The 1977 Hardie-Ferodo was a great
event if only for the degree of international
participation. Drivers such as Jacki Ickx, Jack
Brabham, Vern Schuppan, Leo Leonard, John Fitzpatrick,
Johnnie Rutherford, Janet Guthrie, Henri Pescarolo,
Gerry Marshal and Basil Van Rooyan added a strong
character to the race. No less than 11 Falcons
entered, the biggest Ford entry since 1971.
Allan
Moffat was teamed with Jacki Ickx, Colin Bond
with Alan Hamilton, John Goss with Henri Pescarolo,
Jack and Geoff Brabham were together in the
second Goss car, Jim Richards with Rod Coppins,
Ron Dickson with Fred Gibson,
Dick Johnson with
Vern Schuppan, Murray Carter with Bob Stevens,
Rusty French with Leo Leonard in a new car, Rod
Donovan and Ron Lindau, the two West Australian
Kings of Wanneroo Park's "Street Class" races,
also in a car new to production touring and finally,
Jim Keogh was teamed with Graeme Ritter.
Against
this were 19 Torana’s, a mixture
of hatchback and four-door models, headed by
the Marlboro-Holden Dealer cars led by John Harvey,
plus a three-car entry from Bill Patterson Racing
with Peter Brock their No 1 driver. There was
good back-up in the other Torana teams. For the
first time the cars were permitted to use two-way
radios to communicate with their pit crews.
Practice
saw
Peter Brock on pole position with a time
of 2min 24.9sec, one-tenth better than Moffat's
time in 1976. Colin Bond was next fastest with
a 2min 26.4sec to take the other position on
the front row of the grid. Moffat started. from
position 4. The next best Falcon was that of
Jim Richards who unobtrusively earned sixth spot.
The
race was dominated by Moffat, Bond, Ickx and
Hamilton, the two Falcon’s crossing
the line in a classic 1-2 formation, finishing
only inches apart after instructions were given
to the cars by Carroll Smith to put on a grandstand
finish. The two cars did the last lap side by
side in one of the most stirring moments witnessed
at Bathurst (
click
here to view).
Of the other
Falcons, only two were classed as finishers,
the Dickson/Gibson car being credited with 11th
outright after an over-rev in the opening laps
did enough damage to the engine to rob the car
of a lot of power, and the Brabham/Brabham Falcon
which was racing very strongly for most of the
race, actually being third outright (behind Moffat
and Bond) for some time, was credited with 16th
outright.
The others
suffered from various maladies, Murray Carter
for example, blowing an engine after 19 laps.
His crew worked for a couple of hours to install
a new engine, and after 19 further laps that
one blew as well! The Torana challenge for this
race appeared to be, and was, very strong. But
the Moffat cars simply could not be challenged
on the day. They ran faultlessly at a very fast
pace, the only untoward happening being a tire
change on Moffat's car in the closing laps. It
was the perfect conclusion to 10 years of racing
Falcons.