Roadways Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian Touring Car racing in the 1980s. It also competed in the 1986

European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World ...

Roadways Racing

Roadways Racing’s origins can be traced back to 1976 when Tasmanian bituminous surfacing company Roadways became the title sponsor of the Gown-Hindhaugh team that raced Holden Toranas and

Commodores Commodores are an American funk and soul band, which were at their peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in ...

in Australian Touring Car racing. In 1981 Roadways’ proprietor Ian Harrington bought the team. With the end of

Group C 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 touri ...

in 1984 and son Steve moving to Europe to compete in Formula 3, Harrington closed the team.

Roadways Racing Services

In 1985 former Roadways Racing team manager Les Small formed Roadways Racing Services. The team prepared cars for other drivers before making its race debut at the 1985 Sandown 500. In

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

Roadways entered the

with

Allan Grice Allan Maxwell Grice (born 21 October 1942), known to motor-racing fans as "Gricey", is an Australian former racing driver and politician, most famous for twice winning the prestigious Bathurst 1000 (1986 and 1990), and as a privateer driver o ...

sharing the driving with

Graeme Bailey Graeme Alfred Bailey (born 11 July 1943 in Ourimbah, New South Wales), is an Australian retired racing driver, best known as co-winner of the 1986 Bathurst 1000. Career Group C Bailey's career emerged in the late 1970s, becoming a front runn ...

and Michel Delcourt. Although funding was tight, Grice lead a number of races and usually out qualified the Mobil Holden Dealer Team Commodore of

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 ...

and

Allan Moffat Allan George Moffat OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins in the Sandown 500 and his four ...

. During Round 3 of the ETCC at

Hockenheim Hockenheim () is a town in northwest Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about 20 km south of Mannheim and 10 km west of Walldorf. It is located in the Upper Rhine valley on the tourist theme routes "Baden Asparagus Route" () and Bertha Benz M ...

, Grice had a dice for the lead with the factory backed

Volvo 240T The Volvo 200 Series (or 240 and 260 Series) is a range of mid-size cars produced by Swedish company Volvo Cars from 1974 until 1993, with more than 2.8 million total units sold worldwide. Like the Volvo 140 Series (1966 to 1974), from which it ...

turbo's of

Johnny Cecotto Johnny Alberto Cecotto Persello (born 25 January 1956), better known as Johnny Cecotto, is a Venezuelan former professional Grand Prix motorcycle racer and auto racer. He rose to prominence as a teenage prodigy in 1975 when he became the you ...

and Ulf Granberg until a collision with a spinning backmarker ended his race with heavy damage to the front of the car. During the dice, Grice set a new touring car track record for the 6.823 km (4.24 mi) circuit where they held the

German Grand Prix The German Grand Prix (german: Großer Preis von Deutschland) was a motor race that took place most years since 1926, with 75 races having been held. The race has been held at only three venues throughout its history; the Nürburgring in Rh ...

. His time of 2:24.74 would stand until 2000. Roadways also prepared a customer car for Bailey in which he contested a few rounds of the 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship and teamed with Grice to win the

1986 Bathurst 1000 The 1986 James Hardie 1000 was an endurance motor race held on 5 October 1986 at the Mount Panorama Circuit, just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The race, which was the 27th running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race, was ...

. After a plan to contest the

1987 World Touring Car Championship The 1987 World Touring Car Championship season was the inaugural World Touring Car Championship season. It commenced on 22 March 1987 and ended on 15 November after eleven races. The championship was open to Touring Cars complying with FIA Group A ...

with a

Nissan Skyline DR30 RS The is a brand of automobile originally produced by the Prince Motor Company starting in 1957, and then by Nissan after the two companies merged in 1967. After the merger, the Skyline and its larger counterpart, the Nissan Gloria, were sold in ...

fell through, Roadways and Grice returned to compete in the

1987 Australian Touring Car Championship The 1987 Australian Touring Car Championship was a motor racing competition which was open to Touring Cars complying with regulations as defined by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport and based on FIA Group A rules. The championship, whi ...

with backing from

Bob Jane T-Marts Bob Jane T-Marts is a chain of tyre stores founded by former race car driver Bob Jane in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1965. The company has grown to encompass over 100 franchises across Australia. Overview The company remains an independe ...

and Holden Motorsport, originally with a

Holden VK Commodore SS Group A The Holden Commodore (VK) is a mid-size car that was produced by Holden from 1984 to 1986. It was the fourth iteration of the first generation of the Holden Commodore and introduced the luxury variant, Holden Calais (VK) sedan. Overview The ...

that the team had been so successful with in 1986 before upgrading to the VL model Group A Commodore early in the season. Grice put in some solid performances in the

, his first full championship run since

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 TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

, but could only finish in 8th place. Grice was then joined by British driver

Win Percy Winston "Win" Percy (born 28 September 1943, near Tolpuddle, Dorset) is a former motor racing driver from England. Percy was British Touring Car Champion three times, and at the time of his retirement was the most successful non-Antipodean drive ...

for the 1987 Sandown 500 where the car was out on just lap 2, before being the leading Holden qualifier and runner for the first half of the

1987 James Hardie 1000 The 1987 James Hardie 1000 was an endurance race for Group A Touring Cars, staged on 4 October 1987 at the Mount Panorama Circuit, near Bathurst, in New South Wales, Australia. The race was the eighth round of the inaugural World Touring C ...

, running in either 2nd or 3rd place behind the Eggenberger

Ford Sierra RS500 The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth is a high-performance version of the Ford Sierra that was built by Ford Europe from 1986 to 1992. It was the result of a Ford Motorsport project with the purpose of producing an outright winner for Group A racing in ...

's until a rear axle failure on lap 96 ended their race while in a strong second place. With Grice driving a

Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R The is a brand of automobile originally produced by the Prince Motor Company starting in 1957, and then by Nissan after the two companies merged in 1967. After the merger, the Skyline and its larger counterpart, the Nissan Gloria, were sold in ...

for the Howard Marsden run Nissan Europe team in the 1988 European Touring Car Championship, the team sat out most of the season, only competing 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 rece ...

and

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 ...

with two TWR Commodore VLs, one for Grice and now regular co-driver Percy and one that had been built for

Garry Rogers Garry Rogers Motorsport is an Australian motor racing team. It is owned by retired racing driver Garry Rogers who began the team to further his own racing efforts. Based in Melbourne, originally out of a Nissan dealership owned by Rogers, the te ...

. In 1989 Roadways completed a limited campaign with Grice driving at Winton, Bathurst and

. At the tight Winton circuit in a wet-dry-wet race, Grice put in a great showing and even led at one stage before eventually finishing 4th being the only top 10 driver not to change tyres during the race. Grice's 4th place was also the highest placing by a Holden driver in the 1989 Australian Touring Car Championship1989 Australian GP Support Race
Touringcar.net By this stage Roadways had diversified into preparing AUSCARs and NASCARs. In a break from its Holden traditions, Roadways built a Ford EB Falcon in

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

for the new 5.0L V8 series, but it never appeared on track. The business has since been rebranded Advanced Vehicle Design and continues to manufacture components for racing cars in various categories including the

V8 Ute Racing Series The V8 Ute Racing Series, known originally as the V8 BRute Utes was an Australian motor racing series for utilities, derived from the Australian Production Car Championship. It was conceived in 2000 by PROCAR chief and owner Ross Palmer, V8 Ute P ...

Bathurst 1000 Win

References

{{Reflist Australian auto racing teams Sports teams in Victoria (Australia)