New Zealander Robbie Francevic wasn’t known across the Tasman until he linked up with countryman Mark Petch to form an attack on the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship.
The international Group A rules made this possible and the weapon of choice was a Volvo 240 Turbo run by the factory Eggenberger Motorsport team before the Swiss squad went to Ford in 1986.
Referred to as a ‘block of flats’ by Dick Johnson in what was a particularly bruising Calder Park round, the Volvo won on debut at the inaugural Wellington 500 despite landing in New Zealand not even a week prior to the event.
Starting from the rear of grid, the Volvo shared by Francevic and Belgian jeweller Michel Delcourt took victory against an admittedly small field including the first factory-built Group A Holden VK Commodore driven by Peter Brock and Larry Perkins.
Rewind some three years earlier, Group A was just beginning in Europe and Volvo got involved by entering one of its 240 Turbo built for its one-make ‘Cup’ series run in Sweden. These were slightly modified, but provided a perfect starting point for Volvo to soon become the dominant manufacturer in touring cars courtesy of an ‘Evolution’ model.
Group A regulations allowed an ‘Evolution’ model of 500 road-going examples from a mass-produced base version of 5000 to be eligible for homologation.
Petch was behind a successful hydraulic seals business and this featured prominently on the Volvo’s flanks when it turned from red to silver when it made its ATCC debut at Sandown for Round 2.
In what was a low resourced program featuring just three crew members including Francevic, the Volvo won two rounds at Symmons Plains (the 240 Turbo’s second event) and the Oran Park finale.
Success at Bathurst wasn’t forthcoming despite Francevic and co-driver John Bowe being very quick, but it ended in retirement.
Things were boosted for 1986 as Volvo Australia bought the 240 Turbo and equipment off Petch, with John Sheppard installed as team manager for a tilt at the ATCC.
The Volvo Dealer Team took full-control from Mark Petch Motorsport by Round 3 at Sandown and a second Australian-built 240 Turbo debuted at Adelaide International Raceway for Round 4 for Bowe.
However, tensions between Francevic and Sheppard threatened to derail the successful start to the season, but failed to boil over before the New Zealander took the title at Oran Park.
In fact, it was at the pre-Bathurst Castrol 500 event at Sandown where it escalated and Francevic was sacked by Sheppard.
Just one 240 Turbo took the start at Sandown before returning to two at Bathurst, which marked the Volvo Dealer Team’s final event, with the Swedish marque pulling out of motorsport globally at the end of 1986.
It may have been short, but the Francevic-Volvo partnership was very successful and gave the New Zealanders a dominant start to the Group A era after Jim Richards had saluted in 1985.