The field hadn’t even begun to settle at the beginning of the 1996 Bathurst 1000 before drama struck. In the wet, Mark Latham, unsighted in the spray behind Steven Richards’ Commodore, spun on Conrod Straight and the Mitre 10 Falcon contacted the wall heavily.

While the field circulated behind the Safety Car as Larkham’s wreck was retrieved, there was another shunt less than 100 metres down the road. Wayne Russell’s Commodore was struck from behind by David Attard’s Falcon and both slammed the wall.

Craig Lowndes performed superbly in the wet, but Alan Jones delivered the kid a driving lesson when he stormed into the lead on lap 16. His glory was short lived. Nine laps later the Ford stopped out of Griffith’s Bend — it had run out of fuel because a fuel line had come adrift. Raw fuel poured onto the exhaust and the car was engulfed in flames.

The Ford Credit Falcon developed a misfire, on lap 29 Seton made the first of several long pit stops and Brad Jones stopped at Griffins with engine failure in the Coke VR. Steven Richards lost it coming out of the Chase, spun into the wall and out of the race. Brock was also in trouble, with a damaged front spoiler and broken gear linkage.

Tony Longhurst hit the lead on lap 53, holding it till lap 61 when he handed over to Ellery, who resumed in fourth behind new leader Murphy, Johnson and Crompton.

Murphy held sway until the end of his stint on lap 81. Lowndes resumed the lead when Johnson pitted three seconds after Murphy.

On lap 133 Shiel’s Commodore slid wide into Forrest’s Elbow and slammed the wall hard. Out came the Safety Car. While Steven Johnson, Longhurst and others were waved past the Safety Car, Crompton, Perkins and Parsons were not. The latter trio was put a lap down and, in Crompton/Gardner’s case, out of contention.

With less than 20 laps remaining it was a straight fight to the finish between youngster Lowndes and Dick Johnson, a veteran 30 years his senior.

Lowndes eased up over the final lap to claim victory with almost 19 seconds to spare. Longhurst, meantime, could offer no challenge to Johnson but was happy to grab the final podium position after one of his worst years on record.