Barry Mulholland claimed Holden’s first win at Mount Panorama in 1968 with their privately-entered Monaro beating the highly-fancied Ford GT Falcons and sparking the traditional Holden v Ford rivalry at Bathurst.
PETER PERFECT ARRIVES
Driving solo, Peter Brock piloted his GTR-XU1 Torana to victory in the final 500km Bathurst race in 1972. Brock would go on to win a record nine races at Mount Panorama, earning himself the title of King of the Mountain, all in Holdens.
TORANA SIGNS OFF IN STYLE
In 1979, Holden announced it was ending production of the Torana, the car that had won at Bathurst four times since its introduction to the market in 1967. Brock and Jim Richards sent the Torana out in emphatic fashion, winning the 1979 Bathurst race by a record six laps with Brock setting a lap record of two minutes, 21.1 seconds on the final lap and passing seven cars in the process.
COMMODORE ON TOP
Replacing the Torana with the brand new Commodore, Richards and Brock won their third straight Bathurst crown in 1980 as Holden’s flagship debuted by filling the first seven positions in a race made famous by Ford driver Dick Johnson’s collision with a rock on lap 17, prompting an outpouring of generosity to ensure the privateer could return to claim his maiden Bathurst title the following year.
BROCK’S LAST WIN
Racing as a privateer following a fallout with Holden, Brock took on the world in 1987’s Bathurst 1000, literally. The race was an official round of the World Touring Car Championship and European teams descended on Mount Panorama armed with gun drivers and seemingly unbeatable Ford Sierras. The Europeans’ dominance meant Brock didn’t even qualify for the top 10 shootouts as allegations of cheating began flying. Using cross-entry rules, Brock commandeered the second Mobil HDT entry when his 05 Commodore broke down on lap 34 and crossed the line in third place. A post-race protest led to the first and second-placed Sierras being eliminated and Brock was crowned Bathurst champion for the ninth – and last – time.
FROM LAST TO FIRST
Having started the 1995 Bathurst 1000 third on the grid, the VR Commodore of Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall was dead last by the end of the opening lap after a first-turn collision flattened a tyre. A lap down by the time the wheel had been replaced, the day looked over for the pairing. With 20 laps to go however, Perkins and Ingall were inside the top five and Perkins hunted down his rivals before leader Glenn Seton’s Falcon dropped a valve and Perkins and Ingall completed a remarkable last-to-first victory. Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris would repeat the same feat for Ford in 2014, coming from 25th to win.
THE KID MAKES HIS MARK
Almost a decade after Brock’s last win, a new legend arrived at Bathurst when 21-year-old Craig Lowndes partnered with New Zealander Greg Murphy to steer their Commodore to glory in the 1996 race. The duo were the youngest driver pairing to win the great race. Lowndes has gone on to win seven Bathurst titles while Murphy would claim four race wins at the Mount Panorama circuit.
THE BAND GETS BACK TOGETHER
In 2002, Jim Richards and Mark Skaife teamed up for the first time since a controversial Bathurst win in a Nissan 10 years earlier where Richards infamously labelled a booing crowd a “pack of arseholes” from the podium. The pair won in a Commodore called the “Golden Child” as it became one of two cars to win Bathurst twice, with Skaife having driven it to victory the year before alongside Tony Longhurst.
THE LAP OF THE GODS
Greg Murphy’s two minutes, 06.8594 seconds lap to secure pole position for 2003 was so fast it stood as the quickest lap ever recorded at Mount Panorama in a V8 Supercar for seven years. Dubbed the “lap of the gods”, Murphy backed it up in the race to claim victory alongside Rick Kelly for a record fifth-straight Holden win and making Kelly the youngest Bathurst winner, surpassing Lowndes’ 1996 record.
TRIPLE EIGHT GO ONE-TWO
Having dominated the Supercars championship for half a decade in Fords, Triple Eight Race Engineering switched to Holden when the Blue Oval withdrew its support for the team. Roland Dane’s outfit marked their first season in Commodores in emphatic fashion with a one-two finish in the 2010 Bathurst 1000 with Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup crossing the line less than a second apart. It was the first one-two finish since 1984 and the third at Bathurst in the race’s history.
