Hello, Old Friend
The bald fact was that by the time the Group A stars assembled for the race meeting on Thursday, Phillip Island had not seen a touring car in thirteen long years. It had been scheduled to host the finale of the 1978 season – the McEwan Spanners 250 – but that event had been moved to Bob Jane's Calder Park at the last minute, leaving the 1977 Ready Plan Insurance 500k the unheralded send-off to one of the true greats of Australian racing. The reason behind the move had been the bugbear that plagued the track from its very beginnings: problems with the tarmac itself.
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| The old bridge in 1949 (source). |
See, Phillip Island is an island, so when the track was first built in 1956 there were only two ways to get there – a rather weedy ferry service connecting Stony Point to the greater metropolis of Cowes, or an even weedier wooden suspension bridge stretching from San Remo to Newhaven – a structure that dated back to 1948. That made the whole place rather inaccessible, despite being only a two-hour drive from Melbourne, so any racetrack built there had to do what the inaccessible parts of Australia did for road surfacing in those days – primitive cold-mix bitumen. The precise rationale for this decision is debated to this day: some say the equipment needed to lay proper hot-mix was too heavy to get across the bridge or onto the ferry. Some say the island was just too far from the nearest mixing plant for proper hot-mix to be practicable. Still others speculated that because the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club (PIARC), the track's owners, had financed the whole thing out of member donations, cold-mix was just the best they could afford.
Whatever the truth, the folly of cold-mix was laid bare when the Armstrong 500 (forerunner to today's Bathurst 1000) came to town in 1960. A grid of forty-plus production cars on skinny pizza-cutter wheels pounding around for 167 laps proved more than the brittle track surface could take, and in three 500s the track was reduced to rubble three times. The Armstrong 500 was forced to find a new home and, bankrupted, in 1967 PIARC sold the complex to Len Lukey of Lukey Mufflers fame (and also 1959 Australian Drivers' Champion and a great early rival of Jack Brabham). Lukey patched it up and carried on hosting races for the next decade, running it alongside his other track at Hume Weir, but after Lukey's death in 1978 the passion behind the project went cold. The family didn't see the point of endlessly shelling out for roadworks just to hold a motor race, and by the time the 1980s arrived, big-time racing was seemingly over for good. The land reverted back to sheep grazing, with the derelict race control tower the only hint of its past greatness.
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| Source |
But then in 1984, local businessman Fergus Cameron bought the facility for $800,000, with big plans to reopen – plans which immediately stalled over questions of rebuilding and long-term leases. Happily however, while the suits were arguing over the details, a certain Wayne Gardner, the "Wollongong Whiz", emerged into world motorcycle racing and lit a fire under the whole project. Gardner won three races in 1986, then the FIM 500cc World Championship in 1987, and it seemed the whole of Australia discovered motorcycle racing at the same time. Local enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and politicians sniffed an opportunity, and as early as January 1987 plans were in the works to stage Australia's first Motorcycle Grand Prix in 1989. Thanks to the delays however, there were serious question marks over whether the circuit could be made ready in time, as the surface and facilities were seriously dilapidated, with sheep still grazing on the grass that had grown through the potholes.
Riding to the rescue came the creator of the Adelaide street circuit that was now hosting the Australian Grand Prix, Bob Barnard.
I built the Adelaide street circuit for the first Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix in 1985, and in 1986 I started looking at the rise of Wayne Gardner as a possible 500cc champion. That's when I began thinking about staging a 500cc Grand Prix here. I knew that the only circuit that could host it was Phillip Island, since I raced historic cars there when we had to scrape the sheep droppings off it before going racing... – Bob Barnard, Australian Muscle Car #89A meeting with Fergus Cameron in 1987 created a company called Barfield to oversee rebuilding of the track and infrastructure. Barnard owned 50% of Barfield and Cameron another substantial stake, with Barnard also winning provisional rights to the Grand Prix, subject to the circuit being successfully homologated. Barnard played an incredible game, doing dozens of byzantine deals with governments, sponsors, TV networks and dozens of other interested parties, with loyalties and agendas changing constantly. At the eleventh hour Bob Jane threw Calder Park into the mix as an alternative, which could have torpedoed the whole project, but Barnard kept his head and saw it all through to completion – albeit at a massive cost. Barfield would be declared insolvent by 1991 and the lease would revert back to its original owners, but by then the business case had been proven and the Island was back with a vengeance.
The reworked circuit that emerged in late 1988 was barely any different from the 1956-1978 version. The run into what is now Honda Corner had been shortened by some 150 metres to create some runoff area before the fence (which couldn't be moved because there was a dam behind it), and MG Corner had been flattened slightly so that the overall length was now 4.45 rather than the old 4.82km. Compared to the butchery inflicted on some circuits brought into the modern age, however, such modifications barely amounted to a haircut, and the character of the circuit was unchanged.
There wasn't enough run-off [behind Honda] because of the dam wall on the outside of the corner and the wall itself would leak, which obviously affected the stability of the track. The way Honda Corner turned out was pretty good, and has become one of the key passing points on the track.And of course, with the local council having built a proper steel-and-concrete bridge to replace the old wooden bridge back in 1971, it also got the high-quality hot-mix surface it had always deserved. With a world-class surface to match its world-class layout, the 1989 Swan Premium Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix proved an absolute triumph, attracting 90,000 fans trackside and a TV audience of some 300 million – and sticking to the script, Wayne Gardner ran a sensational race to claim the first victory in his home country.
The other change we made was to MG. [Yamaha technical director] Warren Willing told me that the existing configuration would've meant that a 500 GP bike geared for 140km/h in first gear wouldn't make it through a race because the clutch couldn't take it. We raised MG corner 15 feet to lessen the dip into it, and we made it a bit more open so the bikes could roll through without having to slip the clutch on the exit. Keeping the integrity of the original layout was important and the changes were kept to a minimum. – Bob Barnard, AMC #89
Now, in 1990, it was touring car racing's turn.
Under New Management
That this was a grand re-opening for Phillip Island was borne out by the massive 40-car entry list, which attracted drivers from three distinct backgrounds – the full-time professionals, the weekend warriors from Melbourne, and their opposite numbers from Sydney. It was the Sydney drivers that really gave it away: Terry Finnigan was there with his #27 Foodtown Commodore, Toyota drivers Mike Conway and Dennis Rogers were there to drive Corolla FX-GTs in the small-car class, and even Steve Reed was there to helm the #32 Lansvale Smash Repairs Commodore. The Lansvale team usually confined themselves to the Sydney venues (Amaroo and Oran Park, plus the big dance just over the mountains at Bathurst), of which Reed's job was to specialise in Oran Park. That he was interstate today when in theory he'd have to be back at work on Monday morning hinted at some serious appearance money on offer.
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| There was also Matt Wacker's rather attractive #42 Walky. Yellow is an underappreciated colour for racecars. |
Mark Skaife was also there, having been marked absent from the Symmons Plains round. Skaife's main job right now was not to race but to get the new R32 Skyline sorted and ship-shape, and testing a car as high-tech as the R32 while race-prepping two HR31s would've stretched even the Gibson team's vast resources. But Phillip Island was right in the Melbourne-based outfit's backyard, and – probably a bigger consideration than we realise today – Skaife was also contesting the Formula Holden race being held the same day, which was actually Round 1 of the 1990 Australian Drivers' Championship. Essentially, this was a series for hand-me-down Formula 3000 cars powered by tuned-up versions of the new VN Commodore's 3.8-litre V6, and guest commentator (and former Australian Drivers' Champion himself) John Bowe noted, "Last time I drove an open-wheeler was at the Grand Prix meeting in Adelaide in '86, and I must admit to getting itchy feet occasionally. But when I see them go off the end of the main straight here flat in fifth gear, I decide I've done the right thing..."
In the end, oil pressure issues sidelined Skaife, leaving him unable to qualify and so to contest only the Formula Holden race, but he was far from the only driver pulling double duty this weekend.* Longtime Toyota Team Australia pairing John Smith and Drew Price were both attempting the double, and Smith unexpectedly revealed there was a risk involved when he had "an almighty off" in the warm-up session that completely destroyed his Ralt. Luckily he emerged unharmed, and that he bounced back from his visit to the medical centre to take the next start in his Supra said everything you needed to know about your average racing driver...
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| Also on the Formula Holden grid? Channel Seven commentator Neil Crompton, who no doubt would've been pulling double duty if only Brock or Percy'd had a car to spare. (Source) |
Another who had an impressive accident was Win Percy, who all but wrote off his #16 Walky in practice on Friday. Now in their third meeting together, the new Holden Racing Team was finally starting to gel, which was just as well now that Percy had just handed them an emergency rebuild.
At Phillip Island I hit oil on the Friday and stuffed the front of the car. I went back home to Melbourne thinking that was the end of the weekend. They literally gutted the car overnight and took it to a local body shop and they phoned me to come back for qualifying. It was ready to run! The initial small group of men were unbelievable buddies.In that qualifying session Percy could only manage 9th with a lap of 1:40.43, which wasn't too bad when they were ahead of nine turbo cars, but still slightly annoying when it was two places behind the rival Walky of Larry Perkins, who was half a second faster. Pole of course had gone to a Sierra, but it was the #25 Benson & Hedges car of Tony Longhurst that took that coveted grid spot, with a scorching 1:39.03 lap. The DJR winning machines we were used to seeing at the front were in fact only on the second row, meaning the front row was completed by the #30 Peter Jackson car of Glenn Seton – an impressive achievement for what was still basically a father-and-son team, even if it was made up of experienced professionals financed by Big Tobacco.
I remember when I started with Tom he offered me a drive full-time in 1980. He said, "You can drive well and the boys like you," meaning, that the boys get on with you as much as you are a good driver and I think that's what made our team so good at HRT. We had guys who could work together through all hours and could be happy in each other's company. – Win Percy, Holden Racing Team: 20th Anniversary
Against such opposition, that there were any Commodores at all in the top ten spoke volumes of Percy and Perkins' car preparation, talent and balls. But in truth, there was a clear difference between the best in the country and the second tier, as between Gregg Hansford's 11th-place ANZ Sierra and Kevin Waldock's similar Playscape machine was a vast, gaping, 1.3-second gap (1:40.67 vs 1:42.04). The difference could've come down to a number of things – engine tune, chassis balance, and given the long corners of the track itself, experience and confidence would've counted for a lot. But much of it no doubt also came down, yet again, to tyres.
After qualifying on Saturday, with two of their bitterest rivals starting ahead of them, there were none but long faces over in the Dick Johnson Racing garage. As noted, the Shell team ran on Dunlops, and at Phillip Island that should've been a huge advantage – although the Nissan team had done some of their testing here, it was nothing compared to the massive test session Dunlop had conducted with the Nissan/Lola Group C and Dome Formula 3000 teams back in January (it turned out it was cheaper to fly to Australia for testing than it was to hire Suzuka at $5,000 an hour!). With everything they'd learned, Dunlop had apparently decided the Island presented some special challenges that would require a unique compound when the tourers came back in March, and they duly scuttled back to the factory to cook up the rubber they thought they'd need. Problem was, when those tyres netted them only 3rd and 4th on the grid and didn't seemed to have worked at any point during the previous two days, both DJR and Dunlop were sure they'd got it wrong.
They needn't have worried.
Oh Yes, I'm the Great Pretender...
The race boiled down to a contest between those who had it and those who did not. There was no hiding at Phillip Island, you really did have to have it all – power, grip, and a well-balanced chassis underneath you. If you didn't have all that, you wouldn't have the confidence to get on the power early enough and lose speed all down the following straight. More than anything, with downforce more of an afterthought on these cars, you needed a set of tyres that you could lean on lap after lap without worrying too much about wear. With the circuit dominated by the four high-speed left-handers at the Southern Loop, Siberia, Lukey Heights and the unnamed final turn onto pit straight, the right-hand set especially were in for a caning, and the race would surely go to whoever could maximise both mid-corner speed and tyre life. Problem was, those two things were mutually exclusive...
As they raised the green flag for the start, everyone had a bit of a creep on the line, but no penalties were enacted – I suppose it was a case of, "If everyone cheats, it's like no-one did." When they finally waved the green, Seton got away smoothly and into a car-length early lead, but Longhurst bogged down off the line and found himself swamped by both the Shell Sierras.
The pack behaved themselves through Turn 1 but couldn't get through the Southern Loop without incident. Exactly what happened is unknown – the broadcast never showed a replay – but at some point Peter Brock copped a hit from behind and got turned around, finishing up facing the wrong way with his rear bumper hanging loose. That left him staring down the barrel of all the Corollas and Commodores that made up the rear of the grid coming straight at him – it only would’ve taken one driver not paying full attention to end in a colossal accident. Thankfully it never came, and after a quick spin-turn Brock was touring back to the pits for repairs, the first of many, many visits to the pits for him today.
So who had hit him? You tell me. It might've been coincidence, but Ray Lintott's #12 Valvoline Sierra was seen with matching right-front corner damage. The front-left of Steve Reed's Lansvale Smash Repairs Commodore was also severely damaged, limping back to the pits on three wheels with the front-left tyre gone. There was no shortage of suspects for the crime, the problem was narrowing down the list. Whoever it was, when he got back to pit lane Brock's mechanics plugged in the air jack and removed the damaged bumper within seconds, then stood back and released their man, who gunned it out of the pits like he’d just seen the bailiffs coming for him.
Through the opening laps the order was Seton, Johnson, Longhurst, Bowe and then – incredibly – Win Percy in the #16 HRT Walky. The factory Holden had made up some grid spots in that opening bingle, sure, but since then he'd passed Alan Jones – a frontrunning Sierra! – on actual pace. Admittedly it was early days yet, but for the moment he was keeping up with the very best. Unfortunately, just as the Holden fans started to get excited we saw that the front chin spoiler had come loose and was dragging on the tarmac. The overnight rush job to put the car back together had come back to haunt them, and every fan's fingers crossed in the hope they wouldn't see a mechanical black flag as a result.
Four minutes in and with tyres now up to temp, it seemed Seton's early advantage was going away, the front pack separated by just 2.6 seconds overall. Johnson was easing up on him but Tony Longhurst was easing up onto them both, and under braking into the new Honda Corner on lap 3, Longhurst pulled off the move of the race as he nipped under Johnson at the last possible moment, then rotated the yellow car and smoothly powered away. Johnson had no choice but to let him go, sit back and watch as he then criss-crossed to the inside and took the racing line off Seton into Siberia immediately after, taking the race lead. Johnson followed him through, relegating Seton to 3rd in two corners – which only got worse when John Bowe also took a spot, following him through the scary rise at Lukey Heights then outbraking him down the hill into MG. That stoked our worst fears, that Seton might have a problem, and the fear was confirmed when even Win Percy caught him up and had a go at passing at Honda on the following lap. "Yeah, Seton's car's got a shocking miss by the sound of it," said Neil Crompton, after listening to the blue Sierra as it passed the commentary box.
By the start of lap 6, Seton was in the pits with his bonnet up, smartly-dressed team mechanics swarming over the machine to unplug wires and unscrew spark plugs. Pitlane reporter Cameron Williams took advantage of this enforced inactivity to shove a microphone in Seton's face and get the story. Seton did his best impression of Zeno, but it was clear he was upset.
Seton: Yeah, it's missing up at high revs, from six thousand on. And, um...that's the way it goes...With a new set of plugs fitted Seton eventually rejoined, but he was too many laps down to be a contender after that.
Williams: After a good start how do you feel about this? Because this could've been the best result of the championship so far for you.
Seton: I'm disappointed. The car was going so well and I reckoned we could really win this race, but mechanical problems bring us down.
Williams: A lot of people are interested in the tyre battle going on out there, what's the track performing like?
Seton: Well the track's pretty good. There's a little bit of oil on a few places, but the track's in good condition. I think it'll be very hard on tyres by the end of the race, but I think Yokohamas will win the race anyway.
Williams: Will you try and get back out?
Seton: Yeah, we'll put new plugs in it and hopefully that's all it was.
At the front, Tony Longhurst was all business. Already lapping the small-class cars, Tony drove it hard to get by them through what would one day be called Stoner Corner, even getting his inside wheels into the dust. Experience shining through, there – take a calculated risk to nip past the traffic, then press on to make a gap while the opposition was stuck behind them. If only his teammate could've been so tactical: Jonesy tried dive-bombing John Bowe into Siberia and got it badly wrong, nosing Bowe into a spin and putting them both onto the grass (though thankfully, not the wall). Both got going without any apparent damage, Bowe ahead of Jones, but in the meantime Perkins and Richards both sliced between them at full racing speed, so it had been a costly mistake. Jonesy never got so close again. It also left Win Percy running in 3rd place – a potential podium in only the team’s third appearance! – with Perkins 4th. For the first time in a long time, Holden fans had something to cheer about.
Nearly 20 minutes in and there was no time to take a breath: while the commentary team took a moment to show us a replay of the start, Dick Johnson finally caught up to and then passed Tony Longhurst to take a race lead he would never lose. At the same moment, Brock returned to the pits to have his rear tyres seen to, putting him permanently out of contention for any real result. Worse, when he was next seen at full speed he was dragging a TV camera cable behind him, having snagged it on his trip through pit lane. The operator of Camera Nine was apparently shaken, but not stirred. Inevitably, Brock was shown a mechanical black flag, meaning he'd have to return to the pits yet again to have the cable cleared, meaning his goose was now cooked several times over: the rest of his race would consist mainly of return trips to pit lane to have one problem or another seen to, so regularly he might as well've crossed out the "05 Mobil" on his doors and replaced it with, "901 Frankston".
25 out of 50 minutes down, and the question of tyre life started to see some answers. Win Percy pitted for a new set of fronts, though that wasn't such a shock when his front spoiler was hanging loose and flapping in the breeze. Without the usual front-end downforce, Percy would've been dealing with a persistent understeer problem, crippling at a circuit like this where dialling in just the right entry speed was key to fast lap times. That he'd made it up to 3rd place, despite that, spoke of awesome commitment and no small amount of talent. If only he could've kept it up to the finish: instead, he rejoined 13th.
Another lap, and with a 4-second gap between Johnson and Longhurst, Tony at last gave in and headed to the pits for fresh rubber. Perkins shrugged and followed suit: having run as high as 4th, dying tyres had seen him slip back to 9th, and after his stop he rejoined behind Percy. The pretenders had put on a valiant show, but they'd made the mistake of calling the Johnson team's bluff, and it had turned out to be no bluff: Johnson and Bowe, now 1st and 2nd, really were just that fast, and they really were planning to run the whole race without stopping.
And with that awful realisation setting in, the third of the three who really had it – albeit not as much – made his presence known. Tyre life now saw Jim Richards edge upon Alan Jones and ultimately pass him on lap 20. An extra hundred horsepower wasn't worth anything if you couldn't get it to the ground, and as at Symmons Plains, Jonesy's tyres were now absolutely shot. Richo always was easy on his machinery, and that – plus experience of Phillip Island in the 1970s, no doubt – put him at a distinct advantage, especially in such a balanced, well-sorted car as the Skyline. That the race was being held on the track where the Nissan team had done most of their recent testing probably didn't hurt, either. By the time they got back to the home straight Jim was 2.2 seconds down the road from Jonesy, a huge margin to pull out in less than a lap – a clear sign the Sierras had driven too hard and melted their tyres. Defeated, Jones signalled he'd be pitting on the following lap: he rejoined 11th.
In a move that would’ve pleased the bosses at Clayton no end, Jim even came up and put a lap on John Smith in the arch-rival #15 Toyota Supra Turbo. This also, in a way, showed how right Fred Gibson was not to debut the R32 too early – the new Skyline was was in the same weight class as the Supra and was mostly 2WD and turbocharged as well, so this arguably showed where the new Skyline would run if they didn’t get it running at full capacity. Even so, with the pressure from Japan to start racing the R32 mounting, and Gibson was a brave man to still be telling them no.
With the race now definitely going Johnson's way, Mike Raymond dialled up Dick for one of those in-car chats that dazzled the Americans, picking up just as he applied the power through Siberia.
Johnson: G'day Mike. Siberia's a long way away, pal, I think you've got your wires crossed there.
Raymond: Well someone said earlier it was that warm here the penguins had taken their dinner suits off.
Johnson: Yeah, she's a bit hot. I'll tell you what, the penguins, if you've ever had a look at them, look like rats standing up with a dinner suit on!
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| Okay, then. (Source.) |
Raymond: I'm not gonna touch that with a barge pole, Johnson. Mate everything looks pretty good, you've played a great waiting game here and you’ve got a 1-2 set up. Any problem with tyres?With some 40 of the 50 minutes now behind them, there was no doubt the tyres on the blood-red Shell Sierras were less than fresh, but it was also true they had a sizeable 27.6-second gap back to Jim Richards in 3rd. And with Bowe behind to act as his tail-gunner, Johnson wouldn't have to push very hard even if Richards did catch up. They could afford to just stroke it along to the finish, cruise and collect – champagne and silverware please, then feet up!
Johnson: Not at the moment, but I'm just trying to look after them so we don't have a bit of a problem later on. That's the biggest problem, is being able to look after what you've got.
Raymond: Well I think it's obvious to everyone the championship this year is far more competitive. When it comes down to putting it all together, really, the Johnson Shell team have been able to do it two races in a row, very very adequately?
Johnson: Yeah, we're not there yet Mike. I might be a great optimist, but I'll tell you what, I've been there and done that before.
Raymond: Well this must seem a breeze [compared to] where you're bound for next weekend?
Johnson: Yeah, you're not wrong! It's a little bit different over there, with the good ol' boys...
Raymond: So where are you off to, Dick? To Darlington isn't it?
Johnson: Yeah, Darlington. The place where they've got that famous word, the Darlington Stripe. I hope I don’t end up with one.
Raymond: Well, looks pretty good at this stage, Johnny Bowe settling in behind you. We'll come back and talk to you a little later, let you get back on with the job.
Johnson: Thanks, Mike.
In fact, with two minutes remaining the only drama came when Murray Carter abruptly headed for the pits, and never made it. The unsponsored blue Sierra stopped in the pit lane entry with smoke billowing from the engine bay, an under-bonnet fire having started. Carter alighted and walked away looking more frustrated than alarmed, as the team and the emergency crews converged to deal with it (tellingly, the Carter team mechanics got there faster than the circuit firefighters...).
Ultimately though, the Shell Sierras crossed the start/finish line for the 30th and final time line astern, both Johnson and Bowe waving to the crowd in triumph as they greeted the chequered flag. Behind them Richards took 3rd after a spirited and highly professional drive, with Colin Bond 4th and Gregg Hansford 5th, both more by surviving than driving. DJR had claimed their first 1-2 in some time, and it seemed the big Dick was back on track to claim that unprecedented sixth championship, with 52 points now putting him at the head of the table. His sidekick Bowe was 2nd with 42, though Jim Richards – the man who could take it all off them – was a quiet 3rd with 36. Despite strong early showings, Longhurst and Seton languished on 12 and 10 points respectively, behind even Peter Brock's static 23. It was only a shame both Seton and Brock had been taken out for silly reasons so early in the day – it would've been interesting to see where their Bridgestones and Yokohamas might have put them by race's end.
In fact, though nobody knew it then, this was to be Dick Johnson's final ATCC round victory. Although he still had heat wins in his future, not to mention his third and arguably greatest victory at the Mountain, never again would he wear the victor's laurels for a round overall. The close of the 1980s was the end of the era of Johnson, of George Fury, of Brock and Moffat; the coming of Phillip Island heralded the beginning of the era of Seton, Ingall, Lowndes and Skaife. The 1980s were done; the 1990s were just beginning.
*And another name of note name in the Formula Holden ranks? Richard Davison, son of the late beloved Lex Davison and father of future V8 stars Alex and Will Davison. That's one family up there with the Andrettis and Unsers.
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