It wasn’t really the big stage when Winton debuted as part of the Australian Touring Car Championship circus as the opening round of 1985.
To honour Winton’s return to the Repco Supercars Championship schedule, The Garage reflects back on its first appearance on the calendar 37 years ago.
The round is known for many things including it being the first for the European Group A formula in Australia, the beginning of Channel 7’s regular coverage of ATCC events and the only round to not feature a Holden on the grid (up until now).
This meant Peter Brock nor loyal lieutenant John Harvey were on the grid as the Holden Dealer Team continued development work on its new Group A VK Commodore, which had made its debut on the streets of Wellington.
Also missing was the factory Nissan squad as although the DR30 Skyline was already racing in Japan, a paperwork mishap left the team unable to fit the development parts tested by the Howard Marsden-led squad, leaving it on the sidelines in the ATCC anyway. The team were kept busy by the one-make Pulsar Turbo series, which followed the ATCC circus around and pretty much became a demolition derby.
So, who was there?
JPS Team BMW were with a pair of well sorted 635csis for Kiwi pair Jim Richards and Neville Crichton.
So too Alfa Romeo made the step up from production car racing with Colin Bond and Australia’s last Formula 1 World Champion Alan Jones in two sweet sounding GTV6s.
Following the same pathway as Alfa Romeo was Kevin Bartlett’s Mitsubishi Ralliart team in a sole turbocharged Starion coupe, while Toyota also added a Toyota Corolla for Under Two-Litre duties.
Ford hero Dick Johnson entered in a Mustang and an interesting model featured was the privateer Jaguar XJS of Garry Willmington.
Richards started from pole and went onto dominate proceedings as BMW highlighted its development advantage as Crichton finished behind the team leader.
Bartlett was third having returned from his tilt at the 24 Hours of Daytona with Allan Moffat, Gregg Hansford and Peter McLeod.
A late pit stop for new tyres dropped Jones to fourth by the flag from John Smith in the factory Toyota Corolla.
Sandown hosted the next ATCC round where two new challenges emerged, Brock in the HDT VK Commodore and the Volvo’s 240 Turbo driven by Robbie Francevic.
It proved an auspicious start to a new era for the ATCC, which lasted until the end of 1992.