I think i might be a chance in the ASTC...

It's good to see they are taking the points down to 10th place....all they need now is 10 cars... :)

SUCCESS BALLAST FOR AUSTRALIAN SUPER TOURING
BOC Gases championship to also include endurance race

MONDAY, MAY 1: Success ballast for the top three drivers and cars in all
races and the inclusion of an endurance event are the major changes for
the 2000-2001 BOC Gases Australian Super Touring Championship.

The introduction of ballast and an endurance event of at least 150km
were included in the sporting regulations for the eight-round series
announced today by Kelvin O'Reilly, Chief Executive of championship
organisers TOCA Australia.

Winners of each race in the championship, which starts at Sydney's Oran
Park on May 28, will have to carry an additional 40kg at the following
round, and there will be 15kg ballast for second place, and 10kg for
third.

"We have seen the concept of success ballast applied successfully
overseas in many forms of motor racing, including touring cars in Great
Britain and Germany, and we think it will add excitement to our
championship," said O'Reilly.

"When this type of rule is applied across the board everyone is in the
same situation so it does not favour or penalise any one car or team in
particular. The rule only relates to outright results."

Defending champion Paul Morris, who this year will attempt to win a
record fourth national Super Touring title in his Mount Cotton Estate
Winery BMW 320i, said today he supported the introduction of the
ballast.

"It's a fair way of evening up the competition because it only applies
to one driver or team," he said.

"When I was driving for the BMW works team a few years ago weight was
put in all the BMWs because of our results, but that put the some of the
privateers in the same type of car (BMW) at a disadvantage because they
were penalised as well. This new system is better."

O'Reilly said an endurance race of a minimum 150km would be included in
the championship, probably in one of the final four rounds during the
Summer months although the venue had not yet been determined.

"We are still sorting through the various options available, but we have
every intention of running an endurance race to add some more variety to
the program," he said. "It rewards reliability and with the additional
pit-stops it allows the teams to have a greater role in the outcome of
the championship."

The points system remains unchanged from 1999, with 15 for a race win,
12 for second, 10 for third, and decreasing allocations down to 10th
place.

O'Reilly said the endurance event would carry three-times the number of
points for drivers in the top 10, including 45 for the winner, compared
to race winners at sprint rounds.

"It's the same number of points, but it's structured differently," said
O'Reilly. "For example, if a driver finishes first in all three races at
a sprint round he gets 45 points, while it will also be 45 for the
winner of the endurance event."

The regulations allow for the return of four-wheel-drive cars to the
championship with a minimum weight limit of 1,070kg. The weight for
front-drive cars remains at 975kg, and the rear-drive cars are unchanged
at 1,000kg.

A Super Production Car Cup has been established for the introduction of
the category into the championship this year, with points allocated in
the same manner as the drivers' championship.

Front-drive cars in the Super Production class will have a minimum
weight limit of 1,100kg, and it will be 1,130 for rear-drive vehicles.

As in 1999 competitors will be allowed to use a maximum of six Yokohama
control tyres at each round.

O'Reilly said the regulations had formalised a qualifying rule which
allows the Race Director to split the 30-minute qualifying section into
two equal time periods when more than 20 cars are entered at any
particular round.

"We have also introduced a rule whereby the Race Director can cancel the
qualifying times of any competitor found to have deliberately,
recklessly, or carelessly stopped the session," he said.

"This prevents a team from setting the fastest qualifying time and then
stopping a session which could prevent another driver doing a quicker
lap."

Good to see them taking steps to try and revive this category - I really hope it works for them. As for the Enduro event I'd really like to se that happen at Eastern Creek. It's a good track and you can see everything going on in the pits if you're sitting in the grandstand. Also it's only 20mins from my house :)

If Channel 7 started offering some decent coverage...who knows ? Perhaps they could give Moffat some sort of performance enhancing drug from the Olympics to liven him up a little.

Now that Porsche Cup has gone to the V8 camp what will the ASTC be having for support races ? Still Commodore Cup I guess but what else ?

Future tourers (nee auscars) and lawnmowers to boost te grids :) Might see a few F3 races, but they seem to be stuck to the lights at the moment. Who knows, good luck to them :)

Commodores, F3, maybe club cars or sports sedans or FVee.

EC isn't far from me either, but having seen the 12 hour there, it isn't really very good for an endurance race.

Well i went to a meeting last night trying to arrange what is racing when, and at least for Lakeside, it is looking pretty sad.
The National Sport Sedans wont do any rounds with TOCA. The trucks wont do any either.

At this stage Lakeside was asking the classes for at least 25 entrants (i wonder if they are going to ask for 25 super tourers and 25 furutre tourers?). I know at least the deal with sport sedans was that we had to pay the difference in entry fees if we didn't make 25 cars. Apart from that there will be the commodores, not too sure about the Mirages, they might come up for the later round (if it happens) or the truck meeting. Vees and Geminis, and most probably club cars. The problem up here is that people don't really turn up to the state level stuff, so i've got no idea why they would want to the TOCA meeting....

They've got to have something to sell to the public, right now they have bugger all...good luck to them....

yeah Super Tourers won't publicity sad :(

No one will watch it. Everyone NOw thinks that they are dead here and glad to see them gone sortof it is sad.

When the catogory was the strongest I enjoyed watching it I arn't missing it though. Some people even thought that was teh future of touring cars in the country I guess they were wrong :(

While the early rounds might be affeceted, the recent death of the NASCAR & more partiuclarly AUSCAR series should be a boon for Future Touring. A full field of AUSCARs now without a series, but still has a championship their (sort of) eligible for. If the elgibility standards are stretched as much as they were at Bathurst then a nicely sized grid of FT's is certianly possible. Brock has built a new car, the two new Magna V8's that have been built. The NZ based VT. The dozen or so existing cars and a bunch of AUSCAR leftovers... We'll have to wait and see.

As for ST's they will be fairly sick. The lead trophy must have come after the realisation that in Morris there is only one 'A' level car, and only two 'B' level cars in Hills and Coleman. Possibly three depending on the identity of the second Hills Mondeo. If it is Ron Searle, then only two 'B's it stays. The Starion Peugeot was very quick last year but has seen any decent drivers since the sponsorship ran out. The Mike Quinn prepared cars always looked and went better than they should. The decision to drop 500k from Bathurst last year probly cost the big race as many as 8 entries. Still, there are plenty of ST's about. Some Super Prods have supposedly been built. Although announcements of their completion have been conspicously absent from the press, especially with the first TOCA meeting now only 2 weeks away.

The Daewoo series is begging for action so it may appear on some TOCA rounds. Although Paul Pickett does have difficulties with a few promotors, and the field reportedly looks dogearred, especially compared to the Mirages.

It looks bad for TOCA certainly, and it looks near certain that any pretense of a professional championship disappeared with the 90's, but let's wait on the first round before casting it completely to the abyss.

One thing that seems to have been lost on AVESCO is where are the enduros co-drivers going to come from. If the two series had co-operated even a little bit, there could have been drivers co-driving for each other's enduros, but now we have the situation where teams will be struggling to find decent co-drivers. So teams are frantically searching for co-drivers in April. DJR were first out of the blocks and have scored big time. Yet Gibsons in the same week announce Finnigan. The operations are very different of course, like Gibson running Truckie & Skippy last year.

I'm running out at this point so rather than wrap up with a conclusion I'll just sign off.

There are the drivers out there, look at Besnard getting the Longhurst drive, there's one hell of a talent. It is out there, but it may not be in traditional hiding holes, like on Skippy's farm...

Brett wrote:

>When the catogory was the strongest I >enjoyed watching it I arn't missing it >though. Some people even thought that was >teh future of touring cars in the country I >guess they were wrong
>
I think '97 was the best ASTC year? They had something like 23 entries during the last few races. I just loved the cars all bunched up.

"A full field of AUSCARs now without a series"
-I dont think there has been a full field of Auscars in a while...that is why it poped... oh well...
why dont they just make it a free for all....
that MG Metro from the rainy lakeside meeting would be a goer..