1997 AMP Bathurst 1000

The 1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 was the 38th running of the annual Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 5 October 1997 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. It was the first Bathurst 1000 race held after the controversial split between race organisers, the Australian Racing Drivers Club, and V8 Supercar, which led to Australia's leading touring car category contesting a separate 1000 kilometre race at Bathurst. This race, the 1997 Primus 1000 Classic, was held two weeks after the AMP Bathurst 1000.

The 1997 AMP Bathurst 1000 was open to Super Touring Cars and featured teams from Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. It could thus be considered as the first "international" Bathurst endurance race since the 1992 Tooheys 1000, which was the last Bathurst 1000 to be contested by cars complying with Australian regulations based on FIA Group A rules.

The race was won by brothers Geoff Brabham and David Brabham, driving a BMW 320i for BMW Motorsport Australia. The car of teammates Paul Morris and Craig Baird had initially been declared the winner of the race but was later disqualified as Baird had breached the race regulation which limited any one driver to a maximum of three hours continuous driving.^[1] A late race error saw the BMW Motorsport Australia team leave Baird in the car at the final pit stop instead of putting Morris in the car for the run to the chequered flag. This mistake cost the team a 1-2 finish for BMW. It was the second time in Geoff Brabham's career that he had won a major endurance race with his brother as a co-driver. Other brother Gary was Geoff's co-driver at the IMSA 1991 Coca-Cola 12 Hours of Sebring.

Top Ten Run-off

The fastest ten cars from qualifying contested a one lap "Top Ten Run-off" on the Saturday to determine the first ten grid places for the race.

Pos	No	Team	Driver	Car	Time
Pole	2	BMW Motorsport Australia	Paul Morris	BMW 320i	2:16.5958
2	3	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Alain Menu	Renault Laguna	2:16.6158
3	6	Esso Ultron Team Peugeot	Tim Harvey	Peugeot 406	2:17.1536
4	05	Vauxhall Sport	Derek Warwick	Vauxhall Vectra	2:17.2754
5	26	Esso Ultron Team Peugeot	Patrick Watts	Peugeot 406	2:17.5628
6	83	BMW Motorsport Australia	Geoff Brabham	BMW 320i	2:17.5857
7	34	Garry Rogers Valvoline Cummins	Steven Richards	Nissan Primera	2:17.9726
8	1	ORIX Audi Sport Australia	Brad Jones	Audi A4 Quattro	2:18.8756
9	7	Vauxhall Sport	John Cleland	Vauxhall Vectra	2:19.5864
10	23	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Alan Jones	Renault Laguna	2:20.5274

Official results

Pos	No	Team	Drivers	Car	Laps	Qual Pos	Run-off Pos
1	83	BMW Motorsport Australia	Geoff Brabham David Brabham	BMW 320i	161	1	6
2	1	ORIX Audi Sport Australia	Brad Jones Frank Biela	Audi A4 Quattro	161	9	8
3	11	ORIX Audi Sport Australia	Cameron McConville Jean-François Hemroulle	Audi A4 Quattro	161	11
4	4	Volvo Dealer Racing	Jim Richards Rickard Rydell	Volvo 850	159	13
5	8	Volvo Dealer Racing	Jan Nilsson Cameron McLean	Volvo 850	158	12
6	05	Vauxhall Sport	Peter Brock Derek Warwick	Vauxhall Vectra	148	7	4
7	16	Faber-Castell Racing	Paul Nelson Justin Mathews Bob Holden	BMW 318i	146	20
8	20	Brian Bradshaw Race Preparation	Dennis Chapman Brian Bradshaw	BMW 318i	144	25
9	21	M F Motorsport	Mike Fitzgerald Jamie Miller	Peugeot 405 Mi16	139	26
10	60	FAI Insurance	Julian Bailey Warren Luff	Honda Accord	138	14
11	45	David Auger	David Auger Lawrie Kyte	Alfa Romeo 155	134	24
DNF	64	Supercheap Auto Racing	Jason Richards Brett Riley	BMW 318i	125	17
DNF	37	Fastway Couriers	Tony Newman Dwayne Bewley	Peugeot 405 Mi16	121	15
DNF	30	Roadchill Express	Troy Searle Geoff Full	BMW 320i	115	18
DNF	3	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Alain Menu Jason Plato	Renault Laguna	114	2	2
DNF	26	Esso Ultron Team Peugeot	Patrick Watts Neil Crompton	Peugeot 406	112	4	5
DNF	14	HVE Motorsport	Ric Shaw Anthony Robson	Hyundai Lantra	110	23
DNF	34	Garry Rogers Valvoline Cummins	Steven Richards Matt Neal	Nissan Primera	84	10	7
NC	88	Knight Racing	Peter Hills Andrej Pavicevic	Ford Mondeo	80	21
DNF	58	HVE Motorsport	Paul Pickett Bill Seiders	Hyundai Lantra	73	27
DNF	6	Esso Ultron Team Peugeot	Tim Harvey Paul Radisich	Peugeot 406	70	3	3
DNF	10	Phoenix Motorsport	Neal Bates Mark Adderton	Toyota Camry	64	16
DNF	89	Knight Racing	Jenni Thompson Aaron McGill Terry Skene	Ford Mondeo	56	22
DNF	23	Williams Renault Dealer Racing	Alan Jones Graham Moore	Renault Laguna	38	8	10
DNF	12	Nigel Barclay	Nigel Barclay Blair Smith Jim Cornish	BMW 318i	37	19
DNF	7	Vauxhall Sport	John Cleland James Kaye	Vauxhall Vectra	32	6	9
DSQ	2	BMW Motorsport Australia	Paul Morris Craig Baird	BMW 320i	161	5	1
DNQ [2]	15 [2]	All Auto Parts [3]	Milton Leslight [2] Dennis Cribbin [2]	Toyota Carina [2]
DNS [4]	22 [4]	BMW Motorsport Australia [3]	Geoff Brabham [4]	BMW 320i [3]
DNS [4]	38 [4]	Fastway Couriers [3]	Dwayne Bewley [4] Tony Newman [4]	Peugeot 405 Mi16 [3]

References

Statistics

• Provisional Pole Position - #83 Geoff Brabham - 2:17.4276
• Pole Position - #2 Paul Morris - 2:16.5958
• Fastest Lap - #3 Jason Plato - 2:16.8034 - Lap 5 (Super Touring lap record)
• Average Speed - 150 km/h
• Race Time - 6:41:25.4072

External links

• Official race results
• 1997 Bathurst 1000 at www.supertouringregister.com