Peter Janson

Peter Janson
Nationality	New Zealander
Born	(1940-04-10) 10 April 1940
Retired	1992
Australian Touring Car Championship
Years active	1973-92

"Captain" Peter Janson (born 10 April 1940 in New Zealand) is an Australian socialite and former motor racing driver.

Janson was born in New Zealand, emigrating to England at a young age. In 1967, he moved to Australia and settled in Melbourne.^[1]

Janson, who listed his occupation as "Gentleman", established a playboy penthouse in the Federal Hotel before moving to the Hotel Windsor. In the 1980s he moved to Rutherglen House. Janson is renowned for the parties he throws, and was a pioneer in transforming the Melbourne Cup into a major event on the Australian social calendar.^[2][3]

Motor racing

Janson raced a Holden Torana SS A9X from 1977 to 1979. (Car pictured in 2015)

Janson was a competitor in Australian Touring Car Racing. He made 19 Bathurst 1000 starts between 1973 and 1992 primarily in Holden Toranas and Commodores, finishing second in 1979 and 1980 and third in 1977 (all of his podium finishes were with Larry Perkins who would go on to be a six time winner of the race).^[4][5] With the end of the Group C era in 1984, Janson closed his team but continued to drive for other teams including joining Sydney based privateer Garry Wilmington in a V12 Jaguar XJS in the 1985 and 1986 races. He later scored a class win and fourth outright driving a BMW M3 with fellow Kiwi Trevor Crowe at the 1988 Bathurst 1000.^[6] Janson's last appearance at Bathurst was in 1992 where he and Bob Jones finished 20th in a Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV.

Always a colourful character who gave his sponsors a plug at every opportunity, especially when being interviewed in the pits, Janson briefly changed his name by deed poll in the mid-1970s to NGK Janson to circumvent a rule that only allowed a driver's name to be carried above the window line.^[7] His former co-driver Larry Perkins also told that one year on a parade lap at Bathurst, Janson continually pulled the car off onto the grass in order to throw Cherry Ripe chocolate bars out to the crowd (his major sponsor being Cadbury Schweppes).

Career Results

Results sourced from Driver Database.^[8]

Complete World Sportscar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1984	Porsche Kremer Racing	Porsche Kremer CK5	MNZ	SIL	LMS	NUR	BRA	MOS	SPA	IMO	FJI	KYL	SAN 13	NC	0

Complete Australian Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1976	Captain Peter Janson	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34	SYM 5	CAL	ORA 10	SAN	AMA	AIR 10	LAK	SAN	AIR	SUR	PHI 3	14th	10
1977	Ipec	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34 Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	SYM	CAL Ret	ORA 10	AMA	SAN	AIR	LAK	SAN Ret	AIR 5	SUR	PHI 2	11th	13
1978	Cadbury - Schweppes	Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	SYM	ORA	AMA	SAN	WAN	CAL 5	LAK	AIR				30th	2
1979	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	SYM	CAL 4	ORA	SAN	WAN	SUR 6	LAK	AIR				16th	5
1980	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	SYM	CAL	LAK	SAN 5	WAN	SUR	AIR	ORA				30th	2
1981	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	Holden VC Commodore	SYM 4	CAL 5	LAK 5	SAN 3	WAN	AIR 4	SUR 3	ORA				6th	24
1982	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	Holden VC Commodore	SAN	CAL 4	SYM	ORA Ret	LAK	WAN	AIR	SUR				27th	5

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1987	Petro-Tech	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	MNZ	JAR	DIJ	NUR	SPA	BNO	SIL	BAT ovr:18 cls:12	CLD	WEL	FJI	NC	0

† Not eligible for series points

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

Year	Car#	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1973	54	John Lord	John Lord	Honda Civic	A	134	22nd	4th
1974	23	Taylor’s College Racing	Paul Feltham	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000	3001 – 6000cc	-	DNS	DNS
1975	17	Massey Holden	John Harvey	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34	D	143	DNF	DNF
1976	15	Captain Peter Janson	Kevin Bartlett	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34	3001cc - 6000cc	158	5th	5th
1977	15	NGK Janson	Larry Perkins	Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	3001cc – 6000cc	162	3rd	3rd
1978	9	ReCar Racing Cadbury - Schweppes	Phil Brock	Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	3001cc – 6000cc	110	DNF	DNF
1979	19	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	Larry Perkins	Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback	A	157	2nd	2nd
1980	4	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	Larry Perkins	Holden VC Commodore	3001-6000cc	162	2nd	2nd
1981	3	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	Larry Perkins	Holden VC Commodore	8 Cylinder & Over	67	DNF	DNF
1982	3	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	David Parsons	Holden VH Commodore SS	A	158	4th	4th
1983	3	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	David Parsons	Holden VH Commodore SS	A	106	DNF	DNF
1984	3	Cadbury Schweppes Racing	Garry Rogers	Holden VH Commodore SS	Group C	109	DNF	DNF
1985	12	Garry Willmington	Garry Willmington	Jaguar XJS	C	150	14th	12th
1986	12	Garry Willmington	Garry Willmington	Jaguar XJS	C	88	DNF	DNF
1987	3	Petro-Tech	Peter Fitzgerald	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	1	144	18th	12th
1988	53	John Sax	Trevor Crowe	BMW M3	1	156	4th	1st
1989	15	ICL Racing	Allan Grice	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV	A	153	10th	10th
1990	22	Lusty Engineering	Graham Lusty	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV	1	83	DNF	DNF
1991	24	Peter Janson	Peter Gazzard	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV	1	53	DNF	DNF
1992	13	Ampol Max 3 Racing	Bob Jones	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV	A	128	20th	18th

References