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VOLVO
240 Turbo GROUP
'A' RACING
INFORMATION
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GpA
Racing in Australia
by
Anthony Hyde, August 1999. Updated 4/2008
In 1985 the
Mark Petch owned Group A Volvo 240T made headlines
in Australia with driver Robbie Francevic.
The 4cyl Volvo Turbo was the new car on the block,
a real threat to V8 supremacy - How right they were
!
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VOLVO
WINS 1985
European Touring Car Championship
VOLVO
4th 1985
Australian Touring Car Championship
VOLVO
WINS 1986
Australian Touring Car
Championship
In
countries close to
Australia
VOLVO
WINS
1987 and 1988 Southeast Asian Touring Car
Championship - Zepspeed Volvo team
VOLVO
WINS
1987 and 1988 Thailand Touring Car Championship
VOLVO
WINS
1987 and 1988 Malaysian Touring Car Championship,
Penang
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Robbie
Francevic
Volvo
wins 1986 ATCC
Adelaide
(VMS Photo)
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Year
1986 -
Group A - Australian Touring Car
Championship (ATCC)
winner - researched
by Anthony Hyde
Two
'Group A' Volvo 240 Turbo racecars competed
in the 1986 championship. Driver's were Robbie
Francevic (NZ) car 10 (LH drive), and
starting a few rounds later John Bowe
(Australia) in car 4 (RH drive).
Early history - Car 10 ex Belgium (GTM
Engineering) / ex Petch /
AVDT
240T. - Car 4 Australian Volvo Dealer Team
(AVDT)
was ex Belgium 1986 RAS built test car (Note: RH
drive), being fully rebuilt by the Volvo Factory
before shipment to Oz.
The
1986
championship chase started with the Mark
Petch Motorsport team running car 10
with just one driver Robbie Francevic (NZ) . The
Petch team competed in two rounds before selling
the car and all equipment in March 1986 to the
newly formed Australian Volvo Dealer Team
(AVDT).
The debut of the new dealer team was at R.3 Sandown
Park in Melbourne with car 10. The team
fielded two cars at R.4 Adelaide International
Raceway in April 1986 where Robbie Francevic's
'car 10' came 3rd, and John Bowe in the new
'car 4' came 4th.
AVDT
consortium :
this consisted of Volvo Car Australia, Volvo
Dealers from Australian & New Zealand (Volvo
Dealers contributed 40% to the race budget from car
sales), Valvoline Australia and other team
sponsors. Technical support was provided by Volvo
Motorsport (VMS) in Sweden. John
Sheppard was appointed Team Manager and the
team was based at Calder, Melbourne.
Group A competition was against V8 GM Holden
Commodores, V8 Mustangs, Nissan Skyline Turbos, BMW
635CSi & 325i, Rover etc.
In
May 1986, Robbie Francevic took over the RH drive
car and John Bowe campaigned the older LH drive
car.
It
was a good year, Volvo won
the
1986
Australian Touring Car Championship.
An
article below details the history of car 10, Robbie
Francevic's mount.
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March
1986 -
Robbie Francevic in the Petch Racing 240T on its way to
convincingly win Round 1 of the AMSCAR / ATCC at Amaroo
Park, New South Wales. (Ray
Berghouse Photo)
A video / DVD is available for this race, and its
recommended to Volvo GpA fans.
January
1986 - Nissan 500
street race in Wellington (New
Zealand)
- The Petch
Racing Team of Francevic / Lindström 2nd on grid
(Volvo was Car # 1 as they won the previous
year)
(Bill
Forsyth Photo)
Car retired with a broken oil line
An
Impressive History of the ex Belgium VMS / New Zealand /
Australia GpA 240
Compiled
by Anthony Hyde
1984
- This LH drive semi-works built 240T GpA was
prepared in Belgium by Guy Trigaux Motors (GTM Engineering)
for the Belgium Volvo Dealer Team and competed in the
1984 European Touring Car Championship. The car (and a spare
chassis) were purchased from Volvo Motorsport (Sweden) by
Mark
Petch
a New Zealand engineer/businessman/race car driver. The car
was air freighted from Brussels to NZ after the 1984
European season ended, arriving in January 1985. Petch
formed a race team partnership with driver
Robbie
Francevic,
and at the time were the only privateers in the world
running a GpA 240 without direct factory support.
1985
- In January, Mark Petch Racing
won
the famous Nissan Sport 500 street race in
Wellington, New Zealand with drivers
Robbie
Francevic (NZ),
and Michele
Delcourt (Belgium).
Michele
was familiar with the car as he raced it for GTM Engineering
in the 1984 ETC. This first
outing win was an amazing
feat
as the car arrived late at the circuit from an overseas
flight and started from rear of grid. Soon after in 1985 the
car was shipped to Australia, being a late entry into
the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship where
new GpA regulations were introduced. At this stage
Robbie Francevic was involved both as a driver & with
the cars's race setup. Later in the year the car received
updates for endurance races at Sandown and the Bathurst
'James Hardie 1000'. Wayne Eskersley was head engine
builder.
1986
- Early in 1986, Mark Petch Motorsport competed once
again in the Nissan 500 street race in Wellington, New
Zealand following the sensational win the year before. For
the new season, major homologation updates were fitted to
the Volvo turbo by visiting
Swede,Thomas Lindström,
also being co-driver for the event with Robbie F. They
qualified 2nd on grid, result dnf. Back to Australia, the
team won the first two rounds of the 1986 ATCC with
Francevic
before
the Petch Team's car & equipment was sold to Volvo
Australia. A new team was formed called the
'Australian
Volvo Dealer Team'.
Drivers were Robbie Francevic & John Bowe. From May 86,
J.Bowe, the teams 2nd driver, drove this car for the rest of
the 1986 ATC Championship, except enduance events where a
new 240 RXT car was introduced.
This LH drive car contributed to
Volvo
winning
the '1986
Australian Touring Car
Championship'
(ATCC) the most popular category of Australian motorsport, a
brilliant result against the V8 Fords & Holdens.
Late
1986
- Volvo pulls out of racing worldwide due in part to world
GpA rule changes (eg turbo factor raised from 1.4 to 1.7)
and disputes with the FIA. The 3 Australian cars (the LH
plus 2 RH drives) were ordered back to Sweden by Volvo HQ,
departing in a giant Antonov Russian transport plane.
1987
- Söderqvist Racing Services, (SRS) purchased
the ex-Petch LH car and the AVDT built RH drive car.
Apparently one of the cars was for 'Volvo
Finland', where later Leif Wiik
won
the 1987
Finnish Touring Car Championship. Anders Lindberg
rebuilt the ex-Petch LH car and drove for Steffansson
Automotive (SAM) in the Swedish championship in
1989.
SAM (Sweden) sold car to a collector in Austria
1992.
Sold again to PK in Germany, 2003.
The car is in top good condition and lives on, being used in
historic racing in Germany.
James
Hardie 1000, Bathurst 1985 Drivers' R.Francevic &
J.Bowe - (retired with broken diode in the
alternator)
1986
- New paint scheme
for Robbie Francevics' (LH drive) GpA 240T as a result of
Volvo
Dealer Team
funding.
The new colours where the same as the European RAS Sport
Volvo Works team. First shown at round 3, Sandown Park,
Victoria 1986
- Francevic came in second behind the Nissan Skyline turbo.
(VMS Photo)
 (Rob
Noble Photo)
May
1986 John
Bowe in the Volvo Dealer Teams' 2nd GpA 240T
racecar (RH drive, ex RAS) chasing Australian
legend Peter Brock (red V8 HDT Holden Commodore),
and George Fury (Nissan Skyline turbo) at Wanneroo,
Western Australia.
Later with Bowe leading the race a hose blew.
Luckily for Volvo, Robbie Francevic's 240T came in
third.
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1986 Round 4 ATCC-
Adelaide International won by Francevic (Chevron
pic?)
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(L
to R) Robbie Francevic, Craig Burgess,
Geoff
Cherry,
John
Cherry,
Geff Grech (HDT), John Sheppard (team manager)
on Truck is Mort Brown (missing driver John Bowe) (VMS
Photo)
View
motorsport
history of an Australian 'GROUP
A' Volvo
360 GLT
LINK -
V360
Racing
Site is in the Netherlands (not in
English)
Any information that
you would like to share, please email
Anthony thank
you.
I
thank
John
A. for his input.
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