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GRAND-AM
V8: Leigh Diffey’s Bathurst 1000 Memories
SPEED host and V8 Supercar insider Leigh Diffey looks back at some of his favorite moments and memories from the Bathurst 1000 race.
SPEED's Leigh Diffey has deep roots in the V8 Supercar series and at Mount Panorama. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
The Bathurst 1000 is great at creating lasting memories for fans, drivers and those involved with the series. In a very similar vein to the Daytona 500, winning at Bathurst can make your career just like it can at Daytona.
Winning the Daytona 500 is a life changer, a career changer. So too is winning the Bathurst 1000. And because Australia is such a unique place and the Australian motorsport culture is so passionate with highly involved fans, that then naturally bleeds into embracing the history of the sport. And there's no other event that is embraced here, nor the history embraced more passionately than the Bathurst 1000.
It's gone to various iterations; it wasn't always a 1000 km race. And then there were some separated years, very similar to Champ Car, CART and IRL, where the Australian 2-Litre Super Touring Championship and the Australia Racing Drivers Club owned the rights to the Bathurst 1000. So there were a couple of years of separation at a few events during the 1990s. And embracing that history, now matter under what sanctioning body, you naturally have to include the big characters who built their names on Mount Panorama.
For me, I always enjoyed my personal time, one-on-one, with the great Peter Brock. He always had time to speak with people no matter what you were. I remember when I was really young and I was just starting out and he couldn’t have been friendlier. I was a nobody but he gave me time. I've been very fortunate to become very good friends with other greats Dick Johnson and Larry Perkins, who are two of the biggest characters up and down pit lane.
These guys have got so many motor racing stories and so many Bathurst stories and tales to tell that even though I've done V8 Supercars for a long time, and I feel like I've been around a while, it's a very small amount of time in comparison to them. One of those things that excites me is being back in their presence this week and hearing the stories again. With the volume of knowledge and the volume of stories that they have, it's just great to be around it. It's like being around and A.J. Foyt or Richard Petty in America. They’re the megastars of Australian motorsport and always will be.
That's what makes it such a shame that Peter Brock is no longer around.
One of the most moving and personal stories that I have was the last Bathurst that I did, which was 2006. On the grid before the race started there was a very, very moving tribute to the late Peter Brock, who had recently died in a road rally accident. And they had all nine of his Bathurst winning cars on the grid and they were all driven by a variety of past and present Holden drivers – Greg Murphy and Craig Lowndes were two of them.
I remember standing on pit lane before I went up into the TV booth--we had to do some pre-race things for the broadcast--and I was down on the grid and I had the fortune of interviewing David Brabham. I was standing next to David after we had done the interview and after the guys had done a commemorative lap for Peter Brock then parked the cars, they got out and stood there and I just watched Craig Lowndes...the tears were rolling down his cheek like a waterfall.
And I looked – and both David and I, we had tears in our eyes because it was such a moving moment. The whole motorsport fraternity was still coming to grips with the fact that Peter had passed on – and I looked at David and I said, “I don't think today's going to be Craig’s day, it's too emotional.” And I could not have been further from the truth because he turned around and that was the day, I think in commentary I said, “This was the day he's driven to his second Bathurst win, today he farewelled his friend, and it’s the day he again conquered the Mountain.”
Over a period of maybe seven hours, I've never been so moved to see Craig in such emotional distress at the start of the day, but then to watch the hero, the modern-day hero that he is, just rally and come back and stage just an unbelievable victory, was something that has left an indelible memory for me. I can see it like yesterday and it was five years ago.
Like I said, the Mountain makes memories, and I’m sure we’ll have more to come today.
~Leigh
Leigh Diffey brings his considerable hosting talents and personality to a number of SPEED's road racing broadcasts after years of covering every major form of international motorsports in his native Australia and abroad.
Winning the Daytona 500 is a life changer, a career changer. So too is winning the Bathurst 1000. And because Australia is such a unique place and the Australian motorsport culture is so passionate with highly involved fans, that then naturally bleeds into embracing the history of the sport. And there's no other event that is embraced here, nor the history embraced more passionately than the Bathurst 1000.
It's gone to various iterations; it wasn't always a 1000 km race. And then there were some separated years, very similar to Champ Car, CART and IRL, where the Australian 2-Litre Super Touring Championship and the Australia Racing Drivers Club owned the rights to the Bathurst 1000. So there were a couple of years of separation at a few events during the 1990s. And embracing that history, now matter under what sanctioning body, you naturally have to include the big characters who built their names on Mount Panorama.
For me, I always enjoyed my personal time, one-on-one, with the great Peter Brock. He always had time to speak with people no matter what you were. I remember when I was really young and I was just starting out and he couldn’t have been friendlier. I was a nobody but he gave me time. I've been very fortunate to become very good friends with other greats Dick Johnson and Larry Perkins, who are two of the biggest characters up and down pit lane.
These guys have got so many motor racing stories and so many Bathurst stories and tales to tell that even though I've done V8 Supercars for a long time, and I feel like I've been around a while, it's a very small amount of time in comparison to them. One of those things that excites me is being back in their presence this week and hearing the stories again. With the volume of knowledge and the volume of stories that they have, it's just great to be around it. It's like being around and A.J. Foyt or Richard Petty in America. They’re the megastars of Australian motorsport and always will be.
That's what makes it such a shame that Peter Brock is no longer around.
One of the most moving and personal stories that I have was the last Bathurst that I did, which was 2006. On the grid before the race started there was a very, very moving tribute to the late Peter Brock, who had recently died in a road rally accident. And they had all nine of his Bathurst winning cars on the grid and they were all driven by a variety of past and present Holden drivers – Greg Murphy and Craig Lowndes were two of them.
I remember standing on pit lane before I went up into the TV booth--we had to do some pre-race things for the broadcast--and I was down on the grid and I had the fortune of interviewing David Brabham. I was standing next to David after we had done the interview and after the guys had done a commemorative lap for Peter Brock then parked the cars, they got out and stood there and I just watched Craig Lowndes...the tears were rolling down his cheek like a waterfall.
And I looked – and both David and I, we had tears in our eyes because it was such a moving moment. The whole motorsport fraternity was still coming to grips with the fact that Peter had passed on – and I looked at David and I said, “I don't think today's going to be Craig’s day, it's too emotional.” And I could not have been further from the truth because he turned around and that was the day, I think in commentary I said, “This was the day he's driven to his second Bathurst win, today he farewelled his friend, and it’s the day he again conquered the Mountain.”
Over a period of maybe seven hours, I've never been so moved to see Craig in such emotional distress at the start of the day, but then to watch the hero, the modern-day hero that he is, just rally and come back and stage just an unbelievable victory, was something that has left an indelible memory for me. I can see it like yesterday and it was five years ago.
Like I said, the Mountain makes memories, and I’m sure we’ll have more to come today.
~Leigh
Leigh Diffey brings his considerable hosting talents and personality to a number of SPEED's road racing broadcasts after years of covering every major form of international motorsports in his native Australia and abroad.
Road Atlanta
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