The 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title open to Group 3A Touring Cars.Conditions for Australian Racing Titles, 1991 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, page 170 The title, which was the 32nd Australian Touring Car Championship,Records, Titles and Awards, 2002 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, page 14-7 was contested over a nine-round series which began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway,1991/92 Australian Motor Racing Year, pages 295-296 The series was promoted as the Shell Australian Touring Car ChampionshipOfficial Programme, Shell Australian Touring Car Championship, Round 7, 23 June 1991, Mallala and was won by Jim Richards driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R.
Teams and drivers
The following teams and drivers competed in the 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship. TeamCarNoDriverRounds Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R 1 Jim Richards All 2 Mark Skaife All Lansvale Racing Team Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SV 3 Trevor Ashby 5-6, 9 Steve Reed 1, 4 Bob Forbes Racing Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R 4 Mark Gibbs 9 Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SVHolden VN Commodore SS Group A SV 21 1-2, 6, 8 Mobil 1 Racing Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SV 05 Peter Brock All 11 Larry Perkins All Alf Grant Racing Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R 6 Tim Grant 4 Caltex CXT Racing Team Ford Sierra RS500 8 Colin Bond All Bob Holden Motors Toyota Sprinter 13 Bob Holden 1, 4-6, 8 Toyota Corolla E80 75 Frank Binding 6 76 Mike Conway 6, 9 Warren Jonsson Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 14 Warren Jonsson 4, 8 Holden Racing Team Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SV 16 Win Percy 1-7, 9 Allan Grice 8 Shell Ultra-Hi Racing Ford Sierra RS500 17 Dick Johnson All 18 John Bowe All Benson & Hedges Racing BMW M3 Evolution 20 Alan Jones All 25 Tony Longhurst All Terry Finnigan Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SVHolden VN Commodore SS Group A SV 27 Terry Finnigan 1, 4-6, 8-9 Playscape Racing Ford Sierra RS500 28 Kevin Waldock 1-2, 4, 6 Wayne Park Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 29 Wayne Park 1 Peter Jackson Racing Ford Sierra RS500 30 Glenn Seton All Toyota Team Australia Toyota Corolla FX-GT 31 John Faulkner PACE Racing Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV 32 Kevin Heffernan 4, 8 Pro-Duct Motorsport Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SV 33 Bob Pearson 1, 5-6 Brian Bolwell Ford Sierra RS500 43 Brian Bolwell 4 44 Mike Twigden 4 Peter Verheyen Toyota Sprinter 48 John Vernon 9 Peter Verheyen 5-8 M3 Motorsport BMW M3 52 John Cotter 6, 9 53 Peter Doulman 6, 9 David Sala Toyota Corolla E80 72 David Sala 1
Changes With Australia in the middle of an economic downturn (the "Recession we had to have" according to Federal Treasurer Paul Keating), entry numbers were significantly down on 1990 at almost every round, with only eleven cars appearing at Wanneroo Raceway. Notable absentees included Allan Moffat Racing and Toyota Team Australia, while Peter Brock closed his Mobil 1 Racing team (effectively bringing to an end the old Holden Dealer Team which had been established in 1969) and took his Mobil sponsorship to Perkins Engineering, reuniting with his Bathurst 1000 winning co-driver of 1982, 1983 and 1984, Larry Perkins in a pair of new Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SVs. The Brock teams swap back to Holden came more out of financial necessity due to their technical link Andy Rouse in Britain switching from Ford to Toyota in 1991, and with the Ford Sierra RS500's being expensive to run, forming a link with former HDT offsider Perkins to run the locally made Commodore's made much more commercial sense to major sponsors Mobil.
Tony Longhurst's Benson & Hedges Racing abandoned their powerful but tyre shredding Ford Sierra RS500's and became Australia's factory BMW team, racing two former Schnitzer Motorsport BMW M3 Evolutions which included upgraded front and rear spoilers as well as an increase in engine size from 2.3 to 2.5L for the 4 cyl engine. The 200 cc larger engine in the M3 also saw power for the small car rise from around to approximately . The cars were delivered to the team's Gold Coast base after the Wellington 500 in December 1990, though under the Group A rules as used by CAMS the cars did not have the Anti-lock braking system (ABS) that they were allowed to have in the German DTM series. Team owners Longhurst and Frank Gardner had a previous association with BMW and the M3, Longhurst having raced a M3 for Gardner's factory backed JPS Team BMW in 1987, while the JPS team had used a variety of BMWs between 1981 and 1987.
With the economic downturn making it unlikely Holden Special Vehicles would be able to sell the required 500 evolution VN Commodore SS Group A SVs to make it eligible for Group A competition (they ended up building only 320), CAMS gave dispensation for the model to race in Australia and thus the bigger budget Holden teams (HRT and Brock/Perkins) upgraded. Some of the privateers, notably the Lansvale Smash Repairs team and Terry Finnigan also upgraded to the VN, but most Holden privateers continued to race the previous VL model. The VN model Commodore had actually been released back in August 1988, and would be superseded by the VP in October 1991. The Commodores did get other concessions from CAMS, including losing some to bring the minimum weight of the car down to only , plus the homologation of a Holinger 6-speed gearbox in mid-year. The Mobil 1 and Holden Racing Team VN Commodores were producing approximately . The two teams ran on different tyres though, with the HRT sticking with Dunlop's while Brock and Perkins used Bridgestone's, with the Mobil team suffering in the first half of the season due to the lack of suitable rubber available for the Commodore's.
The Gibson Motorsport run Nissan Skyline R32 GT-Rs were basically as they had finished 1990. The 4WD, twin-turbo cars nicknamed "Godzilla" were producing approximately , though CAMS made the cars carry an extra to bring them to a total of , the heaviest car on the grid.
Although the Ford Sierras had lost numbers with the Brock and Longhurst teams now driving Holden and BMWs respectively, the 4 cyl turbo Fords were still one of the fastest cars on the grid. The leading Sierras were producing approximately , and for 1991 CAMS reduced their minimum weight from 1990's to the cars original (1987) homologated weight of just . Like the Commodores, the Sierras would also benefit from a mid-season homologation of a 6-speed Holinger gearbox.1991 ATCC Channel 7 Intro - Car Specs
Season review The season was dominated by Nissan Motor Sport. The team's two drivers won seven of the nine rounds between them, with six of those victories being part of 1-2 finishes. Mark Skaife scored more championship points than any other driver, but with each driver having to drop their worst round (if they actually scored points in all nine rounds), Skaife lost ten points from his fourth at Round 8 at Lakeside, giving the title to his teammate and defending champion, Jim Richards who only scored in the first eight rounds after failing to finish the Grand Finale at Oran Park. This continued the New Zealand domination of the Championship in the Group A era, with New Zealand drivers having won five of the seven Australian Touring Car Championships held under those regulations (Richards in 1985, 1987, 1990 and 1991 with Robbie Francevic winning in 1986), the only Australian winner being 1988 and 1989 champion Dick Johnson.
Third place was claimed by Tony Longhurst who won two rounds, at Amaroo Park and Lakeside International Raceway in his Benson & Hedges BMW M3 Evolution. BMW's return with a top line team was underlined by teammate, Formula One World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones, finishing fourth in the points after finishing the championship strongly with consecutive second placings in the final two rounds. During the series, the BMW, which were the lightest outright cars (which helped their tyre wear and gave a braking advantage), became the only consistent challengers to the GT-Rs.
1991 also saw the return of Peter Brock to Holden for the first time since 1987. After racing BMWs in 1988 followed by two seasons running Andy Rouse sourced Ford Sierras which had seen Brock finish 3rd and 2nd in the championship, Brock teamed with former Holden Dealer Team co-driver/manager Larry Perkins in two Perkins Engineering built Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SVs, and while initially they were off the pace due to the lack of suitable Bridgestone tyres, this was rectified by halfway through the series and Brock in particular became a regular challenger with strong qualifying performances, though the heavy Commodores still to be hard on tyres in the ATCC's sprint race format. Brock finished 6th in the championship while Perkins finished in 11th place. In a 2014 interview with Australian Muscle Car magazine, Perkins would claim that part of the contract with Brock and his main sponsor Mobil stated that in championship races, he was not allowed to finish ahead of Brock unless it was unavoidable.
Brock and Perkins were joined in the fight for Holden by Holden Racing Team manager Win Percy who also had a strong season in his VN Commodore. Percy's 4th place at Amaroo Park was the best finish for a Commodore through the series and he surprised everyone when he qualified second in rounds 2 and 3 at Symmons Plains and Wanneroo. Percy finished the series in 8th place, one place ahead of five time ATCC champion Dick Johnson who endured a miserable series in his Sierra, his best finish being 4th in the opening round at Sandown Raceway.
Championship calendar
The 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship was contested over a nine-round series with one race per round. Each round was of approximately 50 minutes duration. Rd.CircuitCity / stateDate 1 Sandown International Motor RacewayOfficial Programme, Sandown International Motor Raceway, Sunday, February 24 (1991) Melbourne, Victoria 22 - 24 Feb 2 Symmons Plains Raceway Launceston, Tasmania 8 - 10 Mar 3 Wanneroo Raceway Perth, Western Australia 12 - 14 Apr 4 Lakeside International Raceway Brisbane, Queensland 26 - 28 Apr 5 Winton Motor Raceway Benalla, Victoria 3–5 May 6 Amaroo Park Sydney, New South Wales 31 May - 2 Jun 7 Mallala Motor Sport Park Mallala, South Australia 21 - 23 Jun 8 Lakeside International Raceway Brisbane, Queensland 12 - 14 Jul 9 Oran Park Raceway Sydney, New South Wales 9 - 11 Aug
Results and standings Season summary Event Pole position Winning driverWinning teamManufacturer 1 Sandown Jim Richards Jim Richards Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan 2 Launceston Jim Richards Jim Richards Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan 3 Perth Jim Richards Mark Skaife Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan 4 Lakeside Jim Richards Jim Richards Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan 5 Winton Jim Richards Jim Richards Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan 6 Amaroo John Bowe Tony Longhurst Benson & Hedges Racing BMW 7 Mallala Mark Skaife Mark Skaife Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan 8 Lakeside Mark Skaife Tony Longhurst Benson & Hedges Racing BMW 9 Oran Park Mark Skaife Mark Skaife Nissan Motorsport Australia Nissan
Championship standings Championship points were awarded on a 20–15–12–10–8–6–4–3–2–1 basis for the top ten positions at each round.Nigel Greenway, The Point of It All, Commodore 25th Anniversary magazine, page 94 Each driver was required to drop any points earned from the worst round result.