81 ATCC

[Rob 18]

AS most of you know, Dick Johnson won the 1981 ATCC after a hard fought battle with Peter Brock which was only decided after a wheel to wheel duel at Lakeside Raceway.

In 1981, 11 races made up the 8 rounds in which 5 rounds were single races & the other 3 rounds were 2 heat rounds.

Q. How many races (NOT ROUNDS) did Dick Johnson win & how did Peter Brock win [?][?]

 

[Seton Fanatic]

I'm going for five race wins for Dick and four for Brocky.

 

[Rob 18]

Not even close SF.

Much bigger gap between the 2 than that..

 

[Seton Fanatic]

6 for Dick, two for Brock.

 

[DJR-FAN]

Tough one Rob.

Can remember a lot about 81 but not the breakdown of wins. I know he won the first round at Symmons Plains because that was his first championship win and he won at Calder. I know he took pole and won the last round at Lakeside to win championship.

I can remember that there was only a couple of points between them at Lakeside because the points system was the same as it is now with drop your worst round..........It was a lot of wins because he was the only person to read the regulations and run the car at min wieght................aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh brain fade.........I'll guess 8-3.

 

[Rob 18]

That's a pretty good guess DJR FAN.

Your 100% correct though & if he didn't have a flat at Calder while holding a commanding lead & brain fade at AIR, he would have won 10 races out of the 11.

The only race, round that Brock won on merit was Barbagallo where Johnson had no answer.

 

[DJR-FAN]

I remember that he was passing everyone on the straight at Calder like they were standing still but I can't remember the flat tyre. My memory must be getting worse. Can you remember if it was at Calder that they weighed the car and everyone discovered he was a couple hundred kg lighter? I know the other XD's in the field seemed to be more competitive after that round.

 

[Rob 18]

It was Calder DJRFAN. I think they weighed the O'Brien XD that Morris was driving for the weekend & it came up at 1700 kg or something ridiculous like that & then they weighed TRU BLU with no fuel on board (Dick always made sure it was full but he was doing other things that day & I think it was Roy McDonald who took it around to be weighed) & she weighed less than what most of the Commodore were.

DJ had done nothing wrong, it was just that Ford had totally no intrest in racing the XD Falcon so they had nothing to do with the homologation of it & I think Murray Carter did most of the paper work for the XD. Carter, being the old fox that he was, put the weight of the 6 cyclinder Falcon on the paperwork & no one ever clicked, (Except DJ) that was until Calder 81.

That's one reason why it was a rocket in a straight line...

 

[Bigcol]

Yeah Rob and DJR Fan it was in fact Calder.
Calder was at that time the only track in Australia with a permanent weighbridge
Johnsons car was still 20kg over the homologated weight of 1360kg.
The Morris car was nearly 300kg heavier

 

[DJR-FAN]

1360kg! I had an XD many many moons ago, S pack with 302C, 4 speed, LSD. Can't remember the weight but I know it was heavy. Col, how did he get it down that far? Just thinking about how heavy the roll cage would have been, they didn't have the quality of steel around back then, it would have been thick and heavy. Although Palmers were a sponsor.

Rob, I thought the manufacturers were the only ones CAMS would allow to do the homologation.

If Calder was the only track with a permanent wieghbridge how far into the series was it? And when did they start checking weights at all rounds?

Posting on this site was something I started to do as a bit of relaxation, now you blokes are going to make me do homework!

 

[Rob 18]

quote:Originally posted by DJR-FAN



Rob, I thought the manufacturers were the only ones CAMS would allow to do the homologation.

I'm 99.99% sure this is correct DJRFAN, but I will check the bible & make sure I'm correct on this one..

Also Calder was the 2nd round in the series so it didn't have a real impact on the series..

 

[Bigcol]

The XD was a fairly light car by design.
Rubber bumpers with a Fibre glass support.
Lighter body than the XC thinner gauge steel for the panels and as any one that has had an XD knows wide use's of plastic.
Dick did acid bath it but it came back that bent from it he put more weight back in it with bog. The roll cage in Tru Blu was aluminuin so really with a bit of fore thought that weight would have been achievable without to many problems

 

[Rob 18]

From the book 'Don't tell me I can't do that'. Pages 111-112.

Roy took the thing to scrutineering with a near empty tank; they put it over the scales & it came to 1374 kilos or something like that. And they weighed Bobby Morris's car: it was 1787 kilos! Brocks car was 1564 kilos! The closest one was Murray Carter, who was 1440 kilos or something like that. Murray had done the homologation papers for Ford, because Ford didn't want to know about all that, and he'd homologated the 6 cyclinder Falcon weight. And it was then the penny dropped with these dudes - that we didn't have any more HP than everyone else, we just didn't have this bloody great hunk of lard hanging off us.


A 351 with near 200 kg less than Brock's 308. No wonder the thing was a jet..

 

[DJR-FAN]

Thanks guys.

Is there anything you blokes don't know?

 

[Bigcol]

yeah the square root of 353746725424364584396070348432543176458569060

But Mitch could probably find out seeing he's the closet one to school age

 

[Henry]

5947661098485391.8826438343212

 

[Rob 18]

While were on 1981, which driver had to drive his road car over to Wanneroo Pk WA & didn't arrive to 1am on raceday, after a domestic airline dispute had left him stranded in Melbourne???

 

[Bigcol]

Larry

 

[Seton Fanatic]

Moff or Brock.

 

[Rob 18]

None of the above.