With three drivers, all in different makes of car, finishing dead equal on points after a 15-round series, the national RAC Touring Car Championship culminated in what one might call a rousing conclusion. Yet 1975, with its class division at 1600, 2500 and 4000 cc, will not be remembered as a vintage year for British Saloon car racing. Run for the second time to rules that were a liberal interpretation of Gp1 regulations, the championship seemed to lose some of the interest and prestige that had characterised it the previous year. It wasn't that the racing was all that bad. But apart from the Samurai team of Toyota Celicas, the cars, and even the drivers, were very largely the same as in the previous year. In only its second season under Gp1 rules, the championship already had a de ja vu look about it. And at the front of the field, in every class but one, the results gradually sank back into the monotonous predictability that finally nailed down the lid on Gp2's coffin.
Even so, the chase for the championship title itself kept up a lot of interest right to the end. Throughout the year, Stuart Graham and Richard Lloyd in their Camaros, Andy Rouse in his Leyland-backed Broadspeed-prepared Dolomite Sprint and Win Percy in his Samurai prepared Toyota Celica GT maintained a running battle at the head of the points table. Lloyd gradually slipped from contention, but the other three came to the final two rounds still level pegging. At Oulton Park Brian Muir's Shellsport Dolomite pipped Andy Rouse's semi-works car after a tremendous tussle that denied the Broadspeed driver a clear lead.
Then Rouse took a highly-controversial victory over Muir in the final round at Brands Hatch after another hard battle. The plan was that Rouse would pass Muir at the last moment, were he not already ahead. However, an accident late in the race put the stretch of track up to the line technically under yellow flags, even though the crashed car was back at Clearways. Rouse did dart past Muir 20 yards from the line, and was allowed to keep the points that made him champion, but a lot of people felt that the rules should have been applied less leniently.
The net result was that Rouse took the title, with Percy declared second and Graham third, even though all three had scored equal points. After 1975, the Camaros would be banned from the series.
The races: |
||||||||||||||