The 1983 Australian Touring Car season was the 24th season of touring car racing in Australia commencing from 1960 when the first Australian Touring Car Championship and the first Armstrong 500 (the forerunner of the present day Bathurst 1000) were contested.
The year was known for its political infighting over the homologation of parts by the Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS). The new homologation grants for 1 August were announced on 29 May during the running of Round 7 of the Touring Car Championship at Sydney's Oran Park by ABC television commentators Will Hagon and John Smailes. This drew public criticism from the drivers who were only told about the grants post race. As a result of the way CAMS announced the homologation grants, both the Roadways and Nissan teams boycotted of the final round at Lakeside, despite Nissan driver George Fury going into the round as the championship leader and needing only to finish 9th in the race to claim the title. The boycott ultimately cost Fury the championship as his only rival Allan Moffat finished a safe 3rd to claim his fourth and last ATCC series win.
During the year CAMS also announced that the 1984 season would be the last for the locally developed Group C category which had been in place since 1973, before the move to the FIA's international Group A rules from 1985. This in effect took the homologation issue out of CAMS hands, with the FIA having the final say on all homologated cars and parts.
Touring Cars competed at 19 race meetings in Australia during the 1983 season, contesting the following events:
A Group C race was a support event at the 1983 Australian Grand Prix meeting. Known as the "Berri Fruit Juices Trophy" race, George Fury won driving his Nissan Motor Co. Bluebird Turbo. Peter Brock finished second in his Holden Dealer Team Commodore, with team mate Larry Perkins driving the Bathurst winning #25 car to 3rd place.
Pos. | Driver | No. | Team | Car |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | George Fury | 15 | Nissan Motor Co | Nissan Bluebird Turbo |
2 | Peter Brock | 05 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | Holden VH Commodore SS |
3 | Larry Perkins | 25 | Marlboro Holden Dealer Team | Holden VH Commodore SS |
Mark Stephen SkaifeOAM is an Australian former racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as a six-time Bathurst 1000 winner. On 29 October 2008, he announced his retirement from full-time touring car racing. Since retiring from driving, Skaife has worked as a commentator and presenter for the series for both the Seven Network and Fox Sports Australia.
Allan George MoffatOBE is a Canadian-born Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins in the Sandown 500 and his four wins in the Bathurst 500/1000. Moffat was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 1999.
Amaroo Park Raceway was a 1.930 km (1.199 mi) motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day north-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1967, the road circuit served as a venue for a variety of competitions including the Castrol 6 Hour motorcycle race, rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship, Australian Drivers' Championship, Australian Formula Ford Championship, Australian Sports Sedan Championship, the AMSCAR Series for touring cars, historic racing and others. The last Australian Touring Car Championship round to take place at the circuit was in 1994.
John Philip Bowe is an Australian racing driver, presently racing a Holden Torana in the Touring Car Masters series.
Allan Maxwell Grice, known to motor-racing fans as "Gricey", is an Australian former racing driver and politician, most famous for twice winning the prestigious Bathurst 1000, and as a privateer driver of a Holden in the Australian Touring Car Championship.
In relation to Australian motorsport, Group C refers to either of two sets of regulations devised by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) for use in Australian Touring Car Racing from 1965 to 1984. These are not to be confused with the FIA's Group C sports car regulations, used from 1982 to 1992 for the World Endurance Championship / World Sports-Prototype Championship / World Sportscar Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title open to Group 3A Touring Cars. The title, which was the 32nd Australian Touring Car Championship, was contested over a nine-round series which began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway, The series was promoted as the Shell Australian Touring Car Championship and was won by Jim Richards driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R.
Gibson Motorsport was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1985 until 2003, though the team had its roots in Gibson's "Road & Track" team which ran a series of Ford Falcon GTHOs in Series Production during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The name of the team was also the name of Fred Gibson's automotive business in Sydney. As Gibson was also a driver for the Ford Works Team, his team was sometimes a pseudo-works team when the Ford factory did not enter.
The 1986 Australian Endurance Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title open to Touring Cars as specified in the National Competition Rules of CAMS. The title, which was the sixth Australian Endurance Championship, was contested concurrently with the 1986 Australian Manufacturers' Championship, which was the sixteenth in a sequence of manufacturers championships awarded by CAMS, and the seventh to be contested under the Australian Manufacturers' Championship name.
The 1989 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title open to Group 3A Touring Cars. The championship, which was the 30th Australian Touring Car Championship, began on 5 March at Amaroo Park and ended on 9 July at Oran Park Raceway after eight rounds. The 1989 Australian Manufacturers' Championship was contested over the same eight round series.
The 1988 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group 3A Touring Cars. It was the 29th running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. The championship began on 6 March at Calder Park Raceway and ended on 17 July at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds.
The 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship was an Australian motor racing competition for Touring Cars. It began on 2 March 1986 at Amaroo Park and ended on 13 July at Oran Park Raceway after ten rounds. The championship was authorised by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) as an Australian National Title. It was the 27th Australian Touring Car Championship and the second to be contested by cars conforming with CAMS regulations based on the FIA's international Group A Touring Car regulations.
The 1984 Australian Touring Car Championship was a motor racing competition for Group C Touring Cars. The Championship was authorised by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport as an Australian National Title. It was the 25th Australian Touring Car Championship, and the last to be contested by Group C cars as new regulations, based on international Group A, were introduced for 1985.
George Fury is a retired Australian rally and racing car driver. For the majority of his career Fury was associated with Nissan, twice winning the Australian Rally Championship, and twice runner up in the Australian Touring Car Championship. Fury, a farmer living and working in the New South Wales country town of Talmalmo, was nicknamed "Farmer George" or "The Talmalmo Farmer".
The 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Touring Cars. It was the 26th running of the Australian Touring Car Championship and the first to be contested using regulations based on the FIA's International Group A regulations after having been run under CAMS home grown Group C rules between 1973 and 1984. The championship began on 10 February 1985 at Winton Motor Raceway and ended on 14 July at Oran Park Raceway after ten rounds.
The 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group C Touring Cars. The title, which was the 24th Australian Touring Car Championship, was contested over a series which began on 6 February 1983 at Calder Park Raceway and ended on 19 June at Lakeside International Raceway after eight rounds.
The 1986 Australian Touring Car season was the 27th season of touring car racing in Australia commencing from 1960 when the first Australian Touring Car Championship and the first Armstrong 500 were contested. It was the second season in which Australian Touring Car regulations were based on those for the FIA Group A Touring Car category.
The 1983 Australian Endurance Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group C Touring Cars. The championship was contested over a six-round series with all rounds run concurrently with those of the 1983 Australian Endurance Championship of Makes.
JPS Team BMW is a former Australian motor racing team that ran from 1981–1987. The team's main focus was touring car racing but also ran in sports sedans and GT cars as well. The team, under the management of former British Touring Car Champion and Formula One racer Frank Gardner, was based in Sydney and completed almost all of their testing at the old Amaroo Park circuit with Gardner himself doing most of the test miles in the various BMW's the team raced.
The 1984 Australian Touring Car season was the 25th season of touring car racing in Australia, commencing in 1960 when the first Australian Touring Car Championship and the first Armstrong 500 were contested. It was the last season in for the locally developed Group C category before the adoption of FIA's Group A rules from 1985.
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