1992 Australian Touring Car Championship

The 1992 Australian Touring Car Championship was an Australian motor racing competition for Group 3A Touring Cars,^[1] commonly known as Group A cars. It was sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport as an Australian National Title.^[2] The championship began on 23 February at Amaroo Park Raceway and ended on 21 June at Oran Park Raceway after nine rounds. It was the 33rd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship.^[3]

Mark Skaife, driving a Nissan Skyline GT-R for Gibson Motorsport, won his first Australian Touring Car Championship. His teammate and defending series champion Jim Richards finished second, with BMW M3 driver Tony Longhurst in third place.

Although Mark Skaife was the overall winner of the opening round at Amaroo Park, Peter Brock's win in Heat 1 of the round in his Mobil 1 Racing Holden VN Commodore SS Group A was the first race win by a Holden in the ATCC since Brock had won Round 6 of the 1986 ATCC at Surfers Paradise.

In an effort to reduce costs and to even out the cars, CAMS imposed a number of changes for 1992. Notably, the Holden Commodores and Ford Sierra RS500's were restricted to a 7,500 rev limit and the BMW M3's had an extra 50 kg added to their minimum weight limit.

However the biggest change came to the Nissan GT-R's. Before the start of the season the cars were given an extra 40 kg, bringing them up to a total of 1400 kg. CAMS also directed that the cars were to run Formula One style pop-off valves on the twin turbos to restrict their power, bringing them down from 1991's 640 bhp (477 kW; 649 PS) to around 450 bhp (336 kW; 456 PS). Gibson Motorsport continually protested against the imposed penalties on the car (after winning the ATCC the cars were given an extra 100 kg to bring them 1500), and even took CAMS to court (unsuccessfully) in a bid to be able to run the GT-R as they were in 1991 claiming that they were no longer competitive. However most saw this as a false claim since the team won both the ATCC and the Tooheys 1000.

The following teams and drivers competed in the championship:

Team	Manufacturer	Car model	No	Driver
Winfield Team Nissan	Nissan	Skyline R32 GT-R	1	Jim Richards
			2	Mark Skaife
Lansvale Racing Team	Holden	VN Commodore SS Group A SV	3	Trevor Ashby Steve Reed
GIO Racing	Nissan	Skyline R32 GT-R	4	Mark Gibbs
	Holden	VN Commodore SS Group A SV	21	Mark Gibbs Rohan Onslow
Mobil 1 Racing	Holden	VN Commodore SS Group A SV	05	Peter Brock
			7	Neil Crompton
Alf Grant	Nissan	Skyline HR31 GTS-R	6	Tim Grant
Caltex CXT Racing	Ford	Sierra RS500	8	Colin Bond
Perkins Engineering	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	11	Larry Perkins
Ampol Max 3 Racing	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	12	Bob Jones
Warren Jonsson	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	14	Warren Jonsson
Shell Ultra-Hi Racing	Ford	Sierra RS500	17	Dick Johnson
			18	John Bowe
Benson & Hedges Racing	BMW	M3 Evolution II	20	Alan Jones
			23	Paul Morris
			25	Tony Longhurst
Wayne Douglass	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	22	John English
Terry Finnigan	Holden	VN Commodore SS Group A SV	27	Terry Finnigan
Playscape Racing	Ford	Sierra RS500	28	Kevin Waldock
Peter Jackson Racing	Ford	Sierra RS500	30	Glenn Seton
			35	Wayne Park David Parsons
Phil Johnson	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	31	Phil Johnson
Pro-Duct Racing	Holden	VN Commodore SS Group A SV	33	Bob Pearson
Ron Masing	Mitsubishi	Starion	36	Ron Masing
Brian Callaghan	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	37	Brian Callaghan Jr.
Challenge Motorsport	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	39	Chris Smerdon
John Leeson	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	40	John Leeson
Daily Planet Racing	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	41	Andrew Harris
Garry Willmington Performance	Toyota	Supra Turbo	41	Garry Willmington
Stuart McColl	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	44	Stuart McColl
Ian Love	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	45	Ian Love
Bryan Sala	Ford	Sierra RS500	50	Bryan Sala
Mike Steele	Ford	Sierra RS500	55	Mike Steele
Holden Racing Team	Holden	VN Commodore SS Group A SV	61	Tomas Mezera
Reda Awadullah	Holden	VL Commodore SS Group A SV	68	Reda Awadullah
Adrian Brooke	Toyota	Corolla SX	72	Brad Stratton
Frank Binding	Toyota	Corolla SX	74	Frank Binding
Barbagallo Motorsport	Holden	VN Commodore SS Group A SV	77	Alf Barbagallo
John Holmes	Toyota	Corolla SX	78	John Holmes
Scotty Taylor Racing	Mitsubishi	Starion	86	Stephen Bell
Malcolm Rea	Toyota	Sprinter	88	Malcolm Rea

The championship was contested over a nine rounds series in six different states with two heats per round.^[4]

Rd.	Circuit	Location / state	Date	Winner	Car	Team	Report
1	Amaroo Park Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	21 - 23 Feb	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	Winfield Team Nissan
2	Sandown International Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	6 - 8 Mar	John Bowe	Ford Sierra RS500	Shell Ultra-Hi Racing
3	Symmons Plains Raceway	Launceston, Tasmania	13 - 15 Mar	Glenn Seton	Ford Sierra RS500	Peter Jackson Racing
4	Winton Motor Raceway	Benalla, Victoria	3 - 5 Apr	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	Winfield Team Nissan
5	Lakeside International Raceway	Brisbane, Queensland	1–3 May	Tony Longhurst	BMW M3 Evolution	Benson & Hedges Racing
6	Eastern Creek Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	22–24 May	John Bowe	Ford Sierra RS500	Shell Ultra-Hi Racing
7	Mallala Motor Sport Park	Mallala, South Australia	29–31 May	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	Winfield Team Nissan
8	Wanneroo Raceway	Perth, Western Australia	5 - 7 Jun	John Bowe	Ford Sierra RS500	Shell Ultra-Hi Racing
9	Oran Park Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	19 - 21 Jun	Mark Skaife	Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R	Winfield Team Nissan

Points were awarded on a 30-27-24-21-19-17-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 basis to the top twenty drivers at each round. Round positions were determined by applying the same points structure to each of the two heats and ranking the drivers by the total. In the event of two or more drivers having the same total, the round placing was determined by the finishing order in the second heat.^[5]

1992 Australian Touring Car season

• Official V8 Supercar site Contains historical ATCC information.
• Images from Australian Touring Car racing – 1992 Retrieved from www.autopics.com.au on 17 September 2009

• Shell Australian Touring Car Championship (magazine), Special 10th Anniversary Issue, 1996