50th birthday for the Australian Touring Car Championship - Today!

[racer69]

Today marks 50 years since David McKay won the first Australian Touring Car Championship, winning the single race Championship at Gnoo Blas, Orange. McKay is still the only man in championship history to have a 100% winning record in both championship wins & race wins from events contested

At the time there would have been little knowledge that the race would be the start of juggernaut that took hold from the 70s onwards to today, touring car racing in general getting popular and more attention on the back of the Bathurst enduro every NSW Labour Day weekend

Perhaps this thread can be a good place to reminisce about it all

[billy bigtime]

Originally Posted by racer69

Today marks 50 years since David McKay won the first Australian Touring Car Championship, winning the single race Championship at Gnoo Blas, Orange. McKay is still the only man in championship history to have a 100% winning record in both championship wins & race wins from events contested

At the time there would have been little knowledge that the race would be the start of juggernaut that took hold from the 70s onwards to today, touring car racing in general getting popular and more attention on the back of the Bathurst enduro every NSW Labour Day weekend

Perhaps this thread can be a good place to reminisce about it all

A very hapy birthday

[Pro Racer]

happy b'day definatly been some great memories even over my short time watching it plus all the other events before my time i've watched video of and been told about. heres to another 50 years as great as the past 50.

[Axeman444]

shhhhh don't let TC know about this thread...

[Oldtony]

Really is a terrible shame that CAMS allows the VESA series to use the term "Touring Cars".
As I recall that 1960 meeting was hot dry and dusty. Hoddo was off the air in his 3.4 and the array of machinery used under Appendix J was quite incredible. My particular interest was the John Malcolm Austin Lancer and a couple of other cars including the (I beleve) first outing of the Brian Foley Farina A40. Kev Bartlett was running a Morris Minor 1000.
I seem to recall some amusing incidents with a particularly officious NSW Policeman who took it upon himself to check the very rudimentary pit pass issue, and a great night of celebration followed by "Fairy Toast"at Auntie Holly's Standard Hotel.
A two make series for Kit cars run under a restricted franchise scheme can hardly be called the Touring Car Championship.; Maybe we should go back to a one race championship and decide it at Bathurst in a couple of weeks time.
Would the ACCC rules on truth in advertising be worth a try?

[peckstar]

I think touring cars is a ridiculous old fashioned term with no real place in modern society.

I think i might go out and drive my touring car, how pompous (or maybe just british)

50 years "OLD"

[STEALTHY]

Wonder why McKay wasn't mentioned in the best touring car driver of all time. Only one with 100% wins can attest to that

[Oldtony]

Sir Mal was always better known fo his outings in Sports Cars, the DB Astons and later the LM series Ferarri when he was Scuderia Veloce.
Had a few outings in the Victa sponsored Cooper Climax, which he famously dropped off the side of the Mountain. Very much the professional, ahead of his time and probably not given the respect he should have been by some of us at the time.

[david5]

Originally Posted by peckstar

I think touring cars is a ridiculous old fashioned term with no real place in modern society.

I think i might go out and drive my touring car, how pompous (or maybe just british)

50 years "OLD"

Theres not a lot of romance in you is there ?

[Wrighty05]

It's a shame that it wont be recognised by those in control today.

Happy Birthday!

[cavvy]

Originally Posted by peckstar

I think touring cars is a ridiculous old fashioned term with no real place in modern society.

I think i might go out and drive my touring car, how pompous (or maybe just british)

50 years "OLD"

The cultural cringe rears its ugly head ... thats you peck ...

Check this lot out:
http://tentenths.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=36

[johnh875]

I don't think it is cultural cringe, rather that it is an anachronistic term. Trouble is, what do you replace it with?

[Oldtony]

Some places it was called Saloon Car Racing, which always sounded to me like something that happened in the back bar of the local pub.
But the maybe that's where it did????
The AGP is now run for and by a visiting cicus.
The Australian Tourist Trophy for Sports cars seems to no longer exist.
And the Australian Touring car Championship is run for 2 make Taxis.
The Gold Star is for F3, and that is probably the closest we have to maintaining the heritage of a title.
I may be wrong on these statements, but I am yet to solve the mysteries of finding my way round the CAMS web site.
We treat our history with very little respect.

[johnh875]

I think the Tourist Trophy name has been adopted by the GT race at Sandown?

[Wrighty05]

Think I read somewhere in AA there will be a reunion at Gnoo Blas???

[racer69]

Originally Posted by Oldtony

The AGP is now run for and by a visiting cicus.
The Australian Tourist Trophy for Sports cars seems to no longer exist.
And the Australian Touring car Championship is run for 2 make Taxis.
The Gold Star is for F3, and that is probably the closest we have to maintaining the heritage of a title.
I may be wrong on these statements, but I am yet to solve the mysteries of finding my way round the CAMS web site.
We treat our history with very little respect.

Once upon a time when CAMS ran the championships i'd say they had abit more respect for it all, and made abit more effort to get the championships happening. However nowadays they just sell the category management rights off, and don't really care about the title.

Hence why there is no longer the likes of the Australian Sports Sedan Championship, the current category rights holders couldn't/wouldn't pay for the right to run a national championship, so it just became what is now the Kerrick Sports Sedan Series.

One worries for the future of the ADC & Gold Star tags certainly.

Originally Posted by johnh875

I think the Tourist Trophy name has been adopted by the GT race at Sandown?

It was adopted for the 2007 GT enduro at Sandown, not sure if it got used after though at any of their events

[DAVID PATERSON]

Muscle Car Masters are planning a handicap race on Sunday featuring one of each ATCC winning model.

[Falcadore]

Originally Posted by Oldtony

Some places it was called Saloon Car Racing, which always sounded to me like something that happened in the back bar of the local pub.
But the maybe that's where it did????
The AGP is now run for and by a visiting cicus.
The Australian Tourist Trophy for Sports cars seems to no longer exist.
And the Australian Touring car Championship is run for 2 make Taxis.
The Gold Star is for F3, and that is probably the closest we have to maintaining the heritage of a title.
I may be wrong on these statements, but I am yet to solve the mysteries of finding my way round the CAMS web site.
We treat our history with very little respect.

As opposed to a domestic circus. The most hallowed era of the Australian Grand Prix used to always be the Tasman era, when it was part of an international series with the best drivers in the world. Formula One is that today I think rose coloured glasses going on there. That there aren't many Australians in the race anymore is more reflective of declining standards of Australian racing drivers as anything else. Or perhaps other countries improving theirs and we've been stagnant.

Tourist Trophy died unlamented due to apathy a very long time ago. Has been revived but it's been dormant too long and nobody understands the significance of the name anymore. Confusing mixes of Sports Cars, GTs and Sport Sedans during the 80's when it seemed you could call anything, anything else diluted that.

Looking at the original ATCC, the bulk of the field were made up of Holdens. Really its always been for Taxis. It's a class specifically for Taxis, there have only been brief interludes when non Taxis like early 80s when cars like RX-7s (really how were they ever touring cars?), or the American iron of the late 60's have been a part of it.

[Oldtony]

By my calculations Falcadore the first 35 of the 50 year history of the ATCC were open to, and usually dominated by, cars other than Taxis.
I have no problem with the V8 Supercars racing for a VESA championship, and I enjoy watching it, but they are cut and shut two make shells which bear no relationship with anything you could logically call a Touring Car.
I know it is a bit extreme for these days, but the winner of the original ATCC, David McKay used to drive his Jags from Sydney to wherever he was racing. In fact years later he would quite often drive the LM Ferrari from Sydney to events in Queensland. I filled it with a suitable mix of Super and Methyl Benzine at a New England Highay servo I had at the time when he was en route to Surfers.
I'll accept the V8s using the title touring cars when someone goes touring in one.

[Tourer]

But then Ot, isn't that just evolution to a certain extent?

Back in the day, F1 cars were driven to and from the circuit too, sports cars the same.

I don't recall any racing model in the group C, group A or supertouring days being used for actual touring (although there were often stories of race engines being run in using road cars or race cars getting a sneaky run under the cover of darkness). Same goes for cars like Moff's Mustang, Norm's Monaro etc.

This has come up before & I have always questioned where you draw the line. Back when this all started, ATCC was for production cars, then it became improved production and then on from there. Eventually, a new production class filled in the hole at the bottom of the pile again.

Personally, I don't mind the V8s racing for the title - they are the premier roofed class in the country & deserve the title in my view. I'd prefer that they acknowledge the history more than they do but then again, sometimes when they do they get accused of stealing other people's history and when they don't they get accused of thinking motor racing only started in 1997.

[Oldtony]

Yeah! I guess it is evoloution, but I think many would be happier if at least the shells were standard and the engines bat least shared a common block with the production model. They are pure race cars in exactly the same way as an F1 car. Just built to a different set of dimensions.
Talking about sports cars, a requirement to compete in that class once upon a time was that they were road registered. Lead to some interesting excersises. I remember a quick trip to Tamworth in the Leaton Motors D Type when the Bedford bus transporter dropped a tail shaft on the way back from Queensland. Lucky the local speed cop was as much of an enthusiast as we were.
And there are still D Types, or replicas that are driven on the road.

[Tourer]

I can tell you that a D type is still a bloody exciting drive on the road, even today for a car built over 50 years ago.

Was lucky enough to do quite a few runs on public roads in the UK in D types and they are a very special thing - way ahead of their time.

Getting a bit OT now, sorry.