The latest release from Chevron Marketing Services features another race from the Bathurst 1000 archives - the 2001 V8 Supercar 1000.
Since the start of the V8 era, it was starting to be acknowledged that the Bathurst 1000 was not longer a "test of endurance," but more a "flat out sprint." However 1000 kilometers around a track as demanding as this can never be dismissed as a straightforward exercise, and 2001 was a classic old-style test of endurance.
It was truly a survival of the fittest, with no less than 18 of the 39 starters failing to make the finish. Some of the most fancied runners fell victim to the weather conditions that literally saw the Mountain experience four seasons in one day, with stars like Larry Perkins and Craig Lowndes both coming to grief during one of the rain spells. Both managed to return to the race to make the finish, but both well down eighth and 17th respectively.
At the front of the field it was an absorbing battle that saw no less than 10 different leaders and a total of 25 lead changes.
It was also the race that almost delivered the upset of the century: The Brad Jones Racing OzEmail team had a shocking time in qualifying, with the ill-handling Brad Jones/John Cleland BJR Falcon AU only fast enough to qualify in a lowly 22nd place on the grid. The situation was so bad that the team called for drastic action, and made a wholesale raft of changes to the car overnight, hoping to rectify the situation. Almost miraculously, the car was transformed – all-of-a-sudden what had been undriveable in practice and qualifying was now easy to drive, and fast. So fast, in fact, that Cleland and Jones had no trouble slicing through the field, and in the end a charging Cleland came home in second place less than three seconds adrift of Mark Skaife’s HRT Commodore VX.
Skaife was joined in victory celebrations by co-driver Tony Longhurst, who could have been forgiven for thinking that the Mountain owed him one after the previous year’s disappointment. It was Skaife’s third Bathurst win, nine long years after his past success; for Longhurst it had been 13 years since his first (and only other) win in the race.
Special Note: Currently the master tapes for 2001 cannot be located. As an alternative we have been able to piece together the complete race day telecast by inter-cutting fan footage with the master sources we had. Therefore some footage during this program will appear grainy and not master quality; we felt it was better than nothing, and it does tell the complete story of this great race – as well as filling a gap in your collection.
Duration: Approximately 5 hours, 43 minutes