1978 Australian Sports Car Championship Explained

The 1978 Australian Sports Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title^[1] for Group D Production Sports Cars.^[2] The title, which was the tenth Australian Sports Car Championship,^[3] was won by Ross Mathiesen,^[4] driving a Porsche Carrera.^[3]

Calendar

The championship was contested over a four-round series.^[4]

Round	Circuit	State	Date	Format	Round winner	Car
1	Calder	Victoria	10 March	Two heats	Ross Bond	Bolwell Nagari
2	Lakeside	Queensland	2 April	Two heats	Ross Mathiesen	Porsche Carrera
3	Amaroo Park	New South Wales	21 May	One race	Ross Bond	Bolwell Nagari
4	Winton	Victoria	20 August	Two heats	Ross Mathiesen	Porsche Carrera

Classes

Cars competed in two engine displacement classes.^[1]

Up to and including 2000cc^[1]
Over 2000cc^[1]

Points system

Championship points were awarded at each round on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the first six finishers in each class, and on a 4-3-2-1 to the first four finisher outright, irrespective of class.^[1]

At rounds which were contested over two heats, round placings were determined by allocating "points" to the first fourteen placegetters in each heat on a 20-16-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.^[1] Where more than one driver attained the same total, the relevant round placing was awarded to driver gaining the higher place in the last heat.^[1] Actual championship points were then awarded based on the calculated round placings.^[1]

Championship results

Position	Driver	Car	Class	Calder^[5]	Lakeside	Amaroo	Winton	Total
1	Ross Mathiesen	Porsche Carrera	Over 2000cc	9	13	9	13	44
2	Bill Evans	Triumph TR7	Up to 2000cc	9	9	4	10	32
	Ross Bond	Bolwell Nagari	Over 2000cc	13	6	13	-	32
4	Allan Hanns	Datsun 2000	Up to 2000cc	6	4	9	2	21
5	John Latham		Over 2000cc	-	9	-	9	18
6	Allan Edwards	Bolwell Nagari	Over 2000cc	6	4	2	2	14
7	Ray Julien	Datsun 2000	Up to 2000cc	1	6	6	-	13
8	Neil Swingler	Triumph GT6	Up to 2000cc	3	2	-	6	11
	Warwick Henderson	Chevrolet Corvette (C3)	Over 2000cc	4	2	4	1	11
10	Peter Fitzgerald	Porsche 911S	Over 2000cc	-	-	6	3	9
11	Fernando D'Alberto	Datsun 260Z	Over 2000cc	2	-	-	6	8
12	Bob Kennedy		Up to 2000cc^[6]	4	3	-	-	7
13	Chris Swingler	Triumph Spitfire	Up to 2000cc	2	-	-	3	5
14	Rex Colliver	Lotus 47	Up to 2000cc	-	-	-	4	4
15	Anthony Timmins	Austin-Healey Sprite	Up to 2000cc	-	-	3	-	3
	Ellen Reed	MG Midget	Up to 2000cc	-	1	2	-	3
17	Bernard van Elsen	Bolwell	Over 2000cc	1	-	-	-	1
	Michael Finnis	Jaguar E-Type	Over 2000cc	-	1	-	-	1
	Matt Pintar	Bolwell Mark 7^[7]	Over 2000cc	-	-	-	1	1
	Gary Ryan	Triumph Spitfire	Up to 2000cc	-	-	-	1	1

References

Conditions for Australian Titles, 1978 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, pages 84 to 86
Conditions for Australian Titles in the 1978 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport refers to “Sports Cars complying with Group D”. Classifications on page 240 of the 1978 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport refers to “Production Sports Cars (Group D)"
Records, Titles and Awards, 2006 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, page 14-6
Australian Sports Car Championship, Australian Competition Yearbook, Number 8, 1979, pages 65 to 67
Round points calculated by applying the points system, as published in the 1978 CAMS Manual of Motor Sport, to the round results, as published in Australian Competition Yearbook Number 8
Australian Competition Yearbook Number 8 indicates that Kennedy competed in the Up to 2000cc class at Calder and Lakeside, notwithstanding Triumph’s TR5 model being powered by a 2500cc engine.
http://wwwbollyblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/no-sr6-here.html No SR6 here, wwwbollyblog.blogspot.com