The 1983 Australian Sports Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of

Group A Sports Cars Group A Sports Cars is an Australian motor racing category that Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, CAMS formulated for sports car racing in Australia. Introduced in 1964, it continues today under the name Group 2A Sports Cars. On introduction ...

.CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, 1983, pages 91-94 It was the fifteenth

Australian Sports Car Championship The Australian Sports Car Championship was the national title for sports car racing drivers sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport from 1969 to 1988. Each championship was contested over a series of races with the exception of ...

. Peter Hopwood, driving the Steve Webb owned

Kaditcha Kaditcha was an automobile manufacturer in Australia. The company, formed by Queensland engineer Barry Lock, made open wheel and sports car racing cars, including cars for Formula 5000, Formula Pacific and Australian Formula 2. Sports cars The pe ...

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

, won the championship from Ray Hanger in a

Rennmax The Rennmax name was applied to a series of open wheel racing cars and sports racing cars constructed by Rennmax Engineering in Sydney, Australia between 1962 and 1978.Tony Davis, The Macquarie Dictionary of Motoring, 1986, pages 402-403 Rennmax ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

. Defending champion Chris Clearihan finished third in his older model Kaditcha Chevrolet. The 1983 championship saw the debut of the Bap Romano owned and driven Kaditcha K583

Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...

, the first Australian Group A Sports Car built with a closed top and Ground effects

aerodynamics Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...

(Clearihan's Kaditcha also appeared with a bolted on closed top in the early rounds of the season but the top was later removed). The K583 would prove to be the fastest car in the field in 1983, and would compete in Class B as the ex-

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

Cosworth DFV V8 was a 3.0 litre engine. However, unreliability and a disqualification for dangerous driving in Round 4 at

Lakeside Lakeside or Lake Side may refer to: Places Australia * Lakeside College, Pakenham, Victoria * Lakeside Joondalup Shopping City, Joondalup, Western Australia * Lakeside, near Reservoir, Victoria * Lakeside International Raceway, Pine Rivers, Quee ...

(Hopwood also received the same penalty at Lakeside) saw Romano only finish sixth in the championship. After finishing the opening round at

Sandown Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom with the resort of Shanklin to the south and the settlement of Lake, Isle of Wight, Lake in between. Together ...

in 2nd place overall and showing that he had the speed to at least match the Kaditcha Chevrolets of Hopwood and Clearihan, the challenge from

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

n Johnnie Walker, driving a 1969 model Elfin ME5, ended after the car was sold to a NSW based enthusiast following the opening round. The car was parked and neither it nor Walker took any further part in the series. Another potential challenger was the Mazda 12A rotary powered Tiga SC80 of Adelaide's Richard Warland (the car was driven in later rounds by open wheel driver John Smith). The car proved quick but poor reliability from the Barry Jones built Mazda engine, the cars unnerving habit of shedding rear wheels, plus a big crash by Smith in the final round at Winton put paid to the cars chances.Death of a Tiga, www.youtube.com
/ref>

Calendar

The championship was contested over five rounds with two heats per round.Barry Catford, Australian Sports Car Championship, Australian Motor Racing Yearbook, 1983/84, pages 242-253 * Both heats of the Lakeside round were won by Bap Romano from Peter Hopwood, however both drivers were excluded from the round for improper driving.

Classes and points system

Cars were classified into three classes based on engine displacement. * Class A : Up to 1.6 litres * Class B : 1.6 to 3 litres * Class C : Over 3 litres Points were allocated for ''outright'' placings gained in each race with Scale A used for drivers of Class A cars, Scale B for drivers of Class B cars and Scale C for drivers of Class C cars. A driver's points from both races at each round were aggregated and the result divided by two to arrive at the championship points allocation for the driver at that round.

Championship standings

{, class="wikitable" generated with :de:Wikipedia:Helferlein/VBA-Macro for EXCEL tableconversion V1.4<\hiddentext> , - style="font-weight:bold" ! Position ! Driver ! No.Official Programme, Adelaide International Raceway, Sunday, 1 May 1983 ! Car ! Entrant ! Class ! Rd1

! Rd2

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

! Rd3
Oran Park ! Rd4

! Rd5
Winton ! Total , - , align="center" , 1 , Peter Hopwood , align="center" , 22 ,

, Steve Webb , align="center" , C , align="center" , 25 , align="center" , 24 , align="center" , 24 , align="center" , - , align="center" , 23 , align="center" , 96 , - , align="center" , 2 , Ray Hanger , align="center" , 24 ,

Ford BDA Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industries ...

, Ray Hanger , align="center" , A , align="center" , 20 , align="center" , - , align="center" , 21½ , align="center" , 25½ , align="center" , 22½ , align="center" , 89½ , - , align="center" , 3 ,

Chris Clearihan Christopher Alfred Clearihan (born 10 September 1949) is an Australian motor racing driver and Air Race pilot. Motor racing Clearihan's first race car was the Canon Bolwell Nagari. It was with this car, previously operated by Terry Spooner, tha ...

, align="center" , 1 ,

, Canberra Sports Car Club , align="center" , C , align="center" , 11½ , align="center" , 20 , align="center" , 21½ , align="center" , 25 , align="center" , 6½ , align="center" , 84½ , - , align="center" , 4 , Carl Gibson , align="center" , 11 ,

Repco Repco is an Australian automotive engineering/retailer company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and was for many years known for reconditioning engines and for specialized manufacturing, for which they gained a high ...

, Carl Gibson , align="center" , B , align="center" , 6½ , align="center" , 11½ , align="center" , 10½ , align="center" , - , align="center" , 21½ , align="center" , 50 , - , align="center" , 5 , Bernie Van Elsen , align="center" , 14 ,

Bolwell Nagari The Bolwell Nagari is a sports car produced by Bolwell in Australia. The original Mk VIII Nagari was built from 1970 to 1974 and the Mk X Nagari was launched in 2008. Mk VIII Nagari Nagari is an aboriginal word meaning "flowing," and the Bolw ...

, Bernie Van Elsen , align="center" , C , align="center" , 17½ , align="center" , 13 , align="center" , 13 , align="center" , - , align="center" , - , align="center" , 43½ , - , align="center" , 6 , Bap Romano , align="center" , 8 , Kaditcha K583

, Kaditcha Factory Racing Team , align="center" , B , align="center" , - , align="center" , 14 , align="center" , - , align="center" , - , align="center" , 28 , align="center" , 42 , - , align="center" , 7 , Robert Pitman , align="center" , 38 , U2 Clubman , R. PitmanProgram, Sandown, 20th Feb. '83 , align="center" , A , align="center" , 14 , align="center" , - , align="center" , - , align="center" , - , align="center" , 14½ , align="center" , 28½ , - , align="center" , 8 , Paul Scott , align="center" , 6 ,

Cosworth Vega The Chevrolet Cosworth Vega is a subcompact four-passenger automobile produced by Chevrolet for the 1975 and 1976 model years. It is a limited-production version of the Chevrolet Vega, with higher performance. Chevrolet developed the car's all- ...

, Pool Fab , align="center" , B , align="center" , - , align="center" , 11½ , align="center" , - , align="center" , 13 , align="center" , - , align="center" , 24½ , - , align="center" , 9 , Gregory Gardiner , align="center" , , Bulant , , align="center" , A , align="center" , - , align="center" , - , align="center" , 7 , align="center" , 14½ , align="center" , - , align="center" , 21½ , - style="font-size:10pt" , align="center" , = , Johnnie Walker , align="center" , 83 , Elfin ME5 , J.Walker , align="center" , C , align="center" , 21½ , align="center" , - , align="center" , - , align="center" , - , align="center" , - , align="center" , 21½ * The above table lists only the top ten pointscorers.

References

External links

Sports Cars 1983, www.autopics.com.au

1983 Australian Sportscar Championship - Rd 4 Lakeside Heat 1, www.youtube.com
Australian Sports Car Championship Sports Car Championship