This October marks 35 years since the World Touring Car Championship made the trip down south for three rounds, including the James Hardie Bathurst 1000.
A controversial affair, which ended after just one year and was later reborn in 2005, the WTCC was initial set-up by the New Zealand Strathmore Group before Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone entered the scene at the 11th hour.
Bathurst kickstarted the Oceania segment of the championship as it also undertook the combine road and oval course at the Calder Thunderdome in addition to the Wellington street race in New Zealand.
There was a buzz around the Mountain as major upgrades took place including the installation of The Chase, new pit buildings and revamped safety fencing.
As controversial events go, this one was a doozy.
First, the many of the loyal Australian privateers voiced their dissatisfaction of being forced onto the reserves list due to the influx of internationals entered in the race. Warren Cullen, Terry Finnigan, Bill O’Brien, Tony Mulvihill and Ken Matthews were just some to either miss the cut or just made it.
Another development in the lead up to the event was Alfa Romeo electing to end its WTCC campaign prior to the fly away races leaving just Colin Bond in his Caltex 75 partnered by Lucio Cesario to uphold the Italian honour.
After scoring pole in one of Rudi Eggenberger’s factory Texaco Ford Sierra RS500s, German ace Klaus Ludwig staged a thrilling battle with British champion Andy Rouse in Allan Moffat’s ANZ entry and the OXO Supercube example of Andrew Miedecke.
Rouse and Miedecke dropped out leaving the Eggenberger Sierras to dominate proceedings, but there were many contentious areas surrounding the pair of black and red Fords.
One was the ‘jungle juice’ that was being put into the Eggenberger entries, but the second proved costly as it was found the wheel arches were wider and resulted in both being disqualified from the results.
After starring drives from co-drivers Peter McLeod and David ‘Skippy’ Parsons in the second string Mobil Holden VL Commodore after his entry failed, Peter Brock achieved his ninth victory at the Mountain. His victory was not confirmed until much later on in the year, but Brock and his team were met with jubilant scenes on the podium following a turbulent season, including splitting with Holden.
BMW’s Roberto Ravaglia took the inaugural WTCC title by one-point from Ludwig and co-driver Klaus Niedzwiedz.
These days, the world comes to Bathurst nearly every year for the world renowned Bathurst 12 Hour sports car event.