The Volvo Dealer Team was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian

touring car racing 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 mov ...

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 ...

winning 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 ...

. The team was managed by John Sheppard and had its base at the Calder Park Raceway in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

History

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

based driver

Robbie Francevic Robert James Frančević, (born on 18 September 1941 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a retired racing driver who featured prominently in New Zealand and Australia during the 1970s and 1980s. His biggest wins were the inaugural Wellington 500 street r ...

won the opening round of the opening two rounds of the 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship, driving the

Mark Petch Motorsport Mark Petch Motorsport was a motor racing team that competed in Australian and New Zealand motorsport. History Mark Petch Motorsport was formed in 1985 by former New Zealand National Championship winner Mark Petch who by 1985 had become a wealth ...

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 ...

that he had campaigned in Australia throughout

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

based millionaire businessmen Mark Petch then sold the team to Volvo Australia and it was re-branded as the Volvo Dealer Team with former

Holden Dealer Team The Holden Dealer Team (HDT) was Holden's semi-official racing team from 1969 until 1986, primarily contesting Australian Touring Car events but also rallying, rallycross and Sports Sedan races during the 1970s. From 1980 the Holden Dealer T ...

manager John Sheppard appointed to lead the team. The team added a new right hand drive 240T purchased from Europe from Round 4 of the championship 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 ...

for Francevic to drive while his 1985 endurance co-driver John Bowe joined the team full time and drove the original left hand drive car. Francevic's win in Adelaide would prove to be the only race win for the short lived team.Australia's most iconic Volvo racecar
Speedcafe 10 June 2013 Francevic would go on to win the ATCC, the first time the championship would be won by a turbo powered car and the first time it would be won by a non-Australian resident (Francevic continued to live in Auckland and only commuted to Australia for races and some private testing). However simmering tensions between the big Kiwi and Sheppard, with Francevic being unhappy about the increasing uncompetitiveness of the 240T against the new V8 Group A Holden Commodore and turbo

Nissan Skyline 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 i ...

's which meant he won the title with consistent placings rather than the race wins he wanted, would boil over 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 co ...

with Francevic being fired by Sheppard the day after the race following his refusal to drive a newly built car (claiming it would be uncompetitive having not even practiced) as well as his controversial comments to the media on the morning of the race. All of this elevated dual Australian Drivers' Champion Bowe to lead driver in his first full season of touring car racing. Bowe was joined in the lead car for the 1986 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst by his former

open wheel An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

rival

Alfredo Costanzo Alfredo Costanzo (born 3 January 1943, in Calabria, Italy) is a retired Italian born Australian racing driver. From 1980 to 1983 Costanzo won four Australian Drivers' Championships in a row, equalling the record set by Bib Stillwell from 1962 ...

while the second car would be driven by New Zealand drivers

Graham McRae Graham McRae (5 March 1940 – 4 August 2021) was a racing driver from New Zealand. He achieved considerable success in Formula 5000 racing, winning the Tasman Series each year from 1971 to 1973, and also the 1972 L&M Continental 5000 Champion ...

and

Neville Crichton Neville Alexander Crichton is a New Zealand businessman who was also a competitor in Australasian motor and yacht racing. Biography Born in New Zealand in 1945, Crichton left school aged 14 and entered the automotive industry. In 1972, he open ...

. Bowe qualified his 240T in 5th place, but a troubled run for the team saw the lead car out of the race on lap 113 while the second car finished 7 laps down in 11th place. At the end of 1986, Volvo withdrew from global motorsport resulting in the team being disbanded and the cars being returned to Sweden.

References

{{Reflist Australian auto racing teams Auto racing teams established in 1986 Sports clubs disestablished in 1986 Sports teams in Victoria (Australia) 1986 establishments in Australia 1986 disestablishments in Australia