The 1995 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title for 5.0 Litre Touring Cars[1] complying with Group 3A regulations.[2] The championship, which was the 36th Australian Touring Car Championship,[3] was contested over a ten rounds between February and August 1995.[4] The series was won by John Bowe driving a Dick Johnson Racing Ford EF Falcon.
Channel 7's 1995 coverage was led by Mike Raymond for the final time before his retirement from full-time broadcasting and he was once again joined by Allan Moffat and Mark Oastler in the broadcast booth with Andy Raymond in pit-lane.
The broadcast was again on same-day delay due to the network's coverage of the AFL across the nation.
The Ford EF Falcon and Holden VR Commodore were both homologated for competition. The changes were largely cosmetic, allowing teams to reskin their existing EB Falcons and VP Commodores. With no material gain in performance expected, many of the privateer teams elected to retain their cars in EB and VP trim.
In January 1995 Dunlop, who supplied tyres to Dick Johnson Racing, Perkins Engineering and Wayne Gardner Racing as well as all of the privateer teams, had their factory in Kobe destroyed in the Great Hanshin earthquake. While production was shifted to England, teams had to ration their tyre stocks. To help the situation, Bridgestone later relaxed its policy of only supplying contracted teams, providing tyres to James Rosenberg Racing and Romano Racing at the final round.
Defending champion Mark Skaife missed the opening round of the championship after sustaining injuries in a testing accident ahead of the Winfield Triple Challenge at Eastern Creek that destroyed a Gibson Motorsport VR Commodore.
The following drivers and teams competed in the 1995 Australian Touring Car Championship:
Team | Vehicle/s | No | Driver |
---|---|---|---|
Gibson Motorsport | Holden VR Commodore | 1 | Mark Skaife |
2 | Jim Richards | ||
Lansvale Racing Team | Holden VP Commodore | 3 | Trevor Ashby Steve Reed |
Wayne Gardner Racing | Holden VR Commodore | 4 | Wayne Gardner |
7 | Neil Crompton | ||
Holden Racing Team | Holden VR Commodore | 05 | Peter Brock |
015 | Tomas Mezera | ||
Pinnacle Motorsport | Holden VP Commodore Holden VR Commodore | 6 | Allan Grice |
21 | Tony Scott | ||
Glenn Seton Racing | Ford EF Falcon | 6 | Allan Grice |
30 | |||
Ford EB Falcon Ford EF Falcon | 35 | Alan Jones | |
Larkham Motor Sport | Ford EF Falcon | 10 | Mark Larkham |
Perkins Engineering | Holden VR Commodore | 11 | Larry Perkins |
Holden VP Commodore | 12 | Greg Crick | |
Phil Ward Racing | Holden VP Commodore Holden VR Commodore | 13 | Phil Ward |
Dick Johnson Racing | Ford EF Falcon | 17 | Dick Johnson |
18 | John Bowe | ||
19 | Steven Johnson | ||
Palmer Promotions | Holden VR Commodore | 20 | Ian Palmer |
Romano Racing | Holden VP Commodore | 24 | Paul Romano |
Longhurst Racing | Ford EF Falcon | 25 | Tony Longhurst |
Terry Finnigan | Holden VP Commodore | 27 | Terry Finnigan |
Playscape Racing | Ford EB Falcon | 28 | Kevin Waldock |
Ian Love | Holden VR Commodore | 31 | Ian Love |
Pro-Duct Racing | Holden VP Commodore | 33 | Bob Pearson |
Claude Gorgi | Ford EB Falcon | 34 | Claude Giorgi |
Schembri Motorsport | Holden VP Commodore | 36 | Neil Schembri |
46 | Greg Young | ||
Scotty Taylor Racing | Holden VP Commodore | 37 | Bill Attard Alan Taylor |
James Rosenberg Racing | Holden VP Commodore | 38 | Mark Poole |
Challenge Motorsport | Holden VP Commodore Holden VR Commodore | 39 | Chris Smerdon |
Group Motorsport | Holden VP Commodore | 40 | George Ayoub |
Garry Willmington Performance | Ford EB Falcon | 41 | Garry Willmington |
Daily Planet Racing | Ford EB Falcon | 47 | John Trimbole |
Alcair Racing | Holden VR Commodore | 49 | David Attard |
Parsons Transport | Holden VR Commodore | 55 | David "Truckie" Parsons |
Novocastrian Motorsport | Holden VP Commodore | 62 | Wayne Russell |
Pace Racing | Holden VP Commodore | 74 | Kevin Heffernan |
Barbagallo Motorsport | Holden VR Commodore | 77 | Alf Barbagallo |
Bill O'Brien | Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV | 88 | Bill O'Brien |
Allan McCarthy | Holden VR Commodore | 96 | Allan McCarthy |
The championship was contested over a ten-round series. Each round featured a "Peter Jackson Dash", a short sprint race which was restricted to the top ten cars from qualifying, and two main races which were open to all competitors. Unlike previous seasons, the dash did not set the grid order for the main races. The Amaroo Park round was replaced by a round at Mount Panorama which held an ATCC round for the first time since 1972.
Rd. | Circuit | Location / state | Date | Round winner | Car | Team | Report | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sandown International Raceway | Melbourne, Victoria | 3 - 5 Feb | Larry Perkins | Holden VR Commodore | Perkins Engineering | Report | |
2 | Symmons Plains Raceway | Launceston, Tasmania | 24 - 26 Feb | John Bowe | Ford EF Falcon | Dick Johnson Racing | Report | |
3 | Mount Panorama Circuit | Bathurst, New South Wales | 10 - 12 Mar | John Bowe | Ford EF Falcon | Dick Johnson Racing | Report | |
4 | Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit | Phillip Island, Victoria | 7 - 9 Apr | Glenn Seton | Ford EF Falcon | Glenn Seton Racing | ||
5 | Lakeside International Raceway | Brisbane, Queensland | 21 - 23 Apr | Glenn Seton | Ford EF Falcon | Glenn Seton Racing | ||
6 | Winton Motor Raceway | Benalla, Victoria | 19–21 May | John Bowe | Ford EF Falcon | Dick Johnson Racing | ||
7 | Eastern Creek Raceway | Sydney, New South Wales | 26–28 May | Mark Skaife | Holden VR Commodore | Gibson Motorsport | ||
8 | Mallala Motor Sport Park | Mallala, South Australia | 7 - 9 Jul | Glenn Seton | Ford EF Falcon | Glenn Seton Racing | ||
9 | Barbagallo Raceway | Perth, Western Australia | 14 - 16 Jul | Glenn Seton | Ford EF Falcon | Glenn Seton Racing | ||
10 | Oran Park Raceway | Sydney, New South Wales | 4 - 6 Aug | John Bowe | Ford EF Falcon | Dick Johnson Racing |
Rounds were won by John Bowe (4), Glenn Seton (4), Larry Perkins (1) and Mark Skaife (1). Going into the final round Bowe, Seton and Peter Brock were in contention with Bowe prevailing.
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Note: Race 1 at the Phillip Island round was stopped before full race distance due to multiple accidents brought about by heavy rain, and only half points were awarded.[7]
The Motorsport News / Dunlop Privateers Cup was won by David Attard.[8]
1995 Australian Touring Car season