Proof in Advertising #2 - John Sands Racing

I'm not much of a rev-head, so I don't know much about the history of Motorsport in Australia. I am prepared to dive deep into it though, as I just recently found out that John Sands, the company responsible for distributing the SC-3000 in Australia, also sponsored a Racing team during the 1980s.

Walter "Rusty" French

During this period, they mostly supported the career of the successful but little remembered driver Walter "Rusty" French. In an interview with Australian Muscle Car Magazine, Rusty commented that the managing director of John Sands at the time, who he met through a mutual friend, was a bit of a car nut. Naturally, this sponsorship led to some interesting cross-promotion of their Sega computers during the 1983 and 1984 racing seasons, with logos and advertisements emblazoned across Rusty's signature black coloured cars.

1983

Vroom!

The most famous race in Australia is the Bathurst 1000. It's a 1000 km touring car race around the Mount Panorama race track in Bathurst, New South Wales. In 1983, the John Sands racing team had the duo of Rusty French and former Bathurst champion Bob Morris, racing in a Holden VH Commodore. The pair qualified ninth in the top ten "Hardies Heroes" (the race at the time being sponsored by the infamous asbestos-peddler James Hardie Industries).

Scree!

During the race, Morris suffered motion-sickness and vomited into his helmet (due to an inner-ear injury sustained in a crash 2 years ago), forcing Rusty to do two-thirds of the race alone. Despite the setback, he managed to get up to an impressive second place, before "a spin down the escape road" (whatever that means, I guess he missed a corner) pushed him back down the field. In the end, the John Sands racing team finished in a respectable 8th position, with "Sega Computors" emblazoned across the front and back bumpers and beamed into Aussie Lounge rooms everywhere.

Vroom Vroom!

The black, red and yellow design of the car is very reminiscent of the 1983 design colours of the Sega SG-1000, before it switched to Sega's trademark blue colour (as discussed in an earlier post), but this appears to be a co-incidence, as John Sands had raced under these colours in previous years.

Notice the similarity in the cartridge, although it is
entirely co-incidental

Also in the 1983 season, John Sands supported Rusty in the Australian Sports Sedan/GT Championship. He won the championship, with 4 victories, 9 podium finishes and 2 fastest laps. Sadly, the Porsche 935 Turbo he raced in didn't seem to feature any "Sega Computors" advertising.

Why no Computors?

1984

Rusty returned to Bathurst in 1984, supported by John Sands, with a new teammate in Geoff Russel. Rusty had blown most of his budget for the year when he got the chance to race a Porsche 956 in the Le Mans 24 Hour for the German Kremer racing team (and finished 9th), so this years Bathurst campaign was a threadbare affair.

Brum-brum-brum!

Roar!

After a terrible qualifying round, the team started towards the back of the pack. They almost didn't make it around the first corner, with Rusty narrowly missing a dust-obscured stationary Jaguar in the starting line up. Throughout the day, Rusty and Russell slowly made their way up the field, despite long pit stops due to high oil consumption. They broke into the Top 10 by lunchtime, and ended up finishing sixth overall.

As you can see, a big yellow Sega logo makes an appearance this year

And "computors" was run through a spell-checker

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be evidence of any John Sands sponsored cars in 1985. They were set to sponsor Rusty again in 1986, this time in a Ford Sierra XR4 Ti, but the deal fell through at the last minute. In 1987, Rusty raced a John Sands sponsored Porsche 935 in the Australian Sports Car Championship, finishing fifth, but this car didn't feature any Sega Computers advertising (and by 1987, John Sands had left the computer business anyway).

Rusty in his Porsche during the 1987 race

However, our story doesn't quite end here though. Dinkum Classics released a hand-crafted limited edition 1:43 die cast scale model of the Holden VH Commodore raced by Rusty and Russel in the 1984 Bathurst 1000. Only 99 of these were made, and it has suddenly shot to the top of my "things I'd like to buy but will probably never find nor can afford" list.

Ooh!

Aah!

So pretty!

I want one!

Where can I find one?

I need one in my life!

The search begins...