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The1980 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 was the 21st running of theBathurst 1000touring car race. It was held on 5 October 1980 at theMount Panorama Circuit just outsideBathurst inNew South Wales,Australia. The race was open to cars eligible under the locally developedCAMSGroup C Touring Car regulations with four engine capacity based classes.
Peter Brock andJim Richards won their third consecutiveBathurst 1000 debuting theHolden Commodore for theHolden Dealer Team.[1] In taking a one lap win over Peter Janson andLarry Perkins, Brock won his fifth Bathurst 1000, breaking the record for most wins in the history of the race. Janson and Perkins finished second for the second successive year and finished three laps ahead ofIan Geoghegan and Paul Gulson as Commodores filled the first seven positions.
The race is most famous for the retirement of theFord Falcon ofDick Johnson on lap 17. The1980 Australian Touring Car Championship had featured one of the smallest fields in its then twelve years as a multi-race championship. The championship was dominated by Brock, with only two or three other cars competitive, including theChevrolet Camaro Z28 ofKevin Bartlett. The emergence of hard charging Ford privateer Johnson into a race winning threat just one month prior to Bathurst atAmaroo Park's CRC 300 where he qualified on the front row with Brock and even led him for a number of laps before his tyres went off, revitalised interest (and pleased Peter Brock the most. Now the owner of the HDT, Brock knew the value of having a competitive Ford opponent and Johnson provided that). Interest was up even more so when Johnson qualified on the front row of the grid, alongside the pole-setting Camaro of Bartlett, and ahead of Brock. Johnson ran away from the field at the start and Brock dropped a lap behind Johnson after a clash with a back-marker Holden Gemini. Less than 30 seconds after lapping Brock going up Mountain Straight, Johnson crashed heavily into the wall just after the Cutting on lap 17 after clipping a large rock (which Johnson later described as being at least the size of an overnight bag) on the track when presented with no other options as a slow-moving tow truck carrying a dead-car blocked the other side of the track.
During an interview onChannel 7 with visiting pit reporterChris Economaki, a distraught Johnson stated he had dedicated all of his finances in a final shot at the winning the race after ten years as a competent mid-fielder. Mike Raymond then interrupted the interview from the commentary booth to inform a visibly moved Johnson that their switchboards around the country were flooded with calls from people pledging money to get Johnson and his Ford back racing with a total ofAU$ 72,000 raised. This total was matched dollar for dollar by the then boss ofFord Australia,Edsel Ford II, who quickly saw the value of having Johnson keeping Ford at the front of touring car racing despite the company having pulled out of racing at the end of 1978. Johnson would go on to repay the faith shown in him by Edsel Ford and the Australian public, using the $144,000 he received (along with the proceeds of selling the 1980 Bathurst car to fellow Queensland based racer John Donnelly) to build a new Falcon in which he would go on to win the1981 ATCC and the crash shortened1981 James Hardie 1000.
The 1980 win by the HDT Commodore sawHolden become the first manufacturer sinceFord in1963,1964 and1965 to win three consecutive races on The Mountain.
The class featured a battle between:
+ Holden Commodore was racing at Bathurst for the first time
+ Jaguar XJ-S was racing at Bathurst for the first time
The class featured a battle between:
+ Holden Commodore was racing at Bathurst for the first time
The class featured a battle between:
The final class featured a battle between:
| Pos | No | Entrant | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pole | 9 | Nine Network Racing Team |  Kevin Bartlett | Chevrolet Camaro Z28 | 2:20.972 |
| 2 | 17 | Palmer Tube Mills | Dick Johnson | Ford XD Falcon | 2:21.117 |
| 3 | 05 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | Peter Brock | Holden VC Commodore | 2:21.815 |
| 4 | 25 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | John Harvey | Holden VC Commodore | 2:23.005 |
| 5 | 6 | Craven Mild Racing | Allan Grice | Holden VC Commodore | 2:23.650 |
| 6 | 7 | Channel 7 Breville Racing | Bob Morris | Ford XD Falcon | 2:23.850 |
| 7 | 10 | Roadways Gown-Hindhaugh | Charlie O'Brien | Holden VC Commodore | 2:24.038 |
| 8 | 4 | Cadbury Schweppes Pty Ltd | Larry Perkins | Holden VC Commodore | 2:25.505 |
| 9 | 1 | Federation Insurance - Unipart |  Allan Moffat | Ford XD Falcon | 2:26.596 |
| 10 | 16 | Greater Pacific Finance Coy | Garry Rogers | Holden VC Commodore | 2:27.452 |
