Hey Charger?

Amaroo Park’s AMSCAR Series, run from 1979 through to the early '90s, produced some explosive touring car action - the combination of some of our top tin top tyros fighting it out over short sprint distances on the tight, twisty track made for racing that was often more entertaining than the 'main game' of the Australian Touring Car Championship.

The inaugural AMSCAR Series in '79 attracted all the major players on the touring car scene at that time, with the notable exception of the HDT. It also attracted at least one unlikely entrant...

By 1979 Chrysler’s participation in touring car racing was a fading memory. It had exited the sport as long ago as 1972 – six years had passed since the last Charger started at Bathurst. But there was a Charger in the ’79 AMSCAR Series. Local NSW club racer Jeff Henley-Smith, perhaps noticing that his orange Group C Charger E49 was at least as quick around Amaroo as the slowest qualifiers in the opening AMSCAR round, decided to give it a go. Sure enough, while the big 4.3-litre six was never a serious contender against its more modern V8 opposition, it was fast enough to run with the pack and not get left behind. Clearly, Henley-Smith could drive: on more than one occasion he managed to get the old Charger ahead of the odd Falcon XC or Torana A9X – in qualifying and the races. 

It looks positively out-dated in photographs, but that only adds to the AMSCAR Series’ charm in giving unheralded privateers the chance to shine and compete against the biggest names in racing. Good on him for having a crack.