This is a brief history of the class thanks to Ken Douglas.

Q. When did the category start and who started it?

KD. 1980 or 1981. Started by CAMS. Was called Road Registered and was primarily for ex Rally cars to go circuit racing. It was cancelled in 1982.
In 1982 the Victorian Road Registered Association (VRRA) was formed and the first meeting was held at my house. People involved were myself, Greg Jordan and Warwick Massey.

Q. Who drafted the rules?

KD. The technical regulations were drafted by CAMS. I drafted the constitution which was basically copied from the Formula V’s constitution.

Q. What was the philosophy behind them?

KD. They were designed as a category to give rally cars somewhere to race. The rules weren’t very well defined. Originally drafted by Gary Legg-Stoker.

Q. What size fields were there back then?

KD. In the first year the Road Registered cars were combined with Group C fields. There were 8-9 cars running in a 4 round series.
In the second year there were full fields. It then grew quickly to have multiple grids in the following years.

Q. How has the category changed over the years?

KD. It has now become more specialised. Back then everyone drove their cars to the track. There were no close ratio gear boxes. Most cars hard drum brakes on the rear. It was cheap and economical. To give you an idea, I paid for my racing on a salary of $170 per week (not living at home with parents either). The only assistance was a set of 6 tyres supplied by Traction Tyres.

Q. What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses it used to have compared to what it currently has?

KD. The level of competition now is much higher so it now takes longer to get to the sharp end of the field compared to what it was like previously. The competition has a harder edge. Rubbing panels back then was an absolute no no. People’s cars were their pride and joy so you didn’t like to see them damaged. A lot of the loop holes in the rules have since been closed up.

Q. Have you seen declines in previous years, and if so, what do you think caused them?

KD. It’s gone from weakness to strength to the doldrums back to strength. It runs in cycles. I’d say it’s pretty strong at the moment.

Q. What is the reason for you staying with the category, or coming back after trying other categories?

KD. It’s a good combination of speed vs competitiveness vs dollars. To give you an idea, a single day test session for a big V8 Supercar team would probably cost about as much as it costs us to run one of our cars for a year.
Also, the fact that it has met its objectives and has been adopted by all states (except WA, but stay tuned on that one) shows that it is successful.

Footnote. The category started off as Road Registered, had a name change to Club Cars in the early 90’s and another name change to Improved Production in 2001.