1978-1979: Germany 1, Australia 0

Having sold the RX3, Leeds went to Bathurst in 1978 with Cam Worner in a Capri V6 and organised some sponsorship from Unipart. Leeds started the race but was having

“I finally got him going down into Reid Park and, being a smart arse, I’ve given him the finger as I went past. You don’t do that to a German touring car champion! Next lap up into the Cutting, he’s given me a little tap and turned me around, and there was no fence on the outside then so I’ve just gone straight over the edge.”

trouble catching VW works driver Rudi Dahlhauser in Chris Heyer’s rapid Golf.

“I nally got him going down into Reid Park and, being a smart arse, I’ve given him the nger as I went past. You don’t do that to a German touring car champion! Next lap up into the Cutting, he’s given me a little tap and turned me around, and there was no fence on the outside then so I’ve just gone straight over the edge. ‘You don’t give me the nger!’ It was totally my fault.

“I remember thinking, ‘Jeez, this is going to hurt.’ As I went off I looked down and all I could see was the bottom of the hill. It landed with a crunch and was still going but a wire fence somehow stopped it. Nobody knew I was gone because there were no cameras there in those days. I got out of the car and climbed up the bank and there was a ag point there, but the car was so far down there was no way of getting it out until the race was over.

“I destroyed Cam’s Bathurst, and it shouldn’t have happened. It was just me being a smart arse. We didn’t talk for a couple of years…”

The following year Lakis Manticas recruited Leeds to drive a new Capri RS3100 (above), but oil leaked into the cabin. “The oor was swimming in oil, so you had to drive with your feet up off the oil! In the end it ran out of oil and kicked a rod out the side. So I parked it and walked back.”