Peter Brock legend remembered

The funeral and memorial services now largely over, the four-day festival of motorsport at Mt Panorama offers closing as the V8 Supercar series gets back to business for the first time after Brock's death.

Appropriate ceremonies are planned to honour Brock but fundamental to the weekend is the annual running of the Bathurst 1000 which made Brock so famous.

As part of the tributes for Brock the winners of the six-hour, 161-lap classic will hold aloft the Peter Brock Trophy for the first time.

At the start, the first two grid spots on pit straight will be left vacant as a sign of respect and in those nerve jangling last seconds before the start not a single driver in the race will be able to forget Brock's homily, "Live Your Dreams".

Holden's leading driver Mark Skaife is just one who realises the significance of lifting that trophy for the first time. If he does, Skaife will also break Peter Brock's long-standing record as the holder of the most round wins in the championship. Both currently have 37.

"This will be a very special weekend in the wake of the passing of Peter Brock," Skaife said.

"We need to ensure the emotion of the weekend does not override us and we continue to focus on the job of trying to win the race."

Of course, Brock was Holden. But Ford plans to gatecrash his memorial service this weekend.

Ford has not won the Bathurst 1000 for the past seven years. And it hurts right up to the top of the corporate tree.

The last time Ford tasted the champagne at Mt Panorama was in 1998 when Jason Bright and Steven Richards took the checkered flag.

In fact, Ford has only won at Bathurst twice in the past 15 years.

A similarly depressing run of outs in the V8 Supercar championship shaped the company's motor sport focus in the late '90s and turned failure to success.

As Holden began to amass what would be a streak of five straight championships, Ford decided to poach the sport's star driver Craig Lowndes from the heart of enemy territory — the Holden Racing Team.

Another Holden star, Russell Ingall, would follow and this weekend Lowndes, Ingall and Bright, another driver who has switched allegiances, form the backbone of Ford's challenge.

Ironically, an unsung hero stopped the rot for Ford in the championship when Marcos Ambrose won back-to- back crowns in 2003 and 2004 and his teammate Ingall made it three straight with victory last year.

Bathurst, however, is a different story.

In an unprecedented statement this week the senior Ford executive in Australia acknowledged the failure to win Bathurst was felt all the way to the top.

"The only thing missing in our trophy cabinet is Bathurst," said Ford president Tom Gorman.

"I don't think a day goes by when Bathurst is not brought up in conversation," he said.

"It means that much to everyone associated with Ford.

"A win for Ford would mean a lot. I know we are also in the middle of a championship hunt but I know all Ford teams will attack to win the race. The championship is a secondary consideration right now.

"It would be a career as well as a personal highlight for me to win Bathurst.

"We have the talent and team to get us a win at Mt Panorama. However it's the one race where predictions are too hard to make."