User:Fruv/TEGA vs V8 Supercars History
Appearance
I'm using this page to reconcile the TEGA section and History sections in the V8 Supercars article. The TEGA section contains a lot of history which seems to duplicate facts in the History section. I'll use the table below to try to find the duplicates.
History Fact | TEGA Fact |
---|---|
The Touring Car Entrants Group Australia (TEGA) is owned by all of the teams. It has a board of 4 representatives and drafts the regulations. | |
To the disappointment of a majority of fans who had watched a long history of Ford-Holden battles in Australian touring car categories since the 1960s, international touring car regulations (which moved from Group A to Supertouring) seemed destined to preclude the Australian-built Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon in the early 90s. | |
In January 1993 CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport) replaced the existing Group 3A Touring Car category (which had been based on FIA Group A rules) with a new two class Group 3A. This encompassed both 5.0 litre Touring Cars (essentially Australian Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore V8 models) and 2.0 litre FIA Class II Touring Cars. These cars would contest the Australian Touring Car Championship as well as non championship Touring Car events such as the Bathurst 1000. | However, V8 only regulations were drafted, in partnership with Ford and Holden, to avoid this and to showcase their large Australian made cars. |
The existing BMW M3s were also permitted to compete against the Ford and Holden V8s in the 5.0 litre class, unlike the turbocharged Ford Sierra and Nissan Skyline GT-R models which were now banned from Australian Touring Car racing. | Nissan, who had dominated in the early 1990s, had their Turbo All Wheel Drive Skyline GT-R controversially excluded from the series, whilst BMW (with their non-turbo M3s) were allowed to continue for a brief period. |
Nissan vowed never to return to touring car racing in Australia again, and a short time later ceased Australian production. | |
However the M3 received few of the liberal concessions given to the new V8s, and the German manufacturer’s attention switched to the 2.0 litre class for 1994. | Eventually the works BMW team left to head a separate new Australian Super Touring Championship (ASTC), and in the mid-1990s this Super Touring series ran in opposition to the V8 category. |
Super Touring with its many makes had the backing of the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC) and sensationally two Bathurst 1000s were held each year in 1997 and 1998, one for V8s and the other (backed by traditional custodian ARDC) for Super Touring. | |
Ultimately, the bulk of sponsorship, driver talent, and fan attention remained with the more popular V8 category during this era, leaving the ASTC to later collapse in 2002 as an amateur category. | |
From 1995 the 2.0 litre cars, now contesting their own series as Super Touring Cars, were no longer eligible for the Australian Touring Car Championship and did not contest the endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst, leaving these open solely to the 5.0 litre Ford & Holden models. | |
The category acquired the moniker 'V8 Supercars' in 1997 when event management company IMG was given the rights to the series in 1997 after a bitter battle against CAMS and the ARDC, and led the championship on a rapid expansion. | |
Network Ten began televising the series in the same year, taking over from Channel Seven. | |
The Australian Vee Eight Supercar Company (AVESCO) was later formed to run the series directly and later became an independent organisation from its IMG origins. | |
In 2005 the name was changed to V8 Supercars Australia. | |
V8 Supercars Australia introduced carnival street-race V8 Supercar events such as the Clipsal 500, and strived to turn Australian touring car racing into a world-class product. | |
The name "V8 Supercar" was invented, and "Shell Australian Touring Car Championship" was replaced by "Shell Championship Series", now called the "V8 Supercar Championship Series" | |
In Group 3A and V8 Supercar from 1993–2007, Holden has won nine drivers' championships, and Ford has won six. |