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THE RACE

The colourful and well prepared field lined up in sunshine for the start at 12.SOpm. Down went the flag and Francevic scurried away in front of Brocklehurst, Palmer, Harrington, Bailey, Shiells, Neil and Adamson. At the end of the main straight Palmer moved into second place, while the Falcon led past the pits after one lap. Palmer dived on the inside of Francevic at Tappenden corner, and only 3.5 seconds separated the leading quartet of Palmer, Francevic, Brocklehurst and Harrington as they started their third lap. Fourth was Bailey's Porsche followed by Shiells, Neil, Adamson, Brickley. Cameron and a gap to Carroll, Mahon and Parker.

Lap 3 saw Brocklehurst take second from Francevic, and on the fifth round Neil snatched sixth spot from Shiells. By this time Palmer was 2.6 seconds in front of the second Torana and already lappvg the tailers. At 10 laps Palmer was 3.8 seconds clear of Brocklehurst and had put in one tour at lm 13s, his best for the race. Car-roll led class 3 in tenth place, Diggel-mann's Datsun 1200 led class 2 in 15th position and Lou Reidt's 998 Mini Cooper headed class 1, well down the field.

The two Capellas persisted in their struggle for sixth while another tussle was being waged for ninth between the two Monaros of Brickley and Cameron. They remained close until the 34th lap when Cameron pitted with brake trouble and later retired. The pits were still quiet, and only McNair's Mini had stopped to take on the compulsory petrol.

Thirteen of the 100 laps completed, and the Ebbett Motors Holden ran 5 seconds clear of Brocklehurst who was 5.5 seconds up on Francevic. Then came a gap of 10.6 seconds to Harrington who was 5 seconds in front of Bailey. The wheel-lifting Porsche doubled Mahon's 12th pos-itioned Fiat 125 on lap 14. On the 15th lap Francevic encountered the spinning Fiat 850 Coupe of Vern Newlove at Castrol Curve and the two cars contacted. It was hard to believe that the little Fiat was able to continue while the crippled Falcon was out with a broken radiator, but the nose of the Italian car nudged the big Ford in precisely the wrong spot.

At the end of the 19th lap Palmer pitted for fuel, handing the lead to Brocklehurst. Harrington now ran second, followed by Bailey, the two Capellas of Neil and Shiells, the good performing twin cam Escort of Adamson, the two Monaros, Carroll, and a tussle between Mahon and Parker. Palmer's stop was only brief, and the Ham-ilton driver roared away from the pits in fourth place. Lap 21 saw leader Brockle-hurst lap Brickley and Cameron to put only six cars on the same round.

At the quarter distance mark, the leader was 26 seconds in front of Harrington, with a 9 second delay to Palmer who had displaced the Porsche on lap 24. Sixth man Shiells was receiving opposition from Adamson's Escort, the Capella looking spectacular through the twisty bits and sounding crisp as it sometimes revved to 8000rpm. On lap 27 Parker at last wrested llth place from Mahon, these cars now running two laps behind the leaders. Brocklehurst lapped Neil on the 29th round to put five cars on the same lap.

Brocklehurst gradually eased away from Harrington and at 30 laps was 31 seconds in front. Meantime Palmer closed in on the second car, and put Roy behind him on lap 32. Once in second place the gap between the first two remained at the half minute mark, Palmer confident because he knew Brocklehurst had still to make his refuel stop.

On lap 35 Philip Anderson's Avenger and the Datsun 1600 of Cliff Kingston pitted for fuel. At the same time the seventh placed Escort TC of Adamson, which had been holding off the two Monaros, pitted with generator trouble which could uot be rectified in reasonable time. Ron McPhail pitted his Datsun 1600 for petrol on lap 31 and handed the wheel to Paul Kirk. At the time this entry ran 12th overall and second in class 2; they maintained their class position to the finish.

The lapcharts read 40, and still Brockle-hurst headed Palmer, Harrington and a 30 second gap to Bailey's Porsche which led the Neil Corolla by 38 seconds. Shiells was tucked in behind Neil, and then came the Brickley Monaro, Carroll Torana, Par-ker and Mahon. The Petch/Wallace Cooper 12755 pitted on lap 42, while Brickley spun his Monaro but didn't drop a place.

On lap 43, or 1.45pm, the leader doubled the fourth placed Porsche. Eighth man Carroll stopped for fuel on lap 44, and went on to win class 3, and two laps later Brickley (seventh overall) overshot the refuelling bay and had to do another lap before taking on petrol. After 50 laps Brocklehurst was 26 seconds clear of Palmer who had 22 seconds on Harrington, 44 seconds to Bailey, 48 seconds to Neil who held his fifth spot from the second Capella by half a second.

The seventh placed Cooper 1275S of Trevor Parker was performing well, but the Mini encountered problems when it re-fuelled on lap 58. The engine refused to start and after a delay the car was push-started at the back of the pits. Parker rejoined but push starting was not permitted by the regulations, and a possible class victory went down the drain.

At the start of the 60th round Brockle-hurst pitted for fuel and the stop took a long time when Richard had difficulty with the petrol cap and then the Torana was reluctant to restart. Palmer took command and Brocklehurst rejoined in third place, about 12 seconds in front of the fourth placed Porsche. Sixty-four laps gone and Palmer's lead over Harrington was 43 sec-onds. The second man was 51 seconds in front of Brocklehurst.

Meanwhile Neil had pitted his Capella on lap 61, and Shiells was to pit his similar car seven laps later. The latter had a shorter stop and rejoined still in front of Neil, where he stayed to the flag. Steve Borich, hardly noticed in the Falcon 500, pitted for gas on lap 70 and on lap 72 the Porsche made one of the fastest re-fuelling stops of the race (30 seconds), being delayed only when it came to rejoin the road.

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