Australian Touring Car Championship

Last updated

Australian Touring Car Championship
Category Touring car racing
Country Australia
Inaugural season 1960;64 years ago (1960)
Drivers24
Teams13
Tyre suppliersDunlop
Drivers' champion Flag of New Zealand.svg Shane van Gisbergen
Official website supercars.com
Motorsport current event.svg Current season

The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the trophy and title of Australian Touring Car Champion.

Contents

History

The first Australian Touring Car Championship was held in 1960 as a single race for Appendix J Touring Cars. [1] This was reflected the rising popularity of races held for passenger sedans; as opposed to those for purpose built open wheel racing cars, or sports cars. The race was held at the Gnoo Blas Motor Racing Circuit in Orange in rural New South Wales, west of Sydney. It was won by journalist racer, David McKay driving a Jaguar 3.4 Litre prepared by his own racing team, which to this point had been better known for preparing open-wheel and sports racing cars.

The early years of the ATCC saw the annual event held mostly at rural circuits, before finally visiting a major city circuit, Lakeside Raceway on the outskirts of Brisbane in 1964. This race was also the first not won by a Jaguar with Ian Geoghegan driving a Ford Cortina GT to win the first of his five titles. [1] From 1965 the title would largely be won by an American V8 powered muscle car, most notably the Ford Mustang which would be used to win five consecutive titles in 1965 to 1969 with (Norm Beechey) and Geoghegan. The first championship victory by the driver of an Australian car was that of Beechey in 1970 driving a Holden HT Monaro GTS350. As of 4 December 2011 Beechey and Jamie Whincup are the only two people to have won the championship in both a Ford and a Holden. The 1971 and 1972 championships were won by 1962 and 1963 champion Bob Jane who drove a 7.0 litre Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 in 1971 before CAMS rule changes forced Jane to use the smaller 5.7 litres 350 Chevrolet in the Camaro in 1972.

1979 Champion Bob Morris (Holden Torana) Toranamorris.jpg
1979 Champion Bob Morris (Holden Torana)

A major shift occurred in 1973. The championship had grown from a single race into a multi-event series in 1969, but the competition had not changed markedly. The 'Supercar scare' that had rocked the buildup to 1972 Bathurst 500 forced sweeping changes through touring car regulations. The Improved Touring Car regulations which governed the ATCC, known at the time as Group C were amalgamated with the more basic Group E Series Production Touring Cars regulations which governed the Bathurst touring car endurance race in a compromise between the two, creating a single class for touring car racing that would hold sway of Australian Touring Car racing until the introduction of Group A in 1985.

This period saw a rise in the tribal style conflicts between Holden and Ford and in particular the two marques leading drivers, respectively Peter Brock and Allan Moffat who between them would claim seven of the eras 12 championships (and nine of the associated Bathurst victories). By the mid-1980s Group C had become wracked with infighting and almost random parity adjustments between competing marques.

Attention focussed purely on Holden and Ford had blurred as European and Japanese manufacturers joined the Australian agents of the two big American companies, the trend starting in 1981 with BMW, Mazda and Nissan. The international Group A regulations that already utilised by European and Japanese touring car series came into full effect in Australia from 1985 and allowed the international manufacturers to compete on equal terms. Holden was forced briefly into catchup phase and all but backed out of the sport in 1992 after Group A had been dominated by more track-focused production cars such as the turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500 and various Nissan Skylines, as well as the BMW M3.

By the mid-1980s, a number of the leading teams including the Holden Dealer Team, Dick Johnson Racing, JPS Team BMW and the Peter Jackson Nissan team had begun to make a lot of noise about the very little amount of prize money on offer for their efforts in crisscrossing the country in pursuit of the title. In 1984, the final year of the Group C rules, it was estimated that the Brisbane based Johnson team had covered some 20,000 km in travelling to and from championship meetings, often for as little as AU$1,500 for a win. When CAMS increased the title to 10 rounds in 1986, with little change to the prize money, the teams were threatening that the ATCC would see smaller and smaller grids unless CAMS found a series sponsor. The sponsor that was found was oil giant Shell who put up some $275,000 worth of prize money from the 1987 ATCC, ensuring the long-term future of the series.

1992 saw the unhappy demise of Group A and with the international touring car scene fragmenting in several directions (moving towards DTM, Super Touring and Super GT) Australia forged its own path evolving the Group A specification Holden Commodores and re-introducing the Ford Falcon into the new Group 3A regulations that would later be renamed as V8 Supercar.

The ATCC continued to be used until the end of the 1998 season, after which V8 Supercar organisers altered the name of the series, eventually adopting its present identity, the Supercars Championship.

ATCC champions and records

Accurate to the 2015 Coates Hire Sydney 500. Current full-time drivers are highlighted in bold text.

Event starts by driver

The Ford Mustang with which Ian Geoghegan won the 1967, 1968 and 1969 Australian Touring Car Championships, pictured in 2013. 1967 Ford Mustang Hardtop Geoghegan tribute (9693636955).jpg
The Ford Mustang with which Ian Geoghegan won the 1967, 1968 and 1969 Australian Touring Car Championships, pictured in 2013.
The Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 in which Bob Jane won the 1971 Australian Touring Car Championship. 1969 Bob Jane Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 Race Car.jpg
The Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 in which Bob Jane won the 1971 Australian Touring Car Championship.
DriverSeasonsStarts
1 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Russell Ingall 1996–2015250
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Craig Lowndes 1996, 1998–2015
3 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Garth Tander 1998–2015237
4 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jason Bright 1997–2015229
5 Flag of Australia (converted).svg John Bowe 1986, 1988–2007225
6 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Skaife 1987–2011220
7 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Todd Kelly 1999–2015215
8 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Peter Brock 1972–1997, 2002, 2004212
9 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Glenn Seton 1984, 1986–2008, 2010209
10 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Dick Johnson 1970–2000202

Race wins by driver

DriverWins
1 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jamie Whincup 123
2 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Craig Lowndes 110
3 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Skaife 90
4 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Shane Van Gisbergen 80
5 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Garth Tander 56
6 Flag of New Zealand.svg Scott McLaughlin 55
7 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Peter Brock 48
8 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Glenn Seton 40
9 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Winterbottom 38
10 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Allan Moffat 36

Pole positions by driver

DriverPoles
1 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jamie Whincup 89
2 Flag of New Zealand.svg Scott McLaughlin 76
3 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Peter Brock 57
4 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Craig Lowndes 42
5 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Skaife 41
6 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Allan Moffat 39
7 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Winterbottom 36
8 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Garth Tander 31
9 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Dick Johnson 28
10 Flag of Australia (converted).svg John Bowe 25

Championship wins by driver

DriverChampionshipsYears
1 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jamie Whincup 72008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017
2 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Ian Geoghegan 51964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Dick Johnson 1981, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1989
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Skaife 1992, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2002
5 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bob Jane 41962, 1963, 1971, 1972
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Allan Moffat 1973, 1976, 1977, 1983
Flag of New Zealand.svg Jim Richards 1985, 1987, 1990, 1991
8 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Peter Brock 31974, 1978, 1980
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Craig Lowndes 1996, 1998, 1999
Flag of New Zealand.svg Scott McLaughlin 2018, 2019, 2020
Flag of New Zealand.svg Shane van Gisbergen 2016, 2021, 2022
12 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Norm Beechey 21965, 1970
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Glenn Seton 1993, 1997
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Marcos Ambrose 2003, 2004
15 Flag of Australia (converted).svg David McKay 11960
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bill Pitt 1961
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Colin Bond 1975
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Bob Morris 1979
Flag of New Zealand.svg Robbie Francevic 1986
Flag of Australia (converted).svg John Bowe 1995
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Russell Ingall 2005
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Rick Kelly 2006
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Garth Tander 2007
Flag of Australia (converted).svg James Courtney 2010
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Winterbottom 2015

Championship wins by manufacturer

ManufacturerChampionshipsYears
1 Ford 271964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020
2 Holden 231970, 1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022
3 Jaguar 41960, 1961, 1962, 1963
4 Nissan 31990, 1991, 1992
5 Chevrolet 21971, 1972
BMW 1985, 1987
7 Mazda 11983
Volvo 1986

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References

  1. 1 2 "60 years of ATCC: The first decade | Supercars". www.supercars.com. Retrieved 22 February 2024.

See also