1984 Sandown 1000

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Layout of the Sandown Raceway international circuit (1984-1998) Sandown.JPG
Layout of the Sandown Raceway international circuit (1984-1998)

The 1984 Sandown 1000 was an endurance motor race staged at the Sandown Raceway in Victoria, Australia on 2 December 1984. [1] It was the eleventh and final round of the 1984 FIA World Endurance Championship and was the first FIA World Championship race to be held in Australia. It was to be the first of a three-year contract to race at Sandown, though the final two years would be cancelled.

Contents

The event was the final round of the World Endurance Championship for Drivers [2] but did not count towards the associated World Endurance Championship for Manufacturers, [3] the Group C2 Prototype FIA Cup, [4] or the FIA Grand Touring Cup. [5] The race was open to Group C1 Sports Prototypes, Group C2 Sports Prototypes, Group B GT Cars and IMSA GTP, GTX, GTO & GTU cars. [1] With their drivers no longer in a position to win the Drivers Championship and no manufacturers points on offer, the Martini Racing team did not participate in this event with their Ferrari powered Lancia LC2s.

An invitational class for "Australian Cars" (AC) was also included for cars that raced in the Australian GT Championship, and the Australian Sports Car Championship. These Group D GT, Group B Sports Sedan, and Group A Sports Cars, did not conform to World Endurance Championship regulations. [1] The FIA only allowed five AC cars to compete and the drivers were not eligible to score championship points. Only four of these cars started, with the Bryan Thompson / Brad Jones Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC powered by a twin turbo, 4.2 litre Chevrolet V8 engine did not start due to overheating issues in practice and qualifying.

Fittingly in Australia's first ever FIA World Championship event, the race included Australia's only two World Drivers' Champions. Sir Jack Brabham (1959, 1960 & 1966) and Alan Jones (1980) both participated as part of the factory backed Rothmans Porsche team. The race was Sir Jack's first and only World Championship race since the 1970 Mexican Grand Prix, though between 1970 and 1984 he had been a semi-regular competitor in Australian touring car racing.

The race proved to be a financial disaster for promoters, the Light Car Club of Australia. The club failed to secure a major sponsor for the race, and were late in arranging a television deal so the race could be broadcast back to Europe. It wasn't until the last minute that the ABC decided to telecast the race (of Australia's major television stations, the Seven Network was committed to showing the 1984 Australian Open tennis from Kooyong in Melbourne, Channel 9 was showing a match between Victoria and the touring West Indies cricket team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground while Channel 10 was covering the Australian federal election). The official attendance was just 13,860, though many observers put the figure at less than 10,000. It was estimated that the LCCA lost anywhere from A$300,000 to 500,000 on the race.

Qualifying

As expected, the factory Rothmans Porsche 956 of Stefan Bellof took pole with a time of 1:31.600 (prior to the race, the lap record of the new 3.9 km circuit was 1:36.9 set by John Bowe in a 1.6 litre Ford powered Ralt RT4/85 Formula Mondial car during the final round of the 1984 Australian Drivers' Championship). Sharing the front row was his teammate and rival for the World Endurance Championship Jochen Mass with a lap of 1:32.300.

British driver Gordon Spice qualified 12th and was the fastest Group C2 runner with a time of 1:38.000 in his 3.3 litre Tiga CG84-Cosworth DFL.

Four times CAMS Gold Star winner, Melbourne resident Alfredo Costanzo, qualified the 1984 Australian Sports Car Championship winning Romano WE84-Cosworth he would share with car owner Bap Romano in 13th place and fastest of the AC class with a 1:38.400 lap, despite persistent understeer in the slow corners (due to 70 kg of lead ballast the car was required to carry for the race), Costanzo twice stripping second gear in the car and an overnight engine change from the 3.0 litre Cosworth DFV engine to a more powerful 3.9 litre Cosworth DFL.

In the only IMSA car in the field, American driver Jim Cook qualified 15th in Chuck Kendall's Lola T600-Chevrolet V8 with a 1:39.500, while Altfrid Heger qualified his Group B BMW M1 in 28th with a time of 1:50.500. The Group B BMW M1's (powered by the 3.5 litre BMW M88 Straight-six engine) actually proved slower than the production based Australian Group C touring cars had been at the circuit three months earlier, including being almost 3 seconds slower than the BMW 635 CSi touring car which used the same M88 engine.

Race

Without the factory Lancia's, the Group C class turned into a Porsche benefit with the first 10 places on the grid being filled by the 956 model and position 11 being the newer Porsche 962 run by John Fitzpatrick Racing for Australia's "Mr Versatile" of motor racing Colin Bond, and open wheel driver Andrew Miedecke.

Alan Jones had the honour of leading the first lap of the race having got the jump on temporary teammates Bellof and Mass. As in qualifying, the race was a Porsche benefit with the German cars finishing in the top 9 places (the 962 of Bond/Miedecke finished 6th). Rothmans Porsche drivers Bellof and Derek Bell won the race, giving Bellof the 1984 World Endurance Championship in the process. Teammates Jochen Mass and Jacky Ickx finished three laps behind in 2nd, with Jonathan Palmer and Jan Lammers a further lap down in 3rd place in their Richard Lloyd Racing 956B. The only car to actually challenge the Rothmans Porsche's during the race, the Skoal Bandit 956B of Thierry Boutsen and David Hobbs, was the only Group C1 car not to finish after suffering a burnt-out an ignition coil on lap 171.

The first non-Porsche finisher was the Group C2, 3.3L Cosworth DFL powered Tiga GC84 of Gordon Spice and Neil Crang in 10th place. The Tiga won C2 after a race long battle with the Italian Alba's and the German Gebhardt JC843-Cosworth. The AC class was won by the JPS Team BMW's 320i of Jim Richards and Tony Longhurst who finished in 14th place overall despite several spins and punctures caused by the road surface in the new infield section breaking up under the strain of the 650 bhp (485 kW; 659 PS) ground effect Group C Porsche's. The BMW was followed in 15th place by the Group B winning BMW M1 of Helmut Gall and Altfrid Heger. The only IMSA car in the race, a Lola T600-Chevrolet run by Chuck Kendall failed to finish having completed 95 laps.

The race distance was to be 257 laps, or 1000 km (620 mi) long. However, under WEC rules, with the exception of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, races had a time limit of 6 hours. The six-hour mark was reached when the Bellof/Bell Porsche had run only 206 laps (803.4 km), thus the race was declared at the time limit some 51 laps short of the 1000 km distance.

Official results

PosClassNoTeamDriversChassisTyreLaps
Engine
1C12 Flag of Germany.svg Rothmans Porsche Flag of Germany.svg Stefan Bellof
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Derek Bell
Porsche 956 D 206
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
2C11 Flag of Germany.svg Rothmans Porsche Flag of Germany.svg Jochen Mass
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jacky Ickx
Porsche 956 D 203
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
3C114 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg GTi Engineering Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jonathan Palmer
Flag of the Netherlands.svg Jan Lammers
Porsche 956 GTi D 202
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
4C110 Flag of Germany.svg Porsche Kremer Racing Flag of South Africa (1928-1994).svg Sarel van der Merwe
Flag of South Africa (1928-1994).svg George Fouché
Porsche 956 G 200
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
5C111 Flag of Germany.svg Porsche Kremer Racing Flag of Germany.svg Manfred Winkelhock
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Rusty French
Porsche 956B G 200
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
6C134 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Team Australia
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Fitzpatrick Racing
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Colin Bond
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Andrew Miedecke
Porsche 962 D 198
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
7C17 Flag of Germany.svg New-Man Joest Racing Flag of Germany.svg Klaus Ludwig
Flag of France.svg Henri Pescarolo
Porsche 956 D 197
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
8C13 Flag of Germany.svg Rothmans Porsche Flag of Australia (converted).svg Vern Schuppan
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Alan Jones
Porsche 956 D 196
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
9C155 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Skoal Bandit Porsche Team
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Fitzpatrick Racing
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Rupert Keegan
Flag of Austria.svg Franz Konrad
Porsche 956 G 194
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
10C270 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Spice-Tiga Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gordon Spice
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Neil Crang
Tiga GC84 A 189
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8
11C112 Flag of Germany.svg Schornstein Racing Team
Flag of Germany.svg Joest Racing
Flag of Germany.svg "John Winter"
Flag of Germany.svg Dieter Schornstein
Flag of France.svg Paul Belmondo
Porsche 956 D 184
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
12C274 Flag of Germany.svg Gebhardt Motorsport Flag of Germany.svg Frank Jelinski
Flag of Germany.svg Beate Nodes
Flag of Germany.svg Günter Gebhardt
Gebhardt JC843 A 181
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8
13C117 Flag of Germany.svg Porsche Kremer Racing Flag of the Netherlands.svg Kees Kroesemeijer
Flag of New Zealand.svg Peter Janson
Flag of Spain.svg Jesús Pareja
Porsche-Kremer CK5 D 179
Porsche Type-935 2.8L Turbo Flat-6
14AC62 Flag of Australia (converted).svg JPS Team BMW Flag of New Zealand.svg Jim Richards
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Tony Longhurst
BMW 320i Y 178
BMW M10 2.0L I4
15B106 Flag of Germany.svg Helmut Gall Flag of Germany.svg Helmut Gall
Flag of Germany.svg Altfrid Heger
BMW M1 D 170
BMW M88 3.5L I6
16C299 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg JQF Engineering Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jeremy Rossiter
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Roy Baker
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gary Evans
Tiga GC284  ?156
Ford BDT 1.7L Turbo I4
NCC283 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Roger Andreason Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Richard Jones
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Don Burroughs
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Bartlett
Lola T610 A 120
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8
NCC156 Flag of Germany.svg Rothmans Porsche
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg GTi Engineering
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Johnny Dumfries
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jack Brabham
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Richard Lloyd
Porsche 956 D 108
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
NCAC61 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bap Romano Racing Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bap Romano
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Alfredo Costanzo
Romano WE84 A 106
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.9L V8
DNFC133 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Skoal Bandit Porsche Team
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg John Fitzpatrick Racing
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Thierry Boutsen
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Hobbs
Porsche 956B G 171
Porsche Type-935 2.6L Turbo Flat-6
DNFAC65 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jeff Harris Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jeff Harris
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Ray Hanger
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Barry Jones
JWS C2 A 114
Mazda 13B 1.3L 2-Rotor Turbo
DNFC281 Flag of Italy.svg Scuderia Jolly Club Flag of Italy.svg Guido Daccò
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Lucio Cesario
Alba AR2 A 114
Giannini Carma FF 2.0L Turbo I4
DNFC273 Flag of Germany.svg Gebhardt Motorsport Flag of France.svg Cathy Muller
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Sue Ransom
Flag of the United States.svg Margie Smith-Haas
Gebhardt JC842 A 95
BMW M88 3.5L I6
DNFIMSA131 Flag of the United States.svg Kendall Racing Flag of the United States.svg Chuck Kendall
Flag of the United States.svg Jim Cook
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Peter Fitzgerald
Lola T600  ?95
Chevrolet 5.8L V8
DNFC280 Flag of Italy.svg Scuderia Jolly Club Flag of Italy.svg Martino Finotto
Flag of Italy.svg Carlo Facetti
Flag of Italy.svg Guido Daccò
Alba AR2 A 91
Giannini Carma FF 2.0L Turbo I4
DNFC272 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg ADA Engineering
Flag of Germany.svg Gebhardt Motorsport
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Ian Harrower
Flag of New Zealand.svg Neville Crichton
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Bruce Davidson
Gebhardt JC843 ?64
Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8
DNFC290 Flag of Denmark.svg Jens Winther Denmark Flag of Denmark.svg Jens Winther
Flag of Denmark.svg Lars Viggo-Jensen
URD C81 A 42
BMW M88 3.5L I6
DNFB113 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Strandell Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Nick Faure
Flag of Sweden.svg Kenneth Leim
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Peter Clark
Porsche 930  ?0
Porsche 3.3L Turbo Flat-6
DSQAC64 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Re-Car Racing Flag of Australia (converted).svg Allan Grice
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Dick Johnson
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Ron Harrop
Chevrolet Monza D 114
Chevrolet 6.0L V8
DNSAC63 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Thomson-Fowler Motorsport Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bryan Thomson
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Brad Jones
Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC A -
Chevrolet 4.2L Twin Turbo V8
DNAC116 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Terry Hook Flag of Australia (converted).svg Terry Hook
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Warwick Brown
Lola T610  ?-
Chevrolet 6.0L V8

Note: Cars that failed to complete 75% of the winner's distance were Not Classified and are marked as NC in the above table.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Official Programme, Sandown 1000, page 43
  2. 1985 FIA Yearbook, Red section, page 86
  3. 1985 FIA Yearbook, Red section, page 87
  4. 1985 FIA Yearbook, Red section, page 88
  5. Autosport, 31 January 1985, page 37

Further reading

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