The Datsun 1200 was one of the most successful Series Production cars ever to compete in the annual Bathurst 500/1000 endurance race. Only trouble is, few people knew about it. 

While the media and most race fans were focused on the annual stoush for outright honours between Ford and Holden, the Datsun 1200 starred in some of the most competitive and fiercely fought battles in Class A in the early to mid-1970s which barely rated a mention.

Class A was for the smallest, cheapest and least powerful cars in the Bathurst enduro’s multi-class structure. As a result, they were always the first cars to be lapped by the outright contenders and were often referred to as ‘tiddlers’ which did little more than fill out the tail end of the starting grid  and provide mobile chicanes for the faster cars to weave through. 

Fact is, the Class A battles at Bathurst each year were generally closer, more exciting and competitive than the outright contests. These were ferocious encounters, fought out between numerous official works teams or quality dealer-backed entries mainly from Datsun, Mazda and Toyota. 

They were often so close in lap times that you could have thrown a blanket over the top four or five cars. And the amount of rule-bending that went on, which made life hell for the scrutineers, only proved how close the competition was and how high the stakes were in Class A.

According to former motoring journalist and Datsun factory team driver, James Laing-Peach, George Denner was the man in charge of Datsun Victoria back then, which handled state-wide distribution of Datsun vehicles. An entirely separate operation called Capitol Motors in Sydney run by Arnold Glass handled NSW distribution. 

However, Denner was considered to be the man in charge of ‘Datsun Australia’ as he had a direct line of communication with the top brass in Japan and was pushing hard for local manufacturing of the marque.

Denner was a visionary who also correctly advised the Japanese that a really good motor sport campaign could help Datsun make big inroads into the Australian car market with what were then considered by most to be ‘funny little Japanese cars’.

Denner had access to factory money, too, which he entrusted to racing veteran John Roxburgh to run the official Datsun Racing Team from his well-equipped workshop in York Street, South Melbourne. 

It was a sophisticated operation for its time with a direct link to the factory in Japan and Roxburgh, Doug Whiteford and Bill Evans on the driving squad. The team had been running Datsun 1000s with considerable success so the switch to the newer, more powerful Datsun 1200 was highly anticipated.

1970 Hardie-Ferodo 500

The Datsun 1200 made a sparkling Bathurst debut in the 1970 Hardie-Ferodo 500, back in the days when the race was held for mass-produced cars in (supposedly) stock standard showroom trim. 

The Datsun Racing Team went in boots and all with its popular new four-door sedan, entering two in Class A for cars with a retail price up to $1,960.

This made Class A the high-speed version of the showroom battles being fought out each day for the hearts, minds and wallets of Australia’s small car buyers, with the major contenders being the Datsun 1200, Mazda 1300, Toyota Corolla 1200 and Ford Escort 1300.

And after 500 miles (800 kms) of hard racing, the works-entered Datsun 1200 driven by Barry Tapsell and John Leighton emerged as the Class A winner in its first attempt. The other works car entered for 1960 Great Race winner and Datsun Racing Team manager John Roxburgh to drive solo, crashed out of the race on lap 100.

1971 Hardie-Ferodo 500

The retail price threshold for Class A eligibility was raised to $2,150 for the 1971 race but the competition amongst the main protagonists Datsun, Mazda and Toyota was just as fierce. 

The Datsun Racing Team fronted again with two works cars, this time for racing veteran and former AGP winner Doug Whiteford and James Laing-Peach, who had driven Corollas in the 1968 and ’69 races and a Mazda 1300 sedan in the 1970 clash. 

Both elected to drive the 800 km race distance solo. It was a long and arduous task that few chose to do, requiring supreme levels of concentration and physical stamina for more than six hours behind the wheel without a break.

And during another day of tough warfare between the Datsun, Mazda and Toyota, Laing-Peach drove a flawless race and capitalised on his rivals’ various mistakes and misfortunes to take the chequered flag more than a lap ahead of the second-placed Mazda.

However, Laing-Peach’s glory was short-lived. His works Datsun 1200 was disqualified from the results after post-race scrutineering determined that the camshaft used in the winning car was not representative of ‘normal’ mass-production tolerances, even though full blueprinting of engines was permitted under the rules.

After driving such a finely-judged race, Laing-Peach was devastated when he heard of his exclusion.  As a result, the arch rival Mazda 1300s filled three of the top four places with a Corolla in third. Whiteford’s was the best-placed Datsun 1200 in 5^th place.

1972 Hardie-Ferodo 500

This race will always be remembered as the catalyst for the infamous media-driven ‘Supercar Scare’ that killed off what was brewing as the greatest stoush for outright honours  between Ford’s stillborn XA GT-HO Phase IV and Holden’s aborted LJ Torana GTR XU-1 V8.

However, the equally no-holds-barred battle brewing for Class A honours between arch rivals Datsun and Mazda managed to slip under the political radar without anyone noticing! 

And what a battle it promised to be, with Datsun doubling its factory attack from two to four 1200s against an equally four-pronged Mazda 1300 effort, comprising two works cars and two quality semi-works entries from Melbourne Mazda dealer Len Bainbridge.

After an intense day-long battle, in which Datsun 1200 works driver Bill Evans fought a lone hand against several of the flying Mazda 1300s, it was Mazda driver Geoff Perry who crossed the line first ahead of Evans. 

However, it was Mazda’s turn to have its post-race celebrations cut short this time, as Perry’s winning Mazda 1300 was disqualified for irregularities relating to the inlet manifold and carburettor. 

The Mazda team returned fire, lodging a protest against the second-placed Datsun 1200 for using what it claimed was a non-standard cylinder head, inlet manifold and camshaft!

Mazda’s protest was dismissed and Bill Evans and his Datsun 1200 were declared the Class A winners. Things sure were getting serious at the tail end of the grid.

1973 Hardie-Ferodo 1000

Australian touring car racing and the annual 500-mile Bathurst endurance race underwent some major changes in 1973, with the introduction of a new set of rules called ‘Production Touring – Group C’ which allowed for mild modifications of standard production cars to make them better suited to competition use.

And the Bathurst race distance was extended from 500 miles (800 kms) to 1000 kms to embrace the nation’s switch from imperial measurement to the new Metric system, requiring a minimum of two drivers per car and maximum times allowed for each behind the wheel.  

The race’s multi-class structures also changed from being based on retail price to pure engine capacity, with Class A now limited to cars up to 1300cc. 

As a result, the venerable 1275cc Mini Cooper S was dusted off and returned with a vengeance to take on the dominant Datsun 1200, with Fiat’s 128 SL, Honda’s new Civic and Renault’s Gordini also in the mix. After the ’72 scrutineering debacle, the Mazda 1300 factory attack was missing in action.

“To try and maintain the Datsun 1200’s winning edge under the new Group C rules, which also allowed the use of slick tyres for the first time, Roxburgh sent a specification to head office in Japan about our new car,” Laing-Peach recalled. 

“We couldn’t run the four-door sedans anymore (due to the maximum four-year model limit) so Roxburgh said if they couldn’t come up with the power-to-weight ratio we needed in a coupe, then don’t bother sending a car to us as it would be a waste of time. 

“Even though the factory said they couldn’t achieve the power figure he wanted, it was a matter of honour for the Japanese to somehow meet his requirements. So they just reduced the car’s weight instead, which had the same effect.”

According to Laing-Peach, the little Datsun 1200 two-door coupe the factory shipped to Australia in time for the Sandown 250 and Bathurst 1000 more than made up for any power deficit. 

It was a hand-built factory lightweight, featuring all kinds of little tweaks you usually find on works cars including a twin-port manifold and controversial close-ratio five-speed gearbox. 

“Everywhere you looked you could see it was a special car. For instance, where you’d normally find weld marks on the production cars you’d find epoxy joins. It was very light and a winner straight out of the box. It was real little rocket and I loved driving it,” Laing-Peach recalled.

In readiness for the expected howls of protest about the car’s five-speed gearbox, which although an option in Japan was not available on any Datsun 1200s sold in Australia, Roxburgh was armed with all the official homologation paperwork from the factory which was promptly rubber-stamped by CAMS!

The 1973 Class A battle for Bathurst was another highly competitive cut-throat affair that came down to an absorbing contest between the new Evans/Laing-Peach Datsun 1200 and an unexpected rival in the form of a front wheel drive Fiat 128 coupe driven by Lakis Manticas and Peter Lander.

The duelling Datsun and Fiat ran nose to tail for most of the day, swapping the class lead between them in a thrilling dog-fight that lasted for several hours. However, after each team made their final pit stops before the final run to the chequered flag, the Fiat suddenly lost the blinding pace it had shown throughout the day and was no longer a match for the Evans/Laing-Peach car.

Although it was never proven, pit lane rumours suggested that the Fiat team had been running oversized front tyres to produce such unexpected speed, before switching to a narrower set of legal width rubber for the final stint to ensure the car would pass post-race scrutineering if it won. If that’s true, we can only say it was another typical day in Class A.

When the chequered flag fell after 143 laps (20 laps behind the outright race winner), the works Datsun 1200 was still on the same lap and less than a minute ahead of the second-placed Fiat it had fought so hard with all day. And this was after more than seven hours of racing! Incredible.

The Datsun 1200 also claimed class honours for the 1973 Manufacturer’s Championship (ManChamps) which consisted of several long distance races at various tracks around the country.

 

1974 Hardie-Ferodo 1000

Although Datsun won its class again in the 1974 ManChamps, its golden run at Bathurst came to an abrupt end in the 1974 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 when clutch failure in the Evans/Laing-Peach five-speed Datsun 1200 coupe forced its retirement after only 59 laps. The clutch was the only major component they had changed on the car since its victory the previous year! Class victory went to the resurgent Mini Cooper S.

 

1975 Hardie-Ferodo 1000

The Datsun team had to take a back seat to the Minis again in Class A at the 1975 Bathurst 1000, with the Peter Lander/Bob Martin Cooper S finishing one lap clear of Bill Evans in the works Datsun 1200 coupe, this time shared with Bathurst veteran Bruce Stewart. A second factory-entered 1200 coupe for Jon Leighton and Roger Bonhomme blew its engine in practice and was a non-starter.

1976 Hardie-Ferodo 1000

The venerable Datsun 1200 regained the upper hand at Bathurst the following year, as the Mini Cooper S had exceeded its homologated four-year age limit and was no longer eligible for Class A.

Against some colourful competition that included Honda Civic, Mini Clubman GT, Mazda 1300, Toyota Corolla, Alfa Junior, Fiat 128, Escort 1300 and VW Passat, the works-entered Datsun 1200 coupe driven by Evans and Stewart ran away with Class A to finish two laps clear of the second-placed Honda Civic.

It was another emphatic victory for the Datsun 1200 in Class A. Sadly, it was also to be its last as the under-1300cc Class A was dropped for the 1977 race in favour of a more broadly-based class for cars under 2000cc in engine capacity. 

“Bill Evans was one of Australia’s greatest drivers, no question, he was right up there with the Brocks and Moffats of this world,” Laing-Peach said. “He was just devastatingly fast. If he’d ever been given a drive in a decent outright car they wouldn’t have seen which way he went. I just regarded it a great honour to have driven with him.”

In hindsight, the axing of Class A was quite timely for the Datsun 1200 as it only had one more year to run before it too would no longer be eligible under the four-year homologation rule.

That meant it went out a winner, after seven consecutive starts at the Mountain that resulted in four wins, one second place and one retirement. And without the post-race disqualification after its class victory in 1971, that winning record could have looked even better. 

Not that many people knew about it at the time. Finally, they do now.