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How the first Bathurst 12 Hour events captured the imagination

In celebration of Repco obtaining the naming rights of the Bathurst 12 Hour, here at The Garage is where the build up and history of the event will be covered ahead of the event on February 16-18.

Although now known for bringing the best teams and drivers from international sports car racing down under, the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour initially started more than 30 years ago as an event for production-specification models in a very understated manner.

Devised by promoter Vince Tesoreiro in 1990 and coming to fruition the next year, the James Hardie Bathurst 12 Hour was born from the waning interest in Group A touring cars in addition to the closed Group 3E regulations banning turbocharged models.

Tesoreiro opened up the eligibility list to enable the previously banned turbocharged entries allowing the Toyota Supra, giant killing Ford Laser TX3 and a Nissan 300ZX driven by Garry Rogers.

A short lead in was blamed for the modest 24-car entry list as questions prior to the event were raised about reliability, but these came to nothing. Allan Grice, Peter Fitzgerald and Nigel Arkell took victory in a Supra as 20 entries greeted the flag.

Leading drivers Grice and Colin Bond declared their backing of the event.

For 1992, a capacity grid of 55-car grid took the start representing marques such as Ford, Holden, Mazda, BMW, Hyundai, Citroen, Peugeot, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, SAAB, Subaru and Suzuki.

Mazda won the first of a hat-trick of James Hardie Bathurst 12 Hour titles courtesy of Charlie O’Brien, Garry Waldon and Mark Gibbs.

Interesting entries included the BMW M5, which finished second led by Tony Longhurst, Alan Jones and Neville Crichton, while the SAAB 9000 CSS behind added to the oddball factor.

Racing legend Peter Brock drove one Peugeot’s potent 405 Mi16s, rallying gun Peter ‘Possum’ Bourne shared a Subaru Liberty RS with Rogers, Allan Grice and Brad Jones drove a Holden VP SS Ute, as the previously dominant Supras were now outclassed.

For the next edition, the exotic models increased and a debate was raised regarding the inclusion of these.

Larry Perkins set pole in a Lotus Espirit as the Honda NSX, Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R and factory Porsche 968s provided increased competition to the Allan Horsley led Mazda RX-7s.

Porsche provided the competition throughout the day, but the squad was unable to defeat the Japanese sports cars and a post-race disqualification rose the second RX-7 into second. Alan Jones and Garry Waldon shared victory.

Porsche’s new 968CS led the challengers to Mazda’s crown as Maserati joined with the Shamal, Brock had the Volvo 850 T5-R, Jones re-joined Longhurst and BMW in an M3, but still the stiffer competition was unable to overthrow the RX-7.

Gregg Hansford took victory with Neil Crompton as the race left Mount Panorama and moved to Eastern Creek for a less than successful event lasting just the one year.

Although the race was done, all was not lost as it spawned Ross Palmer’s Australian GT-Production Championship, which built into a successful formula into the next decade.

Return for the next instalment of the story covering the race’s return in 2007 until the beginning of the GT era.