This year marks the 30th since the World Touring Car Championship was conducted for the first and only time of its era, with the tour stopping in Australia twice.
Bathurst was the first round with the 1000 providing controversy in the first clash of the local runners and the world’s best as the winner wasn’t decided for some time.
However, Calder Park hosted the second round just a week later where the combined road circuit and Thunderdome layout was utilised.
This wasn’t the first time this hybrid configuration was used as in a test run prior to the WTCC round the Yokohama/Bob Jane T-Marts 300 as part of the Australian Endurance Championship debuted it and led to a thrilling finish.
Decided on the last lap, George Fury overtook Holden privateer Bill O’Brien to take victory for the Peter Jackson Nissan team in its DR30. Partnering O’Brien was Larry Perkins in his first appearance driving the updated Holden VL Commodore Group A and completed much of the race, handing over to the car owner with two laps remaining.
Fast forward to October and the WTCC arrived amid an influx of accusations after Bathurst where the Eggenberger Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths were under scrutiny for a number of items.
‘Jungle juice’, flares and much more were the sticking points as the circus arrived in Melbourne for the Bob Jane T-Marts 500.
Despite being under a cloud, the Eggenberger Motorsport Sierras dominated at Calder Park as German touring car ace Klaus Ludwig replicated his Bathurst performance in qualifying to take pole by setting a 1m 42.92s.
In fact it was the sister entry driven by Pierre Dieudonne and Steve Soper took the chequered flag from the Emanuele Pirro and Roberto Ravaglia for BMW from Markus Oestreich and Roland Ratzenberger in another M3 in stormy conditions.
The lead local entry was a lap down in fifth, the Peter Jackson Nissan Skyline of George Fury and Glenn Seton, while Perkins in another VL fast-tracked due to his accident at Bathurst a week earlier was sixth partnered by Denny Hulme.
Others such as Allan Moffat, Dick Johnson and Andrew Miedecke retired through a litany of problems, though the OXO Supercube Sierra finished with the fastest lap.
The World Touring Car Championship continued to New Zealand for the Wellington Street Race before heading to Fuji for the final round, as in both instances Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz won for Ford, but narrowly lost out in the title to Ravaglia.
The WTCC failed to occur in 1988 and was reborn for two-litre S2000 touring cars in 2005.