1996 Australian Touring Car Championship

[5] The championship was contested earlier in the year than usual as much of telecaster Channel 7's broadcast equipment was required for its 1996 Summer Olympics coverage.

Channel 7's coverage was again a same day delayed broadcast which saw Garry Wilkinson return to the coverage as host and eventually as a commentator alongside Mark Oastler after Andy Raymond was moved from the broadcast booth (where he started the season) to the pits and Brad Jones joined the team as their full-time expert.

A tight sponsorship market resulted in both Gibson Motorsport and Glenn Seton Racing scaling back to one car.

Philip Morris sought to circumnavigate this by sponsoring Alan Jones Racing under a generic name.

[6] Championship points were awarded on a 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 basis to the top ten finishers in each race.