The 1985 Australian Drivers' Championship was a CAMS sanctioned

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n motor racing title open to racing cars complying with

Formula Mondial Formula Mondial was an international motor racing category which was introduced to replace both Formula Atlantic and the similar Formula Pacific''The Macquarie Dictionary of Motoring'', 1986, page 171 in 1983.''Australian Motor Racing Yearbook, 198 ...

.Conditions for Australian Titles, 1985 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 86 to 88 It was the 29th

Australian Drivers' Championship The Australian Drivers' Championship is a motor racing championship contested annually since 1957 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category. This category was determined by the Confederation of Australia ...

and the fourth to be contested by

Formula Pacific Formula Pacific was a motor racing category which was used in the Pacific Basin area from 1977 to 1982. It specified a single-seat, open-wheeler chassis powered by a production-based four-cylinder engine of under 1600cc capacity. The formula was bas ...

-based

Australian Formula 1 Australian Formula 1 (AF1) was a motor sport category for open-wheeler racing cars which was current in Australia from 1970 to 1983. AF1 was introduced by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport in 1970, initially restricting cars to non-supe ...

cars or by the similar

cars. The championship winner was awarded the 1985 CAMS Gold Star. Tasmanian driver John Bowe successfully defended his 1984 Australian Drivers' Championship crown in his

Ralt Ralt was a manufacturer of single-seater racing cars, founded by ex-Jack Brabham associate Ron Tauranac after he sold out his interest in Brabham to Bernie Ecclestone. Ron and his brother had built some specials in Australia in the 1950s under ...

RT4 Ford. Bowe dominated, winning the first four rounds of the series to take a twelve-point victory over Peter Hopwood (

RT4 Ford). Peter Macrow (

Cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large Felidae, cat and the Fastest animals, fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, wit ...

Mk.8 Ford) was a very distant third in the series, only moving into the position when he won the final round at

Sandown Park Sandown Park is a horse racing course and leisure venue in Esher, Surrey, England, located in the outer suburbs of London. It hosts 5 Grade One National Hunt races and one Group 1 flat race, the Eclipse Stakes. It regularly has horse racin ...

Calendar

The championship was contested over a five-round series with one race per round.Barry Catford, Australian Drivers Championship, Australian Motor Racing Year 1985/86, pages 208 to 219

Points system

Championship points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the first six placegetters at each round.

Championship results

References

External links

Image of the Ralt RT4/85 of championship winner John Bowe at the Oran Park round, primotipo.com, as archived at web.archive.org
{{Australian Drivers' Championship Australian Drivers' Championship Drivers' Championship