Briggs Motorsport was an Australian

motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...

team which represented Queensland-based businessman John Briggs in the sport. The team has competed in Sports Sedans, Australian GT, Formula Holden, and most notably as a touring car team competing in the V8 Supercar Championship Series. The team last competed in historic motor racing and the Australian GT Championship but was folded at the end of the 2009 season.

Early years

John Briggs, a

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

er who relocated to

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in the early 1980s due to work commitments, drove a Repco Holden powered Matich A50 Formula 5000 to a surprise second place at the 1978 Australian Grand Prix held at Sandown Raceway in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Briggs finished two laps behind race winner Graham McRae after many of the pre-race favourites race such as Kevin Bartlett, Alfredo Costanzo, Vern Schuppan, Garrie Cooper, and reigning Australian Drivers' Champion John McCormack, had all experienced various problems or had crashed out of the race. Briggs raced a Chevrolet Monza (Dekon chassis #1001) for its owner, John Roberts, which was formerly run in the American-based IMSA GT Championship by Dekon part owner and expatriate Australian Horst Kwech. Roberts had the Monza re-built by Adelaide-based company K&A Engineering for Briggs and he raced it in the Australian Sports Sedan Championship. He later switched from the Monza to an ex- JPS Team BMW 318i Turbo in the Australian GT Championship, before moving back into open wheelers with a Ralt RT21 Formula Holden in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

. K&A Engineering ran Briggs in both vehicles. Briggs again competed in Sports Sedans during the early-mid 1990s, winning the 1996 Australian Sports Sedan Championship with a Honda Prelude-

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

V8 Supercars

Briggs Motor Sport made its debut in the

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

in a Ford EF Falcon for team owner John Briggs, in 1998 it campaigned an EL Falcon, a year later it expanded to a two car team with John Briggs driving an AU Falcon and executive of the team's leading sponsor, Supercheap Auto, Bob Thorn in the older EL Falcon from the year before. In September 1999, Briggs bolstered his operation after purchasing the

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

based PAE Motorsport team, absorbing the

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

backed Ford of John Bowe into the team. The team ran a single car for the next few seasons, the team sacking Bowe after Bathurst in 2001, replacing him with emerging New Zealand driver Simon Wills. In 2002 the team expanded to three cars with Betta Electrical Fords for veteran Tony Longhurst and Brazilian open wheel driver Max Wilson. Both drivers were replaced in 2003 with Paul Radisich and Dean Canto for the 2003 season but by August, Briggs had sold the V8 Supercar operation to British outfit Triple Eight Race Engineering, to establish an Australian arm of the race team led by Roland Dane, Derek Warwick and Ian Harrison. Briggs stepped back from professional racing at this point and spent several years away from the sport before investing in some historic racing cars, highlighted by the return of the 1985 Veskanda-

sports car to race tracks in 2007. Since then Briggs has expanded his operation into the Australian GT Championship, driving and importing Moslers. After a diagnosis of prostate cancer, Briggs recently announced his retirement from competitive motorsports. He then sold the VesKanda to

based racer Paul Stubber, who would take the car to drive in the Historic

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

sports car races held in Europe during 2012.

References

{{reflist

External links

Australian GT Championship profile
Australian auto racing teams Auto racing teams established in 1997 Auto racing teams disestablished in 2003 Sports clubs and teams in Queensland Supercars Championship teams 1997 establishments in Australia 2003 disestablishments in Australia