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.
This race was no exception. Moffat and Bond started together on the front row, and finished first and second, but John Harvey, the lead HDT driver, and Peter Brock, still running as an independent since leaving HDT at the end of 1974, really took it to the big Fords, making for an exciting race.
Interesting to see here also the Falcons of Dick Johnson and Murray Carter. After several false starts, Johnson was still struggling to build his career, and had already retired several times from racing, but fellow Queenslander Bryan Byrt stepped in to help, and Johnson was usually the fastest of the Fords, behind Moffats cars, throughout the next three years.
Note also, reigning Bathurst winner Bob Morris racing a Triumph Dolomite.
The Holden teams here are still racing the L34 Toranas, with the new improved A9X still being a few months away. Despite heavily outnumbering the Fords, the Holden teams had to wait until 1978 to beat them again in the championship and at Bathurst. This race was effectively a sprint race, but touring cars in the 1970s were pretty unreliable, and didn't like being thrashed, so the outcome was never assured. Additionally, the speed differential between the fastest cars and the slowest is quite alarming.
Turn the sound up, and enjoy!
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Originally Posted by superroo69
