Article: 1985 Bathurst 1000 - Group A Comes To Australia

[Steve Holmes]

Your'e right Steve. This looks like a replica alright or alternatively the car which John Bowe drove once Volvo funded the team in '86. However my thread above was just to elaborate a little more on the car that shook the southern hemisphere motorsport fraternity especially Dick Johnson. At one stage I thought we were going to have a similar repeat scenario of KZ7 and Dennis Connor!!!!!

Hey Frosty were you still with the team in 1986 when Francevic won the ATCC? Why did the team disband at the end of '86? Did Volvo Australia choose to quit racing, or was it Volvo in Sweden?

[Frosty5]

Hey Frosty were you still with the team in 1986 when Francevic won the ATCC? Why did the team disband at the end of '86? Did Volvo Australia choose to quit racing, or was it Volvo in Sweden?

Steve, yes I was, however Petch sold his interest in the LHD car I think after the 2nd round of the '86 ATCC and John Sheppard assumed control of the team known as Volvo Dealer Team. He obviously brought in some of his own troops but the majority of the guys left. With the withdrawal of Volvo support the rest of the team went their own ways. In retrospect while a a good team manager it was his way or the highway and there are numerous references to the difficulties Robbie had with him. Petch then had the ex Rouse Sierra and while it performed reasonably well here in NZ it was not up with the play at Bathurst in '86. Then came the CeeBeeEmm M3 followed by an ex Wolf Racing Sierra known as the Whittakers Peanut Slab Sierra. Volvo Sweden as I understand it pulled out of GrpA and ordered the cars back to Sweden. The spanner man I was trying to recall in a previous thread was Guy Trigaux and the Petch Volvo was a GTM built car in Belgium raced by Michelle Delcourt