The1982 James Hardie 1000 was the 23rd running of theBathurst 1000touring car race. It was held on 3 October 1982 at theMount Panorama Circuit just outsideBathurst inNew South Wales,Australia. The race, which was Round 3 of both the1982 Australian Endurance Championship and the1982 Australian Endurance Championship of Makes, was open to cars eligible to the locally developedCAMSGroup C touring car regulations with two engine capacity based classes.
The race was won byPeter Brock andLarry Perkins of theHolden Dealer Team driving aHolden Commodore. It was Brock's sixth victory, a record, the Holden Dealer Team's sixth win and the first win in the race for a car carrying aRacecam unit. Holden Commodores filled the top four positions, but only afterDick Johnson was disqualified after originally finishing in fourth spot. Brock and Perkins finished a lap ahead ofAllan Grice and Alan Browne. It was the second time Grice had finished second but had yet to win. The second Holden Dealer Team Commodore ofJohn Harvey and Gary Scott finished third, equalling the best previous performance of the HDT, their first in1969.
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Officially designated as theOver 3000cc class,[1] it featured the V8Holden Commodores,Ford Falcons andChevrolet Camaros. Also in this class were theMazda RX-7s, the factory supportedBMW 635CSis and aJaguar XJS.
Officially designated as theUnder 3000cc class,[2] it featured the turbo chargedNissan Bluebirds, considerably quicker than the opposition made up ofFord Capris,Alfa Romeo GTV6s, and anAudi 5+5, plus cars from the previously featured 2.0 litre class such asToyota Celicas,Ford Escorts andIsuzu Geminis.
As a round of the Australian Endurance Championship there was also a secondary class structure applied which divided cars into four engine capacity classes.
There were no starters in the Up to 1600cc class.[4]
In official qualifying, Re-Car team owner and driverAlan Browne put up a $5,000 reward for the first Touring Car driver to break the 100 mph (160 km/h) average lap barrier. The favourite to win the money was the Bathurst pole winner of the past two years,Kevin Bartlett in his 500 bhp (373 kW; 507 PS)V8Chevrolet Camaro Z28 (Bartlett had actually set the very first 100 mph lap of Bathurst during the 1967 Easter meeting when driving a 2.5 LCoventry Climax poweredBrabham BT16 forAlec Mildren). However, when his co-driverColin Bond crashed the car due to a tyre blowout, the subsequent repairs put the Camaro's preparation a day behind and its chance was gone.
TheHolden Dealer Team had announcedPeter Brock to have broken the barrier in qualifying and Browne actually congratulated Brock. However it was revealed that Brock's time of 2:18.1 fell short of 100 mph average. Coincidentally it was Browne's co-driverAllan Grice who pocketed the cash in Friday's qualifying session with a time of 2:17.8 to set the first ever 100 mph lap of the 6.172 km Mount Panorama circuit.
After qualifying 31st and 43rd in1981, the appearance of theNissan Bluebird Turbos in the top 10 in qualifying came as a surprise to theV8 fraternity which had dominated the race since1967, and was a sign of things to come at Bathurst. From1983,turbo powered cars would qualify first or second in every year other than1985 until CAMS banned turbos at the end of1992, with 1983 (Brock in aV8Holden Commodore VH SS), and 1985 (Tom Walkinshaw'sV12Jaguar XJS) being the only years a turbo powered car did not qualify on pole at Bathurst. The turbos prime year would come in1989 when all 10 cars in the Saturday morning runoff were turbo powered (nineFords and oneNissan). Also surprising the V8 runners was four time race winnerAllan Moffat who qualified hisrotary poweredMazda RX-7 in Hardies Heroes for the second year running.
| Pos | No | Team | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pole | 4 | Re-Car Racing |  Allan Grice | Holden Commodore VH SS | 2:17.501 |
| 2 | 05 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | Peter Brock | Holden Commodore VH SS | 2:17.836 |
| 3 | 56 | Nissan Motor Co. |  Masahiro Hasemi | Nissan Bluebird Turbo | 2:18.870 |
| 4 | 9 | Nine Network Racing Team | Kevin Bartlett | Chevrolet Camaro Z28 | 2:18.946 |
| 5 | 16 | Re-Car Racing | Garry Rogers | Holden Commodore VH SS | 2:19.332 |
| 6 | 7 | Seiko Watches | Bob Morris | Ford XE Falcon | 2:19.380 |
| 7 | 17 | Palmer Tube Mills | Dick Johnson | Ford XE Falcon | 2:19.549 |
| 8 | 43 | Peter Stuyvesant International Racing |  Allan Moffat | Mazda RX-7 | 2:19.761 |
| 9 | 25 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | John Harvey | Holden Commodore VH SS | 2:19.764 |
| 10 | 55 | Nissan Motor Co. | George Fury | Nissan Bluebird Turbo | 2:20.613 |
* The first and only pole position forAllan Grice at Bathurst, and the first of only two times in 26 starts between1968 and2002 that he qualified on the front row. He finished 2nd in the1986 Hardies Heroes, but had been the fastest qualifier going into the runoff.
*Masahiro Hasemi became the first and (as of2024) onlyJapanese driver to appear in the runoff.
* 1982 saw the first time aturbocharged car qualified for the runoff. Hasemi and formerAustralian Rally ChampionGeorge Fury qualified theirNissan Motorsport Bluebird Turbos 3rd and 10th respectively
*Nissan became the 5th make of car to appear in Hardies Heroes, followingHolden,Ford,Chevrolet andMazda. The Bluebirds were also the first cars in the runoff to use a4 cyl engine.
*1976 race winnersBob Morris andJohn Fitzpatrick were due to start in theirAlan Jones ownedFord XE Falcon after Morris finished 6th in the runoff. Unfortunately during Saturday afternoon's final practice session, Fitzpatrick suffered a broken wheel going into Forrest's Elbow and crashed the car heavily into the bank. The damage was sufficient to see the car withdrawn from the race.
