1981 Australian Touring Car Championship

The 1981 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group C Touring Cars.^[1] The championship, which was the 22nd running of the Australian Touring Car Championship,^[2] began at Symmons Plains Raceway and ended at Lakeside International Raceway after 8 rounds.^[3]

Dick Johnson, using the Falcon built with the money he received after TV viewers had pledged AUD$72,000 following his crash with 'The Rock' at Bathurst the previous year (Ford Australia boss of the day Edsel Ford II had personally matched the amount dollar for dollar), won his first ATCC ahead of defending champion Peter Brock in his Holden Dealer Team Commodore. Johnson and Brock were the only drivers to win during the championship which came down to the final round on Dick's home track at Lakeside. Johnson won the race from Brock, the two battling all the way to the Chequered flag in what many believe to be one of the best ATCC races in history. Johnson later praised Brock, claiming that he had every opportunity to punt him off the road at Lakeside, while Brock also praised Johnson who held his nerve and won a clean race.

Classes[]

Cars competed in two engine displacement classes:

• Up to and including 3000cc
• 3001–6000cc^[1]

Points system[]

Championship points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the first six placegetters in each class at each round. Bonus points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1 basis to the top four placegetters irrespective of class at each round.^[1] Only the best seven round results could be retained by each driver.^[4]

Round positions at rounds which were run in two parts were determined by allocating points on a 20-16-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis to the first fourteen placegetters in each part. These points were then aggregated to determine the results for that round.^[5] However a different method of determining round positions was used for Round 6 at Adelaide International Raceway where points were allocated on a 20-16-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis to the first fourteen placegetters in each class in each part.^[6]

Entrants and drivers[]

Dick Johnson won the championship driving a Ford XD Falcon.

Colin Bond placed third driving a Ford Capri Mk II. The car is pictured in 2005.

Kevin Bartlett placed 11th driving a Chevrolet Camaro. The car is pictured in 1997

Bob Muir placed 20th driving a Ford XD Falcon. The car is pictured in 2009.

The following entrants and drivers competed in the 1981 Australian Touring Car Championship.

Results and standings[]

Race calendar[]

The 1981 Australian Touring Car Championship was contested over an eight-round series with Rounds 1, 3, 5, 7 & 8 being single race rounds and Rounds 2, 4 & 6 being two race rounds.^[3]

Championship standings[]

Colin Bond, driving an under 3 litre Ford Capri took seven class wins in the first seven rounds, but did not race at the final round as he was unlikely to improve his nett score. With Dick Johnson and Peter Brock only twice failing to take the top two positions (Johnson was third at Calder, and Brock did not finish at Sandown), they were classified ahead of Bond due to the bonus points they each received for their outright placings.

Note: Points which could not be retained under the "best seven rounds" rule are shown in the above table within brackets.

References[]

External links[]

• Official V8 Supercar site Contains historical ATCC information.
• 1981 Australian Touring Car racing images at autopics.com.au
• 1981 Western Australian race results Archived 4 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine