Quote Originally Posted by Steve Holmes View Post
Hi Rob, fantastic first post! Many thanks, its great to have you here.

Thanks for the info on the Sierra. I'm pretty certain its first NZ race was the 1986 Wellington Street Race, where Rouse and Oxton shared the car. Rouse put it on pole, but it suffered a mechanical problem early on. They would have driven the car together at the Pukekohe 500km race the following weekend as well. Then Rouse would have headed back home and Oxton drove the car on his own throughout the remaining NZ touring car events.

At some stage, the car ended up with Mark Petch, and he took it to Australia. He entered it at Bathurst in 1986, and Robbie Francevic was one of the drivers, having fallen out with the Volvo Team Australia after winning the '86 Australian Touring Car Championship in a 240T. Leo Leonard was the other driver. They qualified 21st, but were out of the race after 27 laps. From there, the trail seems to dry up. It didn't race in NZ the following season, and it doesn't appear to have raced in Aus again. It just sort of quietly disappeared.

Like you say Rob, it wasn't as successful as you'd hoped, but it was still a significant car, having won the 1985 BTCC. And, furthermore, it was a lovely looking car.
Steve, it was a dog. It had a few successes here in NZ but was as unreliable as the weather. I recall at 86 Bathurst it broke so many rockers we could have started up our own foundry and supplied metal to the Chinese!!!!

Dave