This year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 features a special tribute to nine-time race winner Peter Brock, including a range of cars from his incredible career set to be on-hand at the track in ‘Peter’s Pitlane’ for fans to enjoy.
Among them is his first Bathurst-winning car, the famous #28 Holden Dealer Team XU-1 Torana that he drove to victory in 1972.
His record of nine Great Race wins at Bathurst remains the marker by which all drivers are judged in their careers and from many years of assaults on Mount Panorama.
But there was a time when Brock had never won the race, a time when he didn’t know what it felt like to take victory in the then-500-mile classic.
On Sunday October 1 in 1972 he most certainly found out.
By this stage Brock was fully entrenched in Harry Firth’s Holden Dealer Team, running the team’s Toranas in state touring car series, country races, hillclimbs, Sport Sedans and rallycross.
Yet Firth still considered Brock to be serving his apprenticeship, earning the right to the benefits that a factory-backed team could offer.
A swap in colours
HDT’s LJ XU-1 Toranas that rolled out for Bathurst had reportedly been new at the start of 1972 and originally appeared in a silver and black paint scheme, however a cleaner colour palette of white, red and black was debuted in time for the endurance races.
The team’s cars for the 1972 Bathurst race were powered by the Holden ‘202’ 3.3-litre, six-cylinder engine and featured wider Globe wheels and Dunlop slick tyres.
What the little Torana lost out to the V8 grunt of the Falcon GTHO, it gained back with agile handling, better fuel consumption and superior tyre wear.
But there was a time where it looked like Brock, teammate Colin Bond and the HDT would have a V8-powered Torana for the 1972 Mountain race.
News of Holden, Ford and Chrysler building souped-up, high-powered specials specifically to qualify for eligibility at Bathurst hit the media.
The hysteria that followed saw all three shelve their plans amid the ‘Supercar Scare’, so Holden’s ‘XU-2’ V8-powered Torana remained stillborn and the six-cylinder Torana again headed to the Mountain in October.
A massive moment with Moffat
That year’s race was the last time it was held over 500 miles and many, Brock included, elected to drive solo.
He spent just over six hours at the wheel of the #28C Torana to win, even overcoming a one-minute penalty for restarting his engine while refuelling.
Qualifying fifth on the grid, Brock was headed by the four GTHO Falcons of Allan Moffat, John Goss, John French and Fred Gibson on the grid but worked his way up the order in the opening laps.
Wet weather eliminated a range of cars via rollovers - including Brock’s own teammate Bond and Moffat’s teammate Gibson – and Brock found himself in an epic duel in the rain with Moffat.
Eventually Moffat made a mistake at the top of the Mountain and spun; the nimble Torana shot by into a lead it would eventually convert into victory.
Moffat’s mistake was a defining moment for Brock and his little XU-1 Torana, removing the then-two-time Bathurst winner from contention and allowing the Victorian young gun a somewhat easier path to victory.
However, Brock crossing the line after 130 laps that Sunday in 1972 was even more defining; it was the victory that instantly launched him into the nation’s sporting conscience.
The quotes that defined the race
“That was a very enjoyable part of the race,” said Brock in the aftermath of his battle with Moffat at Bathurst in 1972.
“Moffat and I had some mighty psych jobs going on each other. I don’t know how much of this I should mention.
“Just say that when he had his big lose on the top of the mountain he went into that particular corner looking at me.
“After that I played it real cool.”
The enormity of his achievement would be revered for years to come, but in the aftermath Brock soon understood what it meant to claim victory in Australia’s most famous race.
“It didn’t really strike me until I’d got back to Melbourne,” he said.
“The phone was running hot, every joker wanted me on their TV programme. The next fortnight you realise somehow, you’ve done something people think is important.”
The Repco Bathurst 1000 will be held at Mount Panorama on October 8-11.
In collaboration with V8 Sleuth, Supercars.com is highlighting Peter Brock, who will be honoured at the 2026 Repco Bathurst 1000. The nine-time Bathurst winner will be celebrated via a series of tributes, with several of his famous cars on display at the Mountain. The Peter's Pitlane exhibition is in the National Motor Racing Museum between Thursday October 8 and Sunday October 11.
