KNOWN within the media at the time as the ‘Dash for Crash’, the Dash for Cash played an interesting role during Shell Australian Touring Car Championship rounds from 1992 until cigarette advertising was banned at the end of 1995.
The Peter Jackson Dash played an important part in promoting the ATCC at a time when there was conjecture about its direction and its future due to the influx of turbocharged weaponry dominating.
This came through live coverage of the Peter Jackson Dash featuring within Channel 7’s long-running ‘Sportsworld’ show on Sunday morning.
Starting in 1992 and featuring the fastest six drivers in regular qualifying, there was a touch of luck involved as each was handed an envelope containing their grid slot for the Dash.
In most cases the pole winner was left disappointed with a lowly grid slot for the Peter Jackson Dash. The three-lap event proved important in its first two and a half seasons as the finishing positions decided the grid order for the opening race.
After many complaints (mainly from drivers who drew bad grid spots!), the Peter Jackson Dash didn’t decide the grid from Lakeside 1994 onwards. Qualifying determined the Race 1 grid, though drivers received points for finishing in the top three in the dash and also points for gaining positions.
In 1995 the Dash was opened up to the top 10 drivers from qualifying, with a cash prize being offered to the winner throughout its history.
Ironically, both the first and last Dashes were won by cars carrying rival sponsor Winfield’s branding and colours – Jim Richards won the first Peter Jackson Dash at Amaroo Park in 1992 in his Nissan GT-R and the last PJ Dash was won by Mark Skaife at the Oran Park finale in 1995 in a Commodore VR.
A total of 38 Dashes were held from 1992 to 1995 and Glenn Seton never seemed to have much luck – he pulled the ‘5’ and 6’ card on eight separate occasions!
The driver that won the most Dash for Cash events in that time was John Bowe – he won seven of the 38 held.
This story also appears on the Repco Garage website.
