THE 2000 Bathurst 1000 goes down as the time Garry Rogers Motorsport conquered Mount Panorama – but equally, it was the one that got away for Tony Longhurst.
Having navigated treacherous conditions, Longhurst was cruising towards a second Great Race triumph in the #9 Stone Brothers Racing AU Falcon he was sharing with rookie David Besnard.
That is, until the race was turned upside down on Lap 151 of 161 when runaway leader Longhurst collided with Adam Macrow.
The latter was running 12th at the time, for John Faulkner Racing.
He had in fact contested the 1999 Bathurst 1000 with Longhurst himself, as well as driving for Longhurst Racing with Alan Jones the year before that.
The incident was not caught on cameras and has rarely been spoken about – until Macrow’s appearance on this week’s V8 Sleuth Podcast powered by Repco.
“I think I was on wets on a drying track and he (Longhurst) tried to pass me, you know where (Chaz) Mostert went in for that massive shunt – it wasn’t the left-hander, it was the right-hander with the rockface on the driver’s side,” he recalled to host Aaron Noonan.
“He tried to go up the inside there. I just didn’t expect him to try to pass at that spot, because if I go out too wide… and I think the mirrors were covered in mud and all that sort of stuff.
“I didn’t expect him to pass there, I didn’t see him.
“I turned in, he hit my rear wheel, I went backwards into the fence, ripped the whole fuel cell out of the thing and I think ripped the front end out of his car.”
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Macrow revealed SBR owners Ross and Jimmy Stone never spoke to him again, but believes vision might have seen the blame apportioned differently.
“There’s really not room for two cars there because if you go off-line especially after a day at the track, you’re in the wall,” he said.
“It’s one of those spots where I don’t think anyone has ever passed there, unless someone is crawling along at 3km/hr.
“It’s one of those things where I didn’t see him, he probably shouldn’t have gone for the move there especially with the lead he had, he would have got me down the straight anyway in one corner, so one of those things unfortunately.”
Longhurst did go on to win Bathurst the very next year, co-driving with Mark Skaife and the Holden Racing Team.
Macrow, the older brother of retiring two-time Gold Star winner Tim, went on to be involved in Triple Eight’s maiden Mount Panorama podium before winning the 2006 Super2 crown.
