1983 Australian Touring Car Championship

1983 Australian Touring Car Championship
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The 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group C Touring Cars. The title, which was the 24th Australian Touring Car Championship, was contested over a series which began on 6 February 1983 at Calder Park Raceway and ended on 19 June at Lakeside International Raceway after eight rounds.

The championship was won by Allan Moffat, his fourth Australian Touring Car Championship and a first for Mazda, who were helping to fund Moffat's team and it was also the first ATCC win for a Japanese manufacturer. Moffat himself dominated the racing, taking four out of the eight race wins, but a beneficial points structure for smaller capacity cars allowed George Fury (driving a turbocharged version of the Nissan Bluebird) to push Moffat all the way to the title, despite not actually winning a race. Peter Brock (Holden Commodore) finished third in the championship.

Moffat, Brock and Allan Grice (who won 2 rounds) were the only race winners in the 1983 ATCC. Defending champion Dick Johnson battled season long with an ill-handling Ford XE Falcon and could only manage two 3rd placings at both Sandown and Barbagallo to finish a disappointing 6th in the championship, 94 points behind Moffat.

Nissan driver George Fury, helped by consistent performances led the series going into the final round at Lakeside and needed only to finish 9th to claim the title. However team manager Howard Marsden decided the team would skip the round, and therefore give up their chance of winning the championship, unless Allan Moffat finished 6th or worse (Moffat finished 2nd behind Brock). Controversy also reigned throughout the series with some teams such as the Holden Dealer Team and STP Roadways Racing claiming that Moffat was foxing during the championship, and not racing as fast as he could in an effort to 'hoodwink' CAMS into believing the RX-7's, which ran the 12A engine in the championship, needed the larger and more powerful (by some 30 bhp (22 kW; 30 PS)) 13B engine in order to be competitive against the V8 Holden's and Ford's at Bathurst. Ultimately CAMS approved the larger 13B for the RX-7's, but also granted concessions to the other cars which ended up giving the bigger cars an advantage on the Mountain.

Controversially CAMS announced the concessions for the post-ATCC 1 August homologation during the race of Round 7 at Oran Park via the ABC's telecast of the race, with ABC commentators Will Hagon and John Smailes making the announcement mid-race. In a TV interview with Smailes immediately following his 2nd placing to Moffat, Peter Brock was informed of the new homologation's and professed his displeasure with CAMS for announcing it on television during the race and not letting those who the decision affected (the teams) first. The fallout from CAMS decision led to both the Nissan and Roadways teams boycotting the final race of the series at Lakeside.

Nissan's boycott of the last round also meant that series leader George Fury virtually forfeited any chance of winning the championship provided that Moffat finished. Despite this it was generally felt that the championship went to the right driver as Moffat and his RX-7 were usually the fastest combination and the expat Canadian was regarded as the man to beat. Moffat only failed to finish once at Sandown and finished every other race on the podium, including four wins, while Fury's best were two seconds (Calder and Wanneroo) and one third at Symmons Plains.

One outcome from this series was that in the future turbocharged cars had their engine capacities multiplied for the purposes of class point score weightings, meaning that in the 1984 Australian Touring Car Championship, Fury would compete on an equal footing with the other outright class competitors. Despite this meaning that the Nissan would score equal points as the RX-7's, Commodore's and Falcons, Nissan team boss Howard Marsden raised no objections to the change as he knew the Bluebird turbo was able to match the speed of the outright class cars.

Teams and drivers

The following drivers and teams competed in the 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship.

Team	Manufacturer	Car model	No	Driver
Masterton Homes	Ford	Falcon XE	2	Steve Masterton
Mike Burgmann	Chevrolet	Camaro Z28	3	Mike Burgmann
Cadbury-Schweppes Racing	Holden	Commodore VH	3	Peter Janson
STP Roadways Racing	Holden	Commodore VH	4	Steve Harrington
			6	Allan Grice
Holden Dealer Team	Holden	Commodore VH	05	Peter Brock
Peter Brierley	Holden	Commodore VH	7 62	Peter Brierley
Garry Willmington Performance	Ford	Falcon XD	8	Garry Willmington
Andrew Harris	Ford	Falcon XE	9	Andrew Harris
Soundwave Discos	Holden	Commodore VH	11	Clive Benson-Brown Garry Rogers
Team Toshiba	Holden	Commodore VH	12	Jim Keogh
Bob Holden Motors	Ford	Ford Escort Mk.II	13	Bob Holden
John English	Ford	Falcon XD	14	John English
John Donnelly	Ford	Falcon XD	15	John Donnelly
Terry Finnigan	Holden	Commodore VH	15	Terry Finnigan
Rusty French	Holden	Commodore VH	16	Rusty French
Re-Car	Holden	Commodore VH	16	Garry Rogers
Dick Johnson Racing	Ford	Falcon XE	17	Dick Johnson
Murray Carter	Ford	Falcon XE	18	Murray Carter
Gary Hinton	Holden	Commodore VH	18	Gary Hinton
Ken Mathews	Holden	Commodore VH	19	Ken Mathews
Warren Cullen Racing	Holden	Commodore VH	22	Warren Cullen Ron Harrop
Peter Stuyvesant International Racing	Mazda	RX-7	31	Gregg Hansford
			43	Allan Moffat
Lester Smerdon	Isuzu	Gemini	33	Lester Smerdon
Terry Shiel	Mazda	RX-7	37	Terry Shiel
Bernie Stack	Holden	Commodore VH	38	Bernie Stack
Barry Jones	Mazda	RX-7	41	Barry Jones
Bernie Parmenter	Ford	Capri Mk.III	46	Bernie Parmenter
Roger Manson Holden	Isuzu	Gemini PF50	48	Roger Manson
David Parsons	Holden	Commodore VH	50	David Parsons
Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan	Bluebird Turbo	55	George Fury
			56	Fred Gibson
Graham Treasure	Ford	Falcon XD	57	Graham Treasure
Capri Components	Ford	Capri Mk.III S	51 58	Lawrie Nelson
Beninca Motors	Alfa Romeo	Alfetta GTV	59	Peter Beninca
Slick 50 Racing	Mazda	RX-7	59 60	Peter McLeod
John White	Isuzu	Gemini	65	John White
Kevin Bartlett	Chevrolet	Camaro Z28	66	Kevin Bartlett
Alf Grant	Ford	Falcon XD	71	Alf Grant
Graham Mein	Ford	Ford Escort Mk.II	77	Graham Mein
The Daily Planet	Toyota	Celica	88	Craig Bradtke
Ross Burbidge	Mazda	RX-7		Ross Burbidge
Hulcraft Autos	Ford	Capri Mk.III		John Craft
John Eaton	Holden	Commodore VH		John Eaton
Jim Faneco	Isuzu	Gemini		Jim Faneco
Les Grose	Ford	Capri Mk.III		Les Grose
Ken Hastings	Ford	Capri Mk.III		Ken Hastings
Mike Imrie	Ford	Falcon XD		Mike Imrie
Bill O'Brien	Ford	Falcon XD		Bill O'Brien
Martin Power	Triumph	Dolomite Sprint		Martin Power
Bayside Spares	Holden	Commodore VH		Geoff Russell
Saracino	Ford	Falcon XD		?.Saracino
Bob Thomson	Mazda	RX-3		Bob Thomson
Les Verco	Holden	Commodore VH		Les Verco
Russell Worthington	Mazda	626		Russell Worthington

Race Calendar

The 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship was contested over an eight round series across six states with one race per round.

Rd.	Race Title	Circuit	City / State	Date	Winner	Team	Report
1	Calder Park	Calder Park Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	5 - 6 Feb	Allan Moffat	Peter Stuyvesant International Racing
2	International Motor Show Trophy	Sandown International Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	19 - 20 Feb	Allan Grice	Roadways Racing
3	Symmons Plains	Symmons Plains Raceway	Launceston, Tasmania	12 - 13 Mar	Allan Grice	Roadways Racing
4	Wanneroo Park	Wanneroo Park Raceway	Perth, Western Australia	23 - 24 Apr	Allan Moffat	Peter Stuyvesant International Racing
5	Motorcraft 100	Adelaide International Raceway	Adelaide, South Australia	30 Apr - 1 May	Peter Brock	Holden Dealer Team
6	Surfers Paradise	Surfers Paradise International Raceway	Surfers Paradise, Queensland	14–15 May	Allan Moffat	Peter Stuyvesant International Racing
7	Oran Park	Oran Park Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	28–29 May	Allan Moffat	Peter Stuyvesant International Racing
8	Lakeside	Lakeside International Raceway	Brisbane, Queensland	18 - 19 Jun	Peter Brock	Holden Dealer Team

Classes

Car competed in two classes,

• Up to and including 3000cc
• 3001-6000cc

The "Up to and including 3000cc class" consisted of Alfa Romeo Alfetta, Datsun Bluebird turbo, Ford Capri, Ford Escort, Isuzu Gemini, Mazda 626, Mazda RX-3, Toyota Celica and Triumph Dolomite Sprint.
The "3001-6000cc class" consisted of Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Falcon, Holden Commodore and Mazda RX-7.

Points system

Championship points were awarded on a two tier system to the top twenty outright finishers in each round.

Outright Position	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Points if Up to 3000cc	30	27	24	21	19	17	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2
Points if 3001-6000cc	25	23	20	17	15	13	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1	0	0	0

Only the best seven round result could be counted by each driver.

Results

Pos Driver Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Rd 7 Rd 8 Pts 1 Allan Moffat 1st Ret 2nd 1st 2nd 1st 1st 3rd 166 2 George Fury 2nd 4th 3rd 2nd 4th 4th 5th 160 3 Peter Brock Ret 2nd Ret 9th 1st 2nd 2nd 1st 128 4 Allan Grice Ret 1st 1st Ret 3rd Ret 3rd 90 5 Steve Harrington 6th 6th 6th 4th Ret 5th Ret 71 6 Dick Johnson Ret 3rd 5th 3rd 5th Ret Ret Ret 70 7 David Parsons Ret Ret 4th 5th Ret 8th 5th 57 8 Gregg Hansford 3rd 6th 2nd 56 9 Lawrie Nelson 10th 12th 9th 10th 14th 55 10 Murray Carter 3rd 5th Ret 35 11 Warren Cullen 5th 9th 7th Ret 35 12 Bernie Parmenter 11th 11th 10th 34 13 Clive Benson-Brown 9th 8th 7th Ret 30 14 John White 12th 15th Ret 11th 28 15 Garry Rogers 4th 8th 27 15 Fred Gibson 7th Ret 10th 27 17 Steve Masterton Ret 7th 6th 24 17 Alf Grant 7th 6th 24 19 Lester Smerdon 13th 8th 23 20 Bob Holden 14th 10th 20 21 Bernie Stack 11th 7th 18 22 Barry Jones 4th 17 22 Geoff Russell 4th 17 24 Gary Hinton 14th 7th 15 24 Ken Hastings 8th 13th 15 24 Peter Beninca 13th 16th 15 27 Peter Brierly 9th 13th Ret 14 28 Garry Willmington 6th DNS Ret 13 28 Ron Harrop 6th 13 28 Russell Worthington 9th 13 31 Terry Finnigan 7th 11 32 Les Verco 8th 10 32 Jim Keogh 8th 10 32 John English 8th Ret 10 32 Roger Manson 12th 10 32 Graham Mein 12th 10 37 Andrew Harris 9th 9 37 Kevin Bartlett 9th 9 39 Rusty French 10th 8 40 Ken Mathews 11th 7 40 Les Grose 15th 7 42 Bill O'Brien 12th 6 43 Martin Power 17th 5 44 Mike Imrie 14th 4 44 Jim Faneco 18th 4 46 John Donnelly 15th Ret 3 Pos Driver Rd 1 Rd 2 Rd 3 Rd 4 Rd 5 Rd 6 Rd 7 Rd 8 Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Finished, in points Blue Finished, no points Not classified (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate Excluded (EX)

External links

• Official V8 Supercar site Contains historical ATCC information.