Godzilla vs Australia early 90's (very long)

[RazorGTR]

This is a living work in progress to document the Skyline GT-R in competition in Australia during the early 1990's. Note that the rules and regulations change, especially weights and power outputs. Figures recorded are at the time of the original report.

May 1989

Magazines preview the R32 model range. Even one month prior to release, the Australian press think the new model will share a v6 powerplant with the Infiniti range.

July 1989

One month after the R32 launch in Japan. The GT-R is covered, and a Group A version is pondered, the Australian press not realising the first 500 GT-R's built are in fact the homologation build run.

October 1989

Gibson Motorsport take delivery of four R32 GT-R road cars from Japan. Gibson Motorsport has been recognised by Nissan Japan for their efforts with the previous HR31 GTS-R Skylines. Gibson Motorsport are the only team outside of Japan to get GT-R's at such an early stage. Initial plans are to disable the HICAS 4 wheel steering system until the rest of the car is sorted. Due to homologation, they can run the cars either with HICAS or without.

The homologated weight is 1260kg, which is still heavier than the Ford RS500 Sierra at 1185kg. Gibson expects the first engines to have an output of 600hp – much more than the HR31 GTS-R's RB20DET-R which pushed out 460hp in 1989, and 370hp in 1988.

Fred Gibson flew to Japan in mid October with Nissan Motorsport Manager Paul Beranger, engineers Trevor Jones and Andrew Bartley to inspect the first GT-R race car built by Nissan Japan.

The Gibson team invest AU$300,000 - AU$400,000 in a sophisticated telemetry system in anticipation for the GT-R development programme.

Anders Olofsson (Swedish) becomes the first western driver to sample the Nissan GT-R prototype race cars. He reports that he has driven two GT-R race cars, the first has been around since May 1989 and has been a homologation development "mule", with the second being the prototype race car. The development car was built to test engines, transmissions, suspension, and cooling systems. It was equipped with sophisticated instruments. Both cars were trailed with Bridgestone and Dunlop tyres. As a side note, the Gibson Motorsport team were contracted with Yokohama.

November 1989

Australian's see a burgundy GT-R used as the official pace car at the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.

March 1990

The GT-R is officially homologated for Group A racing on 1 March.

April 1990

Gibson Motorsport roll out their first GT-R for a shakedown at Winton raceway on 11 April. Engineers from Japan and England join the team for the shakedown. Mark Skaife does the driving duties, while Jim Richards drives the current HR31 GTS-R as a measuring stick. Gibson had pulled the car's debut back because of parts supply issues. Nissan Japan sent four engineers from their experimental department to help Gibson Motorsport build the first car. All the parts arrived in assemblies eg. front suspension, engine and gearbox.

At the Winton test, the engine used was a unit sent over from Japan. It used a Japanese management system which restricted boost to 1.3 bar and power was about 550hp. The Gibson Motorsport team intended to replace the Japanese management system with their own Electromotive system and run higher boost, around 1.5 bar for 580hp.

Hollinger are commissioned to design and build a 6 speed gearbox for the GT-R. Nissan Japan decided they would also use the Hollinger box and placed their order.

During the shakedown, the team experimented with different EPROMS in the 4WD system. They started out with 45% front bias, and have different EPROMS to deliver 10, 20, 30% splits. [I'm unsure if the system uses EPROMS, perhaps it's a bit of bogus information in the report]

Wheels magazine staffer Peter McKay joins the Gibson team at Mallala for a test session. McKay is lined up to have a drive of the prototype - but the car breaks two half shafts, and the team have to wait for spares to arrive from Japan. A later test session takes place at Calder. McKay reports the Electromotive management system is in place, as is the first of the Australian built engines – the power output is quoted at 520hp with 1.2 bar boost, and 576hp (429kw) / 410nm with 1.8 bar boost. Tyres are 11 inches wide, and run at about 5 degrees of negative camber.

McKay reports the car is easy to drive, with a light clutch and a smooth power delivery (unlike the previous HR31 and DR30 that he has driven). The car has four electric coolers for the front diff, rear diff, transfer case, and the gearbox.

June 1990

The GT-R race car has it's competition début at Mallala on 8 June 1990. Mark Skaife is the driver. The decision to use Mark Skaife was due to Jim Richards' points position in the Australian touring car championship – it was thought that having Jim début the new car would jeopardise him winning the championship if anything went wrong.

The GT-R used Japanese wheels that cost the Gibson team AU$2,000 each, and only last one race – this is just one example of how important it was to develop local content for the GT-R programme.

During unofficial practice on the Friday, Skaife was under the lap record by 2.4 seconds, and was 1 second quicker than the fastest Sierra (Brock). The reported power output was 585hp or 436kw.

Saturday qualifying saw the car was sidelined briefly when a left front hub failed, damaging an oil cooler, the brakes, and causing the wheel to depart. The car was quickly repaired, and Skaife was able to qualify third on the grid.

Skaife started out of the third grid position, and was able to get into the lead on the 10th lap. The car retired about lap 20 with another broken left front hub.

Jim Richards takes over the car at the next ATC round at Wanneroo (24 June 1990) – he had to finish in front of Dick Johnson to keep his title aspirations alive. Both he and Mark Skaife were cross entered in the GT-R and the GTS-R. The team were still fiddling with the 4WD splits, and an engine management problem that saw the motor to over-fuel and misfire during qualifying. Jim managed to qualify 4th on the grid. The GT-R had a new engine transplanted and all the electronics replaced after qualifying on the Saturday night.

At the start of the race, Jim launched into second place. The decision to put Jim in the GT-R was justified when Skaife broke a half shaft in the GTS-R on the startline. Jim was overtaken and pushed back to 4th on the road for most of the race, eventually finishing in 4th 50 minutes later. Dick Johnson meanwhile had crashed out with a broken brake calliper taking out the right front wheel.

July 1990

Sansui come on board as a major sponsor for Gibson Motorsport, the money rumoured to be around AU$1,000,000.

George Fury (long time Gibson Motorsport driver) departs the team.

The final ATC round at Oran park (July 15 1990) saw Jim attempt to secure his ATC championship. The GT-R again proving troublesome during the qualifying sessions, needing a turbo downpipe replaced and a diff change that took 6 hours. Jim qualified first, a tenth of a second in front of Dick Johnson. At the start of the race, Jim lead with a couple of car lengths and soon drew it out to a 3 second margin back to second place by lap 2. By about lap 20, the gap was out to 20 seconds and building. Jim took the flag, still leading by a fair margin.

August 1990

The Bathurst entry list is released. Nissan enter only one car – the pairing of Jim Richards and Mark Skaife, the second car couldn't be completed due to parts supply problems. As a side note, the name "Godzilla" is yet to surface – Gibson Motorsport and the press refer to the GT-R as "The Weapon"

September 1990

Gibson Motorsport miss the Sandown 500 race. The rest of the entries to the race was slim, with most of the major teams entering only one car.

The Bathurst previews predict that the GT-R will be hampered by it's weight, stressing components like brakes and suspension. Only in Japan had GT-R's had any endurance testing, locally the GT-R was still an unknown as to how it would do over 1,000 km.
October 1990 Bathurst

The GT-R debut at Bathurst.

The Gibson Motorsport team arrives at Bathurst with two GT-R's, four spare engines, four differentials (two front, two rear), spare gearboxes, 30 wheels, 150 tyres, and 20 team members. 10 members remained at the Melbourne base in case of emergency.

The GT-R destined for the race was brand new, it was still a bodyshell when the existing GT-R won at Oran park. The other GT-R was the championship winning car – it was to be used for testing to keep wear and tear on the new car to a minimum.

Early qualifying saw the GT-R hampered with bad brake problems. The team experimented with different wheel cylinder and master cylinder sizes, front to rear. Skaife had many spins off the track as the ideal balance was worked out. Jim Richards eventually qualified the car with a disappointing 2m 15.66 seconds for 11th on the grid – in two wheel drive mode! The electronics had packed a sad leaving the car with only the rears driving.

The race itself was a different picture – by the end of lap 1 the GT-R was up to 8th and in the second lap was a second faster than any other car in the field. Jim blasted by the leading Niedzwiedz Sierra going up Mountain straight on lap 10, waving as he went past. By lap 20, the GT-R had extended the lead to 20 seconds. By this time Fred Gibson was on the radio telling Jim to back off. Jim responded by going one second a lap quicker. When the lead was out to 32 seconds, the pace was relaxed to 2m 19s a lap.

The first pitstop for the GT-R was on lap 34 when Jim bought the car in for new brake pads, fuel, tyres and Mark Skaife to take over the driving duties. The stop took 1m 30s, far longer than most of the other leading teams. By lap 40, the GT-R was back up to 6th place on the road. It was back in the lead by lap 58 thanks to some of the leading cars pitting.

Three hours into the race, the GT-R was still running, and still in the lead. Skaife bought the car into the pits on lap 72 for a scheduled stop for brake pads, fuel, Jim, and something that was pumped into the cooling system. The stop took 2m 22 seconds – another long stop. The car rejoined the race in 9th position.

On lap 95, the Nissan came in with a diff problem that sidelined the car for 25 minutes. It rejoined, but 13 laps later returned with a misfire – an electrode had "fallen off" one of the sparkplugs. After the stop, Mark Skaife set a new lap record of 2m 15.46 seconds. The car continued to the end of the race with no further problems, finishing 18th, 15 laps behind the winning Percy / Grice Commodore.

November 1990

The Group A circus moves to Adelaide to support the GP. Skaife rolls one of the GT-R's and suffers bruising. [I'm missing details on this event]

The Eastern Creek raceway opens with the Nissan 500 endurance race for Group A cars. Most of the Bathurst teams enter. Qualifying was interesting as the track surface was "green" and some of the drivers found it difficult to master the new track.

The GT-R qualified on pole with a 1m 35.26 second lap. Skaife is scheduled to share the drive with Richards - but due to Skaife's bruised condition, Neil Crompton is pencilled in as a potential relief driver. The team experimented with spring and sway bar changes to get the best from the hard "S" compound Yokohama tyres.

In the race Richards sprinted away and had a 50 meter lead by turn two. The car lead strongly until lap 21 when it lost the left hand front wheel. Jim bought it into the pits, where another wheel was fitted. The car rejoined in 11th position. Lap 51 saw the GT-R back in the pits for a driver change to Skaife. The GT-R had lost all it's coolant due to a split bore or blown head gasket. Despite the teams attempts the engine wouldn't restart and the car was put away.

The major teams made the trip over to New Zealand for the Nissan Mobil 500 series at Wellington and Pukekohe.

Wellington [Missing details] won by a European BMW M3

Pukekohe got off to a slow start after Wellington – the track was still undergoing work being bought up to international standards, pushing the Friday practice session to Saturday morning. Overnight rain saw the conditions as wet (we bogged the Fairmont doing donuts in the car park). Skaife did the morning session, with the team mucking around with the suspension. My main memory of his session was the GT-R doing a huge backfire - leaving a smoking patch on the track.

First qualifying session

Skaife 62.28, 61.70
Richards 62.28

Second qualifying session

Skaife 61.35, 61.55

Race:

61.74, 61.56

Mark Skaife and Jim Richards qualified third on the grid behind Dick Johnson (who lost two engines on Saturday) and Brock, both in Sierra RS500's. In the race it took Skaife two laps to get past the Sierras. The Nissan game-plan called for the car to pull a 30 second lead, and then settle into a more relaxed pace. By lap 23, the GT-R's lead was out to 20 seconds over Brock. We were entertained with the DJR RS500 blowing intercooler hoses off multiple times, and another Sierra smacking into a kerb.

The GT-R kept leading until lap 32 when Skaife reported a loss of power – one of the turbos had blown. The car was retired. The European BMW M3's also expired within a couple of laps, one with a blown engine, and the other with accident damage. The Brock Sierra cruised to the finish and took the flag.

There was a good interview with Fred Gibson published in Auto Action which gives some interesting insights: In Japan, the top GT-R teams are reported to have reached the 600hp mark in competition, up from 570hp that most of them have been running with. The main problem with the Australian developed GT-R's were brakes, the cylinder bore or block cracking and the turbos. For 1991 the rules were relaxed on brakes, so that problem could be more easily worked through. The blocks had been cracking due to a harmonic in the engine – up until Pukekohe the team had been using a block every race. New engine mounts were used to cure this. The turbo failures were blamed on quality control at Garret – the Gibson team invested in their own balancing machine so they could assemble their own turbos instead of buying complete units from Garret in Japan.

January 1991

A bit of background is needed here as the 1993 rule change was essentially influenced by these events and conditions.

The CAMS motorsport body was in trouble. It was running out of money, and needed restructuring. To compound the issue, there was a general downturn in the economy. CAMS responded by charging large registration fees of AU$6,000 per car for the ATC, and tracks were charged AU$10,000 to host a round. In addition, because the Group A format was administered by FISA in Europe, the regulations were hard to work with. This had caused delays in getting the new VN Group A Commodore homologated for competition.

The rules were revised for the 1991 season aiming to keep the fields even. The Sierra's had 85kg removed from their minimum weight, bringing them down to 1,100kg. They also got a six speed gearbox. The Commodores also lost some weight – 75kg down to 1250kg, and a host of freedoms including the entire inlet system, the valves and ports were free, and the inner wheel guards could be modified to fit wider tyres. The BMW M3 was allowed to run similar freedoms as the Commodores, at a featherweight 960kg. The GT-R had it's minimum weight increased to 1360kg. [the reporting of weights is not consistent – the homologation weight of the GT-R was 1260kg, yet the press report an increase of 35kg from 1325kg. Go figure]

In April, the minimum weights are further revised with an across the board increase of 2.5% in all cars. This was done so the private teams didn't have to resort to expensive exotic materials to reach the same weights as the factory teams.

The season looked like being a difficult one – the entries were well down, with a core group of 12 cars contesting all rounds, and very small fields. Even at this stage there was talk of making a full grid at Bathurst by allowing the standard Group E production cars to join the Group A race.

February 1991

The first round of the ATC at Sandown. Jim Richards qualified on pole, with Mark Skaife 0.04 seconds behind. Skaife was complaining of some problems. Behind them it was wall to wall Sierra's, now a little faster with their new 6 speed gearboxes and lighter minimum weight. The field was small, only 19 cars on the grid.

The race itself was over with a minute of it starting. Jim and Mark blasted off the start line and had a 20 meter lead over the next car on the track. On lap 2, Jim laid down a new lap record – 1m 15.70 seconds – quicker than the fastest of the Sierra's by 1.31 seconds. Ouch.

One interesting moment occurred at the three quarter mark in the race – the new BMW M3 of Tony Longhurst demonstrated it's future potential by out braking Skaife going into a corner while Skaife was attempting to lap the slower M3. The GT-R's crossed the finish line for a 1-2 result, Richards leading Skaife.

March 1991

The second round of the ATC at Symmons Plains. Qualifying made for an interesting race – Jim qualified on pole by a huge margin of more than 2 seconds, helped by damp conditions. Mark had damaged his GT-R in practice and was at the back of the grid in 13th. The economy and stiff registration fees were having their impact on the size of the field – the privateers could no longer afford to compete in the ATC. Win Percy put his Commodore alongside the GT-R on the front row, the first time in 5 years that a Commodore has made the front row of a ATC grid.

By this time, there was a fairly unified plea from the other drivers to CAMS to slow the Skylines down – the results so far were crushing to say the least. CAMS sat on their hands for the moment. Some of the teams resorted to using non-homologated add-ons to their cars: huge brake cooling ducts, fins on wheels etc. The touring car entrants association moved to have a cleanup of the cars – the ducts disappeared from some of the Sierra's and the Nissan's had to raise the height of some coolers that protruded below the front spoiler.

The start of the race was cautions with a bit of pushing and barging at the front. Jim was able to establish a 4 second gap back to Johnson by lap 8. Skaife meantime was working his way through the field, and by lap 24 was behind Richards, making another Nissan 1-2 formation finish.

April 1991

The third round of the ATC at Wanneroo April 14. The touring car circus made it's way over to Western Australia. Only 11 cars fronted for the race. Expecting to be humbled by the GT-R's again most teams had spent the time between Symmons Plains and Wanneroo testing and reducing weight in their cars.

Dick Johnson managed to qualify his Sierra on pole, with Win Percy's Commodore alongside. Jim Richards was one row back in third, suffering from understeer, which also afflicted Mark Skaife back in 6th position on the grid. 1.48 seconds separated the first and last cars on the grid after qualifying, even though the field was small - it was close. Some of the other teams assumed the Gibson team were sandbagging – to hide the potential of the cars. Jim explained "There are lots of high speed changes in direction here and with a full load of fuel the car has inherent understeer characteristics". During qualifying, both cars had spins off into the sand, and were able to simply drive out thanks to their 4WD.

At the start, Dick launched his Sierra perfectly, Percy was slower and jumped in behind the fast starting Sierra – this blocked Jim in, leaving Skaife with an open track ahead. Skaife basted through and took up second position on the road. Johnson pulled out a 2 second lead back to Skaife, Percy and Richards. Skaife grabbed the lead when Johnson's Sierra lost water and power. On lap 10, Richards slipped past Percy to make another GT-R 1-2. By lap 30 they were 6 seconds clear of the cars behind them. Mark lead Jim across the line.

AMSCAR at Ameroo, April 21. The AMSCAR series is made up of short sprint races of 10 laps each, very different to the 50 minute ATC touring car rounds. The Gibson Motorsport team entered one GT-R for Mark Skaife. In qualifying, the GT-R struggled with understeer, but still claimed pole position - and still faster than any other Group A car had ever lapped Ameroo Park.

At the start, Skaife blasted away and set a blistering pace. By lap two he was 2 seconds clear of the second placed car, and claimed a new lap record of 51.16s. Skaife took the flag with a 16.3 second gap back to Tony Longhurst in the M3.

The second race start was a carbon copy of the first. Skaife got away to a good start – but was unable to extend his lead further than 1.7 seconds over Longhurst. Skaife lead until lap 5 when a bad misfire developed – Skaife said "I could have got out and run alongside, it was going so slow". The car made it back to the pits and retired.

Lakeside April 28 Round 4 of the ATC. The Lakeside track in Queensland is home track to several teams so it was anticipated there would be better competition for the Skylines. In qualifying Jim planted his GT-R on pole in front of Tony Longhurst. Skaife was back in row two in 3rd position.

At the start of the race Richards lead , and Skaife was up to second by the end of the first lap (yet another 1-2). Richard had lapped the entire field up to 5th position, behind him Skaife held a 9 second gap back to the third placed BMW M3 of Longhurst. This was the way they finished.

The name Godzilla is used in race reports – starting the widespread acceptance and use of the term.

 

[RazorGTR]

May 1991

Round 5 at Winton in rural Victoria. Qualifying was a repeat of earlier rounds with Jim putting the GT-R on pole. He revealed his secret "It's simple. You just go as fast as you can without slipping off the track". Skaife listened and ran off the track into the dirt many times in an effort to go faster. He ended up in 5th position on the grid.

At the start of the race Jim assumed the lead off the start line. Skaife decided to use the grass beside the track as an alternate route and pushed his way to 3rd giving Percy's Commodore a hit on the way. Some of the field were smothered in dust from Skaife's launch which caused them to hesitate and bunch up. Skaife made his way into second position on lap 12. The Nissan 1-2 continued to the flag, Richards leading Skaife over the line.

June 1991

Round 6 Amaroo Park June 2. By now things were looking a bit glum for the ATC – The GT-R's had dominated the first 5 rounds and finishing in 1-2 formation at each. More work was needed to match the pace of the GT-R's.

Dick Johnson had some trick Japanese Dunlop tyres to try – the head of development from Dunlop Japan had flown in to watch. The tyres worked - Dick Johnson and John Bowe made the first all Sierra front row in a while. Skaife made 3rd on the grid trying harder tyres to counter the GT-R's tendency to understeer in and oversteer out of corners. In contrast, Jim ventilated his GT-R's block when a conrod bolt failed, forcing him to start from last position on the grid. "It will be fun" he commented.

At the start, both Sierra's got away to a good start side by side – preventing Skaife from getting past them. On the first lap, Richards passed 8 cars to move from 22nd to 14th on the road. Meanwhile Bowe was blocking Skaife while team boss Johnson pulled out a handy 2 second lead after 4 laps. After a while, Skaife was able to use his superior traction to get past Bowe's Sierra coming out of a sharp corner. By lap six the lead was cut to a second, two laps later Richards was up to 8th and carving through the field fast. On lap 10 Skaife was able to overtake Johnson and take the lead. Johnson was quickly taken as well by Tony Longhurst in the rapid M3.

Longhurst applied lots of pressure to Skaife from lap 15 to 28 when Tony was able to dive up the inside of the GT-R and take the lead. By lap 36 Richards was up to 4th on the road, loosing a little time with a huge powerslide. Jim was able to make it up to 3rd after overtaking Bowe whose tyres had expired. Skaife repeated the same powerslide mistake a couple of laps later - allowing Jim to slip into 2nd place. Jim set out with 5 laps remaining to catch the BMW. Richards got to within 1.6 seconds of the M3 – but Longhurst took the flag making the first car other than a GT-R to win a round of the ATC. Tony later confessed "The last 10 laps went on forever and when I realised it was Jim and not Mark in my mirrors, I **** myself"

Round 7 Mallala June 23 bought some interesting developments. The Gibson Motorsport team was still short of sponsorship, and at that stage they may have had to cut back to one car in 1992. Jim Richards was reportedly in discussion with TWR and Win Percy about a possible move to Holden at the end of the year. In response, Fred Gibson swapped Jim's faster car with Mark's – the official team line was that it was for testing and set-up purposes for the endurance races later in the year. Political darts.

Skaife qualified on pole, with Richards alongside. In the race, they both got clean starts and took off in typical GT-R style. By the fifth lap, the GT-R's were lapping one second quicker than any other car in the field. By lap 20 the gap was the full length of the back straight between Richards and the pursuing Glen Seton Sierra. The finish wasn't a formation – Skaife crossed the line 20 seconds ahead of Richards, and a further 3 seconds back to Longhurst.

Early June saw a series of options from the CAMS motor racing commission to hobble the GT-R for 1992. Among the recommendations were ideas such as forcing the cars to run in rear wheel drive only, to put restrictors in front of the turbos like the WRC cars, to reduce the tyre width (so the GT-R had the same amount of driven rubber on the road as a rear drive – making 5 ½" tyres all round!). Not surprisingly, Gibson Motorsport and Nissan threatened legal action. CAMS then asked Gibson to produce a counter proposal to bring the GT-R's performance back to the rest of the field.

According to reports at the time, Gibson had been testing the various options – at Wanneroo the air restrictors were in place for the qualifying, but not the race. They also tested the car in rear wheel drive mode with the front drive shafts removed. Lap times at Winton were 2 seconds slower with the 2WD. Fred Gibson points out the cars were built to meet the rules and should not be penalised for doing a good job.

July 1991

Round 8 Lakeside July 14. This was quite a rare event – a circuit hosting two rounds of the ATC. The development work done to the cars was graphically illustrated by Mark Skaife claiming pole going 1 second faster than the lap record he set back in April. The team experimented with different compound Yokohamas as well as hard and soft suspension settings. The cars were quicker with a hard suspension despite Lakeside's bumpy surface.

There was some controversy when Skaife spun off the track blistering the soft tyres fitted. Gibson got the go-ahead from officials to replace the tyres with a new set, making some rivals unhappy [Shell series rules at that time were to qualify and race on one set of marked tyres]

Jim qualified third on the grid after a minor off during his hot lap.

During the race warm up, the GT-R's ran quite a few laps at race pace – and people were wondering about the durability of the soft compound tyres the team had chosen to use. At the race start the GT-R's used their proven 7,800 rpm clutch dumps to rocket off the line, Jim getting past Brock for second before the first corner. By the 4th lap Skaife and Richard were 2.36 seconds clear of Brock back in 3rd. The Sierra couldn't maintain the pace and began to drop back with a blistering rear tyre. By lap 12, the GT-R's were 7 seconds clear of Longhurst's BMW M3 who had just overtaken Brock. The BMW pushed hard and eventually got the gap to the leading GT-R's down to 3.81 seconds – making the Nissan's drive harder than intended. Skaife pulled into the pits for fresh rubber, rejoining in 6th. One lap later, Longhurst drove around the outside of Jim's GT-R into a corner to take the lead. Richards pulled into the pits for new tyres, rejoining in 5th – Skaife was now 4th on the track. Both Skaife and Richards were able to pass Glen Seton's Sierra to make it into 3rd and 4th. Skaife claimed a new lap record 53.16, but soon began to slow with a misfire attributed to a fouled plug - Richards overtaking Skaife on lap 45. Longhurst and Alan Jones (both BMW M3's) crossed the line ahead of Richards and Skaife.

With a 3rd place, Jim had claimed the title in the slower of the two GT-R's. If Skaife had crossed the line in front – the title fight would have gone onto the next round. The rumours of Jim Richards leaving for Holden were put to rest when he signed with Gibson Motorsport for another two years pending sponsorship.

Thursday 25 July 1991 – The Bob Forbes owned GIO team take delivery of the first privateer GT-R. The car had been build by Gibson Motorsport as a customer car. One major issue that impacted the GIO GT-R was tyres. They were unable to get the Yokohamas that the factory GT-R's used, so were limited to using Japanese Dunlops. In Japan, there was a major tyre "war" going on with stiff competition in the Japanese Group A scene. As a result Dunlop Japan wouldn't supply their best tyres to the GIO team for fear that the GIO team's close ties to Gibson's team would see bitter rival Yokohama get their hands on the trick Dunlops!

The team were able to get about 50 laps of shakedown testing done before the final AMSCAR round at Amaroo, Mark Skaife helping to set the new car up. Gibbs commented that the Nissan people claimed it had no lag, but compared to his previous Group A VN Commodore, he could feel lag.

Longhurst grabbed pole, with Gibbs back in 3rd spot, still getting to grips with the new car.

The first race start was interesting: Gibbs making a demon start "I could not believe it, it just shot off the line. I was past Tony before he had even moved". He had been told to stand on the gas for maximum revs and dump the clutch. "I don't like working the engine like that, but that's what they told me, and that's what I did." By the first corner he was one second clear of the Longhurst M3. Mark Gibbs managed to hold the lead for the first lap, bit on the second was taken by Longhurst in an outbraking manoeuvre. Gibbs blasted past for the lead once more, but was again taken by Tony on lap 4. Over the next six laps the pair raced side by side, swapping the lead twice with Longhurst managing to take the flag by 0.2 of a second from Gibbs.

Race two saw a similar start for Gibbs, another launch from the second row and he was in the lead by the first corner. Gibbs kept the lead on lap two, with Longhurst nearly alongside. On lap 3 the BMW grabbed the lead for a few brief seconds before the Gibbs GT-R muscled past. Longhurst managed to get past on lap 7, and kept the lead up to the flag – winning by 0.36 of a second from Gibbs.

Overseas in Europe, the Nissan GT-R's dominate the Spa 24 hour classic. The Group A entry of Anders Olofsson / David Brabham / Naoki Hattori qualified on pole and lead the race from start to finish. The GT-R had a one minute lead before the end of the first hour. By the early morning - the GT-R was clear by three laps, eventually winning by a crushing 21 laps from the Porsche Carerra 2 in second. In the Group N class for standard production cars, the Nissan GT-R's finished 1-2. All three of the GT-R's crossed the finish line in formation.

August 1991

The final ATC Round, Oran Park August 11. Skaife claimed pole – he was simply faster than any other car in all the practice and qualifying sessions. The car was badly affected with a "pig-routing" exit to one of the off camber corners, the shock absorber rebound getting the blame. Team manager Fred planned to return here to experiment with suspension in the near future. Jim was a little slower in 3rd spot on the grid after similar handling problems to Skaife – at one stage the car scraped a wall after it jumped sideways. 9th on the grid was the GIO GT-R, Gibbs commenting he needed more time in the car. During practice he was able to lower his lap times by 2.5 seconds as he got used to the GT-R.

Skaife demonstrated the GT-R's launching capability once again, leading off the line. Jim however was a little slower off the mark and kept his 3rd position. Gibbs was squeezed back to 11th on the track in the opening corner scrap. At the end of the first lap – Skaife was nearly three seconds clear of the second placed Sierra of Bowe. There was a huge battle between Bowe, Richards and Brock for the second position, Brock managing to get past Richards. The Commodore was doing quite well with some special Bridgestone tyres and a fresh race motor (it was the fastest car down the front straight all weekend).

Further back Gibbs was baulked when he was faced with a RS500 hatch falling from the sky – Johnson had clashed with Percy's Commodore and the complete rear hatch had been torn off and hurled skywards. Jim was able to make it back to 3rd after Bowe's car started to develop a misfire, both Brock and Richards got past the slowing Sierra. Jim overtook Brock for second place, but shortly afterwards the GT-R's engine expired leaving oil everywhere. Jim later explained that the engine had done 2,000 km, and the failure may have been caused by a cam follower or valve breaking.

By lap 15 Skaife was 8.46 seconds clear of Longhurst and Jones who had got past Brock. Gibbs was up to 6th. At the end of the race, Skaife took the flag by 23 seconds back to the Longhurst and Jones M3's, Mark Gibbs bringing the GIO GT-R in for 5th place.

The entry list for Bathurst is released – there is a full field of 57 entries without resorting to padding out the entry list with the Group E production cars. There is a media and test day at Bathurst – some of the leading teams appear including the Gibson team. Jim cleans up the test day with the fastest lap (2:14.95s) and reaching 299kph on Conrod Straight. Win Percy almost matches with 297kph in his Commodore.

September 1991

The 1 September Sandown 500, again saw some of the major teams missing – the Gibson GT-R's and the Dick Johnson team didn't enter.

The GIO team bought their new GT-R out to play at Sandown. With a small field of 15 starters and a high attrition rate the GT-R driven by Mark Gibbs and Rohan Onslow won the race by 6 laps. It wasn't quite as easy as it sounds – Glen Seton had chased them very hard until his Sierra expired, and the GT-R was having some difficulties with the brakes. The Sandown 500 did demonstrate that the GT-R could last the distance in an endurance race. Roll on Bathurst!

The Gibson team reveal the drivers of the second GT-R – Drew Price and Garry Waldon.

Bathurst October 1991

The first day of practice opened on Wednesday. The much fancied Shell 17 and 18 Sierras started off well with a split bore, and a detonated engine within the first couple of laps – the start of a disastrous Bathurst for the Johnson team. The Gibson team started bedding in brake pads on the #2 car. They felt it was a bit faster then the #1 car, so the team changed the lead car's specification to match the #2 entry. The ducts that had been removed earlier in the year showed up again on the GT-R's – the Gibson team figuring that Bathurst was very separate from the regular ATC rounds.

The GIO team GT-R was running well in the first practice sessions, they were pulling 2m 18 second laps without pushing hard. Mark Gibbs commenting he was more confident in the car with more time under his belt.

On the Thursday practice sessions Skaife turned in a lap of 2m 12.84 seconds, good enough for provisional pole. Richards was able to get within a second of that lap time on a full load of fuel. The team spent most of the practice sessions working with the brakes – last year had shown that the GT-R's were very hard on their brakes. Different combinations of pads were tried as well as different nozzles on the brake water spray.

The second GT-R was a little slower, both drivers spending time in the car getting used to it. Draw Price managed a best lap of 2m 20s. The GIO GT-R was also taking things quiet. The team thought their Dunlops may give them a little trouble – they had a smaller rolling diameter than the Gibson teams' Yokohamas. If anything the smaller Dunlops gave the GIO a fair bit of speed: 4 kph faster up Mountain straight than the Skaife car. Gibbs put in a best lap of 2m 15.45 seconds. The BMW's that had been close to the GT-R's during the ATC managed a best lap of 2m 17 seconds – thanks to a special screamer engine that was built with only one piston ring on each piston and a higher rev limit of 9,700 RPM. Not bad for a naturally aspirated 2.5 litre engine!

On the Thursday practice sessions – the GIO GT-R had some computer problems that caused it to run roughly. The Gibson motorsport team plugged in their laptop and solved the problem. GT-R's now held first, second, and third fasted qualifying times. Gibson claimed the cars were in full race trim. He also announced the team could change the brake pads quicker than dumping in a full load of fuel.

The Friday practice session allowed the GT-R based teams to work on their race setups while the other teams were still working at putting in a quick qualifying time. The GIO team practised changing the brake pads, as well as the disc rotors.

Saturday's top ten shootout saw the fastest 10 cars in the field have a single lap on a clear track to try and get the pole position. Drew Price cut a 2m 16.30 second lap for his run in the second Gibson GT-R. Mark Gibbs pulled a very clean and quick lap of 2m 13.88s. Mark Skaife drove a awesome lap and recorded a 2m 12.84s. Skaife later said "It was a pretty good lap, I got bit untidy in a couple of spots, but that is about as good as we could do."

The starting positions were settled: Skaife on pole (Richards would actually start the race), Gibbs in second, and Drew Price in 4th behind the Glen Seton Sierra. The top ten was made up of three GT-R's, four RS500 Sierra's, and three VN Commodore's.

The Saturday afternoon was spent with a little more practice changing the brake pads. The Gibson team were able to change the pads in about 35 seconds, the GIO team about 90 seconds. The reason for the difference in times was the Gibson cars were using 4 spot Nismo/Alcon calipers, while the GIO team had 6 spot calipers that took a bit longer to change the pads with.

Raceday – October 6 1991

The GIO team scored a prize before that start of the race – best presented race car. The race start was a different story – the GT-R's were expected to make their normal quick getaway, but Jim muffed the start and allowed the Gibbs car to lead into the first corner. By the end of the first lap Gibbs had a 2.75 second lead over John Bowe's Sierra. Jim Richards was able to out brake Bowe to claim second during lap 2. By the third lap Jim was in the lead.

The second GT-R of Drew Price had briefly scrapped for 5th place with a group of Commodores, but began to drop back with a very soft brake pedal. Price had to pump the brakes before each big corner.

Jim was lapping in the 2m 18s times, and by lap 6 had a seven second gap back to the GIO GT-R. Bowe was able to overtake the Gibbs GT-R shortly afterwards, claiming the fastest time down Conrod of 283 kph. Lap 10 had Jim leading Bowe by 11 seconds with Glen Seton back a further 2 seconds.

By lap 20 the lead was out to 13 seconds over Bowe, with Gibbs sitting in 5th place. Bowe pitted early allowing everyone to shuffle up one spot. On lap 29 the second Gibson team GT-R pitted for a 27 second pitstop – a fresh set of tyres and a load of fuel. The brake pads weren't changed as Drew Price had got used to the soggy brakes. The GIO team pitted on lap 32 for a front brake pad change – which was done in 1 minute. Rohan Onslow took over the driving and resumed in 8th place. The team examined the old pads to monitor the wear, they were only half worn but the team decided to change the pads at every stop anyway.

The second Gibson GT-R began to have troubles around this time. The first problem was a bad vibration and handling from the fresh tyres. Price bought the GT-R into the pits for fresh rubber and a check over. The vibration was gone. A couple of laps later a turbo hose blew off. During the pitstop to rectify that problem, the team changed the brake pads. All these dramas saw the car drop to 32nd place, 15 minutes behind the leading Richards / Skaife GT-R.

Jim pulled the GT-R into the pits on lap 36 for tyres, fuel and Skaife. The stop was completed in 25 seconds, and dropped the car into second. Skaife pulled a blistering 2m 16s lap, more than 4 seconds faster then Dick Johnson who was currently leading. Dick pitted, handing the lead back to Skaife.

At lap 40 Skaife led the Seton Sierra by 37 seconds. The GIO GT-R was back in 9th position, with the Price / Waldon GT-R way back in 30th. The pace of the leading GT-R was such that it was lapping other cars in the top ten by the second hour.

The Price / Waldon GT-R pitted again on lap 45 for a quick diagnostic to work out why the car was off song. An intercooler hose was replaced, and Garry Waldon left the pits to find the car back at full health.

Skaife pulled into the pits with a lead of 2m 5 seconds over John Bowe. The stop took 50 seconds for a full load of fuel, tyres, a brake pad change and Jim Richards to take over driving. The GT-R resumed still in the lead. On lap 69 the GIO GT-R with Rohan Onslow pitted for a pad change, he resumed in 7th place after a 52 second stop. The Gibson team started planning a rear brake pad change – they had initially planned to change only the front pads, but got the pads ready for the next stop. The rear pads took much longer to change than the fronts. Out in front, Richards was in cruise mode. The gap back to Glen Seton was around the two minute mark. Seton was pushing his Sierra very hard, but Jim was able to respond easily matching the 2m 19's that Seton was pulling. Jim potentially could go 2 seconds a lap quicker if needed.

The GIO GT-R had a minor incident – it nudged a Commodore, breaking the left front headlight. Jim bought the leading GT-R into the pits on lap 95. The stop went to plan, the team changing brake pads on all four wheels, with Skaife back out in 55 seconds – still in the lead.

By lap 122, Skaife held a lead of 3m 22 seconds back to the Percy / Grice Commodore. Lap 123 and another pit stop for the GT-R. This time there was no pad change, and Jim Richards was back out with a fresh set of tyres and a full load of fuel, and still in the lead. Skaife put his helmet back on five minutes later and jumped into the second GT-R of Price / Waldon to try and bring it up into the top ten from 13th position. Skaife absolutely wrung the neck of the GT-R, recording the fastest lap of the race (2m 14.50s). He had set fastest lap in the lead car earlier (2m 16.60s) and was under that lap time for 15 of the 17 laps he did before the GT-R broke a rear half shaft and retired.

The GIO GT-R was up to third on the road by now, the leading Fords of Johnson and Seton had either expired or were close to expiring. The car came into the pits for it's final stop, no brake pad change this time, Gibbs staying in the car to the finish. The car rejoined in 3rd position. 14 laps before the end, Jim pitted the lead GT-R for the last time, taking tyres and fuel only. The pit crew cheered as he left the pits, starting the victory celebrations early.

On lap 156 the GIO GT-R developed a misfire – causing it to backfire up mountain straight. They still had a 1 minute lead over the 4th placed car behind them. The misfire got worse – the GIO team were in the pit next to the Gibson team – one pit was starting to celebrate, and the other were willing their ailing car on. Moffat gave his 4th placed car the instruction to attempt to overtake the GIO car. Gibbs was able to lap in the 2m 28s region, just enough to maintain his lead over the Moffat Sierra to the end of the race.

Jim took the flag – making the first outright victory for a Japanese car at Bathurst. Grice crossed the finish line 2 minutes 30 seconds later, in his speech on the podium he said "The Datsun was too good for us!" Mark Gibbs bought the misfiring GIO GT-R in for third place with the Moffat team Sierra in 4th (which was excluded after post race scrutinising)

In the background during the Bathurst race week, there were moves being made about the rules for 1993. Because of the economic situation and the ever increasing costs of running a Group A car, CAMS had moved to develop a new formula for Australia's leading category. The aim of the category was to provide close racing with a substantially lower cost than the current Group A scheme.

It was eventually decided that the new formula would revolve around the Holden Commodore and the Ford Falcon. At the time Australia lacked the technology to develop 2 litre engines like those used in the British Touring Car Championship, and it was decided that turbos were too costly for many teams to run. Both the Sierra RS500 and Skyline GT-R were costing around AU$500,000 for a competitive car. That kind of cost was well beyond most of the privateer teams. The v8 was the cheapest option to develop and race in Australia.

Holden and Ford took the unprecedented step of releasing a joint letter to CAMS during Bathurst – telling them to get their act together and set the rules for 1993, or Holden and Ford would consider other forms of racing (NASCAR / AUSCAR).

Wellington Nissan Mobil December 1 1991.

The Group A scene in NZ traditionally came to life every summer with an influx of the European and Australian teams. Wellington was a street race, with the road being closed on Friday with stands and barriers being installed frantically.

The first session was Friday lunchtime, an un-timed practice session. Skaife was seen to be driving quite hard – sometimes launching the GT-R into the air over bumps in Cable St. Wellington was always a place which made the little BMW M3s shine – they always put on a strong performance, and Longhurst was there with his. Longhurst was unofficially timed at 1m 28.7s, with Skaife at 1m 29.07, 1m 29.34 for Pirro (Schnitzer European M3) and Peter Brock pulling a 1m 30.7s out of his Commodore. The word around the pits after the practice session was that the track was very bumpy especially on Cable St, with Mark Skaife claiming he had to back off the throttle half way down the straight - “All four wheels are coming off the ground. It's unbelievably bad for the car to be in the air so long.” Longhurst used the word “exciting” to describe the bumpy ride. The new chicane was singled out for some negative comment as it allowed no room for error.

The next practice session was Friday night. The organisers modified the chicane by moving some of the tyre barriers further out, making a bit more room to pass though.

The M3 of Pirro ventilated it's block only two laps into the session before it could lay down some quick laps. The modified chicane slowed the track down, with the GT-R recording a best time of 1m 30.33

Qualifying Saturday

The European M3 was back out on the track with a fresh engine and a need to do some quick times. Pirro laid down a 1m 29.01s lap compared to the GT-R's 1m 29.69s. Brock even climbed the time sheets with a 1m 28.35s lap. Tony Longhurst had damaged his M3 when something broke in the suspension sending him into a minor collusion with a wall. As the session progressed, the times got faster. Jim Richards predicted a 1m 26s or 1m 27s lap from the GT-R with Skaife driving on sticky tyres. Skaife cranked out a 1m 27.62s lap followed with a 1m 27.60s. Pirro wrung his M3 and produced a 1m 26.7s lap, showing the speed of the little M3 around the Wellington streets.

The Gibson team reckoned they would have no problem knocking off the M3 in the afternoon practice session, despite the full field being out on the track (the morning session was limited to the Group A cars above 1600cc) The afternoon session was cut short by an incident involving a Corolla, a Commodore and a Porsche bouncing off the walls and each other. The Nissan team only had one lap with their sticky tyres with Jim driving achieving a 1m 28.8s lap which disappointed the team as they were faster on normal race tyres. Longhurst produced his spare M3 and ran a fast 1m 27.99s lap which was good enough for 3rd of the grid.

Sunday Race Day

Overnight the Schnitzer team had slotted in their race engine. Unfortunately it had a bad misfire in the race warm-up, slowing the car by as much as 20s a lap. The team worked hard to fix a faulty sensor for the race start.

The lights went green and the race had dramas with the first 10 seconds. A NZ M3 spun and caused the 20 cars behind to baulk. A Corolla ended up in the wall, ending their race pretty quickly.

At the start of the second lap Skaife had pulled out a handy 3s lead over Pirro, Longhurst, and Brock. A Corolla burst into flame on the front straight, which bought out the pace car for the next 15 minutes. After the debris had been cleared the race resumed at full pace once more. Skaife was able to hold a 3 second lead over Pirro for three laps, the Italian driving the nuts off the M3. Skaife claimed a new lap record of 1m 28.39s, but wasn't able to pull away much.

Skaife reported back to the pits that the GT-R had a handling problem, perhaps a puncture. The GT-R pulled into the pits for new tyres and resumed in 5th place. The GT-R returned to the pits twice more over the following 15 minutes before the team diagnosed a broken front differential – and converted the car to 2 wheel drive for the remainder of the race.

Fred Gibson laid the blame squarely on the bumps in Cable St. “What it boils down to is with out car being so heavy, it's bouncing and crashing down again and it has broken the diff. When we're going so fast down there, in excess of 200km/h and your leaping off the ground like that somethings gonna break.”

Skaife managed to lightly side swiped Pirro's leading BMW when he exited pit lane, there was no major damage, just some paint swapping. Dick Johnson also had problems with the Cable St bumps - “I was only running down there with half throttle so we could keep the wheels on the ground without wheel spinning – but even that obviously didn't work.” he said as his car was being fixed.

Brock made it up to second place when Longhurst pitted with a flat spotted tyre. At the halfway point Pirro had built up a 1 minute buffer back to 2nd place, with nearly another minute back to 3rd. Skaife had managed to get the GT-R up to 7th place despite only having half the normal traction. Longhurst made it through to the lead when Pirro pitted for a driver change and fuel. He lead for one lap until he was caught out with a slower car on the track. Longhurst collided with the slower car sending them both into the wall. TV footage showed Tony's head coming out the widow and his helmet hitting the wall, smashing the chin guard. If he had been wearing his open faced helmet as he normally does, he would have been killed for sure.

Light rain started to fall on the track which made it very slippery. Most of the major teams opted to remain out on slicks until the rain made it difficult to continue, the leading Pirro M3 ducked into the pits for wets along with Brock who was having difficulty seeing out a badly fogged windscreen. By this stage Jim Richards was driving the GT-R and making people remember why he was known as the 'Rain Master'. He held the GT-R wheel spinning most of the way down the straight and clocked in a 1m 30.45s lap.

The race finished at the 4 hour mark with Pirro and Winkelhock taking the flag in the Schnitzer M3, followed by the Brock and Perkins Commodore 2 laps down, and then the GT-R of Skaife and Richards another 2 laps back. Onwards to Pukekohe next week.

 

[RazorGTR]

Pukekohe Nissan Mobil December 8 1991

Pukekohe had first seen the GT-R the previous year, this time the car was sorted and fast. The track had also seen some major track work with a resurface and the run onto the front straight cleaned up.

Pukekohe is somewhat of a home track for Jim Richards, he developed his race craft in a series of rapid Anglias, Escorts, and later his infamous Sidchrome Boss Mustang before he shifted to Australia to race full time.

Friday Testing

All the major teams had made it up to Pukekohe after the Wellington race. Only some of the smaller 1600cc Corollas failed to show. Tony Longhurst was back, his race car having been repaired (the car he crashed in practice at Wellington rather than the car that was destroyed during the race) he reported that he was OK apart from a sore rib-cage and neck.

Pukekohe is a much faster and open track compared to the Wellington streets, and the Commodre's and Sierra's were able to stretch their legs on the straights. The Nissan was fast, Mark Skaife clocking an unofficial 59.54s lap, about 2 seconds quicker than pole position last year. Jim was about another second slower, with the team calculating that with a light fuel load and sticky tyres they may be able to pull a 58 or 57 second lap. The team had virtually rebuilt the car since the Wellington race due to the extended period it had run in two wheel drive. The winning Schnitzer M3 from Wellington turned in a 61 second lap, with Longhurst 1 second slower (he admitted to feeling a little off colour at this stage)

Saturday Qualifying

Skaife reported the track to be more slippery than the previous day. As a result the times were not as good as anticipated. A couple of “balls out” attempts saw the GT-R pull some fairly quick laps; 58.86s, 59.19s, 59.10s, then the best of 58.69s. In contrast the Pirro M3 was able to pull a screamer lap of 59.91s. Brock managed a 61.17 lap to claim 3rd on the starting grid.

Sunday Race 8 December 1991.

Jim Richards started the race in the GT-R. It was a fairly slow start by GT-R standards and it was about two laps before he was able to open out a 2 second lead over the second placed Brock who was being hounded by the Schnitzer M3 driven by Pirro. Brock soon had to pit with a flat resulting from a damaged tyre valve which allowed the BMW through to second.

By lap 20, Jim Richards held a handy 20 second lead over Pirro, with 23 seconds back to Kevin Waldock's Sierra, closely followed by Alan Jones (M3) and Dick Johnson (Sierra). Johnson was soon out with a broken rear suspension, Dick quipping “A four wheel-steer Sierra wasn't easy to drive.”

Richards continued to extend his lead over Pirro for the next 20 minutes, at the rate of 1s a lap. Then, the GT-R was forced to pit with a puncture, which came back out onto the track in second place. What followed was a ripper of a drive from Jim Richards as he hunted down the M3 ahead of him. On lap 55 he claimed a new lap record of 59.84s, bettering the previous years GT-R lap record by 1.5s. The quick laps continued, Richards threading the GT-R between slower cars, pulling laps consistently quicker than the old lap record. Pirro was lapping in the 61 second region, attempting to nurse the BMW's brakes and tyres. Pirro eventually pitted to change over to Winkelhock, which allowed the GT-R to retain the lead, with 65 seconds over the second placed Brock, and Longhurst back in third.

Mark Skaife took over the leading GT-R and resumed 21 seconds ahead of Winkelhock, with Larry Perkins over a minute behind, with Longhurst 18 seconds further back. The race was into the last hour when a Corolla burst into flame on the front straight, which bought out the pace car.

After the pace car left the track, the restart was predictable, with Skaife motoring off into the distance, leaving Winkelhock under pressure from Longhurst. It didn't help that the Schnitzer M3 was the latest model and Longhurst's was last years. In turn Larry Perkins came under pressure from the two M3s, Winkelhock slipping past when the Commodore slid at the hairpin.

Skaife took the flag just under a minute ahead of the Winkelhock M3, with the Brock / Perkins Commodore back in 3rd, and the Longhurst / Jones M3 in 4th.

Post race Skaife was modest; “Jimmy did most of the work and I just finished it off”.

January 1992

Rothmans announce they will be sponsoring the Nissan GT-R team under the Winfield colours for the next year. It was part of a Winfield 'superteam' concept which saw Winfield colours on the Nissan GT-Rs, the Tatnell Sprintcars, Jim Read's Top fuel drag car, and 500cc Superbikes. $5 million was committed for the entire super team.

The new year also bought in some changes to the Group A formula in Australia. CAMS modified the format of the ATC series; instead of a single 50 minute race, each round was made up of two heats, and three lap qualifying sprint for the fastest qualifiers to determine the grid positions for the first heat – the grid for the three lap dash was drawn out of a hat. The second heat's grid was based on the finishing order of the first. A complex points system combined the days results over the heats – it was biased in that it rewarded consistency rather than outright placing.

The Nissan GT-R had a new minimum weight of 1,400 kg, a boost restriction to 1.3 bar which was calculated to cut the power to 336kw down from 477kw, along with a limit on compression to 9.5:1. The Commodores and Sierras were given an extra 50kg an an electronic rev limit of 7,500 rpm. This was designed to cut costs as the top tier Commodore teams were using 8,500 rpm in an effort to keep up with the Sierras which resulted in many broken engines. In contrast, the BMW M3s copped an extra 60kg. A CAMS performance review panel was formed to make running changes to the regulations during the series.

Winfield Triple Challenge, Eastern Creek January 1992

Friday Practice

This was the first outing of the Group A cars in their 1992 specification, except for the rev limiters which were not ready in time. Glen Seton in his Sierra was the quickest in the damp practice session, clocking in a 1m 39.05s lap, with Larry Perkins in an old VL Commodore slightly behind. Privateer Commodores filled out the rest of the time sheets, with names like Bob Pearson, and Terry Finnigan ahead of the Shells Sierras of Dick Johnson and John Bowe.

Qualifying

Jim Richards commented on the change in the GT-R compared to the 1991 specification; “Before it used to be a case of slowing for the corners and booting the car out, now without the power, we have to corner faster and go in quickly to get the pace onto the straights.”

John Bowe claimed fastest lap with a 1m 36s lap, ahead of Glen Seton's best, 0.78s slower. The two Nissan GT-Rs were just behind. In the second qualifying session saw Dick Johnson and Glen Seton trading fast laps, Dick achieving a 1m 35.83s, and Glen 1m 35.44s. Bowe managed a 1m 35.99 and Larry Perkins wringing out the VL for a 1m 36.53s lap. The GT-Rs were close together in their times and qualified 5th and 6th on the grid, Jim going quicker with a 1m 36.74s with Mark's best being a 1m 1m 37.39s.

Race 1

The first race was a 15 lap event, which was started without a warm up lap prior. There was some confusion on the grid when Glen Seton noticed that Dick Johnson was in full race mode, and hurriedly put his car into first gear just as the flag dropped. Bowe, Perkins and Seton were left squabbling for the same piece of road. Skaife managed to pass Bowe at the first hairpin, while Jim was under pressure from the privateer Pro-Duct Commodore. Dick Johnson in the meantime had pulled out a 1.6 second lead over Perkins and Seton by the end of the first lap. Skaife was just ahead of Bowe. Second lap saw Mark squeeze past Seton, only to have the faster Sierra pass on the straight, Bowe also passed in the same move. Seton was then able to catch up with Larry Perkins and engage in a high speed battle for second. They swapped position several times before Larry got sideways exiting a turn and allowed Glen through. Larry lost oil pressure and dropped out, letting Bowe into 3rd with the two GT-Rs close behind. Glen Seton was able to haul in the leading Dick Johnson Sierra after it began to blister the right rear tyre. Lap 10 saw Seton take the lead, with Dick starting to drop back. Bowe spun his car allowing the two GT-Rs though which then began to stalk the Johnson Sierra ahead. Johnson managed to hold off the two GT-Rs until the last lap, where they both attacked. Jim Richards was able to get second, and Mark third.
Race 2

This race had a warm up lap unlike the first. Some of the teams had made changes between the races – Dick Johnson had changed to a softer spring in the rear to try to help the tyre blistering problem, while the Nissans opted for a slightly softer tyre on the rears.

With the rule changes, the Nissans could no longer blast off the start line like they had in 1991. Jim managed to stay level with Glen Seton until the first turn when the Sierra pulled ahead while Skaife was attached by the two Shell Sierras of Johnson and Bowe.

By lap 2, Seton lead, followed by Johnson who had got past Richards' GT-R, Bowe getting past the GT-R next lap. The top 5 cars remained in the same order for the rest of the race, lapping within 5 seconds. Seton took the win 1.1 seconds ahead of Johnson, 1.2 seconds further back to Bowe and similar gap back to the two Nissans.

Post race saw some developments – few of the teams were happy with the regulations for 1992. Larry Perkins withdrew from the series, claiming the Holdens were penalised in comparison to the Sierras and the GT-Rs. He also claimed that the changes made to the GT-Rs didn't add up: “Everyone is saying that the Nissan only has 450 horsepower but they could keep up with me down the straight at Eastern Creek and I have 540 horsepower!” The GIO GT-R team threatened to withdraw from the series as well. The BMW M3 team wrung their hands and cried foul over their additional 60kg.

Fred Gibson had some comments: “We did some testing last year with the pop-off valve at all different limits of boost, and we got 450 horsepower at 1.3 bar. The engine we had at Eastern Creek had that and you can see from the way the Sierras went by in the straight it's lost a fair bit of power.” He went on to say that in 1991 the compression ratio was varied according to the track. This year they may be able to find a lower optimum ratio. “At the Grand Prix we were probably running 8.5:1, but we were running heaps of boost there. It depends on what spec engine we are running.”

February 1992

The first round of the 1992 ATC was held at Amaroo. Now everyone had the 'official' 1992 spec cars – the rev limiters were fitted to the Commodores and Sierras, along with the additional weight everyone was carrying at Eastern Creek.

The change in the GT-Rs was quite dramatic – the lower power meant the cars had to be driven harder, which resulted in excessive under steer. Mark Gibbs in the GIO team claimed his GT-R had enough under steer for the whole field.

The Saturday qualifying saw some interesting happenings. Skaife clocked in a very fast, low 51 second lap which Gibson claimed was incorrect. Other teams then claimed to have timed him to that speed as well. Amaroo was fairly unique at that time in that there were noise restrictions that caused some cars to struggle to get under the limit. Dick Johnson's Sierras were pinged for being too loud, as was the Longhurst teams BMW M3s.
At the end of the qualifying, John Bowe had pole, with Mark Skaife slightly slower with a 51.32s lap, followed by Jim Richards (51.44s lap). The critics were already starting to point at the GT-R team. The GIO GT-R had a major problem when a fuel pump fault filled the cylinders and the intercooler with fuel – everything had to be checked out before the OK was given, lucky there was no fire.

In the three lap 'Dash for Cash', Bowe started badly, and lost out to Jim Richards and Peter Brock very quickly. Richards and Brock cross the line first and second to claim the front row for the first heat.

Heat 1

Jim Richards started slowly allowing Brock to boom into the lead. The GT-R was quickly shuffled back into third place. By lap three, Brock was well out in front, followed by Wayne Park (Peter Jackson Sierra), Glen Seton (Peter Jackson Sierra), and Trevor Ashby in his privateer Commodore. Further down the order the GT-Rs were able to pick off the Shell Sierras as the tyres started to wear on the rapid Fords, eventually moving into 3rd and 4th - Richards overtaking Johnson like he was standing still. Brock finished first followed by Glen Seton only 1 second behind. Skaife and Richards crossed next, they had been gaining on the first two cars but would have needed another 6 laps or so to have been in a position to take the lead. The GIO GT-R driven by Mark Gibbs came in 8th.

Heat 2

The rules this year meant that the teams were only able to change one tyre on a car between heats, otherwise their grid position was lost and a 10 second penalty imposed, so there was some intense inspection of the tyres between the heats. Some rain fell and caused another quandary – run with full wet tyres or slicks? It also gave the GT-R drivers opportunity to use their four wheel drive to full effect.

The start of the race was graphic. Brock and Seton sat on the grid with wheel spin, while the Winfield Nissans took off. Mark Gibbs made it up to 3rd from his starting position of 8th on the grid before the first corner such was his traction advantage. The three GT-Rs simply took off leaving the rest of the field slipping and sliding around. By lap 18 the circuit had started to dry out and quite a few of the cars were suffering from overheating tyres. Longhurst was able to catch up with the GIO GT-R and briefly take 3rd place until Gibbs was able to retake 3rd when Longhurst was black flagged for excessive noise. Skaife finished first, followed by Richards and Gibbs making a GT-R 1-2-3.

March 1992

Sandown in Victoria hosted the second round of the ATC. The 1992 regulations continued to cause ructions among the teams. Many thought the Winfield GT-Rs had their true form hidden, and were running higher horsepower than CAMS had calculated. Skaife said “The car is surprisingly fast, it's fantastic the way the car stops. It's not easy to drive this car and do the times.”

Qualifying

John Bowe was fast, running some sticky Dunlops for a 1m 13.91s equal to the GT-R the previous year. Skaife and Richards were next, followed by Glen Seton and Dick Johnson. Mark Gibbs the the GIO GT-R was back in 7th, struggling with the boost restricted performance. Gibbs claimed he had almost no throttle response.

The 'Dash for cash' three lap event was notable for Mark Skaife jumping the rolling start and running away to a lead. He incurred a stop-go penalty and a $2,000 fine for his trouble. Bowe blew his engine which meant he would start from 6th for the race. Johnson claimed pole with Glen Seton and Wayne Park claimed the following two spots on the grid, with Richards and Skaife behind.

Heat 1

Richards blasted away from the second row to take the lead immediately, Skaife one row further back managed to make second place ahead of the slower starting rear wheel drive cars. Dick Johnson was in third and was able to pass Skaife after the first corner, the Sierra having a superior speed advantage. Bowe followed and overtook both Skaife and Johnson to be 2nd by the start of the second lap. Bowe overtook Jim Richards' GT-R to take the lead by the third lap. Richards fell back to Johnson who was able to overtake the GT-R on the straight. Bowe finished the race about 9 seconds in front of Johnson, with Skaife and Richards following. Mark Gibbs finished 8th in the GIO GT-R who had gearbox troubles during the race. The team slotted in a new gearbox in time for heat 2.

Heat 2

At the start of the second heat, Skaife made a bad start, but Jim Richards was able to take the lead ahead of Bowe. As in the first race, Bowe was able to cruise past Richards' GT-R on the straight, as did Johnson. At the end of the first lap it was Bowe from Johnson, Richards, Skaife and Gibbs who have made a very good start. By the 7th lap Johnson was having difficulty keeping the two GT-Rs behind him as the Sierra's tyres were starting to go off. Jim Richards made an attempt on lap 10, but the faster Sierra was able to accelerate away. Crossing the start / finish line he made another attempt, this time Johnson tried to close Richards out which resulted in the Sierra being nudged into a spin. Bowe finished in the lead, two seconds ahead of Skaife who had passed Richards on the last lap. Gibbs finished 4th, a fair way back but still 10 seconds ahead of the 5th and 6th placed Commodores of Brock and Crompton.

Symmons Plains in Tasmania hosted round 3 of the ATC. Meanwhile the CAMS performance review panel had seen fit to trim 20kg from the BMW M3, but nothing to slow down the rapid Sierras. The Friday practice session showed that there were now three fast Sierra teams, with Colin Bond setting the fastest time with a 56.08s lap, quicker than Bowe, Johnson, and both of the Winfield GT-Rs (Skaife and Richards set the same time).

Qualifying

Bond lost an engine which slowed him up a bit in the time stakes. Bowe continued his strong qualifying performance and claimed provisional pole with a 55.69s lap, Bond's was a little slower with a 55.75s lap, which was equalled by Glen Seton. Johnson was 4th fastest, followed by Mark Gibbs in the GIO GT-R. The Winfield team were struggling. Skaife was 1.2 seconds slower than pole which was good enough only for 8th of the grid. Jim was back in 11th. He conceded his lap of 57.34s “was about as good as a Nissan will do around here.”

Heat 1

Seton won the start from Johnson, who was shuffled back by the fast starting GIO GT-R – it didn't last for long as Johnson and Bowe quickly overtook the GT-R on the next straight. Brock and Skaife moved closer the the GIO GT-R. Shortly Brock was able to take the GIO GT-R for 4th place on the straight, but started having brake problems when a brake bleed nipple leaked robbing him of brake pressure. Bowe managed to overtake Johnson for 2nd place, while Seton kept a consistent lead over them both. Skaife was able to overtake the Brock Commodore, two laps later it slid off the road thanks to it's brake problems.

Bowe continued to chase Seton for the lead, until lap 18 when Bowe spun in his own oil when his engine let go. Glen Seton won, about 4 seconds clear to Johnson, with Skaife a further 2 seconds back.

Heat 2

Dick Johnson's Sierra wasn't in the best of health after the first heat, it had terminal engine problems and had a new donk transplanted in before heat 2. As a result of a lack of time and spare engines, Bowe's car was withdrawn. At the start, Seton and Johnson managed to contain Skaife – they boxed him in which slowed him down a fair bit. Longhurst was right up there, looking for room around the outside of the Johnson Sierra. Longhurst was level with the Nissan down the back straight but Skaife used his position on the track to keep his inside line. Neil Crompton in the second of the Brock Commodores slipped by Longhurst. Longhurst then had another go down the outside only to find that Gibbs in the GIO GT-R had forced his way through, and left Longhurst level with Wayne Park in the second Seton Sierra.


On the second lap Seton had a good lead over Johnson and Skaife. Johnson's new engine wasn't producing the power he was used to so by lap 4 Skaife was able to pass the Sierra. Johnson then fell back and came under pressure from Crompton's Commodore. Colin Bond had stormed though the field from the rear of the grid – remember he didn't start heat 1so he had fresh tyres and a fresh engine. On lap 6 Bond passed both Crompton and Johnson in one move and set out after the second placed Skaife.

Bond eventually caught up with Skaife and out braked him to take second place. Seton finished with a 2 second break back to Bond, with Skaife another 3 seconds behind for 3rd. Wayne Park finished ahead of Richards who managed 5th. Mark Gibbs in the GIO GT-R ended up in 9th position.

April 1992

Round 4 of the ATC moved to Winton. Skaife led the points table followed by Jim (remember that the points rewarded consistency rather than outright placings). Still the critics were hounding the Gibson GT-R team. Brock thought they were downplaying their potential at Symmons Plains and they should win an acting award. Fingers were pointing at Fred Gibson saying he was hiding the performance of the cars. Gibson countered by saying that his drivers were having to drive harder, and their placings (and Mark and Jim's ATC points) were as a result of other cars failing.

Friday Practice

Skaife clocked up the quickest time, just ahead of Bowe. Skaife's time was 1m 01.10s which was half a second quicker than the pole time last year which was set by Richards in the GT-R.

Qualifying

Richards had some sticky Yohohama rubber help him to a 1m 00.70s lap. Skaife managed a 1m 01.00 lap to stitch up the provisional front row for the GT-Rs. Just a little slower was Larry Perkins who had withdrawn from the full series just to contest the local rounds. He explained his Commodore was well balanced which helped him to be a mere 0.03 seconds slower then Skaife. Gibbs qualified his GT-R 10th, with bad under steering issues.

The dash for cash run was a Skaife benefit. He ran away from the start and kept the lead. Richards finished 3rd, just behind Seton.

Heat 1

At the start it was another demonstration of the GT-Rs launching ability. They took off leaving Seton on the grid wheel spinning and going nowhere fast. By the end of the first lap, Skaife led Richards by 2.3 seconds with Seton on the rear bumper of Jim's GT-R. There was a freight train behind Seton, all the way back to position 15. By lap 5 the GIO GT-R made it up to 7th place and then applied pressure to Johnson. Up front Richards had pulled out a gap between himself and Seton, and had closed up a bit on Skaife.

The GIO GT-R spun on lap 10, the under steer problem spitting him off. The infield team GT-Rs swapped the lead between themselves before slowing down for the last few laps and letting Skaife take the flag. Seton was five seconds behind them, followed by a reasonably happy Larry Perkins.

Heat 2

As the starting positions for heat 2 are decided by the finishing positions of heat 1, the Winfield GT-Rs had the front row of the grid to themselves. Predictably they lead away from the start, and finished the race in a 1-2 formation with Skaife crossing for maximum points. Behind them was a trail of bent cars and damaged egos. Johnson had been pushed into a spin and had to pit for fresh tyres, Bowe and Alan Jones clashed leaving Jones with a bent steering arm, Longhurst broke his grill pounding the back of Bowe's Sierra. Seton clashed with Alan Jones as well, pushing him off the track to claim his place on the road. Longhurst gave Bowe a real shunt and pushed him off the track causing Bowe to spin. Gibbs claimed 8th.

Longhurst was fined $5,000 for 'a most unfair practice' and breach of Code of Diving Conduct, but he said it was worth every cent.

May 1992

Round five of the ATC was at Lakeside in Queensland. The CAMS Performance review panel had been working hard since the previous round. They loaded the Sierras with an additional 50kg and punished the Skylines with 100kg of additional weight to carry around. The new weight penalty for the GT-Rs causing much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Mark Skaife claimed that the GT-R was now the heaviest touring car in the world, and that in endurance race trim (full load of fuel, water brakes etc.) the GT-R would weigh in at 1,700kg. Fred Gibson threatened to withdraw the cars from Bathurst, claiming the extra weight was making wheels crack. The GIO team went as far as to withdraw their GT-R and bring last years Commodore out from the chicken shed, as they were cracking wheels with their heavy GT-R and had to wait for some new stronger wheels to be made.

Qualifying

The Shell Sierras were running at their home trck so naturally they topped the time sheets. Dick Johnson recorded the best lap, 52.90s, just a few hundredths of a second faster then team mate Bowe. Longhurst was quick in the M3, he had lost 20kg from his cars weight, and the other cars had been penalised by comparison. He claimed third fastest with a 53.29s lap. Larry Perkins was also quick (the Commodores remaining status-quo in the weight) with a 4th fastest 53.37s. The best of the GT-Rs was Skaife, 10th fastest, 53.85s. The extra weight forcing the team to use a harder tyre.

There was some heated debate in the post qualifying press conference, Larry Perkins laying it on thick that the Winfield team were 'sandbagging'... “It was the greatest sham of all time...I don't think the weight makes any difference. The Nissan is a superior car, but lets not think it's uncompetitive.” Skaife bit and responded “You come and drive the car in the morning Superstar and see for yourself!”. Jim Richards also responded: “People may think we are fudging, but that's as fast as the car will go. We've still got a good car, but it's a lot tougher for us now.” Fred Gibson showed a print out of Skaife's gear change points as proof that they were slower than before.

Heat 1

Bowe lead away from the start, there was a fair amount of squeezing in the mid field with the GIO Commodore spinning and presenting mobile obstacle for the following cars. Perkins took it up to Bowe, with Longhurst in the rapid M3 right behind. Johnson dropped out with a broken half-shaft. On lap three Perkins snatched the lead from Bowe. (hmm it's 1992 and Larry is driving a VL Commodore – a five year old design, the Sierra RS500 was one year older than that). Skaife had made it up to 5th on the road, and was starting to catch up to Glen Seton ahead of him.

Longhurst eventually got past Bowe, and quickly gained on the leading Commodore of Perkins who was starting to suffer with his tyres going off. Larry was unable to hold back Longhurst. Further back Skaife had taken Seton for 4th, and was closing on Bowe rapidly. Bowe had ambitions on the ailing Perkins, and attempted to squeeze past, but Perkins moved back and Bowe had to back off or be hit, it was enough for Skaife to get past them both. Longhurst took the flag followed by Skaife about 4 second behind.

Heat 2

With the one tyre rule, many of the top cars from heat 1 had damaged tyres, so they started from the read of the grid. This group included Skaife and Perkins, who had blistered their tyres badly. This left some space on the grid and Jim Richards was on the second row so was in a very good position given the GT-Rs launching ability.

Richards' GT-R took off and lead for the first three laps with a small gap back to Bowe and Longhurst. On the fourth lap Skaife had moved up to 11th from the back of the grid. After 10 laps Richards was able to extend his lead over Bowe, who was being hassled by Longhurst. The M3 driver was being over cautious after the $5,000 sting from his actions last round o took his time to get past Bowe. Eventually he managed to do so when Bowe was boxed in by a lapped Supra. Longhurst set out to catch Richards up ahead. Unfortunately the extra weight in the GT-R caused Jim to make a small mistake at a sweeping corner and ran wide into the dirt, it was enough to let Longhurst through. Bowe once again got into a scrap with the Alan Jones M3 and was nudged into a spin. Longhurst claimed the flag, followed by Richards, and then the Jones and Morris BMW M3s, Bowe, Johnson and Skaife. Lakeside was very much a M3 benefit. But in the championship points table, Skaife led followed by Richards, and a very distant Seton.


Round 6 moved to the Eastern creek track. The Friday practice session was wet and didn't really lend itself to being a form guide – Mark Skaife was fastest, but many of the other top drivers didn't even get out on the track.

Qualifying

Bowe was fastest, following the qualifying trend he had set this year, 1m 35.21s. The HRT team had made a rare appearance which wasn't rewarded when Tomas Mezera wrote off the Commodore after sliding off the track into a wall. The good news was that Skaife was second quickest – 1m 35.24s, just 0.03s slower then Bowe. The extra weight they were running enabled the team to balance the GT-R with more corner weights. Perkins was right behind him with a 1m 35.41s. Johnson and Longhurst followed in the speed stakes. The Shell team had some interesting radar figures – Johnson was pulling 253km/h, Seton 252km/h, Perkins 258km/h, Brock 253km/h. Longhurst was faster than the GT-Rs, 244km/h compared to Skaife's 241km/h (the M3 was a 2.5 naturally aspirated engine, compared to the GT-Rs 2.6 litre twin turbo)

The GIO GT-R was back, and quicker than the works cars on the front straight – which was noted by the critics. Gibbs was quoted as saying “I'm never going to complain about this car again” after driving the previous years Commodore at the Lakeside round. He was 9th fastest with a 1m 37.07s lap. Jim Richards was back in 12th – he had a new GT-R with an engine that was slightly down on power. The older car he had been using all year had been sold to a Asian team.

Heat 1

Skaife used the open front straight to lead – leaving Bowe and Johnson behind. Further back were Perkins, Gibbs and Longhurst. In lap 3 Bowe slipped past Skaife. Johnson and Perkins tangled in a passing move when Perkins got sideways and punched the Sierra in the door, putting them both off into the dirt. Two laps later Longhurst out-braked the Skaife GT-R to take second place and set out chasing down Bowe 3.5 seconds ahead. The leaders finished in the same order, Bowe, Longhurst, Skaife – further back by 10 seconds, followed by Richards and Gibbs.

Heat 2

Skaife blasted off the line to lead away from the start, Bowe close behind, followed by Richards and Gibbs, who then slipped past Richards on the second turn. Johnson was once again hit and spun off the track, taking one of the faster Sierras out of the equation. Seton pounced on Richards and used his quicker acceleration to pass the GT-R. Bowe also tried to do the same thing to Skaife but didn't complete the pass. Next lap Seton took the GIO GT-R. Longhurst followed, pushing Gibbs and Richards one more place down. On lap 5 Bowe was able to pass Skaife for the lead when he ran wide onto the straight. The race finished with Bowe loading Skaife by 1 second, trailed by Longhurst, Seton, Jones and Richards.

Thanks to Seton's poor run, Skaife climber higher on the points table.

 

[RazorGTR]

The converted airfield Mallala was the venue for round 7. It was something of a special track for the Winfield team, the début of the GT-R had been here 2 years ago, and had won in convincing style last year.

In practice, Bowe once again claimed top lap time, the GT-Rs slightly slower suffering with under steer problems.

Qualifying

Jim Richards set the hot time with a 1m 08.80s lap that was quicker than last years GT-R pole (remember last year they were 100kg lighter and had no boost restrictions.) Skaife was second fastest with Bowe just a bit slower. Interestingly, Bowe was quicker than he was last year, despite the extra weight and the 7,500 rpm limit. Mark Gibbs qualified a strong fourth, despite having a sick engine. Bowe managed to claim pole in the dash for cash race, but had GT-Rs beside and immediately behind him on the grid.

Heat 1

As predicted the GT-Rs launched hard and Skaife lead into the first corner followed by Richards, Bowe and Gibbs. At the hairpin Gibbs attempted the inside line and pushed Bowe off the track, also managing to get past Richards before the end of the first lap. It was a GT-R 1-2-3. Skaife worded away and was able to develop a buffer between himself and the two car sandwich of Gibbs and Richards. Longhurst was working hard and got past Seton's Sierra to take up 4th place.

On lap 9 Richards GT-R was losing coolant and he retired with a blown head gasket. This gave Longhurst a free spot and he moved up to attack the GIO car. Longhurst passed Gibbs with two laps left but was unable to make a substantial dent in Skaife's lead. Skaife crossed three seconds ahead of Longhurst. Gibbs and Perkins followed. Bowe had been working hard to get past Perkins in the late stages of the race but it had come to nothing when an attempted shunt backfired and he lost 2 places.

Heat 2

The Gibson Winfield team worked hard between heats to replace Jim's engine with a fresh unit – the job normally took four hours but the crew managed to do it in two. He would start from the rear of the 15 car grid. Skaife made a nice start, leading the Longhurst M3 into the first corner. Gibbs powered though and pushed Longhurst back to third, it was another three laps before Longhurst was able to pass Gibbs to regain his second spot on the road.

By lap 10 Richard had managed to reach 5th place behind Bowe and slotted past to take 4th and set out to chase down the Gibbs GIO GT-R ahead. Richards got by Gibbs, and the race finished in that order; Skaife, Longhurst, Richards, Gibbs, and Bowe.

June 1992

Waneroo in Western Australia was the destination for the 8th round of the ATC. Seton was the fastest Sierra in practice, heading Bowe, Johnson and Bond.

Qualifying

Bowe once again topped the time sheets with a quick 57.78s, Bowe saying it was about as close as a perfect lap could be. Johnson was slightly slower than his team mate, clocking in with a 58.39s lap. Seton was third fasted following an engine expiring in the morning. His team mate Wayne Park was 4th fastest, just enough to be ahead of Perkins. The Winfield Nissans were having a pretty bad time, Skaife had a dose of the flu and was substantially slower than Bowe, and sneezed his way to a 59.37s. Richards was having handling issues with his GT-R, they were swapping springs and changing the torque split front to read in an effort to dial out the excessive under steer he was finding in the GT-R. Gibbs had exactly the same issues and was 12th fastest.

Heat 1

The Sierras at the head of the field made a good start, though Richards was able to blast his way into 4th. Gibbs run up the rear of Colin Bond's Sierra, causing a heavily crunched front end but it was only cosmetic damage. The Shell team took off into the distance, followed by Park, Richards, Seton, Skaife and Longhurst. Richards was able to get past Park's Sierra and make up one place on the road, but Seton moved up to attack Richards. Seton was unable to get past Richards, the better traction of the GT-R helping it out of the corners better than the two wheel drive Ford. Bowe finished, followed by Johnson, Richards, Seton, and Longhurst. Skaife finished 7th, while Gibbs was well down thanks to a snapped tyre valve.

Heat 2

There was a bit of repair work needed to the GIO car between the heats, the bonnet had to be flattened back down and the front end bent back into shape. Richards had some softer springs put into his GT-R in an effort to help it handle better. At the start Bowe lead away, but Johnson was swamped by the rapidly starting Richards, with Skaife, Seton and Longhurst following. Skaife was able to zip past Johnson on the third lap, which meant the order was Bowe, Richards, Skaife and Johnson. Behind Johnson there was a pack of cars struggling for position, Longhurst and Seton rubbing guards. Longhurst and Jones slipped past the Sierra eventually who then went onto take on the slowing Dick Johnson. Seton managed to displace Johnson as well with a move that ended with the Shell Sierra spinning.

Richards was gaining on Bowe, and Skaife was still in third. But just a few laps from the end he broke third gear which caused him to spin, it took painfully long time for him to get back on the track where he finished in 11th place. Richards continued to challenge Bowe for the lead, making a couple of attempts down the inside of corners once pushing Bowe's car sideways, but Jim backed off to avoid ploughing into him and he trailed Bowe by 0.27 seconds at the finish. Longhurst, Jones, Perkins and Seton followed.

The points table left just Skaife and Richards with the championship, either of them could win it at the next round – there was nobody within range to challenge them.

Oran Park was the venue of the final round of the ATC for 1992. The series had been compressed to allow for the all important Channel 7 coverage of the Barcelona Olympics to go without interruption.

Jim Richards went into the final round as the defending Touring Car champion from last year. To win he needed Skaife to fail. Skaife just needed to finish to win the championship.

Friday practice showed Skaife was fastest, followed by Bowe, and Longhurst. Mark Gibbs broke a diff in his GT-R which slowed him down a fair bit in the practice session.

Qualifying

Bowe again pulled a quick lap out of the bag, it was a scorching 1m 09.97s. Skaife and Richards were fractionally slower with Longhurst, Gibbs and Perkins next. Gibbs had some strange electrical problems with his GT-R, at one stage it stopped and the team was unable to work out what was causing it.

Dash for Cash

Longhurst won the draw and had Perkins alongside him on the grid. Gibbs was right behind him and barged his way alongside Longhurst as the lights went green. They contacted a couple of times which pushed them both off into a spin and allowed Bowe, Skaife and Richards to finish ahead of Gibbs.

Heat 1

Skaife lead away Richards, Gibbs, Seton, Perkins and Bowe who had made a terrible start off pole. By lap two Skaife had a 2 second buffer over Richards and Gibbs who were scrapping over second place. Seton, Perkins and Bowe followed, though Bowe shortly smacked into a wall which removed him from the mix. Gibbs made it past Richards, but there was now a three second gap ahead to the leading Skaife GT-R. They continued on until lap 9 when Richards was able to get past Gibbs on a corner. Behind them Longhurst was moving up, he had managed to get past Perkins who had his tyres starting to go off the boil. The race finished with a GT-R 1-2-3 with Skaife, Richards and Gibbs taking the honours.


Heat 2

The finishing positions of heat 1 determine the grid for the heat 2, so there was an all GT-R front row. At the start the three GT-Rs had a clear gap of 50 meters over the other cars in the field. Skaife, Richards and Gibbs lead, with Seton, Perkins and Jones following. On lap seven, Richards had a handy five second gap back to Gibbs who was coming under some pressure from Jones and Seton. Perkins having dropped back, not able to continue his initial race pace.

Jones forced his way past Gibbs on lap 13, sending Gibbs spinning off the track, it was just a racing incident though rather than anything malicious from Jones. Skaife finished first, followed by Richards making a nice GT-R 1-2. Jones in his M3 was nearly 20 seconds further back followed by Longhurst. Bowe and Gibbs were next.

It was quite a good day for Mark Skaife, he had won the ATC (becoming the youngest winner of the ATC to date) and also won the single seater Australian Drivers Championship at the same meeting, and become the youngest winner of the ATC to date.

It was a very interesting series, I guess it will never be known if the Gibson team were in fact sandbagging mid-series. Certainly their performance improvement in the later half of the series could be explained by luck, suspension development and hard driving. There still remains the wild-card question of the GIO GT-R which was faster at times, faster than the works cars. Anyway, debate is futile as the team had cleaned up the championship and had the points to prove it.

Fred Gibson then set about work to try and level the playing field for the Bathurst event. He made a submission to CAMS to have the weight and boost penalties removed, arguing that the cars would be highly stressed with the additional weight they were forced to carry. CAMS turned down his submission forcing Fred had to play tougher. He threatened legal action against CAMS under the trade Practices Act unless they reviewed the weight penalties, and also suggested the team not turn up to Bathurst (which was unlikely as it is the biggest event of the year.) Bob Forbes, the owner of the GIO team stood by Gibson in solidarity – he would also pull the team's GT-R from Bathurst if Gibson pulled his team out. CAMS called their bluff and no legal action occurred. The GT-Rs would race at Bathurst with their 1,500kg minimum weight and the 1.3 bar pop-off valve limiting boost.

July 1992

The Bathurst entry list is to be expanded with a new class for the 1993 specification Falcon and Commodore. Seton and Johnson have Falcons being built, and a number of Holden teams are intending to enter, a 1993 car including HRT and Brock.


August 1992

August had a media 'test day' at Bathurst, with many of the leading teams bringing their cars along. Fred Gibson was asked what specification his GT-Rs were running, he replied: “No comment.” Skaife cryptically admitted “We are not down at the Oran Park weight, but we're not down at last year's weight.” It was observed they were not running with the 1.3 bar pop-off installed.

Unofficial times were:

Skaife (GT-R) 2m 13.67s
Bowe (Sierra) 2m 13.71s
Richards (GT-R) 2m 14.88s
Johnson (EB Falcon) 2m 16.95s
Percy (VP Commodore) 2m 17.20s
Gibbs (GT-R) 2m 17.85s

After the Bathurst test day, there was the final AMSCAR round [I'm missing details of the first two AMSCAR rounds in 1992] . Nissan had won the AMSCAR title last year and were intending to do the same this year.

Qualifying

Gibson reported he had the GT-Rs back to their normal specification after the media day (so we can conclude that they were lighter than the CAMS weights during the test.) Skaife was fastest and got pole with a 50.88s lap, faster than the pole time back in the first round of the ATC – which was 51.32s. Richards was second fastest with a 51.02s followed by Longhurst who had done an unofficial 50.60s in testing. Mark Gibbs qualified 6th fastest, and had a fresh engine after the Bathurst test day.

Heat 1

Skaife had a bad start when the experimental clutch he was using slipped at the start. Richards and Gibbs lead Bond into the first corner. On the second lap Skaife was able to make 5th as he squeezed past the M3 of Paul Morris. Longhurst meanwhile had slipped past Bond and was making progress on the GIO G-R of Gibbs. Longhurst made it past Gibbs and set out after Richards, but Skaife by now had made it up through the field after his poor start was right behind him. Skaife took 2nd place from Longhurst on lap 6 and then the M3 was pushed back another spot when the GIO GT-R got past. That was the finishing order of the first heat.


Heat 2

The start was similar to the first, with Richards taking the lead while Skaife battled his slipping clutch. Gibbs and Longhurst were busy contesting 3rd place, Gibbs had lots of over steer and they contacted. Longhurst was pushed off the track for his trouble. Gibbs had damaged an oil cooler in the incident and had oil on his tyres which further enhanced his poor handling GT-R. Richards lead Skaife and Morris over the line at the finish – there was very little between them. Jim Richards claimed the AMSCAR title for 1992.

September 1992

The Sandown 500 has traditionally been a part of the Bathurst build up, but recent years has seen the event fade with some of the teams opting to give it a miss. None of the GT-Rs showed, but there were some of the new 1993 specification cars out for the first time. Larry Perkins won in his VL Commodore (now two generation out of date) ahead of the newer Chev powered VP Commodores. Seton's Falcon was in trouble – breaking a tail shaft and having major brake problems.

Wheels Magazine got Jim Richards to do a back to back test of his race GT-R and a stock road going GT-R. The results were quite interesting. The road car was measured with a 5.4 second 0-100km/h, and 13.7 400 meter sprint. It's 0-60km/h time of 2.2 second was better than any Group A race car Wheels had tested (which included Johnson's Sierra and Perkins' Commodore.)

Jim's race GT-R turned in a 0-100km/h time of just 3.2 seconds and ran the 400 meters in 10.9 seconds. They used 8,000 rpm launches in the road car, and 8,200 rpm in the race car. The road car was able to pull cornering G's of 1.17, while the race car with it's better tyres and suspension could pull 1.46G. The magazine then went on to mention that of the 100 GT-Rs imported into Australia by Nissan for the domestic market, 37 of them remained unsold after a year.


October 1992 Bathurst

And so it all began. The weekend before Bathurst arrives along with the first of the keen campers and the teams trickling into town. Everyone waits for the first session on the Wednesday to see who is going to be fastest, and who is going to last.

Wednesday practice showed the Nissans were the quick ones.

Qualifying

The official qualifying started on Thursday, the Skaife / Richards entry was under the 2m 15s mark. Johnson / Bowe, Mezera, and Longhurst were also fast in the morning session. In the afternoon Bowe was quickest, still fractionally slower than the GT-R had been during the morning.

The best times were:

Skaife / Richards (GT-R) 2m 13.82s
Perkins / Harrington (Commodore VL) 2m 14.08s
Johnson / Bowe (Sierra) 2m 14.56s
Niedzwiedz / Hansford (Sierra) 2m 14.98s
Longhurst / Cecotto (M3) 2m 15.26s
Seton / Jones (EB Falcon) 2m 15.53s
Mezera / Jones (VP Commodore) 2m 15.74s
Gibbs / Onslow (GT-R) 2m 15.75s
Brock / Reuter (VP Commodore) 2m 15.98s
Percy / Grice (VP Commodore) 2m 16.13s
Olofsson / Crompton (GT-R) 2m 16.17s – this was the second Gibson car.

Saturday Qualifying

The top ten run off on Saturday represented the last opportunity to improve the top drivers grid position. Dick Johnson grabbed pole with an awesomely quick lap of 2m 12.893s – the quickest a Sierra has every lapped the mountain, and only just fractionally slower than Skaife's pole time last year.

The GT-Rs were having a hard time with the extra weight they were carrying, and the boost restriction. The teams spent time carefully preparing the cars for the race on Sunday.

Sunday Race Day

A bit of rain was falling as the field took to the track for some warm-up laps. It went bottom up for Longhurst when his co-driver smacked into a wall and damaged the M3 – it was repaired in time for the race though with no lasting damage. Brock broke a tail shaft in his new Commodore, Unfortunately the team didn't have a spare VP shaft, but could make one up out of two VN shafts in time for the race.

At the start of the race, the field took off, except for Brock who had snapped his new tail shaft. Johnson managed to hold back Larry Perkins in the fast starting Commodore. Perkins then lost a heap of places when he grabbed 5th gear instead of 3rd. At the end of the first lap, Johnson lead Skaife, Gibbs, Mezera, Niedzwietz, and Perkins.

Skaife took Johnson at the end of lap 2 on the pit straight. Niedzwietz was able to make up a couple of places and took the Gibbs GT-R on lap 5. Gibbs started slowing and slid down the order until he was in 11th place. The problem was the GT-Rs windscreen was covered in oil, which the pit crew tried to get rid of by throwing buckets of soapy water at as it drove past the pits, the officials stopped them from that after a while.

After 10 laps Skaife had a handy lead of 5.2 seconds between the GT-R and the Dick Johnson Sierra. Another 10 seconds behind Johnson was Niedzwietz in another Sierra. By lap 20 the lead was out to 19 seconds, with Percy in the HRT VP Commodore now up into 3rd place.

At 11am the clouds got dark and the rain started. Nearly everyone dived into the pits for full wet weather tyres, except for the Nissan GT-Rs which remained out on the track, quite safe with the four wheel drive. This bought the Olofsson / Crompton GT-R up to second place. The Johnson / Bowe car was now more than 1 minute behind Skaife.

Much of the field were having difficulty with badly fogged windscreens (these days all the windscreens have heater elements in them), one team even smashing out their back window in an effort to clear the mist off the windows.

The lead Nissan pitted on schedule, and resumed with Richards driving, lapping four seconds a lap faster then the Johnson / Bowe car was able to. Not long after the 33rd lap, Denny Hulme passed away as his M3 drifted off the track and ran along the wall on Conrod straight. This bought out the pace car. Up until then Richards had almost managed to lap the Johnson / Bowe Sierra, but it all was lost when the pace car bunched the field.

When the pace car left the track, Richards lead Bowe by 6 seconds, one lap later it was 27 seconds. The leading GT-R managed a lap 15 seconds faster than Bowe. Crompton in the second GT-R was also lapping quickly in the rain. The rest of the field was 1 lap down.

In the early afternoon Gibbs picked up a large dent in the side of the GT-R when a Sierra had emerged from the spray on the track and was unable to avoid hitting Gibbs, the damage was only cosmetic.

At the 53rd lap point, the two Winfield Nissans were still leading, with Longhurst, Bowe and the GIO GT-R following. The pace car came back out on the track after Colin Bond's co-driver had clipped the back of a Commodore on Conrod, sending the Holden into the wall. Richards was just about to put Bowe a lap down when the pace car joined.

Richards used the pace car to pit for a load of fuel and a brake pad change. The rain was actually helping the GT-R conserve it's brakes. Skaife resumed the driving duties. The second car came in shortly afterwards for brake pads as well and a driver change with Olofsson returning to the wheel. Longhurst and Johnson where out there going for 3rd place, Longhurst had problems with his gear knob that had come off and was stabbing his hand with every gear change. Glen Seton gave an interesting account of the conditions: “You're just guessing down the straight, as soon as you get behind someone the heat from the car causes the windscreen to instantly fog. All you can do is to stick your head out the window and watch the white lines on the side of the track – that's how bad it is.”

By lap 71, Skaife still lead Crompton by 20 seconds, with a gap of five seconds back to Johnson. The rain was now blowing in sideways in a strong wind, the pace car came out again only 25 minutes after it had last been out – a Commodore had crashed at Forrest Elbow. There was a little debate weather to red flag the race at this point – the flag marshals couldn't see each other, but a report from a nearby town said the rain was going to back off.

Onslow in the GIO GT-R ran into the side of another car and damaged an oil cooler in the accident, he was able to get round into the pits to have it bypassed. Quite a few of the teams pitted to change from the wet tyres to slicks in the improving conditions. Skaife and Crompton continued leading, both of them on wets which were starting to over heat in the drying conditions. Skaife dived in for a tyre change and resumed still in the lead. Crompton did the same shortly afterwards.

As the laps climbed into the 90's, the track dried out and Bowe was able to make some ground on the Nissans, this was the best opportunity as he couldn't match them in the wet, but the dry was a distinct advantage to the Sierra. On lap 93 he dived past the Olofsson GT-R for second place. Skaife pulled out a few faster laps to maintain a buffer of about 30 seconds between the GT-R and the Sierra of Bowe.

At the 113 lap mark the Olofsson GT-R pitted for brake pads, fuel, and a driver change. The pads were inspected and found to be only half worn so there was no need to do a full pad change in the lead car. Crompton resumed, and shortly afterwards Skaife pitted for a driver change to Richards and fuel – no need for pads. Bowe was briefly in the lead.

Jim Richards had some dramas though – “I had a rag which I was using to keep the screen clean, only it got hooked up in the extinguisher and set it off! I would down the windows and got rid of the stuff.”

Bowe pitted on lap 117, for Johnson, pads, fuel, and a top up of oil. By 4pm Johnson was over a minute behind Richards, with the second GT-R about 50 seconds behind Johnson. A report came though of torrential rain and hail approaching.

On lap 144 Skaife was heard to exclaim “It's raining! Good stuff!” in the pits as he watched TV. Richards was out on slicks and it was hosing down. Over the top of the hill Richards had encountered a wall of water, the GT-R was uncontrollable and slid into the wall. The left front suspension was broken.

The track was in chaos – there was a large incident on top of the hill with three Commodores and a Corolla going into the walls. There was another Commodore in the wall near Forrest Elbow. After another two Commodores slid into the stricken car near Forrest Elbow, the GT-R limped onto the scene and aquaplaned into the mess. At that point the race was red-flagged.

The rules are quite clear – when a race is red-flagged and cannot be restarted, the results are taken from one lap previous. That meant that the lead Winfield GT-R had won. Richards said “I was going about half a mile an hour in low gear, then it accelerated off the track. I had no idea we had won. I expected a punch in the mouth when I got back but instead we won the race!” The second GT-R claimed 3rd place behind the Johnson / Bowe Sierra.

There was a very hostile reception on the podium that afternoon. The crowd was ugly, and Johnson wound them up in his second place acceptance speech. Jim was very upset when he took the podium “I'm just really stunned for words. I can't believe the reception. I thought Australian race fans had a lot more going than this. This is a bloody discrace.This is going to remain with me for a long time, you're a pack of arseholes!” he told the booing crowd. The corks remained in the champagne.

An upset Skaife later said in the post race press conference: “I just felt that what we got out there wasn't warranted. I feel sorry for Dick and John – their car was running at the end but rules are rules. Winners are grinners, and the rest can go to hell.”

And so closed a chapter in Australian motor racing history. The Group A formula had come to an end, the next year would bring a new series of Holden vs. Ford competition.

A very special thank you to Graeme Williams for all this Cheers mate

 

[vat_man]

Nice thread, Razor - I went to a lot of the touring car rounds that GT-R's ran it - and I was at Sandown in 1991, right next to the starting grid, to see the GT-R's go off at the start. To this day, I have never seen any form of tin-top race car accelerate from a standing start like they did that day - it was just astonishing.

Those things were awesome...