1987 Bathurst 1000

Race details
Round 8 of 11 in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, Australia.
Date	4 October, 1987
Location	Bathurst, Australia
Course	Mount Panorama Circuit 6.213 kilometres (3.861 mi)
Laps 161 Pole position Driver Klaus Ludwig Ford Texaco Racing Team Time 2:16.969 Podium First Peter McLeod Peter Brock David Parsons HDT Racing Second Glenn Seton John Bowe Peter Jackson Nissan Racing Third George Fury Terry Shiel Peter Jackson Nissan Racing Fastest Lap Driver Andrew Miedecke Oxo Supercube Motorsport Time 2:22.50

The 1987 James Hardie 1000 was an endurance race for Group A Touring Cars, staged on 4 October 1987 at the Mount Panorama Circuit, near Bathurst, in New South Wales, Australia. The race was the eighth round of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship, and was the 28th in a sequence of Bathurst 1000 races, commencing with the 1960 Armstrong 500 held at Phillip Island.

The race was shortened from 163 laps to 161 for 1987, when the track was slightly lengthened by the addition of the Caltex Chase, a chicane which was built in response to the death of Mike Burgmann in an accident during the previous year's race.

The addition of The Chase saw lap times increase by approximately 4–5 seconds over those in 1986. The Chase was also meant to slow the cars down, but the speed of the new breed of Group A cars (specifically the turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500), saw the fastest cars (Eggenberger Motorsport) reaching higher speeds (276 km/h (171 mph)) on the shortened straight than had been achieved on the full length straight in 1986 (the fastest car on the full straight in 1986, the Holden VK Commodore SS Group A, was recorded at 275 km/h (171 mph)). The straight line speed of the new Sierras was comparable to those the Australian Group C cars were reaching by 1984.

The 1987 race was provisionally won by the Ford-supported Eggenberger Motorsport team, with Steve Soper and Pierre Dieudonné taking the chequered flag in their Ford Sierra RS500, two laps ahead of teammates Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz. Third was the best of the locally based teams, the HDT Racing entered Holden VL Commodore SS Group A driven by Peter McLeod, Peter Brock and David Parsons.

Protests lodged before the race^[1] significantly affected the official results, which were not finalised until well into 1988. The two Eggenberger cars were disqualified for illegally modified front wheel arch guards, which allowed the cars to race on taller tires. The team appealed their disqualification as far as the appeals process allowed, the FIA's court of appeal. Eventually the disqualifications were upheld and McLeod, Brock and Parsons were declared race winners. It was a record ninth Bathurst 1000 victory for Brock and his final victory in the race. For McLeod and Parsons it would be their only win at Bathurst. McLeod's nominated co-driver Jon Crooke failed to get a start after the Brock/Parsons car failed on lap 34 and the pair moved into the team's second car. McLeod had been a last-minute draftee into the team as Crooke's Sandown 500 co-driver Neil Crompton was unable to get his racing licence upgraded in time for the race. The disqualifications saw the factory Nissan team promoted into a second and third team result, which would remain the best ever performance by a Japanese manufacturer until Nissan's first win in 1991. It was the first time the winner of this event had not led one lap of the race. It was only the second time that the winner of this event did not complete the full race distance (the first being Dick Johnson's 1981 victory, where he completed 747 kilometres before the red flag was shown to end the race).

The winning #10 HDT Commodore started the race in 20th position with a time of 2:25.12 set by Peter Brock. Brock had also qualified his own #05 Commodore in 11th place. As Brock had already qualified his own car his time should not have counted as the fastest qualifying time for car #10. Had the stewards of the meeting followed procedure, the McLeod/Crooke Commodore should have started from 27th on the basis of Jon Crooke's time of 2:27.00 (McLeod's best time the car was a 2:27.96). A similar situation had occurred for the HDT in 1986 following Allan Moffat's crash in the 05 Commodore. Brock had then qualified the team's second car with a time that was good enough for second place (faster than his own car), but his time did not count towards a grid placing.

Subsequently, when the wheel arches of the Sierras were declared illegal during practice for the final round at Fuji in Japan. The Texaco team then made them legal before qualifying and the West German pairing of Ludwig and Niedzwiedz went on to win the race.

Class 2 provided a 1-2 result for the Australian-based JPS Team BMW, with the BMW M3 of Jim Richards and Tony Longhurst leading home the similar car of teammates Robbie Francevic and the team's engine builder Ludwig Finauer. In third place was the first of the BMW Motorsport entered BMW M3s, the CiBiEmme car of Johnny Cecotto and Gianfranco Brancatelli. The CiBiEmme BMW was the leading registered World Touring Car Championship entry, its seventh outright placing matching the result achieved by the best placed WTCC-registered entry in the season opening Monza 500. These two results stood as the equal lowest race placings by the top finishing registered entry at any round of the 1987 championship (both the Monza and Bathurst races had seen the original winning teams disqualified).

Class 3 had only one finisher (finishing 23rd and last outright), the Bob Holden Motors Toyota Sprinter driven by 1966 Gallaher 500 winner Bob Holden and his co-drivers Garry Willmington and Bryan Bate. At the time that both of the Team Toyota Australia cars that were leading the class crashed out on the top of The Mountain, Bob Holden's car was some 20 laps behind having had numerous early problems.

One record that was set in the race was its youngest ever driver. Graham Gulson, the 17-year-old son of long-time touring car driver and Bathurst regular Ray Gulson, made his mountain debut alongside his father in the teams ex-JPS Team BMW 635 CSi. Graham easily qualified for the race and acquitted himself well in illustrious company during his one stint at the wheel in the race. The Gulson family BMW finished 15th outright and 10th in class, completing 146 laps to be 12 laps down at the finish.

Due to the number of laps behind the safety car and the rain which slowed lap times by approximately 20 seconds, the race lasted for 7:01:08.40. This was the first event since the rain affected 1974 race that the race took more than 7 hours to be completed. The time was calculated on when the first of the disqualified Sierras crossed the line.

Cars competed in three classes conforming to World Touring Car Championship regulations:^[2]

• Class 1: The outright category was for cars with an engine capacity over 2500cc. The class consisted of BMW 635 CSi, Ford Sierra RS500, Holden Commodore, Maserati Biturbo, Mitsubishi Starion, Nissan Skyline and Toyota Supra.
• Class 2: The middle class was for cars with an engine capacity from 1601 to 2500cc. The class consisted of Alfa Romeo 75, BMW M3, Mercedes-Benz 190E and Nissan Gazelle.
• Class 3: The "baby" car class was for cars with an engine capacity from 1001 to 1600cc. It consisted of a variety of Toyota Corollas and a single Alfa Romeo 33.

The Top 10 runoff for pole position was a one-off event in the World Touring Car Championship. FISA initially objected to it but were ultimately powerless to stop it as it was written into the race regulations by the event promoters, the Australian Racing Driver's Club (ARDC).

Pos	No	Team	Driver	Car	HH	Qual
Pole	7	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Klaus Ludwig	Ford Sierra RS500	2:16.969	2:17.46
2	9	Allan Moffat Enterprises	Andy Rouse	Ford Sierra RS500	2:18.468	2:18.12
3	6	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Steve Soper	Ford Sierra RS500	2:18.663	2:20.52
4	12	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Klaus Niedzwiedz	Ford Sierra RS500	2:21.318	2:20.96
5	35	Oxo Supercube Motorsport	Andrew Miedecke	Ford Sierra RS500	2:22.057	2:20.26
6	42	BMW Motorsport / CiBiEmme	Johnny Cecotto	BMW M3	2:23.147	2:21.48
7	2	Roadways Racing	Allan Grice	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	2:23.626	2:21.38
8	11	Enzed Team Perkins	Larry Perkins	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	2:24.209	2:22.28
DSQ	17	Shell Ultra Hi-Tech Racing Team	Dick Johnson	Ford Sierra RS500	2:22.744	2:20.18
DSQ	18	Shell Ultra Hi-Tech Racing Team	Charlie O'Brien	Ford Sierra RS500	2:21.452	2:21.50

* Three time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Klaus Ludwig became the first Bathurst Rookie to take pole position for the race. With the addition of the new "Caltex Chase" complex on Conrod straight, lap times were around 4–5 seconds slower in 1987 than before. The general feeling was that Ludwig's pole time would have been even faster than George Fury's record 1984 pole time of 2:13.85 had the Chase not been there. With Ludwig on pole and Andy Rouse second, 1987 was the first time in race history that two Bathurst rookies had occupied the front row of the grid since qualifying times first counted for grid positions in 1967, though Rouse had been previously entered in 1976 but did not arrive, and one of his co-drivers was four time Great Race winner Allan Moffat, who was having his first race in a Ford since 1980. 1987 also marks Ford's first pole position at Bathurst since Allan Moffat claimed pole in his XB Falcon in 1976. It was also Ford's first front row start at Bathurst since Dick Johnson started second in 1981 in an XD Falcon, and the first time that Ford outnumbered other makes in the shootout.
* The two Dick Johnson Racing Sierras of Dick Johnson and Charlie O'Brien were had their times disallowed after failing a fuel check following the shootout. The team had mistakenly used fuel churns that had been filled at the team base in Brisbane and not at the track. It was of an inferior grade and actually made the engines produce less power than normal, but the penalty stood. Johnson was contesting his tenth consecutive Hardie's Heroes, being the only driver to have contested each one since its inception in 1978.
* The #12 Texaco Sierra driven by Klaus Niedzwiedz was withdrawn from the race following the shootout, with Niedzwiedz being Ludwig's nominated co-driver in the #7 Sierra. All qualified cars behind then moved up one place on the grid. 1987 was the first Hardies Heroes that Peter Brock failed to qualify for after qualifying twelfth. He did not appear in the 1986 shootout due to the car still being repaired following Allan Moffat's Friday crash, but Brock had qualified second before the crash.
* Countering the myth that only Bathurst regulars could be fast on The Mountain, 5 European based drivers qualified for the shootout. Klaus Ludwig, Andy Rouse, Steve Soper, Klaus Niedzwiedz (the top 4) and Johnny Cecotto. Only Soper (1984) and 1985 Rookie of the Year Cecotto had previously raced at Bathurst.

Sourced from:^[3]

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Car	Laps	Qual Pos	Shootout Pos	Series Points
1	1	10	HDT Racing P/L	Peter McLeod Peter Brock David Parsons Jon Crooke	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	158	20
2	1	15	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	Glenn Seton John Bowe	Nissan Skyline RS DR30	157	15
3	1	30	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	George Fury Terry Shiel	Nissan Skyline RS DR30	157	14
4	2	44	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards Tony Longhurst	BMW M3	156	12
5	1	16	Ralliart Australia	Gary Scott Akihiko Nakaya John French	Mitsubishi Starion	154	23
6	2	45	JPS Team BMW	Robbie Francevic Ludwig Finauer Jim Richards	BMW M3	154	22
7	2	42	BMW Motorsport / CiBiEmme	Johnny Cecotto Gianfranco Brancatelli	BMW M3	154	8	6	40
8	1	4	Formula 1 Investments P/L	Graham Moore Michel Delcourt	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	152	29
9	1	26	Kalari Transport Services	Tony Noske Gary Rush	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	151	35
10	1	39	Lansvale Smash Repairs	Steve Reed Trevor Ashby	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	150	38
11	2	43	BMW Motorsport / Bigazzi	Altfrid Heger Olivier Grouillard Winni Vogt	BMW M3	150	16		30
12	2	40	Schnitzer Motorsport	Emanuele Pirro Roberto Ravaglia Markus Oestreich Roland Ratzenberger	BMW M3	150	19		24
13	1	34	Oxo Supercube Motorsport	Bruce Stewart John Giddings	Ford Sierra RS500	150	24
14	1	38	Everlast Automotive Services	Brian Sampson Bill O'Brien	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	146	33
15	1	27	Ray Gulson	Graham Gulson Ray Gulson	BMW 635 CSi	146	41
16	2	41	BMW Motorsport	Gary Brabham Juan Manuel Fangio II	BMW M3	146	18
17	1	35	Oxo Supercube Motorsport	Andrew Miedecke Don Smith	Ford Sierra RS500	144	4	5
18	1	3	Petro-Tech	Peter Fitzgerald Peter Janson	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	144	37
19	2	60	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	Mark Skaife Grant Jarrett	Nissan Gazelle	138	44
20	1	29	Mulvihill Racing	Ken Mathews Tony Mulvihill Barry Jones	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	136	32
21	1	24	Team Nissan Racing NZ	Graeme Bowkett Kent Baigent	Nissan Skyline RS DR30	135	17
22	1	36	Yellow Pages	Tony Kavich Kerry Baily Allan Grice	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	131	31
23	3	93	Bob Holden Motors	Bob Holden Bryan Bate Garry Willmington	Toyota Sprinter AE86	123	47
DSQ	1	6	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Steve Soper Pierre Dieudonné	Ford Sierra RS500	161	5	3
DSQ	1	7	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Klaus Ludwig Klaus Niedzwiedz	Ford Sierra RS500	159	1	1
DSQ	2	53	Viacard Services	Ian Tulloch Trevor Crowe Jim Keogh	BMW M3	151	36
DSQ	1	14	NetComm (Aust) Racing	Murray Carter Steve Masterton Denis Horley[4]	Nissan Skyline RS DR30	147	30
DNF	3	90	Toyota Team Australia	Drew Price John Smith John Faulkner	Toyota Corolla GT	119	43
DNF	3	91	Toyota Team Australia	John Faulkner Mike Quinn John Smith	Toyota Corolla GT	118	45
DNF	1	2	Roadways Racing	Allan Grice Win Percy	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	96	7	7
DNF	3	92	Ratcliff Transport Spares	David Ratcliff Mark Gibbs	Toyota Sprinter AE86	96	49
DNF	1	37	Brian Callaghan Racing P/L	Barry Graham Brian Callaghan	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	86	26
DNF	3	94	Gullivers travel Limited	Andrew Bagnall Chris Hodgetts Mark Jennings	Toyota Sprinter AE86	77	46
DNF	1	19	Canam Enterprises	Graeme Cameron Wayne Wilkinson	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	71	25
DNF	2	50	Riethmuller-Ward International Motorsport	Llyndon Riethmuller Phil Ward Chris Clearihan	Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16	70	40
DNF	3	100	Alfa Romeo	Giorgio Francia Daniele Toffoli	Alfa Romeo 33	55	48
DNF	2	47	BMW Motorsport	Anette Meeuvissen Mercedes Stermitz Roland Ratzenberger	BMW M3	45	42
DNF	2	46	Schnitzer Motorsport	Markus Oestreich Roland Ratzenberger Emanuele Pirro Roberto Ravaglia	BMW M3	41	13
DNF	1	05	HDT Racing P/L	Peter Brock David Parsons	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	34	11
DNF	2	57	Caltex CXT Racing	Colin Bond Lucio Cesario	Alfa Romeo 75	34	21
DNF	1	9	Allan Moffat Enterprises	Andy Rouse Thierry Tassin Allan Moffat	Ford Sierra RS500	31	2	2
DNF	1	32	Warren Cullen	Warren Cullen Gary Cooke Gary Sprague	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	31	27
DNF	1	1	Pro Team Italia	Armin Hahne Kevin Bartlett Bruno Giacomelli	Maserati Biturbo	29	34
DNF	1	22	Lusty Engineering	Graham Lusty John Lusty	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	17	39
DNF	1	21	D.F.C. NZ Ltd	Graeme Crosby John Billington	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	9	28
DNF	1	17	Shell Ultra Hi-Tech Racing Team	Dick Johnson Gregg Hansford	Ford Sierra RS500	3	3	DSQ
DNF	1	11	Enzed Team Perkins	Larry Perkins Denny Hulme	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	2	10	8
DNF	1	18	Shell Ultra Hi-Tech Racing Team	Charlie O'Brien Neville Crichton	Ford Sierra RS500	2	9	DSQ
DNS	1	12	Ford Texaco Racing Team	Klaus Niedzwiedz Klaus Ludwig	Ford Sierra RS500	0	6	4
DNQ	1	20	Terry Finnigan	Terry Finnigan Geoff Leeds	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A
DNQ	1	31	Lester Smerdon	Lester Smerdon Bruce Williams	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A
DNQ	1	23	Jagparts	Alf Grant Gerald Kay	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A
DNQ	1	33	Peter Williamson Toyota	Peter Williamson Chris Clearihan John Sax	Toyota Celica Supra
DNQ	1	28	Wayne Clift	Bernie Stack Wayne Clift	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A
DNQ	1	25	Team Nissan Racing NZ	Kent Baigent Graeme Bowkett	Nissan Skyline RS DR30
DNQ	1	13	Viacard Services	Ian Tulloch Trevor Crowe Jim Keogh	BMW 635 CSi

Italics indicate driver practiced this car but did not race.

• Provisional Pole Position - #7 Klaus Ludwig - 2:17.46
• Pole Position - #7 Klaus Ludwig - 2.16.969
• Fastest Lap - #35 Andrew Miedecke - 2:22.50 - Lap 19 (new lap record)
• Average Speed - 140 km/h
• Race Time - 7:01:08.40 (based upon when Car 6 crossed the line).

• 1987 World Touring Car Championship
• 1987 Australian Touring Car season

• CAMS Manual reference to Australian titles
• www.touringcarracing.net
• race results