1983 James Hardie 1000
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
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 |  Peter Brock
|
Holden VH Commodore SS | 2:16.270 | 2:15.3 |
| 2 | 15 | Nissan Motor Co. Australia P/L | George Fury
|
Nissan Bluebird Turbo | 2:17.509 | 2:17.2 |
| 3 | 3 | Cadbury-Schweppes Pty. Ltd. | David Parsons
|
Holden VH Commodore SS | 2:18.212 | 2:17.8 |
| 4 | 31 | JPS Team BMW |  Jim Richards
|
BMW 635 CSi | 2:18.414 | 2:17.6 |
| 5 | 25 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | John Harvey
|
Holden VH Commodore SS | 2:18.549 | 2:18.0 |
| 6 | 22 | Cullen Automotive Industries | Warren Cullen
|
Holden VH Commodore SS | 2:18.563 | 2:18.3 |
| 7 | 11 | Soundwave Discos | Garry Rogers
|
Holden VH Commodore SS | 2:18.648 | 2:18.5 |
| 8 | 6 | STP Roadways Racing | Allan Grice
|
Holden VH Commodore SS | 2:18.963 | 2:17.8 |
| 9 | 4 | John Sands Racing | Bob Morris
|
Holden VH Commodore SS | 2:21.184 | 2:19.1 |
| 10 | 17 | Palmer Tube Mills | 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:
Notes
- Harris/Cooke qualified 30th in the #9 Bendigo Falcon but their car was used to get Johnson/Bartlett back into the race after Johnson crashed the #17 Falcon in Saturday morning's Hardies Heroes. The Harris/Cooke team took part in the race after Johnson's sponsor Ross Palmer (owner of Palmer Tube Mills) acquired the Lawrence/Russell Commodore. The Commodore and Falcon were rebuilt and painted for the race in a marathon effort through Saturday night. After getting stewards and other teams approval the DJR Falcon was allowed to start from 10th while the Bendigo Commodore was allowed to start from position 30. Following the race the Falcon, leased from Harris by Palmer, was returned to the Bendigo Team while the Commodore was returned to Palmer who promptly sold it back to Barry Lawrence.
- Andrew Harris had to get permission from one of his sponsors, a Bendigo Ford dealer called Jeffersons, to use his Ford dealership name on the re-painted Holden Commodore, which was dubbed the Fordore by the team (the Commodore also carried 5.8 signage, the litre capacity of the Ford 351 Cleveland engine used in the Falcons). In a TV interview during the race with Channel 7's Evan Green, Harris told that he had offered Dick Johnson's wife Jill his Falcon for DJR to get back into the race after seeing a visibly upset Jill Johnson in the pits following her husbands qualifying crash, reasoning that the Ford fans would rather see Johnson in the race than himself. Driving the Commodore Harris ended up finishing 10th and winning the Rookie of the Year award.
- Drivers in italics practiced in the car but did not take part in the race.
References
- Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1983/84
- Australia's Greatest Motor Race, 1960-1989 (©1990)
- James Hardie 1000, 1983/84
- Modern Motor, December 1983
Statistics
- Provisional Pole Position - #05 Peter Brock - 2:15.3
- Pole Position - #05 Peter Brock - 2:16.270
- Fastest Lap - #25 Peter Brock - 2:18.5 (lap record)
- Average Speed - 158 km/h
- Race Time - 6:28:31.6