Volvo Dealer Racing, known originally as the Volvo Dealer Team and occasionally as Volvo 850 Racing or Volvo S40 Racing was an Australian motor racing team that first appeared in 1994 racing in Group E production car racing and at the

Bathurst 12 Hour The Bathurst 12 Hour, currently known as the Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour for sponsorship reasons, is an annual endurance race for GT and production cars held at the Mount Panorama Circuit, in Bathurst, Australia. The race was first held in ...

before stepping up to the new Australian Super Touring series in

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 continued racing through to

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

In 1994, Volvo contracted George Shepherd's Roadsafe Motorsport to manage a Group E production car programme.Australia's most iconic Volvo racecar
Speedcafe 10 June 2013 The team first appeared at that year's

, running a Volvo 850 T-5R in Class T and an 850 GLT in Class B. Tony Scott would continue driving the 850 GLT, claiming third in the 1994 Australian Production Car Championship. The T-5R re-appeared at the 1994 Sandown 500 with Kent Youlden driving alongside Dutch Formula 1 driver

Jan Lammers Jan Lammers (Johannes Antonius Lammers, Zandvoort, 2 June 1956) is a racing driver from the Netherlands whose most notable claim to fame is victory in the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours for Silk Cut Jaguar/ TWR, next to a four-season spell in Formula One ...

winning its class and finishing fourth amongst the production cars. In

, the team benched the production cars as the 12 Hour race left Bathurst to move to an end of season race at

Eastern Creek Raceway Sydney Motorsport Park (known until May 2012 as Eastern Creek International Raceway) is a motorsport circuit located on Brabham Drive, Eastern Creek (40-kilometres west of the Sydney CBD), New South Wales, Australia, adjacent to the Western Sy ...

, with the team entering the

Australian Super Touring Championship The Australian Super Touring Championship (formerly known as the Australian 2.0 Litre Touring Car Championship) was a CAMS-sanctioned national motor racing title for Super Touring Cars. History Super Touring was introduced into Australia in 1993 ...

, acquiring a Volvo 850 Estate that had been campaigned in the

1994 British Touring Car Championship The 1994 Auto Trader RAC British Touring Car Championship season was the 37th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season. Changes for 1994 *The number of double header meetings were increased from three to eight *Double headers now awarded f ...

from

Tom Walkinshaw Racing Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) was a motor racing team and engineering firm founded in 1976, in Kidlington, near Oxford, England, by touring car racer Tom Walkinshaw. The company initially handled privateer work before entering works touring car r ...

. 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 ...

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, al ...

was signed to drive a more conventional Volvo 850 sedan. Jim Richards would drive the car to win the

1996 Bathurst 1000 The 1996 AMP Bathurst 1000 was an endurance race for Group 3A 5.0 Litre Touring Cars held on 6 October 1996 at the Mount Panorama Circuit near Bathurst, New South Wales, Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The race, which was the 37th runn ...

support event, before replacing Brock full-time 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 ...

. 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 ...

, the team upgraded to a S40 winning 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 ...

. The team expanded to two S40s in

with Cameron McLean, Mark Adderton and Mark Williamson driving the second car. The team closed at the end of 1999 after a loss of factory support from Volvo.

References

{{Reflist Australian auto racing teams Auto racing teams established in 1994 Auto racing teams disestablished in 1999 1994 establishments in Australia 1999 disestablishments in Australia