The 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship was an Australian motor racing competition for Touring Cars. It began on 2 March 1986 at Amaroo Park and ended on 13 July at Oran Park Raceway after ten rounds. The championship was authorised by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) as an Australian National Title. It was the 27th Australian Touring Car Championship and the second to be contested by cars conforming with CAMS regulations based on the FIA's international Group A Touring Car regulations.

The championship was won by Robbie Francevic driving a Volvo 240.

Season summary

The championship was won by Auckland (New Zealand) resident Robbie Francevic driving a Volvo Dealer Team Volvo 240T, the first time the championship had been won by a non-Australian resident and the first ATCC won by a turbocharged car. Francevic, who won Rounds 1, 2 and 4, defeated George Fury driving a Nissan Skyline DR30 RS who won Rounds 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10 of the series. Francevic's wins in the opening two rounds at Amaroo Park and Symmons Plains were when the Volvo team was still run by MPM, Mark Petch Motorsport. Following Francevic's Amaroo win, Petch and Bob Atkins, head of the Australian Volvo Dealer Council, announced the formation of the AVDT, Australian Volvo Dealer Team, and hired former HDT team manager John Sheppard to run the team on a day-to-day basis from Sheppard's Calder work shop. Contrary to what has been written in the past, Petch stayed involved as "Team Principle" until 10 July 1986, when he resigned over a disagreement with how Sheppard was managing the Team. The AVDT purchased MPM original 240T GpA car, and spares, which included a spare 240 GT body shell, which later became the basis for a new Australian built car, with all new parts and technical assistance from VMS. Francevic's 1985 endurance co-driver and dual Australian Drivers' Champion John Bowe joining the team full-time for his first ATCC campaign, in the team's new second car, a RHD car ex RAS in Belgium, which arrived just in time for the 4th round of the ATCC at Adelaide International Raceway, where Bowe qualified on pole, and led the race before engine issues forced his retirement. Bowe repeated his first Championship Pole position performance at the 5th round of the Champion at Barbagallo Raceway, only to have to retire again from a substantial lead with more engine issues. Peter Brock won round 6 at Surfers Paradise in his new for 1986 Holden VK Commodore SS Group A (his last ATCC win until 1989 and the last race win by a Holden Commodore until his win in Round 1, Heat 1 of the 1992 ATCC) while defending champion Jim Richards could only manage one win in his JPS Team BMW 635 CSi, winning Round 9 at Winton. Richards had finished the race in second place behind Nissan team driver Gary Scott, but the Nissan was later disqualified for having oversize brakes. Although the paperwork for the Nissan's new brakes had been put through, they had not yet been homologated which led to Scott's DQ.

Series regular Allan Grice missed the 1986 ATCC (he had also missed the 1985 championship) as he was racing his Les Small prepared Holden Commodore in the 1986 FIA Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Peter Brock missed some early rounds due to also racing his Commodore in Europe.

With the ATCC consisting of 10 rounds, many of the top level teams including the Holden Dealer Team, Dick Johnson Racing, JPS Team BMW and the Peter Jackson Nissan team all made loud noises during the year about the lack of prize money on offer for their efforts as the top drawing motorsport category in the country, especially as Group A racing had proven far more expensive than the old Group C regulations (Peter Brock estimated that his Bathurst winning Group C Commodore of 1984 had cost around AU$36,000 to build while his 1986 Group A Commodore had cost around $200,000, a cost increase of around 550%), with teams and drivers often racing for as little as $1,500 for a round win. Part of the problem for the teams was that due to Australia's size and the vast distance between the major cities where the race tracks were located, the prize money on offer usually did not even cover their transportation costs, let alone the cost of building, maintaining and racing the cars. Pressure was being put on the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) to come up with a series sponsor for future championships or they would risk smaller and smaller grids. CAMS rectified this from 1987 by signing a multi-year sponsorship deal with Shell who would provide some $275,000 in prize money.

Entrants and drivers

Lawrie Nelson's Ford Mustang

The following entrants and drivers competed in the championship.

Entrant	Car model	No	Driver
JPS Team BMW	BMW 635CSi	1	Jim Richards
	BMW 325i	23	Garry Rogers
		25	Tony Longhurst
Chickadee Racing	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	2	Graeme Bailey
Graeme Crosby	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	2 6 20	Graeme Crosby
Mobil Holden Dealer Team	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	3	John Harvey
		05	Peter Brock Neal Lowe
Peter McLeod	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	4	Peter McLeod
Volvo Dealer Team	Volvo 240T	4 44	John Bowe
		10	Robbie Francevic
Charlie O'Brien	BMW 635CSi	7	Charlie O'Brien
		22	Gregg Hansford
Terry Finnigan	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	8	Terry Finnigan
Kevin Bartlett	Mitsubishi Starion	9	Kevin Bartlett
Mark Petch Motorsport	Volvo 240T	10	Robbie Francevic
Toyota Team Australia	Toyota Corolla GT AE86	11	Drew Price
	Toyota Corolla FX-GT AE82	16	John Smith
Garry Willmington Performance	Jaguar XJS	12	Garry Willmington
Simon Emmerling	BMW 635CSi	12	Simon Emmerling
Bob Holden Motors	Toyota Sprinter	13	Bob Holden
Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	15	Glenn Seton Gary Scott
		30	George Fury
Palmer Tube Mills	Ford Mustang	17	Dick Johnson
Ken Mathews Prestige Cars	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	19	Ken Mathews
Jim Keogh Automotive	BMW 635CSi	20	Jim Keogh
Lusty Engineering	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	23	Graham Lusty
Jagparts Racing	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	24	Gerald Kay
Alf Grant Racing	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	27	Alf Grant
Mike Freeman	Toyota Celica RA40	27	Mike Freeman
Capri Components	Ford Mustang	28	Lawrie Nelson
Yellow Pages	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	28	Tony Kavich
Ken Davison	Ford Mustang	29	Wally Kramer
Mike Burgmann	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	33	Mike Burgmann
Garry Rogers Motorsport	BMW 635CSi	34	Garry Rogers
Lester Smerdon	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	35	Geoff Russell Lester Smerdon
Murray Carter	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	36	Murray Carter Bill O'Brien
Grellis Marketing	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	38	Ray Ellis
Motor Sport Pacific[1]	Ford Sierra XR4Ti	40	David Oxton
	Ford Escort RS1600i	55	Andrew Bagnall
Brian Callaghan	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	47	Brian Callaghan
John Donnelly	Rover Vitesse	50	John Donnelly
BJ Motorsport	Mitsubishi Starion	53	Brad Jones
David Ratcliff	Toyota Corolla	58	David Ratcliff
John Giddings	Nissan Gazelle	60	John Giddings
John White	Isuzu Gemini ZZ	65	John White
Graeme Hooley	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	71	Graeme Hooley
John Major	Mazda RX-7	74	Tim Howton
Network Alfa	Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV6	75	Colin Bond
Peter Williamson Toyota	Toyota Celica Supra	77	Peter Williamson
Melbourne Brake & Clutch	Mitsubishi Starion	78	Brian Sampson
Daryl Hendrick	Isuzu Gemini ZZ	86	Daryl Hendrick
Brian Bolwell	BMW 323i	87	Brian Bolwell
Auto Art	Ford Mustang	91	Kevin Clark
Alf Barbagallo	Rover Vitesse	96	Tim Slako

Results and standings

See also

1986 Australian Touring Car season

References

External links

• Official V8 Supercar site Contains historical ATCC information.