Colin Bond Racing

Last updated

Colin Bond Racing
Manufacturer Alfa Romeo (1984–87)
Ford (1988–92)
Toyota (1991–93)
Team Principal Colin Bond
Race Drivers Colin Bond (1984–93)
Alfredo Costanzo (1984)
Alan Jones (1985, 88)
Gregg Hansford (1985)
Peter Fitzgerald (1986)
Warwick Rooklyn (1986)
Lucio Cesario (1986–87)
John Giddings (1988)
Bruce Stewart (1988–89)
Ken Matthews (1989–90)
Domenic Benica (1989)
Graeme Crosby (1990–91)
John Smith (1992–93)
Terry Bosnjak (1992–93)
Peter Hopwood (1992)
Neal Bates (1993)
Chassis Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6
Alfa Romeo 75
Ford Sierra RS500
Toyota Corolla FX-GT E90
Toyota Corolla Seca AE93
Debut 1984
Round wins2
1993 position2nd (Smith), 3rd (Bond)

Colin Bond Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship between 1984 and 1993.

Contents

History

Alfa Romeo

After years of racing for other teams, including the factory backed Holden Dealer Team (1969–1976) and Allan Moffat's factory backed Ford team (1977–1978), then being basically a driver-for-hire until 1983, Colin Bond founded Colin Bond Racing in 1984 by as the factory distributor-supported Alfa Romeo team through the Australia and New Zealand distributor, Network Alfa. The team initially built an Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6 to run in the Group E Series Production "Super Series" before the car was upgraded for the Sandown 500 and James Hardie 1000 to run in the new to Australia Group A international touring car category. [1] A second GTV6 was purchased from the Belgium based Luigi Racing team and added for the start of the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship with former world champion Alan Jones driving the car until he returned to Formula One in mid-1985, [2] following which Gregg Hansford took over Jones' position in the team for the final round of the ATCC and as Bond's co-driver in the endurance races. The team was initially sponsored by Ignis Fridges as a secondary sponsor to Network Alfa.

Driving the full Group A car, Jones proved something of a giant-killer in the early rounds of the 1985 ATCC, often running with the more powerful V8 Holden Commodore's and Ford Mustang GT's as well as the turbocharged Volvo 240T and the BMW 635 CSi. Bond on the other hand in the converted Group E car couldn't match the pace of his illustrious team mate. When Jones left to return to Formula One, Bond sold the original Group E/A car and ran the Luigi bought GTV6 in the rest of the ATCC, putting in much improved performances including a surprise pole position for the Amaroo Park round. He then campaigned the car in the endurance races until a crash in a 300 KM race at the Surfers Paradise International Raceway. Prior to the Surfers race, Bond and Hansford finished 8th outright and 1st in Class B at the 1985 James Hardie 1000.

For 1986, two more GTV6's were acquired from Luigi with Bond running one in the 1986 ATCC before running the second car in the endurance races.

In 1987, the team replaced the now outdated GTV6 with the new Alfa Romeo 75 turbo, complete with new major sponsorship from Caltex. Like the team's second GTV6 in 1985, the Alfa 75 was purchased from the Luigi team, though unlike the GTV6, Bond's team found a number of problems with the new car. Development work on the car throughout the season, including switching it from being left hand to right hand drive which allowed the use of a better exhaust system, brought power up to approximately 320 bhp (239 kW; 324 PS). [3] The team had begun to come to grips with the car and a good showing was hoped for at the 1987 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, though the race turned to a nightmare for the team after Bond's co-driver Lucio Cesario destroyed the front of the Alfa when he launched the car over Skyline and clouted the wall above The Dipper.

Bond finished his association with Alfa Romeo by qualifying 4th for the South Pacific Touring Car Championship Group A support race at the 1987 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide. After a steady race, Colin Bond finished in 5th place.

The Alfa 75 turbo was a Class 2 car in the WTCC and an Under 2500cc in Australia. In both cases it was in the same class as the 2.3 Litre, naturally aspirated BMW M3. However, despite the 75 having approximately 20 bhp (15 kW; 20 PS) more than the BMW, the results were vastly different. Like most Group A cars until 1987, the Alfa was a road car adapted for touring car racing. The BMW however (like the Ford Sierra RS500) had been conceived as a race car that was put into production as a road car purely for homologation purposes, changing the landscape for Group A racing.

Ford

Following Alfa Romeo's withdrawal from motorsport in mid-1987, the team switched to Ford Sierra RS500's from 1988. [4] [5] Highlights in the first year included third place in the 1988 ATCC, winning the AMSCAR series and a third place at the 1988 Tooheys 1000 with Alan Jones (despite a down on power engine thanks to scrutineers impounding the teams best turbocharger following what turned out to be an illegal protest lodged by Tom Walkinshaw against the Australian built Sierra's). The team achieved consecutive round wins in 1990 at Lakeside and Mallala. [6] Bond's win at Lakeside in 1990 was his first Australian Touring Car Championship race win since 1978 while his win at Mallala was his 10th and last ATCC victory.

Driving the Sierra (one of 1987's OXO Supercubes cars on loan from Don Smith), Bond and his 1988 co-driver Alan Jones also finished joint second in the 1988 Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship despite only competing in three of the four rounds (Bathurst, Wellington and Pukekohe) and only finishing in two of them (Bathurst and Wellington) while missing the final round at Fuji in Japan.

Bond's Caltex sponsored team expanded to two cars for the 1988 Endurance races at Oran Park, Sandown and Bathurst with the second car run by fellow Sydney veterans Bruce Stewart and John Giddings (the second car was part of the deal done with Don Smith early in 1988). Ken Matthews (another Sydney veteran) joined Bond's team in 1989 and 1990, running the 1988 Bathurst 1000 winning Ford Sierra he had purchased from Tony Longhurst.

Toyota

1991 saw the team branch out into Group E Production Car racing with a succession of Toyotas, Toyota MR2s and Toyota Celicas. Long time Toyota drivers John Smith and Neal Bates joined Bond in a succession of campaigns which were later run by Smith and/or Bates. In 1993, the team expanded its involvement with Toyota, competing in the 2-litre championship fielding a two-car team of Toyota Corollas. John Smith commenced the season in a 1990 Toyota Team Australia built 1.6-litre Corolla FX-GT while Bond developed the new 2.0 litre BTCC specification Corolla Seca.

Smith's FX-GT was unable to match the speed of M3 Motorsport's BMW M3s while Bond was fast but unreliable in the new Seca. Once both new cars were completed, reliability had improved to the point where Smith was taking wins away from Peter Doulman's M3. A dramatic winner-take-all championship finale at Oran Park saw Doulman's BMW win the title after a controversial collision between Smith's race leading Corolla Seca and Doulman's team mate John Cotter. Smith and Bond ended the series second and third. The team were again beaten by M3 Motorsport at the Bathurst 1000 with both Corollas retiring from the race. [7]

The team closed at the end of 1993 as a motor racing team, but continued its involvement in the new 2.0 litre touring car class as a constructor. One of its Corollas moved on to the Inspired Racing team. The team used the Corolla builds as the basis for the construction of a pair of Hyundai Lantras for the factory-supported Steve Hardman Motorsport team in 1994 and 1995.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone Brothers Racing</span> Former racing team

Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the International V8 Supercars Championship between 1998 and 2012. The team was formed in 1998 when Ross and Jim Stone bought Alan Jones's shares in Alan Jones Racing and renamed it Stone Brothers Racing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1998 AMP Bathurst 1000</span> Motor race

The 1998 AMP Bathurst 1000 was the 40th running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 4 October 1998 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst. It was the second year of the controversial split between race organisers, the Australian Racing Drivers Club, and V8 Supercar, which had led to Australia's leading touring car series leaving the Bathurst 1000. The V8 Supercar teams raced the 1998 FAI 1000 race, held six weeks later. The race distance was 161 laps, approximately 1000 km.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1975 Hardie Ferodo 1000</span> Motor race

The 1975 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 was the 16th running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was an endurance race for touring cars complying with CAMS Group C regulations. The event was held at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst, New South Wales on 5 October 1975 over a distance of 1006.036 km. The race was Round 3 of the 1975 Australian Manufacturers' Championship.

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 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.

Longhurst Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the V8 Supercar series between 1995 and 1999.

Wayne Gardner Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1994 until 1999.

Pierre Dieudonné is a Belgian auto racing driver and motoring journalist.

John Faulkner Racing (JFR) was an Australian motor racing team that competed in AUSCAR, NASCAR and V8 Supercars racing in the 1990s and early 2000s

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neville Crichton</span> New Zealand businessman, racing driver and sailor

Neville Alexander Crichton is a New Zealand-born Australian businessman who was also a competitor in Australasian motor and yacht racing.

Bob Forbes Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship between 1988 and 1993.

Toyota Team Australia was the name of two allied Australian motor racing teams. One competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship between 1985 and 1990. The other was a rally team in the Australian Rally Championship that competed from 1988 and continues today the identity of Neal Bates Motorsport as a historic rally team.

M3 Motorsport was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian touring car racing between 1989 and 2003.

Playscape Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian touring car racing between 1989 and 1998.

Eggenberger Motorsport was a Swiss motor racing team that competed in the European Touring Car Championship in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miedecke Motorsport</span> Australian motor racing team

Miedecke Motorsport is an Australian motor racing team from Port Macquarie that is competing in GT4 Australia. It has previously competed in touring car racing between 1987 and 1989, and an earlier form of the team also competed in open wheel racing between 1981 and 1983.

Mark Petch Motorsport was a motor racing team that competed in Australian and New Zealand motorsport.

Greenfield Mowers Racing was a motor racing team that competed in Australia from the early 1990s until 2000.

Phil Ward Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in touring car racing between 1987 and 1995. The race team would later become the organisation that created and ran the Aussie Racing Cars series.

LoGaMo Racing, also known as Tony Longhurst Racing, was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian touring car racing between 1988 and 1994. The team was initially a collaboration between Tony Longhurst and Frank Gardner, with Terry Morris later joining as a shareholder, with their three names combining to create the LoGaMo name. The team is best known for winning the 1988 Bathurst 1000 with Longhurst and Tomas Mezera.

References

  1. Colin Bond Speedcafe 12 February 2010
  2. Normoyle, Steve (1986). The Great Race 5. Hornsby: Chevron Publishing. ISSN   1031-6124.
  3. Normoyle, Steve (1988). The Great Race 7. Hornsby: Chevron Publishing. ISSN   1031-6124.
  4. Normoyle, Steve (1989). The Great Race 8. Hornsby: Chevron Publishing. ISSN   1031-6124.
  5. The Least Raced Group A Sierra in History V8Sleuth 12 August 2014
  6. Normoyle, Steve (1991). The Great Race 10. Hornsby: Chevron Publishing. ISSN   1031-6124.
  7. Normoyle, Steve (1994). The Great Race 13. Hornsby: Chevron Publishing. ISSN   1031-6124.