Best Driver never to win Bathurst?

[Henry]

Spurred on by the "Seto/HRT" thread elsewhere (and a couple of cleansing ales this arv!) I ask you: who is the best driver to have competed in the Great Race, without ever taking the top step on the podium?

Delve through the histories, read the sacred scrolls, hypothesise, debate, argue passionately (BUT POLITELY), minimise the amount of bashing as we go (not that anyone here indulges overly in that sort of thing!), but tell me: who is the greatest who should've, but didn't?

(I'm reserving judgement until I've had more beer!)

 

[Rob 18]

quote:Originally posted by Henry

Spurred on by the "Seto/HRT" thread elsewhere

Where would that be Henry...

I think Seton is the first one that come to mind in the recent era. But there is a few others, but really, anybody who is anybody in Aust touring car racing, has won at Bathurst..

Brad Jones. Bloody quick in his day & has finished 2nd a few times like Seto.
George Fury. Blindingly quick in the Bluebird days but the little Turbo was always to fragile.
Norm Beechey. He hasn't won it has he???
Murray Carter. Aways had a soft spot for old Muzza. Carried the Ford Flag for so long & would loved to have seen a Bathurst victory beside his name.
Marcos Ambrose would I guess have to be the best driver never to win Bathurst though IMO.

I,m not thinking real clear this morning, who else is there Henry???

B. Morris
Grice
Bartlett
Goss
Harvey
Lowndes
Bo
Geoghean
Gibson
Moffat
Johnson
Bowe
Brock
Tander
Bargs
French
Bond
Jane
Skaife
Richards
Perkins
Ingall
Hansford
Bright
Firth
B.Holden
Longhurst
Murphy
S Richo

There's a few Aust stars in that list above who have won though & everyone deservedly so. & there's probably another list where you could say, "he's a lucky bugger to have won"

I think Seton has missed the boat though Henry & his best chance in 1995, he threw away!!!

 

[Bigcol]

Ambrose is definitely the best of the Australians to have a go and not reach the top step.

Seto would be next and as we are unlikely to see Ambrose racing at Bathurst again , Seto's choice of HRT to carry him there slaps every true Ford supporter in the face.
I don't think it's going to happen but i'd love to see Ambrose teamed up with Lowndes for a shot at it.
Seto well, sorry but i can't and won't support anything he does with the knob jockeys from the TWPG

 

[Henry]

Straight off the bat, I was thinking of Sir Jack Brabham... Leo Geoghegan... Frank Matich (who didn't really care too much about it anyway)... Frank Gardner... Stormin' Norman... hadn't really condiered Furious George, which would've been a glaring oversight on the part of someone who takes motorsport history reasonably seriously!

Marcos Ambrose... and he'll prove himself to be better and better than many would've credited (although not us enlightened folk here! )

How about Alan Stanley Jones, 1980 World Drivers Champion; a many who, in his day, was rated as the very best by none other than Le Professeur, Alain Prost, who acknowledged his impregnable psyche and absolute mastery on cold rubber and full tanks... a guy who put in sporadic but stirring drives on the Big Hill, to whom victory would've gained him entry into a club of currently only one - drivers who have won both the AGP and the Bathurst 1000... the guy who drove a KMart Commodore to a creditable 4th place in 1984, after staring down the barrel of a fighting second, against the might of the HDT at its zenith, only to have the car get cranky at the last splash-and-dash... the big fella, who in streaming conditions in 1996, simply drove away from the pack in an awesome display of Who's The Man... who never, ever looked remotely like getting ruffled behind the wheel, when many around him were playing for sheep stations, who - win, lose or draw - never seemed to get too cut up about it all...

 

[Rob 18]

Yeah Henry, forgot about AJ. Without even taking into account his remarkable F1 career, you only have to look back at his early days in the ATCC on board the little Alfa GTV in 85. He made that little car do things it relly shouldn't have. Anyone who can remember the 93 ATCC would remember AJ at his most agressive best in the PJ Ford. I can still remember at Symmon's Plains in 93 when he gave Skaifey the heave ho at the hair pin & then at the end of the back straight, he did likewise to Wayne Gardner in HRT #16. Not dirty racing, just bloody hard! When he was on fire, look out.

 

[Bigcol]

AJ in his day was right on the money.
His only problem was making a car that could last 1000km for him.
He did drive them very hard

 

[Henry]

Yeah, I remember Symmons 1993, and Skaifey throwing his toys out of the cot between races... AJ had given him room to sort himself out in the same place in the PJ Dash, and lost a heap of time and position because of it... wan't backing off twice I suppose.

His run in the wet at Bathurst in 1994 was great too... while Perkins was mad-scary-quick, backing his car into the apexes and exiting in big, ball-tearing slides, AJ was silken, the car gliding off the corner with the tail just off-line, obviously skatey but never out of control...

 

[Rob 18]

Where's the poll option Henry

The best driver never to win Bathurst in no particular order

*Seton
*Ambrose
*Beechey
*AJ
*FRank Gardner
*Brabham
*Fury
*Leo Geoghean

Bloody hard to pick a winner out of that lot & It's a toss up for me between AJ & Ambrose. Very much a like really these 2 when you think about there driving style. Aggressive, take no prisoners style the both of them.

I'll go with Ambrose with AJ a close 2nd only because of the time frame Marcos achieved his results in Australia.

 

[Racin Jason]

Andrew Thompson?

 

[Car61]

Hey Jase,
I could have sworn that I was there to see Andrew WIN</u> Bathurst (in his category) - He hasn't raced in the 'MainGame' event!

 

[Racin Jason]

Hopefully it won't be too long before he wins the real one and hopefully with DJR!

 

[Nascar12]

Tom Walkinhaw........not that he was that great, just wanted to bring to the fore that he wasn't that good in Australia.

 

[Rob 18]

quote:Originally posted by nascar12

Tom Walkinhaw........not that he was that great, just wanted to bring to the fore that he wasn't that good in Australia.

& when you look at all the dodgey tactics he gets up to in Australia nascar, you wonder if anything he's achieved in the UK deserves any credability at all.

Anyone remember when he used to take the Rovers over to Enzed for the Nissan Mobil series & I'm thinking of 1986 in particular. On the streets of Wellington for the 500 & the long straights & whatever, & I can remember Brocks VK & DJ's Mustang absolutely hosing the TWR Vitesse in a straight line, but when Brock & Grice took the VK's over to Europe for a play in 1986, she was a totally different game over there. Suddenly, & I can remember Brock mentioning this, the Rovers had like another 100hp compared to what they had in Enzed & they were now hosing the 5.0 Holdens down the chute.
Makes you wonder how the little 3.5 Rover got anywhere near the 5.0 Holdens & while the little Rover motors were fuel injected, one would think that being that small a donk, it's torque figures wouldn't be that flash! Some one might correct me if I'm wrong..

Never did like that Scottish prick anyway. What he did to the Sierra's in 88 will never be forgotten & IIRC, he protested all of them except Moff's Eggenberger example.

 

[Henry]

TW went close in 1985 - really, his best chance that year, and the Big Cat got sick with the day pretty much shot to bits... He knew he was pushing it uphill with a red-hot needle in 1988, and anything he could do to upset the competition was on for him...

The Rovers were apparently very light... but yeah, one of his engines would've been an interesting study...

 

[Seton Fanatic]

My list (In order):

1. Klaus Niedzwiedz
2. Leo Geoghegan
3. George Fury
4. Glenn Seton
5. Alan Jones

 

[Rob 18]

Forgot about Klaus Niedzwiedz SF. He could pedal a Sierra that dude & he raced there for a few years to IIRC. I rate Klaus Ludwig equally highly although we only saw him race here once in 87 so can't really include him.

But Niedzwiedz would definately be right up there..

 

[Bigcol]

Easy to see SF still harbours his resentment of Ambrose for not going to a sinking ship in GSR

 

[DJR-1980]

1.M.Ambrose
2.G.Seton
3K.Niedzhiedz
4.P.Radisich
5.S.johnson
6.C.McConville