This was the fifth year of Channel 7's coverage of the ATCC in 1989 & 1989 saw the year of change of the Channel 7 & Seven Sport logos in which the uniform blazer was now the same colour as your trousers-black.
The big outcry back when the Sierra came on strong in Group A in Australia was that you could not buy the road going version here. Of course that made all the Holden fans (and some drivers...Larry Perkins mainly) continually bleat about how unfair it all was. Funny, they wanted touring car racing to be more international and when it happened and the Aussie product wasn't as good as the European, the same people cried in their beers about the injustice of it all.
To think this is almost a quarter of a century ago. Awesome machines and I don't know what people were worried about, they were still watching balls-to-the-wall racing!
Fred Gibson's smile was an indication he knew he had signed the right man in Jimmy Richards, though as we know it was Nissan's long time driver George Fury who got the GTS-R's first win later in the year at Winton.
It was good to see the Nissan's giving the DJR Sierra's a run for their money. Apart from that it was a case of Sierra dominance all that year. Winton excepted. & with no factory Holden team racing it was dark days for V8 supporters.
I know, that was just peoples own insecurities coming out for sure. There'llbe far fewer issues with the new format, all cars will be pretty line-ball, it will come down to drivers, and more likely, money.
