AMSCAR(Amaroo Saloon Cars) was atouring carseries held in Australia between 1979 and 1997, based atAmaroo ParkinSydney.
| Category | Touring cars |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Inaugural season | 1979 |
| Folded | 1997 |
| Last Drivers' champion |  Mal Rose |
Background
editOne of the features of Amaroo Park's history was their promoted touring car series, created by Amaroo's promoters, theAustralian Racing Drivers Club(ARDC). Popular with spectators and easy for Sydney'sChannel 7to telecast, it became the backbone of the Sydney touring car scene, a scene which once consisted mostly of privateers, who have largely disappeared since Amaroo closed. On many occasions these events featured larger grid numbers than did the rounds of the national levelAustralian Touring Car Championship.This was mostly as the large number of Sydney privateers who usually filled the grid in the nationally televised (by Ch.7)Bathurst 1000,rarely raced outside of NSW or Queensland due to limited budgets.
The AMSCAR Series had its origins in Amaroo's ownSun-7 Chesterfield Seriesfor touring cars, first held in 1971 and was won by Sydney'sLakis Manticasdriving aMorris Cooper S.This would continue, under various names relating to series sponsorship, through to 1981, with a 3-litre maximum engine capacity limit being applied from 1975 to 1980. For 1981 the Australian Racing Drivers Club increased the maximum engine capacity limit of cars competing in their series to 3.5 litres. This allowed the participation of the 3.5-litreBMW 635 CSiofJPS Team BMW,much to the displeasure of most competing teams, especially those racing the 3.0LFord Capri's which were well suited to the tight track and had come to dominate the series since 1975.[1]Despite this, young Sydney driver Steve Masterton would win the 1981 Better Brakes 3.5 Litre Series driving hisFord Capri Mk.IIfrom the JPS BMW ofAllan Grice.
History
editA "RothmansAMSCAR Series "[2]for touring cars was held in addition to the Sun-7 Chesterfield Series at Amaroo Park in 1979 for a reportedA$60,000 in prize money, about $50,000 more than for the ATCC at the time.[3]The second round of the series saw the one-off appearance of long timeForddriverAllan Moffatin aRon Hodgson MotorsHolden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback.[4]The series was then not held in 1980 and 1981.[3] Fears that the growing number of Sydney-based privateers moving into outright class cars would result in a sharp decline in grid numbers prompted the ARDC to remove the 3.5-litre capacity limit for the 1982 series, which was promoted as the Better Brakes AMSCAR Series.[5]This allowed theV8poweredHolden Commodores,Ford FalconsandChevrolet Camaros,as well as theV12Jaguar XJS,to compete in the series alongside the under 3.5-litre cars such as the BMW 635 CSi, the Ford Capris and the growing list ofrotarypoweredMazda RX-7s,as well as thefactoryNissan Bluebird turbo's. As the outright cars were proving more popular with spectators, it was seen as an attempt at attracting the headline ATCC teams (such as theHolden Dealer Team,Dick Johnson Racing,Allan Moffat RacingandRoadways Racing) to the AMSCAR Series.
In the earlyGroup Cyears of the AMSCAR series, several Sydney based drivers who regularly competed in the annual four round, three race per round series became household names through the national telecast on Channel 7 (at the time, Seven's only touring car telecasts were from Amaroo,Calder Park RacewayinMelbourne,andBathurstas theABCwas main broadcast host of the ATCC until the end of 1984). This was helped by most of the major ATCC teams at the time usually not competing in the series. Drivers such as Amscar series winners Steve Masterton and Terry Shiel, as well as Terry Finnigan, Garry Willmington, Brian Callaghan, Barry Jones, and the lateMike Burgmanngot national TV exposure they would otherwise have struggled to get in the ATCC, or had ATCC headline drivers like Peter Brock (HDT),Dick Johnson,Allan Moffat, Allan Grice (Roadways), andJim Richards(JPS Team BMW) been regular competitors, although Grice did win the 1982 series, Brock and Johnson contested limited rounds from 1982 to 1984, while Richards was a regular competitor from 1983 and placed 3rd in the 1984 series.
In Group C, the factory backed Nissan team also contested the series with Sydney-based team driverFred Gibson(theBathurst 500winner in1967withHarry Firthin aFord XR Falcon GT) and his wife Christine (regarded as the "fastest female in Australia" ) driving the team's second Bluebird turbo and its powerful, but evil handling, front-wheel driveNissan Pulsar EXArespectively. Fred Gibson's win in Round 3 of the 1983 series was the first win in Australian touring car racing for a turbo powered car, andNissan's first Turbo C harged touring car win anywhere in the world. When Gibson retired from driving at the end of1983,he would be replaced from1984in the Bluebird by Queenslander Gary Scott, the son of formeropen-wheelstar, the late Glyn Scott, while Christine Gibson continued to drive the Pulsar EXA until she joined her husband in retirement at the end of 1984.
It was only from the beginning of the "Group A"category in Australia in1985that the headline teams started appearing in the series on a more regular basis, with part of the reason being that as Group A was new to Australia in 1985, the AMSCAR Series gave teams valuable testing under race conditions (also because from 1985 Amaroo would hold an annual round of the ATCC).Frank Gardner'sJPS Team BMW and its drivers Jim Richards andTony Longhurstdominated from 1985 to 1987 (Richards in the 635 CSi was unbeaten at Amaroo in 1985 winning all 12 AMSCAR races, the ATCC round and theEndurance Championshiprace), whileGibson Motorsport,first with Nissan and later withHolden,also contested the series in the later years of Group A and into the new5.0L V8formula introduced in1993,with Jim Richards winning in the team'sNissan Skyline GT-Rin 1992 whileMark Skaifewon for Gibson driving aHolden VP Commodorein 1993. Other top line teams to contest the AMSCAR series after the switch to Group A were Peter Brock's Holden Dealer Team (later known as Mobil 1 Racing), Dick Johnson Racing, 1988 series winnerColin Bond'sCaltex CXT Racing Team,Tony Longhurst'sBenson & Hedgesteam (evolved from JPS Team BMW), as well asRobbie Francevic's Volvo team.
Demise
editThe increasing national popularity of the Australian Touring Car Championship, improvements in Channel 7's ATCC telecast, and the1991 economic recessionwhich saw a number of privateer teams only racing in the two ATCC rounds in Sydney and the Bathurst 1000, all gradually reduced the grids until the AMSCAR Series was discontinued after the 1993 season. It was revived in 1997 and held at the ARDC's two circuits, Amaroo Park and Eastern Creek, but with the major teams holding exclusivity to V8 Supercar events, the mostly Sydney-based privateers were not numerous enough to make the series viable and the series folded after 1997.[3]
Broadcast
editDuring Seven's telecasts of the AMSCAR series at Amaroo, many minor race series for otherCAMScategories were also telecast, including:Sports Sedans,Formula Fords,Formula Vee,Sports Cars,Appendix J Touring Cars,andSeries Production cars,with many of the categories running their own series at Amaroo outside of the national championship series. Seven's commentators for the AMSCAR series generally included Mike Raymond, Garry Wilkinson,Evan Green,and laterNeil CromptonandPeter McKay,with various guest appearances by drivers not competing on a particular day.
Winners
editThe following table lists the winners of the annual AMSCAR Series.
- Notes
- ^1– Amaroo Park only hosted Round 2 of the four round 1997 ARDC AMSCAR Sedan Series, with the other three rounds held atEastern Creek Racway.
Multiple winners
editTony Longhurstachieved more AMSCAR series wins than any other driver, with success in 1986, 1989, 1990 and 1991.[3]Each series win from 1988 to 1990 was attained with aFord Sierra RS500,these three wins being the most for a single model of car.
By driver
edit| Wins | Driver | Years |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Tony Longhurst
|
1986, 1989, 1990, 1991 |
| 3 |  Jim Richards
|
1985, 1987, 1992 |
By team
edit| Wins | Team |
|---|---|
| 3 | JPS Team BMW |
| LoGaMo Racing | |
| 2 | Gibson Motorsport |
By manufacturer
edit| Wins | Manufacturer |
|---|---|
| 4 | Ford |
| BMW | |
| Holden |
Event sponsors
edit- 1979:Rothmans
- 1982–86:Better Brakes
- 1987–90:James Hardie
- 1993:Aurora AFX
References
edit- ^Better Brakes 3.5 Litre Series,Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1981/82, page 188
- ^Official Programme, Rothmans AMSCAR Series, Amaroo Park Raceway, Sunday 12 August 1979, front cover
- ^abcdDale, Will (29 October 2021)."TOP FIVE: AMSCAR SERIES RACE WINNERS | V8 Sleuth".V8 Sleuth.Retrieved15 November2021.
- ^LX Torana Moffat Race A9X replica,australianmusclecarsales.auRetrieved on 25 February 2014
- ^Better Brakes AMSCAR,Australian Motor Racing Yearbook, 1982/83, page 198
- ^Stewart Wilson,Better Brakes AMSCAR,Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1982/83, pages 198 to 209
- ^Stewart Wilson,Better Brakes AMSCAR Series,Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1983/84, pages 254 to 263
- ^Stewart Wilson,Better Brakes AMSCAR Series,Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1984/85, pages 244 to 253
- ^Stewart Wilson,Better Brakes / AMSCAR Series,Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1985/86, pages 234 to 237
- ^Stewart Wilson,Better Brakes / AMSCAR Series,Australian Motor Racing Yearbook 1986/87, pages 230 to 234
- ^Program, Amaroo Park Raceway, 20 June 1993
- ^Brian Golding,Welcome,Program, Eastern Creek, 22 June 1997