Back in the day

Life wasn’t meant to be easy, said former Prime Minister Malcom Fraser. This was true for Holden in 1977 at Bathurst – where the PM made an appearance

We’ve seen the occasional Prime Minister front up at the Great Race over the years (current PM Scott Morrison made an appearance in 2018, just a couple of months after assuming office). It’s a bit of mystery as to why our esteemed leaders think being seen at major sporting events is such a good idea, however, when most of the punters see the pollie’s appearance for what it is - a cynical vote-seeking exercise (you can tell this by the way said politician is usually roundly booed when introduced to the crowd). Malcolm Fraser was one PM who made the pilgrimage to the

Mountain, in 1977, but the thing about Big Mal was that it was genuine – Fraser was a motoring and motor racing enthusiast. You can event see it just by looking at the meetand-greet pics here – for Fraser, being at Bathurst for the ’77 race really was mixing business with pleasure. When meeting the likes of Torana drivers Bob Morris and Allan Grice, the Prime Minister may even have felt moved to offer the phrase of advice for which he became famous – ‘life wasn’t meant to be easy’. Life certainly hadn’t been easy for the Torana teams in the sprint races leading up to the enduros, and it stayed that way at Bathurst where Allan Moffat’s Ford team wiped the floor with the Holdens yet again, this time with the now-famous ‘‘Form Finish 1-2’. Not that was all joy for the Ford teams, though – running the number 13 didn’t bring any luck to Dick Johnson, who would start every one of his remaining 21 Great Race campaigns under the number 17.