1999 ASTC Cars

[kmchow]

What's with Peter Hills and this drug case? Was he caught for illegally importing drugs into the company? Why is he selling his equipment? B/c he's tired of motorsports? Or afraid no one will sponsor his team anymore b/c of this "drug case"???

The French, Russian, Scandinavian and SEATCZC series ST series have all run with 5 cars before. As long as they aren't the only ones on the track! Yeah, so perhaps combining with another series would be better? I guess the Australian GTP series is out of the question due to bad blood caused several years ago??

[RaceTime]

Peter Hills was drug tested in Jan and found to have Marijuana in his blood which he claims was from 'passive smoking' - he was fined, stripped of results and banned for 5 months.

TOCA are also trying to run with another category but they are so hopelessly mis-matched it is more an embarrassment than anything.

[Crash Test]

At least now the Sports Sedan folks have sorted out a deal that everyone can be happy with, so I guess if you want to race your old clunker ST, you can do so in Sports Sedans. Would it be better for current ST drivers to concentrate on Future Touring??

[D.R.T.]

Boys and gurls, what is it with your constant Super Touring bagging , you dudes SUCK! Really the racing great , same for the coverages and great people. So why bag it. I've spoken to a few drivers who said they'd be back. Hillsy wasn't quoted in AA about anything to do with quitting and anyway , that mag it SUCKS!. Go MN. The Super Touring Championship has more corperate support (sponsors) , same crowds , and just as good championship as v8 lites. So why would hendo leave. He got a car full of sponsors from super Touring last year, why leave. And if he had a falcon , why isn't he racing it. Go figure.
later

[Michael Hickey]

John Henderson is a goose,he bought a commodore a few years ago and sold it to morky for a loss,how smart is that?

[Amaroo Park]

Well he is a Policeman after all!!!!!!!!!!!

[RaceTime]

Originally posted by D.R.T.
Boys and gurls, what is it with your constant Super Touring bagging , you dudes SUCK! Really the racing great , same for the coverages and great people. So why bag it. I've spoken to a few drivers who said they'd be back. Hillsy wasn't quoted in AA about anything to do with quitting and anyway , that mag it SUCKS!. Go MN. The Super Touring Championship has more corperate support (sponsors) , same crowds , and just as good championship as v8 lites. So why would hendo leave. He got a car full of sponsors from super Touring last year, why leave. And if he had a falcon , why isn't he racing it. Go figure.
later

Let's get a few facts straight then:

1. Motorsport News Issue 207 page 8 - article headed 'Hills Will Appeal' para 5: "But I have had enough. I wanted to race next season but, after this, I'm stopping racing." Was also quoted in Melbourne daily papers. If it wasn't the day after rubbish day i could grab last weeks AA and quote from there as well.

2. The Super Touring Championship has more corperate support (sponsors) , same crowds , and just as good championship as v8 lites. Get your hand off it! Oran Park ST's last round had ONE repeat ONE pronounced 1 corporate hospitality tent. They had NO repeat NO spelt N O BOC gases corporates in attendance. Their crowds are on a par with Konicas - however, let's take their new track Wakefield Park - double the number for Konica's.

When asked why ST's won't go to Perth or Darwin, Terry Morris stated - Why would we want to go there - they drive utes in Darwin and there aren't enough luxury cars in Perth (in response to a question at Queensland Raceway in July 1st last year)

[Amaroo Park]

As Alan Jones used to say Super Toring Rcae Meetings are fantastic 1.You can park really close to the gate. 2.There are no queues to get in or get food. 3.You know every one there..

[Michael Hickey]

and they have that parade in the convertibles where they parade the crowd in front of the drivers (they need less cars that way)

[Amaroo Park]

And with the size of the grids they would only need a couple...

[Crash Test]

I think STing lost a lot of credibility in my books at Lakeside last year. Morris seriously was going around at half pace, and in the second race when Henderson was a no show, Morris made a mystery pit stop to replace a deflating tyre... Anyways, he was leading again by half race length and nobody gave him any challenges at all. I wish that the threads dating back that far were still in existance.

99 was a great year, as were all the ones before it. But last year wasn't that great. David Auger out in some fantastic drivers, but I think he was a bit limited by his equipment.

[kmchow]

Racetime wrote:

>Peter Hills was drug tested in Jan and found to have Marijuana in >his blood which he claims was from 'passive smoking' - he was fined, >stripped of results and banned for 5 months.
>
ROTFL, it's all dejavu to me!! About 2-3 yrs ago, one of our Olympic atheletes was caught for the EXACT same thing and blamed the EXACT same reason!!!

The easiest thing would be to do a controlled study to see if "passive smoke" could trigger a positive result!

Perhaps he mentioned quitting motorsports in anger and spur of the moment? You think he means it??

Do you think Peter Hills smoked a bit of grass???

[RaceTime]

To be honest, whether I think Hills was caught by 'passive' smoke or actually did smoke it is irrelevant - the test showed traces in his blood, the rules are there, he got caught by the rules. He was obviously aware of what was going on around him and he is a fool for allowing that to happen - his team is HIS responsibility.

As to whether I think he means he will quit - probably yes, but I don't know him so can't answer for him.

[Michael Hickey]

Did anyone hear about the supertourers at Wakefield Park when they saw a spectator jumping the fence.........

They caught him and sent him back in.

[DAVID PATERSON]

Why would anyone want to escape once they've paid the small fortune required to gain admission, they should sit back and enjoy some great cars and the freedom to stand almost anywhere they please. The complete absence of beer swilling yobboes who belong on a hill at the football is also another thing to be enjoyed at an ASTC meeting.

[RaceTime]

David,

But everyone knows that the only people who go to those meetings are there on free tickets or tickets they have won as 3rd prize in a raffle.

[D.R.T.]

What the ASTC has it great racing. You can't say that the cars drive around and follow each other like another Aus National series. Some of you people only look at the negetives. Damn woman, if you done that with V8 Supercar the championship would be shot in the foot. At Round 3 oran park they had a great crowd and the racing was excellent.
They took the championship to a new place Wakefield Park had a decent crowd and everbody seeems to be following them. Round 6 , magic when have you seen a race separated by 0.0091secs and great support to.
Sponsorship i was talking more about teams and cars eg. Hendo , Team Mondeo , Auger , Kelly and you'll fing that the championship picked up "Budget" rentals as well.
Later

[Amaroo Park]

I think the racing is fantastic if you like put on stage managed racing. I have to agree about the yobbs at the V8's but they were there when it was Group A and Group C so it is nothing new.

[kmchow]

If you take Morris out of his 98 spec BMW, I'm sure the championship would look a lot tighter!! A lot of the complaints I hear from you people all relate to Morris. True, while everyone else may have "budget rentals/Jurassic aged" ST cars, but at least this situation applies to 95% of the remaining field!! Everyone's on a level playing field then??? Perhaps, they should add another 100kg of weight on top of his existing race win weights??? Though I know that would never happen!!!

[Crash Test]

100kg? Shoot! That'd be just a little bit too dangerous...

95% of the field would be compeitive? Take the two Hills cars out of the field, and 95% would probably be equal to 6 cars...

[D.R.T.]

Hello fellow forumers, Morris car is actually 96 or 97 spec , depending on which way you look at it. Or maybe even 99spec with the car basically being a factory BMW AUS Team in 99 , what a championship that was. Jurrasic st's you daft person, the fords 97 updates , alfa 97 and 98 update , Hendo 96 , Cornish 98 update , Peugeot 97 , Searle 96 , Kelly 96 etc. You people though,when you bag out on the size of ST and FH grids that cars are harder to import , run and maintain then V8' or other series. So you should marvel at the sizes that they have achieved. Also in the V8's you have Romano's 94 spec machine no one cares , 1990 Holden , and numerous second hand vs 's and vt's, obviously not having the age (VT's) however there not brand new are they.
Thanks again

[Crash Test]

Re: Grid sizes- the problem is that in the past thye have managed big fields, there's no denying it. Have a look at the end of 1997- that was fantastic, and so race the racing. The problem is that over the years people have dropped out, and to a large extent the competition. In 99 Jim and Paul were going flat strap, really hard, and even though there were really only two people in the race for outright honours, it was sensational. 1998 was the same, how good was it to see McLean get into the lead on repeated ocassions?

The problem was last year that Paul had no competition and it turned into a bit of a farce. Sure you had guys out there who were much faster than their equipment allowed them to be, and there are guys who could have been more consistant if they had the $$ (also more reliable, how many cars expired last season before race day, and not have the $$ or resources to fix them in time to race?). I'll never forget one driver (who I doubt will be racing in the STs next year) asking a group of HQ racers where the overtaking positions were at Lakeside...

Romano's old brick? Yeah, it got a bagging around here .

By the way DRT- what sort of car do you plan on running?

[racer69]

Have to agree that Morris made it a bit of a joke, if he was gone it would have been better. I reckon TOCA should fix it themselves, if they can keep the series going they must have a bit of money, so why don't they go over and buy some 99 or 2000 spec Nissans, Fords, Vauxhalls and Honda's and lease them to Australian teams to run. And at the last ASTC round at Oran PArk, i was surprised when Terry Morris sat near me in the grandstand and he had a championship shirt on, meaning he still has something to do with it. I know he and Peter Adderton have tried to get works teams going before, maybe they should believe in a championship they help run and enter some cars. Oh yeah, was the HQ driver your talking about called Mathew Fox

[Crash Test]

Nono, one of the regular ST drivers went up to a group of the local HQ punters...what really struck me as odd is that fact that the driver in question had driven on the track in the past...the fact he didn't know where to pass on the track was a bit baffling....

And I think you'll find that Terry Morris has a major roll in the ASTC... By the way, albeit having some shocking TV coverage last year, from what I heard it still coast an awful lot of $$ to put on the air...

[kmchow]

D.R.T. wrote:

>Jurrasic st's you daft person,
>
I think everyone likes to pick on the poor Toyota Carina/Camry, Peugeot 405s and Hyundai Lantras in the field??? Even if they're old, I really love them!!! Yeah, yeah, I'm just a stubborn old ST fool!!! ;-)

>You people though,when you bag out on the size of ST and FH grids >that cars are harder to import , run and maintain then V8' or other >series.
>
But aren't ST engines more high tech compared to the pushrod engines of the V8 Supercars?? Doesn't high tech usually equate to high (maintenance) cost as well??? I don't know how to explain the DTM maintenance costs though? They're supposed to be relatively "low" as well??? Hey, I'm no engineer, just a fan!!!

I recall back in '96/'97, there was something like 25 ST cars on the grid!! I wonder what happened to all of them???

BTW, I LOVE V8 Supercars!!! They're big, but they're also brutish and mean looking as well.