Yes, it’s time for the Bathurst 1,000 at the fabulous Mount Panorama. Since the early 1960s, touring car aces from around the world have fought tooth and nail to add a Bathurst win to their CVs. It’s is as tough as they come – a six-hour sprint on a fast and narrow layout with steep climbs and big drops. In fact, that could almost be a euphemism for the emotional suffering the place readily dishes out.
A total of 56 drivers from eight different nations have scaled ‘The Mountain’, 19 of them on more than one occasion. But who, we wondered while getting excited about the latest instalment of on-track scrapping, off-track banter, stunning onboard footage and pin-sharp commentary, has the best record? These five men top the league table, each one of them a Bathurst Big Gun.
Peter Brock – 9 wins
‘Brocky’ or ‘Peter Perfect’, as this Australian sporting hero became known, was Bathurst. He finished third on his debut in the Great Race in 1969, aboard a Holden Monaro, and thereafter this smiling, engaging and ever-enthusiastic Victorian made the 1,000km his own, taking a nine-win scalp that’s going to take some matching, let alone beating. The man who made 05 one of the most globally recognised race numbers had a cult following, wherever he went and whenever he drove. When he died, in a historic rally in 2006, a bit of the Bathurst magic died with him.
Bathurst wins
1972 – Holden Torana XU1 (solo, 500km race)
1975 – Holden Torana L34 (Brian Sampson)
1978 – Holden Torana A9X SS (Jim Richards)
1979 – Holden Torana A9X SS (Jim Richards)
1980 – Holden Commodore VC (Jim Richards)
1982 – Holden Commodore VH (Larry Perkins)
1983 – Holden Commodore VH (John Harvey/Larry Perkins)
1984 – Holden Commodore VK (Larry Perkins)
1987 – Holden Commodore VL (Peter McLeod/David Parsons)
Jim Richards – 7 wins
‘Gentleman Jim’, a Kiwi-born, Australian-domiciled veteran, made an instant impression in teeming rain on his Bathurst debut in 1974. Like Brock, he finished third in his first race at The Mountain, in a Holden Torana. And it wasn’t long before Brock and Richards teamed up to form a Holden superteam. Together they took a late-1970s hat-trick. Richards proved his versatility by joining British Touring Car Champion Rickard Rydell for the second and final Supertouring-only 1,000km in 1998 aboard the Swede’s TWR Volvo S40 and winning. In fact, he was still mastering the Mountain into the noughties.
Bathurst wins
1978 – Holden Torana A9X SS (Peter Brock)
1979 – Holden Torana A9X SS (Peter Brock)
1980 – Holden Commodore VC (Peter Brock)
1991 – Nissan Skyline GT-R (Mark Skaife)
1992 – Nissan Skyline GT-R (Mark Skaife)
1998 – Volvo S40 (Rickard Rydell, Supertouring race)
2002 – Holden Commodore VX (Mark Skaife)
Craig Lowndes – 6 wins
From the moment the reigning Australian Formula Ford Champion impudently passed long-time leader John Bowe for the top spot in the final laps of his Bathurst debut in 1994, aged 20, Craig Lowndes had his card marked by the establishment. And in a good way. He had to settle for second that day but he’d made very big waves in a drive that he only got at the last minute. The first win came in 1996, although a decade would pass before win number two. Five more wins in the next 10 years would cement his legendary status at Mount Panorama. What chance a seventh victory this weekend to move him up alongside Jim Richards?
Bathurst wins
1996 – Holden Commodore VR (Greg Murphy)
2006 – Ford Falcon BA (Jamie Whincup)
2007 – Ford Falcon BA (Jamie Whincup)
2008 – Ford Falcon BF (Jamie Whincup)
2010 – Holden Commodore VE (Mark Skaife)
2015 – Holden Commodore VF (Stephen Richards)
Larry Perkins – 6 wins
This gritty, bespectacled ex-Grand Prix driver could take a V8 tin-top by the scruff of the neck and do great things with it, long after the single-seater road had hit a dead end. He followed in Jim Richards’ footsteps by racking up a Bathurst hat-trick for Holden with Peter Brock, which put his place in the Bathurst Hall of Fame beyond doubt. Two victories in three years in the mid-1990s – his fifth and sixth wins – as he approached his 50s further underpinned his status.
Bathurst wins
1982 – Holden Commodore VH (Peter Brock)
1983 – Holden Commodore VH (John Harvey/Peter Brock)
1984 – Holden Commodore VK (Peter Brock)
1993 – Holden Commodore VP (Gregg Hansford)
1995 – Holden Commodore VR (Russell Ingall)
1997 – Holden Commodore VS (Russell Ingall)
Mark Skaife – 6 wins
Until the Craig Lowndes/Jamie Whincup steamroller kicked in, ‘Skaifey’ was the most successful V8 Supercar racer – and he backed up those numerous Championship race wins and titles with six victories in the Big One, at Bathurst. A double with the ‘Godzilla’ Nissan with Richards in the early-1990s, while he was still in his early-20s, signalled the start of a stellar career for the New South Welshman. Once on the factory Holden books he cleaned up, taking four more wins in the venerable Commodore with four different co-drivers. A class act who since retiring from the cockpit in 2011 has put his passion, knowledge and experience to very good use in the commentary box alongside fellow ex-racer-turned talker Neil Crompton.
Bathurst wins
1991 – Nissan Skyline GT-R (Jim Richards)
1992 – Nissan Skyline GT-R (Jim Richards)
2001 – Holden Commodore VX (Tony Longhurst)
2002 – Holden Commodore VX (Jim Richards)
2005 – Holden Commodore VZ (Todd Kelly)
2010 – Holden Commodore VX (Craig Lowndes)
Bathurst 1000
Famous Five
