No moment sums up the 1981 James Hardie 1000 more perfectly than when race organiser Ivan Stibbard announced to Channel Seven’s national audience that the race had been declared after the track-blocking lap-121 crash. Within a nanosecond of the solemn-looking Stibbard telling Seven’s Garry Wilkinson ‘the race has now concluded’ a red-helmeted individual behind him leapt skywards with a ‘woohoo!’ for the ages.
The contrast in emotions between the sombre ARDC head honcho and race winner Dick Johnson could not have been more stark. So high does ‘Tricky Dicky’ leap in celebration, it’s like the weight of world was suddenly flung from his shoulders. Which, of course, is exactly how the then 36-year-old felt. It was his job-done moment, capping a remarkable 12 months of trials, tribulations and triumphs. Dick Johnson had just won Bathurst.
It’s a pity Johnson was largely obscured behind Stibbard. Nonetheless, viewed through the prism of 40 years, the moment reinforces just how dramatic the race’s conclusion was, even by Great Race standards of the era. Euphoria for Johnson juxtaposes sharply with the misery – expressed in Stibbard’s face – felt by four other teams that finished in the top six.
If the story of Bathurst 1981 was primarily the tale of Johnson exorcising the demons of the rock incident 12 months earlier, then the colossal McPhillamy Park crash that ended proceedings at the three-quarter mark runs a close second.
Yet Bathurst ’81
