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Bathurst 1000
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The Bathurst 1000 (currently called the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. The race was traditionally run on the first Sunday in October but is now held on the second Sunday. The race traces its lineage to the 1960 Armstrong 500. Since then 51 races have taken place under the combined history of two events at two venues in two states. It is known among fans and broadcasters as "The Great Race", and is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Australian motorsport.
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Encyclopedia
The Bathurst 1000 (currently called the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. The race was traditionally run on the first Sunday in October but is now held on the second Sunday. The race traces its lineage to the 1960 Armstrong 500. Since then 51 races have taken place under the combined history of two events at two venues in two states. It is known among fans and broadcasters as "The Great Race", and is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Australian motorsport. Since 2000, the race has been run exclusively for V8 Supercars and is now a round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series.
The race winners receive the Peter Brock Trophy which was introduced at the 2006 race in honour of nine-time Bathurst winner Peter Brock, most successful driver in the history of the race.
Mount Panorama
The race starts and finishes at different points in front of the pits. The first turn, Hell Corner, is a left-hander which has claimed a few scalps at the start and after safety car intervention. Mountain Straight, a gentle climb, leads into Griffin's Bend. Reid Park follows, a complex corner where many drivers spin after not shortshifting in the apex. The course continues down to Sulman Park and McPhillamy. Drivers cannot see the descending road but at enter Skyline and the Dipper, one of the best corners in Australian Motorsport. Cars then negotiate Forrest Elbow, the slowest part of the track, before powering down Conrod Straight, which at plus is the fastest section of the track. The Chase is a long sweeping type chicane where cars are on the limiter and at the same time braking to exit at . Murrays is the 17th and final turn, on to the start/finish straight.
Race history
The race has a long and colourful history, having been conducted for numerous categories such as Series Production, Group C, Group A, Super Touring and currently V8 Supercar category.
Although the Bathurst 1000 is today run by just two marques, Ford and Holden, makes as diverse as Morris, Jaguar, BMW, Nissan and Volvo have also tasted success at "The Mountain". Holden has the most victories at Bathurst with 25 wins, while Ford has 17 (or 18 if including the victory from the 1962 Phillip Island event).
Early years
The Armstrong 500, which became the Hardie Ferodo 500/1000 and later the Bathurst 1000, was first held on 20 November 1960 at Phillip Island in Victoria over to determine which car had the best combination of speed, performance and reliability. It was also a tool for Armstrong to promote its products such as shock absorbers. Entry was limited to standard, unmodified production saloons built or assembled in Australia. The race was won by Frank Coad and John Roxburgh in a Vauxhall Cresta, the only Vauxhall in a field of 45 cars.
In 1963, the race moved to the Mount Panorama track at Bathurst in New South Wales (Australia), after the Phillip Island track’s surface had broken up and became unsuitable for safe production car racing after only just three years. However the production car endurance event now held at Bathurst kept the Armstrong 500 name. The race's popularity grew rapidly, as it became a means for car manufacturers to showcase their products as the cars on the track, which according to the rules, the cars that were raced had to be and thus were identical to those available in the showrooms of Australia. The first years on Mount Panorama were dominated by small cars, such as the Ford Cortina GT 500 and Mini Cooper. Later Ford's development and introduction of the 289 cubic inch V8 Ford Falcon GT signaled the end of these small cars as outright contenders. The V8 Falcon claimed a surprise victory against the smaller Alfa GTVs and Mini Coopers, as the Falcon GT was unproven and the Alfas were picking up from where the Mini's left off, with the new GTV highly regarded as the new emerging force in touring cars. The Falcon GT won however due to the fact that the GT's V8 power was well suited and second to none on Mount Panorama, particularly on its long uphill and downhill straights. This led to the birth of the widely accepted adage stating that "there is no substitute for cubic inches on the Mountain", which would become synonymous and change the face of racing at Bathurst forever.
The popularity of the race continued to grow so rapidly during the 1960s that by 1966 most major manufacturers operating in the Australian market became heavily involved in what became known as "the Great Race". This is because an outright win in the long and tough race would add great credibility to the car and its brand, especially in proving the winning car-brand offered the best overall package in terms of performance, durability, reliability and image. This proved to be a great marketing opportunity to increase sales and market share in the local market, and so the famous "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" concept was born. Notably, it was during this period that the famous Holden-Ford-Chrysler rivalry originated. This Series Production battleground between the "Big Three" was fought at Bathurst, and soon spawned the introduction and development of Australia's most famous muscle cars which became affectingly known as "Bathurst specials". These included Ford's Falcon GT and later GT-HO, Holden's Monaro and Torana, and Chrysler’s Pacer and Charger models.
For 1968, the Great Race at Bathurst became the Hardie-Ferodo (H-F) 500, and in response to Ford's successful 1967 Bathurst victory in a V8-powered Falcon GT, Holden entered the all new Monaro GTS. It was based largely on the HK-model four-door Kingswood family car at the time, yet was developed as a high-performance two-door, V8 coupe' that was fun and affordable to drive, whilst being engineered with the ability to win Bathurst. The Bathurst-bound Monaro GTS 327 had a 327 cubic inch Chevrolet-sourced V8 (as the 'GTS 327' name implies) which enabled the new hi-po coupe' to outperform the updated yet comparatively smaller engined 302 cubic inch Falcon GTs, and in the process the Monaro claimed a popular maiden victory on its debut as well as Holden's first ever Bathurst win.
For the following year, the 1969 H-F 500 saw the first of the three Ford Falcon GT-HOs. This Phase One GT-HO Bathurst special Falcon was powered with a 351 cubic inch V8 sourced from FoMoCo in the US, and with its 'HO' option included upgraded suspension and handling including front/rear stabilser bars and special race tyres. Holden on the other hand upgraded the GTS 327 Monaro to the GTS 350, which included better race-style handling and a more powerful Chevrolet V8 engine of 350 cubic inches. The new GTS 350 Monaro, at the hands of Colin Bond, was once again able to hold out Ford to claim another famous victory for Holden, after the Phase One's special tyres failed under the Falcon's heavy weight and great V8 power. This race also saw the debut of Peter Brock, who would soon forge his own piece of history in the Great Race as 'King of the Mountain'. Brock and Bond were drivers for the Holden Dealer Team (HDT), which had been formed earlier in the year to take the fight to the factory Ford Special Vehicles division that was turning out the ever-evolving, race-ready GT-HO Falcons. The 'Old Fox' Harry Firth was the head of the HDT and would prove to be just as much as a thorn in Ford's side as he had been the founding father for Ford's Bathurst-bred Cortina/Falcon program.
1970 saw a change of pace as Holden decided to retire the well-proven V8 powered Monaro in favour of the smaller and more nimble Torana GTR XU-1, which was a specially developed Bathurst version of the new and popular six-cylinder Torana mid-size car. Rather than continue the V8-power war with Ford, Holden adopted a more scientific and viable approach that would prove to be safer, cheaper and just as effective and fast as the GT-HO V8 steam roller. With triple carburetors and excellent power-to-weight ratio, the new Torana XU-1 was designed to be easier on brakes, tyres and fuel to enable it to minimise its required pit stops, whilst also having superior handling and braking to outperform the big and thirsty V8 Falcon GT-HOs. However, Ford refined the GT-HO to Phase Two specification, which included an even more powerful and better breathing 351 V8 and better-suited tyres. With so much power and torque, the GT-HO further proved the old "there is no substitute for cubic inches on the Mountain" saying by winning the 1970 H-F 500 as the small yet mighty Torana just could not compensate for the major power advantage that the Phase Two's had on the Bathurst straights.
The 1971 was a repeat Ford victory, which notably included the GT-HO development program had reached its peak with the XY-model Falcon GT-HO Phase Three with further upgrades to engine power and aerodynamics, which proved to be the world’s fastest four-door production car. Chrysler also introduced its racy new two-door Charger to raise the stakes in the Great Race, and was powered by a triple Weber-carburetored inline HEMI six similar to the engine layout of the Torana XU-1. The Charger however was Australia’s fastest accelerating car at the time.
1972 was the ‘year of pressure’. For one, the media-driven “Supercar Scare” had accumulated enough political pressure to force Holden to postpone its introduction of the new V8 Torana by two years. Ford abandoned its newly developed Phase Four GT-HO based on the new XA-model Falcon, while Chrysler also followed suit with its V8-powered Charger. Secondly, the 1972 H-F 500 was the first Great Race to be run in wet weather. Allan Moffat, who had won the H-F 500 the previous two years in a row, was unable to withstand the immense pressure placed on him by Brock in his XU-1, in which the Torana proved more than a match for the ultimate Phase Three GT-HO in the atrocious conditions. Moffat, unable to fully exploit the Phase Three’s V8 power, spun early in the race after been challenged furiously by Brock’s superbly-handling XU-1, and never really recovered. Brock meanwhile was able to hold off the Phase Three GT-HO of John French and the E49 Charger of Doug Chivas to win the 1972 H-F 500, thus dispelling the ‘no substitute for cubic inches’ theory as a myth. At the wheel of the new, upgraded LJ-model Torana GTR XU-1, Peter Brock had successfully exploited the car to its maximum effect to claim a highly significant and famous Bathurst victory. This is due to a number of reasons, the first being that it proved to be Brock’s first of nine Bathurst wins which would enable him to become the “King of the Mountain” and become known as “Peter Perfect”. It also signaled the first Bathurst victory for a six-cylinder engined car, which was an achievement that would not be repeated again until the maiden Bathurst win of the Nissan Skyline GT-R ‘Godzilla’ much later in 1991. Finally, it also began the Torana legend which would enable this innovative and unique muscle car to become one of Australia’s most successful touring cars ever.
Group C era
In 1973, the race distance was changed from to 1,000 kilometres as Australia shifted towards the adoption of the metric system. That same year, a new rule was implemented allowing modifications to be made to the cars, which meant that the Series Production racing category became replaced by the new Group C category. Holden and Chrysler entered their XU-1 and Charger respectively, while Ford entered its new XA-model two-door, hard-top Ford Falcon GT. This was not a GT-HO Phase Four officially, yet most hard-top GTs that raced incorporated many of the Phase Four’s components such as the specially built four-bolt 351 V8 engine. Brock and teammate Chivas were far out front in the lead and on track to score yet another victory for Holden’s ‘pocket rocket’ Torana XU-1, only to be beaten by Moffat’s hard-top GT after Chivas at the wheel of the XU-1 ran out of fuel. This was due to a miscalculation that originated from a broken fuel gauge and the team order to get maximum laps out of the little XU-1 before pitting. The XU-1 came to a halt just before pit straight, with Chivas pushing the XU-1 into the pits unable to be assisted by his pit-crew which under the rules would have resulted in the Brock/Chivas XU-1 being disqualified. By the time the XU-1 was refueled, Moffat had passed the stricken XU-1 and was gaining a sizable lead. After being released from pitlane, Brock set off in hot pursuit of the Moffat's Falcon GT. But Brock’s heroic effort, equal to that of Chivas’ pit-lane adventure, proved too little, too late. Brock’s XU-1 suffered a deflating tyre, thus enabling Moffat to hold on and claim yet another Falcon victory, his third in only four years. 1973 would also be the last competitive appearance for Chrysler, with the marque soon disappearing from the Group C category almost entirely.
For the remainder of the 1970s, Holden’s new 308 cubic inch V8-powered Toranas would score Bathurst victory another four times in 1975/76/78/79, and Ford’s venerable 351 V8-powered Falcon GTs taking out the two remaining Bathurst wins in the rain-soaked 1974 H-F 1000, and its famous 1-2 form finish in 1977. Group C would also see in the new decade, but would soon be replaced by the new International Group A Touring car rules in 1985. Till then, Holden and Ford dominated the Great race and shared victories between them. However, both Australian manufacturers were facing increased foreign competition, notably from the new Mazda RX-7 that was adopted and affectionately raced by Moffat, and Kevin Bartlett's 350 V8 powered Chevrolet Camaro. The turbo powered Nissan Bluebird piloted by George Fury also threatened the V8 'Big Bangers', and signaled a sign of things to come during the soon-to-be-adopted Group A era. During the 1980’s the Group C category was dominated by Peter Brock, having scored victories in 1980/82/83/84. Dick Johnson was the only winner for Ford during the 1980’s, with a victory in 1981 whilst at the wheel of the all-new XD-model Falcon. Ultimately, Peter Brock would prove to be the ace of the Group C era, by having achieved an incredible two Bathurst hat-tricks (three consecutive Bathurst wins twice) while at the wheel of both the Holden Torana and soon-to-be-released all new Commodore, in 1978-1980 and again in 1982-1984.
Group A era
From 1985 to 1992, the Great Race was run under international Group A touring car rules. Imported turbocharged cars, most notably Ford Sierras and Nissan Skyline GT-R, dominated the racing during this period, with the Holden Commodore managing to claim three wins during this era. Under the new Group A rules, local race teams in Australia could now compete against foreign racing teams and cars, both domestically and overseas. Holden-based race teams would continue to develop and race the 308 cubic inch V8-powered Commodore, with the HDT and later the Holden Racing Team (HRT) being at the forefront of the Commodores Group A development and race program. Ford-based teams had almost no factory support from Ford Australia, and without this vital financial and technical assistance, the development program of a competitive Group A Ford Falcon never really eventuated. As a result Ford teams, such as Dick Johnson Racing, quickly switched from V8 Falcon to the US-sourced V8 Mustang for Group A racing. This was later followed by the adoption of the extremely powerful Cosworth-turbo Ford Sierras, which were race-developed and available directly from Europe.
1985 would be the first year of the Bathurst 1000 being raced under Group A rules. This race was
dominated by Tom Walkinshaw Racing's V12 Jaguar XJ-S, with John Goss and Armin Hahne claiming Jaguar's first and only Bathurst win. The following year, the Group A VK-model Commodore V8 of privateer racer Allan Grice claimed the Bathurst honours, after enjoying an exciting racing campaign in Europe, alongside other Commodore drivers Peter Brock and his newly recruited team mate, Allan Moffat, of the HDT.
In 1987, the race was a round of the short-lived World Touring Car Championship, and competitors in that championship raced against local teams. The resulting culture clash was considerable; local scrutineers, who had been applying the Group A regulations as written, repeatedly disagreed with European teams (notably that of Rudi Eggenberger) and the global organising body (FISA, the ancestor of the FIA) that were considerably more liberal with their interpretations. With the race run, it was still unclear as to who actually won. Although the Eggenberger's cars finished 1st and 2nd, they were soon to be disqualified months later due to bodywork irregularities. The race win was eventually awarded to third-placed Peter Brock, who drove two of his VL-model Group A Commodore's in wet conditions to ultimately claim a ninth and final Bathurst victory. During the race, Brock's number '05' HDT Commodore had broken down during the race, and he switched to his back-up number '10' Commodore to finish third behind the two Eggenberger Sierras.
Local Sierra teams dominated and won the next two Bathurst 1000s, in 1988 and 1989. In 1990 however, the Sierras were again looking strong but lost to the HRT Holden Commodore of Allan Grice and Win Percy. The winning VL-model 'SS Group A Walkinshaw' Commodore was able to set a fast pace early on in the race which the turbo Sierras could not maintain, due to the high turbo boost pressures that gave the Sierras maximum power, but resulted in extreme engine heat that hindered engine reliability. The HRT's strategy had claimed a popular and long-awaited Bathurst victory for Holden, after three seasons of Sierra domination.
However a new and much more fiercer opponent was awaiting both cars. Also in 1990, Nissan and team manager Fred Gibson, had previously been running and developing its Skylines in Australian touring car competition for a few years, and that year introduced its new R32 four-wheel drive GT-R. While it suffered from mechanical problems in the 1990 race, the R32 GT-R Skyline went on to win both the 1991 and 1992 races and dominated Group A racing worldwide, earning its nickname 'Godzilla'. With four-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steer, and a devastatingly powerful turbo 2.6 litre six cylinder engine producing almost , the RWD Sierras and Commodores simply could not equal or compensate for the Skyline's superior handling and power output.
The Skyline's 1992 victory was particularly controversial. Already disliked by the local and parochial Bathurst crowd, who preferred the race to be a contest between the traditional V8 touring car marques of Holden and Ford, the leading Skyline of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife was awarded victory after the race was abandoned following a huge rainstorm that caused a number of crashes, including that of the winning car. Dick Johnson in his Ford Sierra took the lead, but the race was red-flagged before he could complete a full lap that was required to claim the win. As Richards had been leading the race in the last lap prior to the cancellation of the event, his team was declared the winner (as is usual practice in a race cancellation). This was an unpopular decision with many race fans, who voiced their opinions loudly. Race winners Mark Skaife and Jim Richards were met with a large booing crowd on the winner's podium, prompting Richards to proclaim to the crowd "In all my years racing in Australia I've never seen anything like this. You're a pack of arseholes".
V8 Supercar/ 2-litre Super Tourer era
Group A as an international formula had ceased to exist at the end of 1988, and over the next few years all the major national touring car championships had dropped these regulations for something new. CAMS had originally planned to replace Group A at the end of 1991, but this was pushed back to the end of 1992 as they awaited FISA's new set of touring car regulations. These were very long in coming, and were unlikely to prove favourable (if they even fell within the regulations) for big engined cars, and it was decided that for 1993 Australia would go their own way (thanks to threats from Ford, Holden, ATCC sponsor Shell and ATCC & Bathurst broadcaster Channel 7, a new set of touring car regulations would be created that would later be renamed to V8Supercar, with entry limited to only V8-powered Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores (with one exception for 1993 only; weight limited normally aspirated Group A cars like the BMW M3 run by the works BMW team run by Tony Longhurst and Frank Gardner. The new set of regulations also featured a second class for 2-litre cars, based on the BTCC's regulations of the time. This class banned turbocharging along with four-wheel-drive, and effectively banned Nissan's GT-R from competition. Almost immediately, Nissan pulled out of Australian motorsport.
In 1994, the 2-litre Super Touring championship split off from the ATCC, though these cars ran at Bathurst that year alongside the V8s, with a top placing of 10th outright for the works BMW of Paul Morris/Altfrid Heger. In 1995, however, due to fears about the speed differences between the V8s and the 2 litre cars, the Bathurst 1000 for the first time in its history became a one-class race, with just 32 Ford and Holden V8s facing the starter in what was at the time the smallest grid in the history of the race. This format continued in 1996.
In 1997, TEGA (who had been awarded the rights to market V8 touring cars by CAMS back in 1994) did a deal with IMG for market the class (newly renamed as V8Supercars). One of the first steps of the new joint venture company (called AVESCO) was to sign a new TV deal with the TEN Network in Australia for a much expanded coverage of the championship over previous years. This was fine for the ATCC races, but the Bathurst 1000, run by the ARDC, had a TV deal with Channel 7 (who had televised the race since in its inception at Bathurst in 1963) going forward into the 21st century. It was a stalemate, Channel 7 were not prepared to lose the race, and AVESCO, with a freshly signed TV deal with the TEN Network which required a Bathurst race to be part of the deal, not prepared to go to Bathurst with TEN.
Despite talks, a resolution was not met, AVESCO announced V8Supercars would not be competing in the traditional Bathurst 1000 held on the October long weekend, leaving the organisers without an entry field for the 1997 race. TOCA Australia filled the void with a 2-litre Super Touring field, featuring a number of British Touring Car Championship drivers including Alain Menu, John Cleland and Rickard Rydell. The race was won by Paul Morris and Craig Baird in a BMW 320i run by BMW Motorsport Australia, however this team was disqualified as Baird had violated a race rule prohibiting drivers from driving more than 210 consecutive minutes in any one stint. The race was awarded to teammates David and Geoff Brabham.
This format continued for 1998, with Jim Richards winning his 7th Bathurst 1000 in a Volvo S40, beating his son Steven in a Nissan Primera.
In 1997 and 1998, the "Australian 1000 Classic" was run for V8Supercars. The 1997 edition was called the "Primus 1000 Classic" and held two weeks after the traditional race, whilst the 1998 "FAI 1000 Classic" was held in mid-November. Both races claimed to be the legitimate Bathurst 1000: the V8 Supercars' case was that they were the only truly Australian class of racing and the more popular of the two, while the Super Touring race was the official "Bathurst 1000" and was held on the traditional date of the first Sunday in October.
The fans voted with their feet and, due to a reducing number of competitors and spectators, the Super Touring class disappeared from Bathurst competition in 1999 and the race became exclusively for V8 Supercars.
Famous winners
The most successful driver at Bathurst is Peter Brock, whose nine victories (1972, 1975, 1978-80, 1982-84 and 1987) earned him the nickname King of the Mountain.
Jim Richards has won the race seven times (1978-80, 1991-92, 1998 and 2002) and also holds the record for the most starts (35) at this event. Larry Perkins is the third most successful driver at Bathurst, with six victories (1982-84, 1993, 1995 and 1997). Both Richards and Perkins have shared some of their victories as co-drivers with Brock.
Mark Skaife has won five times, his first was in 1991, with a Nissan Skyline GT-R. He also won in 1992 in the same car, and in 2001,2002 and 2005 in a Holden Commodore. He's been rated as the #1 driver of the V8 Supercar era in front of Marcos Ambrose and Craig Lowndes.
Canadian-born Allan Moffat is considered by many to be Ford's greatest Bathurst driver, winning the race four times (1970, 1971, 1973 and 1977). The 1977 race saw Moffat and team-mate Colin Bond cross the finish line side by side after opening up an indomitable lead in the early laps.
New Zealand-born Greg Murphy has won 4 times (1996, 1999, 2003, 2004).
Dick Johnson first rose to fame during the 1980 race when his privately-entered Ford Falcon hit a rock that had fallen (or been pushed; the subject is still debated to this day) onto the track. Thanks to public donations of over AU$70,000 - and a matching donation from Ford Motor Company - Johnson was able to rebuild his car and win the Bathurst race the following year. He went on to win twice more, in 1989 and 1994.
List of winners
Race winners
Multiple race winners
Number of victories by vehicle brand
- Outright race winner was not official recognised until 1965, with official results indicated four or five class races occurring simultaneously rather than a single race. The first car across the finish line has been retroactively recognised outright race winner since then.
Fastest lap
The outright lap record associated with the Bathurst 1000 is 2:06.8594 recorded in the 2003 Top 10 Shootout by Greg Murphy in a Holden VY Commodore, almost two seconds faster than the race lap record set that day.
Lap record
The lap record set during a race is the 2:08.4651 recorded by Jamie Whincup in his Ford BF Falcon in 2007.
Race duration
The shortest duration of the race is 6h 19m 14.8s, set by Jim Richards and Mark Skaife in their Group A specification Nissan Skyline GT-R in 1991.
Deaths
In nearly 45 years of racing, four drivers have died while competing in events associated with the Bathurst 1000.
In 1986, Sydney accountant and privateer Mike Burgmann became the first fatality in the race's history when his car (Holden Commodore VK), travelling at , struck the recently constructed Bridgestone Bridge on the high-speed straight known as Conrod Straight. "The Chase", a large three-corner chicane, added in 1987 to the straight to comply with the FIA's regulations regarding length of straights was dedicated to Burgmann with a plaque embedded in the concrete barriers.
In 1992, former Formula One world champion Denny Hulme, after complaining of blurred vision, suffered a heart attack at the wheel of his BMW M3 whilst travelling along Conrod Straight. After veering into the wall on the left side of the track, he managed to bring the car to a relatively controlled stop on the opposite side of the course. When marshals reached the scene they found Hulme still strapped in, dead.
In 1994, Melbourne privateer Don Watson died during practice when his car (Holden Commodore VP) left the circuit and hit a barrier on Conrod Straight.
The 2006 event was marred by the death of New Zealand driver Mark Porter in a Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series support race on Friday, 6 October. His car spun in a section at the top of the mountain and was then hit from behind by Chris Alajajian and stalled, sitting sideways on the track. As fellow driver David Clark came around a blind corner at speeds of around , he swerved to try and avoid Porter's car but slid sideways into the driver's door. Porter was airlifted to hospital with serious head and chest injuries but passed away in late afternoon of Sunday, 8 October, as the feature race was concluding. Just two hours after the crowd was celebrating Craig Lowndes' win, and on the same day that Peter Brock was farewelled, Porter's family issued a statement announcing his death.
See also
List of Bathurst 1000 vehicles
External links
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