26 January: CAMS Knows Best

The excitement and buzz of a new season, as the cars hit the track for a whole new event to start the year off with a bang. The mood was only slightly dampened by the latest round of executive meddling from the offices of CAMS, but – and go with me on this – what if the rule-makers had actually got it right?

Starting line-up for Heat 2 of Round 1, Amaroo Park.

26 Jan: the Winfield Triple Challenge
The year opened with the Winfield Triple Challenge, a new event at Eastern Creek Raceway in western Sydney. The concept was touring cars, motorcyles and drag racing all in one meeting, held on the Invasion Day long weekend when the crowds had plenty of free time. In this era both Oran and Amaroo Parks were still open, so Eastern Creek had to come up with a reason why you should visit their circuit rather than one of the others. The Nissan 500 enduro of 1990 had proven less than the killer app they were looking for, because it hadn't been repeated; 1991's poaching of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix from Phillip Island had been more successful, even if they wouldn't keep it for very long. 1992 would see Eastern Creek's first championship touring car round, so with that on the horizon, the Winfield Triple Challenge might be just the thing to prime the pump.

Drag racing that weekend was held on the long front straight, heading in the opposite direction to the road circuit (the accompanying Sydney Dragway wouldn't open until 2004). Whether they had funny cars, doorslammers or whatever I don't know, but the Top Fuel event was won by visiting Californian Glenn Mikres.

The bike racing on the other hand has seemingly disappeared down the memory hole, as it's really hard to find information. Some Sherlock-style deduction leads me to believe the headline event was a non-championship 750cc Superbike race, with at least one supporting race for 250cc bikes (won by Garry McCoy). Some patient Googling dug up, of all things, an interview in an obscure aviation magazine, which revealed the main event was won by a young Mat Mladin, impressive when it was his first-ever Superbike start. He went on to win the 1992 Australian Superbike Championship on a Kawasaki ZXR750R, and from there went on to set a record number of poles, wins and championships in Superbike racing Stateside, so it was no fluke.

The Group A touring car segment of the weekend consisted of a pair of 15-lap sprint races, basically a dry run for the new ATCC format. Despite the cultural memory of Godzilla's total dominance, the reality turns out to be more complicated, because here in January it seemed CAMS's attempts to peg everyone back to the same level had actually borne fruit. Glenn Seton had taken pole position for the first race with a lap of 1:35.44, with Dick Johnson alongside with a 1:35.83. The newly-hobbled Nissans were only on row three, with Jim Richards ahead of Mark Skaife with a time of 1:36.74 – beaten by 1.3 seconds!

The GT-R's 1992 Winfield livery is so iconic hardly anyone even remembers the Nissan corporate livery of '91.

Holden was somewhat under-represented this weekend, with both HRT and Peter Brock's "Advantage Racing" teams staying home to prepare for the season proper, and Larry Perkins fronting up in an unsponsored VL Walkinshaw. That left the Lion's latest to be represented by the privateers, starting with Bob Pearson in his #33 Pro-Duct VN Commodore, now with a very cool "spider web" livery on the bonnet (the same livery the car's current owner has restored it to, right down to the Winfield event stickers on the doors). There was also Steve Reed in the #3 Lansvale Smash Repairs VN; Terry Finnigan in the #27 Foodtown VN; young Tim Grant in his dad's Sizzler HR31 Skyline; Brian Callaghan Jr in Sr's VL Walkinshaw; Bryan Sala in a #50 Tyrepower Sierra; John Cotter and Peter Doulman in their M3 Motorsport BMWs; John Vernon in the green Verheyan Corolla; Garry Willmington in his MA70 Supra Turbo... basically the whole Sydney scene had turned up for the event. It showed how much money BAT was spending this year that they were simultaneously funding Jim Read's Top Fuel dragster, the Gibson Motorsport GT-Rs, and the Eastern Creek meeting as a whole.

Heat 1 began with Johnson making a demon start to lead the early laps. Behind him, Glenn Seton started a tough race by squeezing John Bowe up against the pit wall and dislodging the Shell Sierra's front bumper – messy. Having dropped to 3rd behind Larry Perkins, Seton then lost another place to a daring Mark Skaife, who threw his GT-R up the inside at Turn 9. Chastened, Seton got his head down and started pushing, getting the place back under power along the front straight. Then he started inching up on Perkins, who made it easy by fumbling Turn 9 so he couldn't get smoothly on the power, leaving Seton to ease past on the way out again (amusingly, just as Alan Jones in the commentary box was telling us how the linear torque of the Commodore was such a huge help at Eastern Creek – Commentator's Curse never failed us). Only Dick Johnson now stood between Seton and the win, and although he was a long way ahead, Glenn began steadily reeling him in.

With five laps to go, Seton was right behind Johnson, close enough to catch a slipstream down the front straight. With the margins so tight, that was all he needed: as they crossed the start/finish line, Seton pulled out and eased past Dick in a straight line, assuming the lead with just four laps to the finish. Seton's car was on Bridgestones where Johnson, of course, was on Dunlops, and it seems Dick had made a slightly wrong choice of compound as his car was now sliding around more than Seton's. Indeed, dying tyres meant Johnson lost 2nd place to both Nissans shortly before the flag, leaving Seton free to cruise home at his leisure.

Bowe's miserable race was completed when Skaife lunged up the inside of him at Turn 9, couldn't quite pull the heavy Nissan up in time and tagged him amidships, tipping the Sierra into a half-spin. That dislodged the loose front spoiler completely, and Bowe finished the race in a car that looked like it was missing its bottom jaw. "Couldn't happen to a nicer guy," snapped Jonesy in an amusing case of sour grapes: John Bowe may or may not have been his equal in an open-wheeler, we'll never know for sure, but there can be no question Bowe was a far better driver in a car with a roof. John Bowe was one of the few who wouldn't be bullied by Jones on track, and he didn't like that much.

Heat 2 – apparently, later the same day – they all gridded up in the order they'd finished Heat 1. This time Seton won the drag into the first corner and never looked back, holding it to the flag for an easy win. With different tyre compounds fitted, Johnson and Bowe got ahead of Richards and Skaife, leaving the big Dick to end the weekend ahead of Richo overall.

23 Feb: The Championship Beginneth
Almost a month later, the circus gathered back in Sydney for the first round of the Shell Australian Touring Car Championship, the joint AMSCAR meeting at Amaroo Park. It was here we got our first look at the new format for ATCC rounds, which was appropriate when it had basically been nicked from AMSCAR in the first place.

Channel Seven had noticed the popularity Amaroo's one-track AMSCAR series had been enjoying, thanks to a combination of generous sponsors, a lights-to-flag TV deal, and a preference for short, sharp racing with as few as ten laps. They also couldn't help noticing they were spending all this money sending camera crews to the championship races, and so far weren't really getting much for it. They wondered if applying a more AMSCAR-ish format to the ATCC might generate some more excitement for TV audiences, and start bringing in some profit.

Traditionally, an ATCC round had been run like a miniature Grand Prix, with practice and qualifying sessions culminating in a single hour-long race. For 1992, Seven got that changed to an AMSCAR-like format of two short half-hour races instead. A normal qualifying session would determine the bulk of the grid, with the top six graduating to a new "Peter Jackson Dash For Cash", a three-lap sprint race to sort out the grid from 1st to 6th (and hand out some extra prize money). This would form the grid for Heat 1, while Heat 2 would see everyone start in the order they'd finished Heat 1, with the crucial detail that no tyre changes were allowed between the heats. Some strategy would therefore be necessary to ensure a good finish in both heats, as drivers would have to decide whether to drive hard early and sacrifice Heat 2 for a higher result in Heat 1, or vice versa. The overall round winner would be determined by applying the new points structure to each heat and adding them together, ranking the drivers by the total. Convoluted maybe, but it promised plenty on-track action with a touch of intrigue as drivers fought to keep some rubber under them.

Crucially, however, all rounds had to count toward the driver's season total – no more dropped scores. Mark Skaife was unable to be reached for comment.

The Peter Jackson Dash had promoted Brocky from 5th to 2nd on the grid and he made the most of it, powering up Bitupave Hill to take the early lead in Heat 1. From there he was never headed – despite the best efforts of Seton – to take the first championship win by a Holden since he'd won Surfers Paradise in his VK in 1986.

Heat 2 was another matter, as the rain came down and made it a wet race. On the upside that gave everyone fresh tyres, as they couldn't run their existing slicks in the wet, but on the other hand it left no-one with a prayer against the 4WD Nissans. As Brock and Seton virtually stalled on the line, both GT-Rs zoomed up the hill and left the rest in their spray, swiftly joined by Mark Gibbs' GIO car who'd had to pick his way through the crowd. The BMWs also moved forward during the race, including a third M3 Evo entered by the Gardner team for youngster Paul Morris. Longhurst even put a move on Gibbs in the GIO Skyline, but had to retire the car when he got pinged for a noise infringement, so thank you once again NIMBYs. Amaroo Park had been open for 25 years – you all knew it was a racetrack when you moved there, goddammit...

Anyway, with a 3rd and a 1st in the two heats, Mark Skaife emerged the overall round winner, opening his 1992 bank account with a perfect 30 points. Richards was 2nd with 27, with Peter Brock 3rd (thanks to that stunning and unexpected victory in Heat 1), Seton 4th and Mark Gibbs rounding out the top five. At which point, it might be worth going back to Gentleman Jim's comment at the Eastern Creek weekend, which had been captured by the onboard TV cameras:

Darrell Eastlake: Jimmy Richards, I can't believe the difference in straight-line horsepower now?

Jim Richards: Nor can I, Darrell. That's what you get for winning all those races eh?

Eastlake: Well mate, they're doing to you what you were doing to them all year. It must be pretty frustrating knowing how fast the car can be?

Richards: CAMS knows best, Darrell.

That was a shocking outburst by the imperturbable standards of Jim Richards, the equivalent of kicking the cat for those of us who explode at normal temperatures. But here's the thing: CAMS did know best. Four races into 1992, and we'd had three different winners in three different makes of car, with the GT-Rs proving competitive, but not dominant. The scales were now balanced finely enough that variables like tyre life, inclement weather and, yes, driver skill were affecting the outcome, rather than which car you happened to be driving. It was early days yet, but so far it seemed the extra ballast and boost restriction for the Nissans were just what the doctor ordered.

In fact, if you really wanted to be a Pollyanna, you might even have suggested that Group A wasn't entirely beyond saving...