If Mark Skaife didn't have enough on his plate contesting the Australian Touring Car Championship and Australian Drivers Championship simultaneously, how hectic did things get when Fred Gibson decided to tackle the AMSCAR series as well? Skaife had already won the opening round of the series, shared with the ATCC proper, but 10 May saw the first dedicated AMSCAR meeting for the year, and Skaife was on a mission to make this one his own as well.
Long March: the AMSCAR Side Hustle
Given Gibson Motorsport was a Melbourne- rather than Sydney-based team, one suspects this AMSCAR campaign was once again largely a money-making exercise, the lucrative prize money a necessity to keep their expensive GT-Rs running. Of course, all that money disappearing into Fred Gibson's hungry maw was sure to hasten the series' demise, and the evidence for that was already visible.
With just eight – count 'em, eight – entries for the second round, it was one of the thinnest touring car grids in local history. There were the Nissan drivers, Skaife and Jim Richards; the BMWs of Tony Longhurst and Paul Morris (notably, no Alan Jones); the Caltex Sierra of Colin Bond; and the Lansvale, Pro-Duct and GIO Commodores of Trevor Ashby, Bob Pearson and Mark Gibbs, respectively. The Bob Forbes Racing team had once again left their GT-R at home, as Bob was busy sourcing some wheels strong enough to stand up to the Nissan's latest weight increase without cracking.
Indeed, with the latest round of weight penalties to think about, there was no guarantee the GT-R would still be competitive at Amaroo Park. When the flag dropped, however, Skaife shot off into the lead and by lap 5 (of 10), he was 4.6 seconds up the road. Richards slotted into 2nd, where he acted as tail-gunner for the remainder of the race. Within a few laps Richo found himself passed by Longhurst and then Ashby, but in a red-hot battle he managed to get it back, and from there the foursome of Richards, Ashby, Longhurst and Bond boxed each other's ears all the way to the flag in a fabulous display of controlled aggression. They provided the entertainment, but it all left Skaife free to win at a canter, so Heat 1 was won purely on the strength of the Nissan's 4WD starts.
The second race later in the day started with a reversed grid for the first five cars, meaning Longhurst and Bond shared the front row. It didn't matter. Once again, the Nissans simply flicked on the indicators, pulled out and drove around them, resuming their customary places in 1st and 2nd. Tony did what he could in yet another intense pack race, but this time it was Skaife who held him off to secure 2nd place and leave Richards to secure yet another win for Nissan.
Ostfront: Battleshock at Eastern Creek
Eastern Creek had come a long way in only a few short years. From the opening enduro in 1990, to poaching the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix from Phillip Island (though that would only last a couple of years), to this year's Winfield Triple Crown extravaganza, it was clear the new Sydney venue was out to make waves. It was also out to make money, for as an FIA-compliant venue, they'd also made themselves available for off-season testing, which famously led to Turn 1 breaking Andy Wallace's rib while testing a Toyota TS010 in February.
But the circuit really arrived now, in May, when the Creek finally hosted its first Australian Touring Car Championship round. Everything else was just a fun distraction: it was the ATCC that was a circuit's bread and butter.
There were twenty-two entries: On top of everyone who'd been there for AMSCAR, we got the Shell Sierras of Dick Johnson and John Bowe, and the matching Peter Jackson machines of Wayne Park and Glenn Seton, winner of the Triple Crown back in January. Alan Jones graced the venue with his presence in his familiar Benson & Hedges BMW, while Bob Forbes had finally managed to find some wheels strong enough to stand up to the increased bulk of the Nissan GT-R, so his driver Mark Gibbs had returned to his customary seat in the Skyline. That left the GIO Commodore he'd raced at Lakeside and Amaroo Park free for someone else to drive, so Forbes had given it to Rohan Onslow for the weekend, giving him some seat time as part of the build-up to the all-important enduros later in the year.
It was something of a boom period for the wide-body VN, in fact: Peter Brock was back in his Mobil Commodore, Terry Finnigan had brought along his familiar blue Foodtown machine, and they were both joined by HRT's driver Tomas Mezera, making his third and final appearance in this year's ATCC. In fact, the only VN missing was the second Mobil car of Neil Crompton: according to the commentators, he'd been absent from Lakeside because he was in the U.S. filming some sort of documentary, but the only things on his IMDb page during this era were a few episodes of '90s travel show The Great Outdoors (remember that?). There is a segment on YouTube where Crompo tries out a Sprint Car at Parramatta City Raceway, but the fact he's in GIO overalls indicates it's from 1993, not 1992. Either way, he was present at Eastern Creek but in the red blazer of a Channel Seven commentator rather than his Mobil fire suit, which pointed to the other explanation that was doing the rounds: the Brock team was simply running out of spare parts.
As for the older Walkinshaw Commodore, Larry Perkins had made the trip in his red Castrol-backed machine, and he was joined by a number of other privateers including Bob Jones (the white 2UW-sponsored #12), John English (not to be confused with the smoky-eyed singer of the 1970s, in the black Dru-Truss/Marathon Foods #29), and a South Australian debutante named Stuart McColl, in his own Kart Mania #44. Just for variety, the long-suffering Garry Willmington had also brought along his MA70 Supra Turbo, although why he remained committed to that money pit was anyone's guess.
Motor racing can be a harsh game and the casualties started piling up before battle was even formally joined. Tomas Mezera's prime car for the weekend was chassis HRT 027, a car better known as Elvis for all the hits it took. So far in season '92, Mezera had crashed it during a race, then during the Dash before the race, so to complete the sequence he'd have to crash it during qualifying before even making the Dash. And, sure enough...
We raced at Sandown, Lakeside and Eastern Creek and that was it for the touring car championship. It was hard to get going. Just when you felt you were getting there, you didn't get in the car for a while and everything felt foreign again. You couldn't get comfortable. ...
I'd got a good tow down the front straight from Terry Finnigan in qualifying and I thought, "Jeez, this is going to be a good lap." I put a wheel off the road and didn't back off. On the new tyres I stayed on it and then I ended up at the exit of turn two with a stuffed car in the sand! – Tomas Mezera, Holden Racing Team: 20th Anniversary
Elvis had taken another big hit, this one bad enough that it was forced to sit out the races proper. Mezera was forced to rely on the backup car instead, the team's mechanics doing the hard work of swapping the engine and gearbox over to the spare chassis overnight (presumably HRT 026, given 028 was busy being a test mule for the upcoming V8 formula, but there is some confusion over HRT chassis during this period). Adding insult to injury, the crash had also damaged the marked set of tyres he'd nominated for qualifying and the race, meaning he had to fit a different set on Sunday morning and so incur the 10-second start-line penalty!
But the long front straight still favoured Sierras, so it was John Bowe who set fastest time in qualifying, a 1:35.21, putting him just barely ahead of Mark Skaife with a 1:35.24. Larry Perkins' love affair with Eastern Creek continued, qualifying third-fastest with a 1:35.41, while Tony Longhurst (1:35.51), Dick Johnson (1:35.47) and Glenn Seton (1:35.77) claimed the remaining spots in the Dash. Colin Bond qualified 10th with a 1:36.19, showing that the grid had been closed right up by the latest round of rebalancing.
For once the random draw of the Peter Jackson Dash favoured Dick Johnson, with the two Shell cars shaking out to be first and second for the races proper, with Johnson claiming pole and with it a very welcome cheque. "After Lakeside when we had provisional pole and then drew 6th, I thought it was our turn this weekend," said a satisfied Johnson, although with Mark Skaife shuffled back only one row, to 4th, he knew he'd have a fight on his hands in the not-too-distant future.
Nobody was surprised when his 4WD traction rocketed Skaife off the line and straight between the Shell Sierras at the start, but it was a surprise when he started seeing a counter-attack as early as lap 2. The Nissan might've had a traction advantage, but it still weighed 1,600 kilos, and all that mass had to be braked, rotated and accelerated again at every corner, and Skaife knew he dare not burn up his tyres too soon. So around the first lap Skaife had led, but that was as good as his day got, as down the long straight Bowe got a good slipstream to take 2nd place off Dick Johnson, and it was only a question of how many laps it would take for him to get to grips with the leader. The answer turned out to be "not many", but exactly how many was lost, apparently, to one of Channel Seven's lovely ad breaks!
So Bowe was now the race leader, which was good for the Dick Johnson team, but Dick's cursed season soon came back with a vengeance. Larry Perkins tried to dive-bomb Johnson into Turn 2 and screwed it up, losing the back end of his Walkinshaw in a massive spin. Johnson's in-car camera abruptly swung left to show Larry's rear spoiler right alongside and going backwards! Dick was forced onto the grass to avoid him and even that wasn't enough, the Shell Sierra copping a big hit that shattered its left-side windows! Although Larry kept his Holden out of the kitty litter, he was left sitting on the outside of the turn while the whole world filed past, dropping him back to 14th.
Skaife kept in touch with Bowe into the middle of the race, but it soon emerged Bowe wasn't the only driver on the move today. Tony Longhurst ran Skaife down over successive laps and finally ducked under him at Turn 2, moving him up to 2nd – the weight on that GT-R had reached crisis point. Once clear, Tony pulled a nice gap as well, and a when he finally reeled in John Bowe a handful of laps later, then it would really be on. In the meantime, Brock, Alan Jones, Johnson, Colin Bond, Paul Morris and Wayne Park made a great little pack as they disputed positions 6th through 11th. At least part of that was settled when Morris drove into the back of Bond at Turn 7, putting them both off the track, though neither permanently, and then Johnson had a spin for unknown reasons (possibly just dead Dunlops) and eventually limped home 11th. All of them were still better off than Garry Willmington, however, whose Supra ended its race bathed in fire-fighting foam, having gone up like a summer bushfire in the mountains. The engine had blown up under acceleration on the front straight, but exactly what had gone wrong in that over-stressed engine, we never found out.
At the front, Longhurst once again drove his BMW for all it was worth, poking his nose in here, getting a bonnet alongside there, but it was no good. Bowe held his nerve and drove to the finish to secure the win in Heat 1, while Longhurst showed he'd learned his lesson by driving it home 2nd, cleanly. They hadn't so much as nudged each other this time! The gap at the line was nearly a full second, but that wasn't representative of the real margin as the 600hp Sierra had such incredible acceleration once it got a head of steam; around most of the circuit, they'd been virtually nose-to-tail. In 3rd place, some seven seconds behind, was a very disciplined Mark Skaife, followed by his teammate Jim Richards and then Mark Gibbs – a Nissan 3-4-5, and a bunch of cars that was sure to make trouble once we tried to get off the line for Heat 2...
Indeed, the staggered two-by-two grid meant despite starting from the second row, both Winfield Nissans basically had clear air ahead of them for the start of Heat 2. Understandably, then, they were 1st and 2nd by the time they arrived in the first corner, and only a remarkable start from John Bowe kept Mark Gibbs from making it a 1-2-3.
Dick's miserable weekend continued when a love tap from Tomas Mezera at Turn 4 tipped him into a spin, dropping him back to last place. He made lemonade by taking a pit stop for new tyres (apparently one of them had picked up a nick anyway) and was rising back up through the ranks when a split bore left him to finish only 13th. Some days it was almost better not to try.
Skaife's driving today was beautiful to behold, as he threw that Nissan into every turn just hard enough that it was magically pointing in the right direction when it came time to stomp on the power button. The problem was, he had to be on form, because John Bowe had the bit between his teeth and was right on his tail for the second time today. These two heralds of the new generation – both, incidentally, now Australian open-wheel champions as well – put in a superb display of car control as they left the rest behind. Skaife knew if he could just keep Bowe behind for a few laps, the Sierra would burn up its tyres and then the race would fall into his lap. If Bowe could pass him and gain the clean air, however, it would be all over. The Nissan would never catch the Sierra after that, so the pressure was on.
Case in point, the other standard-bearer of the coming generation, Glenn Seton, had slid into an early 3rd place in his blue Sierra, but the Bridgestones it was riding on were starting to suffer, and the slight drift the Sierra always gave as the turbo spooled up was becoming bigger and bigger. That was all Tony Longhurst needed, and once again the little yellow BMW did its thing and passed a Sierra in the middle of the corner. So it was now Skaife leading, Bowe chasing and Longhurst on the move in 3rd.
A handful of laps in, Skaife finally made a mistake: with the grip running low he got wide exiting onto the front straight and put two wheels through the dust at the side of the track. The sudden loss of grip forced him to lift, and that compromised his entire run down the straight. Bowe didn't need two opportunities like that: he lined up the Nissan and drove by it at his leisure, taking the lead before the start/finish line. Skaife wrung the neck of that GT-R a bit longer but soon most of his attention was in his mirrors as Tony Longhurst once again caught up to one of the bigger cars and started making a nuisance of himself.
Dying tyres meant, incredibly, the BMW David did indeed find its way past the Nissan Goliath before the end, but dealing with Bowe was another matter entirely. For that, Tony had to place his hopes on lapped traffic getting in the way: Larry Perkins pulled his red Walkinshaw out of the way, then John English did the same with his black Walkinshaw, no help there. The blue-and-white Bob Jones Walkinshaw let Skaife by, but trapped Tony behind him for Turn 3; he had to wait until Turn 4 for his chance. It was tense stuff.
At the finish they were virtually line astern, proof if it were needed that the rules were actually very balanced now... at least over the full distance. But in the end, it was Bowe's heat, and therefore Bowe's round as well: he crossed the finish line beneath a flying chequered to score his second round win of the year. He'd set fastest time in qualifying and then swept both heats, so only an unlucky draw for the three-lap Dash had kept the weekend from being a complete redwash.
Neil Crompton: The touring cars putting on a fine show for us – Nissan, BMW, Ford Sierra. The man who finished 3rd today, Tony Longhurst. Congratulations, that was one heck of a drive, it was great entertainment.
Tony Longhurst: She's hard work, I tell ya, I was right on the limit the whole time. I must admit, this Nissan's a remarkable car. You think you've got it, and [it just] inches away.
Crompton: We mentioned quite a number of times in the commentary [that] it must be so frustrating to be constantly baulked by the big cars, because you're fast where they're slow, and it's the opposite in other occasions?
Longhurst: I've never experienced such a thrill as going through that corner at the end of the main straight. The speed difference, we must have twenty or thirty kays in the corner. It really is frustrating, you just feel like going bang and giving the guys a clout, but... I've learned about that!
Crompton: Well done Tony, 3rd today, good luck next week. 2nd place today Mark Skaife, congratulations, another fine drive. I guess a win was the perfect world, but you keep your points championship thing alive?
Mark Skaife: No, that was a good result for us today. Obviously, to keep Tony away, 'cos he's starting to catch us. And to keep Bowey behind was a drama, I can tell you!
Crompton: I bet it was! And the winner today, John Bowe. Congratulations, that was a fabulous performance from your Shell team and of course a great drive from you, you must be pleased?
John Bowe: I am, Neil. It's great for the team, they've worked incredibly hard this year and Dunlop have done an enormous amount of work on the tyres and obviously it showed today.
Bowe's win lifted him back up to 5th place on the championship table, with 111 points for the year. Longhurst was slightly ahead with 114, with Seton still third on 123, but all of them were still firmly behind the two Nissan teammates, Richards on 147 and Skaife leading on 160. He might not have extended his championship lead as much as he would've liked, but young Mark could at least console himself that he'd taken another win in the accompanying Formula Holden race, which took his score for the year to an impressive 70. With nearest rival Mark Larkham on 54 points and a maximum of 20 still available for a win, that set the pair up for a decider in the final round at Oran Park a month hence. The bad news was, the month between then and now would see the Winfield team following the ATCC across the Nullarbor to Adelaide and Perth, leaving precious little time for preparation and testing. Whether he was in a car with fenders or without, Mark Skaife's championship bids were looking like going right down to the wire.
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