Colin Bond with a “reimagined” version of the 1977 finish. Image: Richard Gresham
Approaching 50 years on, the formation 1-2 finish between the Moffat Ford Dealers Falcons remains the Blue Oval’s mightiest moment on the Mountain.
Moffat and Belgian co-driver Jacky Ickx won the race despite the former limping through the closing stages with worn out brakes.
Bond hauled in Moffat and briefly nosed ahead into the final corner of the race before pulling in behind to let his team boss win.
“It was one of the stupidest things I ever did,” said Bond at Bathurst as part of a launch event for his new book, Full Tilt.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing. At the time, I thought it was the right thing to do. I had a two-year contract with Moffat and there was still another year to go.
“The team manager came up with a sign, ‘Form Finish 1-2’.
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“Afterwards with Moffat the next year the whole thing fell over, it was a disaster, Ford pulled the pin [at the end of 1978]. We were running in cars with second hand tyres the whole time.”
Bond left the team at the end of 1978 and later launched legal action against Moffat over owed prize money.
He now feels that winning the race could have taken his own career to the next level.
“Thinking about it now, letting him win, I felt it was going to be OK for the following year,” Bond continued.
“Had I not, and won the race, there could have been the possibility I could have run the Ford team for a while, because we were running the rally program, that was mine.
“You never know. Dick Johnson was still about two years away from coming on to be the Ford person.
“So yeah, it was stupid!”
Bond was presented with a photograph depicting a “reimagined” version of the 1-2 finish, with the car numbers swapped to suggest victory for the Bond/Alan Hamilton entry.
The driver won the Great Race in 1969 and Australian Touring Car Championship in 1975, both during his stint with Holden. He was inducted into the Supercars Hall of Fame in 2002.