The Monaro performed well at the commencement of the race dicing with the GT HO's and was very competitive, constantly in the top 3 cars until approximately three quarters of an hour into the race.
At the 3/4 of an hour mark brake failure led to a spectacular fiery crash.
You can see in the below photo the commencement of the issues with the brakes on the Monaro.
Unbenowns to all involved with the race team there had been a mix up with brake pads. Having spoken with Harry Firth, Ian Tate (The former Head Mechanic of the Holden dealer Team) and Frank Lowndes there were two sets of brake pads for the Monaro that were utilised for practise, a road set and a race set. The high tech system consisted of two small boxes with "Road Pads" and "Race Pads" written on the exterior of the boxes. After the last practise prior to Sandown someone placed the "Race Pads" in the "Road Pad" box and the "Road Pads" in the "Race Pads" box. Subsequently at the three quarter of an hour distance Spencer Martin having reached the end of the front straight at Sandown at well in excess of 100 MPH went to squeeze on the brakes only to find the pedal went straight to the floor. The road pads were destroyed in a very short period of time due to the extreme conditions of racing.
Spencer was no fool and knew the consequences of hitting the fence at such a speed and instinctively reefed on the handbrake, spun the Monaro around backwards and hit the Armco at approximately 80 MPH, leaped over the armco and down onto the return road. The armco ripped the fuel tank and subsequently the fuel spilled and hit the hot exhaust manifold and ignited.
