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Gibson Motorsport
Gibson Motorsport was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1985 until 2003, though the team had its roots in Gibson's "Road & Track" team which ran a series of Ford Falcon GTHOs in Series Production during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The name of the team was also the name of Fred Gibson's automotive business in Sydney. As Gibson was also a driver for the Ford Works Team, his team was sometimes a pseudo-works team when the Ford factory did not enter.
The Nissan Motorsport Team was established by Howard Marsden in 1981 as a factory Nissan motorsport operation after Nissan decided to change from rallying to touring car racing. It made its debut in the 1981 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst. A limited campaign in the 1982 Australian Touring Car Championship was followed by a more concerted effort in the 1982 Australian Endurance Championship, with Nissan winning the Makes title in that series. This was followed by full campaigns in 1983 and 1984. The 1.8-litre Bluebird turbo was fast but fragile, although George Fury did finish second in the 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship (without taking a round win) and took pole position in the 1984 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst with a lap time that would stand as a record until 1990.
At one point of 1984, Marsden had gone to Japan to discuss Nissan's plans for the new Group A category, and when he returned he joined the team at a test session at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway where lead driver Fury was substantially faster than ever before and had broken the existing touring car lap record on the 1.6 km circuit. Fred Gibson told the story that the normally placid Marsden went into a rage and threatened to fire the entire team on the spot when he found the Bluebird was fitted with a 2.0 litre turbo engine and not the 1.8-litre unit it raced with.[citation needed]
Fred Gibson, who gave the Bluebird turbo its first race win in Australian touring car racing during the 1983 AMSCAR Series at Sydney's Amaroo Park, retired from driving at the end of 1983 and in 1985 and accepted an offer from Howard Marsden to take over as team owner/manager, which included the Gibsons moving from their long time home in Sydney to Melbourne where the team had been based. He inherited next to no staff as most jumped ship at the prospect of working for Fred. Gibson later described the Bluebird Turbo as "a shithouse little car".[citation needed] One who did stay was a young apprentice mechanic and race driver named Glenn Seton who had joined the Nissan team in 1984 as Christine Gibson's co-driver in the Nissan Pulsar EXA turbo for Sandown and Bathurst. Glenn was later joined at the team by his father Barry Seton, a renowned Sydney engine builder, the 1965 Armstrong 500 winner and Fred Gibson's former team mate and co-driver in their Ford Works Team days. Bo, as he is known, joined Nissan as the teams chief engine builder.
After sitting out 1985 while Nissan sorted out the homologation of its first Group A car, Nissan reappeared in 1986 with two Nissan Skyline RS DR30s, one driven all year by longtime team driver George Fury, and the second shared between Gary Scott and Glenn Seton, with Scott claiming pole position for the 1986 James Hardie 1000 (Seton partnered Fury who qualified 3rd). In 1987, Seton drove the second car all year to 2nd place both in the 1987 ATCC and at the James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst which was also a round of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship. Seton's Skyline was co-driven at Bathurst by twice Australian Drivers' Champion and 1986 Volvo team driver John Bowe.
After Fury took four round wins in the 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship and finished an unlucky runner-up in the series to the Volvo 240T of Robbie Francevic, the Peter Jackson sponsored team scored its first big win when Fury and Seton led Scott and new team driver Terry Shiel to a 1–2 win at the 1986 Castrol 500 at Sandown Raceway, the traditional warm up event for the Bathurst 1000. Fury, partnered by Shiel, would back up to win his second Sandown 500 in 1987.
The Nissan team also raced a Nissan Gazelle in the 1987 Australian 2.0 Litre Touring Car Championship for 20-year-old Mark Skaife, who had previously shown good form finishing second in the 1985 and 1986 Ford Laser series held at Amaroo Park. Skaife, who had joined the Nissan team as a mechanic in 1987, went on to win the 2.0 Litre championship, winning three of the four rounds of the series to break the stranglehold that Toyota had on the baby car class. He was joined at Bathurst in the Gazelle by Adelaide Hills Nissan dealer and sports sedan driver Grant Jarrett. During qualifying, Jarrett was having trouble making the class cut off time and it looked as if the Gazelle, which due to the race being an FIA WTCC race was forced to run in a higher engine class than it did in Australia (putting it in the same class as the BMW M3), would be a non-qualifier. However, late in Friday qualifying Jarrett managed to make the cut. During the time Jarrett was on his qualifying run, Skaife was reportedly nowhere to be seen in the Nissan pits. When the car returned to the pits it was driven straight into the garage and the doors closed. Both drivers emerged a short time later, with Skaife having damp hair and a flushed face while Jarret looked more like he had just got out of a shower than a touring car. This led to speculation it was Skaife and not Jarrett who had just been in the car for its final qualifying run. The pair finished the race in 19th place after numerous mechanical problems which had started within the first 10 laps. Despite the speculation that he had not driven his fastest qualifying laps, in the race Jarrett proved his critics wrong and would be credited with a faster race lap than he recorded in qualifying. However, in a magazine interview almost 20 years later, Fred Gibson admitted that it was indeed Skaife who qualified the car using Jarrett's driving suit and helmet.
For 1988, the new Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R was introduced. The new car featured a 2.0 Litre turbocharged Straight-six engine which produced approximately 410 bhp (306 kW; 416 PS), almost 70 bhp (52 kW; 71 PS) more than the outdated DR30's turbocharged 4cyl engine. Also, the HR31 featured front and rear spoilers which helped with high speed stability, something the old car lacked with team drivers reporting the cars as being frightful to drive on the high speed Conrod Straight at Bathurst where they were reaching speeds up to 260 km/h (162 mph) in 1986.
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Gibson Motorsport
Gibson Motorsport was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1985 until 2003, though the team had its roots in Gibson's "Road & Track" team which ran a series of Ford Falcon GTHOs in Series Production during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The name of the team was also the name of Fred Gibson's automotive business in Sydney. As Gibson was also a driver for the Ford Works Team, his team was sometimes a pseudo-works team when the Ford factory did not enter.
The Nissan Motorsport Team was established by Howard Marsden in 1981 as a factory Nissan motorsport operation after Nissan decided to change from rallying to touring car racing. It made its debut in the 1981 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst. A limited campaign in the 1982 Australian Touring Car Championship was followed by a more concerted effort in the 1982 Australian Endurance Championship, with Nissan winning the Makes title in that series. This was followed by full campaigns in 1983 and 1984. The 1.8-litre Bluebird turbo was fast but fragile, although George Fury did finish second in the 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship (without taking a round win) and took pole position in the 1984 James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst with a lap time that would stand as a record until 1990.
At one point of 1984, Marsden had gone to Japan to discuss Nissan's plans for the new Group A category, and when he returned he joined the team at a test session at Melbourne's Calder Park Raceway where lead driver Fury was substantially faster than ever before and had broken the existing touring car lap record on the 1.6 km circuit. Fred Gibson told the story that the normally placid Marsden went into a rage and threatened to fire the entire team on the spot when he found the Bluebird was fitted with a 2.0 litre turbo engine and not the 1.8-litre unit it raced with.[citation needed]
Fred Gibson, who gave the Bluebird turbo its first race win in Australian touring car racing during the 1983 AMSCAR Series at Sydney's Amaroo Park, retired from driving at the end of 1983 and in 1985 and accepted an offer from Howard Marsden to take over as team owner/manager, which included the Gibsons moving from their long time home in Sydney to Melbourne where the team had been based. He inherited next to no staff as most jumped ship at the prospect of working for Fred. Gibson later described the Bluebird Turbo as "a shithouse little car".[citation needed] One who did stay was a young apprentice mechanic and race driver named Glenn Seton who had joined the Nissan team in 1984 as Christine Gibson's co-driver in the Nissan Pulsar EXA turbo for Sandown and Bathurst. Glenn was later joined at the team by his father Barry Seton, a renowned Sydney engine builder, the 1965 Armstrong 500 winner and Fred Gibson's former team mate and co-driver in their Ford Works Team days. Bo, as he is known, joined Nissan as the teams chief engine builder.
After sitting out 1985 while Nissan sorted out the homologation of its first Group A car, Nissan reappeared in 1986 with two Nissan Skyline RS DR30s, one driven all year by longtime team driver George Fury, and the second shared between Gary Scott and Glenn Seton, with Scott claiming pole position for the 1986 James Hardie 1000 (Seton partnered Fury who qualified 3rd). In 1987, Seton drove the second car all year to 2nd place both in the 1987 ATCC and at the James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst which was also a round of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship. Seton's Skyline was co-driven at Bathurst by twice Australian Drivers' Champion and 1986 Volvo team driver John Bowe.
After Fury took four round wins in the 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship and finished an unlucky runner-up in the series to the Volvo 240T of Robbie Francevic, the Peter Jackson sponsored team scored its first big win when Fury and Seton led Scott and new team driver Terry Shiel to a 1–2 win at the 1986 Castrol 500 at Sandown Raceway, the traditional warm up event for the Bathurst 1000. Fury, partnered by Shiel, would back up to win his second Sandown 500 in 1987.
The Nissan team also raced a Nissan Gazelle in the 1987 Australian 2.0 Litre Touring Car Championship for 20-year-old Mark Skaife, who had previously shown good form finishing second in the 1985 and 1986 Ford Laser series held at Amaroo Park. Skaife, who had joined the Nissan team as a mechanic in 1987, went on to win the 2.0 Litre championship, winning three of the four rounds of the series to break the stranglehold that Toyota had on the baby car class. He was joined at Bathurst in the Gazelle by Adelaide Hills Nissan dealer and sports sedan driver Grant Jarrett. During qualifying, Jarrett was having trouble making the class cut off time and it looked as if the Gazelle, which due to the race being an FIA WTCC race was forced to run in a higher engine class than it did in Australia (putting it in the same class as the BMW M3), would be a non-qualifier. However, late in Friday qualifying Jarrett managed to make the cut. During the time Jarrett was on his qualifying run, Skaife was reportedly nowhere to be seen in the Nissan pits. When the car returned to the pits it was driven straight into the garage and the doors closed. Both drivers emerged a short time later, with Skaife having damp hair and a flushed face while Jarret looked more like he had just got out of a shower than a touring car. This led to speculation it was Skaife and not Jarrett who had just been in the car for its final qualifying run. The pair finished the race in 19th place after numerous mechanical problems which had started within the first 10 laps. Despite the speculation that he had not driven his fastest qualifying laps, in the race Jarrett proved his critics wrong and would be credited with a faster race lap than he recorded in qualifying. However, in a magazine interview almost 20 years later, Fred Gibson admitted that it was indeed Skaife who qualified the car using Jarrett's driving suit and helmet.
For 1988, the new Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R was introduced. The new car featured a 2.0 Litre turbocharged Straight-six engine which produced approximately 410 bhp (306 kW; 416 PS), almost 70 bhp (52 kW; 71 PS) more than the outdated DR30's turbocharged 4cyl engine. Also, the HR31 featured front and rear spoilers which helped with high speed stability, something the old car lacked with team drivers reporting the cars as being frightful to drive on the high speed Conrod Straight at Bathurst where they were reaching speeds up to 260 km/h (162 mph) in 1986.