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1986 South Pacific Touring Car Championship


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#1 Graham Clayton

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Posted 01 September 2014 - 10:13

I recently watched on Yotube the Group A Touring Car race that was a support event to the 1986 Australian Grand Prix. What intrigued me was that on the Channel 9 Nine broadcast of the race, it was referred to as Round 2 of the "South Pacific Touring Car Championship".

 

Does anyone have any further information on the 1986 South Pacific Touring Car Championship, eg rounds, resuts, entries, etc?



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#2 Frank de Jong

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Posted 02 September 2014 - 14:29

It was five rounds, Calder, Adelaide, Manfeild, Bay park and Pukekohe; I do have results and the championship positions but the scoring system is a mystery, as so often. It will be on my site in 1-2 months.



#3 Ray Bell

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Posted 02 September 2014 - 21:44

Racing Car News should give a clue to the title points...

If anyone has any issue (mine aren't here) I can work it out.

#4 Ray Bell

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 01:18

What was the date of the first round, and at what circuit?

Given this I can sort out the pointscore...

#5 Wirra

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 04:55

From ten/tenths

 

"By the time the championship reached NZ it was known as the Simpson Appliances South Pacific Touring Car Championship and the dates in the programme (shared by all the NZ rounds) were:
19/10/86 Calder, Aus.
26/10/86 Adelaide, Aus.
30/11/86 Manfeild, NZ.
7/12/86 Bay Park, NZ.

14/12/86 Pukekohe, NZ"

 

ref: http://tentenths.com...t=125175&page=3
 



#6 Ray Bell

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 07:16

Thanks...
\
I'll see what I can find.

#7 Milan Fistonic

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 08:19

From the programme.

 

Points were awarded for the  top 20 places as follows

 

30, 27, 24, 21, 19, 17, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

 

Drivers accumulate points over all rounds with the South Pacific Touring Car Champion

to be decided at the completion of the fifth round. Points are awarded as follows on the basis that a driver may not carry points forward if competing in other than one class.

 

At the commencement of Round 3 the top ten point scorers are: George Fury (Nissan Skyline) 57, Glen Seton (Nissan Skyline) 47,

Larry Perkins (Commodore) 38, Graeme Crosby (Commodore) 37, John Harvey (Commodore) 33, Allan Grice (Commodore) 30,

Peter Brock (Commodore) 27, Tony Longhurst (BMW) 25, Jim Richards (BMW) 24 and Colin Bond (Alfa Romeo) 23.


Edited by Milan Fistonic, 04 September 2014 - 09:47.


#8 wenoopy

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 09:03

 Reports of the 3 New Zealand Rounds(Simpson Appliances Group A Saloon Car Series) appeared in the fortnightly paper NZ Motoring News. Unfortunately the paper did not cover the Australian rounds at all, and listed the NZ rounds as Rounds 1,2,3. Of the points scorers mentioned by Milan, only Graeme Crosby and Allan Grice appear as starters in NZ. and apart from those two, the only other oversaes runners appear to have been Per-Gunnar Andersson (Volvo) and Charlie O'Brien(BMW 635CSi).

 

The races were all of three hours' duration, and most cars had two drivers. There is no mention of points tallies, or of an overall series winner, and it could almost have been a stand-alone series in NZ only. Perhaps that is the way it eventuated. 

 

For the record, the race winners were Crosby/Wilkinson(Commodore) at Manfeild, Grice/Baigent(Nissan Skyline Turbo) at BayPark and O'Brien/McIntyre(BMW 635CSi) at Pukekohe.

 

I could work out a points table for these races, but it's not clear to me that races on opposite sides of the Tasman were run to the same set of conditions. Also the treatment of shared drives is not clear.

 

Stu Buchanan



#9 Milan Fistonic

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 10:34

The Calder round was actually Round 5 of the Australian Endurance Championship and half of the

26 finishers had only one driver whereas the Adelaide round was more of a sprint race with no shared drives.

 

I've got the Calder results and if I can find the results from Adelaide I will see if I can work out how the points were awarded.



#10 Ray Bell

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Posted 04 September 2014 - 13:25

Strange that the points don't carry on if a driver changes classes...

That is just as unusual as the point scoring itself.

#11 Milan Fistonic

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Posted 05 September 2014 - 09:57

Calder

 

1. Fury/Seton

2. Brock

3. Richards

4. Scott/Shiel

5. Perkins

6.Cullen/Sprague

7. O'Brien

8. Harvey

9. Crosby/Wilkinson

10. Bond/Cesario

11. Longhurst

 

 

Adelaide

 

1. Grice

2. Fury

3. Crosby

4. Perkins

5. Harvey

6. Seton

7. Bailey

8. Longhurst

9. Moore

10. Crowe

 

Points

 

Fury - 30+27 = 57

Seton - 30+17 = 47

Perkins - 19+21 = 40 (38)

Crosby - 13+24 = 37

Harvey - 14+19 = 33

Grice - 0+30 = 30

Brock - 27+0 = 27

Longhurst - 11+14 = 25

Richards - 24+0 = 24

Bond - 12+11 = 23

 

All of which shows that both drivers in a shared drive were awarded the same points.

 

No idea why Perkins' points don't agree with that shown in the NZ programme.`



#12 Jesper O. Hansen

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Posted 05 September 2014 - 15:43

Who was the organizing body of the South Pacific Touring Car Championship? CAMS and their Kiwi counterpart or an independent party? As part of the 10/10th thread I don't think the question ever came up, but remember that organizers in both Australia and New Zealand seemed to be very creative in inviting the same entrants and their cars into various series, being run to either sprint or endurance format.

 

From what I have read, a lot of what happened in the end of year the year touring car races in the South Pacific region during the mid-1980s, led to the idea of what eventually became the 1987 World Touring Car Championship. Sadly, the one and only for group A cars.

 

Jesper


Edited by Jesper O. Hansen, 05 September 2014 - 15:44.


#13 Milan Fistonic

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Posted 06 September 2014 - 03:33

Who was the organizing body of the South Pacific Touring Car Championship? CAMS and their Kiwi counterpart or an independent party? As part of the 10/10th thread I don't think the question ever came up, but remember that organizers in both Australia and New Zealand seemed to be very creative in inviting the same entrants and their cars into various series, being run to either sprint or endurance format.

 

From what I have read, a lot of what happened in the end of year the year touring car races in the South Pacific region during the mid-1980s, led to the idea of what eventually became the 1987 World Touring Car Championship. Sadly, the one and only for group A cars.

 

Jesper

 

 

The blurb in the New Zealand programme states:

 

With the assistance of the Motorsport Association of New Zealand and the Confederation of Australian Motorsport, Global Sports & Promotions (Auckland) and Calder Park Raceway (Melbourne) have developed this Group A Championship Series. In this inaugural year the series is run over five rounds between Australia and New Zealand.


Edited by Milan Fistonic, 06 September 2014 - 03:34.


#14 Jesper O. Hansen

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 08:15

Thank you for the update, Milan. Surprised that the Bathurst 1000 or the Wellington 500 aren't included in the championship.

 

Jesper



#15 Milan Fistonic

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Posted 08 September 2014 - 23:40

Just to add to the confusion I've just found this.

 

The three NZ rounds of the 1986 SPTCC also constituted the Simpson Series.

 

That series was won by Alan Grice who finished 12th at Manfeild, 1st at Bay Park and 10th at Pukekohe.

 

According to a report in RCN those results gave him 70 points which was enough to claim victory over Graeme Crosby with 67 and Trevor Crowe with 66.

 

With his win at Adelaide Grice also won the South Pacific Championship.

 

How they arrived at those points totals is not explained but they don't tally up with the points table listed in the programme.

 

A possible explanation would be if drivers had to be registered for the championship and those drivers who weren't registered were then ignored when awarding points.



#16 Ray Bell

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Posted 09 September 2014 - 02:34

Were they, perhaps, only to count their best results?

Registering for the Championship could well have been the reason, of course.

#17 Lee Nicolle

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Posted 09 September 2014 - 07:38

Just to add to the confusion I've just found this.

 

The three NZ rounds of the 1986 SPTCC also constituted the Simpson Series.

 

That series was won by Alan Grice who finished 12th at Manfeild, 1st at Bay Park and 10th at Pukekohe.

 

According to a report in RCN those results gave him 70 points which was enough to claim victory over Graeme Crosby with 67 and Trevor Crowe with 66.

 

With his win at Adelaide Grice also won the South Pacific Championship.

 

How they arrived at those points totals is not explained but they don't tally up with the points table listed in the programme.

 

A possible explanation would be if drivers had to be registered for the championship and those drivers who weren't registered were then ignored when awarding points.

I vaguely remember there was a s**tfight over registration for the series. Many did not, and I guess were ineligible for points. I think Gricey did all the rounds competitivly and inherited the win.

In that era you had to b registered for a few differnt series, or you got no points. but may have taken home some prizemoney. I did with Sports Sedans. Series reg was quite expensive.

The WTCC in that era was the same. Some registered, some did not. Moffat and Harvey won a race [after a horde of illegal Bimmers were excluded!] but were not registered for the series. I think that Grice was however.



#18 wenoopy

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Posted 09 September 2014 - 09:38

I assume that the "South Pacific Touring Car Championship" of 1986 was a to Group A rules and the other Australian and NZ championships of that year were not. The absence of any programmes in my collection indicates that I didn't attend any NZ rounds, and my  information comes only from 'New Zealand Motoring News', which was a fortnightly motor racing paper previously run/edited by the late Dave McKinney, and which provided a very good coverage of the sport in NZ.

 

In the report of the first round of the series at Manfeild it stated that : -- 

"The entry for the opening round at Manfeild was not perhaps as strong as might have been expected when the series was announced earlier this year.

 

Then, it had been suggested several Australian were likely to come here for the races -- which would form the NZ leg of a South Pacific Touring Car Championship -- and that it might attract European or Asian drivers preparing for the Nissan-Mobil 500 series*. As it transpired, only a handful of Australian drivers made the trip, and only one European."

(* in January 1987)

 

The above doesn't necessarily confirm that a Sth Pacific Series was actually contested over 5 rounds and in later issues of the paper I can find no mention of a points system, or progress points tallies during the series, and likewise, no mention of a series winner either of the NZ 'Simpson Appliances" series or of the overall South Pacific series. 

 

It all seems a bit mysterious to me, looking back over almost 30 years.

 

Stu