The Nissan domination of the 1991 Tooheys 1000 started well before the starting lights turned green. On the last run for the top 10 shoot-out Mark Skaife put in a sizzling lap of 2min 12.630secs — the fastest ever lap by a touring car at Bathurst.

Mark Gibbs won the start in the GIO Nissan and held the lead until passed by Jim Richards going up Mountain Straight on lap two. The works Nissan quickly pulled away. Drew Price in the other works car was experiencing brake problems and was falling back through the field.

John Bowe made an early pit stop on lap 22, the Sierra dropping out of second place. Price pitted his Nissan but was back a lap later due to a massive vibration in the front end. New tyres cured that problem, but the car returned for a third stop with leaking intercooler lines.

Peter Brock's car, with Andrew Miedecke at the wheel, stopped on the climb up the mountain when a fuel relay vibrated apart. With the aid of the in-car camera Miedecke dramatically “hot-wired” the 05 car and made it back to the pits.

Richards, the race leader, made his first stop on lap 33, which gave Seton the lead until he stopped two laps later. Johnson was then in front until his stop on lap 37. This left Skaife in charge with a massive lead over Seton and it was clear that the leading Nissan could not be beaten if it finished.

The first major retirement was the Pro-Duct Commodore which Pearson crashed on lap 48. The second Peter Jackson Sierra broke its transmission on lap 60 and the second Mobil Commodore of Perkins/Mezera dropped a valve on lap 65.

By lap 80 Seton was the only driver not lapped by the leading Nissan GT-R. Seton pitted for Hansford to take over on lap 97, and it took just one minute for fuel, tyres and front brake pads.

On lap 100 Neil Crompton ran out of fuel on top of the mountain. Holden Racing Team used outside assistance to transport more fuel, therefore the car was disqualified, but it was allowed to rejoin the circuit to return to the pits to retire.

Mid-way through Hansford's stint a mysterious misfire developed and got progressively worse. The car faded to an eventual ninth place finish. That left the Johnson/Bowe/Radisich Sierra to take up the chase — but it detonated an engine on lap 123. That elevated the Percy/Grice Commodore to second ahead of the GIO Nissan GT-R, which was still changing brake pads every stop.

The Allan Moffat-entered Sierra, driven by Garry Brabham/Steve Millen, stopped on lap 128 when a turbo failed. It was running ninth at the time after a trouble-free run.

Richards took over the leading Nissan on lap 123 with new tyres fitted ready for the final run to the flag. Skaife's race hadn't finished, however, because he jumped into the second Nissan. With nothing to lose Skaife attacked the lap record, finally leaving it at 2min 14.50secs. Shortly after the rear diff broke.

Richards cruised home to win by a little over a lap from the HRT Commodore of Percy/Grice. The GIO GT-R began misfiring with only 10 laps to go, but Mark Gibbs struggled over the line to claim third, two laps down on the winner.

A Japanese car had finally won the Great Race. Nissan had been striving for an outright victory since 1981, and when it finally happened in 1991 it was complete and crushing.

After the Benson & Hedges BMW retired it was left to the second car of Peter Fitzgerald and Denny Hulme to take Division 2 and fourth outright. Geoffrey Full and Paul Morris dominated the small car class finishing an amazing 12th outright in their Corolla, and seven laps clear of their nearest rival.