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1 Feb 2010, 00:25 (Ref:2623352) | #1 | ||
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50th birthday for the Australian Touring Car Championship - Today!
Today marks 50 years since David McKay won the first Australian Touring Car Championship, winning the single race Championship at Gnoo Blas, Orange. McKay is still the only man in championship history to have a 100% winning record in both championship wins & race wins from events contested
At the time there would have been little knowledge that the race would be the start of juggernaut that took hold from the 70s onwards to today, touring car racing in general getting popular and more attention on the back of the Bathurst enduro every NSW Labour Day weekend Perhaps this thread can be a good place to reminisce about it all |
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"The Great Race" 22 November 1960 - 21 July 1999 |
1 Feb 2010, 00:45 (Ref:2623360) | #2 | |||
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1 Feb 2010, 01:34 (Ref:2623373) | #3 | ||
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happy b'day definatly been some great memories even over my short time watching it plus all the other events before my time i've watched video of and been told about. heres to another 50 years as great as the past 50.
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1 Feb 2010, 03:16 (Ref:2623409) | #4 | ||
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shhhhh don't let TC know about this thread...
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1 Feb 2010, 05:31 (Ref:2623435) | #5 | ||
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Really is a terrible shame that CAMS allows the VESA series to use the term "Touring Cars".
As I recall that 1960 meeting was hot dry and dusty. Hoddo was off the air in his 3.4 and the array of machinery used under Appendix J was quite incredible. My particular interest was the John Malcolm Austin Lancer and a couple of other cars including the (I beleve) first outing of the Brian Foley Farina A40. Kev Bartlett was running a Morris Minor 1000. I seem to recall some amusing incidents with a particularly officious NSW Policeman who took it upon himself to check the very rudimentary pit pass issue, and a great night of celebration followed by "Fairy Toast"at Auntie Holly's Standard Hotel. A two make series for Kit cars run under a restricted franchise scheme can hardly be called the Touring Car Championship.; Maybe we should go back to a one race championship and decide it at Bathurst in a couple of weeks time. Would the ACCC rules on truth in advertising be worth a try? |
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1 Feb 2010, 06:46 (Ref:2623447) | #6 | |
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I think touring cars is a ridiculous old fashioned term with no real place in modern society.
I think i might go out and drive my touring car, how pompous (or maybe just british) 50 years "OLD" |
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1 Feb 2010, 07:12 (Ref:2623456) | #7 | ||
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Wonder why McKay wasn't mentioned in the best touring car driver of all time. Only one with 100% wins can attest to that
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V8Supercars - Race cars using road car headlights, for decades ;) 'You holden VT drivers better look out, because the Ford AU is coming to get you' Glenn Seton - 1999 (The original egg on face disclaimer) :roflmao: |
1 Feb 2010, 07:59 (Ref:2623465) | #8 | ||
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Sir Mal was always better known fo his outings in Sports Cars, the DB Astons and later the LM series Ferarri when he was Scuderia Veloce.
Had a few outings in the Victa sponsored Cooper Climax, which he famously dropped off the side of the Mountain. Very much the professional, ahead of his time and probably not given the respect he should have been by some of us at the time. |
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1 Feb 2010, 13:32 (Ref:2623663) | #9 | ||
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1 Feb 2010, 22:40 (Ref:2624066) | #10 | |||
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pompous or just cobblers
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Check this lot out: http://tentenths.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=36 |
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more torque than a climate change conference |
1 Feb 2010, 22:04 (Ref:2624051) | #11 | |
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It's a shame that it wont be recognised by those in control today.
Happy Birthday! |
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"It was dry for the second go-around. Grice, nervous, worrying about his Bathurst jinx, ran 2:25.9. The amazing Brock, using every last centimetre of bitumen, yet keeping the car straight and balanced and at full noise, came back with a staggering 2:20.0 as if to say: "Match that". And people just shook their heads, bit their lips and wondered who would be second". RIP Peter Brock. 1945-2006 |
3 Feb 2010, 01:21 (Ref:2625385) | #12 | ||
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I don't think it is cultural cringe, rather that it is an anachronistic term. Trouble is, what do you replace it with?
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3 Feb 2010, 11:51 (Ref:2625627) | #13 | ||
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Some places it was called Saloon Car Racing, which always sounded to me like something that happened in the back bar of the local pub.
But the maybe that's where it did???? The AGP is now run for and by a visiting cicus. The Australian Tourist Trophy for Sports cars seems to no longer exist. And the Australian Touring car Championship is run for 2 make Taxis. The Gold Star is for F3, and that is probably the closest we have to maintaining the heritage of a title. I may be wrong on these statements, but I am yet to solve the mysteries of finding my way round the CAMS web site. We treat our history with very little respect. |
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2 Mar 2010, 04:20 (Ref:2643109) | #14 | |||
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Tourist Trophy died unlamented due to apathy a very long time ago. Has been revived but it's been dormant too long and nobody understands the significance of the name anymore. Confusing mixes of Sports Cars, GTs and Sport Sedans during the 80's when it seemed you could call anything, anything else diluted that. Looking at the original ATCC, the bulk of the field were made up of Holdens. Really its always been for Taxis. It's a class specifically for Taxis, there have only been brief interludes when non Taxis like early 80s when cars like RX-7s (really how were they ever touring cars?), or the American iron of the late 60's have been a part of it. |
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Mark Alan Jones Opinionated Human My opinions only have the power you give them |
2 Mar 2010, 10:30 (Ref:2643218) | #15 | ||
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By my calculations Falcadore the first 35 of the 50 year history of the ATCC were open to, and usually dominated by, cars other than Taxis.
I have no problem with the V8 Supercars racing for a VESA championship, and I enjoy watching it, but they are cut and shut two make shells which bear no relationship with anything you could logically call a Touring Car. I know it is a bit extreme for these days, but the winner of the original ATCC, David McKay used to drive his Jags from Sydney to wherever he was racing. In fact years later he would quite often drive the LM Ferrari from Sydney to events in Queensland. I filled it with a suitable mix of Super and Methyl Benzine at a New England Highay servo I had at the time when he was en route to Surfers. I'll accept the V8s using the title touring cars when someone goes touring in one. |
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2 Mar 2010, 11:10 (Ref:2643228) | #16 | ||
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But then Ot, isn't that just evolution to a certain extent?
Back in the day, F1 cars were driven to and from the circuit too, sports cars the same. I don't recall any racing model in the group C, group A or supertouring days being used for actual touring (although there were often stories of race engines being run in using road cars or race cars getting a sneaky run under the cover of darkness). Same goes for cars like Moff's Mustang, Norm's Monaro etc. This has come up before & I have always questioned where you draw the line. Back when this all started, ATCC was for production cars, then it became improved production and then on from there. Eventually, a new production class filled in the hole at the bottom of the pile again. Personally, I don't mind the V8s racing for the title - they are the premier roofed class in the country & deserve the title in my view. I'd prefer that they acknowledge the history more than they do but then again, sometimes when they do they get accused of stealing other people's history and when they don't they get accused of thinking motor racing only started in 1997. |
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4 Feb 2010, 03:21 (Ref:2626104) | #17 | ||
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I think the Tourist Trophy name has been adopted by the GT race at Sandown?
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4 Feb 2010, 06:21 (Ref:2626157) | #18 | |||
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Hence why there is no longer the likes of the Australian Sports Sedan Championship, the current category rights holders couldn't/wouldn't pay for the right to run a national championship, so it just became what is now the Kerrick Sports Sedan Series. One worries for the future of the ADC & Gold Star tags certainly. It was adopted for the 2007 GT enduro at Sandown, not sure if it got used after though at any of their events |
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4 Feb 2010, 03:25 (Ref:2626107) | #19 | |
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Think I read somewhere in AA there will be a reunion at Gnoo Blas???
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"It was dry for the second go-around. Grice, nervous, worrying about his Bathurst jinx, ran 2:25.9. The amazing Brock, using every last centimetre of bitumen, yet keeping the car straight and balanced and at full noise, came back with a staggering 2:20.0 as if to say: "Match that". And people just shook their heads, bit their lips and wondered who would be second". RIP Peter Brock. 1945-2006 |
2 Mar 2010, 02:46 (Ref:2643075) | #20 | ||
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Muscle Car Masters are planning a handicap race on Sunday featuring one of each ATCC winning model.
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