Longhurst Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the

V8 Supercar The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport. Supercars events take place in all Australian ...

series between

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

History

At the end of 1994,

Tony Longhurst Anthony Lawrence Longhurst (born 1 October 1957 in Sydney) is an Australian racing driver and former Australian Champion water skier. He is most noted for his career in the Australian Touring Car Championship and V8 Supercar series. Longhurst is ...

sold his share in

LoGaMo Racing LoGaMo Racing, also known as Tony Longhurst Racing, was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian touring car racing between 1988 and 1994. The team was initially a collaboration between Tony Longhurst and Frank Gardner, wit ...

, the team he had established in 1988 with Frank Gardner, to Gardner and Terry Morris. This was driven by Longhurst's desire to remain in 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 ...

series while his fellow shareholders wanted to compete in

Super Touring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

. With the support of

Castrol Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for com ...

and

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 ...

, Longhurst established a new team on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

to race in the 1995 Australian Touring Car season, with a

Ford Falcon EF The Ford Falcon (EF) was a full-size car that was produced by Ford Australia from 1994 to 1996. It was the fourth significantly updated iteration of the fifth generation of the Falcon and also included the Ford Fairmont (EF)—the luxury-oriented ...

. Longhurst finished in 11th place. He then teamed with Wayne Park to finish 4th at the

Sandown 500 The Sandown 500 (formally known as the Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The event's name, distance – and the category of cars comp ...

but the pair could only manage 9th at the

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most recen ...

. In

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, the team expanded to two cars with the addition of a customer Falcon EL for Steven Ellery. Longhurst would again finish in 11th place. He then teamed with Ellery to again finish in 4th place at the

. The pair then went on to finish 3rd at the

. In

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, the team again fielded two cars, but a mid-season split with Ellery saw the team return to a one car operation. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, Alan Jones joined the team, however it would be round 3 before he debuted while a new

Ford Falcon EL The Ford Falcon (EL) is a full-size car that was produced by Ford Australia from 1996 to 1998. It was the fifth and final iteration of the fifth generation of the Falcon and also included the Ford Fairmont (EL)—the luxury-oriented version. Th ...

was built. In

, the team only ran a single car again, a Ford Falcon AU. At the end of 1999, Longhurst sold the team to

Brad Jones Racing Brad Jones Racing is an Australian motor racing team owned by Brad Jones based in Albury. The team competes in the Supercars Championship and the Super2 Series. Recently they have also returned to Australian Formula Ford where Brad and Kim be ...

and moved to

Stone Brothers Racing Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the International V8 Supercars Championship between 1998 and 2012. The team was formed in 1998 when Ross and Jim Stone bought Alan Jones's shares in Alan Jones ...

as an employed driver. Longhurst attempted to re-enter the championship in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

by purchasing a licence from

Team Dynamik Team Dynamik was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian V8 Supercar racing between 2001 and 2005. History Owned by Kieran Wills, Adelaide based Team Dynamik debuted in the 2001 with Simon Wills racing an ex Gibson Motorsp ...

, resulting in a lengthy legal battle.

References

{{Reflist Australian auto racing teams Auto racing teams established in 1995 Sports teams in Queensland Supercars Championship teams 1995 establishments in Australia 1999 disestablishments in Australia Sporting teams based on the Gold Coast, Queensland