The 2003 Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 was a motor race for

V8 Supercars The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

held on 12 October 2003 at the

Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on Mount Panorama (Wahluu) and is best known as the home of the Bathurst 1000 motor race held each October, and the Bathurst 12 Hour ...

just outside Bathurst,

New South Wales, Australia ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. It was the seventh running of the Australia 1000 race, first held after the organisational split over the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most recen ...

that occurred in 1997. It was the 46th race that traces its lineage back to the

1960 Armstrong 500 The 1960 Armstrong 500 was an endurance motor race for Australian made or assembled standard production sedans. The event was held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria, Australia on 20 November 1960 over 167 laps of the 3.0 mile ...

held at

Phillip Island Phillip Island (Boonwurrung: ''Corriong'', ''Worne'' or ''Millowl'') is an Australian island about south-southeast of Melbourne, Victoria. The island is named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explorer ...

. The race was the tenth round of the

2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series The 2003 V8 Supercar Championship Series was a motor racing series for V8 Supercars. The series, which was the fifth V8 Supercar Championship Series, began on 22 March 2003 in Adelaide and ended on 30 November at Eastern Creek Raceway after ...

. The race was won by

Greg Murphy Gregory Murphy (born 23 August 1972) is a New Zealand professional racing driver, best known as a four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000. Greg Murphy joined Jeremy Clarkson and James May presenting Top Gear Live, when it had its first internati ...

and

Rick Kelly Rick Kelly (born 17 January 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver who previously competed in the Supercars Championship. He last drove the No. 15 Ford Mustang GT for Kelly Racing. Previously, he drove for the HSV Dealer Team with wh ...

driving a K-Mart Racing Team run

Holden Commodore (VY) The Holden Commodore (VY) is an executive car that was produced by Holden from 2002 to 2004. It was the third iteration of the third generation of the Commodore. Its range included the luxury variants, Holden Berlina (VY) and Holden Calais (VY ...

. It was the fifth consecutive victory for Holden, a new record. It was Murphy's third victory in the race and Kelly became the youngest driver to win the race, eclipsing the previous record set by

Craig Lowndes Craig Andrew Lowndes (born 21 June 1974) is an Australian racing driver in the Repco Supercars Championship competing in the Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He is also a TV commentator. Lowndes is a three-time V8 Supe ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

. On Saturday, Murphy also recorded what was then the fastest lap in the circuit's history to take pole position during the Top 10 Shootout. The time stood as the fastest ever in a V8 Supercar for 7 years until Craig Lowndes lapped barely a few hundredths faster in practice during the 2010 event, although neither are officially recognised as the lap record as only race laps contribute to lap records.

Entry List

Practice

Qualifying

Top 10 Shootout

became the first

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

born driver to actually set pole position for the Bathurst 1000. Murphy and fellow Kiwi racers Jim Richards and

Paul Radisich Paul Radisich (born 9 October 1962, in Auckland) is a retired New Zealand racing driver and businessman of Croat origin. He has competed in saloon cars for many years — both European-style tourers and the V8 Supercars of Australia and New ...

had previously been on pole position for the race, but on each of those occasions it was their Australian co-driver who had set the pole winning time. Murphy's time of 2:06.8594 was the first time a

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Th ...

had gone under 2:07.00 for a lap of the 6.213 km (3.861 mi) circuit and was unofficially dubbed the "Lap of the Gods".When Murphy Clocked His Lap Of The Gods
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*

Larry Perkins Larry Clifton Perkins (born 18 March 1950) is a former racing driver and V8 Supercar team owner from Australia. Biography Early years Growing up on a farm in Cowangie in the Mallee region of Victoria, Larry, the son of racing driver Eddi ...

crashed the #11

Castrol Perkins Racing Perkins Engineering was a team contesting the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series, operating as an active racing team between 1986 and 2008. From 2009 onwards, the involvement of Perkins Engineering in the championship wounded back into ...

during Practice 4, with the damage substantial enough to rule it out for the Top 10 Shootout.

Starting grid

The following table represents the final starting grid for the race on Sunday:

Race results

Statistics

* Provisional Pole Position - #51 Greg Murphy - 2:07.9503 * Pole Position - #51 Greg Murphy - 2:06.8594 * Fastest Lap - #34 Garth Tander - 2:08.6726 (new lap record) * Race time of winning car - 6:32:55.4044 * Average speed of winning car - 153 km/h

References

External links

Official race results at racing.natsoft.com.au

Official V8 Supercar website at 20 November 2003 via web.archive.org

2003 Bathurst 1000 image gallery at www.motorsport.com
{{Bathurst 1000 races Bob Jane T-Marts 1000 Motorsport in Bathurst, New South Wales