Production cars and bikes have ruled the Easter time slot for the past 40 years give or take, but prior to this touring cars ruled the Mountain.
Some of arguably the greatest Australian Touring Car Championship races of all time occurred during these meetings at the height of the rivalry between Bob Jane, Allan Moffat, Norm Beechey, Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan, Jim McKeown, Alan Hamilton and many more.
The Australian Touring Car Championship transformed from a one race event to a series all across the country in 1969 and Bathurst was the second stop on Easter weekend.
Geoghegan dominated the first trip to the Mountain beginning the weekend by qualifying on pole five seconds clear of the opposition.
Hamilton in his Porsche was unable to compete and finished more than a lap behind the Geoghegan Ford Mustang.
Jane retired on lap 9 due to an engine failure in his Mustang as Geoghegan charged to a record setting fifth ATCC title.
In 1970, Geoghegan’s gap was lowered to 1.4s due in part to increased competition from Norm Beechey’s Shell Holden Monaro and the Coca-Cola Ford Mustang of Allan Moffat although Jane remained second.
It was a thrilling affair with Beechey using the straight line advantage of the Monaro to charge past the Mustangs.
Moffat had a dreadful start to drop to seventh, but quickly made his way back to third to challenge the Geoghegan and Beechey.
It was disaster for Beechey when the Monaro started to misfire allowing Moffat and Geoghegan to skip away, but the Canadian experienced a spark plug problem in his Mustang and was forced into retirement.
This allowed Geoghegan to take an easy lead and Beechey a comfortable second after Jane spun at Forrest’s Elbow.
However, there was a twist when Geoghegan’s tyre supplier Firestone wasn’t able to get fresh tyres in and the worn set on his Mustang began to reduce his pace significantly allowing Beechey to catch and pass.
Beechey was able to reverse his fortunes to take his first victory in what was to be a successful title tilt from Geoghegan and a recovering Jane.
Bathurst was skipped in 1971, but the next year provided an all-time classic.
Jane by this time was in his Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Geoghegan in a factory-backed Ford Falcon XY GT-HO ‘Super Falcon’ against the regular contenders including Moffat in the Coca-Cola Mustang in addition to Beechey’s Monaro, which was now a spent force.
Moffat gave Geoghegan a taste of his own medicine by setting a pole time three seconds clear, but it was Jane jumping both Fords to take the lead.
This was only for a moment when Moffat and Geoghegan flew past as both traded the lead, while also contending with lapped traffic.
Oil from the ‘Super Falcon’ smeared all across Moffat’s Mustang forcing him to loosen his belts and poke his head through the window on the final to see where he was going.
It was to no avail despite the pair going down Conrod Straight side-by-side, with Moffat crossing the line 0.6s behind Geoghegan.
Moffat lodged a protest for the oil being dropped, but this also failed as he left the Mountain with nothing except for the a new lap record some seven seconds faster than the old mark.
The Australian Touring Car Championship did not return to Bathurst for a sprint round until the mid-1990s, but this period continues to be revered to this day.