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| Not actually relevant, but look how many people there use to be! |
Not to be confused with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, of course, although the connections are more than skin-deep. Calder is owned by tyre magnate and four-time touring car champion Bob Jane, and in 1986 he was right in the middle of his hugely ambitious $54 million plan to expand the north Melbourne venue with the upcoming NASCAR-style Thunderdome – built by buying the plans for Charlotte Motor Speedway and snipping 320 metres off the straights to create a 24-degree, 1.1-mile mini-me.
In June of '86, however, the bulldozers were still piling up the dirt and the only part of the renovations that had been finished was the road course. The old Calder, which dated back to 1962, cut short the lap with a hard-right about halfway down the front straight (the tarmac is still there and can be seen from the air). It continued through a few dinky little corners to end with the long sweeping right that today is used as a pit entrance, great for seeing the drivers get their drift on, but sadly clipped off in the rebuild. Jane extended the front straight until it was almost a kilometre long, bringing the total lap length up to 2.4km, then added a fast chicane and, best of all, a small hill for the right-left complex at Turns 3 and 4. They might not count as elevation changes to a Spa fan, but that hill become one of the most fun and distinctive parts of the circuit – which goes to show how featureless the original had been. The jury didn't have to deliberate for long before agreeing Jane had improved Calder Park by a huge margin, adding some interest where there hadn't been much before.
The Coca-Cola Cup, the new circuit's first major race, was where George Fury finally stepped up and proved he could take this championship away from Robbie Francevic, taking a decisive win just as Francevic stumbled.
In qualifying Fury took pole with a time of 1:01.23, his Peter Jackson Skyline half a second faster than the Holden Dealer Team's John Harvey – immensely impressive when HDT had been testing his #3 Commodore here instead of racing at Surfers the week before. HDT were gearing up to head overseas to compete in the Spa 24 Hours, which I've covered before, so Harvey's well-sorted suspension went a long way to explaining how he could qualify ahead of the boss. On the other hand, the gaps behind Harvey were miniscule – Harvey was just 0.09 seconds ahead of Graeme Crosby's Systime Commodore, who had just 0.01 over Francevic, who in turn was only 0.10 ahead of John Bowe in the second Volvo, who himself was just 0.02 ahead of Glenn Seton in the second Peter Jackson Skyline, with another 0.02 back to Peter Brock. For reference, blinking takes about 0.3 of a second, a whole ad break compared to those gaps – a sneeze and the whole grid could've been completely rearranged. Only after Brock did we get a decent-sized gap back to Jim Richards and Dick Johnson, and we already knew what their excuse would be.
The race that followed was dramatic and exciting, Fury battling Harvey in the early laps and pressuring him into using up his brakes too early, which the heavy Commodore could ill-afford. Crosby likewise had brake problems but was sanguine about it, and gave us a handy insight into the cost of racing in the 80's when he cheerfully pointed out that Brock running into him at Surfers Paradise had saved him $1,300 on a new set of tyres (just over $3,000 today). Since the Holden dealer network had been unable to provide Croz with new mudguards to replace the ones Brock'd broken at Surfers, Brock had been a good Samaritan and loaned him a set free of charge, which was a fine gesture when he was prepping for a trip to Spa and spare parts were at a premium.
Then we had Glenn Seton driving like a madman and overtaking his team leader to lead an ATCC race for the first time, showing what a spectacular talent he was even at that age. Then he either hit some oil or made the inevitable rookie mistake, depending on who you believe, and spun off again. Finally John Bowe, an old head on young shoulders, got out of conservation mode just as Fury went into it, and with the sudden speed differential he too led the race. And since he'd led at Wanneroo without the pressure going to his head, nobody was expecting him to crack now. Bowe was on track for his first ATCC win, ready to avenge his disappointment at Wanneroo... until with just two laps to the flag, the Volvo coughed. The fuel tank had not been filled for such a performance and was now almost dry. Bowe had to drop the revs right down to make the finish, allowing Fury to make up his 3-second deficit in an instant and pass him for the win. Adding insult to misery, Seton passed him just before the finish line as well, dropping him to third and handing Nissan a 1-2.
But the crucial moment of the race had come much sooner, almost as soon as the green flag had waved, as Robbie Francevic parked his Volvo at the side of the road with thick white smoke pouring from the exhaust, its day done after only a couple of laps. It seemed what the new Eggenberger-built Volvo had gained in speed it had lost in reliability. Fury had gained a perfect 28-point swing on the championship title, his 130 points now within striking distance of Francevic's 159, with three rounds and 84 points still to go. Seton's last-minute lunge had given him a 10-point cushion over Bowe, 65 to 55, while HDT drivers Brock and Harvey were level on 61.
Spotlight Car: Alfa Romeo GTV6
Colin Bond was not a name often brought up in the Group A era, more associated with Group C. Ironically, he's probably best known for a second-place finish, the crucial second half of the crushing Ford 1-2 at Bathurst, 1977. Like George Fury, he'd probably rather you remembered his achievements in rallying, taking home the ARC trophy in 1971, '72 and '74. Despite his considerable ability, though, he won the Great Race only once, in 1969, and won the championship only once as well, in 1975.
That 1975 experience must've stayed with him, because it was notable for very nearly becoming the greatest upset in ATCC history. Thanks to the class system and some incredible driving, the series was nearly won by Christine Gibson in a four-cylinder Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV. While five months pregnant! Fast forward to the early 80's, and, sweet irony, Bond had bought an Alfa Romeo dealership under the local franchise, Network Alfa. It was just good business, therefore, to race an Alfa in touring cars, take advantage of his access to discounted parts, and promote his business at the same time. The instrument of choice was the Alfetta GTV6.
In racecar design it doesn't get more elemental than, "small car, big engine," and that's exactly what Alfa had done in 1980 when it was time to facelift their Type 116 Alfetta. Creating a new performance version was as simple as shoehorning in the 2,492cc SOHC V6 from the Alfa 6 executive sedan, with Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection in place of the Dell'Orto carburettors and a small bulge in the bonnet to leave room for the intakes – that's right, Alfa were sporting a Power Bulge long before FPV were sock-stuffing.
The combination was electric, and Bondy's first GTV6 was an ex-Group 3E Series Production car raced in early 1984, converted in Bond's own workshop for the 1984 endurance season, which allowed Group A cars as a separate class. This car became Bond's mount for the 1985 ATCC, in a distinctive yellow livery despite a not-often-remembered sponsorship deal with Montrose Wines. That season Bond also had a teammate, 1980 Formula 1 World Champion Alan Jones, who was having one of his periodic "retirements" at home in Australia. To provide a car for him, they'd bought a second car from Belgian outfit Luigi Racing, built in European left-hand drive. In true racing driver fashion, Bond claimed this newer car for himself and put the Ignis Fridges logo on its bonnet and the #26 on its doors, fobbing the old ex-Series Production car on Jones and giving it the #27 (I'd love to have heard what Jonesy said when he was given the same racing number as his old nemesis, Gilles Villeneuve!).
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| Winton, Rnd 1 of the ATCC. No TV footage of this race seems to exist, Channel Seven choosing to cover a Davis Cup match that ran overtime instead! |
The pair raced throughout the '85 ATCC before Jonesy buggered off back to Europe mid-year for an F1 comeback with the Beatrice/Haas/Lola F1 team (the less said about which, the better). Bond hired ex-motorcycle racer Gregg Hansford to be his co-driver for the enduros, but that still left him with with a spare car, so he sold the ex-Series Production car to Sydney exotic car specialists The Toy Shop. Both cars appeared at Bathurst, The Toy Shop filling in as Network Alfa's second entry, then attended the Surfers Paradise enduro... where Bondy's Ignis Fridges car was written off in a catastrophic early-lap shunt. Bond was forced to commandeer The Toy Shop car to enter the season-ending Adelaide Grand Prix support race.
For 1986, Bond took whatever was salvageable from the Ignis car and put it all into a new bodyshell, this time building it in right-hand drive and, in a moment of hope for the future, opted for the racing #75. This made sense because the Alfa Romeo 75 was in the pipeline, but delays meant Bond wouldn't see it in 1986, nor even for most of 1987. So it was the rebuilt GTV6 he was driving in 1986, including the upcoming endurance season with Peter Fitzgerald as his co-driver, and sadly it is the only Colin Bond Racing Alfetta to survive today – like the LHD Luigi car, the ex-Series Production car was written off in a shunt.
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| At a Historics meeting in 2005. |
It was a brilliant little car to drive, eager and full of sizzle. In race tune it was worth about 160 kW, which was combined with a homologation weight of just over 1,000kg, and some pretty good suspension – double-wishbones and torsion bars at the front, de Dion tubes and a Watt's link at the rear. Not quite state-of-the-art, even in the 80's, but a de Dion system does keep bodyroll from influencing wheel camber, and under most conditions works as well as proper IRS. Certainly it was better than the Rover we looked at a couple of weeks ago, and as for the Commodore... well, once you considered fuel loads, the Alfa took the starter's orders nearly half a tonne lighter than the Aussie.
The problem was that it also had only half an engine, in a country full of power circuits, which the new front straight at Calder hadn't done much to cure. It was a class car only, and it couldn't dominate Class B (under 3-litres) like it should've because the system hadn't yet caught up to reality. According to the rulebook, it was racing against the Volvo 240T and Skyline DR30, both of which were winning races outright with turbo assistance. Bond's only real competition should've come from Tony Longhurst's BMW 325i; the rest, driving the odd Mazda RX-7 or Mitsubishi Starion, weren't even in the same league. Instead, you have to say, he got a bit shafted. It'd be nice to say things got better with the 75, but... well, that's a story for another day.
But the GTV6 will always be associated with Calder Park for me, not because of 1986, but because of 1985. In last year's Eurovox Trophy race, Alan Jones had put in one of the most heroic drives of his whole career to finish 4th, ahead of a slew of Commodores, a BMW 635 and his own boss Bondy. It's often said that Australians don't realise just how good Jonesy really was in his day, because his day was mostly spent on the other side of the world.
But for this one day, in a Eurotrash buzz-box with half an engine, he left us in no doubt.
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