1984 Australian GT Championship Season
The 1984 Australian GT Championship was a CAMS sanctioned national motor racing title and was the seventh Australian GT Championship to be awarded. It was a series open to grand tourer cars complying with CAMS Group D regulations with Group B Sports Sedans competing by invitation. The series was contested over six rounds from 15 April to 9 September 1984.
Some of the cars that competed in the series included Chevrolet Monza, Jaguar XJ-S, Porsche Carrera RSR, Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC, Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV, Porsche 935, BMW 318i Turbo, Holden Commodore and Holden Monaro.
Australian Touring Car Championship and Bathurst 1000 regular Allan Grice, won the series driving the ex-Bob Jane 6.0L Monza from Queenslander Mark Trenoweth driving the ex-John McCormack XJS Jag and Series Production ace Peter Fitzgerald in his Porsche Carrera RSR.Fitzgerald, the only driver other than Grice to win a race in the championship*, did not enter the first two races of the series at Lakeside and Adelaide. Going into the last round of the series at the then new 3.9 km (2.4 mi) International circuit at Sandown, only Grice and Trenoweth could win the championship but with the Sydney based driver winning both heats and the Queenslander only finishing 4th and 3rd, the title was Grice's. It was Grice's third (and ultimately last) national title win after also capturing the 1978 and 1979 Australian Sports Sedan Championships (the SS Championship was merged into the GT Championship in 1982).
Despite his final winning margin being only 12.5 points, Grice and the Monza dominated the series. He sat on pole position for every round, his biggest pole margin over the field being a full 4 seconds at Sandown, and not only did he win all bar one race in the championship he also set the fastest lap for every race except for the first heat in the first round at Lakeside and the first heat of the last round at Sandown. Bryan Thompson in his Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC, powered by a twin-turbo 4.2L Chev V8 was credited with the fastest race lap in both races (the Mercedes reportedly had over 1,100 bhp (820 kW; 1,115 PS) compared to the Monza's 600 bhp (447 kW; 608 PS), but was not as reliable, often retiring with turbo failure).
Read more about 1984 Australian GT Championship Season: Schedule, Results
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