1977 Australian Touring Car Championship - Round 5 - Sandown

I recently stumbled upon this beautiful piece of footage from Round 5 of the 1977 Australian Touring Car Championship. With Bathurst being so dominant and heavily supported by both teams, the fans, and the media during this era, and with there being so much footage from this event, its nice to watch these cars racing on another circuit.

Unlike today, teams could pick and choose which rounds of the ATCC they wished to compete in, and Bathurst wasn't part of the championship. So each round usually consisted of the small number of championship contenders, with various locals helping to make up the numbers.

The 1977 season was completely dominated by the two-car Allan Moffat Ford Dealers factory Falcon hardtops. The cars were driven by Moffat and Colin Bond, who'd left his plum drive at the Holden Dealer Team at the conclusion of the 1976 season. Of the 11 races that made up the 1977 ATCC, Moffat won 7 of them, Bond 1, and the pair finished the championship in the top two positions. Moffats points tally nearly doubled that of Peter Brock, in third. Their domination of the season was summed up at Bathurst that year, where they finished the race first and second, crossing the line together, in what has gone on to become one of the most famous scenes in Australian motorsport history.

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