Mobil 1 Racing
 |
|
| Manufacturer |
BMW Ford |
|---|---|
| Team Principal | Peter Brock |
| Team Manager | Graham Browne |
| Race Drivers |
Peter Brock (1988-1990) Neil Crompton (1988) Brad Jones (1989) Mark Larkham (1989) Paul Radisich (1989) Andy Rouse (1989-1990) Andrew Miedecke (1990) Tony Noske (1990) |
| Chassis |
BMW M3 (1988) Ford Sierra RS500 (1989-1990) |
| Debut | 1988 |
Mobil 1 Racing was an Australian touring car racing team that competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship between 1988 and 1990.
The Holden Dealer Team under the direction of Alan Gow, with support from Mobil, but without the assistance of Holden, new automotive partners had to be found. At the end of 1987, Frank Gardner had gone into a short-lived retirement and shut down the JPS Team BMW. The team bought the JPS team assets and became the official team for BMW Australia. However, by 1988, the naturally aspirated, 2.3L BMW M3 was no longer competitive against the much faster Ford Sierra's (especially in the ATCC where shorter races saw the 300 hp (224 kW; 304 PS) M3's unable to challenge with the 500 hp (373 kW; 507 PS) Sierra's) and Brock, Jim Richards, David Parsons and emerging talent Neil Crompton (also one of Channel Seven's lead motorsport commentators) found themselves fighting for scraps rather than the wins the JPS team had achieved in 1987. The Mobil team's only win during 1988 was when Brock and Richards won the Pepsi 250 at Oran Park with Parsons and Crompton finishing 4th.
The team's first time at both the Sandown and Bathurst endurance races with anything other than a Holden were forgettable. Although Richards qualified the lead M3 in 4th at Sandown, his time was over 3 seconds slower than Dick Johnson's pole time in his Sierra. After oil problems in the race for both cars, the #05 M3 of Brock, Richards and Parsons eventually finished in 8th place at Sandown (1st in Class B) while the teams second M3 failed to finish. For the Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst, the nature of the mountain circuit and the improvement from the all-conqueroring Sierra's, plus the introduction of the new Holden VL Commodore SS Group A SV and Nissan Skyline HR31 GTS-R turbo, saw the M3s even less competitive than they had been previously. Richards qualified the #56 M3 (running in Class B saw the team forced to give up using #05 for 1988) in just 16th place, some 6 seconds behind Johnson. The Brock/Richards car had a new BMW Motorsport engine for the race (which cost the team approximately AU$60,000) as well as a newly homologated 6-speed gearbox. Unfortunately however the race proved to be something of a disaster. The #56 car only lasted 89 laps before retiring with engine failure after Brock had been unable to avoid running over a discarded wheel at almost 250 km/h (155 mph) which damaged the front spoiler and oil cooler on lap 26), while the #57 car (which had qualified 24th) was out on just lap 68 with similar engine problems.
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