1987 Australian Touring Car Championship

[Kingair]

In this weeks Auto Action #1345 it mentions a bit about the 1987 ATTC being reduced to six rounds to satisfy competitors, sponsers and TV.

In those days were Sandown and Bathurst counted as part of the ATTC or part of the Endurance Championship?

Where were the six rounds contested?

[chavez]

The '87 ATCC had nine rounds.

The Sandown 500 was a stand alone event - not part of any championship.

Bathurst was of course Round 8 of the World Touring Car Championship.

[chavez]

The nine rounds were -

Calder
Symmons Plains
Lakeside
Wanneroo
Adelaide
Surfers Paradise
Sandown
Amaroo
Oran Park

[peckstar]

there were 6 enduro races

enduros

[William Dale Jr]

The original deal done by CAMS was for the 1987 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship to have only six rounds. I can't remember which three meetings were going to miss out, but that was the original agreement between CAMS, Shell, and maybe Channel 7. I'm not sure how or when the extra three rounds were added to the schedule that Chavez listed.

[anthony81901]

The 500 and 1000 were not part of the ATCC / V8 Championship until 2000.

[racer69]

Under the original 6 round announcement, the 3 circuits to miss out (that wound up on the final calendar) were Sandown, Oran Park and Surfers Paradise

The original announcement by CAMS was due to alot of comments and views expressed during 1986 of the amount of races on the calendar, they felt that there was too much racing (not just in terms of $$$, but in criss-crossing the country meaning alot of away time for team members)

1986 featured a 10-round ATCC, 6 round Endurance Championship, 3 standalone AMSCAR rounds, AGP Support race, plus the NZ races at the start of the year for some. In addition to that there was a Surfers Paradise 6 Hour planned, but later scrapped due to only receiving 10 entries.

CAMS announced 6 rounds which then led to calls from the entrants that 6 was too few.

In the end the ATCC was extended to 9 rounds, while the Endurance Championship was scrapped (though the races still took place as individual events), which pleased the teams all in all.

Presumebly another thing that extended the calendar to 9 rounds was Shell agreeing to sponsor the series (had they been announced at the time of the 6-round release?)

Originally Posted by anthony81901

The 500 and 1000 were not part of the ATCC / V8 Championship until 2000.

The Sandown 400 & Phillip Island 500 were ATCC rounds in 1976 and 1977

[db120176]

Originally Posted by racer69

1986 featured a 10-round ATCC, 6 round Endurance Championship, 3 standalone AMSCAR rounds, AGP Support race, plus the NZ races at the start of the year for some. In addition to that there was a Surfers Paradise 6 Hour planned, but later scrapped due to only receiving 10 entries.

Add to this list the Calder / Thunderdome combined circuit race.

The previous year had 10 rounds, and the intention was to have one round per state. Expenses were killing the teams, there was nowhere near the income of the V8 Supercar era, and the championship was PAYING to race at circuits. In the end, only Winton was left off the calendar.

[NewsStalker]

Originally Posted by db120176

Add to this list the Calder / Thunderdome combined circuit race.

Wasn't this done only because Calder was being included in the WTCC calendar the week after Bathurst and the combined track, which was to be used for it, had to be 'tested' before Bernie would allow the round to go ahead?

[KA]

Originally Posted by racer69

1986 featured a 10-round ATCC, 6 round Endurance Championship, 3 standalone AMSCAR rounds, AGP Support race, plus the NZ races at the start of the year for some. In addition to that there was a Surfers Paradise 6 Hour planned, but later scrapped due to only receiving 10 entries.

Looking at this from Europe, I keep seeing references on here and in books to AMSCAR, but never really understand how it fits into the picture. I get the distinction between the ATCC and the Endurance Championship, but what were the AMSCAR races? Was this another title, or just a series of standalone non-championship races, and where did they generally fit into the calendar?

[anthony81901]

The Amscar series was a series of 3-4 meetings run each year by the Australian Racing Driver's Club at Sydney's Amaroo Park. It ran from 1981 until 1993 initially for under 3 litre cars, but later opened up to all cars. Sometimes the ATCC round at Amaroo would also double up as a round of the Amscar series. The Amscar races were held between ATCC meetings, with both series covered by Channel 7.

In 1997 the series was revived with 3 rounds at Eastern Creek and 1 at Amaroo for privateer V8 teams, during the power struggle between the ARDC and AVESCO, won't bore you with the details.

[racer69]

You can trace the AMSCAR series roots back to the early-mid 70s with the under 3-Litre Sun 7/Rothmans Series. This ran through to the end of 1981 (by then upped to 3.5ltrs) when the ARDC wanted to focus on the bigger cars.

There was an AMSCAR Series run in 1979, won by Bob Morris, but the name wasn't revived again until 1982, when the under 3.5ltr series was dropped and any Group C car could enter.

At the time Amaroo didn't have an ATCC round, so it was a way to get the teams to the track for their "Alternative" Touring Car series. The AMSCAR Series at the time also had better TV coverage than the actual ATCC, but still most of the time struggled for big grids.

Originally Posted by db120176

Add to this list the Calder / Thunderdome combined circuit race.

The Calder road course/Thunderdome circuit wasn't used until 1987. They had a 300km 'test' race in August 1987, then used it again for the WTCC round.

In 1986 the Calder 300 was just held on the road course, and was round 5 of the Endurance Series

[KA]

Thanks- that makes sense now

[racer69]

Originally Posted by KA

Thanks- that makes sense now

Anytime KA

The AMSCAR Series was a good little series. It got great television coverage, majority of the time live, not only of the touring cars but also of all the support categories.

As for whatever reason all the 'big names' never seemed to compete at the same time, it gave alot of the privateers some good airtime, and gave a leg up to some New South Welshman who didn't have the budget to contest the whole ATCC, drivers like Terry Shiel, Barry Jones and Terry Finnigan

The series also gave suprise victories to battlers like Trevor Ashby, Garry Wilmington in the Jaguar XJS etc...

[Falcadore]

Originally Posted by racer69

The AMSCAR Series was a good little series. It got great television coverage, majority of the time live, not only of the touring cars but also of all the support categories.

AMSCAR got good TV because of the relationship between the ARDC and Seven, and it was a method of value adding for both prior to Bathurst each year. For much of the early 1980s the ATCC was covered by the ABC, not Seven. Seven needed to warmup for Bathurst as much as the ARDC did, and Amaroo was handy for Seven motorsport team to their base at ATN7 in Sydney, and it meant they didn't have to incur the expense of the travelling circus around the country.

[db120176]

Originally Posted by Falcadore

AMSCAR got good TV because of the relationship between the ARDC and Seven, and it was a method of value adding for both prior to Bathurst each year. For much of the early 1980s the ATCC was covered by the ABC, not Seven. Seven needed to warmup for Bathurst as much as the ARDC did, and Amaroo was handy for Seven motorsport team to their base at ATN7 in Sydney, and it meant they didn't have to incur the expense of the travelling circus around the country.

We really should be much more thankful than we are for the ABC for their coverage of motorsport before it became commercially glamorous, they deserve as much credit as due credit is received today by Ten for their work in the 90's and early 00s.

Content would have come in handy for the year that Seven lost the AFL to SBS

[racer69]

1987 was the year Seven lost the AFL wasn't it?

It was also during that season that they couldn't telecast the Sandown round due to industrial action. They managed to get he chopper up to receive pictures from the Racecam's in Grice & Seton's cars though.


It's interesting that despite the calls for less racing, 1987 featured more races than 1986;

NZ Nissan/Mobil 500 Series in January
Oran Park Silver Anniversary race
9 round ATCC
2 standalone AMSCAR rounds
Amaroo, Calder & Oran Park endurance races
Sandown 500
Bathurst 1000
Calder 500 WTCC
Wellington 500 WTCC (plus the Pukekohe 6hr the week after for some)
AGP Support race

There was also the cancelled final Surfers Paradise enduro that was cancelled at short notice as well

Originally Posted by Falcadore

AMSCAR got good TV because of the relationship between the ARDC and Seven, and it was a method of value adding for both prior to Bathurst each year. For much of the early 1980s the ATCC was covered by the ABC, not Seven. Seven needed to warmup for Bathurst as much as the ARDC did, and Amaroo was handy for Seven motorsport team to their base at ATN7 in Sydney, and it meant they didn't have to incur the expense of the travelling circus around the country.

Seven did alot of motorsport during the year outside of Amaroo and Bathurst. They did a bunch of telecasts out of Calder and Adelaide (GT Championships, AGP etc), they also did the 1982 Castrol Sandown 400

But yes the ABC did do the bulk of it, and not just the races. They showed the supports and showed qualifying on the Saturday as well. And it wasn't "dumbed down" either, Will Hagon, John Smailes, Paul Harrington & a very young Neil Crompton knew their stuff.

[Falcadore]

March 1 - ATCC1 Calder - won by Glenn Seton (Nissan Skyline)
March 8 - ATCC2 Symmons Plains - George Fury (Nissan Skyline)
March 13 - ATCC3 Lakeside - Jim Richards (BMW M3)
April 26 - ATCC4 Wanneroo - Seton
May 3 - ATCC5 AIR - Dick Johnson (Ford Sierra - first Sierra ATCC victory)
May 31 - ATCC6 Surfers Paradise - Richards
June 7 - ATCC7 Sandown - Seton
June 7 - A2TCC3 Sandown - Mark Skaife (Nissan Gazelle)
June 21 - ATCC8 Amaroo - Richards
July 5 - ATCC9 Oran Park - Richards
August 2 - Amaroo Enduro - Richards
August 9 - Calder Enduro - John Bowe/Terry Shiel (Nissan Skyline)
September 6 - Oran Park Enduro - Richards/Ludwig Finauer
September 13 - Sandown 500 - Fury/Shiel
October 4 - WTCC8 Bathurst - Peter McLeod/Peter Brock/David Parsons (Holden Commodore)
October 11 - WTCC9 Calder - Steve Soper/Pierre Diuedonne (Ford Sierra)
November 14 - Adelaide Street Circuit - Johnson

There were three other 2.0 litre rounds which were not held at ATCC rounds, Round 1 was at Winton (it did actually get a race), Round 2 was at Lakeside and Round 4 was at Amaroo, think Toyotas might have won all three with two of them going to Drew Price, but I'm not sure, plus however many AMSCAR rounds there were.

[Falcadore]

The WTCC Wellington was October 26 and I think Brad Jones Racing went to the Fuji 500 as well on November 15. The Commodores (HDT and others) were at Spa 24 Hour, August 1-2. Moffat and Harves of course won Monza on March 22.

[db120176]

Originally Posted by Falcadore

The WTCC Wellington was October 26 and I think Brad Jones Racing went to the Fuji 500 as well on November 15. The Commodores (HDT and others) were at Spa 24 Hour, August 1-2. Moffat and Harves of course won Monza on March 22.

I think Brad Jones may have co-driven in the Fuji 500 event in a locally entered Starion (after having been dropped from the local team in favour of Gary Scott with Akahiko Nakaya)

[Falcadore]

Originally Posted by racer69

There was also the cancelled final Surfers Paradise enduro that was cancelled at short notice as well

Track was sold off, deliberately closed so as to not upset the nearby Country Club set (plural). Can;t very well hold the race at a closed venue.

[William Dale Jr]

The race meeting at Surfers still went ahead, but the 300 didn't. It was the last meeting before the circuit closed.

Also, Brad Jones was supposed to race at Fuji in 1987 in a works Starion, but barrell-rolled the car after a tyre failure in practice and didn't start the race.

[racer69]

Yeah the Surfers enduro became a state meeting as the circuit finale, i have the RCN report somewhere. A few Group A cars were there, Lester Smerdon amongst others in the "Queensland Touring Car Championship" event

Originally Posted by Falcadore

March 1 - ATCC1 Calder - won by Glenn Seton (Nissan Skyline)
March 8 - ATCC2 Symmons Plains - George Fury (Nissan Skyline)
March 13 - ATCC3 Lakeside - Jim Richards (BMW M3)
April 26 - ATCC4 Wanneroo - Seton
May 3 - ATCC5 AIR - Dick Johnson (Ford Sierra - first Sierra ATCC victory)
May 31 - ATCC6 Surfers Paradise - Richards
June 7 - ATCC7 Sandown - Seton
June 7 - A2TCC3 Sandown - Mark Skaife (Nissan Gazelle)
June 21 - ATCC8 Amaroo - Richards
July 5 - ATCC9 Oran Park - Richards
August 2 - Amaroo Enduro - Richards
August 9 - Calder Enduro - John Bowe/Terry Shiel (Nissan Skyline)
September 6 - Oran Park Enduro - Richards/Ludwig Finauer
September 13 - Sandown 500 - Fury/Shiel
October 4 - WTCC8 Bathurst - Peter McLeod/Peter Brock/David Parsons (Holden Commodore)
October 11 - WTCC9 Calder - Steve Soper/Pierre Diuedonne (Ford Sierra)
November 14 - Adelaide Street Circuit - Johnson

There were three other 2.0 litre rounds which were not held at ATCC rounds, Round 1 was at Winton (it did actually get a race), Round 2 was at Lakeside and Round 4 was at Amaroo, think Toyotas might have won all three with two of them going to Drew Price, but I'm not sure, plus however many AMSCAR rounds there were.

There were two standalone AMSCAR meetings

Rd1: R1-Richards, R2-Ashby, R3-Longhurst
Rd2: R1-Fury, R2-Fury, R3-Fury

then

Rd3: Richards (ATCC round)
Rd4: Richards/Longhurst (August 9 meeting, Hardie Irrigation 100, Longhurst drove the last bundle of laps, as two drivers were compulsory int he race)


I'll have to get the vision of the race out, but i'm pretty sire Ludwig Finaur didn't drive with Richards at the Pepsi 250

Plus of course there was Steve Reed's win in the "Castrol Clash for Cash" at Oran Park in February at the Silver Anniversary meeting

Skaife in the Gazelle won the Lakeside & Amaroo rounds of the 1987 2L ATCC on route to the title, the Amaroo round was held on the morning of the Hardie Irrigation 100 enduro.

[NewsStalker]

Didn't Shiel have a huge accident at one of the pre Aug AMSCAR rounds which nearly, so I am told, stopped him racing at the Calder Enduro event?

[racer69]

Originally Posted by NewsStalker

Didn't Shiel have a huge accident at one of the pre Aug AMSCAR rounds which nearly, so I am told, stopped him racing at the Calder Enduro event?

Yes, it was in the Hardie Irrigation 100 a week before Calder, he came out of the loop and hit the Ashby/Reed Commodore sitting in the middle of the road. He looked pretty groggy getting out of the car