1979 Australian Touring Car Championship

The 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title open to Group C Touring Cars. It began at Symmons Plains and ended at Adelaide International Raceway after eight rounds. The title, which was the 20th Australian Touring Car Championship, was won by Bob Morris driving a Holden Torana.
1979 was the first time since the ATCC went to a championship series in 1969 rather than the single race it had been previously that a single make and model car had won all rounds of the championship with all 8 rounds being won by the Holden LX Torana SS A9X Hatchback. Including the current season, such a single car domination has only happened once since in the series, that being when the Ford Sierra RS500 won all rounds of the 1988 championship.

Calendar

The 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship was contested over an eight-round series.

Rd.	Race title	Circuit	City / state	Date	Winning driver	Car	Team
1	Symmons Plains	Symmons Plains	Launceston, Tasmania	4 March	John Harvey	Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team
2	Calder	Calder Park Raceway	Melbourne, Victoria	18 March	Peter Brock	Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team
3	Oran Park	Oran Park	Sydney, New South Wales	25 March	Bob Morris	Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X	Ron Hodgson Channel 7 Racing
4	Sandown	Sandown Park	Melbourne, Victoria	7 April	Bob Morris	Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X	Ron Hodgson Channel 7 Racing
5	Wanneroo	Wanneroo Park	Perth, Western Australia	6 May	Peter Brock	Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team
6	Surfers Paradise	Surfers Paradise	Surfers Paradise, Queensland	20 May	Peter Brock	Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team
7	Lakeside	Lakeside	Brisbane, Queensland	22 June	Bob Morris	Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X	Ron Hodgson Channel 7 Racing
8	The Breville Trophy	Adelaide International Raceway	Adelaide, South Australia	28 July	Bob Morris	Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X	Ron Hodgson Channel 7 Racing

Round 3 of the championship at Oran Park featured two separate races, the first for Under 3 litre cars and the second for Over 3 litre cars.

Teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers competed in the 1979 Australian Touring Car Championship.

Team

Car

Driver

King George Tavern

Holden LX Torana SS 5000 A9X

Classes

For championship points allocation purposes, cars competed in two displacement classes:

Up to and including 3000 cc
3001 to 6000 cc

Points system

Championship points were awarded on a 9,6,4,3,2,1 basis to the first six placegetters in each class and on a 4,3,2,1 basis to the first four placegetters irrespective of class. Only the best seven results counted towards the total.