1984 James Hardie 1000

Class structure

Group C

This was the last Bathurst 1000 to include Group C Touring Cars, which had first contested the Bathurst 1000 in 1973. While a production based category, continual parity adjustments to keep the leading vehicles roughly at the same pace had seen the cars become wildly over-specified. That led to a decision by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) in mid-1983 that Australian touring car racing would abandon its locally developed Group C rules and would be run under regulations based on the FIA's international Group A rules from 1 January 1985.

The major contenders in Group C were the V8-engined Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores, the lone V12 Jaguar XJ-S and 6 cylinder BMW 635 CSi, the rotary Mazda RX-7s, and the Nissan Bluebird turbos. Also running in Group C were the now outdated Chevrolet Camaro Z28s.

It would be the final Bathurst appearance for the American Camaro at Bathurst until 2023. It was also the final appearance for the pioneering turbo touring car in Australia, the Nissan Bluebird turbo which would be replaced in Group A in 1986 by the turbocharged Nissan Skyline DR30 RS.

After the car made its debut in the inaugural 500-mile race at Phillip Island in 1960, it would be the final Bathurst 1000 for the Ford Falcon until 1992. The Commodore (in various models), Jaguar, BMW and Mazda all saw action during the Group A years in Australia (1985–1992).

One car, the No.7 Qld Highway Patrol Racing Team Holden VK Commodore of Lester Smerdon and Wayne Park, ran in a mixed configuration. It ran the standard VK Commodore body that would be seen throughout 1985 in Group A, completely devoid of the front and rear spoilers and flared wheel guards as seen on the HDT, Roadways and Warren Cullen Group C VK's. However, the Queensland Police run car did use full Group C mechanicals (engine, transmission etc).

Group A

The international Group A formula was allowed to enter for the first time as a prelude to their adoption for Bathurst and the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1985. The Group A cars were closer to pure bred racing cars in concept (notably the allowing of the cars interior to be removed, as well as the cars having a lower ride height), but without the extensive performance modifications allowed for Group C. Without the performance upgrades, aerodynamic aids and larger tyres of the Group C cars, the Group A cars were much slower (the lead 3.5L V8 Rover Vitesse of Jeff Allam and Armin Hahne qualified 10 seconds slower than the pole time set by George Fury in the Nissan Bluebird turbo), and thus formed their own class. The low slung V8 Rovers did prove to be sensationally quick in a straight line though, with both cars being regularly recorded at over 240 km/h on Conrod Straight, putting them on par with many of the lower ranked privateer Commodores, Falcons and RX-7s. The Rover's main Group A challenger would be the BMW 635 CSi run by JPS Team BMW.

The other contenders in the Group A class included the Ford Mustang, Ford Capri Mk.III, Alfa Romeo GTV6, Toyota Sprinter AE86, Mitsubishi Starion, Audi 5+5, and Toyota Celica Supra.

Hardies Heroes

Conditions on Mount Panorama were bitterly cold for the 1984 edition of Hardies Heroes with snow having fallen at the top of the circuit early in the morning. This saw a number of cars, notably the lighter (980 kg) Mazda RX-7's struggle to get sufficient heat into their tyres.

• Nissan scored the first ever Bathurst 1000 Pole Position by a car fitted with a turbocharger when George Fury recorded a time of 2:13.85 in his Nissan Bluebird Turbo. Fury's time in the runoff would not be beaten until 1991, ironically by another Nissan, the R32 GT-R. As it was the last year of Group C, Fury's time remains the fastest ever at Mt Panorama by a Group C touring car. Early morning snow on the mountain and the cold conditions were thought to favour the turbo over the V8 powered cars. Almost 20 years later Fred Gibson, who was by 1986 the Nissan team manager, confirmed that the Bluebirds had a turbo boost adjuster on the dashboard, used to tune boost pressure once track conditions were better understood in order to preserve the turbocharger.
• It was the first time in the seven-year history of Hardies Heroes that a V8 powered car did not claim Pole Position at Bathurst, and the first time since qualifying first counted for grid positions in 1967 that a V8 had not been on pole. It would be the start of a run of 8 pole positions in 9 years for turbo powered cars at Bathurst and a V8 powered car would not sit on pole again at Bathurst until 1993.
• The 1984 Hardies Heroes holds the Top 10 shootout record for the most number of marques competing with six with (in order) Nissan, Holden, Ford, Mazda, BMW and Jaguar represented. The record was equaled in both Super Touring races in 1997 and 1998.
• Jaguar became the 7th marque to represent in Hardies Heroes, making the first of only two appearances in the top ten runoff with Tom Walkinshaw (a Bathurst rookie despite being the 1984 European Touring Car Champion which included winning the 24 Hours of Spa in his own Group A Jaguar XJ-S) qualifying John Goss' V12 Jaguar XJ-S in 10th place. During qualifying (using one of TWR's more highly developed Group A V12 engines) the Jaguar had been recorded at 290 km/h on Conrod Straight, the fastest ever by a Touring Car before the addition of Caltex Chase in 1987. The next fastest cars were Dick Johnson's V8 Ford XE Falcon at 285 km/h and Peter Brock's V8 Holden VK Commodore at 280 km/h.
• With three Mazda RX-7's in Hardies Heroes, 1984 was the only time Mazda had the greatest representation of cars in the Top Ten runoff. Not surprisingly the factory backed Peter Stuyvesant RX-7 of Allan Moffat was the quickest of the trio ending up 5th on the grid.
• 1984 was the only time either Steve Masterton and Gregg Hansford would appear in the Top 10 runoff.
• 1984 was also the last time that 1976 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 winner Bob Morris would appear in the runoff. After his impromptu Bathurst drive in 1983, Morris had come out of semi-retirement in 1984, purchasing the ex-Barry Jones Mazda RX-7 and actually winning the Oran Park round of the ATCC. Unfortunately, with the coming Group A being projected as more expensive than he believed he could manage, Morris would quietly retire from racing at the end of 1984.

Official results

Notes

• Cars 12, 34 & 77 were involved in a start line accident when the #12 Jaguar XJ-S had clutch failure at the start. This caused the race to be stopped and for the first time in the races history there was a complete restart. All three cars failed to take the restart.
• Car 18 was involved in a separate accident during the first lap of the initial race being shunted off the track and into a fence on Conrod Straight by another car not heeding the red flags and was also unable to front for the second start.
• Cars 2 & 43 were also involved in a separate incident at the start with both cars bouncing off each other and the #43 also bouncing off the pit wall. #43 was out with engine failure after 15 laps, while #2 crashed at Forrest's Elbow one lap later.
• Car 7 was a Holden VK Commodore which used Group C running gear including the engine and gearbox, but unlike the VK's from the Holden Dealer Team, Roadways Racing and K-Mart Racing, car 7 used the VK's Group A body which did not include the aerodynamic front and rear spoilers or the flared tyre guards.

Statistics

• Provisional Pole Position - #05 Peter Brock - 2:14.31
• Pole Position - #15 George Fury - 2:13.850 (record)
• Fastest Group A qualifier - #61 Jeff Allam - 2:23.41
• Fastest Lap (Group C) - #05 Peter Brock - 2:15.13 (lap record)
• Fastest Lap (Group A) - #60 - Steve Soper 2:24.87 (class lap record)
• Winners average speed - 157.5 km/h (record)
• Race Time - 6:23:13.06 (record)
• Number of Entrants - 64 (record)

References

References

1. Barry Naismith, Bathurst 1984/85, pages 73 & 127
2. Australian Motor Racing Yearbook, 1984/85, page 309
3. [http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1984%20Bathurst.html 1984 James Hardie 1000]