Tony Longhurst

Tony Longhurst (born 1 October 1957 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian racing driver and former Australian Champion water skier. He is most noted for his career in the Australian Touring Car Championship and V8 Supercar series.

The Ford Sierra RS500 Longhurst drove to win 1988 Bathurst 1000

Longhurst is a two-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, winning the event in 1988 with Tomas Mezera and in 2001 with Mark Skaife, and is one of only four drivers to win Bathurst in both a Ford and a Holden (the others being Craig Lowndes, Steven Richards and Jamie Whincup).

He has raced internationally in the 1987 World Touring Car Championship and 1993 FIA Touring Car Challenge, both times for BMW. He also won the Australian Super Touring Championship for BMW in 1994.

After four years of service to the Frank Gardner run JPS Team BMW from 1984–87, Longhurst started his own touring car team in 1988 named Tony Longhurst Racing which based itself on the Gold Coast behind the Longhurst family owned Dreamworld. For sponsorship reasons the team was known by various names during its time including Freeport Motorsport and Benson & Hedges Racing. Initially running the powerful Ford Sierra RS500 from 1988–90, the team then began using the evolution model BMW M3 (1991–93), before running a Holden Commodore VP supplied by Perkins Engineering in 1994. In 1995, Longhurst sold out to fellow shareholders Gardner and Terry Morris and formed Longhurst Racing to compete in the V8 Supercars series with a Ford Falcon EF.

Tony Longhurst is the only driver to have won five of the now defunct AMSCAR series run at Sydney's Amaroo Park circuit. He won the series in 1986 (BMW 325i), 1987 (BMW M3), 1989 and 1990 (Ford Sierra RS500) and 1991 (BMW M3 Evolution).

In 1992 he also won the NZ Wellington street race in BMW M3. Came 3rd in 1989 Wellington street race and 3rd 1989 and 2nd in 1986 in the Pukekohe Nissan Mobil race in NZ

He announced his retirement from competitive racing after the 2005 Bathurst 1000, where he and Brazilian co-driver Max Wilson failed to finish the race. He also made an appearance at the Targa Tasmania that year. He returned to this event in 2006, finishing fourth overall. He went one better in the event in 2007, placing third overall in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. In 2009 he added a Bathurst 12 Hour victory, co-driving with Rod Salmon and Damien White. By winning the 12 Hour, Longhurst joined Allan Grice, Gregg Hansford, Dick Johnson and John Bowe as winners of both the Bathurst 1000 and Bathurst 12 Hour races (this list was later joined by Paul Morris and Jonathon Webb).

In 2016, Longhurst returned to competition making an appearance at the Sydney Motorsport Park round of the Australian GT Championship in a Marque Sports Ford Focus and at the Silverstone Classic driving his 1994 Australian Manufacturers' Championship winning BMW 318i Super Touring car.

The Benson & Hedges Ford Sierra RS500 driven by Longhurst and Tomas Mezera to victory at Bathurst in 1988 (pictured right) is on display at the National Motor Racing Museum which is located on the outside of the final turn of the famous Mount Panorama Circuit.

Longhurst continues to live on the Gold Coast in Queensland and owns and manages the Boat Works facility at Coomera.

Longhurst will return to Bathurst for the first time since winning the 2009 WPS Bathurst 12 Hour when he will drive at the 2017 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour driving a BMW M6 GT3 for BMW Team SRM alongside Timo Glock, Mark Skaife and Russell Ingall.

Sourced from Driver Database

Complete World Sportscar Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1984	JPS Team BMW	BMW 320i	MNZ	SIL	LMS	NUR	BHT	MOS	SPA	IMO	FJI	KYL	SAN ovr:14 cls:1	NC	0

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1987	JPS Team BMW	BMW M3	MNZ	JAR	DIJ	NUR	SPA	BNO	SIL	BAT ovr:4 cls:1	CLD Ret			NC	0
	BMW Motorsport CiBiEmme											WEL ovr:7 cls:2	FJI

† Not registered for series & points

Complete Bathurst 1000 Results

Year	Car#	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1983	33	Dreamworld	Mike Burgmann	Chevrolet Camaro Z28	A	121	DNF	DNF
1984	31	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW 635 CSi	Group C	39	DNF	DNF
1985	1	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW 635 CSi	C	160	4th	4th
1986	1	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW 635 CSi	C	161	6th	5th
1987	44	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW M3	2	156	4th	1st
1988	25	Benson & Hedges Racing	Tomas Mezera	Ford Sierra RS500	A	161	1st	1st
1989	20	Benson & Hedges Racing	Alan Jones Denny Hulme	Ford Sierra RS500	A	158	5th	5th
	25		Neville Crichton	Ford Sierra RS500		27	DNF	DNF
1990	25	Benson & Hedges Racing	Mark McLaughlin	Ford Sierra RS500	1	53	DNF	DNF
1991	25	Benson & Hedges Racing	Alan Jones	BMW M3 Evolution	2	138	DNF	DNF
1992	25	Benson & Hedges Racing	Johnny Cecotto	BMW M3 Evolution	A	142	4th	4th
1993	25	Benson & Hedges Racing	Steve Soper	BMW M3 Evolution	A	79	DNF	DNF
1994	25	Benson & Hedges Racing	Charlie O'Brien	Holden VP Commodore	A	161	4th	4th
1995	25	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Wayne Park	Ford EF Falcon		149	9th	9th
1996	25	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Steven Ellery	Ford EF Falcon		161	3rd	3rd
1997	25	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Charlie O'Brien	Ford EL Falcon	L1	110	DNF	DNF
1998	25	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Geoff Brabham	Ford EL Falcon	OC	157	8th	8th
1999	25	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Adam Macrow	Ford AU Falcon		150	DNF	DNF
2000	9	Stone Brothers Racing	David Besnard	Ford AU Falcon		151	DNF	DNF
2001	1	Holden Racing Team	Mark Skaife	Holden VX Commodore		161	1st	1st
2002	66	Team Betta Electrical	Matthew White	Ford AU Falcon		161	6th	6th
2003	2	Holden Racing Team	Jim Richards	Holden VY Commodore		161	5th	5th
2004	8	Perkins Engineering	Paul Dumbrell	Holden VY Commodore		129	DNF	DNF
2005	44	Team Dynamik Longhurst Racing	Max Wilson	Holden VZ Commodore		32	DNF	DNF
2006	55	Rod Nash Racing	Steve Owen	Holden VZ Commodore		161	7th	7th

Complete Sandown Endurance results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1984	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW 635 CSi	Over 3000cc	72	DNF	DNF
1985	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW 635 CSi	A	129	1st	1st
1986	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW 635 CSi	B	127	5th	5th
1987	JPS Team BMW	Jim Richards	BMW M3	B	118	DNF	DNF
1988	Benson & Hedges Racing	Tomas Mezera	Ford Sierra RS500	A	123	5th	5th
1989	Benson & Hedges Racing	Neville Crichton	Ford Sierra RS500	A	87	DNF	DNF
1992	Benson & Hedges Racing	Paul Morris	BMW M3 Evolution	3A	136	2nd	2nd
1994	Benson & Hedges Racing	Charlie O'Brien	Holden VP Commodore	V8	161	4th	4th
1995	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Wayne Park	Ford EF Falcon		160	4th	4th
1996	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Steven Ellery	Ford EF Falcon		160	4th	4th
1997	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Charlie O'Brien	Ford EL Falcon		151	10th	10th
1998	Castrol Longhurst Ford	Geoff Brabham	Ford EL Falcon		7	DNF	DNF
2003	Holden Racing Team	Jim Richards	Holden VY Commodore		140	10th	10th
2004	Castrol Perkins Racing	Paul Dumbrell	Holden VY Commodore		159	8th	8th
2007	Holden Racing Team	Glenn Seton	Holden VE Commodore		160	13th	13th

Complete Bathurst 12 Hour results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1992	BMW Australia Pty Ltd	Alan Jones Neville Crichton	BMW M5	C	251	2nd	1st
2009	TMR Australia	Rod Salmon Damien White	Mitsubishi Lancer RS Evo X	C	239	1st	1st
2017	BMW Team SRM	Timo Glock Mark Skaife Russell Ingall	BMW M6 GT3	AP	134	DNF	DNF