Peter Brock and Jim Richards made it two in a row for the Holden Dealer Team Toranas with a shattering performance — breaking all records, including the elusive lap record as they led the race from start to finish — a first in the history of the Hardie Ferodo.

There was plenty of pre-race drama. First there were the new Camaros allowed by CAMS, then the subject of behind-the-scenes protests.

The cars- to be run by Kevin Bartlett and Ron Dickson — were delayed for weeks by the waterfront strike, remaining they could not be prepared in time for full practice and had to start from the rear of the grid. As a last straw, Bartlett was badly injured in an open-wheeler accident at Sandown two weeks before the race and had to be replaced by John McCormack. But the Camaros made it to the line and, while not competitive, showed potential for the eighties.

Meanwhile there were rumours that Paul Newman would be racing. Instead Newman’s teammate Dick Barbour made the trip to co-drive with Dickson.

A notable entry was Mark Thatcher, son of the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was contracted to drive a Corolla for Peter Williamson.

Other internationals included John Fitzpatrick, this time with Moffat, and Dieter Quester to partner Bob Morris.

But nothing could touch Brock.

Even rain, which disrupted Friday’s practice, could not dampen the dealer team’s enthusiasm, although it saw several of the V8s starting behind smaller four cylinder machines.

The special Top Ten qualifying session was switched to Saturday and saw Brock by far the quickest on 2m 20.5s ahead of Morris, 2m 22.4s and Grice 2m 23.5s with Moffat, suffering from a spate of blown engines fourth on the grid.

Brock made no mistake with the start and had set up an amazing three seconds lead on Morris by the end of the first lap.

There was no stopping Brock. He was 5.5s ahead at the end of lap 2 and already the stinging pace was stringing out the field.

The early order was (behind Brock) Morris, Moffat, Allan Grice, Charlie O’Brien and John Harvey. But by lap 10 Brock had lapped two thirds of the field and several of the contenders were in trouble including Gary Cooke (Torana), John Goss (Falcon), Bob Forbes. McCormack (Camaro) and Murray Carter (Falcon) who had all made trips to the pits.

By 20 laps the writing was on the wall for Morris who was slowing, with Harvey third and Grice next, while Moffat was slipping behind in his Falcon. Morris battled on for some time, but the gearbox finally had to be replaced putting him out of contention. Finally the car was retired after 96 laps when a rocker pulled out of the motor.

It was all Brock. In fact when the first pit stop came up at 42 laps, he was so far ahead that he retained first place.

He and Richards led by a mammoth four laps with 38 laps to complete, and had extended it to nearly six when the chequered flag fell.

Behind them was a trail of broken and exhausted machines; hardly a car escaped without some problems.

Moffat’s machine never really looked like a winner. He and Fitzpatrick battled on and had the Falcon a distant second when the motor finally blew after 136 laps.

Peter Janson and Larry Perkins finished a creditable second on 157 laps with Ralph Radburn a surprise third after a controlled off-the-pace drive in his Torana.

Allan Grice looked set for second for most of the race after Ron Harrop crashed the Harvey car at XL Bend after 57 laps.

But Grice, too, had his troubles. Co-driver Alf Costanzo hit a bank and buckled part of the suspension, impairing the braking which caused Grice to run out of brakes and finally relegated the Torana to fourth.

It was a dismal day for the Falcons. Only one machine finished — the Jim Keogh car which wound up a lowly 14th.