1985 Australian Sports Car Championship


The 1985 Australian Sports Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing title for drivers of Group A Sports Cars. It was the 17th Australian Sports Car Championship and the first to be run concurrently with the Australian GT Championship.
1982 Australian Sports Car Champion Chris Clearihan won his second national title, driving a Kaditcha Chevrolet. Only 2.5 points behind Clearihan was Terry Hook in the ex-Guy Edwards owned Chevrolet powered Lola T610, while finishing 3rd in his Mazda powered JWS C2 was Jeff Harris.
The 1985 ASCC saw the début of the Veskanda C1 Chevrolet and driven by dual Australian Drivers' Champion John Bowe. Built in Adelaide by K&A Engineering and owned by ASCC driver Bernie Van Elsen, the Veskanda would go on to be regarded as Australia's fastest ever sports car and one of the countries fastest ever race cars. The Veskanda made its race debut in Round 4 at its home circuit, the Adelaide International Raceway where Bowe failed to finish, though he would win Round 5 at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway, easily defeating the previously dominant Clearihan Kaditcha and Hook Lola. Bowe finished in 7th place in the championship with 25 points.
The 1984 Champion, Queenslander Bap Romano driving his 3.9L Cosworth DFL powered Romano WE84 was expected to bring a strong challenge in defence of his title despite now running in the outright class due to the larger Cosworth V8, but unreliability saw his challenge fade as the series progressed. In the defence of his title, Romano finished in 6th place having only scored 36.5 points.

Schedule

The championship was contested over a six-round series.
RoundCircuitStateDateFormatRound winnerCar
1LakesideQueensland24 MarchOne raceChris ClearihanKaditcha Chevrolet
2Oran ParkNew South Wales5 MayTwo heatsChris ClearihanKaditcha Chevrolet
3WintonVictoria2 JuneTwo heatsTerry HookLola T610 Chevrolet
4AdelaideSouth Australia30 JuneOne raceTerry HookLola T610 Chevrolet
5Calder ParkVictoria11 AugustOne raceJohn BoweVeskanda C1 Chevrolet
6Surfers ParadiseQueensland25 AugustOne raceChris ClearihanKaditcha Chevrolet

Classes

Cars competed in three engine capacity classes.
For single race rounds, championship points were awarded to the top twenty outright placegetters in the Sports Car category, based on the following three tier structure:
Position1234567891011121314151617181920
Up to 1.6 litres30272421191715141312111098765432
1.6 to 3 litres2826232017151413121110987654321
Over 3 litres2523201715131110987654321---


For rounds contested over two heats, the same points system was applied to each heat, with the aggregate points achieved by each driver divided by two to determine the championship points allocation for the round.

Results

Note: The above table lists only the first four placings in the championship.