The 1991 Australian Touring Car season was the 32nd year of touring car racing in Australia since the first runnings of the Australian Touring Car Championship

Australian Touring Car Championship

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

 and the fore-runner of the present day Bathurst 1000

Bathurst 1000

The Bathurst 1000 is a touring car race held annually at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia...

, the Armstrong 500.

There were 12 touring car race meetings held during 1991; a nine round series, the 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship

1991 Australian Touring Car Championship

The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...

 (ATCC); a support programme event at the 1991 Australian Grand Prix

1991 Australian Grand Prix

The 1991 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on November 3, 1991 at the Adelaide Street Circuit. It was the 16th and final race of the 1991 Formula One season. Torrential rain resulted in the race being stopped after 16 of the scheduled 81 laps had been completed. Confusion...

 and two long distance races, nicknamed 'enduros' which made up the 1991 Australian Endurance Championship

1991 Australian Endurance Championship

The 1991 Australian Endurance Championship was the eighth running of the Australian Endurance Championship. It began on 8 September 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 6 October at the Mount Panorama Circuit after two rounds...

.

Season review

1991 was the low point for Group A

Group A

In relation to motorsport governed by the FIA, Group A referred to a set of regulations providing production-derived vehicles for outright competition. In contrast to the short-lived Group B and Group C, the Group A referred to production-derived vehicles limited in terms of power, weight, allowed...

 touring car racing in Australia. Grid numbers plunged in a harsh economic climate. Just eleven cars entered the Wanneroo

Barbagallo Raceway

Barbagallo Raceway is a motorsport circuit located in Wanneroo, approximately north of Perth in Western Australia.The circuit was originally known as Wanneroo Park and the first race meet took place in March 1969. Initially the major race per year was a 6 hour Le Mans style race for sedans and...

 round of the ATCC and just fifteen started the once prestigious Sandown 500

Sandown 500

The Sandown 500 is an endurance motor race staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia between 1964 and 2011. It was typically held in September, the month before Australia’s premier endurance race, the Bathurst 1000. The “500” was not run in 1966, 1967, 1999, 2000, 2008,...

. On track the Touring Car Championship was dominated by the Gibson Motor Sport

Gibson Motor Sport

Gibson Motor Sport was an Australian motor racing team. Originally established by Howard Marsden as the in-house factory Nissan motorsport operation, the team later passed into the ownership of Fred Gibson., who had won the 1967 Bathurst 500 as a driver, sharing with Harry Firth. In 1993 the team...

 prepared Nissan Skyline GT-R

Nissan Skyline GT-R

The Nissan Skyline GT-R is a Japanese sports car based on the Nissan Skyline range.The first GT-Rs were produced from 1969–1973. After a 16 year hiatus since the KPGC110 in 1972, the GT-R name was revived in 1989 with the Skyline R32. This car was nicknamed "Godzilla" by the Australian motoring...

s of Jim Richards

Jim Richards (race driver)

Jim Richards is a New Zealand racing driver who has spent most of his racing life in Australia. While retired from professional racing, Richards continues to compete in the historic category Touring Car Masters while running a team in the Australian GT Championship...

 and Mark Skaife

Mark Skaife

Mark Stephen Skaife OAM is an Australian motor racing driver. Skaife is a five time winner of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor the Australian Touring Car Championship. He is also a six-time winner of Australia's most prestigious domestic motor race, the Bathurst 1000...

. Tony Longhurst

Tony Longhurst

Tony Longhurst is an Australian former racing driver and Australian Champion water skier. He is most noted for his career in the Australian Touring Car Championship and V8 Supercar series....

s new 2.5 litre evolution spec BMW M3

BMW M3

The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M. M3 models have been derived from the E30, E36, E46 and E90/E92/E93 3-series, and sold with coupé, sedan and convertible body styles...

 was the only car to interrupt the clean sweep. A final round DNF for Richards was not enough to take the title away, despite Skaife scoring more points over the course of the season. With only the best eight results counting Richards won the championship by five points. Gibson Motor Sport

Gibson Motor Sport

Gibson Motor Sport was an Australian motor racing team. Originally established by Howard Marsden as the in-house factory Nissan motorsport operation, the team later passed into the ownership of Fred Gibson., who had won the 1967 Bathurst 500 as a driver, sharing with Harry Firth. In 1993 the team...

 did not appear at the Sandown 500

Sandown 500

The Sandown 500 is an endurance motor race staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia between 1964 and 2011. It was typically held in September, the month before Australia’s premier endurance race, the Bathurst 1000. The “500” was not run in 1966, 1967, 1999, 2000, 2008,...

 but Nissan still won through the Bob Forbes owned car driven by Mark Gibbs and Formula Holden

Formula Holden

Formula Holden was an Australian open wheel racing category.-History:Known during its development as Formula Australia, it was initially for chassis constructed from aluminium only, running a 3.8 litre Buick V6 engine as it was then utilised in the new versions of the Holden Commodore...

 ace Rohan Onslow. Richards and Skaife swept all before them at the Bathurst 1000

Bathurst 1000

The Bathurst 1000 is a touring car race held annually at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia...

, establishing a race record that still stands. Third placing at Bathurst gave the Australian Endurance Championship

Australian Endurance Championship

The Australian Endurance Championship was first contested in 1981, as a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title for car manufacturers. Replacing the Australian Championship of Makes , it was decided over a series of endurance races for touring cars complying with CAMS Group C regulations.In the...

 to Gibbs and Onslow.

Race calendar

The 1991 Australian touring car season consisted of 12 events.

Date	Series	Circuit	City / State	Winner	Team	Car	Report
24 Feb	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 1	Sandown International Raceway	Melbourne Melbourne Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater... , Victoria Victoria (Australia) Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....	Jim Richards Jim Richards (race driver) Jim Richards is a New Zealand racing driver who has spent most of his racing life in Australia. While retired from professional racing, Richards continues to compete in the historic category Touring Car Masters while running a team in the Australian GT Championship...	Nissan Motorsport Australia Gibson Motor Sport Gibson Motor Sport was an Australian motor racing team. Originally established by Howard Marsden as the in-house factory Nissan motorsport operation, the team later passed into the ownership of Fred Gibson., who had won the 1967 Bathurst 500 as a driver, sharing with Harry Firth. In 1993 the team...	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R
10 Mar	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 2	Symmons Plains Raceway Symmons Plains Raceway Symmons Plains Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Australia, located about 30 kilometres south of Launceston, Tasmania. Since the closure of the Longford circuit in the 1960s it has been Tasmania's premier motor racing facility...	Launceston Launceston, Tasmania Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart... , Tasmania Tasmania Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...	Jim Richards	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R
14 Apr	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 3	Barbagallo Raceway Barbagallo Raceway Barbagallo Raceway is a motorsport circuit located in Wanneroo, approximately north of Perth in Western Australia.The circuit was originally known as Wanneroo Park and the first race meet took place in March 1969. Initially the major race per year was a 6 hour Le Mans style race for sedans and...	Perth Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000.... , Western Australia Western Australia Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...	Mark Skaife Mark Skaife Mark Stephen Skaife OAM is an Australian motor racing driver. Skaife is a five time winner of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor the Australian Touring Car Championship. He is also a six-time winner of Australia's most prestigious domestic motor race, the Bathurst 1000...	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R
28 Apr	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 4	Lakeside International Raceway Lakeside International Raceway Lakeside Park, formerly known as Lakeside International Raceway is a motor racing circuit located at Pine Rivers north of Brisbane and lies adjacent to Lake Kurwongbah....	Brisbane Brisbane Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of... , Queensland Queensland Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...	Jim Richards	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R
5 May	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 5	Winton Motor Raceway Winton Motor Raceway Winton Motor Raceway is a Motor Racing track in Winton, near Benalla, Victoria, Australia.-History:The Benalla Auto Club began planning for a permanent racing track around 1958. In 1960 it was decided to build the track at Winton Recreation Reserve and was completed in twelve months...	Benalla Benalla, Victoria Benalla is a city of just over 9,000 people located just off the Hume Freeway in north-eastern Victoria, Australia, about southwest of Wangaratta. Its Local Government Area is the Rural City of Benalla.- Overview :... , Victoria	Jim Richards	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R
2 Jun	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 6	Amaroo Park Amaroo Park Amaroo Park was a motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. It opened in 1967, hosting its first motorcycle meeting on 26 February with a 30 lap production race won by Larry Simons on a BSA Spitfire in heavy rain. The...	Sydney Sydney Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people... , New South Wales New South Wales New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...	Tony Longhurst Tony Longhurst Tony Longhurst is an Australian former racing driver and Australian Champion water skier. He is most noted for his career in the Australian Touring Car Championship and V8 Supercar series....	Benson & Hedges Racing Tony Longhurst Racing Tony Longhurst Racing is a former V8 Supercar team. The team, based on Queenslands Gold Coast at the Longhurst family owned Dreamworld adventure park, made its debut in Group A touring car racing in the 1988 Australian Touring Car Championship at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway and made its last...	BMW M3 Evolution
23 Jun	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 7	Mallala Motor Sport Park	Mallala Mallala, South Australia Mallala is a small town about 58 kilometres north of Adelaide in South Australia. The name Mallala is thought to be derived from the local Aboriginal word 'madlola' which supposedly meant 'place of the ground frog'. At the 2006 census, Mallala had a population of 737.In 1939 the Royal Australian... , South Australia South Australia South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...	Mark Skaife	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R
14 Jul	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 8	Lakeside International Raceway	Brisbane, Queensland	Tony Longhurst	Benson & Hedges Racing	BMW M3 Evolution
11 Aug	ATCC 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1991 Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was the 32nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship. It began on 24 February 1991 at Sandown Raceway and ended on 11 August at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds...  Round 9	Oran Park Raceway Oran Park Raceway Oran Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit at Narellan in southwestern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia which was operational from 1962 to 2010....	Sydney, New South Wales	Mark Skaife	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R
8 Sep	Don't Drink Drive Sandown 500 Sandown 500 The Sandown 500 is an endurance motor race staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia between 1964 and 2011. It was typically held in September, the month before Australia’s premier endurance race, the Bathurst 1000. The “500” was not run in 1966, 1967, 1999, 2000, 2008,...	Sandown International Raceway	Melbourne], Victoria	Mark Gibbs Rohan Onslow	Bob Forbes Racing	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	report 1991 Don't Drink Drive Sandown 500 The 1991 Don't Drink Drive Sandown 500 was an endurance race for Group 3A Touring Cars. The event was held on 8 September 1991 at the Sandown circuit in Victoria, Australia over 161 laps of the 3.10 km "long" circuit, totalling 499 km...
6 Oct	Tooheys Tooheys Tooheys is a brewery in the suburb of Lidcombe, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It produces beers under the Tooheys and Hahn trademarks, and is part of the New Zealand Lion Nathan beverages group.-History:...  1000 Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 is a touring car race held annually at Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia...	Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit Mount Panorama Circuit is a motor racing track located in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is the home of the Bathurst 12 Hour motor race, held each February, and the Bathurst 1000 motor race, held each October...	Bathurst Bathurst, New South Wales -CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments... , New South Wales	Jim Richards Mark Skaife	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	report 1991 Tooheys 1000 The 1991 Tooheys 1000 was the 32nd running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 6 October 1991 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst. The 1000 km race was held for cars complying with the provisions of Australian Group 3A Touring Car regulations with the field...
3 Nov	Hush Puppies Hush Puppies Hush Puppies is an international brand of contemporary, casual footwear for men, women and children. The shoes have been described as "the classic American brushed-suede shoes with the lightweight crepe sole". A division of Wolverine Worldwide, Hush Puppies is headquartered in Rockford, Michigan...  Olympic Group A Challenge 1991 Australian Grand Prix The 1991 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on November 3, 1991 at the Adelaide Street Circuit. It was the 16th and final race of the 1991 Formula One season. Torrential rain resulted in the race being stopped after 16 of the scheduled 81 laps had been completed. Confusion...	Adelaide Street Circuit Adelaide Street Circuit The Adelaide Street Circuit is a temporary street circuit in the East Parklands adjacent to the central business district of the city of Adelaide in South Australia....	Adelaide Adelaide Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million... , South Australia	Jim Richards	Nissan Motorsport Australia	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R

Hush Puppies Olympic Group A Challenge

This meeting was a support event of the 1991 Australian Grand Prix

1991 Australian Grand Prix

The 1991 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on November 3, 1991 at the Adelaide Street Circuit. It was the 16th and final race of the 1991 Formula One season. Torrential rain resulted in the race being stopped after 16 of the scheduled 81 laps had been completed. Confusion...

.

Driver	No.	Team	Car	Race 1	Race 2
Jim Richards Jim Richards (race driver) Jim Richards is a New Zealand racing driver who has spent most of his racing life in Australia. While retired from professional racing, Richards continues to compete in the historic category Touring Car Masters while running a team in the Australian GT Championship...	1	Nissan Motorsport Australia Gibson Motor Sport Gibson Motor Sport was an Australian motor racing team. Originally established by Howard Marsden as the in-house factory Nissan motorsport operation, the team later passed into the ownership of Fred Gibson., who had won the 1967 Bathurst 500 as a driver, sharing with Harry Firth. In 1993 the team...	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	1	1
Glenn Seton Glenn Seton Glenn Seton is an Australian racing driver.Seton, father of Courtney and Aaron Seton and husband to Jayne Seton, retired from full time racing after the 2005 V8 Supercar season, and is only one of five drivers to have competed in over 200 rounds in the series. The other drivers are Dick Johnson ,...	30	Peter Jackson Racing Glenn Seton Racing Glenn Seton Racing was a V8 Supercar racing team that competed in the V8 Supercar series in Australia.Glenn Seton formed his own team in 1989, using Ford Sierras. Seton had been a protege of the works Nissan team, and took the Peter Jackson cigarette sponsorship of that team with him. Former F1...	Ford Sierra RS500	3	2
Larry Perkins Larry Perkins Larry Clifton Perkins is a former racing driver and V8 Supercar team owner from Australia.-Career:...	11	Advantage Racing Holden Dealer Team The Holden Dealer Team was Holden’s semi-official racing team from 1969 until 1987, primarily contesting Australian Touring Car events but also rallying, rallycross and sports sedans during the 1970s...	Holden VN Commodore SS Group A Holden VN Commodore The Holden VN Commodore was the sixth model of the Holden Commodore, a full-size car produced by the Australian automotive marque, Holden. It is essentially made out of an Opel donor body mated to either a Buick V6 or Holden V8, depending on the model, with slight tweaks to the front and rear ends...	6	3
John Bowe John Bowe (racing driver) John Bowe is an Australian racing driver, presently racing a 1969 Ford Mustang in the historic series, Touring Car Masters....	18	Shell Ultra-High Racing Dick Johnson Racing Dick Johnson Racing is Australia's oldest operating motor racing team. Founded by Dick Johnson, the team has won seven Australian Touring Car Championship titles and has taken three victories in Australia's hallmark race, the Bathurst 1000...	Ford Sierra RS500	9	4
Peter Brock Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock, AM otherwise known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain" or simply as "Brocky" was one of Australia's best-known and most successful motor racing drivers. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, although he raced vehicles of other...	05	Advantage Racing	Holden VN Commodore SS Group A	7	5
Dick Johnson	17	Shell Ultra-High Racing	Ford Sierra RS500	8	6
Colin Bond Colin Bond Colin John Bond is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team...	8	Caltex CXT Racing	Ford Sierra RS500	10	7
Alan Jones Alan Jones (Formula 1) Alan Stanley Jones MBE is an Australian former Formula One driver. He was the first driver to win a Formula One World Championship with the Williams team, becoming the 1980 World Drivers' Champion....	35	Peter Jackson Racing	Ford Sierra RS500	5	8
Graham Moore	42	Strathfield Car Radios	Holden VN Commodore SS Group A		9
Peter Gazzard	13	Captain Peter Janson	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV		10
Chandra Alim		Indonesian Racing Team	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV		11
Bob Jones	21	Bob Jones	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV		12
John Cotter	52	M3 Motorsport	BMW M3		DNF
Hutomo Mandala Putra Tommy Suharto Tommy Suharto is the youngest son of Suharto, the former President of Indonesia. In 2002 he was found guilty and jailed for giving the order for the assassination/killing of a Supreme Court Judge of the Republic of Indonesia, Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, SH.-Bali Land Scandals:Tommy in the 80s used...		Indonesian Racing Team	Holden VN Commodore SS Group A		DNF
Win Percy Win Percy Winston "Win" Percy is a former motor racing driver from England. He competed in many classes of motorsport during his long career, but is perhaps most famous as one of the greats of touring car racing. Joe Saward of Autosport magazine once described him as being "often regarded as the World's...	16	Holden Racing Team Holden Racing Team The Holden Racing Team is a Melbourne based motor racing team. HRT is the most successful V8 Supercar racing team in the history of the category, having won the drivers championship six times, and the series signature race the Bathurst 1000 seven times...	Holden VN Commodore SS Group A	2	DNF
Tony Longhurst Tony Longhurst Tony Longhurst is an Australian former racing driver and Australian Champion water skier. He is most noted for his career in the Australian Touring Car Championship and V8 Supercar series....	25	Benson & Hedges Racing Tony Longhurst Racing Tony Longhurst Racing is a former V8 Supercar team. The team, based on Queenslands Gold Coast at the Longhurst family owned Dreamworld adventure park, made its debut in Group A touring car racing in the 1988 Australian Touring Car Championship at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway and made its last...	BMW M3 Evolution	4	DNF

External links

• Official V8 Supercar site