On Ya Sport!
Bond’s sole attempt on the Le Mans 24 Hour race proved disappointing. He, Peter Brock and Jim Richards journeyed to Europe to race a factory-prepared Porsche 924 Carrera GTR in 1981 entered for Porsche Cars Australia, but failed to qualify.
“That was a disaster,” he says. “All three cars had the same problem with the gearbox, so there was nothing any of us could do. Before the race, we went to the factory and they were still building the cars.”
Bond says the project ran off the rails when inexperienced mechanics were entrusted with preparing the 2.0-litre turbocharged 924s.
“There was something done wrong when the gearboxes were put together. The same guy had done the lot, so they all had the same problem.”
Aussie Porsche distributor Alan Hamilton brought the car back ‘home’ and campaigned it in the newly formed 1982 Australian GT Championship, as teammate to newly retired F1 ace, Alan Jones. “We did that for a couple of years and it was a lot of fun,” Bond said of the upgraded 944.
But surely not as much fun as driving the legendary Porsche 956 to sixth place, with Andrew Miedecke, in the 1984 World Endurance Championship round at Sandown. Surely that car would have to rank as the most ‘trick’ piece of kit Bond has driven?
“Absolutely. It was a ground effects car, except the track didn’t lend itself to that sort of car, as they ran that Mickey Mouse in eld section built especially for that race (to lengthen the track to meet the FIA’s minimum circuit length requirement).
“The cars were built for high-speed tracks like Le Mans, obviously. Even Phillip Island would have suited the cars more.”
“Alan (Jones) was driving one of the factory Rothmans cars with Vern Schuppan, so we had a chat to those guys about the cars. It was good. I started the race, but had no instruments as they had taken the front clip off the car and forgotten to plug it in. So they connected it up at the rst stop and off we went.”