More Bathurst history. For the first time in the history of the race three drivers shared victory. Peter Brock and Larry Perkins hitched a ride in John Harvey’s No. 25 Commodore to go on to a memorable win in advance of the ever-pressing Mazda RX-7 of Allan Moffat and Yoshino Katayama. It was a great day for the veterans, with Allan Grice and Colin Bond filling third in another Commodore.

It was Brock’s seventh win at the mountain, the second for Perkins and the first, after many years of trying, for Harvey.

Controversy raged in the weeks before the race following the late approval of fuel injection for Mazda teams by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport.

But the challenge by Moffat did not materialise during qualifying. The Mazda man finished a lowly 14th on the grid after teething problems with the new injection system.

In fact, no Mazda made it into the top 10.

Brock dominated the ‘Hardie’s Heroes’ one-lap dashes, claiming pole with a 2 minute 16.2 seconds scorcher … 1.3 better than the surprise packet Nissan Bluebird Turbo of George Fury.

The only other two non-Commodore combos to break into the first 10 were Jim Richards/Frank Gardner in the BMWCSi (fourth) and the Dick Johnson/Kevin Bartlett Ford Falcon, which was destroyed by the Queenslander on his first timed lap.

After an all-out overnight by his crew, Johnson fronted for the race in a borrowed Falcon lookalike, complete with the green coat of a paint and signwriting. It was an heroic effort, though one doomed to failure …

Brock, predictably, led the early charge and was running away when the engine of his 05 car broke after just eight laps. Win number seven would be foiled, or so it appeared.

However, Brock used the race regulations to advantage, commandeering the Holden Dealer Team’s second Commodore from Harvey at the 20-lap mark.

Richards’ BMW had already succumbed on lap two with impurities in the fuel system, encouraging one afternoon newspaper to run a story imaginatively headed “Bets Gang Knobbles Race Car”. That same lap saw the Bluebird of Fury slow with gearbox problems, leaving only the Moffat Mazda to aggravate the Commodore army up front.

Moffat defied the odds to lead momentarily on lap 39, but Brock and Perkins soon powered the Commodore to the front.

Bob Morris, called out of retirement to co-drive a Commodore with Rusty French, put in one of the great drives of the opening two hours. Starting ninth, Morris swept through to second before being slowed by nausea and later by mechanical problems. The Morris/French car was to finish eighth.

Grice, on the pace early, fell back when his Commodore lost much of its braking effectiveness. He and Bond did a sterling job to keep the car out of bother to the race’s end.

The winning Commodore’s margin over the Moffat rotary was a clear lap and 19 seconds, with a further two laps to the heavy-breathing Grice and Bond. Fourth was the Commodore of Steve Harrington and Garth Wigston.

The unlucky Peter McLeod and Graeme Bailey were pressing Grice/Bond for third place late in the race when the Mazda’s Watts linkage broke free. The car staggered to the chequered flag in fifth, five laps behind the winners.

Jim Keogh, who went within centimetres of demolishing his and the winning car when he lost control of his Commodore on Conrod Straight during practice, was officially sixth with co-driver Leo Leonard.

It wasn’t a Ford day!

The first Falcon to the line was the old XD model driven with verve by experienced David Seldon, who shared the car with owner Alf Grant. They were seventh.

Johnson’s hastily prepared Falcon staggered only as far as lap 61.