1987 James Hardie 1000

The 1987 Bathurst 1000, known for naming rights reasons as the 1987 James Hardie 1000, was an endurance race for Group A Touring Cars, staged on 4 October 1987 at the Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. The race was the eighth round of the World Touring Car Championship.

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 race was provisionally won by Eggenberger Motorsport, with Steve Soper and Pierre Dieudonné first across the line in a Ford Sierra RS500, two laps ahead of teammates Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz. Third was the HDT Racing Holden Commodore VL driven by Peter McLeod, Peter Brock and David Parsons.

A protest lodged after the race resulted in the two Eggenberger cars being disqualified for illegally modified front wheel arch guards. A final appeal was rejected in March 1988.

Classes

Cars competed in three classes conforming to World Touring Car Championship regulations:

• 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.

Hardies Heroes

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).

* 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.

Official results

Sourced from:

Italics indicate driver practiced this car but did not race.

Statistics

• 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 - 140km/h
• Race Time - 7:01:08.40 (based upon when Car 6 crossed the line).

Further reading

• Naismith, Barry (December 1987). Bathurst. Glen Waverley: Garry Sparke & Associates. ISBN0-908-081-359.
• Normoyle, Steve (1988). The Great Race 7. Hornsby: Chevron Publishing. ISSN.

External links