LoGaMo Racing, also known as Tony Longhurst Racing, was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian touring car racing between

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

. The team was initially a collaboration between Tony Longhurst and Frank Gardner, with Terry Morris later joining as a shareholder, with their three names combining to create the LoGaMo name. The team is best known for winning the

1988 Bathurst 1000 The 1988 Tooheys 1000 was a 1000 km endurance motor race for Group A Touring Cars.Tomas Mezera.

Background

At the end of

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

Frank Gardner closed his JPS Team BMW operation, having decided to retire after a period of ill health. Lead driver Jim Richards, who had won two championships for the team, and the BMW M3s moved to Peter Brock's Mobil 1 Racing team. For

, Tony Longhurst, who had raced the second JPS BMW M3, formed his own team on the Gold Coast, which was initially known as Tony Longhurst Racing. Frank Gardner was listed as a consultant to the new team, but as the 1988 season progressed, he assumed the team manager's role and would become a shareholder in the team.

History

Freeport Motorsport

Going into 1988, the team entered a single Ford Sierra RS500 for Longhurst. However, over the previous off-season Gardner had led the successful protest against the factory-backed Eggenberger Motorsport Ford Sierras at the

1987 Bathurst 1000 The 1987 James Hardie 1000 was an endurance race for Group A Touring Cars, staged on 4 October 1987 at the Mount Panorama Circuit, near Bathurst, in New South Wales, Australia. The race was the eighth round of the inaugural World Touring Car ...

, which had ultimately cost the Ford the World Touring Car Championship. This made it difficult for the team to source components through Ford in Europe, with endurance co-driver Tomas Mezera who was based in London at the time, trying to source components. Longhurst would finish the championship in fifth position, finishing only four of the nine rounds, including a win at the

Lakeside Lakeside or Lake Side may refer to: Places Australia * Lakeside College, Pakenham, Victoria * Lakeside Joondalup Shopping City, Joondalup, Western Australia * Lakeside, near Reservoir, Victoria * Lakeside International Raceway, Pine Rivers, Quee ...

round after Dick Johnson was given a one-minute penalty for a false start.

Benson & Hedges Racing

From the Sandown 500 onwards, Amatil's Benson & Hedges brand was applied, Longhurst and Mezera going on to win the

1988 Bathurst 1000 The 1988 Tooheys 1000 was a 1000 km endurance motor race for Group A Touring Cars.Bathurst 1000 win for both drivers, and also the first for Gardner as team manager, who failed to win the race in his otherwise successful JPS Team BMW era. The winning car now resides in the National Motor Racing Museum near the circuit. In

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, the team expanded to two cars with Neville Crichton driving a second Sierra. In

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, Alan Jones replaced Crichton in the second car. In both years, Longhurst would again finish in the top six of the championship. In 1990, Gardner established a Performance Driving Centre at Norwell with the team's workshop incorporated. In

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, Gardner rekindled his links to BMW and the team became the marque's factory team, acquiring a pair of ex Schnitzer Motorsport BMW M3s. Longhurst won two rounds at Amaroo Park and Lakeside and finished third in the championship. From 1989 to 1991, Longhurst also won three consecutive AMSCAR title at Amaroo Park for the team. In

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, Longhurst won a third round at Lakeside and again finished third in the championship. A third M3 was also entered at selected events in 1992 for Paul Morris whose father Terry would become a shareholder in the team, completing the triumvirate of owners to create the LoGaMo name. At the 1992 Bathurst 1000, Formula One world champion Denny Hulme suffered a heart attack and died while co-driving with Morris. In

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

, despite the championship's move towards a Ford versus

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...

formula, the team expanded to field four M3s, with John Blanchard replacing Alan Jones in the second Benson & Hedges car, and Paul Morris and Geoff Full racing with Diet Coke sponsorship. By

, BMW was no longer eligible for the five-litre ATCC and LoGaMo committed to race in the

1994 Australian Manufacturers' Championship The 1994 Australian Manufacturers' Championship was a CAMS sanctioned motor racing competition for 2.0 Litre Touring Cars complying with FIA Class II rules. The championship, which was promoted as the 1994 Valvoline Australian Manufacturers' Ch ...

with a pair of two-litre BMW 320is. However, with the series at one stage in doubt, and a desire by sponsors to retain a presence in the country's main category, two Perkins Engineering built Holden Commodore VPs were purchased with Longhurst and Morris racing in both the two-litre and five-litre series. Longhurst won one race at the Barbagallo round but both him and Morris finished outside the top ten of the ATCC, with the team skipping the Phillip Island round entirely to focus on the Manufacturers' Championship. Meanwhile in the Manufacturers Championship, the team finished first second and third with their three entrants, with Longhurst taking the title. However, the year was perhaps best remembered for team-mates Longhurst and Morris colliding on the pit straight at Winton. Longhurst blamed Morris for the crash, which had put both cars into the concrete wall, and infamously punched Morris through Morris's driver's side window.

Demise

Heading into 1995, Longhurst wished to continue in the ATCC while Gardner and Morris wanted to stick with the two-litre Super Touring Championship. At the end of 1994, Gardner and Morris bought Longhurst out, with the latter forming Longhurst Racing to race a Ford Falcon EF in the 1995 ATCC season, a team which continued in the championship until 1999. Gardner continued with the Morris family to form Paul Morris Motorsport. Gardner retired soon after and sold the Performance Driving Centre in Norwell to Morris, who continues to use the facility as a base, including for a return to the ATCC (which had become known as V8 Supercars) from 2000 to 2012.

References