O78 NZ motoRSpoRT LegeNDS 01 Robbie and Rosita Francevic, possibly taken at Manfeild during the ‘80s 02 Robbie in the Volvo at the inaugural Wellington Street Race 03 On the Australian championship trail in the Volvo 240T 04 Robbie and the ‘flying brick’ – Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC), 1985, at Sandown Park, Melbourne Words Gerard Richards Photos courtesy Robbie Francevic & Terry Marshall Part 2 We talk to Robbie Francevic, and tell the tale of the fast talking, fast-driving winner of New Zealand and Australian saloon car championships – 20 years apart 01 03 02 y the mid 1980s, Robbie and Rosita The Petch-entered Volvo 240T only scraped into Francevic had a comfortable lifestyle and the Wellington Street Race field at the last moment a profitable business – aN issan dealer- – just in time to qualify. With only a few orientation ship in Orewa. This had been the focus of laps, the unusually diverse driver pairing of Francevic their energy through much of the previous and Delcour started from the rear of the grid. The B20 years. Those two decades had seen huge changes THE VICTORY large burly Belgian was fronting with the fast-talking, in the automotive and technical worlds. Robbie had slim Aucklander. The victory that followed is already kept his hand in on the racing front, campaigning THat FOLLOWED shrouded in legend and controversy. I was there at various machinery for wealthy car owners. These IS ALREADY this magic occasion, which ushered in and heralded escapades provide a further rich vein in the Robbie another brief exotic era of truly international-flavoured Francevic saga we cannot do justice to in these pages. SHROUDED IN racing in this country. He might well have continued his part-time weekend LEGEND anD That Volvo 240T was part of it. The technology was racer businessman regime if the climate of entrepre- fascinating. So much power from that small four- neurship and exotic saloon racing hadn’t arrived in the COntrOVErsY cylinder engine, wonderful handling and was light on mid ’80s. brakes and tyres. The old dinosaur V8 brigade had Two things conspired to bring that climate about. plenty of reason to quake in their boots. The family Rosita and Robbie had hoped for had not The fact the Volvo won the street race, despite not eventuated. Mark Petch, who had dabbled briefly in having a straight panel, was testament to its pedi- racing himself, reappeared on the scene. gree. The bonnet half lifting up and the rear bumper Petch was now a successful businessman running Mark Petch Industrial Seals, and had aspirations to shift into the big league of international saloon car rac- 04 ing that had evolved into the global Group A category. This class was making its first tentative inroads into New Zealand at the time. After initially trying unsuc- cessfully to acquire an ex Tom Walkinshaw Rover V8, Petch gained a tip that one of the works Volvo 240Ts was available. A deal was put together, and this turbocharged Swedish machine was purchased and imported in time for the first running of the Wellington Street Race in October 1984. The Swedish Taxi A fairytale was about to unfold; one that would rein- vent Robbie Francevic’s second coming. Petch was initially aiming to co-drive alongside Belgian jeweller and European Touring car racer Michel Delcour. Howev- er, when Petch elected not to race, the call went out to old mate Robbie Francevic – an action which rekindled a partnership that had last seen active engagement with the ill-fated Katipo F5000 exercise in 1971. O78 NZ CLASSIC CAR NZ CLASSIC CAR O79 O80 NZ motoRSpoRT LegeNDS THE TEAM’S Words Gerard Richards Photos courtesy Robbie Francevic & Terry Marshall UNHappY SEasON was DIRECTLY RELatED TO THE INCOrrECT SEttING OF THIS TINY COMPONEnt 07 06 Aussie culture. Always quick with the one-liner, Robbie corners. “On the plane home I said to Randall Edgell fitted in perfectly with the locals – who were quick to [the team’s spanner-man] and Rosita, that will never admire his track prowess and his oratory skills. Rob- happen again.” bie’s character was diametrically opposed to that rival “We went back to Symonds Plains [Tasmania] for racer and countryman, Gentleman Jim Richards. the second round, and just destroyed them.” Things were looking up, but it was at this junction that a First Australian season mystery problem reared its head – and it would plague The story of 1985 was one of lost opportunities. In the Volvo for the rest of the season. Edgell and Rob- the debut year of Group A in Australia, the stage was bie pulled apart the Volvo’s turbocharger after the ripe for a player with a quick and well-sorted car to Symonds Plain race to check for wear. “What we didn’t hammer the locals. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. know was the importance of a little baffle that let the The opposition didn’t really pose too many terrors. air and mixture in,” Robbie said. A small drilled hole The JPS BMW 635s were solid endurance racers, not with a tapped thread governed how much this opened, spectacularly quick, but quick enough as it turned out. and was critical to the tune of the engine. The Brock Commodores and Dick Johnson Mustangs The team’s unhappy season was directly related were spasmodic performers, and the Alfa Romeos to the incorrect setting of this tiny component. The weren’t really competitive. The Volvo should have engine either ran lean at the top end and rich at the blitzed this motley assortment in this transition year. bottom, or vice versa. The ugly result was a saga of The problem, Robbie recalled, “Was our lack of knowl- blown turbos, head gaskets, overheating and pre 05 edge and experience with the car.” detonation. Although Robbie was to win a later round ROBBIE KICK-startED HIS REnaIssanCE Things didn’t get off to a ripper of a start at of the series, the horse had truly bolted on the window Sandown. In Robbie’s words, he mouthed off to the of opportunity for that opening Group A season. Fel- WITH THIS ONE DRIVE. It MattErs NOT media, and anyone who’d listen, just how he was low expatriate Kiwi Jim Richards was the victor in his WHETHER THE TEAM ACTUALLY WON going to hand out a lesson to the locals. He eventually black, howling six-cylinder BMW 635. finished in sixth with an ill-handling car, and had to eat humble pie. It later turned out the stiffer springs Sorting the Swede fitted to the Volvo were too short and the suspension It was around this time that Robbie had an offer from trailing along the ground only added to fulfil his driving stint on the tough and exhausting was bottoming out, turning it into a two-wheeler on the Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) to race the Group A to its mana. The crowds wanted Wellington street circuit. Robbie, listed as the Volvo’s something different, the new co-driver, stepped up to the plate. Describing the torrid refined machinery and the location conditions late in the race, Robbie commented: “I was 08 in downtown Wellington gave local unable to see over much of the bonnet to line the car racing enthusiasts a taste of a up for the corners. Also not wearing gloves, my gear more cultured Monaco-like flavour. changing hand was turning to mush, I wore it right This was in serious contrast to down to the bone gristle!” racing around muddy paddocks, The gearing of the 240T, which also had a high hubcap deep in sheep poo. It was differential ratio, didn’t help, and Robbie had to select the much-needed shot in the arm low gear three times a lap using a special push-up 05 Robbie being interviewed on the starting Kiwi motor racing needed. lever, which made life difficult. grid at Adelaide International Raceway, As well, during the pre-stock market crash era, there The victory thrust the Kiwis into the spotlight. It had 1986 06 Robbie two-wheels the Volvo – Australia, 1985 (Photo by Bill Forsyth) 07 was plenty of money out there, and a viable racing cat- been a truly international field, and an event that had The Volvo Dealer Team, 1986 – Robbie on egory to spend it on. For established mid-40s business captured public, media and corporate interest. Petch the left, John Bowe on right 09 Robbie flies by in the Volvo moguls still harbouring petrol-head dreams of youth, saw the future, and the immediate road to harness here was a chance to front up on equal terms and ban- both his business and racing aspirations, logically, ish those adolescent Anglia racing memories forever. was the high-profileA ustralian Touring Car Champion- ship. The Aussies had just converted to Group A after Robbie’s renaissance years of monolith V8 mentality. Unfortunately, the Robbie kick-started his renaissance with this one drive. Australians’ embracement of innovation was to last It matters not whether the team actually won. There only eight short years before they relapsed to their was a malfunction with the lap-scoring equipment, and archaic origins. one school of thought had the forceful Petch brow-beat- And the best man to tackle that hard school of ing the race officials into accepting his drivers were in knocks was obviously a tough, give-no-quarter natural the lead. The not-quit-in-top-shape Delcour wasn’t able driver – Robbie Francevic. He was to embrace the O80 NZ CLASSIC CAR NZ CLASSIC CAR O81 10 The spoils of victory.