Heats
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Surfers Paradise

Surfers Paradise International Raceway, Queensland, Australia

Date: 23/7/1972
Track length: 3.200 m
Attendance:
Entries accepted:
Starters:
Finishers:

Pole position: Moffat in 1.18,8
Fastest lap: Moffat in 1.18,0 = 148,54 kmh

Distance: 25 laps
Average speed: 137,582 kmh
Weather:
Ruleset: Australian Group C and Group E
Car info:  

 

Bob Jane made the right choice when he decided to drive the trusty Chevrolet Camaro in the seventh round of the ATCC at Surfers Paradise on July 23. The now-reliable car ran faultlessly to victory in this 50 mile round and was able to cruise on to an easy victory when the early leader Allan Moffat ground to a halt with the throttle linkage of his red TransAm Mustang adrift. Jane slowed sufficiently to let team mate John Harvey in the new, but not yet really competitive, Holden Monaro catch him and the pair drove across the finish line in close formation.
Moffat had rejoined the race in a flurry of wheelspin after a pit stop which reduced his former commanding lead to a deficit of several laps, but soon settled back to cruise on to the finish at reduced rate — five laps down on the winner, and in a lowly 10th place of the 11 finishers. Before his untimely demise, on the second lap of the 25 lap race in fact, Moffat had knocked a second from his own touring car lap record. The new time of lm 18.0 seconds represented an average speed of 92.30 mph. Third place went to the Queensland owned and driven Holden Torana XU-1 of Dick Johnson, who impressed as much here as he had at Warwick Farm. Johnson would have been a welcome addition to the whole series, and could have finished well up in the overall listing. Fourth, and another under 2 litre win went to Mike Stillwell's Escort Twin Cam, fifth to the Bryan Byrt Ford series production Falcon GTHO of John French, and sixth to the Grand Prix Auto Services entered Mini Clubman GT of Henry Price.
"Pete" Geoghegan had not even made an appearance with his Falcon V8, Norm Beechey had blown his Monaro V8 engine to pieces in Friday's practice and went home, and Malcolm Ramsay had his gearbox let go in the very fast Holden Kingswood V8 during Saturday's practice. Unable to have new parts flown from Adelaide, he was a reluctant non-starter also.
(Australian Motoring Yearbook 1973)

Overall result
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 76 Bob Jane Racing
Chevrolet Camaro Z28		 Bob Jane, AUS
 4956 V8 Over 2000 cc 25 laps, 34.53,3 2 1.19,1 1.19,0  
2 2 7 Bob Jane Racing
Holden HT Monaro GTS350		 John Harvey, AUS
 5736 V8 Over 2000 cc 25 3 1.20,8 1.21,1  
3 3 10  
Holden Torana LJ GTR XU1		 Dick Johnson, AUS
 3330 L6 Over 2000 cc   4 1.24,0 1.24,9  
4 1   BS Stilwell Ford
Ford Escort TC		 Mike Stillwell, AUS
 1558 L4 Under 2000 cc   5 1.24,6 1.25,2  
5 4   Bryan Byrt Ford
Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III		 John French, AUS
 5763 V8 Over 2000 cc/E   6 1.26,3 1.25,8  
6 2   Grand Prix Auto Service
Morris Mini Clubman 1275 GT		 Henry Price, AUS
 1275 L4 Under 2000 cc   9 1.29,3 1.28,5  
7 3 11 Alfa Romeo Australia
Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV		 Peter Brown, AUS
 1962 L4 Under 2000 cc   10 1.30,0 1.29,2  
8 5 72 Leach Motors
Holden Torana LJ GTR XU1		 George Giesberts, AUS
 3330 L6 Over 2000 cc   7 1.28,7 1.29,7  
9 4 43 Tony Motson's Performance Tuning
Ford Escort TC		 Lyndon Arnel, AUS
 1558 L4 Under 2000 cc   11 1.33,1 1.33,5  
10 6 9 Allan Moffat Racing
Ford Mustang Boss 302		 Allan Moffat, CDN
   V8 Over 2000 cc 20 1 1.18,8 1.18,0 Pit stop; throttle linkage
11 5 71  
Ford Escort TC		 Keith Henry, AUS
 1558 L4 Under 2000 cc   12 1.37,0 1.36,8  
DNF     Dr. Allan Hogan
Ford Escort TC		 Bob Holden, AUS
 1558 L4 Under 2000 cc 18 8 1.25,8    
DNS     Shell / Norm Beechey Racing
Holden HT Monaro GTS350		 Norm Beechey, AUS
 5736 V8 Over 2000 cc         Blown engine in practice
DNS 2 14 5AD City State Racing Team
Holden HQ Kingswood		 Malcolm Ramsay, AUS
 5736 V8 Over 2000 cc         Gearbox in practice