1983 James Hardie 1000

Class structure

Entries were divided into two classes based on engine capacity:

Over 3000 cc

For cars of over 3000cc engine capacity, it featured BMW 635 CSi, Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore, Mazda RX-7 and Nissan Bluebird.

Under 3000 cc

For cars of under 3000cc engine capacity, it featured Alfa Romeo GTV6, Audi 5+5, Ford Capri, Isuzu Gemini and Nissan Pulsar.the race for the under 3 litre class was won by Australian Driver Allan "ACE" Cant and co driver and team owner NZ born Les Grose in the #64 wideline windows ford capri.

Hardies Heroes

The final order of the first ten grid positions was established in the "Hardies Heroes" session on the day before the race. This involved the fastest eight cars from qualifying plus two others at the discretion of the organisers contesting two, single timed laps, one car at a time. The fastest lap of each car set its grid position.

• This was Peter Brock's record 5th pole position at Bathurst having previously taken pole in 1974, 1977, 1978 and 1979. This saw him move one clear of Allan Moffat who had been on pole four times. It was also the last time he would set pole driving a Holden, though he did sit on pole in 1997, but it was his co-driver Mark Skaife who had set the time in the runoff.
• Dick Johnson crashed in Hardies Heroes destroying his Greens-Tuf Falcon. In a show of goodwill no other teams in the race objected to the replacement #17 car starting the race from 10th position.
• 1983 saw the first appearance by BMW in Hardies Heroes with Jim Richards qualifying his JPS Team BMW 635 CSi in 4th place. BMW became the 6th manufacturer to appear in Hardies Heroes following Holden, Ford, Chevrolet, Mazda and Nissan. The BMW was also the first 6 cyl engined car to appear in the runoff.
• 1983 Australian Touring Car Champion and winner of the recent Castrol 400 at Sandown Allan Moffat was expected to easily make the top ten with his 13B powered Mazda RX-7, but could only qualify the car 14th, two places behind teammate Gregg Hansford whose car was running the less powerful 12A engine. This led to accusations of sandbagging by other leading teams, especially the Holden Dealer Team which claimed that Moffat was deliberately holding the car back in qualifying rather than showing its real speed.
• The four-cylinder (Z18ET) Nissan Bluebird Turbo driven by George Fury was the first non-V8 powered car to start on the front row at Bathurst since Peter Brock started second in 1973 in a 6cyl Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1.
• With seven VH Commodore's in the top 10 this was Holden's greatest representation ever in the runoff. On the other side of the coin, Johnson's Falcon was the only Ford in the top 10, the lowest ever number for that manufacturer. It would be matched in 1986 when the Johnson Group A Mustang was the only Ford in the runoff.
• On the Friday morning before the race, Bob Morris was only at the race as a spectator. When Alan Browne spotted him in the pits, he asked Morris if he wanted to take his drive in Rusty French's John Sands sponsored Commodore. French, the 1983 Australian GT Champion driving a Porsche 935/80, had qualified in 31st place with a 2:25.4 lap. In his first drive since the 1982 Hardies Heroes, Morris improved on French's time by some 6.3 seconds, putting in a 2:19.1 lap, vaulting the car to 10th and giving it a place in the runoff.
• Warren Cullen's laps, the fastest of which ultimately netted him 6th on the grid ahead of the likes of Allan Grice and Bob Morris, were left off of Channel 7's half hour highlights package shown later in the afternoon around Australia after Seven were forced to use too much of their available half hour on the Dick Johnson crash. 1983 was the only time Cullen ever appeared in the Top 10 runoff. His car would be there in 1985 to qualify 4th, but it was that years co-driver Allan Grice who set the time.

Official results

Full results of the 1983 James Hardie 1000 were:

Notes

• The names of drivers who practiced in the car but did not take part in the race are shown within brackets.
• Harris/Cooke qualified 30th in the #9 Bendigo Falcon but their car was used to get Johnson/Bartlett back into the race after Johnson crashed the #17 Falcon in Saturday morning's Hardies Heroes. The Harris/Cooke team took part in the race after Johnson's sponsor Ross Palmer (owner of Palmer Tube Mills) acquired the Lawrence/Russell Commodore. The Commodore and Falcon were rebuilt and painted for the race in a marathon effort through Saturday night. After getting stewards and other teams approval the DJR Falcon was allowed to start from 10th while the Bendigo Commodore was allowed to start from position 30. Following the race the Falcon, leased from Harris by Palmer, was returned to the Bendigo Team while the Commodore was returned to Palmer who promptly sold it back to Barry Lawrence.
• Andrew Harris had to get permission from one of his sponsors, Melbourne's Jefferson Ford, to use their Ford dealership name on the re-painted Holden Commodore, which was dubbed the Fordore by the team (the Commodore also carried 5.8 signage, the litre capacity of the Ford 351 Cleveland engine used in the Falcons). In a TV interview during the race with Channel 7's Evan Green, Harris told that he had offered Dick Johnson's wife Jill his Falcon for DJR to get back into the race after seeing a visibly upset Jill Johnson in the pits following her husbands qualifying crash, reasoning that the Ford fans would rather see Johnson in the race than himself. Driving the Commodore Harris ended up finishing 10th and winning the Rookie of the Year award.

Statistics

• Provisional Pole Position - #05 Peter Brock - 2:15.3
• Pole Position - #05 Peter Brock - 2:16.270
• Fastest Lap - #25 Peter Brock - 2:18.5 (lap record)
• Race time of winning car - 6:28:31.6
• Average speed of winning car - 158 km/h

References

• Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1983/84
• Australia's Greatest Motor Race, 1960–1989 (©1990)
• James Hardie 1000, 1983/84
• Modern Motor, December 1983

References

1. Entry List, Official Programme, James Hardie 1000, Mount Panorama Bathurst, Sunday 2 October 1983, pages 64 & 65
2. Bil Tuckey and David Greenhalgh, Australia's Greatest Motor Race, The First 30 Years, Chevron Publishing Group Pty Limited, 1990, pages 151 to 160
3. Bil Tuckey and David Greenhalgh, Australia's Greatest Motor Race, The First 30 Years, Chevron Publishing Group Pty Limited, 1990, page 313