1998 Australian Super Touring Championship

The 1998 Australian Super Touring Championship was the sixth running of a CAMS sanctioned motor racing series in Australia under the Super Touring Car regulations and the fourth to carry the Australian Super Touring Championship name. It began on 5 April 1998 at Calder Park Raceway and ended on 30 August at Oran Park Raceway after eight rounds. The series was promoted by TOCA Australia as the 1998 BOC Gases Australian Super Touring Championship. As in the British Touring Car Championship the race format changed with each meeting now consisting a shorter "sprint" race and a "feature" race, 25% longer than previous races featuring a mandatory two-tyre stop to be taken between 15 and 75% distance. The one exception was the round at Lakeside Raceway where the pit lane was deemed unsuitable.

1998 ASTC season

Previous

1997

Next

1999

Team and Driver changes

• 1997 championship winners Paul Morris and BMW left the series as BMW scaled back its touring car operation.
• Volvo switched from the 850 to the new S40^[1] for Jim Richards.
• Cameron McLean drove the 1997 championship winning BMW^[2] switching from the Opel/Holden Vectra he raced in 1997.
• Tony Newman upgraded to an ex BTCC Peugeot 406^[3]
• Mark Adderton switched from the Phoenix Motorsport Toyota Camry to a Honda Accord.^[4]

Entry List

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1998 Australian Super Touring Championship.

Team	Manufacturer	Car model	No	Driver
Audi Sport Australia	Audi	A4 Quattro	3	Cameron McConville
			4	Brad Jones
			14	Trevor Sheumack
TC Motorsport	Peugeot	406	10	Tony Newman
		405 Mi16	38	Dwayne Bewley
AAP Racing	Toyota	Carina	11	Milton Leslight
Greenfield Mowers Racing	BMW	320i	12	Cameron McLean
Grid Motorsport	BMW	318i	13	Anthony Robson Craig Bradshaw
Racing Projects	Honda	Accord	15	Mark Adderton
	Nissan	Primera	22	Adam Kaplan
Bob Holden Motors	BMW	318i	16	Bob Holden Trevor Sheumack Justin Mathews Paul Nelson
Carlos Rolfo	BMW	318i	20	Carlos Rolfo Rod Wilson
M-F Racing	Peugeot	405 Mi16	21	Mike Fitzgerald
Novacastrian Motorsport	BMW	320i	30	Troy Searle
Volvo Dealer Racing	Volvo	S40	40	Jim Richards
Gun Racing	Alfa Romeo	155 TS	45	David Auger
John Henderson Racing	Opel	Vectra	56	John Henderson
Triple P Racing	Hyundai	Lantra	58	Claude Elias
Knight Racing	Ford	Mondeo	60	Warren Luff
			88	Peter Hills
			89	Paul Pickett Ric Shaw Aaron McGill Kurt Kratzmann Dwayne Bewley Mark Zonneveld
Graham Dodd	Honda	Accord	69	Graham Dodd
Motorsport Developments	Toyota	Carina	77	Malcolm Rea
Robert Tweedie	Vauxhall	Cavalier	79	Bob Tweedie
Phoenix Motorsport	Toyota	Camry	95	Ron Searle

Results and standings

Race calendar

The 1998 Australian Super Touring Championship was contested over eight rounds with two races per round.

Rd.	Race	Race title	Circuit	City / state	Date	Winner	Team
NC	1	Australian Grand Prix support	Albert Park Circuit	Melbourne, Victoria	6–7 Mar	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
	2	Australian Grand Prix support	Albert Park Circuit	Melbourne, Victoria	6–7 Mar	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
1	1	Calder Park	Calder Park Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	4–5 Apr	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
	2	Calder Park	Calder Park Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	4–5 Apr	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
2	1	Oran Park	Oran Park Raceway South Circuit	Sydney, New South Wales	26–27 Apr	Brad Jones	Audi Sport Australia
	2	Oran Park	Oran Park Raceway South Circuit	Sydney, New South Wales	26–27 Apr	Brad Jones	Audi Sport Australia
3	1	Phillip Island	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit	Phillip Island, Victoria	16–17 May	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
	2	Phillip Island	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit	Phillip Island, Victoria	16–17 May	Jim Richards	Volvo Dealer Racing
4	1	Eastern Creek	Eastern Creek Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	6–7 Jun	Jim Richards	Volvo Dealer Racing
	2	Eastern Creek	Eastern Creek Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	6–7 Jun	Brad Jones	Audi Sport Australia
5	1	Lakeside	Lakeside International Raceway	Brisbane, Queensland	27–28 Jun	Brad Jones	Audi Sport Australia
	2	Lakeside	Lakeside International Raceway	Brisbane, Queensland	27–28 Jun	Brad Jones	Audi Sport Australia
6	1	Mallala	Mallala Motorsport Park	Adelaide, South Australia	18–19 Jul	Brad Jones	Audi Sport Australia
	2	Mallala	Mallala Motorsport Park	Adelaide, South Australia	18–19 Jul	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
7	1	Winton	Winton Motor Raceway	Benalla, Victoria	8–9 Aug	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
	2	Winton	Winton Motor Raceway	Benalla, Victoria	8–9 Aug	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
8	1	Oran Park	Oran Park Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	29–30 Aug	Cameron McConville	Audi Sport Australia
	2	Oran Park	Oran Park Raceway	Sydney, New South Wales	29–30 Aug	Brad Jones	Audi Sport Australia
NC	1	AMP Bathurst 1000	Mount Panorama Circuit	Bathurst, New South Wales	4 Oct	Rickard Rydell & Jim Richards	Volvo S40 Racing

Drivers Championship

Points were awarded 15-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 based on the top ten race positions in each race. There was a bonus point allocated for pole position.

Pos Driver CAL 1 CAL 2 ORA 1 ORA 2 PHI 1 PHI 2 EAS 1 EAS 2 LAK 1 LAK 2 MAL 1 MAL 2 WIN 1 WIN 2 ORA 1 ORA 2 Pts 1 Brad Jones 3rd 2nd 1st 1st 10th 2nd 2nd 1st 1st 1st 1st 2nd Ret 4th 2nd 1st 191 2 Cameron McConville 1st 1st 2nd 2nd 1st 4th 3rd Ret 2nd DSQ 2nd 1st 1st 1st 1st 3rd 184 3 Jim Richards 4th 4th 3rd 3rd 2nd 1st 1st 2nd 3rd 3rd 4th 4th 2nd 3rd 4th Ret 161 4 Cameron McLean 2nd 3rd Ret 6th 3rd 3rd 4th Ret 4th 2nd 3rd 3rd 3rd 2nd 3rd 2nd 139 5 Mark Adderton 5th 5th 7th 4th 4th 5th 5th Ret 5th 4th 7th Ret 4th 5th 6th Ret 81 6 Peter Hills 6th 7th 10th 8th 6th 7th 7th 7th Ret 5th 5th 5th 5th 6th 5th 6th 70 7 Bob Tweedie 7th 6th 9th 9th 7th 9th 10th 9th 10th 8th 6th 8th 7th 9th 8th 11th 43 8 Ron Searle DNS DNS 6th 5th DNS DNS 6th 5th 8th DSQ Ret DNS Ret DNS 7th 8th 32 9 Troy Searle 18th 11th 5th 6th Ret 3rd Ret 6th Ret DNS 10th Ret 27 10 David Auger 8th 8th 13th 13th 8th 10th Ret 10th 6th 9th 13th 9th 8th Ret 11th 9th 25 11 Justin Mathews 9th 8th 8th 4th 7th 10th 11th 12th 21 12 Adam Kaplan 12th 7th 9th 6th 8th 6th Ret 11th Ret 13th 19 13 Trevor Sheumack 5th Ret Ret 4th 14 14 Anthony Robson 9th 11th Ret DNS 11th Ret 10th 10th 6th 7th Ret 12th 13 15 Mark Zonneveld 10th 8th Ret 5th 10 16 John Henderson 4th DNS DNS DNS Ret Ret 8 17 Kurt Kratzmann 9th 7th 6 17 Paul Pickett 10th 9th 8th 12th 6 19 Dwayne Bewley Ret 10th Ret DNS 12th 7th 5 20 Rod Wilson 12th 7th 4 20 Tony Newman Ret DNS 11th Ret DNS DNS 9th 11th Ret Ret 9th Ret 4 20 Bob Holden 11th 10th 9th 10th 4 23 Aaron McGill 12th 8th 3 24 Graham Dodd Ret Ret 14th 10th 1 Carlos Rolfo 15th 17th 11th Ret Ret DNS Ric Shaw 11th Ret Paul Nelson 13th 14th Craig Bradshaw 14th 14th Claude Elias 17th 15th Milton Leslight Ret DNS 16th 16th Ret DNS DNS DNS Malcolm Rea Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret DNS Mike Fitzgerald Ret DNS Warren Luff DNS DNS Pos Driver CAL 1 CAL 2 ORA 1 ORA 2 PHI 1 PHI 2 EAS 1 EAS 2 LAK 1 LAK 2 MAL 1 MAL 2 WIN 1 WIN 2 ORA 1 ORA 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)

Manufacturers Championship

Position[5]	Manufacturer[5]	Points[5]
1	Audi	234
2	Volvo	186

Teams Championship

Position[5]	Team[5]	Points[5]
1	Audi Sport Australia	204
2	Knight Racing	136

TOCA Challenge - Independents Cup

Independents Cup points were awarded on a 15-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis for relative positions achieved by drivers in entries nominated as Independents at each race.

The TOCA Challenge - Independents Cup was won by Cameron McLean in his Greenfield Mowers Racing-entered BMW 320i, scoring 205 points. Second was Mark Adderton on 151 points, and third was Peter Hills on 136 points.^[5]