Nine time Bathurst winner
Peter Brock had his worst ever start to the race when the tailshaft of his new VP Commodore broke on the starting line. After sitting on the side of the circuit for a number of laps, the car was eventually towed into the pits where the
Mobil 1 crew fitted a new tailshaft while Brock explained to the television audience that it was a brand new tail shaft fitted that morning that had broken. Brock, whose co-driver was
German DTM driver and winner of the
1989 24 Hours of Le Mans,
Manuel Reuter, rejoined the race on lap 15 in last position. After later breaking a second tailshaft and being pushed into a spin at Forrest's Elbow during the first rain storm by the
Holden Racing Team Commodore of
Allan Grice which forced Brock to pit when Grice pushed past and ground the front spoiler off of the Mobil 1 Commodore (causing Brock to vent on television about Grice's driving in a rare show of emotion), Brock and Reuter finished in 27th place. This race was notable for the winning car being crashed and undrivable at the race's conclusion. Due to heavy rain a large number of crashes occurred towards the end of the race leading to the race being stopped during the leader's 144th lap, requiring a windback to the completed 143rd lap. However, confusion occurred as Dick Johnson later passed the line (after the flag was up) and finished what seemed to be the 144th lap. Due to this wind back, Richards' car which had hit the wall once suffering extensive damage—drivable but barely so—and had then slid off the track to join several other cars that had crashed about 200 metres past Forrest's Elbow onto Conrod Straight, was the winner since it was the lead car. Due to high concentrations of Ford and Holden fans and spectators generally upset that a crashed car had won race winner Jim Richards, who drove a Nissan, was vociferously booed as he took the podium. Distressed over the death his friend
Denny Hulme which he was only informed about moments before he took to the podium (see below), as well as the crowd's reaction, in his very brief, international live feed broadcast victory speech he told the spectators, "You're a pack of arseholes." (see right for full comment) Richards later apologised for his comments. Richards and Skaife's teammate
Neil Crompton (driving alongside
Anders Olofsson in the #2 Winfield Nissan) would also express similar disappointment to the crowd's behaviour, giving them the middle finger as he walked off the podium. The race was also the last in which
turbo powered cars such as the
Nissan Skyline and
Ford Sierra would be permitted to compete. As of 1 January 1993 the turbos were banned in favor of the previously mentioned
V8 formula which would later evolve into V8 Supercars. 1992 was also significant in that it saw the return of the
Ford Falcon to Bathurst for the first time since the end of the
Group C era in
1984.
Glenn Seton and new
team recruit
Alan Jones qualified their 1993 V8 spec
Ford EB Falcon in 4th place, the fastest of the 1993 cars (all 4 of which qualified in the Top 10). While the new Falcon
V8 performed above even Seton's expectations, unfortunately their race ended on lap 84 with fuel pump failure. The other three 1993 spec cars were the Holden VP Commodore's from the Holden Racing Team and Peter Brock's example. Australia's
1987 500cc Grand Prix World Champion
Wayne Gardner made his touring car racing debut in the race partnering
Sydney veteran
Graham Moore in Moore's
Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SV. Moore qualified the car in 21st position and they eventually finished in 26th place. Gardner's first ever race drive came while rain lashed the circuit. Gardner's presence in the race saw two former
Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Champions driving in the race.
Johnny Cecotto, who had won World Championships in
1975 and 1978, co-drove with Tony Longhurst in a
BMW M3 Evolution. Cecotto almost didn't get to drive in the race after he crashed the car at Forrest's Elbow in the race morning warm up session, though the
TAFE crash repair crew were able to repair the car for the start. Longhurst and Cecotto would finish in fourth place. The 1992 Tooheys 1000 was also a sad occasion as popular veteran driver and
Formula One world champion Denny Hulme, 56 years old from
New Zealand and that country's only
World Drivers' Champion, suffered a
heart attack during lap 33. Hulme, driving the second
Benson & Hedges Racing BMW M3 with young driver
Paul Morris, started the race in 18th position. On lap 33 when the race was under heavy rain, Hulme radioed into his team while coming through Forrest's Elbow that he could not see. Coming down Conrod Straight, the yellow #20 BMW went off the track and glanced the wall on the left hand side before continuing across the track to the outside wall where the car came to a stop,
Channel 7 cameras capturing the incident. Most concern was with the driver. While the race continued under the
safety car, Hulme was removed from the car and taken by ambulance to nearby Bathurst Hospital where he was later pronounced dead from heart failure. According to unconfirmed reports, Hulme was still alive, though unconscious, when track marshals reached the BMW a few seconds after it came to a stop just before the right hand kink into Caltex Chase. ==Tooheys Top 10==