The first ATCC was held in 1960 as a single race at the Gnoo Blas Motor Racing Circuit in Orange, New South Wales, run under FIA Appendix J Touring Car regulations. It was won by journalist-racer David McKay driving a Jaguar 3.4 Litre. The event moved to major city circuits in 1964 when Lakeside Raceway hosted a race won by Ian Geoghegan in a Ford Cortina GT — the first non-Jaguar victory.
From 1965, American V8-powered muscle cars dominated, with the Ford Mustang taking five consecutive titles between 1965 and 1969 through the efforts of Norm Beechey and Geoghegan. In 1970, Beechey delivered the first championship win for an Australian-built car, a Holden HT Monaro GTS350. The 1971 and 1972 titles went to Bob Jane driving a Chevrolet Camaro, first in 7.0-litre ZL-1 configuration and then, after CAMS rule changes, a 5.7-litre version.
A major regulatory shift occurred in 1973. Following the "Supercar scare" that had disrupted the 1972 Bathurst 500 buildup, CAMS amalgamated the Improved Touring Car Group C regulations with the more basic Series Production Group E rules, creating a unified touring car class. This era crystallised the iconic tribal rivalry between Holden and Ford, embodied by their lead drivers Peter Brock and Allan Moffat respectively, who between them claimed seven of the era's twelve championships.
The mid-1980s brought further change. International Group A regulations came into full effect in Australia from 1985, opening the door to European and Japanese manufacturers who had been competing under those rules elsewhere. Cars such as the turbocharged Ford Sierra RS500 and various Nissan Skylines proved competitive against the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore. Shell stepped in as series sponsor from 1987, providing approximately AU$275,000 in prize money and securing the championship's near-term future at a time when leading teams were threatening to withdraw over inadequate financial returns.
By 1992, Group A had run its course. As the international touring car landscape splintered into DTM, Super Touring, and Super GT variants, Australia developed its own path by evolving the Group A specification cars into new Group 3A regulations, which were later renamed V8 Supercars. The Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon became the exclusive contenders once more.
The prize money deficit was a persistent problem. As late as 1984, the Brisbane-based Dick Johnson Racing team estimated it had covered 20,000 kilometres in a season for as little as AU$1,500 per race win. When CAMS expanded the championship to ten rounds in 1986 without a corresponding increase in prize money, teams threatened to boycott unless a series sponsor was found. Shell's intervention resolved the crisis and put the championship on a commercially viable footing.
The ATCC operated continuously from 1960 to 1998, growing from a single-race event into a multi-round national series. When V8 Supercars organisers assumed control after 1998, they renamed the series, eventually adopting the identity it carries today as the Supercars Championship. The ATCC title, however, was retained as a standalone award and is still presented to the Supercars season champion, maintaining an unbroken line back to David McKay's 1960 Jaguar victory.
Notable champions across the championship's history include Peter Brock, Allan Moffat, Dick Johnson, Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes, and Jamie Whincup. Whincup and Beechey are the only two drivers to have won the championship in both a Ford and a Holden, a distinction that speaks to the enduring centrality of the manufacturer rivalry in Australian touring car culture.
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