1980 FALCON XD WINS BATHURST HERITAGE THRILLER
The Bathurst 1000 Falcon XD that was piloted by Bob Morris/ Bill O’Brien, with Allan Moffat as a cross-entry in 1980, took the line by 0.246 seconds.
The Terry Lawlor driven #7 Falcon, run by Brad Tilley was overtaken on the last lap by the Greg Keam driven Ford Mustang, only to grab back the lead at Forest Elbow for the second time in the race to grab the victory in the Group C car.
AUTO ACTION made its way to the popular Heritage Touring Car tents to get some of the back story by Lawlor, the car’s owner and victorious pilot.
“It’s the original XD of Morris and O’Brien’s that ran at Bathurst in 1980 with the Channel Seven and Breville stickers, and it was actually the very first racer to run in-car commentary here,” Lawlor explained.
“Morris actually dropped the F-bomb live, and with no time delay, Mike Raymond had to talk his way through that.
“it was also the very last Falcon that Moffat drove at Bathurst. So when he broke down, they had an arrangement that he would jump in and drive, and they actually ended up kicking him out of it cause he was a lot slower than Morris and O’Brien. So it’s got an interesting history.”
Under the hood of the 1980 Heritage C class XD Falcon
(The situation that Lawlor is referring to there may be remembered by some race fans, as Moffat was seen to be going across the top of the mountain with one hand on the wheel in a surprisingly casual manner, with his other arm resting through the spoke.)
“Then in ’81 through to ’84, it ran in the light blue Everlast colours with O’Brien and few other drivers.
“I’ve owned it for a few years now, and we’ve twice won the Peter Brock Group C Championship in it, and done few lap records to boot. It broke the lap record at Baskerville, and we still hold the record at Bathurst, so it’s still a very good and fast car.”
Lawlor is no stranger to winning in these Heritage cars, having taken out the Daytona Classic in his Shelby GT 350 to give the yanks a lesson in their own machinery. And as for today’s race, the #7 XD pilot was happy to take the heritage double – a win with no scratches.
“Today’s victory was great, we put it on pole yesterday, and had some great close battles with the Mustang and HQ.
“Bathurst is a track that with a car as original as this is, a win is great but I don’t want to push it too much, particularly at eight in the morning when it’s a bit slippery up top.
“I want to be in front, but also, these are the original cars and I just want to take them home in the right condition.
But it was great, this car has the same power as the Mustang but it’s a bit lighter, so I got him at Forest’s Elbow which gave me the speed into Conrad, and I thought he was going to take a dive but I saw the chequered flag and held him,” Lawlor said with an infectious smile.
With two more races left in what’s expected to be very wet weather for the HTC’s, they may or may not get any more racing in for this Bathurst outing, but they will return for the 30th Historic Sandown outing on November 4-6.
