1996 Satcc

[Crash Test]

This week I picked up the 1996 SATCC season review.... wow, so many memories.

HRT were dominant, but very catchable and beatable. Plus they had a few reliability problems. At most race meetings there, there was a whole group of cars, that battled for the lead right to the end of the races.

Lowndes was sensational, but ran into most people on the track at one stage or another throughout the season.
- Garnder at Bathurst
- Johnson at Sandown
- inadvertantly put Bowe off at PI, and shortened his own car (what an incident... but my, have they improved the safety of PI or what? the closeness of some of those walls was shocking...).
- got tangled up with Jones Mallala
and there were a few others.

Ingall burst on the scene, but quite frankly was't aggressive enough.

Dick Johnson was still reasonably competitive.

Seton could have won the thing if he had more luck go his way - he was certainly the most impressive of the ford punters.

There weren't that many pro cars, but the privateers (Steve Richards in his first year and Faulkner especially) made ground throuh the year.

But the thing that got me, was that by having different tyres, all of the different cars in the race peaked at different stages of the race. And people would struggle/shine at different times.

What do we need to do to bring back racing of that standard? It was fantastic! What would be your favourite year action wise since 1993?

[DNQ]

Yep, 1996 was GREAT, I was looking through the 1996 'Great Race' book yesterday, contained a small season review at the start, the series was a lot more competitive and cheaper back then...to be honest, I think that the V8's are going down the gurgler...slowly. The V8 bubble is still expanding, but I am waiting for it to burst...I think the Bathurst 24hour race, if it gets off the ground, will show the Aussie public just what they are missing out on.

For me, I wouldn't be suprised if PROCAR succeeds the V8's as the leading category.

But, I am going way off topic there. Yes, 1996 was a great season - I still remember the floods at Lakeside that year, hell it rained alot that week. In the end, I never got out to the rescheduled race, sadly.

[Crash Test]

I don't think the Bathurst 24hr will kill it.... I doubt that they will draw that many international competitors, and a 24hr race might prove too expensive for many local competitors. Plus the public who don't go down there (remember, Australian Motorsport events after the start of November seemingly always have trouble drawing crowds these days) won't be glued to the TV, because as we've been told, it will be very intermitent. Plus, I doubt Joe Yokel the V8 fan will have a 24hr long attention span.

I think Procar's bubble has burst in places. Look at the decline in competitor numbers in GT Production and GT Performance. The Nations Cup can provide a decent field, but seldom does. And really, the spectator numbers weren't that flash for their meetings last year, if it wasn't for some of their promotions. I was very much in favour of the move to SBS, but I have a feeling that will bite them in the backside bigtime with loss of potential sponsors on cars. It will be a very telling year. I hope they get up there, and I hope competitor numbers increase to what they could be.

What was the topic again?

Oh, flooding at Lakeside- not the eels!

[racer69]

Timely for this topic to come up, i watched the '96 Reveiw for the first time in a while last night. I also today went to wheels bookshop in Parramatta and picked up a 1992 ATCC reveiw, which i thought had never been produced.

Anyway back to topic, 1996 was a great year, Cochrane free to start with. 4 different tyre brands (Bridgestone, Dunlop, Yokohama & Hoosier), and any number of winners. While Lowdnes won the championship with a round to go, Seton, Bowe, Brock & Perkins all could have had a realistical chance at the title with a bit more luck. Ingall wasn't really aggressive, but it was his first season, and he did win at Calder. Had Wilko doing the commentary as well, interesting that at the end of the video he says he hopes we will join him again next year.

What is it about Queensland and racetracks being flooded and rounds cancelled, Surfers '87, Lakeside '89 & '96.

[Crash Test]

And don't forget that QR was flooded before the place was ever finished...

At least Morgan Park won't flood, as it is at the top of a hill

[Buckshot]

SBS have apologised for last Saturday's poor quality sound and are replaying the Nations Cup Adeliade races Good Friday afternoon this time with good sound.

[DNQ]

Originally posted by Crash Test
I don't think the Bathurst 24hr will kill it.... I doubt that they will draw that many international competitors, and a 24hr race might prove too expensive for many local competitors. Plus the public who don't go down there (remember, Australian Motorsport events after the start of November seemingly always have trouble drawing crowds these days) won't be glued to the TV, because as we've been told, it will be very intermitent. Plus, I doubt Joe Yokel the V8 fan will have a 24hr long attention span.

I think Procar's bubble has burst in places. Look at the decline in competitor numbers in GT Production and GT Performance. The Nations Cup can provide a decent field, but seldom does. And really, the spectator numbers weren't that flash for their meetings last year, if it wasn't for some of their promotions. I was very much in favour of the move to SBS, but I have a feeling that will bite them in the backside bigtime with loss of potential sponsors on cars. It will be a very telling year. I hope they get up there, and I hope competitor numbers increase to what they could be.

It appears I've hijacked this topic, so I'll be quick here -basically, I think PROCAR's efforts will always be blighted by not being a 'V8' sport - same reason TOCA failed, essentially. I really wish my crystal ball was up to scratch these days - I really want to see how things pan out...the motorsport bubble is about to burst. Guess we'll just have to see how things work out.

Anyway, enough of that, this is a '96 SATCC topic, so continue on...Back to rain at Lakeside, it's raining outside now, so I can pretend it's 1996, and Ford had a chance of winning...sigh

[Crash Test]

Hehe...fairly pizzled down at Golf this morning

[D.R.T.]

Yep it is really raining down here in Sydney aswell. Everyone has had a go on the Procar topic, so why not me aswell. People are getting fed up with the no competition V8's, will they jump to Procar or another category or to football, I guess time will tell. But I think that Procar will overtake the V8's in the not too long future. The championship is nicely balanced, also is going down to tassie should do it no harm at all. But also has gained some very prestigous races, the Sandown 500 and now the new Bathurst 24 Hours. Compared to a nothing Queensland 500 and the great Bathurst 1000. This year will be an important year for all motorsports.

[racer69]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by racer69
Timely for this topic to come up, i watched the '96 Reveiw for the first time in a while last night. I also today went to wheels bookshop in Parramatta and picked up a 1992 ATCC reveiw, which i thought had never been produced.[/QUOTE

I watched the '92 review, and i must say i had forgotten how great the racing actually was. All manufacturers won at least one race (Holden, Ford, Nissan & BMW), and if a bit of luck had gone their way each manufacturer could have had a shake at the title, And if a Holden could win a race around Amaroo, there can't have been too much wrong with it, just that only Brock & Perkins were there most of the time. Bowe i must say deserved the title, he did the double 3 times in 9 rounds, and was very unlucky, but Skaife didn't seem to do it as easy as everyone seems to remember, those Nissan's went like bricks in a straight line.