Back in the 1980s there were an array of races not connected to the Australian Touring Car Championship, but attracted some of the biggest stars such as the Amaroo Park exclusive AMSCAR Series and the Australian Endurance Championship.
Although the season of endurance is just two races in the current day Repco Supercars Championship, longer format races were the norm after the touring car title was decided during the 1980s.
First awarded as a manufacturer prize in 1981, the Australian Endurance Championship was then made a drivers’ title in 1982 as it became a prestigious trophy to add to the cabinet.
The Australian Endurance Championship took in the biggest circuits in the country such as Adelaide International Raceway, Oran Park, Sandown and Surfers Paradise International Raceway.
It was Toyota securing the first title thanks to its privateer Celica entrants, despite Peter Brock winning two out of the four rounds, with Ford’s Dick Johnson and Allan Moffat for Mazda each taking a victory.
Moffat’s time to shine came in 1982 as the Australian Endurance Championship took in the James Hardie 1000 for the first time.
The Canadian ex-pat took a controversial win at Sandown, greeted the flag at Surfers paradise and took out the final round in Adelaide to secure the title from class runner Bob Holden in his Ford Escort.
Continuing its expansion to six rounds in 1983, Mazda privateer Peter McLeod took the championship by five-points from JPS Team BMW’s Jim Richards as Amaroo Park’s Silastic 300 kickstarted the campaign.
McLeod failed to win an event, but his pace and reliability was the difference as a mechanical problem during the final event in Adelaide threatened to end his title quest, but his sponsor’s product Slick 50 saved the day.
Continuing its domination at the top of the standings, Mazda finished 1-2 as Moffat and teammate Gregg Hansford, but it was Peter Brock ending the Group C era as the driver to beat winning Sandown, Bathurst and Surfers Paradise to round out the 1984 Australian Endurance Championship.
When the Group A regulations were introduced for the 1985, BMW took dominance to a new level by winning four out of the five rounds. Richards added the endurance title to his ATCC win earlier in the year.
Richards backed it up against stiffer competition in 1986 to take another Australian Endurance Championship crown.
Nissan proved a worthy rival through George Fury and Glenn Seton, with the pair combining for three wins, but it was the rally-turned-circuit racing star adding a fourth at Oran Park.
The penultimate round of the championship at Calder Park returned the rolling start to touring car racing.
Following complaints from teams there was too much racing, the Australian Endurance Championship was put on ice for 1987 and didn’t return until 1990.
Three rounds were conducted beginning at the Sandown 500, Tooheys 1000 and the maiden event held at Eastern Creek.
Glenn Seton was now Ford Sierra RS500 mounted to win at Sandown and was runner up at Eastern Creek to secure the title.
Shrinking to feature just the Sandown 500 and Tooheys 1000 in 1991, it was another privateer outfit taking the win. Mark Gibbs and Rohan Onslow shared the Bob Forbes Racing Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R to win a championship, which had dropped in prestige since first contested more than a decade prior.
It proved the end of the Australian Endurance Championship’s association with touring car racing as production cars returned the title in 2011 before Australian GT took it on in 2016.
Supercars introduced the Pirtek Endurance Cup encapsulating Sandown, Bathurst and Gold Coast in 2013, however following the global pandemic in 2020 it has not been awarded.