The 1990 Australian Touring Car season was the 31st year of touring car racing in Australia since the first runnings of 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 ...

and the fore-runner of the present day

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 Armstrong 500. There were 12 touring car race meetings held during 1990; an eight-round series, the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC); a support programme event at the

1990 Australian Grand Prix The 1990 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Adelaide on 4 November 1990. It was the sixteenth and final race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship, and the 500th race to contribute to the World Drivers' Championship ...

and a three-round series of long-distance races, nicknamed 'enduros', which counted towards both the 1990 Australian Endurance Championship and the 1990 Australian Manufacturers' Championship.

Season review

After two years domination by

Dick Johnson Racing Dick Johnson Racing (formerly DJR Team Penske), is Australia's oldest motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. The team currently fields the #11 and #17 Ford Mustang (sixth generation), Ford Mustang GTs for Anton de Pasqu ...

Ford Sierra The Ford Sierra is a mid-size car or large family car manufactured and marketed by Ford Europe from 1982-1993, designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Robert Lutz and Patrick le Quément — and noted for its aerodynamic styling producing a drag coefficien ...

s, 1990 was to prove much of an upset year with race victories spread across seven teams with Nissan and Holden teams taking wins off the massed privateer Ford teams. The arrival of the 4WD, twin turbo Nissan Skyline GT-R towards the end of the

was enough for Jim Richards to take

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

's first title in a four driver showdown again Ford Sierra threesome, Dick Johnson,

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 the surprising

Colin Bond Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is a retired Australian racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...

who had won the Lakeside and Mallala rounds of the ATCC.

Glenn Seton Glenn Seton (born 5 May 1965) is an Australian racing driver. He won the Australian Touring Car Championship in 1993 and 1997 while driving for his own team. Although he never won the Bathurst 1000 like his father Barry did in 1965, Glenn star ...

took his first race wins as a team owner beginning with 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 co ...

, while the

Holden Racing Team Walkinshaw Andretti United is an Australian motor racing team based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton. The team currently fields two Holden ZB Commodores in the Supercars Championship for Nick Percat and Chaz Mostert, along with a Porsche 91 ...

took a memorable Bathurst win for

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 ...

and

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 ...

outlasting the GT-R and the pack of tyre frying Sierras on a day of attrition.

Larry Perkins Larry Clifton Perkins (born 18 March 1950) is a former racing driver and V8 Supercar team owner from Australia. Biography Early years Growing up on a farm in Cowangie in the Mallee region of Victoria, Larry, the son of racing driver Eddi ...

underlined Holden's return to form by winning

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 ...

s first major touring car race at the end of the season.

Results and standings

Race calendar

The 1990 Australian touring car season consisted of 12 events.

Australian Touring Car Championship

Australian Endurance Championship

Sandown 500

Tooheys 1000

Nissan Sydney 500

Australian Manufacturers' Championship

Ansett Air Freight Challenge

The Ansett Air Freight Challenge was a support event at the

meeting. Nissan Motorsport Australia had intended to run two of the new 4WD, twin-turbo

Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R The is a sports car based on the Nissan Skyline range. The first cars named "Skyline GT-R" were produced between 1969 and 1972 under the model code KPGC10, and were successful in Japanese touring car racing events. This model was followed by ...

's at the meeting, but were reduced to just one car after

Mark Skaife Mark Skaife (born 3 April 1967) is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as a six-time Bath ...

rolled his GT-R at Brewery Bend (turn 10) during practice.1990 Ansett Air Freight Group A Challenge R2 Adelaide
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References

Linked articles contain additional references.

External links

Official V8 Supercar site
{{Australian Touring Car Racing Australian Touring Car Championship

Touring Cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not mo ...