1969 Australian Touring Car Championship

1969 Australian Touring Car Championship
Previous:	1968	Next:	1970

The 1969 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS-sanctioned Australian motor racing title open to Group C Improved Production Touring Cars and Group E Series Production Touring Cars. The championship, which began at Calder Park Raceway on 23 March and ended at Symmons Plains Raceway on 16 November, was contested over a five heat series. It was the tenth running of the Australian Touring Car Championship and the first to be contested over a series of heats rather than as a single race.

The 1969 title marked Ian Geoghegan's fifth and final Australian Touring Car Championship victory, creating a record that would not be equalled until 1989. It was also his fourth consecutive title, a feat which would not be achieved again until 2014. Alan Hamilton actually scored the most points across the five races, but drivers were required to drop their worst result which left Geoghegan as champion by a single point. A similar scenario would play out in 1991 with Jim Richards and Mark Skaife.

Drivers

The Ford Mustang with which Ian Geoghegan won the championship. The car is pictured in 2013.

The following drivers competed in the 1969 championship. The list is not exhaustive.

Entrant	Car	No.	Driver
Mustang Team	Ford Mustang	1	Ian Geoghegan
Peter Manton Racing	Morris Cooper S	2	Peter Manton
Jim McKeown Motors	Ford Cortina Mark II Lotus	3	Jim McKeown
Norm Beechey	Holden HK Monaro GTS327	4	Norm Beechey
	Chevrolet Camaro	5	Terry Allan
Bob Jane Racing Team	Ford Mustang	6 7	Bob Jane
Bob Jane Racing Team	Ford Mustang	6	John harvey
	Morris Cooper S	8	Brian Foley
Porsche Distributors Racing	Porsche 911	9 19 88	Alan Hamilton
Allan Moffat Racing	Ford Boss 302 Mustang	9	Allan Moffat
	Toyota Corolla	10	Bob Morris
Phil Barnes Motor Service	Morris Cooper S	11	Phil Barnes
	Chevrolet Chevy II Nova	15	John Kay
	Chevrolet Camaro	17	Bryan Thomson
R. Inglis	Ford Cortina Lotus	29	Bob Inglis
	Morris Cooper S	30	Cyril Nancarrow
M.E. Nancarrow	Ford Cortina Lotus	33	Malcolm Nancarrow
MTR Services	Holden HK Monaro GTS327	44	Nick Petrilli
Alec Mildren Racing	Alfa Romeo GTA	49	John French
G. Bishop	Morris Cooper S	57	Graeme Bishop
	Ford Escort Mark I Twin Cam	58	Allan Whiteley
	Morris Cooper S	59	Ron Gillard
	Morris Cooper S	90	Robin Bessant
	Morris Cooper S		Ross Ambrose
	Morris Cooper S		Roger Brownrigg
	Ford Cortina Lotus		Tony Calvert
	Ford Mustang		Robin Pare

Season calendar

The following five heats made up the 1969 championship.

Heat	Event title	Circuit	Location	Date	Winner	Entrant
1		Calder Park Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	23 March	Bob Jane	Bob Jane Racing Team
2		Mount Panorama Circuit	Bathurst, New South Wales	7 April	Ian Geoghegan	Mustang Team
3	South Australian Touring Car Championship	Mallala Motor Sport Park	Mallala, South Australia	16 June	Ian Geoghegan	Mustang Team
4		Surfers Paradise International Raceway	Surfers Paradise, Queensland	31 August	Norm Beechey	Norm Beechey
5		Symmons Plains Raceway	Launceston, Tasmania	16 November	Norm Beechey	Norm Beechey

Race summaries

Calder

Ian Geoghegan qualified on pole position with a record time of 48.3 seconds. Bob Jane was second ahead of Norm Beechey and Alan Hamilton. After blowing an engine, Beechey and his crew faced an overnight rebuild in order to make the grid. Beechey's car was repaired in time for the race and he took the lead off the start, only for Geoghegan to move past at the first corner. After a slow start, Jane passed Beechey on lap 4 and then overtook Geoghegan for the lead on lap 5. Beechey suffered another engine failure on lap 7. After conceding a five second lead to Jane in the first two thirds of the race, Geoghegan began closing the gap towards the end of the race. Both drivers set a new lap record of 49.1 seconds before Geoghegan made a move. However, he outbraked himself and ran wide, allowing Jane to take the win by five seconds. Hamilton finished third, one lap down on the leading pair.

Bathurst

Ian Geoghegan dominated the second round of the championship at Mount Panorama. After qualifying on pole position by over five seconds, he proceeded to build his lead by over ten seconds per lap during the race, winning by a lap over the Porsche of Alan Hamilton. Phil Barnes, driving a Morris Cooper S, finished in third place. Bob Jane had qualified second but blew an engine on lap 9, while Norm Beechey did not even start the race after an accident in practice. Hamilton did not have a smooth run, either, damaging his car's suspension in practice and having it repaired at a local workshop.

Ron Gillard, in a Cooper S, and Bob Morris, in a Corolla, battled during the early phases of the race before the Corolla's clutch failed. Morris stopped at the top of the circuit, planning to coast down to the finish on the final lap. However, the car stopped fifty yards short of the finish line and Morris had to push it to the finish. With Jane's retirement, Geoghegan took the lead in the points standings while Hamilton moved up to second place.

Mallala

Bob Jane took pole position for the Mallala round ahead of Ian Geoghegan and Allan Moffat. Norm Beechey again did not start after blowing an engine in a preliminary race. Geoghegan was left with an easy victory after Moffat retired on lap 2 and Jane retired at the halfway mark. Alan Hamilton finished second, 44 seconds behind Geoghegan, with Peter Manton in third. Only seven of the fifteen starters finished the race. Geoghegan assumed an eight-point lead in the championship over Hamilton, with Jane maintaining third place courtesy of his victory at Calder.

Surfers Paradise

Ian Geoghegan took his third pole position of the season ahead of Norm Beechey, whose time was equalled by Alan Hamilton. Geoghegan moved into the lead at the start of the race and pulled away from Beechey, before hitting a dropped exhaust pipe on lap 8. This punctured a rear tyre and the resulting pit stop left Geoghegan two laps down on Beechey.

Despite being up to four seconds a lap faster than Beechey, the race was not long enough for him to reach higher than sixth place. Beechey took his first win of the season, and the first championship race victory for Holden, with Hamilton again finishing in second place. Jim McKeown finished third. Geoghegan's troubles saw his championship lead drop to just three points over Hamilton, meaning that the title would be decided at the final round at Symmons Plains. Peter Manton moved into third place in the points standings after Jane did not take part in the race.

Symmons Plains

Ian Geoghegan led Alan Hamilton by three points coming into the final round. However, due to each driver being required to drop their worst result from the five rounds, Hamilton had to win with Geoghegan failing to score in order to take the title, as he would drop his four points for third place at Calder. Geoghegan took pole position ahead of John Harvey, driving Bob Jane's Mustang. Harvey was followed by Allan Moffat, Norm Beechey and Hamilton. Geoghegan's car failed to start at the one-minute signal and the race began while he was still in the pits. His pit crew eventually push started the car but this meant that Geoghegan would be disqualified. With Geoghegan out of the running, Hamilton just required a win to take the title. Harvey took the lead at the start ahead of Moffat and Beechey. Moffat's engine failed on lap 7, elevating Beechey and Hamilton into second and third respectively. Harvey led the race by ten seconds, with Hamilton fourteen seconds off the lead.

Tyre punctures for Harvey on laps 15 and 16 forced him out of contention, leaving Beechey in the lead and Hamilton in second. Beechey extended his lead until transmission problems saw him unable to use the lower gears. As a result, he had to slip the clutch to keep the car accelerating at low speed. Hamilton closed the gap, getting to within a car length of Beechey going into the final corner. Beechey was able to accelerate away from the Porsche on the run to the finish to take the win over Hamilton and Jim McKeown. Despite the looming disqualification, Geoghegan continued on in the race, breaking the lap record and eventually making it back on to the lead lap. With Hamilton failing to take victory, Geoghegan clinched the title by one point. Beechey's consecutive wins in the final two rounds saw him take third place in the points standings ahead of McKeown and Peter Manton.

Championship standings

Points system

Points were awarded as follows to the top six finishers in each heat. Drivers were required to drop their worst score from the five heats.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Points	9	6	4	3	2	1

Championship points

Results in parentheses are those not counted in the final points score. Points totals without parentheses are championship points; those in parentheses are total points scored.

Pos. Driver CAL BAT MAL SUR SYM Pts. 1 Ian Geoghegan 2 1 1 6 DSQ 25 2 Alan Hamilton (3) 2 2 2 2 24 (28) 3 Norm Beechey Ret DNS DNS 1 1 18 4 Jim McKeown 4 3 3 11 5 Peter Manton 4 3 4 10 6 Bob Jane 1 Ret Ret 9 7 Phil Barnes 5 3 6 8 Bob Inglis 4 3 Robin Bessant 4 3 10 Ron Gillard 5 2 Graeme Bishop 5 2 John French 5 2 Ross Ambrose 5 2 14 Roger Brownrigg 6 1 Nick Petrilli 6 1 Malcolm Nancarrow 6 1 Tony Calvert 6 1 Pos. Driver CAL BAT MAL SUR SYM Pts.

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Excluded (EX) Bold - Pole position