1983 Australian Sports Car Championship

1983 Australian Sports Car Championship 1982 1984 The 1983 Australian Sports Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group A Sports Cars.CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, 1983, pages 91-94 It was the fifteenth Australian Sports Car Championship.Australian Titles https://web.archive.org/web/20090302135923/http://www.camsmanual.com.au/01_about.asp 2009-03-02 Retrieved from www.camsmanual.com.au on 13 July 2009. 2009-07-22. Peter Hopwood, driving the Steve Webb owned Kaditcha Chevrolet, won the championship from Ray Hanger in a Rennmax Ford. Defending champion Chris Clearihan finished third in his older model Kaditcha Chevrolet. The 1983 championship saw the debut of the Bap Romano owned and driven Kaditcha K583 Cosworth, the first Australian Group A Sports Car built with a closed top and Ground effects aerodynamics (Clearihan's Kaditcha also appeared with a bolted on closed top in the early rounds of the season but the top was later removed).Tiga Mazda - A Short Life! www.youtube.com The K583 would prove to be the fastest car in the field in 1983, and would compete in Class B as the ex-McLaren Cosworth DFV V8 was a 3.0 litre engine. However, unreliability and a disqualification for dangerous driving in Round 4 at Lakeside (Hopwood also received the same penalty at Lakeside) saw Romano only finish sixth in the championship. After finishing the opening round at Sandown in 2nd place overall and showing that he had the speed to at least match the Kaditcha Chevrolets of Hopwood and Clearihan, the challenge from Tasmanian Johnnie Walker, driving a 1969 model Elfin ME5, ended after the car was sold to a NSW based enthusiast following the opening round. The car was parked and neither it nor Walker took any further part in the series. Another potential challenger was the Mazda 12A rotary powered Tiga SC80 of Adelaide's Richard Warland (the car was driven in later rounds by open wheel driver John Smith). The car proved quick but poor reliability from the Barry Jones built Mazda engine, the cars unnerving habit of shedding rear wheels, plus a big crash by Smith in the final round at Winton put paid to the cars chances.Death of a Tiga, www.youtube.com Calendar The championship was contested over five rounds with two heats per round.Barry Catford, Australian Sports Car Championship, Australian Motor Racing Yearbook, 1983/84, pages 242-253 Round Circuit State Date Format Heat winners Car Round winner 1 Sandown Park Victoria 20 February Two heats Peter Hopwood Peter Hopwood Kaditcha Chevrolet Kaditcha Chevrolet Peter HopwoodGraham Slater, Big bangers go crackers, Racing Car News, April/May 1983, pages 22 & 23 2 Adelaide International Raceway South Australia 1 May Two heats Peter Hopwood Bap Romano Kaditcha Chevrolet Kaditcha K583 Cosworth Barry Catford, Our Top Car of 1984 - Romano WE84 Cosworth, Australian Motor Racing Year 1984/85, pages 18-20 Peter Hopwood 3 Oran Park New South Wales 29 May Two heats Peter Hopwood John Smith Kaditcha Chevrolet Tiga SC80 Mazda Peter Hopwood 4 Lakeside Queensland 23 July Two heats Chris Clearihan Chris Clearihan Kaditcha Chevrolet Kaditcha Chevrolet Ray HangerTV ringside, Racing Car News, September 1983, pages 42 & 43 5 Winton Victoria 14 August Two heats Bap Romano Bap Romano Kaditcha K583 Cosworth Kaditcha K583 Cosworth Bap RomanoKeith Roissetter, Hopwood heads home, Racing Car News, October 1983, pages 44 & 45 Both heats of the Lakeside round were won by Bap Romano from Peter Hopwood, however both drivers were excluded from the round for improper driving. Classes and points system Cars were classified into three classes based on engine displacement. Class A : Up to 1.6 litres Class B : 1.6 to 3 litres Class C : Over 3 litres Points were allocated for outright placings gained in each race with Scale A used for drivers of Class A cars, Scale B for drivers of Class B cars and Scale C for drivers of Class C cars. Outright Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Scale A 30 27 24 21 19 17 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Scale B 28 26 23 20 17 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Scale C 25 23 20 17 15 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 - - - A driver's points from both races at each round were aggregated and the result divided by two to arrive at the championship points allocation for the driver at that round. Championship standings Position Driver No.Official Programme, Adelaide International Raceway, Sunday, 1 May 1983 Car Entrant Class Rd1Sandown Rd2Adelaide Rd3Oran Park Rd4Lakeside Rd5Winton Total 1 Peter Hopwood 22 Kaditcha Chevrolet Steve Webb C 25 24 24 - 23 96 2 Ray Hanger 24 Rennmax Ford BDA Ray Hanger A 20 - 21½ 25½ 22½ 89½ 3 Chris Clearihan 1 Kaditcha Chevrolet Canberra Sports Car Club C 11½ 20 21½ 25 6½ 84½ 4 Carl Gibson 11 Rennmax Repco Carl Gibson B 6½ 11½ 10½ - 21½ 50 5 Bernie Van Elsen 14 Bolwell Nagari Bernie Van Elsen C 17½ 13 13 - - 43½ 6 Bap Romano 8 Kaditcha K583 Cosworth Kaditcha Factory Racing Team B - 14 - - 28 42 7 Robert Pitman 38 U2 Clubman R. PitmanProgram, Sandown, 20th Feb. '83 A 14 - - - 14½ 28½ 8 Paul Scott 6 Kaditcha Cosworth Vega Pool Fab B - 11½ - 13 - 24½ 9 Gregory Gardiner Bulant A - - 7 14½ - 21½ = Johnnie Walker 83 Elfin ME5 J.Walker C 21½ - - - - 21½ The above table lists only the top ten pointscorers. References External links Sports Cars 1983, www.autopics.com.au 1983 Australian Sportscar Championship - Rd 4 Lakeside Heat 1, www.youtube.com Category:Australian Sports Car Championship Sports Car Championship