The 1985 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 ...

. It was the 17th

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 ...

Conditions for Australian Titles, 1985 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 86-89 and the first to be run concurrently with the

Australian GT Championship The Australian GT Championship is a Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, CAMS-sanctioned national title for drivers of GT cars, held annually from 1960 to 1963, from 1982 to 1985 and from 2005. Each championship up to and including the 1963 ...

.Barry Catford, Australian Sports/GT Championship, Australian Motor Racing Year, 1985/86, pages 220-233 1982 Australian Sports Car Champion

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 ...

won his second national title, driving a

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 ...

. Only 2.5 points behind Clearihan was Terry Hook in the ex-

Guy Edwards Guy Richard Goronwy Edwards, QGM (born 30 December 1942) is a former racing driver from England. Best known for his sportscar and British Formula One career, as well as for brokering sponsorship deals, Edwards participated in 17 World Champion ...

owned Chevrolet powered

Lola T610 The Lola T610 was a ground effect Group C sports prototype race car, designed, developed and built by British manufacturer Lola, for sports car racing, specifically the IMSA GTP Championship, World Sportscar Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans ...

(this car had previously competed at

Le Mans Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

and

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

), while finishing 3rd in his

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

powered JWS C2 (an

FIA FIA is the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (English: International Automobile Federation), the world's governing body for all forms of motor sport where four or more wheels are used. Fia or FIA may also refer to: People * Fia Backst ...

Group C2 Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top tourin ...

sports car) was Jeff Harris. The 1985 ASCC saw the début of the

Veskanda C1 The Veskanda C1 (more commonly known as just "Veskanda") is a one-off, Australian designed and built, mid-engined closed top racing car built in 1985 to CAMS Group A Sports Car specifications. Powered by a Chevrolet V8 engine, the car is general ...

Chevrolet (using a 5.0L

Formula 5000 Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars tha ...

engine) and driven by dual Australian Drivers' Champion John Bowe. Built in

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 ...

by K&A Engineering and owned by ASCC driver Bernie Van Elsen, the Veskanda would go on to be regarded as Australia's fastest ever sports car and one of the countries fastest ever race cars. The Veskanda made its race debut in Round 4 at its home circuit, the

Adelaide International Raceway The Adelaide International Raceway (also known as Adelaide International or AIR) is a permanent circuit owned by Australian Motorsport Club Limited under the auspices of the Bob Jane Corporation. The circuit is located north of Adelaide in So ...

where Bowe failed to finish, though he would win Round 5 at Melbourne's

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, easily defeating the previously dominant Clearihan Kaditcha and Hook Lola. Bowe finished in 7th place in the championship with 25 points. The 1984 Champion, Queenslander Bap Romano driving his 3.9L

Cosworth DFL The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. The name is an abbreviation of ''Double Four Valve'', the engine being a V8 development of the earlier four-cylinder FVA, which had fo ...

powered

Romano WE84 The Romano WE84 is an Australia, Australian designed and built, mid-engined closed top racing car built to Confederation of Australian Motorsport, CAMS Group A Sports Cars, Group A Sports Car specifications. The car began its life as the Kaditcha ...

was expected to bring a strong challenge in defence of his title despite now running in the outright class due to the larger

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 ...

V8, but unreliability saw his challenge fade as the series progressed (prior to December 1984 the Romano WE84 had used an ex-

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

3.0 L

Cosworth DFV The DFV is an internal combustion engine that was originally produced by Cosworth for Formula One motor racing. The name is an abbreviation of ''Double Four Valve'', the engine being a V8 development of the earlier four-cylinder FVA, which had fo ...

V8 engine which put the car in Class B). In the defence of his title, Romano finished in 6th place having only scored 36.5 points.

Schedule

The championship was contested over a six-round series.1985 Championship Results, Australian Motor Racing Year, 1985/86, pages 315-316

Classes

Cars competed in three engine capacity classes. * Up to 1.6 litres * 1.6 to 3 litres * Over 3 litres

Points system

For single race rounds, championship points were awarded to the top twenty outright placegetters in the

Sports Car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

category, based on the following three tier structure: For rounds contested over two heats, the same points system was applied to each heat, with the aggregate points achieved by each driver divided by two to determine the championship points allocation for the round.

Results

{, class="wikitable" generated with :de:Wikipedia:Helferlein/VBA-Macro for EXCEL tableconversion V1.7<\hiddentext> , - style="font-weight:bold" , width="44" height="13" align="center" , Position , width="100" , Driver , width="32" align="center" , No. , width="130" , Car , width="100" , EntrantOfficial Programme, Adelaide International Raceway, Sunday, June 30, 1985 , width="75" , Class , width="17" align="center" , R1 , width="26" align="center" , R2 , width="26" align="center" , R3 , width="17" align="center" , R4 , width="17" align="center" , R5 , width="17" align="center" , R6 , width="29" align="center" , Total , - , height="13" align="center" , 1 ,

, align="center" , 22 ,

, Chris Clearihan , Over 3 litre , align="center" , 25 , align="center" , 25 , align="center" , 11.5 , align="center" , 23 , align="center" , 20 , align="center" , 23 , align="center" , 127.5 , - , height="13" align="center" , 2 , Terry Hook , align="center" , 15 ,

, Terry Hook , Over 3 litre , align="center" , 23 , align="center" , 10 , align="center" , 24 , align="center" , 25 , align="center" , 23 , align="center" , 20 , align="center" , 125 , - , height="13" align="center" , 3 , Jeff Harris , align="center" , 65 , JWS C2

, Jeff Harris , 1.6 to 3 litre , align="center" , 17 , align="center" , 21.5 , align="center" , 14 , align="center" , 20 , align="center" , 20 , align="center" , 20 , align="center" , 112.5 , - , height="13" align="center" , 4 , Ray Hanger , align="center" , 5 & 8 ,

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 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 , 1.6 to 3 litre , align="center" , 23 , align="center" , 13 , align="center" , 23 , align="center" , - , align="center" , 15 , align="center" , - , align="center" , 74 Note: The above table lists only the first four placings in the championship.

References

External links

1985 Sports Car racing images at www.autopics.com.au
Australian Sports Car Championship Sports Car Championship