1985 James Hardie 1000

Class structure

The race was held for cars complying with the Australian version of International Group A touring car regulations with three engine capacity classes.

Class A – Up to 2000 cc

Six cars were entered for Class A, including four Toyotas, two of them factory supported, an Alfa Romeo Alfetta which did not start and a Volvo 360 which also failed to start.

Class B – 2001–3000 cc

With a multiplication factor of 1.4 applied to cars with turbocharged engines, a 2000cc car with a turbocharger was rated at 2800cc for the purposes of the class structure. This saw the factory supported turbocharged Mitsubishi Starions and a Volvo 240 compete against non-turbo Audi 5+5, Toyota Celica Supra and the factory-backed Alfa Romeo GTV6. It was the first time since the 1973 race that there was no Ford Capri on the grid. Also, after having 13 on the grid in 1984, there was only one solitary Mazda RX-7 at Bathurst in 1985, running the 12A rotary engine without peripheral porting.

Class C – over 3000 cc

The class featured Holden VK Commodore SS V8s, the big 5.3L V12 Jaguar XJ-S', the 4.9L V8 Ford Mustang GT's, the 3.5L V8 Rover Vitesses and the 3.5L Straight-six BMW 635 CSi.

Although the HDT Special Vehicles road car division had failed to build the required 500 "evo" model Commodore's by the 1 August FISA homologation date, there were enough 4.9L base model Commodore road cars to allow Holden runners to use the smaller capacity 4.9L V8 engine in order to come under the 5000 cc class cutoff and be able to run 175 kg lighter. However, the engine was still the production V8 which came with known issues such as a single row timing chain (double row was preferred) as well as somewhat brittle valves and rockers, issues that would be fixed with the full blown Group A SS version that would appear in 1986. Use of the smaller Holden V8 also allowed the use of a 5-speed racing gearbox rather than the VK's production 4-speed. For 1985, all Commodore's regardless of engine size ran the standard VK Commodore body devoid of the front and rear spoilers that would appear on the 1986 cars

Thus the Holden Commodore V8's ran in two different configurations:

• 4.9L (4980 cc) - 5-speed gearbox (Getrag 265) and a minimum weight of 1325 kg
• 5.0L (5044 cc) - Holden production 4-speed M21 gearbox (known colloquially as the "Aussie 4 speed") and a minimum weight of 1400 kg

Due to high demand after Australia had gone wholesale Group A in 1985, there ended up being a lack of available Getrag gearboxes by the time of the James Hardie, thus some of the 4.9L Commodores were forced to use Holden's production 4-speed box. Unfortunately for the West German based transmission company in 1985, being the major supplier of Group A racing gearboxes for both touring cars and rallying saw them struggle to keep up with demand with the increasing amount of Group A racing across the globe.

Hardies Heroes

• Tom Walkinshaw's pole time of 2:18.822 in his Group A Jaguar XJ-S was 0.138 seconds faster than he had qualified John Goss' Group C Jaguar XJS in Hardie's Heroes the previous year. It was also the first time a driver had gone from being the slowest in the runoff one year to being the fastest a year later. Showing the difference in performance between Group A and Group C at that stage, Walkinshaw's time was 4.972 seconds slower than George Fury's pole winning time of 1984.
• Walkinshaw's Jaguar was recorded at 274 km/h on Conrod Straight during the runoff. The fastest non-Jaguar was the turbocharged Volvo 240T driven by Bathurst Rookie Robbie Francevic which recorded 260 km/h. The once dominant V8 Holden and Fords were slower still, topping out at around 250 km/h.
• Volvo became the 8th marque to be represented in the Top 10 runoff since its inception in 1978 when Auckland based Robbie Francevic qualified his Mark Petch Motorsport Volvo 240T in 5th place. The Volvo was also the only turbo powered car in the runoff.
• With Walkinshaw on pole and teammate Jeff Allam in second, 1985 was the first and so far only year that cars powered by V12 engines have filled the front row of the grid at Bathurst. It was also the first time since Peter Brock and Colin Bond had qualified 1-2 for the Holden Dealer Team in 1974 that one team had occupied the front row.
• The No. 18 DJR Ford Mustang GT driven by Larry Perkins was officially withdrawn from the race following Hardies Heroes. Every car on the grid that qualified behind the car was then moved up one grid position. The car had been entered as an insurance policy should something happen to keep the #17 Mustang out of the race, and to give drivers Dick Johnson and Perkins the maximum amount of practice time before the race.
• For the first time there were 11 cars and not 10 in the runoff. The ARDC had originally bumped the Larry Perkins Mustang believing (correctly) that it would not start the race despite persistent rumours that it would, and included in its place the BMW 635 CSi of Bathurst rookie and 1985 Spa 24 Hours winner Roberto Ravaglia. However, DJR protested as their car had provisionally qualified 8th. As the ARDC had no grounds to exclude it as regulations stated the top 8 qualifiers were an automatic inclusion, the runoff went ahead with both Perkins and Ravaglia taking part.
• 1985 was the only time Peter Brock was out-qualified by one of his HDT team mates in Hardie's Heroes, qualifying 0.132 behind David Parsons, who was listed only as co-driver to 1983 race winner John Harvey in the No. 7 car. Prior to this the closest a team mate had got to him in HH was when Harvey was only 1.19 seconds slower in 1980. 1985 would also be the only time that the HDT had the slowest two cars in the runoff.
• The fastest driver in official qualifying, 1974 winner John Goss, made his first and only appearance in Hardie's Heroes. Goss' Jaguar had also qualified for the shootout in 1984 but Tom Walkinshaw was at the wheel.

Official results

Bold donates outright and class winners

Statistics

• Provisional pole position – #10 John Goss – 2:19.77
• Pole position – #8 Tom Walkinshaw – 2:18.822
• Fastest lap – #10 John Goss – 2:21.86
• Average speed – 150 km/h
• Race time – 6:41:30.19

References

References

1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oab6wwybto Jaguar V12 Bathurst 1000 1985 pole lap Hardies Heroes]