BATHURST IN NOVEMBER

ews that the 2021 edition of the Bathurst 1000 would be postponed until November got me wondering, had ‘the great race’ ever taken place before outside of the traditional early October date? After a little digging I discovered that one of the 1998 events had both a November date and a Kiwi connection — in fact a double connection. In both ’97 and ’98 there were two Bathursts — one for two-litre tourers, while the other was for the traditional V8s. A BMW 320i shared by two of Sir Jack Brabham’s sons won the first race in 1997, and then two weeks later it was a hat-trick for Holden’s Commodore, but for 1998 the decision was made to split the two events by an additional month meaning that the V8’s race was on 15 November. It was in this race that Stone Brothers Racing made its notable Bathurst debut. Despite all hailing from the general southern Auckland region, brothers Ross and Jimmy were unrelated to Ray ‘of Alfriston/Maraetai’ Stone, or Bill ‘of Clevedon’ Stone, yet all were close. Ross and Jimmy grew up in Onewhero,