IN THE late 1980s Australian Touring Car racing, the prize money on the line was out there for everyone to see…

WORDS: Mark Walker

In what may be an ongoing series, here we take a deep dive into the race event program for the 1988 Enzed Sandown 500, which provided an interesting insight into the prize purse on the line for racing throughout that season.

The annual Bathurst curtain raiser at Sandown was always a hard grind, with the full World Sports Car International-spec layout ultimately decimating the field.

The Event

The three day format for the event featured Friday afternoon practice, Timed Practice (ie qualifying) on Saturday, with the Touring Cars on track three times for a total of 90 minutes against the clock, which in itself came under fire by drivers for being too short.

The Entry

The entry list for the event featured 39 cars, although it appears only 34 made it onto the track during the weekend.

Amongst those listed who never fronted were:

• 6. Garry Rogers/Kris Matich – I.C.L. Racing Pty Ltd, Holden Commodore VL
• 12. TBA/TBA – I.C.L. Racing Pty Ltd, Holden Commodore VL
• 16. John Harvery/Kevin Bartlett – Bob Forbes Corp Pty Ltd, Holden Commodore VL
• 40. Garry Willmington/John Leeseon – Holden Commodore VL
• 48. John Sax/Robbie Francevic – BMW M3

Remember, this was very early in the piece for the VL Walkinshaw Batmobiles, with the two Rogers cars and the Forbes machine MIA due to extended build programs.

The Les Small built cars for Rogers would surface at Bathurst with Rogers joined by John Andretti in one, and Allan Grice/Win Percy in the second, with both ultimately suffering wretched debuts.

Other changes to the listed entry for the 500 by race day included:

• Bill O’Brien was partnered with Ray Lintott and not “Bill Sampson” in the Everlast VL.
• Geoff Munday joined Gerald Kay in the Jagparts VL, replacing the forever out of luck TBA

It would be fair to say that the race entry featured two older model oddities, the Ford Mustang of Lawrie Nelson and Bob Jolly, as well as Isuzu Gemini ZZ of Daryl Hendrick and John White.

The Race

Qualifying saw Dick Johnson take the pole with a time some 1.36sec faster than Tony Longhurst, with the top-ten covered by 5.3sec, while wet weather made the latter two of the three qualifying sessions somewhat meaningless.

Missing in action from the starting grid were the Sierras of Murray Carter/Steve Masterton, as well as the Colin Bond/Alan Jones machine, both suffering terminal engine woes in the preliminaries.

The race started inauspiciously for the Benson & Hedges Sierra of Tony Longhurst and Tomas Mezera, which broke a tail shaft universal joint off the start, before short cutting the infield loop on the first lap, and pitting for repairs.

The opening circuit ultimately proved to be brutal, with the Glenn Seton/Anders Olofsson Nissan Skyline suffering terminal gearbox dramas, while the Drew Price/John Faulkner Corolla also didn’t see out lap two.

By the 22^nd lap, Allan Moffat found himself in the lead, passing Johnson who suffered from an overheating motor, and subsequently spent seven minutes pit bound for servicing.

The second Shell Sierra ran at the pointy end early with drivers John Smith/Alfie Costanzo, but suffered axle dramas, and ultimately crossed the line sixth.

Peter Brock with Jim Richards and David Parsons in the 05 BMW M3 were delayed with a leaking oil filter, but they still managed a B Class win in seventh outright, with their car fitted with an early version of the Netcom live telemetry system.

Moffat with Gregg Hansford eventually claimed the win in their ANZ Sierra, despite being on the receiving end of a black flag for a leaking dry break fuel system.

The win was Moffat’s sixth and final in the event, with the only other car on the lead lap being the brand-new Larry Perkins/Denny Hulme TWR Walkinshaw VL.

Filling out the podium was the Johnson/Bowe machine, which limped to the chequered flag from the pits on its starter motor, some four laps down on the leaders.

Fourth went to the Strathfield Car Radios VL of Tony Noske and Graham Moore, leading home the recovering Longhurst/Mezera, who were six laps off Moffat’s benchmark.

All told, there were only 12 cars continuing to circulate at the finish, with a 13^th, the Bob Holden/Garry Jones/Damon Beck Toyota Sprinter completing insufficient laps.

As it would transpire, it was the only time Enzed would sponsor the race, with ABC commentary provided by Will Hagon, Peter Gee and Peter Janson, with Jon Thomson sporting a brilliant mo in pitlane.

Official race-day attendance was noted as 24,325.

The Program

Cold. Hard. Cash.

Times have changed since 1988 – while the modern day publication of prize money is a secret squirrel trade (now even in the United States), however in the ‘80s, the purse was out there for all to see.

The program’s retrospective on that year’s ATCC included the above performance chart filled with some cool stats, with the final column listing prize money earned throughout the season.

Dick Johnson led at every event for a grand total of 78% of all racing laps contested en route to his fourth Touring Car crown.

While the 2019 Supercars championship consisted of 6,574km, the ’88 title was decide over 1,173km, with Johnson’s season earnings coming in at $26,850 ($62,100 in 2020 money).

All told, a grand total of three drivers led races at any point through the season – Johnson, Bowe and Bond, although Longhurst was the only non-Shell Sierra winner for the year, with the Freeport sponsored machine victorious at Lakeside after Johnson copped a one-minute post-race penalty for rolling at the start.

Spare a moment’s thought for Gary Scott, whose four events netted a grand total of $1,200 cash ($2,775 in 2020), while David Parsons finished 14^th in the final standings, having only completed a total of 56 laps of Symmons Plains, where he finished sixth substituting for Jim Richards as Brock’s offsider in a BMW M3.

Compared to the ATCC, there was some serious coin on the line in the 500, with a grand prize pool of $75,000 ($173,470 in 2020).

The outright winner received $25,000 ($57,820), second $7,500 ($17,345) and third $5,000 ($11,565), which was added to the relevant class prize money – with the outright class earning an additional $4,000 ($9,250), down to $1,000 ($2,310) for sixth in class, while the 2001-300cc winner earned $4,000, while the baby car class victor was rewarded $3,000 ($6,940).

The support categories were also in the money, with $1,000 on the line for a win, sliding down to $125 ($290 in 2020) for eighth, or $50 ($115) for tenth in the Sports Sedans.

Don’t spend it all at once, lads…

The Undercard

Supporting The 500 was the Sandown Cup – the seventh round of the 1988 CAMS F2 Championship, the seventh round of the Australian Production Car Championship, the fourth round of the 1988 CAMS Sports Car Championship, and the fifth round of the Whitehorse Truck Parts Sports Sedan Series.

The latter three had a 10 lap race each on Sunday, with F2 enjoying a 13 lap feature, while the Sports Sedans also snuck in a five lap preliminary race last thing on Saturday afternoon.

Kicking off race day proceedings after warm up for the Touring Cars and F2 were the Sports Cars, with an eclectic mix of purpose built sports cars complimented by repurposed production based cars, such as Datsun 240Zs.

Highlights of the field included Chris Clearihan’s Kaditcha, Alan Newton’s Elfin MS7, John Clinton’s JWS, Alan Nolan’s Nola Chev, as well as John Pollard’s Kremer Porsche Turbo.

All of the big guns came out to play in the Sports Sedans, with entrants including Bob Jolly, James Rosenberg, Graeme Whincup, Keith Carling, Bryan Thompson, Kerry Bailey, Barry Jameson, Bob Tindell, Domenic Beninca and Tony Hubbard amongst a prospective field of 38.

The Production car field was largely filled with VL Commodores and Suzuki Swifts, a pair of Peugeot 205s, four Mazda RX7 Turbos, Mitsubishi Starions, a Ford Falcon and a lone Honda Integra joined by a CRX.

Notables included Peter Fitzgerald, Brad Jones and Tony Scott in Mitsubishi Starions, Jim Zerefos, Garry Waldon, Michael Preston, John Faulkner and Drew Price in the Peugeots, Ray Lintott, Ken Douglas, Mark Gibbs, and Kent Youlden’s Falcon.

Following the 32 deep field of Proddys, the 29 car Formula Two field featured many open wheel regulars.

Joining Arthur Abrahams was Grahame Blee, Rohan Onslow, Derek Pingel, Sam Astuti, Bronte Rundle, Brian Sampson and Peter Doulman, amongst many.

The Lucas Supersprint

Much space in the program was devoted to the upcoming Lucas Supersprint, the eleventh and final round of the 1988 World Sports-Prototype Championship, scheduled for November 20^th.

Coming in at the shorter end of the scale, the race was only 360km long (which paid fewer points than the longer races on the schedule, keeping several teams at home in Europe), with the field running to a strict fuel efficiency formula to keep the outright class engines under 800hp.

The Enzed 500 program featured a ticket order form, right, which offered adult weekend tickets for $35 ($81 in 2020 money), with a family of six pass for $70 ($162), while paddock passes for the weekend were $10 ($23) a day.

The race itself provided a Team Sauber Mercedes one-two, with Jean-Louis Schlesser and Jochen Mass leading home Mauro Baldi/Stefan Johansson, with the Silk Cut Jaguar of Martin Brundle/Eddie Cheever third.

The only local entrant in the event was the almighty Veskanda, and with Dick Johnson/John Bowe behind the wheel finished a credible eighth on the road, although it was later scrubbed from the results for using too much fuel.

The event was an encore performance to the 1984 WEC decider at the venue, which was scheduled for 1000km, although it ultimately ran 200km short thanks to a time certain cut off of six hours.

Time certainty and the term “Supersprint” were later to catch on in Supercars competition, although world grade motorsport was never to return to Sandown.

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Officials of the Meeting

• Clerk of Course: Tim Schenken
• Deputy Clerks of Course: Peter Wollerman & Ian Taylor
• Secretary of the Meeting: Margaret Hardy

Program Credits

• Produced by Segal Media Services
• Written by Mike Jacobson & David Segal