Tony Longhurst

For sponsorship reasons the team was known by various names during its time including Freeport Motorsport and Benson & Hedges Racing.

Initially running the powerful Ford Sierra RS500 from 1988 to 1990, Longhurst won the 1988 Bathurst 1000 driving with Tomas Mezera.

The car (pictured right) remains on display at the National Motor Racing Museum, which is located on the outside of the final turn of the famous Mount Panorama Circuit.

[5] From 1993, the ATCC moved to the Group 3A Touring Car formula based on Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores.

[6] Outside the ATCC, Longhurst was the only driver to have won five of the now defunct AMSCAR series run at Sydney's Amaroo Park circuit.

In 1995, Longhurst sold out to fellow shareholders Gardner and Morris (who wanted to focus on the Australian Super Touring Championship) and formed Longhurst Racing to compete in the Australian Touring Car Championship with a Ford EF Falcon backed by Castrol.

Longhurst came close to winning the 2000 Bathurst 1000 with David Besnard, despite making the most pitstops of anyone in the race, until an incident scuppered their chances while leading with ten laps to go.

Longhurst's final drive came at the 2007 Sandown 500 where he paired with Glenn Seton following a series of last minute driver swaps in the Holden Racing Team following Mark Skaife having surgery to remove his appendix.

In 2016, Longhurst returned to competition making an appearance at the Sydney Motorsport Park round of the Australian GT Championship in a MARC Ford Focus and at the Silverstone Classic driving his 1994 Australian Manufacturers' Championship winning BMW 318i Super Touring car.

Longhurst again entered the 2018 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour in a GT4 BMW and won his class with Aaron Seton and Matthew Brabham.

[7] Longhurst continues to live on the Gold Coast in Queensland and owns and manages the Boat Works facility at Coomera.