When Super Touring invaded Bathurst
A television dispute led to the European-style, two-litre tin-tops briefly taking control of the Mountain. MARCUS SIMMONS looks back at two thrilling races
Right, let's start with a really terrible joke. Question: what's the difference between Australia and a pot of yoghurt? Answer: leave the yoghurt for long enough, and it'll develop its own culture.
What's this got to do with the Super Touring Bathurst 1000 of 1997 and '98? Well, it had echoes of the at-the-time very recent CART/IRL split in the States. After all, Australia's leading championship, for five-litre V8 Supercars, was not going to be represented in the country's biggest race, just as the CART World Series boys were effectively banished from the Indy 500. And the V8 Supercars formula even ran/continues to run to a similar philosophy to NASCAR, that great cultural icon of America.
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