 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
...A spirit
of its own!
Peter Kroeber's Group A Volvo 240 Turbo
Information provided by Peter Kroeber, John Amundsen and Anthony
Hyde.
This is the former Mark
Petch Volvo Group A car. It wears chassis number 405 or 406 (
it can not be read 100% ) . This car staged the first win by
a turbochaged car in the '84 ETCC. After
this cars successful racing career with many excellent finishes in Europe,
New Zealand, Australia, Finland and Sweden, it was sold to a collector.
In 2003 Peter Kroeber located and purchased
it to restore and race in the German Youngtimer series. After a complete
restoration it was, once again, ready to race for the 2004 season. It's
first race was the 500 km race on the old circuit Nürburgring.
Together Peter and Per Stureson won the Group A class and finished 10th
overall. All together in 2004 it was raced four times and finished 1st
in three of those races! |
For the history of this
car from 1984-2003,
I have quoted Anthony Hyde's writings and research with
his kind permission. |
| " 1984 This LH drive semi-works built 240T GpA was prepared in Belgium by Guy Trigaux Motors (GTM Engineering) for the Belgium Volvo Dealer Team and competed in the 1984 European Touring Car Championship. The car (and a spare chassis) where purchased from Volvo Motorsport by Mark Petch a NZ engineer/businessman/race car driver. The car was air freighted from Brussels to New Zealand after the 1984 European season ended, arriving in January 1985. Petch formed a race team partnership with driver Robbie Francevic, and at the time were the only privateers in the world running a GpA 240 without direct factory support. |
| 1985 In January, Mark Petch Racing won the famous Nissan 500 street race in Wellington, New Zealand with drivers Robbie Francevic, and Belgian, Michele Delcourt. Michele was familiar with the car as he raced it in the 1984 ETC for GTM Engineering. This first outing win was an amazing feat as the car arrived late at the circuit from overseas and started from rear of grid. Soon after in 1985 the car was shipped to Australia, being a late entry into the 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship where it performed impressively under the new GpA regulations. At this stage Robbie Francevic was involved both as a driver & with the cars's race setup. Later in the year the car received updates for endurance races at Sandown and the Bathurst - James Hardie 1000. Wayne Eskersley was head engine builder. |
| 1986 Early in 1986, Mark Petch Motorsport competed once again in the Wellington 500 in New Zealand following the sensational win the year before. For the new season, major homologation updates were fitted by visiting Swede,Thomas Lindström, also being co-driver for the event. Car qualified 2nd on grid, result dnf. Back to Australia, the team won the first two rounds of the ATCC with Francevic before the Petch Team's car & equipment was sold onto Volvo Australia. A new team was formed called the 'Australian Volvo Dealer Team'. Drivers were R. Francevic & John Bowe. Fom May 86, Bowe, the teams 2nd driver, drove the car for the rest of the 86 championship, except enduance events where a new car was used. This LH drive car contributed to Volvo winning the '1986 Australian Touring Car Championship', the jewel of Australian motorsport, a brilliant result. |
| Late
1986 Volvo pulls out of racing worldwide due in part to world GpA rule changes and disputes with the FIA. The 3 Australian cars (the LH plus 2 RH drives) were ordered back to Sweden departing in a giant Antonov Russian transport plane. |
1987-2003 Söderqvist Racing Services, (SRS) purchased the ex-Petch LH car and the AVDT built RH drive car. Apparently one of the cars was for 'Volvo Finland', where later Leif Wiik won the 1987 Finnish Touring Car Championship. Anders Lindberg rebuilt the ex-Petch LH car and drove for Steffansson Automotive (SAM) in the Swedish championship in 1989. SAM (Sweden) sold car to a collector in Austria 1992." |
|
For
more information on the ATCC, Group A Volvo's and Volvo's in general please visit Anthony Hyde's website. Anthony's website link |
I think John Amundsen put it best... "This
particular 240T has a spirit of its own!"
Pictures from when Peter Kroeber first purchased the car in 2003.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Picture from agentur-sportbild.de, taken by Ingo Schwenk.
I would like to thank Peter, John and Anthony for
all their help and support to build this webpage.
|
Website
best viewed in 1024x768 resolution. |