1992 World Sportscar Championship season

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1992 World Sportscar Championship season
Previous: 1991	Next: None

The 1992 Sportscar World Championship season was the 40th and final FIA World Sportscar Championship season. It was a series of Group C formula sportscars separated into two classes, termed C1 and FIA Cup. It ran from April 26, 1992 to October 18, 1992, comprising 6 races.

1 Pre-Season
2 Schedule
- 2.1 Initial schedule
- 2.2 Final schedule
3 Season Results
4 Post-Season
5 External links

[edit] Pre-Season

From the start, the 1992 season was in doubt. The FIA planned to cancel the season due to a lack of entrants, but pressure from Peugeot, who had poured a large sum of money into the sport and did not wish to see that money wasted after only a year of competition, convinced the FIA that there would be enough entries to make the season worthwhile. With this, the FIA allowed the season to move forward.

The FIA's vision of a single unified formula for the Sportscar World Championship that would truly equal that of Formula One was finally into place following the development of 3500cc (or 3.5 Litre) sportscars in the previous seasons. This formula of engine equalisation took over the series, eliminating any previous engine that did not fit into the 3.5 Litre category. Thus every car had similar engines, and new subclasses were born: C1 for 3.5 Litre engines of 10 or 12 cylinders and usually backed by factory teams, and FIA Cup for 3.5 Litre engines of 8 cylinders and designed as a cheaper alternative for privateer teams.

With the elimination of the previous C2 class, it required manufacturers such as Mazda and Porsche to build entirely new engines, and due to the large change in engine dimensions compared to what they had used in 1991, all new chassis as well. Porsche already had an F1 engine in their 3512 unit used by Footwork, but the engine design was found to be lacking. Porsche, suffering financially at the time, decided that not only improving the 3512, but also replacing the 962 chassis, was no longer worth it and decided not to return.

Mazda, having accomplished their goal of winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991 with their famed rotary engine, were left without the ability to use their rotary engine anymore in 1992. Since Mazda entered sportscar racing mostly to push their rotary designs, Mazda decided to continue on into 1992 for advancement of the overall brand, but with a less ambitious development programme. Mazdaspeed bought customer versions of the Jaguar XJR-14 and slightly modified them into the Mazda MXR-01 while the engines were customer Judd GV V10s. This effort saved large amounts of money for the company while keeping their name involved in the sport.

Of the teams that already had compliant 3.5 Litre cars racing in 1991, their continuation into 1992 varied.

Mercedes-Benz, alongside partner Sauber, pushed ahead with plans for a car in 1992. Development of the C292 was underway, as was construction of a new set of Flat-12s. However, after various faults in the construction of the engines in 1991, further problems led to large monetary losses for the company, forcing them not to return for 1992.

Jaguar, who had been in sportscar racing with the XJR project since 1984, and were not completely happy with the performance of the XJR-14 during the 1991 season, had already announced their departure from the series. Customer XJR-14s were promised for 1992 from newcomers RMR racing as well as Gee Pee Cars.

Of the smaller privateer teams, Brun Motorsport's development of the lacking C91 chassis cost them a great deal, and with the loss of cheap customer cars like the Porsche 962, they decided not to return. Other teams which had previously used the 962 also failed to return, including Kremer Racing and Team Salamin Primagaz. Courage Competition was unable to find the money to continue development of their own chassis, and decided to instead concentrate solely on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Konrad Motorsport, whose KM-011 chassis was also lackluster in 1991, claimed they were attempt to push on with Lamborghini backing into 1992. Euro Racing found enough cash to replace their aging Spice chassis with the new Lola T92/10s with Judd powerplants, and promised to be on the grid immediately for 1992. Chamberlain Engineering also planned to continue as the factory backed Spice Engineering squad.

Peugeot and Toyota, who had campaigned their 905 and TS010s respectively, remained in the sport mostly unchanged. Both cars underwent evolutionary changes in preparation for 1992, while the basic chassis and engines remained the same.

A revival of the BRM name was also announced for 1992, using their own newly built P351 chassis and V12 engine. Unfortunately, even with the apparent addition of BRM, the grid in comparison between 1991 and 1992 was looking bleak, with the loss of a large number of privateer teams, as well as the loss of two major manufacturers (with a third being downgraded to privateer status) with only one possible new replacement.

[edit] Schedule

When the 1992 season was provisionally approved in December of 1991, the FIA published a ten race calendar for the season, comprised of 1000 km and 500 km races, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

[edit] Initial schedule

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Date
1	500 km of Autopolis	Autopolis	April 5
2	1000 km of Monza	Autodromo Nazionale Monza	April 26
3	500 km of Silverstone	Silverstone Circuit	May 10
4	500 km of Jarama	Circuito Permanente Del Jarama	May 26
5	24 Hours of Le Mans	Circuit de la Sarthe	June 20 June 21
6	1000 km of Donington	Donington Park	July 19
7	1000 km of Nürburgring	Nürburgring	August 2
8	1000 km of Suzuka	Suzuka Circuit	August 30
9	1000 km of Mexico City	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	September 13
10	1000 km of Jerez	Circuito Permanente de Jerez	October 4

By January 1992, the FIA shortened the calendar to eight events, with the Monza and Donington events being cut down to 500 km. Magny-Cours was also brought in to replace some fly-away events.

The Jerez round remained on the final calendar, but was cancelled during the middle of the season when track officials failed to update the track to the FIA's standards.

[edit] Final schedule

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Date
1	500km of Monza	Autodromo Nazionale Monza	April 26
2	BRDC Empire Trophy (500km)	Silverstone Circuit	May 10
3	24 Hours of Le Mans	Circuit de la Sarthe	June 20 June 21
4	Triton Showers Trophy (500km)	Donington Park	July 19
5	Suzuka 1000km	Suzuka Circuit	August 30
6	500km of Magny-Cours	Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours	October 18

Prior to the 500 km of Silverstone, race organisers attempted to convince teams to shorten the race distance to approximately 250 km in order to boost ticket sales. However, Toyota vetoed the decision and the race remained at its original distance.

[edit] Season Results

Points were awarded for the top 10 finishers, in the order of 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1, with some exceptions:

Drivers failing to drive the car within a certain percentage of the laps in a race were not given points.
Teams were only given points for their highest finishing car; any other team cars were merely skipped in the points standings. Points were still awarded to their drivers however.
Neither driver nor teams scored points if they did not complete 90% of the winner's distance.

FIA Cup class cars were included in the overall championship standings, while they were scored separately for their own class championship.

[edit] Races

Rnd	Circuit	C1 Winning Team	FIA Cup Winning Team	Results
Rnd	Circuit	C1 Winning Drivers	FIA Cup Winning Drivers	Results
1	Monza	Toyota Team Tom's	Chamberlain Engineering	Results
1	Monza	Geoff Lees Hitoshi Ogawa	Bernard Thuner Ferdinand de Lesseps	Results
2	Silverstone	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Chamberlain Engineering	Results
2	Silverstone	Derek Warwick Yannick Dalmas	Ferdinand de Lesseps Will Hoy	Results
3	La Sarthe	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Chamberlain Engineering	Results
3	La Sarthe	Derek Warwick Yannick Dalmas Mark Blundell	Ferdinand de Lesseps Richard Piper Olindo Iacobelli	Results
4	Donington	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Chamberlain Engineering	Results
4	Donington	Mauro Baldi Philippe Alliot	Ferdinand de Lesseps Will Hoy	Results
5	Suzuka	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Chamberlain Engineering	Results
5	Suzuka	Derek Warwick Yannick Dalmas	Ferdinand de Lesseps Nick Adams Masahiro Kimoto	Results
6	Magny-Cours	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Chamberlain Engineering	Results
6	Magny-Cours	Mauro Baldi Philippe Alliot	Ferdinand de Lesseps Nick Adams	Results

[edit] Overall Teams Championship

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rnd 1	Rnd 2	Rnd 3	Rnd 4	Rnd 5	Rnd 6	Total
1	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905 Evo 1B	Peugeot SA35 3.5L V10	15	20	20	20	20	20	115
2	Toyota Team Tom's	Toyota TS010	Toyota RV10 3.5L V10	20		15	12	15	12	74
3	Mazdaspeed	Mazda MXR-01	Mazda (Judd) MV10 3.5L V10		15	10	8		6	39
4	Chamberlain Engineering	Spice SE89C	Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5L V8		12	4	6	8	4	34
5	Euro Racing	Lola T92/10	Judd GV10 3.5L V10			6	10	10		26
6	Team S.C.I.	Spice SE90C Tiga GC288	Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5L V8 Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8		10		4		3	17

[edit] FIA Cup Teams Championship

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rnd 1	Rnd 2	Rnd 3	Rnd 4	Rnd 5	Rnd 6	Total
1	Chamberlain Engineering	Spice SE89C	Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5L V8	20	20	20	20	†	20	100
2	Team S.C.I.	Spice SE90C Tiga GC288	Ford Cosworth DFZ 3.5L V8 Ford Cosworth DFL 3.3L V8		15		15		15	45
3	G.S.R. GmbH	Gebhardt C91	Ford Cosworth DFR 3.5L V8	15						15

† - Chamberlain Engineering scored no team points in Round 5 due to having no other competition in its class.

[edit] Overall Drivers Championship

Pos	Driver	Team	Rnd 1	Rnd 2	Rnd 3	Rnd 4	Rnd 5	Rnd 6	Total
1=	Yannick Dalmas	Peugeot Talbot Sport	15	20	20	15	20	8	98
1=	Derek Warwick	Peugeot Talbot Sport	15	20	20	15	20	8	98
3=	Philippe Alliot	Peugeot Talbot Sport			12	20	12	20	64
3=	Mauro Baldi	Peugeot Talbot Sport			12	20	12	20	64
5	Geoff Lees	Toyota Team Tom's	20			12	15	12	59
6	Jan Lammers	Toyota Team Tom's			8		15	12	35
7	Ferdinand de Lesseps	Chamberlain Engineering		12	4	6	8	4	34
8	Maurizio Sandro-Sala	Mazdaspeed		15		8		6	29
9	Johnny Herbert	Mazdaspeed		15	10				25
10	David Brabham	Toyota Team Tom's				12		10	22
11	Hitoshi Ogawa	Toyota Team Tom's	20						20
12=	Will Hoy	Chamberlain Engineering		12		6			18
12=	Andy Wallace	Toyota Team Tom's			8			10	18
14=	Stefano Sebastiani	Team S.C.I.		10		4		3	17
14=	Ranieri Randaccio	Team S.C.I.		10		4		3	17
16	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Euro Racing			6	10			16
17=	Eric Hélary	Peugeot Talbot Sport						15	15
17=	Christophe Bouchut	Peugeot Talbot Sport						15	15
17=	Pierre-Henri Raphanel	Toyota Team Tom's			15				15
17=	Kenny Acheson	Toyota Team Tom's			15				15
21	Alex Caffi	Mazdaspeed				8		6	14
22	Nick Adams	Chamberlain Engineering					8	4	12
23=	Hideshi Matsuda	Euro Racing					10		10
23=	Phil Andrews	Euro Racing				10			10
23=	Volker Weidler	Mazdaspeed			10				10
23=	Jésus Pareja	Euro Racing					10		10
27	Teo Fabi	Toyota Team Tom's			8				8
28=	Divina Galica	Chamberlain Engineering					6		6
28=	Jun Harada	Chamberlain Engineering					6		6
30=	Richard Piper	Chamberlain Engineering			4				4
30=	Olindo Iacobelli	Chamberlain Engineering			4				4

[edit] FIA Cup Drivers Championship

Pos	Driver	Team	Rnd 1	Rnd 2	Rnd 3	Rnd 4	Rnd 5	Rnd 6	Total
1	Ferdinand de Lesseps	Chamberlain Engineering	20	20	20	20		20	100
2	Ranieri Randaccio	Team S.C.I.		15		15		15	45
3=	Will Hoy	Chamberlain Engineering		20		20			40
3=	Nick Adams	Chamberlain Engineering					20	20	40
5	Stefano Sebastiani	Team S.C.I.		15				15	30
6=	Bernard Thuner	Chamberlain Engineering	20						20
6=	Olindo Iacobelli	Chamberlain Engineering			20				20
6=	Richard Piper	Chamberlain Engineering			20				20
9=	Frank Kraemer	G.S.R. GmbH	15						15
9=	Almo Coppelli	G.S.R. GmbH	15						15

[edit] Post-Season

Although in preparation for the 1992 season there showed some potential of allowing the championship to survive through to future seasons, especially with promises from Peugeot, as the season went on it became apparent that some of this potential was merely false hope. The customer Jaguars never showed, even though they continued to be promised even as the season went on. Konrad's Lamborghini powered sportscar was also never raced after promises of continued development. BRM's effort only resulted in them racing once, at Le Mans, where they finished last after completing only 20 laps. After Le Mans, they simply stopped showing up. The season thus became simply a showing of Peugeot dominance due to the large amount of money they had poured into the 905 project.

Thus hope for 1993 was slim. Resting on the promises of Peugeot as well as Nissan who claimed they were returning to the series with their P35, the FIA tentatively announced that the 1993 season would occur. However, following Nissan's decision to cancel the P35 due to economic straight, and with a lack of entries announcing their participation, the FIA cancelled the 1993 season. This marked the end of 40 continuous years of the World Sportscar Championship, albeit in different guises.

Sportscar racing was left without a single unified championship in which to complete, leading to a large number of smaller breakaway series across the world. The All Japan Sports Prototype Championship series in Japan was also unable to continue after 1992 as well, although Group C cars continued to participate as guests in other series. IMSA's championships in North America continued on but also suffering from dwindling fields until it was replaced by the American Le Mans Series in 1999. The FIA took over the European SportsRacing World Cup in 1999 to create the FIA Sportscar Championship in a fashion similar to the World Sportscar Championship, but it failed by 2003.

Following many rough years, by 2004 sportscar racing had become stable with the ACO's two main sportscar series, the European Le Mans Series and American Le Mans Series, with the Japan Le Mans Challenge to follow in 2006. However, these three series are not unified into a singular world-wide championship like the World Sportscar Championship.

[edit] External links

1992 World Sportscar Championship results

World Sportscar Championship seasons v • d • e
1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959 • 1960 • 1961 • 1962 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969 • 1970 • 1971 • 1972 1973 • 1974 • 1975 • 1976 • 1977 • 1978 • 1979 • 1980 • 1981 • 1982 1983 • 1984 • 1985 • 1986 • 1987 • 1988 • 1989 • 1990 • 1991 • 1992
Separate World Championship for Makes seasons
1976 • 1977