TWENTY five years ago when Mark Skaife and Jim Richards lined up for the Bathurst 1000 in a Nissan GT-R R32, they were untouchable.
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They finished a lap clear of their closest rivals, while their winning time of six hours, 19 minutes and 14.8 seconds stood as the record for 19 years.
Now a quarter of a century later, Nissan’s Michael Caruso is hoping to find some magic of his own at Mount Panorama.
He will do it with the same red, white and blue war paint that Skaife and Richards had in 1991.
“It’s definitely the Nissan livery that I’ve been looking forward to the most,” Caruso said. “There’s no doubt about how important and how successful the GT-R was and to have the same colours on my car at Bathurst is something very special.”
Over the last two years Caruso has given a nod to Nissan’s Bathurst heritage with special Great Race livery.
In 2014 he ran the colours of George Fury’s Bluebird which claimed pole in 1984 and last year his Altima gave a nod to the HR31 Skyline of Richards.
Caruso was not able to win with those colours – placing 13th last year and 15th in 2014 – but he hopes this Sunday’s Great Race will be different. He currently sits ninth in the Supercars drivers’ championship.
“We’re going to Bathurst with the best chance for success we’ve ever had. In the four years since Nissan has been back in Supercars, this has been my strongest year. We’ve had a race win and a couple of podiums, so hopefully we can go to the mountain and do what it takes,” he said.