Formula Sierra! 1987 was a difficult year for any team trying to get a handle on the new Sierra Cosworth/RS500, but by 1988, it was pointless turning up at the track with anything else. Eight of the ten fastest qualifiers at Bathurst in 1988 were RS500s. Dick Johnson was running the fastest Group A touring cars in Australia by this stage, if not the world. He turned up at Bathurst with three cars after having dominated the ATCC and outrun the top RS500s at Silverstone. The other teams must have been quaking in their boots at Bathurst, but the DJR effort was a bit of a disaster. The Johnson/Bowe car was leading comfortably when it blew a rear tyre down Conrod and spun wildly, amazingly without actually hitting anything. But there was plenty of damage done as a result of the shredded tyre and high speed spin. This car was retired after 22 laps. The #28 DJR car was out four laps later with a mechanical problem. Johnson was quoted as saying "We might need to bring five cars next year", tongue in cheek, but he did expect to win this race. The sole-surviving DJR car, in which Johnson himself did a driving stint after his own car retired, finished second behind the Tony Longhurst/Tomas Mezera RS500.

This race was actually run under FISA rules, and therefore, was required to be a rolling start, the one and only time this has happened at Bathurst.

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