Coolness
But
Bond made one of his rare mistakes, upending his car on lap three
and from then on Brock was on his own, bearing the full weight
of the teams responsibilities. His coolness in the circumstances
was one of the features of the race. And when it was all
over, Brock was quick to acknowledge that the win was very much
a team effort. He had one of those trouble-free runs that
everyone dreams about, being stationary in the pits for less than
six minutes during his two scheduled stops. That says a
lot for the car’s preparation and the team’s mechanics can well
afford to take a bow. Those old, much respected firms of
Castrol and Dunlop had a big hand in the win, as did the race
sponsors Hardie-Ferodo, whose braking material is now developed
to a fine degree.
The
braking problems that once plagued so many cars at Bathurst
and elsewhere are virtually a thing of the past. Improved
material and a “miracle” new brake fluid such as Castrol’s GT
LMA used in its official marketing debut by two-thirds of Sundays
field, have seen to that. But despite this, the gremlins
can still strike, as instanced by the caliper seal failure that
grounded Moffat for so long in the pits. It was the last
thing Ford expected and it will probably never happen again.
With
Moffat fresh out of luck and Fred Gibson inverting and wrecking
his car so soon after the start, Ford was thankful for John
French’s magnificent drive to second place In Bryan Byrt’s Falcon.
French lost nearly a lap in the early stages with a cut tyre.
He made up a lot of ground while the track was still treacherously
greasy and actually took the lead while the other front-runners
were making their scheduled stops. Had French not lost
time, Brock could have been in a lot of bother towards the finish.
Doug
Chivas also showed that he has lost none of his old wet weather
magic, bringing his Chrysler Country Dealer Team Charger into
third place after a very consistent drive. Graham Moore
was one of the unluckier drivers of the day, looking set for
a major place until a tyre failure precipitated his crash after
72 laps.
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Battle
GM-H
is now a point ahead in the Manufacturers Championship, which
enters its fourth round at Phillip Island on October 22.
That’s only a fortnight away and Firth and his opposite at Ford,
Howard Marsden, will not have much time to put their feet up.
As Marsden says: “It looks like being one hell of a battle.”
The race is over 500 kilometres (about 312 miles) and if it follows
the pattern of last year, then Ford will need a lot of luck to
stop GM-H from going further ahead in the series point score in
preparation for the final round at Surfers Paradise on November
5.
 The
winding 2.9-mile patchwork circuit has a habit of breaking up
and playing havoc with tyres, especially on heavy Falcons.
Moffat was three seconds a lap faster than the Toranas in practice
last year in his lone works Falcon, but cut his tryes to shreds
while leading the early stages of the race. The Toranas
finished 1-2-3, with Bond leading Brock across the line.
Two
interstate meetings this weekend hold a good deal of interest.
These are round five of the Gold Star series at Adelaide International
Raceway and Brisbane’s Lakeside track, now under the control
of Keith Williams. Frank Matich needs only to win in Adelaide
to clinch his first Gold Star, although the final round is not
being run until October 29 at Warwick Farm. Lakeside’s
Chesterfield Challenge Cup will be a virtual match race between
Moffat’s Trans Am Mustang and Ian Geohegan’s super Falcon.
Daily Mirror
Friday
October 6 1972
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