1972 HARDIE-FERODO 500 Peter Brock's First Win at Bathurst

The first victory for Peter Brock at the mountain. Classic footage, enjoy! The race was the third round of the 1972 Australian Manufacturers' Championship.

The race was memorable as the first time rain had significantly affected the race. It was won by Peter Brock driving a Holden Dealer Team prepared Holden Torana, the first of Brock's record nine victories.

Brock finished a lap ahead of Queensland racer John French driving a Ford XY Falcon GT-HO Phase III, this despite Brock being penalised one minute at his last pit stop for starting his car while the HDT crew were still re-fueling (under the ARDC's race regulations of the day, car engines had to be switched off during pit stops and could only be restarted once the re-fueling had been completed).

A further lap behind was the Chrysler Valiant Charger of Doug Chivas. It was the only time the big three manufacturers of Australia in the 1960s and 1970s all had representatives in the top three finishers.

Pole sitter and winner of the previous two Bathurst 500's, Allan Moffat, had a race he would rather forget. After dicing for the lead with Brock in the early laps, Moffat spun his Works Phase III Falcon at Sulman Park on top of The Mountain in the wet conditions.

Although he would fight his way back, he would twice be penalised one minute for restarting his car during pit stops before the re-fueling had been completed.

Later in the race the Falcon would also encounter brake problems and Moffat dropped back to finish the race in 9th place, 8 laps down on Brock.

1969 Hardie-Ferodo 500 winner Colin Bond's race ended early when he rolled his Holden Dealer Team Torana on lap 3 while in 4th place.

1967 winner Fred Gibson also rolled his Works GTHO Falcon at McPhillamy Park in the early wet conditions after being forced offline when lapping a slower car. The Falcon spun into the bank and rolled onto its roof on lap 22

Comments:

paspax

This is the real Bathurst. An endurance race for production cars. The new format.. V8 Supercars .. is boring & too far removed from the reality of the averaged car buyer.

Darren Thomson

3 years ago

Little Brocky hadn't even grown into the 05 yet. Only Aussies will understand. ;)

El Tio

Great cars... really like those Chrysler Valiant Chargers.

Chris Dyson

Gotta love the guy at 17:40 pulling the wheel nuts out of his pocket after he has squatted down to change the rear tyre.  Awesome.