The 1972 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title open to Group C Improved Production Touring Cars and

Group E Series Production Touring Cars Group E Series Production Touring Cars was an Australian motor racing category for production based sedans competing with limited modifications. It was current from 1964 to 1972. Although production car racing in Australia had gained momentum with ...

.Australian Title Conditions, 1972 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 86-90 The championship, which was the 13th running of the

Australian Touring Car Championship The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) 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 Repco Supercars Championship awarded the trophy ...

, began at Symmons Plains and ended at Oran Park after eight rounds.Graham Howard & Stewart Wilson, Australian Touring Car Championship, 30 Fabulous Years, 1989 1972 would be the final time the Improved Production cars would contest the ATCC. From 1973, CAMS introduced a new production based

Group C touring car In relation to Australian motorsport, Group C refers to either of two sets of regulations devised by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) for use in Australian Touring Car Racing from 1965 to 1984. These are not to be confused with t ...

formula. Outright cars like the Ford Mustangs,

Chevrolet Camaro The Chevrolet Camaro is a mid-size American automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, classified as a pony car. It first went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed to compete with the Ford Mustang. The Camaro share ...

Norm Beechey Norm Beechey is a retired Australian race car driver, who was given the nickname ''"Stormin Norman"'' by his fans. To some, he was the closest thing Holden had to a star racing driver, before Peter Brock. Beechey competed in the Australian Tou ...

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and

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Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase III The Ford Motor Company Falcon XY GT is a sports sedan based on the Ford Falcon XY. Released in 1970 by Ford Australia, with the GTHO Phase III released in 1971. Some 1,557 units were produced from September 1970 to December 1971 with 300 GTHO Ph ...

would be replaced with production based

Ford Falcon Ford Falcon is an automobile nameplate applied to several vehicles worldwide. * Ford Falcon (North America), an automobile produced by Ford from 1960 to 1970. * Ford Falcon (Argentina), a car built by Ford Argentina from 1962 until 1991. * Fo ...

s and Holden Toranas. Many Improved Production cars would end up racing as

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s in the following years. Defending champion

Bob Jane Robert Frederick Jane (18 December 1929 – 28 September 2018) was an Australian race car driver and prominent entrepreneur and business tycoon. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a ...

won his fourth and final Australian Touring Car Championship in his

Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 The sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro is an American pony car. Produced by automobile manufacturer Chevrolet, it was first introduced to the public on May 16, 2015. Sales started in 2015 for the 2016 model year. The Camaro now utilizes the GM Al ...

. Unlike

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

when Jane's Camaro used the 7.0 litre

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, CAMS rule changes reducing the engine capacity limit to 6000cc him forced to run the 5.7 litre 350 V8. Second in the championship was the Ford Escort Twin Cam Mk.1 of Mike Stillwell whose consistent placings in the under 2.0 litre class saw him finish 11 points behind Jane. Third was

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in his Ford Boss 302 Mustang. Although he was not classified after not scoring a point, the 1972 championship saw

Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, a ...

make his ATCC debut driving a

Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 The Holden Torana is a mid-sized car that was manufactured by Holden from 1967 to 1980. The name apparently comes from an word meaning "to fly" in an unconfirmed Aboriginal Australian language. The original HB series Torana was released in 19 ...

for

Harry Firth Henry Leslie Firth (18 April 1918 – 27 April 2014) was an Australian racing driver and team manager. Firth was a leading race and rally driver during the 1950s and 1960s and continued as an influential team manager with first the Ford works ...

Holden Dealer Team The Holden Dealer Team (HDT) was Holden's semi-official racing team from 1969 until 1986, primarily contesting Australian Touring Car events but also rallying, rallycross and Sports Sedan races during the 1970s. From 1980 the Holden Dealer ...

Teams and drivers

The following drivers competed in the 1972 Australian Touring Car Championship.

Calendar

The 1972 Australian Touring Car Championship was contested over an eight-round series with one race per round.

Classes

Cars competed in two engine capacity classes: * Up to and including 2000cc * Over 2000cc

Points system

Championship points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis for the first six placings in each class at each round. In addition, points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1 basis for the first four outright placings, irrespective of class, at each round. The title was awarded to the driver gaining the highest total of points in any seven of the eight rounds.

Championship standings

Notes and references

External links

1972 Australian Touring Car racing images at www.autopics.com.au

{{Australian Touring Car Racing Australian Touring Car Championship seasons

Touring Cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not mo ...