1992 Australian Touring Car Championship


The 1992 Australian Touring Car Championship was the 33rd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group 3A Touring Cars, commonly known as Group A cars. It began on 23 February 1992 at Amaroo Park and ended on 21 June at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds.
Mark Skaife, driving for a Nissan Skyline GT-R for Gibson Motorsport, won his first Australian Touring Car Championship. His teammate and defending series champion Jim Richards finished second, with BMW M3 driver Tony Longhurst finishing in third place.
Even though Mark Skaife was the overall winner of the opening round at Amaroo Park, Peter Brock's win in Heat 1 of the round in his Mobil 1 Racing Holden VN Commodore SS Group A was the first win by a Holden in the ATCC since Brock had won Round 6 of the 1986 ATCC at Surfers Paradise.
In an effort to reduce costs and to even out the cars, CAMS imposed a number of changes for 1992. The Holden Commodore's and Ford Sierra RS500's were restricted to a 7,500 rev limit and the BMW M3's, the giant killers of 1991, had an extra 50 kg of weight added to the cars.
However the biggest change came to the Nissan GT-R's. Before the start of the season the cars were given an extra 40 kg, bringing them up to a total of 1400 kg. CAMS also directed that the cars were to run Formula One style pop-off valves on the twin turbos to restrict their power, bringing them down from 1991's to around. Gibson Motorsport continually protested against the imposed penalties on the car, and even took CAMS to court in a bid to be able to run the GT-R as they were in 1991 claiming that they were no longer competitive. However most saw this as a false claim since the team won both the ATCC and the Tooheys 1000. Team boss Fred Gibson later admitted that his team had actually fooled CAMS into believing the cars had lost some by setting the rig used to test the engine power to show exactly what CAMS wanted to see. Gibson told in a magazine interview that while CAMS mandated the use of the pop-off valves, they had no idea how the valves actually worked, thus once the team worked them out it was easy to fool the governing body. Some experts and fans believe that the cars more than likely still ran with around and that Richards and Skaife were deliberately sandbagging in qualifying and races.

Teams and drivers

The following drivers competed in the 1992 ATCC.
TeamManufacturerCar modelNoDriver
Winfield Team NissanNissanSkyline R32 GT-R1 Jim Richards
Winfield Team NissanNissanSkyline R32 GT-R2 Mark Skaife
Lansvale Racing TeamHoldenVN Commodore SS Group A SV3 Trevor Ashby
Steve Reed
GIO RacingNissanSkyline R32 GT-R4 Mark Gibbs
GIO RacingHoldenVN Commodore SS Group A SV21 Mark Gibbs
Rohan Onslow
Mobil 1 RacingHoldenVN Commodore SS Group A SV05 Peter Brock
Mobil 1 RacingHoldenVN Commodore SS Group A SV7 Neil Crompton
Alf GrantNissanSkyline HR31 GTS-R6 Tim Grant
Caltex CXT RacingFordSierra RS5008 Colin Bond
Perkins EngineeringHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV11 Larry Perkins
Ampol Max 3 RacingHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV12 Bob Jones
Warren JonssonHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV14 Warren Jonsson
Shell Ultra-Hi RacingFordSierra RS50017 Dick Johnson
Shell Ultra-Hi RacingFordSierra RS50018 John Bowe
Benson & Hedges RacingBMWM3 Evolution II20 Alan Jones
Benson & Hedges RacingBMWM3 Evolution II23 Paul Morris
Benson & Hedges RacingBMWM3 Evolution II25 Tony Longhurst
Wayne DouglassHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV22 John English
Terry FinniganHoldenVN Commodore SS Group A SV27 Terry Finnigan
Playscape RacingFordSierra RS50028 Kevin Waldock
Peter Jackson RacingFordSierra RS50030 Glenn Seton
Peter Jackson RacingFordSierra RS50035 Wayne Park
David Parsons
Phil JohnsonHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV31 Phil Johnson
Pro-Duct RacingHoldenVN Commodore SS Group A SV33 Bob Pearson
Ron MasingMitsubishiStarion36 Ron Masing
Brian CallaghanHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV37 Brian Callaghan Jr
Challenge MotorsportHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV39 Chris Smerdon
John LeesonHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV40 John Leeson
Daily Planet RacingHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV41 Andrew Harris
Garry Willmington PerformanceToyotaSupra Turbo41 Garry Willmington
Stuart McCollHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV44 Stuart McColl
Ian LoveHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV45 Ian Love
Bryan SalaFordSierra RS50050 Bryan Sala
Mike SteeleFordSierra RS50055 Mike Steele
Holden Racing TeamHoldenVN Commodore SS Group A SV61 Tomas Mezera
Reda AwadullahHoldenVL Commodore SS Group A SV68 Reda Awadullah
Adrian BrookeToyotaCorolla SX72 Brad Stratton
Frank BindingToyotaCorolla SX74 Frank Binding
Barbagallo MotorsportHoldenVN Commodore SS Group A SV77 Alf Barbagallo
John HolmesToyotaCorolla SX78 John Holmes
Scotty Taylor RacingMitsubishiStarion86 Stephen Bell
Malcolm ReaToyotaSprinter88 Malcolm Rea

Results and Standings

Race Calendar

The 1992 ATCC was contested over a nine rounds series in six different states with two heats per round.
Rd.Race TitleCircuitCity / StateDateWinnerCarTeamReport
1 AmarooAmaroo ParkSydney, New South Wales21 - 23 Feb Mark SkaifeNissan Skyline R32 GT-RWinfield Team Nissan
2 SandownSandown International RacewayMelbourne, Victoria6 - 8 Mar John BoweFord Sierra RS500Shell Ultra-Hi Racing
3 LauncestonSymmons Plains RacewayLaunceston, Tasmania13 - 15 Mar Glenn SetonFord Sierra RS500Peter Jackson Racing
4 WintonWinton Motor RacewayBenalla, Victoria3 - 5 Apr Mark SkaifeNissan Skyline R32 GT-RWinfield Team Nissan
5 LakesideLakeside International RacewayBrisbane, Queensland1–3 May Tony LonghurstBMW M3 EvolutionBenson & Hedges Racing
6 Eastern CreekEastern Creek RacewaySydney, New South Wales22–24 May John BoweFord Sierra RS500Shell Ultra-Hi Racing
7 MallalaMallala Motorsport ParkMallala, South Australia29–31 May Mark SkaifeNissan Skyline R32 GT-RWinfield Team Nissan
8 WannerooBarbagallo RacewayPerth, Western Australia5 - 7 Jun John BoweFord Sierra RS500Shell Ultra-Hi Racing
9 Oran ParkOran Park RacewaySydney, New South Wales19 - 21 Jun Mark SkaifeNissan Skyline R32 GT-RWinfield Team Nissan

Drivers Championship

Points were awarded on a 30-27-24-21-19-17-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 basis to the top twenty drivers at each round. Round positions were determined by applying the same points structure to each of the two heats and ranking the drivers by the total. In the event of two or more drivers having the same total, the round placing was determined by the finishing order in the second heat.

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