Barlos Crathwaite
Club Legend
- Sep 22, 2019
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- AFL Club
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- #1,401
In a nutshell, the end of 1992 Bathurst 1000 was marred by extremely heavy rain, so much so that the race was red flagged on lap 143 as a result of numerous cars crashing out of the race due to the very poor and dangerous conditions (see below video). The Gibson Motorsport Nissan Skyline GT-R (nicknamed "Godzilla") driven by Jim Richards and Mark Skaife was leading at the time but Richards was caught out on the track because of the heavy rain before he could get to the pits and crashed at the The Cutting. He managed to continue with heavy damage before the car aquaplaned off the track at the start of Conrod Straight just after Forrest's Elbow and crashed into several other cars who had also met the same fate and it was at this point that the race was red flagged. The second placed Ford Sierra RS500 driven by Dick Johnson and John Bowe and the other Gibson Motorsport Nissan GT-R driven by Andres Olofsson and Neil Crompton passed the stricken Richards/Skaife car to finish lap 143.
However, when a race is red flagged, the result of the race is determined at the most recently completed full lap before the red flag is waved, this allows any cars who have crashed at the end of the race to be included in the final standings. The most recently completed lap before the red flag was lap 142 and the Jim Richards/Mark Skaife entry was leading at the time so they were therefore declared the winners of the race. The Dick Johnson/John Bowe entry was placed second with the Anders Olofsoon/Neil Crompton entry placed third. Co-incidentally, they were the only cars on the lead lap at the time.
When it came to the presentations, the Nissan entries were booed for the entire presentation as the crowd wanted the Johnson/Bowe entry to be declared the race winners as they were leading the race at the end of lap 143 (see video above in my previous post). Plus there was the fact the Skyline GTR's had dominated the Australian Touring Car Championship for the past few years and the regulations were changed in that turbocharged cars were banned with the ATCC moving away from the FIA Group A series and implemented the Group 3A class for the 1993 season.
It was only the second time the Bathurst 1000 had been red flagged and remains one of Australian motorsport's most iconic moments.
Thanks for that. Clears things up nicely. Sounds like the fans were ignorant as to the rarely used red flag rule then. They must have seen dick Johnson fly past richards and cross the line and assumed they had won. Good to see Richards stick up for himself. Probably the inspiration behind mark skaife being the over opinionated mouthpiece he is now lol