Mention the Bathurst 1000 and controversy in the same sentence, and one race comes immediately to mind. 1992.
Run in some of the most appalling conditions seen at Mount Panorama, the day had everything.
The 1967 Formula 1 world champion, Denny Hulme, died on Conrod Straight after suffering a heart attack at the wheel of his BMW, while the Nissan GTR of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife was declared the winner, even though the car was in the wall at Forrest’s Elbow when the race was declared.
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Under red flag rules, when a race is stopped the results are taken from the last completed lap, handing the win to the Nissan pair.
That led to some of the most disgraceful scenes in the long history of the race, when the crowd, many of whom had been drinking for some time, protested rowdily at the presentation that the Ford of Dick Johnson and John Bowe should be declared the winner.
Johnson did little to calm the mob, suggesting that he and Bowe were the legitimate winners.
“After I passed Jim up the hill I thought we’ve got to be number one, surely,” Johnson told his adoring fans on the podium.
“Obviously you can be beaten by a crashed car.”
Richards took exception to the crowd’s response, unleashing a now-famous tirade on the podium.
“I’m just really stunned for words. I can’t believe the reception. I thought Australian race fans had a lot more to go than this,” he said.
“This is bloody disgraceful. I’ll keep racing, but I tell you what, this is going to remain with me for a long time.
“You’re a pack of arseholes.”
Speaking to Wide World of Sports about his just-released autobiography, Best Seat in the House, the man who finished third that day, Neil Crompton, said it’s a race he’d prefer to forget.
“It was so emotional,” he said.
“I was only just thinking about it recently, because I watched a doco on McLaren which I watched because Denny Hulme was in it. I was a mate of Denny’s, I still have this vivid memory of driving down Conrod Straight when the safety car was out and seeing Denny slumped in the car.
“It was a really tough day because one of our mates died. It’s etched in my brain, I wish it would go away.”
Crompton, who raced at Bathurst from 1988-2002, actually had an advantage over much of the field that day, driving the second Nissan with Swede Anders Olofsson.
That meant he was behind the wheel of the all-conquering GTR, nicknamed ‘Godzilla’, which was all-wheel drive, a particular advantage in the wet.
“It was horrible. Forget about the fact my car was all-wheel drive, that was a nice bonus,” he said.
“It was a rotten day, I think I can safely say it was the worst rainstorm we’ve had at a Bathurst 1000.”
A late race stop for new pads had dropped Crompton and Olofsson from second to third, ending the chance for a team 1-2.
But their third place finish meant a first visit to the Bathurst podium for Crompton, although it wasn’t everything he expected.
“When the podium happened, it was pretty confronting to be standing there in front of a sea of people yelling abuse at you, and doing so in harmony,” he recalled.
“It wasn’t a pleasant experience, I flipped them the bird for their trouble!
“It was a pack mentality, you don’t take it personally. Half of them probably still come to Supercars meetings.
“It was kind of bittersweet, it’s obviously special to be on the podium at Bathurst, but anything but enjoyable in those circumstances.”
Despite the GTR being the class of the field that year – Skaife and Richards finished first and second in the championship – Crompton found it tricky to jump into the all-wheel drive car, having previously been behind the wheel of a Commodore.
“I found the GTR very difficult to drive, quite frankly,” he explained.
“It required a really different approach to get the most out of it. Clearly Mark and Jim were experts at it, and they’d mastered it. But it was a car that was strange to drive, it bounced a lot, and the fact it was all-wheel drive changed the standard dynamics of how a racecar feels.
“Anders and I went to Bathurst and it was scary, we were miles off the pace. Skaifey and Richards thought it was hilarious, they’d just have a beer and come back the next day.
“We eventually got on top of it, but it just wasn’t an easy car to drive.”
That was the final time we saw the Nissan GTR at the Bathurst 1000, with the rules changed the following year to bring back the Commodore-Falcon rivalry.
It meant the GTR, along with the other ‘Group A’ cars were consigned to the museum.
“It’s the car that killed what was then called Group A Touring Car racing, Nissan just did too good a job and clean bowled the Ford Sierra and BMW out of the business,” Crompton said.
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“Was it special? Absolutely. It’s an iconic car, such a beautiful thing that was so far ahead of its time.
“I think it would have been enjoyable to drive if you were Mark or Jim, and you knew how to drive it, but it’s not at the sharp end of the list of cars that I loved.”
Crompton returned to the Bathurst podium in 1995, co-driving with 500cc motorcycle world champion Wayne Gardner. But the 1992 race will always stand out, and not for the right reasons.
“There hasn’t been anything like that podium at Bathurst since, but the reality is it was a miserable end to a miserable day,” he said.
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