1995 Tooheys 1000 Explained

The 1995 Tooheys 1000 was the 36th running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 1 October 1995, at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst. The race was held for cars eligible under CAMS Group 3A 5.0 Litre Touring Car regulations, that later became known as V8 Supercars. This was the first Bathurst 1000 to be contested by single class.

With only 32 cars on the starting grid it was the smallest field so far in the race's history. This was attributed to the fact that the race was run only for the outright class 5.0 Litre Touring Cars with no small car categories running for the first time in the history of the race going back to the 1960 Armstrong 500 at Phillip Island in Victoria.

Larry Perkins and Russell Ingall driving the #11 Castrol Commodore won the 1995 Tooheys 1000 in what was literally a last to first effort. Perkins clashed with the slow starting HRT Commodore of pole sitter Craig Lowndes before the first turn which pulled the valve out of a tyre forcing him to fall from third to last on the first lap before pitting to replace the tyre. The duo started to climb back up into contention, helped by cars ailing to go the race distance and Safety car periods including once after having just un-lapped themselves and were back in the top 5 with 20 laps to go.

Following the last Safety car, Perkins set about hauling in the leaders. He passed Neil Crompton's Coke Commodore and the Peter Jackson Falcon of Alan Jones to move into second place about 7 seconds behind the Falcon of Jones' team leader Glenn Seton. Then going across the top of the mountain on lap 151, Seton's engine, built by the teams chief engine builder and Glenn's dad Barry Seton dropped a valve. Going into Murray's Corner Perkins had caught up to Seton and passed him for the lead. Perkins went on to win a famous victory while Seton's race ended less than half a lap later, the Falcon coming to a stop on the climb to BP Cutting. In a show of courage, an obviously gutted Seton conducted an interview on Racecam with Channel 7 showing graciousness in defeat while the race continued with cameras in the pits showing his father Bo, head in hands not wanting to believe the race was lost after they were so close to winning.

Had Glenn Seton won the race in 1995 it would have been 30 years since his father Bo Seton had won the 1965 race driving a Ford Cortina Mk.I GT500.

Entry list

		Team (Sponsor)
1	25
2	27
3	28
4	30
05	33
7	35
9	36	^[1]
10	37
11	38
12	39
015	49
17	54
18	55
20	60
21	62
24	74
Source:^[2]

Results

Top 10 shootout

Pos	No	Team	Driver	Car	TT10	Qual
Pole	015	Holden Racing Team	Craig Lowndes	Holden VR Commodore	2:11.5540	2:12.32
2	1	Winfield Racing	Mark Skaife	Holden VR Commodore	2:11.9504	2:12.10
3	11	Castrol Perkins Racing	Larry Perkins	Holden VR Commodore	2:12.4759	2:11.58
4	7	Coca-Cola Racing	Wayne Gardner	Holden VR Commodore	2:12.5422	2:12.36
5	30	Peter Jackson Racing	Glenn Seton	Ford EF Falcon	2:12.5438	2:11.60
6	35	Peter Jackson Racing	Alan Jones	Ford EF Falcon	2:12.7075	2:12.79
7	18	Shell FAI Racing	Steven Johnson	Ford EF Falcon	2:13.1149	2:12.46
8	17	Shell FAI Racing	Dick Johnson	Ford EF Falcon	2:13.1854	2:11.90
9	25	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Tony Longhurst	Ford EF Falcon	2:13.8883	2:13.11
10	05	Holden Racing Team	Peter Brock	Holden VR Commodore	DNF	2:12.03

1995 saw the first time a father and son both qualified for the shootout. Dick Johnson, competing in his 18th straight shootout, and his son Steven Johnson, in his first, qualified their Shell FAI Racing Ford EF Falcon's in 7th and 8th place, with the younger Johnson out qualifying his more experienced dad by 0.0705 seconds.
* Peter Brock crashed his Holden Racing Team VR Commodore at The Cutting during his lap, thus he did not record a time and would start 10th. His HRT teammate Craig Lowndes claimed his first Bathurst pole position with a time of 2:11.554. This was 0.766 seconds faster than his qualifying time of 2:12.32.
* Following a CAMS parity adjustment which saw a reduction in size to the front spoiler of the Ford EF Falcons which had dominated the 1995 ATCC, the Ford runners claimed that they were at least a second or more per lap slower than they would have been had they been able to run the originally homologated spoiler.

Race

Pos	No	Team	Drivers	Car	Laps	Qual Pos	Shootout Pos
1	11	Castrol Perkins Racing	Larry Perkins Russell Ingall	Holden VR Commodore	161	1	3
2	35	Peter Jackson Racing	Alan Jones Allan Grice David Parsons	Ford EF Falcon	161	9	6
3	7	Coca-Cola Racing	Wayne Gardner Neil Crompton	Holden VR Commodore	161	7	4
4	2	Winfield Racing	Anders Olofsson Steven Richards	Holden VR Commodore	161	16
5	4	Coca-Cola Racing	Brad Jones Win Percy	Holden VR Commodore	161	11
6	21	Pinnacle Motorsport	Tony Scott John Cleland	Holden VR Commodore	158	13
7	18	Shell FAI Racing	Charlie O'Brien Steven Johnson	Ford EF Falcon	158	8	7
8	28	Playscape Racing	Kevin Waldock Mark McLaughlin	Ford EF Falcon	152	24
9	25	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Tony Longhurst Wayne Park	Ford EF Falcon	149	10	9
10	39	Bill O'Brien	Bill O'Brien Brian Callaghan Jr Ron Barnacle	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV	149	30
11	37	Scotty Taylor Racing	Alan Taylor Roger Hurd Stephen Bell	Holden VP Commodore	146	31
12	74	PACE Racing	Kevin Heffernan Stephen Voight	Holden VP Commodore	144	27
13	54	Lamont Motor Sport NZ	Ed Lamont Graham Gulson	Holden VP Commodore	143	26
14	49	Alcair Racing	David Attard Greg Crick	Holden VP Commodore	130	14
15	62	Novacastrian Motorsport	Wayne Russell Ric Shaw	Holden VP Commodore	129	29
DNF	30	Peter Jackson Racing	Glenn Seton David Parsons Allan Grice	Ford EF Falcon	152	2	5
DNF	38	James Rosenberg Racing	Mark Poole Ed Ordynski Bernie Stack	Holden VP Commodore	136	25
DNF	3	Lansvale Racing Team	Steve Reed Trevor Ashby	Holden VP Commodore	132	15
DNF	55	David Parsons	David Parsons Rodney Crick	Holden VR Commodore	127	17
NC	24	Romano Racing	Paul Romano Troy Dunstan	Holden VP Commodore	113	21
DNF	17	Shell FAI Racing	Dick Johnson John Bowe	Ford EF Falcon	110	3	8
DNF	33	Pro-Duct Motorsport	Bob Pearson Bruce Stewart	Holden VP Commodore	88	19
DNF	1	Winfield Racing	Mark Skaife Jim Richards	Holden VR Commodore	65	5	2
DNF	27	Terry Finnigan	Terry Finnigan Peter Gazzard	Holden VP Commodore	54	22
DNF	12	M3 Motorsport	Peter Doulman John Cotter	Holden VP Commodore	40	20
DNF	20	Palmer Promotions	Ian Palmer Brett Peters	Holden VR Commodore	38	28
DNF	05	Holden Racing Team	Peter Brock Tomas Mezera	Holden VR Commodore	32	4	10
DNF	10	Larkham Motor Sport	Mark Larkham Warwick Rooklyn	Ford EF Falcon	22	12
DNF	36	Schembri Motorsport	Neil Schembri Graham Moore	Holden VR Commodore	19	23
DNF	9	Allan Moffat Enterprises	Andrew Miedecke Mark Noske	Ford EB Falcon	16	18
DNF	015	Holden Racing Team	Craig Lowndes Greg Murphy	Holden VR Commodore	10	6	1
DNF	60	Enzed Racing	Ryan McLeod Peter McLeod	Holden VR Commodore	0	32

Statistics

Provisional Pole Position – #11 Larry Perkins – 2:11.5764
Pole Position – #015 Craig Lowndes – 2:11.5540
Fastest Lap – #015 Craig Lowndes – 2:14.3239 - Lap 8
Average Speed – 157.72 km/h^[3]
Race Time - 6:20:32.3766

References

News: 95802 - NEIL SCHEMBRI / GRAHAM MOORE - COMMODORE VR - Tooheys 1000 - Bathurst 1995 - Photographer Marshall Cass. Autopics. 1 October 1995.
Book: Noonan, Aaron. 25 November 2021. Bathurst Every Car, the Photographic History 1990-1999. AN1 Media . 114–125. 9780648786344.
Australian Motor Racing Year 1995, page 281