1996 Australian Drivers' Championship

The 1996 Australian Drivers' Championship was an Australian motor racing competition for racing cars complying with CAMS Formula Holden regulations.^[1] The championship winner was awarded the 1996 CAMS Gold Star as the Australian Drivers' Champion.^[1] It was the 40th running of the Australian Drivers' Championship and the eighth to feature the Formula Holden category. The championship began on 8 March 1996 at the Albert Park Street Circuit and ended on 2 June at Mallala Motor Sport Park after eight races held over four rounds.

1996 Australian Drivers' Championship

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1995

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1997

Paul Stokell won his third Australian Drivers' Championship in a season dominated by him and his Birrana Racing teammate Jason Bright. The two dark blue Reynard 91Ds won every race of the season except one. Bright's early season unreliability became the difference between the two at season's end. The only race they did not claim was race two at the 1996 Australian Grand Prix meeting which saw Europe-bound Mark Webber in a guest drive in the Graham Watson owned Reynard, take the win when both Stokell and Bright retired. Darren Edwards was consistently best of the rest of the field, claiming four top three finishes over the season. Stephen Cramp took three second places at the start of the season but faded, dropping to fifth position in the championship behind Adam Kaplan.

Teams and drivers

The following drivers competed in the 1996 Australian Drivers' Championship.

Driver	No	Car	Entrant[2][3]
Paul Stokell	1	Reynard 91D Holden	Birrana Racing
Allan Galloway	2	Reynard 91D Holden	Allan Galloway
Geoff Fickling	3	Reynard 90D Holden	Graham Watson
Steven Johnson	3	Reynard 90D Holden	Graham Watson
Graham Watson	3	Reynard 90D Holden	Graham Watson
Bryan Hartley	4	Dome F102 Holden	Bryan Hartley
Stan Keen	5	Shrike NB89H Holden	Stan Keen
Graham Sims	6	Reynard 90D Holden	Graham Sims
Adam Kaplan	7	Reynard 91D Holden	Adam Kaplan
Dean Irwin	8	Ralt RT21 Holden	Dean Irwin
Jason Bright	9	Reynard 91D Holden	Birrana Racing
Darren Edwards	10	Reynard 90D Holden	Clem Smith
James Taylor	11	Reynard 91D Holden	Ken Smith
Ken Smith	11	Reynard 92D Holden	Ken Smith
Chas Talbot	14	March 87B Holden	Chas Talbot
Roger Seward	16	Ralt RT23 Holden	Roger Seward
Arthur Abrahams	19	Reynard 92D Holden	Arthur Abrahams
Stephen Cramp	21	Ralt RT23 Holden	Stephen Cramp
Bob Minogue	29	Reynard 92D Holden	RA Minogue
Mark Webber	30	Reynard 91D Holden	Graham Watson
Owen Osborne	34	SPA 002 Holden	Owen Osborne
Sam Astuti	47	Reynard 92D Holden	SH Racing
Kevin Weeks	70	Reynard 91D Holden	Kevin Weeks
Maurice O'Reilly	71	Reynard 91D Holden	Kevin Weeks
Chris Hocking	74	Reynard 91D Holden	GL Knight & Assoc
Brian Sampson	78	Cheetah Mk. 9 Holden	Brian Sampson
Chas Jacobsen	87	Reynard 92D Holden	Chas Jacobsen
Darren Pate	99	Reynard 90D Holden	Auz Racing Team Pty Ltd

Race calendar

The 1996 Australian Drivers' Championship was contested over eight races at four rounds held in two states.^[4]

Rd/Race.	Circuit	Location / state	Date	Winner
R1/1	Albert Park Circuit	Melbourne, Victoria	8 March	Paul Stokell
R1/2			9 March	Mark Webber
R2/1	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit	Phillip Island, Victoria	14 April	Paul Stokell
R2/2				Paul Stokell
R3/1	Calder Park Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	28 April	Jason Bright
R3/2				Jason Bright
R4/1	Mallala Motor Sport Park	Mallala, South Australia	2 June	Paul Stokell
R4/2				Jason Bright

Results

Points were awarded 20–15–12–10–8–6–4–3–2–1 based on the top ten race positions in each race.^[1] Only half points were awarded for Race 1 of Round 2 at Phillip Island.^[4]

Pos. Driver[5] Rd1/1 Rd2/2 Rd2/1 Rd2/2 Rd3/1 Rd3/2 Rd4/1 Rd4/2 Pts[5] 1 Paul Stokell 1st Ret 1st 1st 2nd 3rd 1st Ret 97 2 Jason Bright Ret Ret Ret 2nd 1st 1st 2nd 1st 90 3 Darren Edwards 3rd 4th 6th 3rd 4th 2nd 3rd 6th 80 4 Adam Kaplan 4th 3rd 5th 6th 5th Ret 5th 3rd 60 5 Stephen Cramp 2nd 2nd 2nd 11th 8th 7th Ret 4th 54.5 6 Arthur Abrahams DNS 5th Ret 5th 6th 6th 6th 5th 42[6] 7 Kevin Weeks 5th DNS 4th 7th 7th 5th Ret DNS 29 8 Darren Pate 4th 2nd 25 Sam Astuti 7th 10th 3rd 4th 25 10 Mark Webber Ret 1st 20 11 Ken Smith 3rd 4th 16 12 Bryan Hartley 8th 7th DNS 8th 11th 8th 13 13 James Taylor 6th 6th 12 14 Bob Minogue 7th 8th DNS Ret DNS Ret 7th DNS 11 15 Chas Jacobsen Ret 8th 9th 9th 14th 9th 9 16 Stan Keen Ret 9th 9th 7th 8 17 Chris Hocking 9th Ret 10th 10th 8th Ret 6 18 Dean Irwin 8th 9th Ret 11th 3.5 19 Alan Galloway 9th DNS Ret DNS 2 Maurice O'Reilly 10th 10th 2 21 Owen Osborne 10th DNS 10th DNS 1.5 22 Roger Seward 15th 10th 1 Pos Driver Rd1/1 Rd2/2 Rd2/1 Rd2/2 Rd3/1 Rd3/2 Rd4/1 Rd4/2 Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (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 practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX)