Pole position: Moffat in 2.25,0
Fastest lap: Moffat in 2.22,4
Distance: 13 laps
Average speed: 154,498 kmh
Weather:
Ruleset: Australian Group C and Group E
Car info:
Big 'Pete' Geoghegan knew that he had worked hard for his first ATCC race victory in two years when he scraped home just six tenths of a second ahead of Allan Moffat. The white 'Super' Falcon GTHO of Geoghegan and the red TransAm Mustang of Allan Moffat were never more than yards apart throughout the entire 13-lap, 50-mile race, and Moffat — in a last ditch effort to beat his rival, and in spite of a windscreen covered in oil mist from the lead car's oil catch tank — absolutely shattered the touring car lap record for the testing mountain circuit on the last lap. The time of 2m 22.4s was a staggering 7.4 seconds faster than anyone had driven around Mount Panorama in a touring car before! Moffat had opted for his smaller 302 cubic inch (5-litre) engine — compared to Geoghegan's 5.7-litre unit — and there is no doubt that he had to work hard to stay with the larger engined car. In fact he led the Falcon for more than half of the distance and swapped places continually for a couple of laps before finally giving away the lead and taking up the role of pursuer to the finish. With some desperate, and virtually blind, driving on that last lap, Moffat became airborne over the final hump in the straight and ranged right up alongside his rival in the final corner, but was beaten by power in the sprint for the line. The only other two real contenders for outright honours were Bob Jane, still with the Camaro rather than the Monaro which his team were developing, and Norm Beechey in his older model Monaro. Beechey retired as early as the second lap with a stripped second gear in his gearbox, while Jane had led from the start for a glorious half lap or so before giving best to Moffat and then, on the second lap, to Geoghegan as well. Jane then held a lonely third place until his ninth lap retirement with a blown engine. This place was taken at the finish by John Goss in the McLeod Ford Falcon, the first of many series production cars that had padded the field. The similar car of Fred Gibson was fourth, Doug Chivas' series Charger fifth, then the first two of the 2-litre contenders, the Escort of Mike Stillwell, and the Alfa of Jim McKeown. |
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Overall result
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| Pos | Pos in class | # | Team / Entrant Car- Engine |
Drivers, Nationality | Engine vol. (cc) |
Engine Type |
Group | Distance, time |
Qualifying position | Qualifying time | Fastest lap | Reason out, remarks |
| 1 | 1 | 10 | Geoghegan's Sporty Cars Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III |
Ian "Pete" Geoghegan, AUS |
5763 | V8 | Over 2000 cc | 13 laps, 31.30,2 | 2 | 2.27,7 | 2.24,1 | |
| 2 | 2 | 9 | Allan Moffat Racing Ford Mustang Boss 302 |
Allan Moffat, CDN |
4955 | V8 | Over 2000 cc | 13 laps, 31.30,8 | 1 | 2.25,0 | 2.22,4 | |
| 3 | 3 | 5 | Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III |
John Goss, AUS |
5763 | V8 | Over 2000 cc/E | 2.41,6 | 2.38,5 | |||
| 4 | 4 | Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III |
Fred Gibson, AUS |
5763 | V8 | Over 2000 cc/E | 2.41,8 | 2.38,7 | ||||
| 5 | 5 | 29 | Liverpool Chrysler Chrysler VH Valiant Charger R/T E49 |
Doug Chivas, AUS |
4342 | L6 | Over 2000 cc | 2.44,1 | 2.43,6 | |||
| 6 | 1 | 92 | BS Stilwell Ford Ford Escort TC |
Mike Stillwell, AUS |
1558 | L4 | Under 2000 cc | 2.44,8 | 2.42,8 | |||
| 7 | 2 | Shell Racing Team Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV |
Jim McKeown, AUS |
1962 | L4 | Under 2000 cc | 2.45,1 | 2.44,2 | ||||
| 8 | 6 | 32 | Eastside Chrysler Chrysler VH Valiant Charger R/T E49 |
Phil Brock, AUS |
4342 | L6 | Over 2000 cc | 2.44,7 | ||||
| 9 | 7 | 33 | Eastside Chrysler Chrysler VH Valiant Charger R/T E49 |
Tom Naughton, AUS |
4342 | L6 | Over 2000 cc | 2.47,3 | ||||
| 10 | 8 | 34 | Holden Dealer Team Holden Torana LJ GTR XU1 |
Colin Bond, AUS |
3330 | L6 | Over 2000 cc | 2.52,0 | 2.44,0 | |||
| 11 | 3 | Dr. Allan Hogan Ford Escort TC |
Bob Holden, AUS |
1558 | L4 | Under 2000 cc | ||||||
| 12 | 4 | Alfa Romeo Australia Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV |
Peter Brown, AUS |
1962 | L4 | Under 2000 cc | ||||||
| DNF | Bob Jane Racing Chevrolet Camaro Z28 |
Bob Jane, AUS |
4956 | V8 | Over 2000 cc | Blown engine | ||||||
| DNF | Shell / Norm Beechey Racing Holden HT Monaro GTS350 |
Norm Beechey, AUS |
5736 | V8 | Over 2000 cc | 2 | Gearbox | |||||