Your Most Memorable Moments...

[DNQ]

What are your most memorable moments of touring car racing in Australia? Having only been following the sport since the early 90's, I would have to choose:

1. The infamous 'Red Flag' at Bathurst 1992 - Richards/Skaife winning
2. Larkham/Morris, Oran Park, 2000 - wow, that was a big crash
3. Super Tourers at Bathurst 1997 - the world came to race at the mountain
4. Lakeside Konica V8 Lites 2000 race 2 - the best battle I've seen at the track
5. Ford winning Bathurst in 2001

[Crash Test]

I'll try and keep it recent too

1. It was hard to go past the third Konica race at Lakeside last year...amazing stuff...
2. Some of the races down at Adelaide
3. Bathurst 95
4. For a big crash, try Lakeside 1989...

[marcus]

ohhh that crash at Lakeside in 89 was nasty..

ok i will try

1.Bathurst 1997 (V8's) brockies last race
2.the longhurst/Morris punch up at winton in94
3.meeting craig lowndes last year at winton
4.Lowndes big roll over at calder
5.1996 season ..(The HRT kid )

[DNQ]

Someone tell me about this '1989 crash at Lakeside.' I was only three when it happened, so I certainly can't remember it. Although I remember seeing a picture of a smashed yellow and white Commodore at Lakeside - was that it?

[elephino]

hmm...in the order I type them...

1. Bathurst 1992
2. Super Touring Bathurst 1998 (with the battle between Volvo and Nissan all day)
3. Dick Johnson in Hardies Heroes in 1983
4. The Jags at Bathurst in 1985
5. The Nissan GT-R at Oran Park in 1990 just running away from the field, just one of those things I just remember
6. The mud at Bathurst 2000
7. Oran Park 2001 (you'll know why at conrod.com.au shortly)
8. Super Tourers Winton 1994, as mentioned previously
9. Oran Park 2000 for various reasons including the huge smash
10. Phillip Island 2001. Not exactly great racing, I just enjoyed being there as it's a great track.

[racer69]

Mine'll be recent (was only born in 1983), so:

1. James Hardie 1000 1987
2. AMP Bathurst 1000 1997
3. Lakeside 89 crash, pretty huge
4. Johnson 1983 Hardies Heroes
5. Bathurst 1990 (Holden beat the Sierra's and Nissans)
6. Bathurst 1985
7. Longhurst/Morris Winton 1994 (Funny Stuff)
8. Super Tourers Oran Park Round 2 Race 1 1999
9. 1993 Bathurst (Perkins vs Winfield)
10. 1990 Mallala ATCC for some reason (Nissan GTR nearly won on debut)
11. Larkham Morris 2000 crash
12. 1988 AGP Support race (first win for TWR Holden, and after the embarrassing bathurst display)
13. 1986 Lakeside ATCC race (only pre 87 race i have on tape, sad face if i could do one)
14. 2000 Bathurst
15. 1989 Wannerroo was pretty good, remember Johnson pitting with 4 laps to go with a huge lead, then telling us he didn't know there was hardly any laps left.
16. Winton 1989, the Sierra dominence was broken by Fury in the Nissan HR31, and Gricey did a great job in the FAI Holden.

I could go on all day......................

[Ray Bell]

DNQ... this was a fiery crash involving a couple or three Sierras down the back at Lakeside, just under the bridge and into the fence. I wasn't there and know little about it other than it put an end to Andrew Miedecke's car and put him out of racing.

As for my moments... I'll go back a little further...

There was a time when it was a big thing to see three V8s on the same circuit, in fact it took months from the first appearance of Beechey's Mustang until he, Jane and Geoghegan met. It just wasn't like today... but this is one of the really great moments, at Catalina Park in 1964:



Just imagine what it was like... for three years the Bob Jane Jaguar had been nigh on invincible... now a humble Holden was able to get the jump on it at every start... and here was able to hold it behind.

And imagine the hysteria among the crowd at Catalina Park that day! Especially those at Craven A Corner, one of three hairpins on the circuit, and the tightest of them, clambering on the banks and lookind down as their heroic Brian Muir did this before them... smoothly, like it was the natural thing to do...

And then imagine the outcry when Jane just caroomed into the side of him as he turned into the tightest corner on the circuit, pushed him out of the way and went on to win!

[racer69]

ahhhhhh, Lakeside 1989, one of the ropunds i rememberv very clearly from my early days.

The Touring Car crash was just the half of it.

The race had to be postponed a week or two because the race track got flooded, the whole front straight was under water.

Then, when the meeting was run, under blue skies, Garry Walden's Mazda was involved in a crash out of the karrusel in a supporting production car race which destroyed the barrier, causing a lengthy delay. I remember channel 7 showing highlights of the IROC races during the delay.

Then the Touring Car race got started, and Andy Miedecke in the Kenwood Sierra was involved in a crash with the Lusty brothers Commodore at the fast right left under the bridge before Hungary corner. Miedecke's Sierra caught fire and was totally burnt out, i've got a picture in an old copy of Racing car News (doesn't that bring back the memories), and its black, and the Lusty car wasn't better off. I think the telecast ran heaps overtime as well, and they had to cut the race short for TV, i think?


ahhhhh i remembered another moment.

17. Wanneroo 1988, that was wild. I remember Murrey Carter going down the main straight in his NETCOM skyline in a power slide, the two Shell Sierra's going off at the last turn, Perkins having a fight with the officials over how many laps were done, Brock being interviewed by Peter McKay and telling him that the race had been stopped so they could put the cars onto wet tyres, but that he was going to go back out on cut slicks in his BMW M3, and channel 7 cutting the live telecats short becasue of the news and replaying it after the late movie.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by racer69
... i've got a picture in an old copy of Racing car News (doesn't that bring back the memories) ...

Mmmm... by then it was a mere shadow of its former self... my binders cover the glory years of the mag... 1963 to 1983. 1989 was under the management of Stephen Knox, was it not?

One of the nice guys, but unable to keep it alive. RCN was up against it trying to compete as a monthly when there was a fortnightly around to beat it to every story. Chevron bought it and tried too, but killed it off and went with the better concept of MRA.

[Crash Test]

That was a wild old day at Lakeside! I will never forget the sound of the armco being flattened, and seeing the marshals behind it diving for their lives... That was sad, because we had great seats on the inside of the track at think, but we were told to move (for the obvious safety reasons) and I left my nice green Dicky Johnson flag pinned to the fence

Later on, before the ATCC race, a Formula Ford rolled at the kink after the finish line...a shocker...

Then there was the big one. Not only were Miedecke and Lusty involved, but so was Seton and Carter. How Miedecke wasn't killed I will never know...he bailed out of his fire ball, and stood there on the track behind it while all manner of cars ploughed into it. The cars basically continued on at race pace for some time, it seemed like an eternity before it was all brought under control. As it turns out, a mate of mine was flagging at the point under the bridge, and he wound up being at the track, late into the night filing reports over the incident... it really made Lowndes's roll look fairly lame..

[mac]

There are heaps of memories. I'll just mention a couple.

Craig Lowndes doing doughnuts in Brock's car at Oran Park in 1996, after rapping up the championship, despite blowing an engine. It was kind of like Brock passing on the baton.

When was the last time Bathurst was used as an ordinary round in the championship (not in 1000 guise)? This one comes from that meet. I remember an in car shot of Dick Johnson as he was talking to the commentators coming down Conrod Straight. Coming into the chase, Dick suddenly stopped talking (everyone knew it must have been serious if this happened), his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and he exploded into a flurried attempt to control the car. I think he let an expletive out, and that was it - he finished in the sand. The commentary box was silent. You could almost hear them thinking, "what have we done?" Turned out DJ's rear wing had collapsed. It was great viewing, and the look on Dick's face was unforgettable.

[Crash Test]

They had a championship round at Bathurst in 1995 and 1996. 96 was wild, remember the clash between Gardner and Lowndes, and then Seton's big off at Griffins Bend?

[Ray Bell]

Those were great races, very spectacular... that must be why they don't run them any more...

[elephino]

I'll just add John Cleland at Bathurst, having a good swear live on air when the universal went. It was bleeped by the end of the coverage

[Crash Test]

On the subject of swearing- how many times was the magic word dropped on the channel 10 Bathurst coverage from 1997??

[mickj]

peter williamson was the 1st to utter the f word at bathurst when he ran the celica
mickj

[Ray Bell]

And naturally enough.. he was first to carry a camera and first to do in-car commentary.

Old Willo never missed a chance to get his car on TV and thus the extra exposure for his Toyota dealership...

err... missed out a bit by crashing on the Friday in his Supra though.

[Crash Test]

Yeah, the flying mouth copped a fire extinguisher in the gob...

[racer69]

Dick Johnson also did a bit of swearing at Bathurst in 1986 towards the end on the in car, complaining about the slower cars.

Notice how no one calls them Race Cam any more, did channel 7 copyright it or something, and did channel 7 really help out CBS on its coverage of Indy and Daytona in the 80s, if so, it is great and should have been promoted more.

[Ray Bell]

Oh, they told us plenty of times... plenty of times... yes, they sent a team to Daytona with the technology, probably other places as well.

[Crash Test]

If I remember correctly, it was pretty much just selling their idea of how to transmit the signals from the cars to the OB units. Until ch7 had the idea of using a helicopter, people OS were trying things like sticking the recievers on top of grandstands and towers etc...generally these weren't very effective. Now the idea is used everywhere.

[Ray Bell]

I think there was something in the camera itself, the size of it etc... actually, I was up in the helicopter one day when they were testing a similar setup with a guy carrying a camera in pit lane, no leads to get in everyone's way.

[DAVID PATERSON]

I remeber when DJ went to the states and drove the Redkote Thunderbird in a couple of Winston Cup road races. The American fans were absolutlely amazed at this Aussie guy who could actually talk on air to the commentators while he was racing. They were then shocked and appalled when he let the F word go, loud and clear as he understeered into a wall at high speed.

[racer69]

He also had a few things to say about Richard Petty on air that didn't please the yanks, if i'm not mistaken.

[tickfordchick]

Originally posted by elephino
6. The mud at Bathurst 2000

grrrrr ...

I never had much of an opinion on mud before that ... needless to say I now feel an intense dislike for it