1983 James Hardie 1000

1983 James Hardie 1000
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The 1983 James Hardie 1000 was the 24th running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was an endurance race for Touring Cars complying with CAMS Group C regulations. It was held on October 2, 1983 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst, New South Wales, and was Round 4 of the 1983 Australian Endurance Championship. The race distance was 163 laps x 6.172 km = 1006.036 km.

The Holden Dealer Team took a controversial, but legal victory with the team's second Holden VH Commodore SS driven by John Harvey, Peter Brock and Larry Perkins. Harvey and Phil Brock qualified the car but after the #05 car blew its engine on lap 8, Peter Brock and Perkins transferred themselves into Harvey's car. Phil Brock never drove the car on race day as was forced to spectate as his three team-mates won the race in the car he qualified in, a decision he claimed was made by Perkins as team manager despite Perkins being the slowest qualifier of the quartet and despite it also being legal for four drivers to drive one car (something Perkins refutes claiming the rules only allowed a maximum of three drivers per car). The car was also the car which Peter Brock and Larry Perkins had won the race in 1982 and updated to 1983 specs, meaning this Holden Commodore became the first and only race car to win the Bathurst 1000 twice. The Holder Dealer Team Commodore finished a lap ahead of Allan Moffat and Japanese driver Yoshimi Katayama in their Peter Stuyvesant sponsored Mazda RX-7. It would be the closest Mazda would get to winning the race. Third was the STP Roadways Racing Commodore driven by 1982 pole sitter Allan Grice and 1969 winner Colin Bond.

Only three cars in the race featured both nominated drivers who had previously won the race. The #05 HDT Commodore of defending race winners Brock and Perkins, the #17 Ford XE Falcon of Dick Johnson and Kevin Bartlett, and the #16 Nissan Bluebird Turbo of Fred Gibson and John French. Ironically, sitting next to the Gibson/French Bluebird on the starting grid was the #50 Mazda RX-7 of future winners Peter McLeod and Graeme Bailey.

Class structure

The 22nd-place finishing Bluebird Turbo of Gibson/French
Jim Richards and Frank Gardner shared a BMW 635 CSi, but did not finish. (Car pictured in 2015)

Entries were divided into two, engine capacity based classes.

Class A

Class of cars of over 3000cc engine capacity, it featured BMW 635 CSi, Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore, Mazda RX-7 and Nissan Bluebird.

Class B

For cars of under 3000cc engine capacity, it featured Alfa Romeo Alfetta, Audi 5+5, Ford Capri, Isuzu Gemini and Nissan Pulsar.

Hardies Heroes

Pos No Team Driver Car HH Qual
Pole 05 Marlboro Holden Dealer Team Australia Peter Brock Holden VH Commodore SS 2:16.270 2:15.3
2 15 Nissan Motor Co. Australia P/L Australia George Fury Nissan Bluebird Turbo 2:17.509 2:17.2
3 3 Cadbury-Schweppes Pty. Ltd. Australia David Parsons Holden VH Commodore SS 2:18.212 2:17.8
4 31 JPS Team BMW New Zealand Jim Richards BMW 635 CSi 2:18.414 2:17.6
5 25 Marlboro Holden Dealer Team Australia John Harvey Holden VH Commodore SS 2:18.549 2:18.0
6 22 Cullen Automotive Industries Australia Warren Cullen Holden VH Commodore SS 2:18.563 2:18.3
7 11 Soundwave Discos Australia Garry Rogers Holden VH Commodore SS 2:18.648 2:18.5
8 6 STP Roadways Racing Australia Allan Grice Holden VH Commodore SS 2:18.963 2:17.8
9 4 John Sands Racing Australia Bob Morris Holden VH Commodore SS 2:21.184 2:19.1
10 17 Palmer Tube Mills Australia Dick Johnson Ford XE Falcon DNF 2:16.3

* This was Peter Brock's record 5th pole position at Bathurst having previously taken pole in 1974, 1977, 1978 and 1979. This saw him move one clear of Allan Moffat who had been on pole four times. It was also the last time he would set pole driving a Holden, though he did sit on pole in 1997, but it was his co-driver Mark Skaife who had set the time in the runoff
* Dick Johnson crashed in Hardies Heroes destroying his Greens-Tuf Falcon. In a show of goodwill no other teams in the race objected to the replacement #17 car starting the race from 10th position.
* 1983 saw the first appearance by BMW in Hardies Heroes with Jim Richards qualifying his JPS Team BMW 635 CSi in 4th place. BMW became the 6th manufacturer to appear in Hardies Heroes following Holden, Ford, Chevrolet, Mazda and Nissan. The BMW was also the first 6 cyl engined car to appear in the runoff.
* 1983 Australian Touring Car Champion and winner of the recent Castrol 400 at Sandown Allan Moffat was expected to easily make the top ten with his 13B powered Mazda RX-7, but could only qualify the car 14th, two places behind team mate Gregg Hansford whose car was running the less powerful 12A engine. This led to accusations of sandbagging by other leading teams, especially the Holden Dealer Team who believed Moffat was deliberately holding the car back in qualifying rather than showing its real speed.
* The 4cyl Nissan Bluebird Turbo driven by George Fury was the first non-V8 powered car to start on the front row at Bathurst since Peter Brock started second in 1973 in a 6cyl Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1.
* With seven VH Commodore's in the top 10 this was Holden's greatest representation ever in the runoff. On the other side of the coin, Johnson's Falcon was the only Ford in the top 10, the lowest ever number for the Blue Oval.

Official results

Full results of the 1983 James Hardie 1000 were:

Pos Class No Team Drivers Car Laps Qual
Pos
Shootout
Pos
1 A 25 Marlboro Holden Dealer Team Australia John Harvey
Australia Peter Brock
Australia Larry Perkins
Australia Phil Brock
Holden VH Commodore SS 163 7 5
2 A 43 Peter Stuyvesant International Canada Allan Moffat
Japan Yoshimi Katayama
Mazda RX-7 162 14
3 A 6 STP Roadways Racing Australia Allan Grice
Australia Colin Bond
Holden VH Commodore SS 160 5 8
4 A 14 STP Roadways Racing Australia Steve Harrington
Australia Garth Wigston
Holden VH Commodore SS 158 11
5 A 50 Petrolon Slick 50 Australia Peter McLeod
Australia Graeme Bailey
Mazda RX-7 158 19
6 A 12 Team Toshiba Australia Jim Keogh
New Zealand Leo Leonard
Holden VH Commodore SS 157 17
7 A 27 Alf Grant Australia Alf Grant
Australia David Seldon
Ford XD Falcon 156 26
8 A 4 John Sands Racing Australia Bob Morris
Australia Rusty French
Holden VH Commodore SS 154 10 9
9 A 35 Tokico Australia Phil Alexander
Australia Ron Gillard
Mazda RX-7 153 24
10 A 9 Andrew Harris Australia Andrew Harris
Australia Gary Cooke
Ford XE Falcon*
Holden VH Commodore SS
151 30
11 A 41 B.F. Goodrich Australia Ltd. Australia Barry Jones
New Zealand Rod Millen
Mazda RX-7 151 40
12 A 11 Soundwave Discos Australia Garry Rogers
Australia Clive Benson-Brown
Holden VH Commodore SS 149 9 7
13 A 8 Everlast Battery Service Australia Garry Willmington
Australia Mike Griffin
Ford XD Falcon 147 33
14 A 24 Scotty Taylor Holden Australia Alan Taylor
Australia Kevin Kennedy
Holden VH Commodore SS 146 36
15 B 64 Les Grose Australia Les Grose
Australia Alan Cant
Ford Capri Mk. III 144 47
16 A 13 Greg Symes Australia Greg Symes
Australia Bruce Smith
Holden VH Commodore SS 141 31
17 B 58 Ray Gulson Australia Ray Gulson
Australia Gerard Murphy
Alfa Romeo GTV6 141 51
18 A 51 Tony Mulvihill Australia Tony Mulvihill
Australia John Murden
Mazda RX-7 138 49
19 A 26 Everlast Battery Service Australia Bill O'Brien
Australia Brian Sampson
Ford XD Falcon 136 22
20 A 47 Brian Callaghan Australia Barry Graham
Australia Brian Callaghan
Ford XE Falcon 136 28
21 A 32 Johnnie Walker Australia Johnnie Walker
Australia Gene Cook
Mazda RX-7 135 44
22 A 16 Nissan Motor Co. Australia P/L Australia Fred Gibson
Australia John French
Nissan Bluebird Turbo 134 18
23 A 19 Ken Mathews Prestige Cars P/L Australia Ken Mathews
Australia Greg Toepfer
Holden VH Commodore SS 132 23
24 B 63 Chris Heyer's Kingswood Import Centre Australia Chris Heyer
Australia Don Bretland
Audi 5+5 132 57
25 B 61 John White Australia John White
Australia Bernie McLure
Isuzu Gemini 125 52
26 B 59 Capri Components Australia Lawrie Nelson
Australia Peter Jones
Ford Capri Mk. III 114 48
DNF B 55 Barry Seton Australia Barry Seton
Australia Glenn Seton
Ford Capri Mk. III 134 41
DNF A 15 Nissan Motor Co. Australia P/L Australia George Fury
Australia Garry Scott
Nissan Bluebird Turbo 130 3 2
DNF A 37 Eurocars (Northside) Pty. Ltd. Australia Terry Shiel
Australia Wally Storey
Mazda RX-7 122 15
DNF A 33 Dreamworld Australia Mike Burgmann
Australia Tony Longhurst
Chevrolet Camaro Z28 121 21
DNF A 53 Fred Geissler Australia Fred Geissler
Australia Ralph Radburn
Holden VH Commodore SS 116 29
DNF A 22 Cullen Automotive Industries Australia Warren Cullen
Australia Ron Harrop
Holden VH Commodore SS 116 8 6
DNF A 3 Cadbury-Schweppes Pty. Ltd. New Zealand Peter Janson
Australia David Parsons
Holden VH Commodore SS 106 6 3
DNF A 42 T. P. Ryan Australia Terry Ryan
Australia Graham Storah
Mazda RX-7 84 56
DNF A 48 Roger Manson Holden Australia Andrew Manson
Australia Geoffrey Manson
Holden VH Commodore SS 80 38
NC A 38 Gawler, SA Australia Bernie Stack
Australia Bob Jennings
Holden VH Commodore SS 68 32
DNF A 10 Terry Finnigan Australia Terry Finnigan
Australia Geoff Leeds
Holden VH Commodore SS 62 16
DNF B 57 L. J. Hazelton Australia Laurie Hazelton
Australia Jerry Strauberg
Ford Capri Mk. III 61 54
DNF A 17 Palmer Tube Mills Australia Dick Johnson
Australia Kevin Bartlett
Ford XE Falcon* 61 2 10
NC A 34 Peter Stuyvesant International Australia Gregg Hansford
Australia Garry Waldon
Mazda RX-7 49 12
DNF A 29 John Donnelly Australia John Donnelly
Australia Kerry Baily
Ford XD Falcon 37 46
DNF A 36 Gerry Burges Australia Gerry Burges
United States Roger Mandeville
Mazda RX-7 35 39
DNF A 23 Bryan Byrt Ford Australia John English
Australia Paul Gulson
Ford XD Falcon 32 27
DNF A 21 Ron Dickson Australia Ron Dickson
Australia Bob Stevens
Mazda RX-7 24 34
DNF A 20 King George Tavern Australia Joe Moore
Australia Graham Moore
Ford XE Falcon 17 35
DNF A 2 Masterton Homes Pty. Ltd. Australia Steve Masterton
Australia Bruce Stewart
Ford XE Falcon 17 13
DNF A 18 Valentine Greetings Australia Murray Carter
Australia David Clement
Mazda RX-7 14 25
DNF B 60 Nissan Motor Co. Australia P/L Australia Christine Gibson
Australia Bob Muir
Nissan Pulsar EXA 14 37
DNF A 05 Marlboro Holden Dealer Team Australia Peter Brock
Australia Larry Perkins
Holden VH Commodore SS 8 1 1
DNF A 39 John Bundy Australia John Bundy
Australia Norm Carr
Mazda RX-7 8 42
DNF A 31 JPS Team BMW New Zealand Jim Richards
Australia Frank Gardner
BMW 635 CSi 6 4 4
DNF A 45 Gary Hinton Australia Gary Hinton
Australia Lester Smerdon
Holden VC Commodore 5 50
DNF B 56 Hulcraft Autos Australia John Craft
Australia Don Smith
Ford Capri Mk. III 3 43
DNF A 40 CDT Performance Vehicles Australia Tony Hubbard
Australia Jim Faneco
Ford XE Falcon 3 45
DNF A 52 Ron Grose Australia Ron Grose
Australia David Grose
Mazda RX-7 3 53
DNS B 62 Daily Planet Australia Bob Holden
United Kingdom Gordon Spice
Toyota Celica 0 55
DNS A 28 Bayside Spare Parts Australia Barry Lawrence
Australia Geoff Russell
Holden VH Commodore SS* 20
DNS A 30 Tony Kavich Australia Paul Jones
Australia Tony Kavich
Mazda RX-7 58

Notes

References

    Statistics

    External links

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