1987 Castrol 500

The 1987 Castrol 500 was a race for Touring Cars complying with Appendix C of the National Competition Rules of the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport ^[1] (commonly known as Group A Touring Cars). The event was staged on 13 September 1987 over 129 laps of the 3.9 km Sandown circuit in Victoria, Australia, a total distance of 503 km.

The race, which was the 22nd Sandown 500, was won by George Fury and Terry Shiel, driving a Nissan Skyline DR30 RS.

Summary

George Fury and Terry Shiel won the race driving a Nissan Skyline DR30 RS

Qualifying

The race saw the Australian debut of the evolution Ford Sierra RS500. Although none of the four Sierras finished the race (two in fact did not start), the new 470 bhp (350 kW; 477 PS) model proved it would be the car to beat at 1987 James Hardie 1000. Andrew Miedecke in his Oxo Supercubes Sierra (an Andy Rouse kit car) attained provisional pole position in qualifying with a time of 1:49.45 before his weekend ended when co-driver Don Smith rolled the car at the end of pit straight, just prior to the end of qualifying. Dick Johnson went even better in the Dulux Dozen runoff for pole with a time of 1:47.59, almost two seconds quicker than Miedecke's time earlier in the day. This time would remain the fastest ever Group A touring car time recorded on the 3.9 km long international circuit.

Peter Brock attracted pre-race criticism for his decision to have Channel 7 television commentator Neil Crompton as the lead driver of the Mobil 1 teams second Holden Commodore with accusations of it being nothing more than a PR exercise after the bad press the team had received in 1987 in the wake of Brock's split with Holden. However, despite his relative lack of experience in touring cars, Crompton put in a credible performance and ended up in 11th place after the Dulux Dozen. With new Bridgestone tyres and an adjustable rear end developed by the team that allowed negative camber of the rear tyres transforming the handling of the Commodore, plus some extra engine development up to and following the Spa 24 Hours bringing power up to a respectable 420 bhp (313 kW; 426 PS), Brock himself qualified fifth, only a couple of tenths behind Allan Grice's Les Small prepared Roadways VL Commodore and some 1.5 seconds faster than Larry Perkins in the older model VK. Both Grice and Perkins were running engines with approximately 40 bhp (30 kW; 41 PS) more than the HDT cars.

Race

The 1987 Castrol 500 was won by the Peter Jackson Nissan Racing Skyline DR30 RS of George Fury and Terry Shiel. The win continued the Nissan team's winning streak at Sandown in 1986 and 1987 with the Skyline, having won the ATCC rounds at the circuit in both years as well as Fury and Glenn Seton having won the 1986 Castrol 500. They won by a lap from the V8 Holden VK Commodore of Larry Perkins and Denny Hulme with the New Zealand Nissan Skyline of Kent Baigent and Graeme Bowkett a further lap back in third place. Kiwis Kaigent and Bowkett continued to impress with their speed in the privateer Skyline, never falling out of the top five during the race except during pit stops. The NZ Skyline was engineered by Jim and Ross Stone who would later go on to work with both Andrew Miedecke and Dick Johnson Sierra's over the next few seasons before forming their own team Stone Brothers Racing. The car also featured a lot of technical input from the Peter Jackson team.

The Ford Sierra of pole sitter Dick Johnson suffered an engine failure in the race morning warmup which forced him and Gregg Hansford to move to the teams second car. After starting from 14th on the grid, Johnson showed the speed of the new Sierra by storming to the front after just 7 laps, leaving the BMW's, Commodores and turbo Nissans in his wake on Sandown's long front and back straights. Johnson would go on to set a Group A lap record of 1:50.28 before the #18 car was retired with engine failure on lap 86.

The JPS Team BMW M3 of Jim Richards and Tony Longhurst held second place late in the race and Richards was contesting the lead with Fury on the now damp track due to light rain until the 2.3 L engine lost oil pressure on lap 118. Just five laps earlier, the Holden VL Commodore of Peter Brock had been holding a strong third place comfortably in front of Perkins until his front brakes suddenly gave out at the end of pit straight. Brock slid sideways into the sandtrap and was lucky not to roll the Commodore after the drivers side wheels dug into the sand.^[2]

The Up to 2000cc class was won by the Peter Jackson Nissan Gazelle of young gun Mark Skaife and part-time sports sedan racer Grant Jarrett from the Toyota Team Australia Corolla of Mike Quinn and John Faulkner and the Toyota Sprinter of Sydney veterans Bob Holden and Garry Willmington.

Classes

Cars competed in three engine capacity classes:^[1]

• Class A: 3001 cc - 6000 cc ^[1]
• Class B: 2001 cc - 3000 cc ^[1]
• Class C: Up to 2000 cc ^[1]

Results

Dulux Dozen

Pos	No	Team	Driver	Car	Time
Pole	17	Shell Ultra-Hi Tech Racing Team	Dick Johnson	Ford Sierra RS500	1:47.59
2	1	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW M3	1:48.43
3	30	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	George Fury	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	1:49.43
4	2	Roadways Racing	Allan Grice	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	1:49.63
5	05	HDT Racing P/L	Peter Brock	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	1:49.81
6	25	Team Nissan Racing NZ	Graeme Bowkett	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	1:50.01
7	3	JPS Team BMW	Ludwig Finauer	BMW M3	1:51.14
8	15	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	Glenn Seton	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	1:51.18
9	11	Enzed Team Perkins	Larry Perkins	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	1:51.31
10	14	NetComm (Aust)	Murray Carter [3]	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	1:53.92
11	6	HDT Racing P/L	Neil Crompton	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	1:54.37
12	8	Supa Salvage	Warren Cullen	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	1:57.24

Race

Position [3][4]	Class [1]	No.[1]	Entrant [1]	Drivers [1][4][5]	Car [1][4][5]	Laps [4]
1	B	30	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	George Fury Terry Shiel	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	129
2	A	11	ENZED Team Perkins	Larry Perkins Denny Hulme	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	128
3	B	25	Team Nissan Racing NZ	Kent Baigent Graeme Bowkett	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	127
4	A	6	Mobil HDT	Neil Crompton Jon Crooke	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	126
5	B	3	JPS Team BMW	Ludwig Finauer Robbie Francevic	BMW M3	125
6	B	14	Netcomm (Aust) Racing	Murray Carter Denis Horley [3]	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	125
7	B	40	K Wills [3]	Kieran Wills Phillip Henley	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	124
8	B	43	G Lorrimer	Graham Lorimer John Sax	BMW M3	123
9	A	19	Everlast Battery Service	Bill O'Brien Brian Sampson	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	123
10	C	60	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	Mark Skaife Grant Jarrett	Nissan Gazelle	121
11	A	38	W Clift	Wayne Clift Bernie Stack	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	121
12	A	36	Grellis Marketing	Ray Ellis John Lusty	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	120
13	C	31 [6]	Toyota Team Australia	Mike Quinn John Faulkner	Toyota Corolla	119
14	A	29	Mulvihill Motorsports Pty Ltd [5]	Tony Mulvihill Ken Matthews	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	119
15	B	78	B Bolwell	Brian Bolwell Rod Smith	BMW 323i	117
16	B	24	Lockwood Bryce Homes	Bill Bryce Leo Geoghegan	BMW 325i	116
17	A	20	Salisbury North Service Station	Des Wall John Virgo	BMW 635 CSi	116
18	A	21	Lusty Engineering Pty Ltd	Graham Lusty Ken Lusty	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	115
19	C	13	Bob Holden Motors Manly Vale	Bob Holden Garry Willmington	Toyota Sprinter	115
20	A	22	DFC New Zealand Limited	C Castle John Billington	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	114
21	A	23	Yellow Pages Racing [5]	Tony Kavich Kerry Baily	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	113
22	C	88	D Sala	David Sala Dale Smart [5]	Isuzu Gemini	111
23	C	86	Gemspares	Daryl Hendrick John White	Isuzu Gemini	106
DNF	B	1	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards Tony Longhurst	BMW M3	118
DNF	A	7	CANAM Enterprises	Graeme Cameron Wayne Wilkinson	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	116
DNF	A	05	Mobil HDT	Peter Brock David Parsons	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	113
DNF	A	8	Warren Cullen [5]	Warren Cullen Gary Cooke	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	99
DNF	B	44	Viacard Services	Trevor Crowe Jim Keogh	BMW M3	93
DNF	C	32 [7]	Toyota Team Australia	Drew Price John Smith	Toyota Corolla	91
DNF	B	18	Shell Ultra-Hi Tech Racing Team	Dick Johnson Neville Crichton Gregg Hansford	Ford Sierra RS500	86
NC	B	15	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	Glenn Seton John Bowe	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	86
DNF	C	58	Ratcliff Transport Spares	David Ratcliffe Mark Gibbs	Toyota Corolla Levin	84
DNF	B	34	Oxo Supercube Motorsport	John Giddings Bruce Stewart	Ford Sierra RS500	82
NC	A	28	Capri Components	Lawrie Nelson Bob Jolly	Ford Mustang	78
DNF	A	4	CANAM Enterprises	Graeme Crosby Graham McRae	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	74
DNF	A	42	Jagparts Racing	Gerald Kay Alf Grant	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	73
NC	B	10	Reithmuller-Ward Int. Motorsport	Phil Ward Llynden Reithmuller Chris Clearihan	Mercedes-Benz 190E 190 E 2.3-16 [1]	55
DNF	A	45	L Smerdon	Lester Smerdon Bruce Willams	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	43
DNF	A	12 [5]	RG Lanyon	Peter McLeod Peter Fitzgerald	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	17
DNF	A	2	Bob Jane T-Marts	Allan Grice Win Percy	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	10
DNF	A	27	Sunliner	Tony Hunter Warren McKellar	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	1
DNS	B	17	Shell Ultra-Hi Tech Racing Team	Dick Johnson Gregg Hansford	Ford Sierra RS500
DNS	B	35	Oxo Supercube Motorsport	Andrew Miedecke Don Smith	Ford Sierra RS500

Statistics

• Pole Position – #17 Dick Johnson - Ford Sierra RS500 – 1:47.59
• Fastest Lap – #18 Dick Johnson - Ford Sierra RS500 – 1:50.28 (New lap record) ^[2]
• Race time of winning car - 4:10:28.06 ^[3]

See also

1987 Australian Touring Car season

Notes & references

1. Official Program, Castrol 500, Sandown 13 September 1987, pages 36 & 37
2. Naismith, Barry (December 1987). Bathurst 1987/88 (First ed.). Glen Waverley, Victoria: Garry Sparke & Associates. pp. 60–71 The Castrol 500: The Match Race. ISBN 0 908 081 359.
3. Elisabeth Tuckey, Fury Disproves the Knockers, Racing Cars News, November 1987, pages 54–58
4. The Old Firm - Castrol 500 - Sandown, Australian Auto Action, September 25, 1987, pages 10-15
5. Castrol 500, touringcarracing.net Retrieved 15 March 2016
6. Quinn, Faulkner, Price & Smith were all entered in both car 31 & car 32 (as per Official Program). Car 31 placed 13th (as per touringcarracing.net). Quinn & Faulkner drove the 13th placed car (as per Auto Action).
7. Quinn, Faulkner, Price & Smith were all entered in both car 31 & car 32 (as per Official Program). Car 32 did not finish (as per touringcarracing.net.) Price & Smith did not finish (as per Auto Action).

External links

• Group A Archives (including 1987 Castrol 500 images), www.groupc.org.au as archived at web.archive.org
• 1987 Castrol 500 - full race, www.youtube.com