Colin Bond won his second race in a row when the championship returned to South Australia – and also the last of his career. The ongoing tyre war between Dunlop, Bridgestone and Yokohama gave him the break he needed to outlive Johnson, Brock and even the new Nissan driven by a 23-year-old Mark Skaife, in the ATCC's grand return to another of its long-lost loves: Mallala.
Another Old Friend Returns
Mallala Motor Sport Park had actually rejoined the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1989, but I didn't cover it then because 2019 was kind of an intense year for me. I shall remedy that now.
If Lakeside was Australia's Brands Hatch, then Mallala was our classic post-war airfield circuit. Located 60km north of Adelaide, in the green belt along the coast of South Australia, it was built in 1941 to train fresh aircrew for World War II. For this it was ideally suited, as the location is almost dead flat and surrounded by canola fields as far as the eye can see. You can't miss it, because there's nothing to miss: trainee pilots unable to make the runway must've been relieved to discover the paddocks on the other side of the fence were different only in being a different colour.
After the war it became one of the few connections linking the mad scientists at Woomera to the outside world, but with the conclusion of nuclear testing military operations had wound down, and the site was slowly abandoned. That was, until the day Port Wakefield was deemed unfit to serve as the Croweaters' motor racing venue, and they had to scramble to get something ready for 1961, when it would be their turn to host the Australian Grand Prix. Working quickly, most of the grandstands, fencing and other facilities were transplanted directly from Port Wakefield, but the three-storey control tower in blunt khaki still gave the place an unmistakeable military vibe. The '61 GP was a success, and Mallala became South Australia's home of racing for the rest of the 1960s.
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| Clem Smith in the #46 Chrysler Valiant R. Beside him in the #99 is fellow Chrysler driver Ern Abbott, and next to him, Bob Jane in the Mk.II Jag. The 1963 title depicted went to Jane. |
It was '76 when I started negotiations to buy it and I think I ended up paying for it in '77. Anything good from Mallala was taken down there to AIR; they didn't rip the track up or anything like that, though I thought they had.The struggle involved legal battles, underhanded tactics from the opposition, and issues with CAMS. After years of struggle, in 1982 they finally cut through all the red tape.
The story was they sold it to a farmer and he had it up for sale in '76. A very good friend of mine, the late Greg Sparks, who was a great guy for the sport, suggested we get it going again. People didn't like AIR very much because it wasn't a very interesting track, they liked the sharp, hard corners of Mallala as more of a driver's track. Reg said, "Why don't we give it a go, put some money in and buy the thing?"
I said, "If I have to do this Reg, I will take it on but if you get a group of people together it is not going to work." So I put all the hard work in. It started off very different to what is is today. [I was] not helped by CAMS by any means. There is a big story there, but it takes a while to tell it, and all the legal side... – Clem Smith, AMC #90
In 1982 we got a licence and started racing again. It was all held up by CAMS. They have done me no favours! The only favour they did, well, Bob Jane did, was they pulled the pin on touring cars at AIR and they had to come to me then, didn't they? – Clem Smith, AMC #90
Bob Jane was AIR's owner by that stage, and naturally he was happy to see South Australia's touring car round go elsewhere because he was betting everything on NASCAR being the future. AIR included a half-mile short track called the Speedway Super Bowl that was suitable for American-style stock car racing; Mallala had nothing like that, so as far as Jane was concerned it was here's your hat, what's your hurry? Good riddance touring cars, you expensive, computerised pieces of turbocharged garbage.
Festival of Speed
It was Jane's loss. Mallala Motor Sport Park was a cracking little venue and everyone was abuzz to have it back. The only downside was, as we were about to discover, it could have been designed by a time-traveller to showcase the advantages of the new Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R. Except for the cramped right-left-right chicane leading back onto the start/finish straight, Mallala was nothing but a series of hairpins followed by long, sweeping straights that placed all the emphasis on getting power down – and power down was where the Nissan was holding four aces.
Not that the Sierra teams were out of hands to play. Bridgestone had been hard at work developing a new tyre to get them back in the fight, and Peter Brock had put in 2,000km of testing to get it ready. The reward for his efforts was pole in Saturday's qualifying session, lapping Mallala in 1:10.66 to be fastest of the 23 eventual starters. Tony Longhurst was nipping at his heels with a 1:10.79, and only then did we find Mark Skaife in the new GT-R, a tenth of a second behind with a 1:10.89. They were the only drivers to break into the 10's, which really was a remarkable competition debut for a brand-new car, especially one which, as the footage revealed, was still very wild in the handling department. Skaife's courage towers over mine as much as his skill behind the wheel that he could hold onto it for any length of time.
Way down in 11th, by contrast, was Jim Richards in the superseded HR31 Skyline, beaten by his teammate by 0.8 seconds. Fred Gibson had made a deliberate strategic decision here: Richo was the championship contender, so scoring points was his first and only priority. Even though it was eight-tenths slower than the new car, the reliability of the HR31 simply could not be discounted. As long as nothing silly happened, Richards was practically guaranteed to finish today. Whether he could finish high enough to score serious championship points remained to be seen, but that's why they called it a strategy and not a sure thing.
The rest of the grid was mostly as you'd expect it: Dick Johnson, Colin Bond, John Bowe, Glenn Seton, Alan Jones, Andrew Miedecke and Larry Perkins made up the top half of the grid, all qualifying in the 1:11 bracket. After Richards however we started to find the non-professional drivers, and times started dropping away. The aberrations in this half of the grid were twofold: Bob Jones, in the #98 Car-Trek Racing Walky, and Neil Crompton, in the #16 HRT Walky.
Bob Jones was no relation to Alan; rather, he was a minor player best known as a speedway racer, though he'd actually got his start on bikes and was quite a versatile driver, and not at all without talent. His main claim to fame today, however, was that the car he was driving was chassis HDT 16, Peter Brock's Bathurst-winning VL Commodore from 1987. When Chris Lambden had upgraded to a Gibson-prepped HR31 Skyline, Jones had been the one to buy the veteran Commodore off him. Despite my best efforts I couldn't get a clear screengrab of him at Mallala, but Autopics has some images from 1992, which is broadly the same livery.
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| At Wanneroo in '92. |
Neil Crompton's presence was rather sadder. He was filling in for the absent Win Percy, who'd had to dash back to the U.K. with his wife Rosemary to attend the funeral of their son Matthew, killed in a completely avoidable traffic accident.
Doing 40mph, he had to swerve to avoid two cyclists in the middle of the road. He hit the bank, turned over, and the seat belt bracket broke his neck. The cyclists didn't stop. Tom [Walkinshaw] was very nice about everything, said I could do whatever I wanted. After the funeral I decided to get back to Australia and throw myself into the job. – Win Percy, Motor Sport, Aug 2013
It's a true credit to Win that the team he'd put together was strong enough to roll on in his absence. Crompton was an obvious choice to fill the seat: he was young and hungry, and he was going to be there anyway to contest the Formula Holden round held the same weekend. The careers of the young hopefuls Crompton and Skaife were already starting to diverge, however. Skaife won the open-wheel race before jumping back into the touring car; Crompton failed to finish.
Hearts of Steel (Also Roofs, Fenders...)
But with the entrée done, it was time for the main course. On the starting grid they waited for the off, revs rising to a pinnacle, treating us to the sexy straight-six howl of the new GT-R, barely muffled by its twin turbos. On the start line the flaggie raised the green, held it for a deliberate pause and then, with a flourish, flung it downwards. The clock ticked 49:59, and they were off!
Skaife bolted off the line like he'd been poked with a stick, but then immediately stopped again, ducking left and right. His GT-R was so quick off the line he immediately found it boxed in behind the slow-starting Sierras of Brock and Longhurst – who ever would've thought we'd be describing a Sierra like that?! Down they funnelled into the first turn, Peter ahead of Tony, with Johnson swooping down the outside line followed by a chastened Skaife, who'd lost the boost and had to trickle off the line like a mere mortal. Through the opening lap Brock really had his Sierra hooked up, three-wheeling it through the sweepers and really leaning on it through the hairpins. By the end of the first lap the commentators could declare he had a lead of "four or five car lengths" over Longhurst. His 2,000km of testing had been time well spent, because those new development Bridgestones seemed to be working brilliantly.
But at the same time, Skaife was coming for him. Through the Tower corner everyone shortened the turn by putting some wheels over the white line, but with traction from all four wheels Skaife was able to put the whole car across the line and, effectively, cut the corner without losing drive. Today that would bring a terse SMS from the stewards about Track Limits, but this was 1990 and he got away with it. Up to the the Southern Hairpin he stalked Johnson, then when the corner came up he rotated sooner and tighter than Johnson and, not having to wait for the rears to grip up, simply planted the right foot and went for it. Bouncing noticeably, Skaife hung Johnson out to dry all the way through the next turn, appropriately passing the banana-bender through Banana Bend to move up to 3rd.
It even looked like Johnson might have a problem, as he was straight away under threat from his own teammate John Bowe, moving over and letting both Bowe and Colin Bond behind him past without a fight. If so, he wasn't alone in having dramas: by lap 3 Alan Jones was in the pits with the bonnet up, becoming became the first DNF of the day with a management system problem. The year hadn't been completely without glory for Jonesy, as he'd won both heats of Round 2 of the AMSCAR series in late May, with the boss Tony Longhurst making it a team 1-2 on both occasions. But that aside, his career in the main series over the last few years really wasn't going the way he must've hoped.
By lap 4, Skaife was on the tail of Tony Longhurst and pushing hard, locking up into Tower bend but hanging onto it and keeping the pressure on. Through the corner he again took his little shortcut and zoomed up alongside Longhurst on the following straight, then defied the car's weight by out-braking him into the Southern Hairpin. Leaving Tony to take the long way around, Skaife gave it such a bootfull that even the GT-R kicked a tail out, but with his talent he was on top of that in a second. Skaife roared off along Banana Bend having taken 2nd place. Now the only thing between him and the race lead was Brock.
Through the Sweeper onto the Back Straight, meanwhile, Colin Bond was throwing his Caltex Sierra around like a madman, flicking the tail sideways through a long sweeper as he put a move on John Bowe. As they entered the Esses Bondy had the edge over the DJR Sierras, now line astern, which put him up to 4th place.
A lap later, and Phil Ward's Mercedes was in the pits with the bonnet up. With Crompton in a car today there was an empty seat in the commentary box, so team was boosted by a guest appearance from Allan Moffat. When Mike Raymond mentioned Ward was still doing his bit for the Heart Foundation, Moffat was moved to quip, "They're just checking its blood pressure." The car kept going and would ultimately finish, albeit well down the order, so we never did find out what the problem was.
It was worth noting that Brock's Sierra still had its unique exhaust outlet, so it was still blowing blue smoke every time he lifted off the throttle. Moffat took the time to explain how that worked, only for Raymond to giggle that it was, "nothing like the ad, though, where it burns so clean..." He probably meant this one:
Despite Peter's best efforts (and an engine that was running CLEAN...), Skaife was now in his mirrors and steadily creeping up. And at the back of Skaife's mind was the fact that the GT-R had never run a full session at Mallala without something breaking: it had broken a hub in practice, and the team vaguely mentioned "qualifying problems" without really elaborating on what that meant.
Despite Peter's best efforts (and an engine that was running CLEAN...), Skaife was now in his mirrors and steadily creeping up. And at the back of Skaife's mind was the fact that the GT-R had never run a full session at Mallala without something breaking: it had broken a hub in practice, and the team vaguely mentioned "qualifying problems" without really elaborating on what that meant.
Not that Brock was without dramas either – his usual three-wheeling it through Tower led to a touch of snap oversteer that must've taken a fair amount of opposite lock to deal with. It wasn't often you saw Peter Perfect getting out of shape like that, and Skaife didn't wait to be asked twice. He edged right up onto the Mobil car's bumper, ratchetting up the pressure even more, and in response Brock had a slight, barely-perceptible squirm under braking for the Northern Hairpin. That unsettled the car just enough to give Skaife the opening he was waiting for. Out of the turn the GT-R was supreme, and through the Sweeper that followed Skaife first got a nose up the inside, then pulled door-to-door, then was through and gone. From 3rd to 1st in just ten laps: the new GT-R was a goer.
With that done the broadcast took the opportunity to have an ad break, and we came back just in time to see a scrap between Johnson, Bowe and Miedecke turn ugly. With the advantage of Bridgestone tyres (one presumes...), Miedecke was able to be a fair bit faster than John Bowe at the apex of Tower bend; certainly Bowe's sluggishness at the crucial moment caught him napping. The surprise speed differential had Miedecke trying to occupy the same space as Bowe at just the wrong moment, and the nose of the Mobil Sierra rammed the left-rear corner of the Shell Sierra, right when they were both on the very limit of grip.
Bowe was tipped into a spin, and as he whipped around door-to-door with Miedecke the impact between them knocked the Mobil car completely over onto its roof! Miedecke rolled off the circuit and then barrel-rolled again in the sand for good measure. Crompton in the HRT Commodore had to leave the track to avoid the mess, and even Jim Richards copped a knock from Bowe's tail on the way through; only Glenn Seton slipped through it all without a hitch. A shaken Miedecke exited the window of his car and threw his hands up in despair, body language posing the understandable question, "WTF was that?" He then leaned back in to ensure all the electrics were off – Moffat mentioned the damn things had a habit of catching fire just when you thought it was all over, and there were no Brownie points if you gave one of the firies a zap.
Bowe drove away with the rear bumper hanging loose, and would've been wise to head for pit lane before they could black-flag him; he was going slow enough to hint that the impact had knocked his wheels out of alignment or broken some piece of suspension or another. In fact he kept going at least another lap before the stewards brought out a deserved mechanical black flag. An entire bumper flying off at max speed could really ruin someone's day, to say nothing of what might happen if it lodged under someone in a crucial braking zone. This being 1990, however, no safety car was called.
Just as well for Skaife, because by now the gap back to the 2nd-placed Brock was dramatic, and it was about the same from Brock to 3rd-placed Colin Bond. Bondy was making up time hand-over-fist, however, and behind him a fine pack race between Crompton, Perkins, Richards and Longhurst was interrupted when a bright golden wheel was suddenly seen leaving the circuit and slamming into the tyre barriers. A quick check in the pits revealed Bowe was still undergoing repairs, so it was thought it could only have come from Dick Johnson's car... except he was still running and still had all four wheels attached, thankyou very much. As of the time of writing, I still have no idea where it came from, the broadcast team seemingly forgot about it. Anyone know for sure?
In the humble HR31 Skyline, Richards had some trouble clearing the big Holdens. Once Perkins had disposed of young Crompton at the Northern Hairpin, Richards took a bit longer to achieve the same feat. He eventually got a nose through coming into the Esses, whereupon Crompton sensibly gave the championship leader adequate racing room. Through the Esses they threaded side-by-side, then rejoined the front straight with Richards ahead, now in 7th place.
Longhurst thought that looked good, so he had a piece of Crompton at Tower bend – only for Crompo to come back at him into the Southern Hairpin, re-taking the place. Moffat commended the youngster's efforts, saying: "Well, he realises that he's got a slightly slower car in those areas, he's not being pedantic about it, he's taking tit-for-tat and gone back and had another go there. Some drivers won't do that at all, and you can't say the fellow's been unsporting. I don't disagree with that at all." The praise of the praiseworthy, as they say...
And then, 23 minutes into the 50-minute race, it happened: in a shining example of the Commentator's Curse, Skaife ran into a problem just as Raymond & Co were remarking on what a good job he was doing. At the start of the braking zone for the Southern Hairpin, the right-rear wheel abruptly locked up and let out a big squeal. Skaife had to back off the pedal pressure to let it rotate once more, which inevitably dumped him in the sand on the outside of the corner. He rejoined only gingerly, seemingly hesitant to come back to the tarmac, and although he continued to circulate by the Northern Hairpin he was off the track again, this time it permanently. Skaife accepted his fate and started crawling back to the pits as far from the circuit's edge as he could get. 22 laps was all he could be credited with today.
We rounded up the Sierras and took an early lead, but then the Japanese-spec front hub broke and fired me off at the end of the main straight. It certainly showed all the right signs, but it needed a lot of developing. – Mark Skaife, Auto Action #1787
The GT-R's grand debut had ended, well, like it was a brand-new and unsorted car. In a moment loaded with significance, one of those who nipped past was Jim Richards in the older, slower – but still running – HR31.
Both drivers will want to be tippy-toeing to a degree. You can see they're not throwing and sliding the cars in these sweeping corners. They're trying to protect their tyres, and they're going to have to, because... It's not so much a wear factor with the tyres, Michael, that becomes a worry in a circuit like this where you’re jumping on the brakes every two seconds, but the control of the car under brakes. The tyres actually turn a bit like marshmallows, they get warm. They're not that they're really wearing out, but they're just getting such a hammering that they get a little bit soggy. And braking these things at full bore – I mean, there’s only two positions in a racecar, flat on the gas or flat on the brakes – and when they're flat on the brakes, if the tyres start to get soggy, then that's when the movement in the chassis locks up the brakes either front or rear. Generally, the rear.By lap 28 Brock was coming up to put a lap on Chris Lambden in the Beaurepaires Skyline, who was running in 10th. Bond took this opportunity to close up with Brock while he was in traffic, Brock forcing a way past on the pit straight, but Lambden graciously letting Bond past into Tower turn. Good driving from all concerned, but by the end of that lap Brock had opened up three car lengths on Bond: there was no living with the master some days. By now the order was Brock, Bond, Johnson (his early troubles apparently going away), Glenn Seton and then Jim Richards in 5th.
Johnson indeed had young Seton right up his trumpet – the future Ford Hero fighting tooth-and-nail with the current one – and Mike Raymond's choice to get on the phone with Dick at that moment didn't help matters. Dick was probably a little more tired and off his game than usual, as this race was a brief stop in Australia sandwiched between two NASCAR commitments – he'd had the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte a fortnight before, and would be jetting off to contest the Miller Genuine Draft 500 at Pocono the week after. The next few laps were enlivened by the arm wrestle between these two, so although Johnson had the big Dick when it came time to apply the power, Seton proved ever so slightly faster through the twisties.
On lap 30 Bond finally caught up to Peter Brock, and the final battle for the race lead was on. Bond got alongside his old teammate into the Southern Hairpin, but wasn't going to get the pass done from the outside like that. For another lap he followed closely behind the blocking Brocky, who was (quite legitimately) placing his car in the way of Bond's aspirations for the race lead. Bond kept the pressure on, and on, and on lap 31, it happened. Brock came in slightly too hot for Tower bend, locked up the rears, and had a moment of oversteer in the middle of the corner – progressive, not enough to unsettle a driver of Brocky's calibre, but definitely oversteer with a puff of tyre smoke. That left him without a smooth corner exit, making him slow all the way down the following straight, but once again he firmly placed his Mobil Sierra on the inside line. That left Bond to do all the hard work of going around the outside, and that wasn't going to get the pass done.
Despite that, Brock had every reason to be worried – Bond was still throwing his car around with some aggression, whereas Brock was now definitely into "driving on eggshells" phase. His Bridgestones had lost that last skerrick of grip. Once more through Tower corner, and once more down the straight to the Southern Loop: lap 32 looked like any other lap, except this time Bond stuck a nose in on the inside, and made it stick. Rotating through the Loop, Bond straightened up the car and planted it, zooming off into the long right-hand sweeper with Brock finally disposed of. When he tried to stay with Bond, Brock's car stepped out from under him, the final proof that he couldn't match that pace. In he end, his Bridgestones had acted like Bridgestones – the best a tyre could be, briefly. This race was done.
Richards: Yes, I got a message from Fred to say that Brocky had a tyre that was falling off the car, so I tried real hard to get past him, because obviously that meant I was behind Dicky here.Raymond then turned his attention to Johnson.
Raymond: Still, and a good showing from the other car as well?
Richards: Yes, very good, very good. You know, that's looking good for the last two rounds.
Raymond: Dicky Johnson, 2nd today, and you came from the clouds! You had more opposition than you could handle there for a while?
Johnson: Actually all I was worried about was staying together and getting to the finish, because I just need points to win the championship, and when you get things like Miedecke falling over and stuff like that, it's a bit of a worry.
Raymond: The car went well?
Johnson: The car went really well. Our tyres fell away a little bit, then stayed at a level which was obviously better than some of the other cars in front of us at the time.
Raymond: Well the championship is still alive, and good luck when you go to Wanneroo.
Johnson: Thanks pal, I'll be tryin'.
Raymond: And the fella that's done it again: two races and two wins. Great drive from Colin Bond?
Bond: It was the hardest race I've done for a long time, Mike. I must admit Brocky gave us a battle up there. I thought that his tyres might go away and we just played it cool, I guess, waited for the moment and got through. But I would like to thank Caltex of course, and the boys...
Raymond: Who got it right this time?
Bond (laughing): We had a miss in the car after the warm-up this morning and the boys only fixed it fifteen minutes prior to the start. So I think the credit goes to them.
Raymond: Well of course now you're down to 3rd in the championship, it's still alive and Wanneroo you must be looking forward to?
Bond: We're gonna plan to win every race from here on in, Mike! I don’t know what the rest are going to do!
In fact that was the last time Colin Bond would ever stand on the top step of a podium. Although he hadn't exactly been sustained on a steady diet of champagne, Bondy had first tasted victory with three NSW Hillclimb titles from 1965-'67, and the decade up to 1975 had been a nigh-uninterrupted stream of titles – mostly in lesser series like the South Pacific Championship or the Sun 7/Chesterfield series at Oran Park, but it had included the big ones as well, taking the ATCC in 1975 and Bathurst in 1969. Australian Rally Championships in 1971, '72 and '74 had marked him out as one of the most versatile drivers of his generation, and being the crucial "2" of Moffat's 1-2 at Bathurst in '77 made him one of the rare humble ones as well. But it had been Caltex sponsorship and the mighty Sierra RS500 that brought the final flower of his glittering career, making him Better Brakes AMSCAR champion for 1988 and, here, delivering his final race victories.
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| Yes, if you were 48 and beating drivers not even half that age, you'd laugh too. |
He wasn't quite done yet, but his silverware cabinet would need no more extensions after today. For now, there was just the satisfaction of knowing the official from Shell would have to grit his teeth and, once again, put the winner's sash over the shoulders of a man wearing Caltex overalls.
[Now, as a side note, it's been brought to my attention that Bond's two victories, plus his drive through the field at Winton, might not have been achieved on Toyo tyres at all, but on Dunlops! According to some forum discussion on TenTenths by user "William Dale Jr":On the championship table it was now very close, Dick Johnson's 79 points only barely ahead of Richards on 76. With two wins Bond had jumped up to 3rd, with 62, putting him ahead of John Bowe on 58 and Peter Brock on 50. They were the only remaining championship contenders now, as Longhurst's 38 and Seton's 32 were just too far behind with only two rounds remaining.
"The tyre rule specified a maximum of 8 tyres for qualifying and racing, and that they had to be of identical rubber compound. Bond was successfully protested by Allan Moffat post-qualifying at Winton of presenting 8 tyres (which actually comprised a set of Toyos and a set of Dunlops!) that were not of identical rubber compound, despite the fact that the tyres were passed by the scrutineers after durometer tests showed that they were near-as-dammit to identical. What led to this situation was Bond's discovery during practice that the car was transformed by putting a set of the taller 660mm rear Dunlop D15s on the front. It was this discovery that resulted in Bond's charge at Winton, where he recorded faster lap times that the three cars that finished ahead of him, and his wins at Lakeside and Mallala."
Is this true? I have no idea. There's nothing implausible about it, but the only evidence I have for it is Dale's comment above. If someone from Bondy's team wants to come forward and confirm (or deny...) I'd love to know. The big question from me is, if it was such an advantage, why couldn't Dick Johnson do it too? DJR were supposed to be Dunlop's favoured sons, after all. There seems to be more to this theory than I can puzzle out. So for now, I'm going to keep calling Bond's tyres Toyos – partly because I can't prove that they weren't, but mostly because of the "Toyo" decal on the car's nose. Companies of the world, I want you to know if you pay for the racing we love, we don't forget it, even 30 years later.]
But the talk of the weekend was the pace of the new Nissan GT-R. Once Gibson-san got it to hang together, clearly it would be an absolute weapon, and that sent a cold chill through the rest of the paddock. Everyone in the touring car scene left Mallala making quiet phone calls to their bank managers, wondering how they were going to afford the loans necessary to fund a monster like that.
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