Longhurst Racing was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the
V8 Supercar
The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport.
Supercars events take place in all Australian ...
series between
1995
File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...
and
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...
.
History
At the end of 1994,
Tony Longhurst
Anthony Lawrence Longhurst (born 1 October 1957 in Sydney) is an Australian racing driver and former Australian Champion water skier. He is most noted for his career in the Australian Touring Car Championship and V8 Supercar series.
Longhurst is ...
sold his share in
LoGaMo Racing
LoGaMo Racing, also known as Tony Longhurst Racing, was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian touring car racing between 1988 and 1994. The team was initially a collaboration between Tony Longhurst and Frank Gardner, wi ...
, the team he had established in 1988 with
Frank Gardner, to Gardner and Terry Morris. This was driven by Longhurst's desire to remain in the
Australian Touring Car Championship
The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the trop ...
series while his fellow shareholders wanted to compete in
Super Touring
Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...
.
With the support of
Castrol
Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for c ...
and
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
, Longhurst established a new team on the
Gold Coast to race in the
1995 Australian Touring Car season, with a
Ford Falcon EF. Longhurst finished in 11th place. He then teamed with Wayne Park to finish 4th at the
Sandown 500
The Sandown 500 (formally known as the Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The event's name, distance – and the category of cars c ...
but the pair could only manage 9th at the
Bathurst 1000
The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most re ...
.
In
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...
, the team expanded to two cars with the addition of a customer Falcon EL for
Steven Ellery
Steven Ellery (born 22 August 1974 in Melbourne) is a retired Australian racing driver known from V8 Supercars.
Racing history Early career
Ellery started racing in karts before graduation to Formula Ford in 1992. After running near the front of ...
. Longhurst would again finish in 11th place. He then teamed with Ellery to again finish in 4th place at the
Sandown 500
The Sandown 500 (formally known as the Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The event's name, distance – and the category of cars c ...
. The pair then went on to finish 3rd at the
Bathurst 1000
The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most re ...
.
In
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
, the team again fielded two cars, but a mid-season split with Ellery saw the team return to a one car operation. In
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
,
Alan Jones joined the team, however it would be round 3 before he debuted while a new
Ford Falcon EL was built. In
1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...
, the team only ran a single car again, a
Ford Falcon AU.
At the end of 1999, Longhurst sold the team to
Brad Jones Racing
Brad Jones Racing is an Australian motor racing team owned by Brad Jones based in Albury. The team competes in the Supercars Championship and the Super2 Series. Recently they have also returned to Australian Formula Ford where Brad and Kim ...
and moved to
Stone Brothers Racing
Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) was an Australian motor racing team that competed in the International V8 Supercars Championship between 1998 and 2012. The team was formed in 1998 when Ross and Jim Stone bought Alan Jones's shares in Alan Jon ...
as an employed driver.
Longhurst attempted to re-enter the championship in
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...
by purchasing a licence from
Team Dynamik
Team Dynamik was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian V8 Supercar racing between 2001 and 2005.
History
Owned by Kieran Wills, Adelaide based Team Dynamik debuted in the 2001 with Simon Wills racing an ex Gibson Motors ...
, resulting in a lengthy legal battle.
References
{{Reflist
Australian auto racing teams
Auto racing teams established in 1995
Sports teams in Queensland
Supercars Championship teams
1995 establishments in Australia
1999 disestablishments in Australia
Sporting teams based on the Gold Coast, Queensland