1980 Australian Drivers' Championship

The 1980 Australian Drivers' Championship was a CAMS sanctioned Australian motor racing title for drivers of Australian Formula 1 racing cars. The winner of the championship, which was the 24th Australian Drivers' Championship, was awarded the 1980 CAMS Gold Star.
The championship was won by Alfredo Costanzo driving a Lola T430 Chevrolet.

Calendar

The title was contested over an eight-round series with one race per round.

Round	Race name	Circuit	State	Date	Winning driver	Car
1		Sandown Park	Victoria	24 February	John Wright	Lola T400 Chevrolet
2		Baskerville	Tasmania	March	Jon Davison	Lola T332 Chevrolet
3		Symmons Plains	Tasmania	23 March	John Bowe	Elfin MR8 Chevrolet
4		Oran Park	New South Wales	4 May	John Bowe	Elfin MR8 Chevrolet
5		Lakeside	Queensland	20 July	Jon Davison	Lola T332 Chevrolet
6		Sandown Park	Victoria	14 September	Alfredo Costanzo	Lola T430 Chevrolet
7	Rose City Trophy	Winton	Victoria	26 October	Alfredo Costanzo	Lola T430 Chevrolet
8	Australian Grand Prix	Calder Raceway	Victoria	16 November	Alan Jones	Williams FW07B Ford

Class Structure

Australian Formula 1, in its 1980 incarnation, catered for cars complying with any one of the following three Formulae:

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

Over 1600cc: Open to "Formula 5000" cars and "International Formula One" cars
Under 1600cc: Open to "Formula Pacific" cars

Points system

Championship points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the top six Australian license holders in each class at each round.
Bonus points were awarded on a 4-3-2-1 basis to the top four Australian license holders at each round, regardless of class.

Results

The following drivers were not eligible for championship points as they were not Australian license holders.

Guy Edwards, who finished second at Round 1
Alan Jones, who won the Australian Grand Prix
Bruno Giacomelli, who finished second in the Australian Grand Prix
Didier Pironi, who finished third in the Australian Grand Prix