The 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title open to Group 3A Touring Cars.Conditions for Australian Titles, 1990 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 172 & 173 The championship, which was the 31st Australian Touring Car Championship,Australian Titles, docs.cams.com.au, as archived at web.archive.org was promoted as the Shell Ultra Australian Touring Car Championship.Official Souvenir Programme, Shell Ultra Australian Touring Car Championship Round 6, Mallala Motor Sport Park, 9–10 June 1990 It began on 25 February 1990 at Amaroo Park and ended on 15 July at Oran Park Raceway after eight rounds.Australian Motor Racing Year, 1990/91, pages 278 & 279

The title was won by Jim Richards, his third Australian Touring Car Championship victory. Richards drove for Nissan Motorsport Australia, utilising both Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R and the new Skyline R32 GT-R during one of the most competitive seasons in the history of the championship.

Teams and drivers

The following drivers and teams competed in the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship. Team (Entrant)CarNoDriver Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-RNissan Skyline R32 GT-R 2 Jim Richards 3 Mark Skaife Caltex CXT Racing Ford Sierra RS500 4 Ken Mathews 8 Colin Bond Mobil 1 Racing Ford Sierra RS500 05 Peter Brock 6 Andrew Miedecke 26 Tony Noske Allan Moffat Enterprises Ford Sierra RS500 9 Gregg Hansford Perkins Engineering Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 11 Larry Perkins 31 Tommy Suharto John Holmes Motorsport Ford Sierra RS500 12 Ray Lintott Bob Holden Motors Toyota Sprinter AE86 13 Mike Conway Bob Holden Toyota Corolla E80 74 Phil Alexander Keith McCulloch Toyota Corolla E80 75 Dennis Rogers Bob Holden Motors Toyota Sprinter AE86 13 Tim Hall Murray Carter Ford Sierra RS500 14 Murray Carter Toyota Team Australia Toyota Supra Turbo-A 15 John Smith Toyota Corolla FX-GT 70 Neal Bates 71 John Faulkner Holden Racing Team Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 16 Win Percy Neil Crompton Shell Ultra Hi Racing Ford Sierra RS500 17 Dick Johnson 18 John Bowe Phil Ward Racing Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3–16 19 Phil Ward Benson & Hedges Racing Ford Sierra RS500 20 Alan Jones 25 Tony Longhurst 62 Neville Crichton Bob Forbes Racing Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 21 Mark Gibbs Lusty Engineering Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 22 Graham Lusty Chris Lambden Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R 23 Chris Lambden Jagparts Racing Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 24 Gerald Kay Terry Finnigan Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 27 Terry Finnigan Geoff Leeds Lawrie Nelson Ford Mustang 29 Lawrie Nelson Peter Jackson Racing Ford Sierra RS500 30 Glenn Seton 35 Drew Price George Fury Lansvale Racing Team Holden VL Commodore SS Group A 32 Trevor Ashby Steve Reed Pro-Duct Motorsport Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 33 Bob Pearson Marc Ducquet Ray Gulson BMW 635 CSi 34 Ray Gulson Ian Carrig BMW 635 CSi 36 Ian Carrig Maurice Pickering Holden VK Commodore SS Group A 36 Maurice Pickering Brian Callaghan Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 37 Brian Callaghan Holden VK Commodore SS Group A 43 Brian Callaghan Jr Tony Mulvihill Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 41 Tony Mulvihill Matt Wacker Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 42 Matt Wacker Paul Trevathan Holden VL Commodore SS Group A 44 Paul Trevathan Lester Smerdon Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 45 Lester Smerdon Graham Jonsson Llynden Reithmuller Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 46 Llynden Reithmuller Garry Willmington Performance Toyota Supra Turbo 47 Garry Willmington M3 Motorsport BMW M3 52 John Cotter 53 Peter Doulman Mike Twigden BMW 323i 53 Mike Twigden Playscape Racing Ford Sierra RS500 55 Kevin Waldock Reda Awadullah Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 69 Reda Awadullah David Sala Toyota Corolla E80 72 Richard Vorst David Sala Alf Grant Racing Toyota Corolla 74 Alf Grant 74 Tim Grant Bob Holden Motors Toyota Corolla 76 Matthew Springer Geoff Full Toyota Sprinter AE86 78 Geoff Full Daryl Hendrick Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 86 Daryl Hendrick Alf Barbagallo Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 96 Alf Barbagallo Car-Trek Racing Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 98 Bob Jones 99 Greg Crick Joe Sommariva

Season review

The opening three rounds of the championship continued the story of the previous two seasons with the Ford Sierra RS500's of Dick Johnson Racing teammates Dick Johnson (winner of Symmons Plains and Phillip Island) and John Bowe dominating podiums with only the tight nature of the Amaroo Park layout giving another driver a look-in, namely the Nissan Skyline of Jim Richards who held off Bowe in a race long duel to win the season's opening round. Another tight track at Winton Motor Raceway gave Richards his second victory of the year with team-mates Tony Longhurst and Alan Jones putting their Benson & Hedges Sierras ahead of the DJR pair onto the podium (the Longhurst Sierra's were generally acknowledged as most powerful of the Blue Oval's cars at some , though the extra power usually hurt the Sierra's skinny rear tyres and as team manager Frank Gardner put it a year later, "We usually started at the front and worked our way back"). Lakeside Raceway saw a complete upset with veteran Colin Bond winning his first ATCC race since 1978 from former teammate Peter Brock in his Mobil 1 Sierra and Holden Racing Team driver Win Percy in what would prove be Holden's only podium finish of the season. Englishman Percy, a former three time British Touring Car Champion, had taken over the role of team manager and lead driver of the HRT in 1990 and was contesting his first ATCC.

Colin Bond made it two in a row at Mallala after Mark Skaife's spectacular debut of Nissan's new , 4WD, twin turbo Skyline R32 GT-R, which was nicknamed "Godzilla", ended with a broken hub after storming to the lead in the early laps. As at Lakeside, Bond's steady, though unspectacular race pace paid off and as others fell away, his Caltex Sierra emerged in front. Peter Brock broke through for his first victory of the year at Wanneroo despite driving with falling turbo boost pressure for the last half of the race which actually helped minimise his tyre wear, while a broken axle to Johnson at Wanneroo saw his points lead surrendered to Richards who finished fourth in his first race of the new GT-R.

Ahead of the Oran Park Raceway Grand Finale, Richards held a three-point lead over two-time defending champion Johnson, with Bond and Brock still a chance being eleven and twelve points behind respectively. Bowe, winless despite his form, was too far behind even if he won and all other contenders retired. Richards, again in the GT-R, dominated Oran Park, making the points calculations irrelevant. Second place allowed Brock to slip past Johnson and Bond into the series runner's up position. After a poor start by Brock, who proved to be the only Sierra driver capable of matching Richards in the Nissan (though his fastest lap time proved to be almost 2 seconds slower than the Nissan), Richards drove away from the field. Behind Bowe, Longhurst was sixth after an inconsistent season ahead of Glenn Seton's improving Sierra. Percy was the best of the Holdens in eighth ahead of Alan Jones and Gregg Hansford who only had a partial season in Allan Moffat's Eggenberger Motorsport built Sierra.

For the first time since the ATCC changed from a single race to a series of races in 1969, the ATCC did not appear in Melbourne with neither Sandown or Calder hosting a round. The Phillip Island circuit, revived in 1989 for the Australian motorcycle Grand Prix which was a round of the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle World Championship, held its first ATCC race since 1977.

Results and standings

Race results The 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship consisted of 8 rounds with one race per round. Each race was slightly under one hour in duration. Rd.CircuitLocation / stateDateWinning driverCarTeamReport 1 Amaroo Park RacewayProgram, Amaroo Park Raceway, Sunday, 25 February 1990 Sydney, New South Wales 23 – 25 Feb Jim Richards Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R Nissan Motorsport Australia 1990 ATCC Round 1 highlights 2 Symmons Plains Raceway Launceston, Tasmania 9 – 11 Mar Dick Johnson Ford Sierra RS500 Shell Ultra-Hi Racing 1990 ATCC Round 2 - full race 3 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit Phillip Island, Victoria 23 – 25 Mar Dick Johnson Ford Sierra RS500 Shell Ultra-Hi Racing 1990 ATCC Round 3 - full race 4 Winton Motor Raceway Benalla, Victoria 6 – 8 Apr Jim Richards Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R Nissan Motorsport Australia 1990 ATCC Round 4 - full race 5 Lakeside International Raceway Brisbane, Queensland 4 – 6 May Colin Bond Ford Sierra RS500 Caltex CXT Racing 1990 ATCC Round 5 - full race 6 Mallala Motor Sport Park Mallala, South Australia 8 – 10 Jun Colin Bond Ford Sierra RS500 Caltex CXT Racing 1990 ATCC Round 6 - full race 7 Wanneroo Park Perth, Western Australia 22 – 24 Jun Peter Brock Ford Sierra RS500 Mobil 1 Racing 1990 ATCC Round 7 - full race 8 Oran Park Raceway Sydney, New South Wales 13 – 15 Jul Jim Richards Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R Nissan Motorsport Australia 1990 ATCC Round 8 - full race

Championship standings Points were awarded on a 20–15–12–10–8–6–4–3–2–1 basis for the first ten outright positions in each race.Graham Howard, Stewart Wilson & David Greenhalgh, The official history, Australian Touring Car Championship - 50 Years, page 305 The best seven race results counted for each driver's total. Pos. Driver Car Ama Sym Phi Win Lak Mal Wan Ora Pts. 1 Jim Richards Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R 1st 7th 3rd 1st 5th 3rd 4th 1st 102 (106) 2 Peter Brock Ford Sierra RS500 5th 2nd 19th 9th 2nd 4th 1st 2nd 85 3 Dick Johnson Ford Sierra RS500 3rd 1st 1st 5th 7th 2nd Ret 7th 83 4 Colin Bond Ford Sierra RS500 9th 6th 4th 8th 1st 1st 3rd 4th 81 (83) 5 John Bowe Ford Sierra RS500 2nd 3rd 2nd 6th 4th 14th 6th 5th 72 6 Tony Longhurst Ford Sierra RS500 4th Ret 9th 2nd 8th 5th Ret 9th 40 7 Glenn Seton Ford Sierra RS500 12th 4th Ret 4th 9th Ret 2nd Ret 37 8 Win Percy Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 14th 9th 7th Ret 3rd 5th 6th 32 9 Alan Jones Ford Sierra RS500 8th 12th 6th 3rd Ret Ret 10th Ret 22 10 Gregg Hansford Ford Sierra RS500 6th 8th 5th 11th Ret 17 11 Larry Perkins Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 11th 10th 8th 7th 14th 7th 7th Ret 16 12 Andrew Miedecke Ford Sierra RS500 7th 5th 10th 12th 11th Ret 13 13 George Fury Ford Sierra RS500 3rd 12 14 Mark Skaife Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R Ret DNS Ret 6th Ret Ret 8th 9 15 Neil Crompton Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 6th 6 16 Kevin Waldock Ford Sierra RS500 16th 11th 15th 13th Ret 8th 8th Ret 6 17 Chris Lambden Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R 15th 13th 14th 14th 10th 9th 11th 10th 4 18 Neville Crichton Ford Sierra RS500 9th 2 19 Mark Gibbs Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 10th 10th 22nd 22nd 2 20 Gerald Kay Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 21st 15th 11th 20th 17th 10th Ret DNS 1 Pos. Driver Car Ama Sym Phi Win Lak Mal Wan Ora Pts.

See also 1990 Australian Touring Car season

References

External links Shell Ultra Australian Touring Car Championship - 1990, touringcarracing.net Touring Cars 1990, autopics.com.au