The Benson & Hedges team absolutely dominated qualifying in their Ford Sierras. On Thursday Tony Longhurst posted an amazing 2min 13.84sec lap time, the fastest touring car time ever recorded at Bathurst. Then, on Friday, teammate Alan Jones recorded an identical time.

In the top 10 run-off both Benson & Hedges drivers ran in to trouble leaving Klaus Niedzwiedz pole sitter with 2min 13.94sec. Niedzwiedz actually jumped the start on race day, hesitated momentarily, and was nearly beaten to the first corner by a fast- starting Peter Brock.

Lap nine saw Jim Richards hit the lead, after starting from position 11, and Brock pitted with two blistered tyres. He was back in on lap 20 for more tyres. In fact, several others in the top 10 were having early tyre troubles.

The first regular pit stops occurred between laps 30 and 36. The Nissan GT-R had a brake pad change before Mark Skaife rejoined in sixth, leaving Niedzwiedz back in the lead from Bowe and Longhurst.

On lap 40 Geoff Leeds had a tyre deflate on Conrod Straight which put his Commodore heavily into the concrete wall, The pace car came out until lap 47 when Skaife and Grice resumed their progress through the field.

After the second round of pit stops the order was Johnson (Sierra), Dieudonne (Sierra) and Percy (Commodore). Richards rejoined in eighth, after another lengthy stop to change brake pads. A few laps later Johnson pitted for fuel and Perkins was left in the lead.

Richards pitted the GT-R with a broken rear differential and Perkins made a quick pit stop which dropped him to second behind the Shell Sierra of Radisich/Allam.

At the last round of pit stops, Grice stayed in the driving seat as the car rejoined with fuel and new tyres. Johnson tried to take over the second Shell car but the seat would not slide back far enough. Radisich rejoined the fray with intermediate tyres because of the threat of rain. The pace car came out for the final time when Barry Graham crashed the Commodore. The top three place getters were now in the same group on the road.

Mezera and Radisich pitted under yellow flags with Radisich able to rejoin quickly at the tail of his original group. Mezera needed a brake pad change and new driver, while Perkins was held in the pit lane. He rejoined at the tail of the other pace car group some half a lap behind.

Grice was now in the lead, 15 seconds ahead of Radisich, but running out of fuel fast. The Nissan GT-R was up and running again, setting a new lap record of 2min 15.46sec as it recovered to finish 17th.

Grice hung on for a popular win in the Aussie Commodore. The Allam/Radisich Sierra was second and Perkins/Mezera in another Commodore were third. Over the 1000 kilometre race distance there were 13 lead changes which made it one of the most thrilling in the history of the event.

Phil Ward/John Goss won the middle class driving a line Mercedes Benz against three BMWs. The small car class went to the Full/Ratcliff Corolla which beat six other Corollas including the two works cars.