THE Bathurst 1000 is Australia’s Great Race, but it has now been conquered by an all-international combination on five occasions.
V8 Sleuth recaps the duos in that exclusive club.
Allan Moffat/Jacky Ickx (1977)
Ford’s most famous triumph Down Under of course was delivered by two non-Australians.
The 1977 Bathurst 1000 is memorable for the Blue Oval’s one-two form finish, as Moffat/Ickx marginally led the sister XC Falcon Hardtop driven by Colin Bond/Alan Hamilton across the line. The nearest Holden, Peter Janson/Larry Perkins’ LX Torana, was a lap behind.
By that time, Canadian-born Moffat was well and truly entrenched in Australia and on his way to a third ATCC crown, and the result marked his fourth and final Great Race victory.
As for Belgium’s Ickx, it was a nice addition to a tremendous resume already boasting wins in eight Formula 1 grands prix and several editions of the Le Mans 24 Hour.
Jim Richards/Rickard Rydell (1998)
It was more than two decades until the next such case, and in this instance it was the two-litre variety of the 1998 race.
Age was no barrier for ultra-versatile Kiwi Jim Richards, who at 51 was joined by Swedish star Rydell in a Swedish car (Volvo S40 Super Tourer).
It was just a fortnight earlier that Rydell had wrapped up the British Touring Car Championship crown, where he’d also been driving an S40.
Rydell carried that form into Bathurst to smash the field by almost 1.5 seconds in the Top 10 Shootout, and from there he and Richards got the job done over another all-international combo (Steve Richards/Matt Neal).
Steve Richards/Greg Murphy (1999)
Richo Jr is a somewhat controversial inclusion in this list, given that – unlike his father Jim – he is considered to be essentially an Aussie by many.
However, he was born in New Zealand, so for the purpose of this exercise he makes the cut.
After winning the V8 1000 in 1998 with Jason Bright, Steve Richards went back-to-back at Bathurst by scoring victory alongside fellow 27-year-old Kiwi Greg Murphy.
The win was Gibson Motorsport’s last at Bathurst, although both Richards and Murphy had plenty more successes there to come…
Scott McLaughlin/Alex Premat (2019)
Another 20 years passed before a double international duo took the chocolates at Mount Panorama.
McLaughlin and Premat had been close before, taking pole position for the 2017 edition and placing third the following year, but in 2019 they mastered the Mountain.
It turned out to be McLaughlin’s penultimate Great Race start before jetting off to the States to launch his IndyCar career.
Premat, the first and only Frenchman to win the 1000, meanwhile has never returned.
COVID-19 travel restrictions prevented him from doing so in 2020 and 2021, and now that he’s the wrong side of 40, there’s every chance his time might have passed.
Shane van Gisbergen/Richie Stanaway (2023)
Van Gisbergen and Stanaway recently became the fifth all-international pairing, and second all-Kiwi, to win the Bathurst 1000.
Stanaway was the fifth different non-Australian co-driver that SVG had partnered in the event following Premat, Jeroen Bleekemolen of The Netherlands, and compatriots John McIntyre and Earl Bamber.
Like Premat, van Gisbergen might leave the Mountain on a high, with the NASCAR-bound ace expected to miss the Great Race next year and beyond.
