Australian Touring Car Championship

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The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the V8 Supercar Championship Series awarded the trophy and title of Australian Touring Car Champion.

1 History
2 See also

[edit] History

The first Australian Touring Car Championship was held as an award for a single race in 1960 as an acknowledgement of the rising popularity of races held for passenger sedans as opposed to the more purpose built open wheel racing cars, or sports cars. The original race was held at the Gnoo Blas circuit in Orange in rural New South Wales, north-west of Sydney. The original race was won by journalist racer, David McKay racing a Jaguar saloon prepared by his own racing team, Scuderia Veloce which to this point had been better known for its preparation of open wheel or sports racing Ferraris.

The early years of the ATCC saw the once a year event visit mostly rural circuits, before finally visiting a major city circuit, Lakeside Raceway on the outskirts of Brisbane in 1964. This race was also the first not won by a Jaguar saloon with Ian Geoghegan winning the first of his five titles in a Ford Cortina. From 1965 the title would largely be contested by American V8 powered muscle cars, most notably the Ford Mustang which would win five consecutive titles. The first victory by an Australian car was the Holden Monaro driven by Norm Beechey.

A major shift occurred in 1973. The championship had blossomed from a single race into a multi-event series in 1969, but the competition had not changed markedly. The 'Supercar scare' that had rocked the build up to 1972 Bathurst 500 forced sweeping changes through touring car regulations. The Improved Touring Car regulations which governed the ATCC, known at the time as Group C were amalgamated with the more basic Series Production regulations which governed the Bathurst touring car endurance race in a compromise between the two, creating a single class for touring car racing that would hold sway of Australian Touring Car racing until the introduction of Group A in 1985.

This period saw a rise in the tribal style conflicts between Holden and Ford and in particular the two marques leading drivers, respectively Peter Brock and Allan Moffat who between them would claim seven of the eras 12 championships (and nine of the associated Bathurst victories). By the mid 1980s Group C had become wracked with infighting and almost random parity adjustments between competing marques.

Attention focussed purely on Holden and Ford had blurred as European and Japanese manufacturers joined the Australian agents of the two big American companies, the trend starting in 1981 with BMW, Mazda and Nissan. The international Group A regulations, already utilised by European and Japanese touring car series, allowed them to compete on equal terms. Holden was forced briefly into catchup phase, which they quickly did.

1992 saw the unhappy demise of Group A and with the international touring car scene fragmentating in several directions (moving towards DTM, Super Touring and Super GT) Australia forged its own path evolving the Group A specification Holden Commdores into the new Group 3A regulations that would later be renamed as V8 Supercar.

The ATCC continued to be used until the end of the 1998 season, after which V8 Supercar organisers altered the name of the series, eventually adopting its present identity, the V8 Supercar Championship Series.

[edit] Round Wins by Driver

Round Wins	Drivers	Manufacturers
38	Mark Skaife	Nissan, Holden
37	Peter Brock	Holden, Ford
32	Allan Moffat	Ford, Mazda
29	Craig Lowndes	Holden, Ford
22	Dick Johnson	Ford
22	Jim Richards	BMW, Nissan, Holden
17	Glenn Seton	Nissan, Ford
15	John Bowe	Ford
15	Marcos Ambrose	Ford
12	Russell Ingall	Holden, Ford
12	Garth Tander	Holden
11	Greg Murphy	Holden
10	Bob Jane	Jaguar, Ford, Chevrolet
	Colin Bond	Holden, Ford
	Allan Grice	Holden
9	Ian Geoghegan	Ford
9	Bob Morris	Holden, Mazda
8	George Fury	Nissan
	Jason Bright	Ford, Holden
	Todd Kelly	Holden
	Jamie Whincup	Ford
7	Norm Beechey	Ford, Holden
5	Robbie Francevic	Volvo
	Tony Longhurst	Ford, BMW, Holden
	Steven Richards	Holden, Ford
	Rick Kelly	Holden
4	Larry Perkins	Holden
4	Jason Bargwanna	Holden
3	Kevin Bartlett	Chevrolet
	Alan Jones	Ford
	Paul Radisich	Ford
	Mark Winterbottom	Ford
2	Jim McKeown	Porsche
	John Harvey	Holden
	Steven Johnson	Ford
1	David McKay	Jaguar
	Bill Pitt	Jaguar
	Charlie O'Brien	Holden
	Wayne Gardner	Holden
	Paul Morris	Holden
	David Besnard	Ford
	Simon Wills	Ford
	Greg Ritter	Ford
	Cameron McConville	Holden
	Yvan Muller	Ford
	Lee Holdsworth	Holden
	Will Davison	Ford

Accurate to Round 5, 2008

[edit] Years in the Australian Touring Car Championship

[edit] Australian Touring Car Championship Wins by Marque

20 - Ford
14 - Holden
4 - Jaguar
3 - Nissan
2 - Chevrolet
2 - BMW
1 - Mazda
1 - Volvo

[edit] See also

List of Australian Touring Car and V8 Supercar Champions

v • d • e

Australian Touring Car Racing

Australian Touring Car Championship
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 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998