With no manufacturer support, the Australian Rally Championship was at a crossroads, indeed it was so for Australian rallying in general. It was time to move to the internationally recognised vehicle regulations or the Australian equivalents thereof. In 1982 the FIA had produced the Group A regulations for touring cars to replace the previous Group 2 regulations. To avoid the almost impossible task of homologation of cars being sold in Australia, CAMS introduced PRC – Production Rally Cars, largely similar to FIA Group A. Open slather Group G would continue for four more years. During the transition period ARC points would be awarded equally to both PRC/Group A and to Group G with additional bonus points for outright.
Not surprisingly, the first year was somewhat unpredictable with only a handful of PRC/Group A cars running. There was every chance that a PRC car could win the championship having never placed well in any event. And it almost came to pass, but by swapping from Group G to Group A, Ross Dunkerton (Datsun 1600, Datsun Stanza, Holden Commodore) won the championship by a slender margin from Peter Johnson in a PRC Mazda RX7. Johnson’s highest place in any round with fourteenth! Geoff Jones won the co-driver’s title with Johnson because Dunkerton had been accompanied by two different co-drivers.
David Officer and Kate Hobson (now Officer) scored consistently in their Galant placing Dinta third overall and Kate runner-up by a mere half point. Ian Hill and Phil Bonser won two rounds to finish fourth and third respectively.
Tom Snooks has provided the full story here.
To see other years of the Australian Rally Championship go to the ARC series page.
