THERE’S plenty of people out there that remain adamant that victory in the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour in one of the Garry Rogers Motorsport-run Monaros was indeed Peter Brock’s 10th Bathurst win.
Indeed, by simple mathematics, there’s indeed a claim to its being his 10th major endurance race win at Bathurst, but many overlook the fact that Brock won some other races on that 24 Hour weekend – before Greg Murphy drove the red #05 Monaro across the line to win the twice-around-the-clock enduro.
One of the major support categories for the Bathurst 24 Hour was the ‘Great Aussie Ute Race’, a format that had been used as a support category for the previous year’s Sandown 500.
The premise was simple. Each V8 BRute (as they were then known) would have two drivers for the weekend. One driver would compete in Race 1, the other in Race 2 and then they’d team up for two-driver, sprint race for the final.
James Brock was a regular top-runner in the V8 BRute Series at the time and his hunt for a co-driver clearly must not have taken too much time, bringing in the ‘King of the Mountain’ to share the driving duties in his red #22 Holden ute.
James won the first seven lapper on the Friday and Peter took over to win the second race later that day and they teamed up to easily claim the combined final on Saturday morning.
‘PB’ started, stretched the lead in the wet conditions and James jumped in at the pit stop to carry on and claim a clean sweep for the Brocks for the weekend with a 15-second margin to the next Ute by the end.
The Commodore Ute they drove to victory back in 2003 went on to enjoy further success under the Team Brock banner.
Damien ‘Ice’ White took over driving duties in the Holden and won the 2004 championship before Brock Jnr stepped back aboard in 2005 and 2006.
This VU Ute was replaced by the new VE model, however still remains in its last Team Brock/ARMOR ALL livery and is available for sale here via our mates at My105.
WATCH: The Great Aussie Ute Race, Race 3 at the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour:
