Top 10 Bathurst Shootout moments

1978 – The first year

The first running of Hardie’s Heroes, with its razzle-dazzle build-up and built-in theatre, was just so different from anything previously seen on the mountain and local motorsport. Drama ensued throughout, as driver after driver got out of shape on the drying track. So it was entirely appropriate that this showy spectacle was won by local racing’s rockstar, Peter Brock.

1979 – Harves slugged with demotion

When organisers jettisoned John Harvey from the Shootout line-up in favour of Allan Moffat, the HDT ace was aggrieved at being doubly disadvantaged by the Ford spearhead’s Friday engine blow-up. Harvey calmly pointed out that the reason his qualifying time was so slow was that Moffat had left an oil slick around the circuit before he’d had a chance to post a competitive time.

1981 – KB the brave

Here’s how legendary journalist Bill Tuckey described Kevin Bartlett’s 1981 pole lap in the rain. “Sniffer Bartlett drove his Chevrolet Camaro out of the pits and up the streaming hill and into the mists and in that single moment put himself into Australian motor racing history. In the business we are in, there are few supreme moments. This was one of them.

1983 – Johnson's trip through the trees

How Dick Johnson survived spearing into the trees at Forrest’s Elbow is one of the great mysteries of Australian motorsport. Johnson has experienced so many moments of incomprehensible bad luck at Bathurst over the years – and plenty that are self-induced – but a guardian angel was looking after him that day. His incident proved that there really is so much at stake on Shootout Saturday.

1984 – Furious George’s turbo attack

In the fabled 'Last of the Big Bangers' Bathurst, the big V8s were humbled in qualifying by a four-cylinder Japanese car. Just as Murph’s 2003 pole lap is probably his career’s defining moment, George Fury’s stunningly swift lap in ’84 was the highwater mark of Nissan’s four-year Bluebird program. The freezing conditions played to the turbo’s strengths and into the Talmalmo Farmer’s hands. The result was the first touring car lap below 2m14s, topping a diverse line-up of six makes and models.

Image: Darren Barton

1989 – Bagnall’s bash-up

Kiwi Sierra driver Andrew Bagnall looked like an accident waiting to happen through the first half of his Shootout lap. Sure enough, he speared off the track at Sulman Park in the Gullivers Travels-sponsored Sierra, side-swiping the concrete for 150 metres, to the delight of the crowd up-top. Given that the fictitious Gulliver endured a series of mishaps, disasters and wrecks, Bagnall’s team was aptly named.

1991 – Brock’s breathtaker

Peter Brock certainly practised what he preached upon his return to a Holden in 1991, having a “red hot go” in his Mobil-backed VN Commodore. It was spectacular, brave and sent his disciples delirious with joy, especially when he rode the kerbs and got the tail out. Footage of #05 very nearly arrowing into the concrete at McPhillamy Park has been staple of the highlights reels ever since.

1995 – Holden heroes’ differing fortunes

If ever there was a moment signalling the changing of the guard, it was the 1995 shootout. Craig Lowndes starred on debut in ’94, but had only raced once for the HRT in ’95 prior to Bathurst. That didn’t stop him putting his car on pole. Meantime the man with all the experience, Lowndes' mentor and team-mate, Peter Brock, lost control of his HRT Commodore at The Cutting, hitting the wall hard rear-first, consigning him to 10th on the grid.

2000 – Gardner in the wet

Wayne Gardner was a surprise pole-sitter in 2000, driving Glenn Seton’s second Ford Tickford Racing AU Falcon. The Whiz kept it on the island when others fell off the sodden track on their fast or warm-up laps. He arguably had the best of the conditions, but that sells Gardner’s renowned bravery short. He did the job, despite Mark Skaife’s epic lap in streaming rain that netted third.

2003 – Murphy’s ‘Laps of the Gods’

Greg Murphy is a four-time Bathurst race winner. But he’s arguably best remembered for 126 seconds of pure commitment not in a race, but on Saturday October 11, 2003. Murphy’s 2:06.8594 stood as the fastest ever lap around Mt Panorama for many years, a mammoth 1.1 seconds faster than John Bowe’s P2 time that year. The Kiwi admitted to grabbing the wrong gear down the mountain!