Craig Baird probably won’t like us uncovering this gem…

Race day for the 1996 AMP Bathurst 1000 dawned sodden, with the heavens opening the previous evening, and continuing to collapse well into Sunday morning.

By virtue of his win in Saturday’s race, Craig Baird led the ten car Super Touring field away on the class’s two customary warm-up laps.

With some vigour, he gapped the field on the run up Mountain Straight and into Griffiths Bend… which is where the current Supercars DSO found out exactly how slippery the going was!

Smacking the outside wall, the car spun through 180 degrees to face the oncoming traffic.

While this was going on, Network 7 played a pre-recorded piece on Italian import, Audi factory driver Tamara Vidali.

By the end of the interview and a replay of Baird shunting, the field was cannoning down Conrod Straight, with Vidali’s A4 sliding out of control.

Incredibly, the Audi Sport Australia equip had armed Vidali with slick tyres to take on the torrents, an obstacle which ultimately Quattro capabilities were unable to overcome.

Somehow the international visitor was able to snap out of the slide, with the television coverage cutting to a commercial break after the first warm-up lap, one in which 20% of the field had a significant drama…

The Postscripts

While in 2021, Bathurst double-duty is seen as somewhat advantageous, in 1996 it was hardly in vogue.

Backing up a little later on the day in the 1000 were Geoff Full (with Geoff Kendrick), Brad Jones (with Tony Scott) and Jim Richards (with his son Steven).

Rain master Richards was untouchable in the Super Touring event, the first win for Volvo in the series, storming through the pack to beat home Brad Jones, Paul Morris, Baird and Geoff Brabham.

For the weekend, Richards was coming off the Super Touring bench, filling in for Peter Brock in the 05 Volvo 850 Sedan

The win paved the way for Richards to lead the local Volvo assault for the next three seasons, highlighted by victory in the 1998 Bathurst 1000.

Brock meanwhile vacated the seat to concentrate on his Holden Racing Team duties, ditto Greg Murphy, whose absense saw Vidali receive a call-up.

Of the drivers involved with the 1000 cross over, Murphy wound up winning the Great Race, and graduated from Super Touring the following year to take over the HRT seat left by Europe bound Craig Lowndes.

Brock meanwhile came home in P5, and in a pattern that suggested it was better luck to skip the support race, Full, Richards and Jones were all out by lap 100, with thanks to a pair of engine failures and a crash by Steven Richards.

Meanwhile, the Super Touring category, as supplemented by a handful of New Zealand invitees, went from 10 cars on race day Sunday in 1996 to 27 as the main act in 1997.

Tamara Viadli returned to Europe, with a highlight of her career proving to be second place in the 2006 Superstars Championships, where she won three races.

Craig Baird meanwhile went on to enjoy a career that would subsequently net nearly 200 more race wins, and very few warm up lap stacks.