The Holden Dealer Team took its first 1000 as Peter Brock and his partner Jim Richards dominated the event, taking everything but the lap record and walking away with the $57,950 in prize money.

The 1978 race will go down as the year of the Big Fog. For the first time the race start had to be put back half an hour because of the rolling mist which shrouded the top of the mountain.

Practice was extended and started the Wednesday before the race, with official time trials on Friday. The top 10 cars battled it out finally in a separate Indy-style qualifying session with $8,000 as the bait.

Rain added to the excitement as the top 10 qualifier’s lined up for their special session. The first cars were sent away on a wet track with Allan Grice leading in the Craven Mild Torana.

Allan Moffat (Falcon) looked set to take the honours when he posted a best lap of 2m 21.95s. But in the second run, with the track dry, Brock replied with a 2m 20s and Colin Bond, in the second Moffat Falcon put in a 2m 20.87s while Moffat could not improve.

On race day, when the fog finally cleared, it was the Falcon brigade that took the early lead as Brock missed the start. But Brock fought back from his bad start to be first past the post the second time around. On lap three it was Bob Morris who did the honours from Brock, Moffat, Bond, Grice, Dick Johnson and Englishman Derek Bell in the second Hodgson Torana.

Changes came fast with the pace a cracker, and by eight laps they had began rounding in the slower cars.

Lap 17 saw the first sign of trouble for the Falcons when Bond slowed, letting John Harvey (HDT Torana) into fourth. A lap later Bond was in the pits again with no fourth gear.

That left Moffat out on his own ahead of Brock, Morris and Harvey. But there were dramas in the Torana camp too, as the Ian Geoghegan/Garry Rogers car broke a valve spring and the Jack Brabham/Brian Muir machine blew a head gasket. Brabham and Muir soldiered on and brought the car to a creditable outright sixth.

Moffat relinquished the lead when he pitted for fuel on lap 34, letting Brock and Harvey into he leading spot.

Harvey led briefly when Brock pitted, but apart from that the Victorian was not to be headed for the rest of the race which he dictated with probably the best driving of his career.

More drama was to hit the Moffat camp when the No. 1 driver came in on lap 66 to hand over to Jacky Ickx. As the car was fired up split fuel ignited, burning one of the mechanics, who had to be rushed to hospital.

At the halfway mark the Moffat car was retired with oil pressure problems, and Moffat quickly pulled his other Falcon out of the race after it had lost all hope with two flat tyres.

Meanwhile the Hodgson car came in with a missing fan belt and shortly after retired with a blown head gasket.

The Harvey/O’Brien Torana was in trouble also with a faulty coil that cost it 20 laps in the pits while John Leffler had established the Grice car in a comfortable second spot.

Shortly after the halfway mark, Richards took the leading car past Leffler to lap the entire field, underlying the Torana’s domination of the race.

Brock took the flag with a flying last lap, recorded unofficially at 2m.26.8s, with Grice second and Murray Carter (Falcon) third.