Season Review
Following on from their dominant 1988 championship 1-2, the Shell Ultra Hi Racing Ford Sierra RS500's of Dick Johnson and John Bowe again finished 1-2 in the title race, winning the first six rounds with Johnson's 5th (and last) championship win equaling the record of the great Ian 'Pete' Geoghegan. Like Geoghegan, all of Dick Johnson's championships were powered by Ford's.
The championship also saw long time Holden man Peter Brock turn to the all powerful Fords (after a year with BMW) in a bid to return to the top in Australia with two cars secured from British Sierra expert Andy Rouse for himself and Albury based driver Brad Jones. Brock's win in the final round at Oran Park was his first ATCC win since 1986 and his first ever ATCC win in anything other than a Holden. Brock in his Mobil 1 Racing Sierra would prove to be the Shell Team's most consistent challenger, finishing 3rd in the championship, his highest placing since he finished 3rd in 1985.
Other driver/team changes in 1989 included a new Ford Sierra team for former Nissan driver Glenn Seton who took Nissan's Peter Jackson cigarette sponsorship with him to his new team. 1988 Tooheys 1000 winner Tony Longhurst expanded his Benson & Hedges Racing to a two car outfit with a second Sierra for former JPS Team BMW team mate Neville Crichton. Colin Bond also expanded his Caltex backed Sierra team to two cars, running a second for Ken Mathews. For the first time in Australian Group A, BMW wasn't represented by a top team, being left to privateers with the M3 reduced to a class runner only with only John Cotter running one of the ex-JPS/Mobil M3's purchased from Brock at the end of 1988.
1989 also saw the last ATCC round win for long time Nissan driver George Fury when he took victory in Round 7 at the tight Winton circuit in rural Victoria in what proved to be the most competitive race of the season. Fury was joined in the Nissan team by 1985 and 1987 series champion Jim Richards and the teams 1987 recruit Mark Skaife, each running one of the Skyline HR31 GTS-R turbo's.
The 1989 championship was the first since 1970 to be contested without an appearance by a factory supported Holden team. The Holden Special Vehicles team did not compete in the series, despite entering two Commodores for Win Percy and Neil Crompton in the opening round at Amaroo Park. Allan Grice was the highest placed Holden driver in the championship, finishing in 14th position after a one-off appearance at Winton in a privately entered Commodore, while the highest placed Holden driver from 1987 and 1988, Larry Perkins, appeared in only two rounds (Sandown and Winton) with his 1988 Bathurst Commodore. 1989 was thus the first year in which no Holden driver had finished the championship inside the top 10 positions since Herb Taylor placed 12th in a Holden EH in 1968, the last year in which the ATCC was contested as a single race. Holden's lack of interest in the 1989 ATCC wasn't well received either by the fans or television broadcaster Channel 7.
Read more about this topic: 1989 Australian Touring Car Championship
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