They say history never repeats itself, but it does sometimes rhyme. 1991 marked the twentieth anniversary of Allan Moffat's era-defining 1971 Bathurst victory aboard the mighty XY Falcon GT-HO Phase III. On that day, as recently outlined by Australian Muscle Car, Moffat's fastest lap had come on his second time around: such was his car advantage that there was no need to push it ever again. He spent the rest of the day lapping up to six seconds off the Phase III's true pace, and even then he still left all the Chargers and Toranas of his rivals far, far behind. It was a day that cemented Allan's place as the Ford Hero, and his Phase III Falcon as the Godfather, the greatest, the most prized and sought-after muscle car in Australia.
History was about to rhyme, but it would not repeat. For where the Godfather had emerged the most beloved car in the country, Godzilla would only emerge the most loathed...
The First Sunday in October
Race day dawned bright and clear, nothing but blue sky from horizon to horizon. The forecast was for a warm day, around 25 degrees, which wasn't bakingly hot unless you were facing the prospect of six hours in the airless kiln of a racecar. The turbo on the RS500, for example, was running at 500 degrees less than a foot away from the driver's left ankle, just the other side of the front firewall...
Procedings got underway with the usual pre-race razzamatazz. The marching band this year were the Golden Kangaroos, and although they'd apparently performed all over the world, their caper involved scantily-clad girls with some painfully '80s hairdos and wall-to-wall spandex (the '90s caught on only slowly, it seems). They pitched in with our old friends, the 2nd Military District band, when it came time for the national anthem, which this year was sung by country artist James Blundell. He would soon be known for the minor hit Way Out West, and for being your mum's favourite crumpet at the time (equal first with Gary Sweet off Police Rescue).
Bob Forbes' staggering $650,000 investment in the GT-R had been somewhat offset by prize money from the AMSCAR series and Sandown. He got another handy cash injection when the GIO Nissan won Dulux Autocolour's Best-Presented Car award this year, stealing it away after a couple of years sitting on Dick Johnson's shelf in Brisbane. There might've been a bit of grumbling at yet more laurels being heaped upon the GT-R, but there could be no doubt this one was well-deserved – the GIO car looked positively sumptuous.
And the beauty was more than skin-deep, too. Forbes had opted for six-pot brake callipers in place of the works team's four, aiming at maximum stopping power to bring the 1.6-tonne beast to a halt at the bottom of Conrod. The trade off was that the Forbes team couldn't compete with the quick teams when it came to the pit stop competition. There was another $10,000 on offer this year thanks to new sponsor Prima Holidays, so this year the contest was done as a knockout rather than against the clock, all done on the pit straight where the Prima Holidays signage was most conspicuous. Despite concerns about burning out clutches before the race, the money tempted quite a few major teams: Dick Johnson and Colin Bond went first, pulling up in the zone, quickly changing tyres and then launching again to cross the finish line, a brisk affair that went Johnson's way (partly because Dick was using the #19 car and could afford to risk a full-bore start). Percy vs Longhurst went to Longhurst (also using a teammate's car rather than his own), setting up a finale between the Queensland rivals. The Johnson-versus-Longhurst grudge match went Longhurst's way in a pit blitz that saw the Johnson mechanics fumble.
An extra ten grand was very welcome at the Longhurst team given the expense of their Sport Evo BMWs – the M3 Motorsport team of John Cotter & Peter Doulman, class winners only a couple of years ago, had blanched at the $400,000 price tag of the upgrade kit and elected to leave their M3s as they were. Whether the upgrade would make the difference here at Bathurst, however, remained to be seen. There was no doubt their nigh-200 kW power deficit would hurt on the climb from Hell Corner to McPhillamy, but on the other hand their 900kg kerb weight would allow them to abuse their tyres all day long, and with their excellent fuel economy they'd need one less pit stop than the rest of the grid... and two fewer than the thirsty Nissans. Said Longhurst ahead of the race: "If anyone's in the pits more than 30, 35 seconds? We're catching back up again."
Green Flag to a Bull
As if to drive home that Bathurst is a race of attrition, the Mountain killed off two cars before they could even join the starting grid. The Bob Holden team's #76 Corolla blew a head gasket in the Sunday morning warm-up, and the #32 GIO Commodore went out in sympathy for it on the warm-up lap before the race – meaning it technically started the race, but completed zero laps. Bob Forbes had brought it along to give a start to Sports Sedan racer Bob Tindal, whose Alcair air conditioning business probably hadn't seen the revenue to mount a campaign of his own this year. The next-fastest car in the stable was the VN that'd had such a short career earlier in the year, so it only made sense to bring it along and, just maybe, have it ready as a backup in case the GT-R couldn't go the distance. That the supposedly-reliable Aussie V8 had failed so early in proceedings highlighted that everything was being done on a shoestring this year, and cutting corners came with consequences. This was not going to be a bloodless race.
All 35 starters took their assigned places on the grid, selected first gear, revved their engines in accordance with their level of nervous tension, waiting for the command to go. Yet when the lights went green there was substantially less urgency than in years past, as everyone knew there was no point racing the GT-Rs in the opening stint. If there was to be any chance for the other marques to steal a win, it would come from running a race of endurance, and that meant being a bit sensible through the opening laps.
All except Mark Gibbs, that is, who alone made the trademark GT-R rocket start: he shot off the line like a cannonball and departed into a substantial early lead. From pole, however, Jim Richards was a bit more circumspect: although he hadn't qualified the car, he'd been given the first stint and trickled it off the line so slowly that he lost a place to a lightning-starting John Bowe, who streaked ahead of both Richards and Glenn Seton to be 2nd into the first turn. As they slunk up Mountain Straight for the first time the leader was Gibbs, pulling out a major gap over Bowe, who by contrast was only barely ahead of Richards. Richards had Dick Johnson right behind him, then Peter Brock in the first of the Holdens, followed by Drew Price in the second works Nissan, then Win Percy in the works Commodore. Thus began the fastest Bathurst anyone had ever seen.
There was very little jockeying for position on the first run up the Mountain, as everyone seemingly had their mind on the long game. In a weird blend of the old and new, Channel Seven had placed that wide-angle fisheye lens at The Cutting to show the drivers hooking it through all the way from entry to exit... even though the oldschool 4:3 aspect ratio of TV at the time didn't allow them to show it! Through the first lap everyone was well-behaved, and so under braking for Murray's Corner, Richards defied the weight of his GT-R and smoothly pulled up on the inside of Bowe to assume 2nd place as they finished the opening lap.
Richo spent his second lap catching back up to Gibbs, who'd pulled out quite a gap. When Gentleman Jim pulled alongside on his third lap, on the long climb up Mountain Straight, Gibbs of course made no effort to defend and surrendered the place graciously. Richards now led the Great Race, and excluding some early pit stops the #1 GT-R would never be out of P1 again. Neither would it ever come under any real kind of pressure: with a full tank, Richards completed his third lap in 2 minutes, 18 seconds, and he and Skaife would spend the rest of the day methodically cranking low-18s or at best high-17s, more than four seconds slower than the car's ultimate pace. Even then, by lap 5 they were pulling away from Mark Gibbs. As long as the car kept working, it was looking like Gibson Motorsport had this one all sewn up.
That was Gibson Motorsport's game plan today, but it wasn't the only one. Having been stung with a hot day would would pressure-cook their intercoolers and fry their rear tyres if they had even one moment of excess throttle, all three of the Shell Sierras were being rather circumspect in their approach this year. Although he was scheduled to drive the lead #17 car today, John Bowe had been given the job of starting the #18 on behalf of Radisich & Shiel, doing the hard work early on when the field was still compressed and a delicate balance of aggression and clear thinking could really pay off. The plan thus called for Bowe to pit early, have a quick drink to freshen up and then take over the #17 from Johnson himself at the first pit stop, and it was here that his real workday would begin. Having a car that was fast but delicate, DJR were sensibly approaching this one like an enduro, almost as a Le Mans campaign: they were deliberately holding the car in fifth gear across the top of the Mountain, both to avoid wheelspin and preserve their precious rear tyres, and to save some fuel so they could, hopefully, save themselves the traditional last-minute splash 'n' dash at the end. If they could do that while their rivals were blowing up, making extra pit stops and crashing, there was a chance they could pull out a result this way. Time would tell.
By contrast, the Holden runners had the opposite problem – a slow car that needed to be poked with a stick. Last year's winners Grice & Percy had shown them what they needed to do, and Peter Brock was now busy doing it, applying some of that old Brock Crush to the '91 Great Race. He was working the #05 Mobil VN hard – remember that its 4.9-litre V8 was a screamer by the standards of the day, as no V8 Supercar would ever rev beyond 7,500rpm – and the resulting sound was glorious. Even so, this early in the race he was holding something in reserve, and so Glenn Seton passed Brock in a straight line heading up Mountain Straight. There's no substitute for forced induction, live with it.
Having made a poor start, Glenn was driving with purpose and making up places hand over fist. Win Percy unfortunately lost a place when Seton had forced his way through, leaving him trapped behind Peter Brock, but that was of no concern to Seton. On lap 4, he went up the inside of Dick Johnson into Griffon's Bend, and even motored past Drew Price in the second works GT-R on lap 5 – down Conrod no less, a feat of brute horsepower if ever there was one! But by lap 6 the leaders were already starting to catch up to the lapped class cars, starting with the red David Sala Corolla.
Percy used the traffic to muscle past Brock, and nearly collected the green Verheyan Corolla trying to find a way past Johnson, but the real cork in the bottle proved to be Drew Price. The scrapping behind the #2 GT-R was relentless: Percy trying to get past Johnson, Brock trying to come back at Percy, and Johnson keeping a wary eye on his old rival Brock. If Price was under orders to hold them back and let Richo build an early gap, the team game was working perfectly.
But the pressure and desperation had to find an outlet somewhere, and the first victim was Brad Jones, who'd been given the opening stint in the second of the HRT Commodores. Jones abruptly pitted the #7 Commodore for emergency rhinoplasty, having put the nose into the wall on lap 4 on the climb up to Reid Park – just the latest hit for Elvis! The car was taped up and generally declared healthy, albeit with ruined aero and a slight wheel alignment problem, and young Bradley rejoined way down in 25th, now facing a hard day at the office.
Finally, Win Percy got past Drew Price with a brave move through McPhillamy Park – immediately followed by Brock and Perkins, who both made their move over the lip into the Esses! Exiting the Chase, however, Percy abruptly lost the rear and flung himself into a surprise spin, coming to rest on the grass just before the Dunlop Bridge. Thankfully, he kept the car off the wall, but the mistake cost him several valuable places (he actually rejoined behind the BMWs, in 13th). That was a serious blow to HRT's race plan, especially when the footage now showed the right-front guard was rubbing on the tyre, generating smoke. Percy elected to do another lap rather than pit immediately, either because the HRT pit crew couldn't be ready for him in time, or because he just didn't realise he had such a problem. It was a nail-biter, because if the bodywork cut that tyre on the next lap the car could find itself pitched into the wall and written off.
On lap 8, Bowe passed Mark Gibbs to take 2nd place, followed a lap later by Seton as well, dropping the #4 car back to 4th. Gibbs put up no fight at all, suggesting he was running a pre-set pace and wasn't under instruction to make the car any wider than it already was. There was now no-one ahead of Bowe except Jim Richards, but the gap was a daunting 10.9 seconds. Traffic would see it fluctuate from as much as 12 to as little as 6 seconds in the following laps, but nobody was under any illusions. As Jim came around to lap the Sala Corolla for the second time – yes, twice in ten laps – his time was a scorching 2:17.56; everyone else at the sharp end was only doing 2:19s.
Even that pace might've been too much for some. On lap 13, Garry Willmington's #41 Blue Haven Pools Supra came into the pits to sort something out. What it was we never found out, but the car was destined to DNF with gearbox issues after just 56 laps, so perhaps that problem was already rearing its ugly head. The #75 Corolla (of 1966 Great Race winners Bob Holden & Rauno Aaltonen, having a 25th Anniversary reunion tour) was also black-flagged for a fuel leak, although that car would be able to carry on (with the leak plugged, of course). On lap 22 the Gulson family's BMW 635 CSi was also in the pits with a major problem, but once again the broadcast didn't bother telling us what it was. I don't know what they were fixing, as this time there wasn't even a later DNF to provide hints, but no doubt it was related to the car being quite long in the tooth, and probably under-prepared thanks to inclement financial realities. And by lap 26 the Everlast Walky was trailing smoke, the start of a horror day of diff difficulties for the combined O'Brien/Callaghan squad.
But these cars were just out for a Sunday drive: the real race was at the front, where Dick Johson Racing were busy enacting their master plan. On lap 22, John Bowe brought the #18 Shell Sierra in for a very early, but resolutely scheduled pit stop, handing it over to Paul Radisich to carry on. Having done a blitz stint at the start of the race, the #18 now wouldn't need the late-race splash 'n' dash either, potentially putting it in the box seat for a result later in the day. Having having come in 3rd, Radisich rejoined in 12th, but there was an awful long way to run before it all shook out. One of Channel Seven's blokes in pit lane, John Brady, took the opportunity to have a chat with Bowe before he escaped back into the team garage.
John Brady: You're lapping pretty well out there. A few people were thinking the Nissans might've got further away than that?
John Bowe: Well, I think they were basically pacing themselves, but so are we. I thought that they'd have a much bigger lead than that. Our car's perfect at the moment, which is wonderful.
Brady: Are you close enough to put a lot of pressure on them, do you think?
Bowe: I don't think it's the time to put pressure on them. I think later on's probably the time – if, you know, if we're all healthy, later on in the race. At the moment it's just all feeling our way.
Brady: You've just hopped out of one car, you're about to hop in another. Tell us about that.
Bowe: Well, it's the way that Neal Lowe decided to it, which is fine by me. It meant we got two cars in the top ten, which gave Shell and Palmer's and Dunlop and Ford, everybody a lot of exposure. So that's what it's all about.
Brady: You take over Dick's car next?
Bowe: I will, yeah. So, you think I look hot now, I'm gonna look a lot hotter later!
First Stops
Around lap 30 the first scheduled pit stops were due, and it was inevitable that the first in would be a Nissan: 440 kW and 1,600kg meant a hefty penalty to your mpg. In the event Drew Price pitted the #2 Nissan on lap 29, the backup car of course getting the less optimised pit window. Fuel went in, a new set of Yokohamas were fitted, and Price stayed at the wheel for a double stint, although despite pre-race claims no brake pads were changed. It was a smooth stop, as it should've been when this wasn't even the team's big contender, and after 30-odd seconds the car was dropped and Price continued on his merry way, the stop having dropped him from 6th place down to 14th.
But all was not well on the lap that followed: the #2 Nissan GT-R was very slow coming over the Mountain next time around. Price gave it one extra lap to see if the problem would be self-correcting, but no such luck: on lap 31 he returned to the pits and the Gibson team swarmed over the car. A big fan was parked just in front to cool the radiator, and one brave crew member removed the right-front wheel then stuck his face into the wheel arch to inspect the parts behind! Would you put your beautiful face that close to an 800-degree brake disc straight off the track? Me either! In the event, the second Nissan would spend almost five minutes sitting on its haunches in pit lane, not to rejoin until lap 34 – way down in 30th place. They'd given up an awful lot of time, and worse, hadn't actually found out what was wrong with the car – Price said it was wandering around on Conrod, but Fred eventually suggested it was just that the tyres were still cold and sent him back out. It was the start of a long and troublesome day for the #2 Nissan Skyline.
While the second GT-R cooled its heels, the feeding frenzy of scheduled pit stops began. The #35 Peter Jackson Sierra, the Seton team's backup car, pitted on lap 29 for David "Skippy" Parsons to hand over to co-driver Wayne Park. Then, having got 05 up to P5, within five seconds of the GIO Nissan, Peter Brock pitted to trade places with Andrew Miedecke. Despite the seemingly terse attitude from the team, it was an untroubled 39-second stop and Miedecke rejoined with what seemed like a promising car under him. Then Win Percy pitted the flagship HRT Commodore on lap 32, handing over to Allan Grice in a lightning 21-second stop that nevertheless dropped the car from 6th to 11th on the road. Perhaps most impressively, however, Tony Longhurst was running inside the top ten as early as lap 24 – before the pit stops even began. It was a heroic achievement in what was supposed to be a class car.
Through it all, Richards carried on serene and untroubled, as you would when you had a 12-second gap over P2 (which was now Glenn Seton in the Peter Jackson Sierra). It wasn't until the end of lap 32 that he pointed the thing toward the pits, already removing the belts as he entered the lane. Richards hopped out and made way for Mark Skaife, while the mechanics gave it fuel and tyres and gave the windscreen a quick polish. It wasn't a super-quick stop, but then they did have a sizeable lead, so why hurry? Skaife was dropped and rejoined in 4th place, just ahead of Tony Longhurst in the BMW. Yep, the pit stops had elevated the M3 up to 5th outright: this was looking pretty good.
The GIO Nissan didn't pit until lap 34, the car getting some fuel, a fresh set of Dunlops and a driver change to Rohan Onslow, who rejoined only 9th thanks to a somewhat sluggish stop. Shortly after Charlie O'Brien pitted in the #10 Cenovis Sierra to hand over to Gianfranco Brancatelli, and as he departed in came Glenn Seton, who likewise handed over to Gregg Hansford to rejoin in 4th.
But, as Blake told us, where some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night. For every car having a good run so far, another was encountering disaster. The #44 Queensland Plastics Sierra, driven by Glenn McIntyre, was stuck in the pits with a faulty starter motor, while the #50 Tyrepower Sierra of Bryan Sala encountered difficulties when it got jammed in first gear, although it was fixed and the car eventually rejoined.
But none of their woes measured up to Drew Price, who brought the #2 Nissan back to the pits after just one lap with the same complaint as before. Clearly it wasn't just cold tyres. Price reckoned he could feel something vibrating, but having inspected everything the team still couldn't find what the problem was, so he was sent back out yet again. This time John Brady was able to get an interview out of team manager Alan Heaphy, despite Heaphy still wearing his team headset, listening to the tech geeks as they diagnosed the problem.
John Brady: A lot of confusion over it. Alan, what's as close as you've got to it?
Alan Heaphy: Wait... [listening to his headset]... Basically, Drew came in for his scheduled stop, and we changed tyres. He stayed in to do his next stint, and whatever's happened to a tyre or wheel or something has created a vibration in the car, it's fairly severe. And just as a precaution we thought, well, we'll bring him in and have a good look over it, because there's still a long way to go.
Brady: How's it running now?
Heaphy: Perfectly.
Brady: So you got any idea what it was? Was it just the tyre, or wheel, or...?
Heaphy: Yeah. Hang on, actually they're speaking about it now... [listening some more]. Yeah, the car is running okay now. There's no dramas whatsoever.
Brady: Just gotta make up some lost time.
Heaphy: Yeah, that's right.
The upshot of all the pit stops was that Dick Johnson now led the race, ahead of Skaife, Hansford and then Tony Longhurst, who wasn't expected to pit until lap 45 or so. Johnson was aiming to stay out until lap 40 if at all possible, which would be an almost unprecedented stint for a Sierra if he was able to do it. In-car shots revealed Johnson was driving it very gently, low-revving it and timing the boost through the tricky turns at the top of the Mountain, so if he was able to eke out enough speed from this economy run he might actually be in with a chance. Naturally, however, Johnson's time in the lead lasted only until Mark Skaife caught back up in traffic and passed him between the exit of the Chase and the pit entrance – not that it mattered, because Dick headed for the pits immediately after. It showed the Nissan team effectively had a whole pit stop over the #17 after just one stint of racing, which was an astonishing burst of speed so early in the game.
Johnson brought the dehydrated Shell Sierra in for a drink and made way for Bowe to take over: Bowey stuck in his trademark seat insert and climbed aboard. It was a tense but unflustered 30.39-second stop, and Bowe rejoined 4th in his second car of the day... although by the time the car was dropped, Skaife was entering Reid Park! Skaife now led by 22 seconds (once again from Seton), but as the commentary pointed out, if the Sierras were only 30 seconds behind at the first stop (of a likely four), and the Nissans still had to make two pad changes, then it was possible we had an actual race on our hands here.
Case in point, on lap 44 the BMW team finally made ready for a pit stop... not for Longhurst, but for Denny Hulme, whose co-driver Peter Fitzgerald was now standing by (Denny kept going for another lap, though, which showed Frank Gardner's penchant for mind games never diminished). Tony Longhurst himself managed to hold off on pitting until lap 47, and even that was a lap earlier than planned
I came in one lap earlier than what I was s'posed to. But as I was going up the straight I started to get very conscious of the gauges, and I thought I saw the fuel pressure gauge move. I thought the other car was gonna come in about lap 42 or 43, so the boys should've had a bit of a breather. Anyhow, we're in and out okay.
Alan Jones took over in a mostly-orderly stop, although Jonesy had trouble reaching his belts and needed a hand getting strapped in. After a 42.87-second stop (about 12 seconds longer than planned), Jones rejoined 9th, down from 3rd before the stop. "You're happy with the way things are going?" asked Channel Seven talking head Cameron Williams, and on this Tony was unequivocal: "Oh, fantastic! I just can't believe it. Who could've imagined that little car could be 3rd or 4th, whatever we are now." As if to pour cold water on his joy, however, the footage at that moment showed Jonesy pulling through Murray's ahead of the Gazzard Walky and about to overtake Bryan Sala's Tyrepower Sierra... just as they were all caught and lapped by Skaife. The Longhurst team might've been exceeding expectations, but there could be no doubt about who as leading this race just now. Skaife in fact was about to put a lap even on Rohan Onslow in the third Nissan, currently 9th!
Indeed, the only thing going wrong for Nissan were that the #2 car still wasn't living up to expectations. With nearly two hours gone, the second car was way down in 32nd place, seven laps behind its race-leading twin. You'd be forgiven for wondering if Freddo had called in some kind of mechanical witchdoctor to put a curse on the #2 car and ensure that whatever went wrong for the team went wrong with this car, for soon it was back in the pits for a third time. Peter McKay reported live:
More problems for the Nissan car number 2. The driver Drew Price reported that the car had lost power. The crew was waiting for him when he arrived, they lifted the bonnet, and the small hose that takes the air into the plenum chamber had come off. They fixed it, and it was out in about thirty seconds. The point to make is, that never happened to this car before. So there's always a first time at the Tooheys 1000...
Complications
It was at this point that things started to go sideways for a lot of people, all at once. David Sala's red #72 Corolla hatchback had become the first proper retirement of the race on lap 28 (for him), the engine giving up the ghost on the climb through The Cutting. The car remained parked there for the rest of the day. Then on lap 53, the #19 Shell Sierra was also in the pits with a problem, having been running all day with a misfire; this car would never be truly healthy again. Then at the same time, the #44 Queensland Plastics Sierra of Dave Barrow & Glenn McIntyre – the same ex-Longhurst car that had suffered starter-motor problems earlier – then pitted with the front-right wheel missing! The driver brought it back to the Brian Bolwell Racing garage where the team gave it a quick check and a spray of WD-40. The replacement nut went on easily enough, so the Bolwell mechanics simply replaced the lost wheel, topped up the fuel and sent it on its way.
While that was going on, the #33 Pro-Duct VN of Bob Pearson lost the rear, spun around and hit the tyre barrier just before Hinxman Vista, virtually head-on. The car wasn't a write-off, but its Bathurst was over with just 48 laps covered. If that had been the only setback for Holdens today then it would've been a good day, but things were about to get a whole lot weirder. A lap later (on lap 54 for the leader), Andrew Miedecke brought Brock's 05 car to a halt on the run up to The Cutting, pulling over on the right-hand side of the track where in theory he'd be out of the way. It looked like the car had stopped with an electrical problem, but there was no way to tell yet whether it was terminal (heh). He'd lost a very promising 7th place, so Miedecke was highly motivated to fix it, so he went to work.
On the radio to the team manager Graeme "Mort" Brown, he reported back: "You there, Mort? We have no fuel pressure. I've been giving it a break, and fifteen seconds doesn't help, what d'you want me to do next...? Already tried… Yes, no fuel pressure..." And so on. Naturally enough, with the sport's biggest star having dramas, the TV cameras hurried down to the Mobil team garage to interview 05's other driver.
John McKay: A rather bemused Peter Brock watching proceedings on television. Your car looks like it has a fuel pressure problem, Pete?
Peter Brock: Yes, well that will probably be an electrical connection I imagine. And at the moment it's quite interesting to stand here listening to Andrew explaining on television he's got no fuel pressure. We're going through a test procedure with him to try the reserves and everything else, but he's done that... I don't know. I don't know what he can do at the moment. We'll wait and see.
McKay: Is Andrew much of a mechanic?
Brock: Uh, well... if it was a straight-up mechanical problem I don't think a lot of us would have a great deal of concern, but when you start talking about electronics, and the number of systems and microchip technology et cetera, really you've got to get the experts in.
McKay: So will the plan be now that you might step into car 11?
Brock: Well, one never knows, does one?
The saga between Miedecke and 05 would take the best part of half an hour to play out, and solving it would come down the ingenious use of onboard technology. It would emerge after the race that an electrical connection had simply vibrated apart – just one of those things – and to diagnose the fault, the team actually used the onboard Channel Seven RaceCam to inspect the wiring loom! Said Brocky after the race:
The guy's parked out there – this is Andrew Miedecke – it's got an electronic fault. Now, I don't know anyone who knows about electronics, outside of the RaceCam guys [and the] RaceCam guys came to the rescue. I had my electronic guy in the RaceCam area [in the pits], and they were actually driving the RaceCam and looking at the wiring loom and my guy's back here telling Andrew Miedecke how to fix the electronic fault in the car, parked up there on the Mountain! He did it, he got the car back on the track ... I thought, that's astonishing. But it's one of those ridiculous things that can happen – an electronic component that actually vibrated apart. It wasn't a bad connection, it simply broke.
That said, fixing it didn't come easily. At one point Miedecke had the boot open as he tried to get the fuel pumps working manually, at another he was seen fiddling with the electronics in the centre console. But whatever he did, it worked: Andrew Miedecke got the 05 moving again and limped it back to the pits, where the team would be able to carry out a proper repair job. The car actually stalled on the entry to the pits, but it was close enough that it didn't matter: the pit crews just pushed it until he reached his pit box and the lads got to work.
While Miedecke was distracted, on lap 56, the #2 Nissan GT-R came back in the pits for the fourth time, and once again the bonnet was raised as mechanics worked on something at the front of the engine. It seemed the same air pipe problem as last time had recurred. The team took the opportunity to run a scheduled stop at the same time, putting Garry Walden in the car, which was probably wise when Drew Price was almost out of time anyway. By this stage Mark Skaife was still leading over Gregg Hansford (#30 Peter Jackson Sierra), John Bowe (#17 Shell Sierra – the economy run seemed to be working out), and Allan Grice (#16 HRT Commodore), who'd carried on Percy's workmanlike job of steadily moving forward. Behind them was Radisich in the #18 Shell Sierra, Tomas Mezera in the #11 Mobil Commodore, Rohan Onslow in the #4 GIO GT-R, then Alan Jones in the #25 Benson & Hedges BMW, who'd made up only one place since his pit stop but was maintaining a much higher placing than a class car really should've. Don't believe me? Behind him was Gianfranco Brancatelli in the #10 Cenovis Sierra, a world-beating car only a few years ago, but now shortly to be lapped by Grice. Last of the top ten was Wayne Park in the #35 Peter Jackson Sierra, benefitting from 05's mishap.
Then the Sala/Lusty Tyrepower Sierra lost a right-front wheel on the entry to the Chase, which was just about the scariest place imaginable for such a thing to happen. The car had already lost time with starter motor and turbo damage earlier on, so this team was officially having a troubled run. On arrival in its pit box the wheel hub seemed in working order, but there was a big gouge out of the brake calliper, pointing to there having been a big hit from something that would've bent the whole brake assembly (slight tyre scuffs on the wheel arch pointed to a touch with the wall somewhere). They had to trim some excess steel away before the wheel would fit, but once again, they got it going. Thus trimmed, the replacement wheel went on without a hiccough and the car was dropped and sent back out on track.
Over at the Dick Johnson garage, meanwhile, Paul Radisich pitted the #18 Shell Sierra from 5th place, handing it over for Terry Shiel to have his first shift. "Regulation stop" was the judgement of the commentators, and at 29 seconds, it was one of the quickest we'd see outside of the HRT boys. The bad news was, not all their cars were doing so well. Although the #19 Shell Sierra was a very distant third in the team's priorities, it was having a fairly disappointing run even by those standards. By lap 59 it was in the pits for the second time – third? Who even knew? – and, bad sign, both the bonnet and the rear hatch had to be lifted this time. The car had been running with a misfire almost since lap 1, and the team had already changed the plug leads and the distributor cap trying to get it to run properly. With nothing much else to lose, it seems this time they'd decided to should look at the fuel feed and see if that would cure it. Hey, why not? They weren't going to win from here anyway...
Then – and this was becoming a bit of a fad – the #43 Brian Bolwell Sierra was also seen three-wheeling across the top of the Mountain at McPhillamy, having lost a right-front wheel! Thankfully that was not a fashion befalling every Sierra, as by the start of the 61st lap John Bowe had made a move and passed Gregg Hansford, returing the #17 Shell Sierra to 2nd place. That Hansford almost immediately then found himself fending off Gricey in the HRT Commodore suggested the Peter Jackson Sierra was having a mechanical issue of its own, but what that was we didn't yet know – it might have been something as basic as running out of tyres.
A lap later and the race leader was back in the pits, Jim Richards returning to the cockpit of the #1 GT-R and giving Mark Skaife a spell. It was a quick but routine pit stop, and Channel Seven arguably would've done better to turn their cameras around and point them at Murray's Corner at that moment. Neil Crompton in the #7 HRT car was suddenly circulating with a VN that looked like it had rammed a red kangaroo: the bonnet was buckled upwards, the radiator grille had been pushed in, one headlight had been smashed, the works. It took one of Channel Seven's patent after-the-fact replays to reveal it hadn't really been his fault: running just ahead of him, Allan Grice had lost the rear of the #16 on the ripple strip at Murray's, getting sideways and robbing him of speed. Poor Crompton had been left with nowhere to go, and simply piled into the back of him. Both cars kept running, but they'd carry the scars for the rest of the day, which wasn't a good look for a young driver trying to generate buzz. The Golden Rule of motor sport is, after all, that you don't hit your teammate...
Neil Crompton: The old boy got sideways coming into the pit straight in a fairly big way. We were tangled up in a scrap with John Bowe and Gregg Hansford. Gricey had virtually a spin, I ducked to the inside to miss him but gave him a Liberace [presumably referring to a famous TV bit where Liberace smashed up a grand piano with a sledgehammer].
Gary Wilkinson: Well, it's done a fair amount of damage...
Crompton: No kidding.
Soon after Grice pitted the #16 and handed it back to Win Percy. The car was still running okay, slight damage to the left-rear bumper from Crompo's fumble, but not enough to really hold it back. This was a more intensive stop than the previous 21-second blitz job: this time the brake pads were changed and the brake fluid was topped up before they let Percy rejoin. In the middle of it all, the #30 Sierra also pitted neatly; Hansford got out and Seton got in, the car remaining in 3rd place. Compounding the Holden fans' woes, however, it was around this time that Miedecke got 05 going again, albeit now 33rd and several laps down... just as teammate Tomas Mezera brought the #11 in with an out-of-the-blue engine problem. The Perkins team spanner-twirlers got to work under the bonnet, changing the plugs in the hope that was all that was wrong, but it turned out to be rather more serious than that. By lap 66 the team had given up and were pushing it back into the garage, having diagnosed a broken valve spring, although pushing it back was somewhat complicated by the arrival of their neighbours, the GIO GT-R which was in for a routine stop from 4th place. Adding insult to injury, the time spent working on the Perkins/Mezera car had forced Miedecke to stack and wait for service in his – now-running – 05 sister car. And Peter had been on the verge of taking over that 11 car, too...
Cameron Williams: Peter Perfect, it seems like things have gone perfectly wrong just at the moment?
Peter Brock: Yeah, it's been a very interesting day. The car started off beautifully, and Andrew's had an electronic gremlin in the car and through persistence he's actually got the thing going again, and arrived in here as Tomas was in to do a planned pit stop, but as he arrived he said the engine's got a problem, it dropped a valve in it. So we sent Andrew back out to soldier on, and I guess this'll be pushed the one side, this was our big hope of course, and I'll hop back into 05 and see if I can finish somewhere respectable through the day. But, gee, electronics? A bit of a strange one.
At the front Godzilla rolled onwards, as unbothered and unstoppable as a natural disaster. By now Richards was coming up to put a lap on Brancatelli in the #10 Cenovis Sierra, who was currently in 9th place, and he muscled past on Conrod like it was easy. Given Rudi wasn't there, it probably was.
At the end of lap 76, John Bowe headed for the pits. He unplugged his radio while he was still on on Conrod; his belts undone by the time he was in the lane proper. He stopped the car precisely on its marks, of course, and hopped out while the mechanics got to work on a full stop, including a pad change. John Brady passed on the team's claim that there were less than two litres of fuel left in the tank – they were stretching their stints right to the limit. Team manager Neal Lowe had in fact wanted the car to do one more lap, but the fuel was so marginal they decided it wasn't worth the risk. Johnson had done 37 laps in his opening stint; Bowe had just done 39. If they could keep this up, they'd see another stop around lap 115, then a final splash around lap 153. So as of right now, it sounded like their fuel gamble wasn't quite on target, but then again the race was only half over. Lowe told Channel Seven that their current projections had the car coughing across the finish line with only a few drops left in its tank, and that when that moment came his heart would be in his mouth... but what else were they gonna do, not try to win? The stop took just under 55 seconds, not super-quick but not a problem child either. A sign of how spread out the field was by now, they lost only one place in the meantime, dropping from 2nd to 3rd. Which is to say, the stop had put Seton's car back up to P2.
Of course, Johnson came out of the pits right in front of Jim Richards, and although they disputed the place all the way up the Mountain, by Skyline the Skyline was in front, putting Dick a lap down. By lap 80 – half distance – the order was Jim Richards (#1 Nissan GT-R), Glenn Seton (#30 Peter Jackson Sierra, the only other car still on the lead lap), Dick Johnson (#17 Shell Sierra, a lap down), Win Percy (#16 HRT Commodore) and Terry Shiel (#18 Shell Sierra). They were followed by Tony Longhurst in 6th (#25 Benson & Hedges BMW, leading the Goldilocks class), Rohan Onslow (#4 GIO GT-R, two laps down), Gianfranco Brancatelli (#10 Cenovis Sierra), Steve Millen (#9 Cenovis Sierra, three laps down) and finally Peter Fitzgerald (#20 B&H BMW).
None of these cars were yet wilting under the strain, but then again there were five hundred punishing kilometres still to go. Whether by mechanical failure, driver error or a strategic gamble, it was in the second half of the 1991 Tooheys 1000 that the race would be decided.
