Ford announced its exit from racing around the time Holden was finalising the L34. In essence, then, it was a homologation special built with no opposition to beat. Which might in part explain why the car was underdone in key areas of the drivetrain. After disastrous outings at the Adelaide and Sandown enduros, the chiefs at Holden must have been looking towards the October Bathurst race with some trepidation. What should have been something of a fait accompli all of a sudden was looking like very difficult proposition.
Still, with 13 L34s, six XU-1s and the lone Ron Dickson HQ Monaro GTS 350 against just three Falcons, how could Holden not win?
It certainly looked like the unlosable Bathurst after qualifying, because the new L34s had pace at Mount Panorama to match their overwhelming numerical superiority. With the much-vaunted Allan Moffat Brut 33 Falcon having the weekend from hell (and with Harry Firth metaphorically kicking Moffat while he was down by lodging a vexatious multi-point protest against the big blue Ford on the Saturday afternoon), in qualifying the HDT Toranas were no less than five seconds a lap faster than the best of the Falcons, this being the John Goss/Kevin Bartlett McLeod Ford entry. And that was the sole Ford in the top 10 on the grid. On the surface, it looked set to be a GM-H whitewash to match Ford’s 1971 demolition job with the Falcon XY GTHO Phase 3.
But it didn’t take long for the unpalatable reality of the L34’s shortcomings to sink in. Even before the race was 20 laps old the Allan Grice, Bob Jane, Jim Hunter and Bruce McPhee L34s were all out with engine failures. And by then the Don Holland L34 had been hopelessly delayed by misfire they fixed by changing the entire carburetion from twin Webers back to the original Holley!
Holland’s woes meant that four of the fastest six L34s from qualifying were either out or out of the running before the race was even 20 laps old.
The remaining two, the HDT entries of Peter Brock/Brian Sampson and Colin Bond/Bob Skelton, were progressing serenely out in front. They seemed utterly in a class of their own. By lap 20, Brock and Bond were a full minute
