Channel 7's commentator Neil Crompton fails to mention that the radar gun team had technical difficulties and did not clock Brock/Moffat or Grice/Bailey during practice/qualifying, both who on race day eclipsed the Starion's top speed of 269, both measured on race day by radar at 272 and 271 respectably. The other Commodores were slightly slower at 265 due to them using only 6500RPM whereas Grice and Brock were hitting 7200RPM down Conrod. During the after top ten media conference Jones was asked by a reporter why he abandoned the shoot out, Jones replied "Too much wheelspin", meaning the car was uncontrollable on the smaller width tyres forced on it by the officials who incorrectly measured the Starions chosen tyres before the shootout. In Group A, maximum tyre width was determined by an engine capacity formula or whatever could be fitted in the guards as long as it wasnt wider than what the engine capacity formula allowed. A pre cut metal caliper was used to quickly determine a tyres legality, if it could pass over the tyres fitted to rims then it was deemed not too big, but the officials tried to use the caliper with the tyres fitted to the car and the cars weight forced the sidewall to bulge and hence the caliper could not pass over the tyre and were deemed (incorrectly) too big. The officials also tried this on Alan Grice's car but Grice knew the rules stated the tyres could be measured not fitted to the car and did the top ten with his chosen tyres 'under protest' ignoring the officials error. Grice was later awarded the protest and his time counted, but it was all too late for the Starion team who had run smaller than optimal tyres
Actually, you might find that Moffat (with the aid of a tow) was clocked at 275 on race day. That actually matched the Brock/Perkins HDT "Big Banger" VK Commodore from the 1984 race. During practice Brock actually hit 280 in 1984, Dick Johnson's 351 V8 Falcon was timed at 281 and Tom Walkinshaw in the Goss Jag with one of TWR's Group A V12 engines clocked the fastest ever Group C top speed when he hit 290 km/h (180.189 mph) on Conrod.
Allan Grice's main problem was simple. His time of 2 minutes, 16.16 seconds in official qualifying was set on Dunlop rubber. However, when the TV camera's were rolling, like in Hardie's Heroes, he was contracted to run Yokohama tyres which proved slower in qualifying. He still got close though with what he thought was a high speed "fluff" in the engine.
@@Holden308 I remember Gricey explaining the 'fluff' saying that due to the elevation difference between the top of the mountain and the bottom, where the car was tuned can make a difference due to the 'local atmospherics', ie the air temperature and density which changes quite a bit at Bathurst around the track, much more so than at most tracks , and especially effects a highly tuned carbureted engine
