THE Honda Accord Super Tourer that Neil Crompton used to claim multiple race wins in the 1997 North American Touring Car Championship is changing hands.
The two-litre racer has been in the hands of Kiwi Graham Dodd since he purchased it in 1998 and raced it in a handful of rounds of that year’s BOC Gases Australian Super Touring Championship in Australia.
However, a private Kiwi collector with an interesting collection of race cars has recently sealed a deal to acquire the Honda – and he’s intending for the car to be returned to the track in the near future.
“It’s a complete car and just needs a freshen up, it’s ready to basically hit the track, it just needs a check over,” the private collector, who is due to take delivery of it later this month, told V8 Sleuth this week.
“It hasn’t done anything for many years. It’s been a very well kept among Graham’s collection. It did only a couple of classic meetings since it’s been back in New Zealand, but no competition as such.
“I’d love to have Neil have a drive of it somewhere along the line. These cars really should be out on the track to be enjoyed by the public with the stars behind the wheel.”
The car was originally built by MSD (Motor Sport Developments) and was one of the factory Accords in the 1996 British Touring Car Championship, reportedly raced by Scot David Leslie.
It moved to the North American series with Crompton and Tasman Motorsport in 1997 and won on debut on the streets of Long Beach with a pair of race victories.
The now-Supercars TV commentator racked up five more race wins in the season – including clean sweeps of the Vancouver and Laguna Seca rounds – and finished third in the championship.
He so easily could have won but for being disqualified in Detroit after contact with David Donohue’s Dodge.
The Steve Horne-led Tasman team withdrew from the next round in Portland out of frustration at the severity of the Detroit penalty, meaning Crompton missed two races and finished the year 24 points behind eventual champion Donohue.
“To this day Steve regrets spitting the dummy,” Crompton wrote in his book, ‘Best Seat In The House’, released in 2021 and available here via the V8 Sleuth Superstore.
“It certainly sent a message to the series, but he looks back on it and knows that, had we raced and even got a tiny handful of points, we could have won the championship. That stung.”
The NATCC closed down after the 1997 season and Crompton returned to Australia the following year to sign a deal to drive with Glenn Seton.
Dodd missed the opening rounds of the 1998 Australian Super Touring Championship due to an industrial dispute at Sydney docklands that left the Honda stranded behind locked gates.
He missed the first two rounds of the series, finally debuted at Eastern Creek in June and ran in the series’ final round at Oran Park that August, which was car’s last Super Touring race in period.
WATCH: Crompton clean sweeps the Laguna Seca round of the 1997 NATCC
