David Parsons (racing driver)

David Parsons
Nationality	Australian
Born	17 May 1959 Devonport, Tasmania
Related to	Graham Parsons (father)
ATCC / V8 Supercar
Years active	1982-2000
Teams	Cadbury Schweppes Racing Holden Dealer Team Perkins Engineering Glenn Seton Racing Gibson Motorsport Challenge Recruitment Romano Racing
Starts	23
Best finish	7th in 1983 Australian Touring Car Championship
Championship titles
1987 1993	Bathurst 1000 Sandown 500

David John 'Skippy' Parsons (born 17 May 1959 in Devonport, Tasmania^[1]), is a retired Australian racing driver, who while never a full-time racing driver, drove for the biggest racing teams in Australia including the Holden Dealer Team, Perkins Engineering, Glenn Seton Racing and Gibson Motorsport.

Career

Group C

The son of Tasmanian touring car racer Graham Parsons, David Parsons, a dairy farmer, began emerging onto the national scene racing a Holden VC Commodore in the 1982 Australian Touring Car Championship, making his debut at his home track, Symmons Plains in Tasmania.^[2] Embraced as an endurance co-driver by gentleman privateer racer Peter Janson, he showed pace on his way to fourth outright at the 1982 James Hardie 1000, as well as qualifying Janson's Commodore 3rd for the 1983 race.

This, and his performances in his self-funded Commodore in the 1983 ATCC, brought him to the attention of Peter Brock and the Holden Dealer Team, and with the help of Janson he was drafted into the HDT for the 1984 Australian Endurance Championship. Parsons co-drove with John Harvey to a DNF in the Oran Park 250 in Brock's ATCC car, before the pair went on to finish 3rd in the 1984 Castrol 500 at Sandown in the second of the team's new VK Commodore's. From there Harvey/Parsons finished 2nd in the 1984 James Hardie 1000 behind team mates Brock and Larry Perkins, with Parsons following Brock across the finish line in a 1-2 form finish. Late in the James Hardie 1000, Parsons was "let off the leash" by team owner Brock who told him to go for second place which was held at the time by 1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones who was driving Warren Cullen's similar VK Commodore. Parsons responded to the challenge and reduced the gap to the former World Champion from over a minute to under two seconds before Jones was forced to pit with 4 laps remaining for fuel and attention to the cars non-existent rear brakes (unfortunately for Jones, the stop not only saw Parsons go past but also Gregg Hansford in Allan Moffat's Mazda RX-7, dropping the Commodore to 4th place and off the podium).^[3]

After finishing 7th in the 1983 ATCC in his own privately entered Holden VH Commodore SS, Parsons drove his 1983 Bathurst Commodore for Peter Janson in the opening two rounds of the 1984 championship at Sandown and Symmons Plains, but Janson did not have the funds to run the full series and these were Parson's only drives in the championship which saw him fall to 17th in the standings.

Group A

Parsons was retained as a driver for the HDT into 1985, although results were harder to come by as the Commodore initially struggled with engine unreliability in Australia's move to the FIA's Group A rules. The highlight of the year for the Tasmanian dairy farmer was out qualifying team leader Brock at the 1985 James Hardie 1000 (the only time that Brock as the HDT owner was out-qualified by a team mate). Parsons left HDT in 1986 to join Perkins in his new team Perkins Engineering, but was let go in early 1987 with Perkins opting for someone with "more experience" after Parsons had crashed the Commodore in the Wellington 500 (Perkins would select 1967 World Champion Denny Hulme as Parsons replacement with the pair going on to win the Pukekohe 500 a week after Wellington). Parsons rejoined the HDT, now without any official support from Holden following the company's split with Brock in February 1987, and joined Brock and Neville Crichton at the Spa 24 Hours round of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship (WTCC). The trio failed to finish the race.

Heading into the 1987 James Hardie 1000 (which was also a round of the WTCC) the Holden Dealer Team was expected to do little more the make up the numbers against the strength of the factory supported European Ford and BMW teams. When the #05 car Parsons shared with Brock experienced a major engine failure in the early running, their effort looked set to be little more than a footnote (Brock had pitted a number of laps early and put Parsons into the car leading to speculation that Brock knew the engine was dying and wanted himself in the pits rather than stranded out on the track, though Parsons did manage to get the heavily smoking #05 back to the pits). First Brock, then Parsons stepped aboard the team's second car, #10 which had been driven to that point of the race by the 1983 Australian Endurance Champion Peter McLeod. Inspired driving on variable surface as rain plagued the second half of the race, good strategy and a lucky break with safety car procedure saw the team claw their way past the BMW M3s as they failed, and the Nissan Skyline turbos and into third position behind the flawless 1-2 finish of the Eggenberger Motorsport Ford Sierra RS500s. During his stint at the wheel, Parsons was credited with #10's fastest race lap in the 1987 1000.

After scrutineering at Bathurst in 1987, there had been rumours about the legality of the Eggenberger built Sierra's, specifically to do with over sized wheel arches. On the Thursday before qualifying an official protest was lodged against the Sierra's, which was held over due to the lack of a road going RS500 in Australia to compare them with. Eventually, after nearly four months and an eventual disqualification and later appeal by Eggenberger, the two Sierras were disqualified for having over size wheel arches allowing them to fit larger wheels, giving McLeod, Brock and Parsons the race win.^[4]

Parsons stayed with the team into 1988 as they transitioned from V8 Holden Commodore's to 4 cyl BMW M3s, although by now in Australia the giant killers of 1987 had become little more than class runners in the face of the all-powerful Sierras. After then sitting out 1989 during which time the Brock team also switched to running the RS500 Sierra's, Parsons returned to Brock's team in 1990, teaming with Andrew Miedecke and Charlie O'Brien to finish 14th at the 1990 Tooheys 1000 at Bathurst, 12 laps down on the winning Holden Racing Team SS Group A Commodore of Allan Grice and Win Percy.

Parsons then went on to join Glenn Seton Racing in 1991 where he became a regular co-driver for the team for the next seven years, continuing to race with the team into the V8 Supercar era. The highlight of his time with GSR was winning the 1993 Sandown 500 co-driving a Ford EB Falcon with Geoff Brabham and qualifying in the top ten at the 1991 Tooheys 1000 in a Sierra.

Parsons came close to winning his second Bathurst 1000 in 1995 when team boss and co-driver Glenn Seton led the race with just 10 laps to go. However, a dropped valve in the Barry Seton built Ford V8 saw the Ford EF Falcon retire on lap 152, handing the win to Parsons' former team mate Larry Perkins. The loss was hard to take as the car had led for most of the race and until the engine went sour on lap 151, Seton held a 10 second lead over Perkins. 1995 was also the 30th anniversary of Bo Seton's only win in 1965. Parsons was actually to drive the team's second car with lead driver Alan Jones, while veteran Allan Grice was entered as Seton's co-driver. However, after early practice had seen Parsons lapping quicker than Grice, Glenn Seton made the decision to move Parsons into the lead car with himself while Grice was moved to partner Jones. Ironically, the Jones/Grice car would finish second behind the Commodore of Perkins and Russell Ingall.

V8 Supercars

From 1998 onwards Parsons was a hired gun, driving for Gibson Motorsport and Owen Parkinson Racing, including co-drives with the other racing driver named David "Truckie" Parsons. His final Bathurst appearance was alongside Paul Romano in 2000. Since then Parsons has made occasional one-off appearances in various sedan based categories.^[5]

Career results

Season	Series	Position	Car	Team
1982	Australian Touring Car Championship	12th	Holden VC Commodore	David Parsons
1982	Australian Endurance Championship	48th	Holden VH Commodore SS	Cadbury-Schweppes Pty. Ltd.
1983	Australian Touring Car Championship	7th	Holden VH Commodore SS	David Parsons
1984	Australian Touring Car Championship	17th	Holden VH Commodore SS	Cadbury Schweppes Racing
1984	Australian Endurance Championship	6th	Holden VK Commodore	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team
1985	Australian Touring Car Championship	25th	Holden VK Commodore	Mobil Holden Dealer Team
1986	Australian Endurance Championship	64th	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	Enzed Team Perkins
1987	Australian Touring Car Championship	24th	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	HDT Racing
1988	Australian Touring Car Championship	14th	BMW M3	Mobil 1 Racing
1988	Asia-Pacific Touring Car Championship	NC	BMW M3	Mobil 1 Racing
1990	Australian Endurance Championship	16th	Ford Sierra RS500	Mobil 1 Racing
1992	Australian Touring Car Championship	27th	Ford Sierra RS500	Peter Jackson Racing
1999	Shell Championship Series	28th	Holden VS Commodore Holden VT Commodore	Owen Parkinson Racing Gibson Motorsport

Bathurst 1000 win

Year	Pos	Class	No	Team	Co-Drivers	Chassis	Tyres	Laps	Grid
						Engine
Group A
1987	1	3	10	HDT Racing P/L	Peter McLeod Peter Brock Jon Crooke	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	B	158	20
						Holden 304 4.9 L V8

Sandown 500 win

Year	Pos	Class	No	Team	Co-Drivers	Chassis	Laps	Grid
						Engine
Group 3A Touring Car
1993	1	V8	35	Peter Jackson Racing	Geoff Brabham	Ford EB Falcon	161	8
						Ford 302 5.0 L V8

Complete Australian Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
1982	David Parsons	Holden VC Commodore Holden VH Commodore SS	SAN	CAL	SYM 5	ORA	LAK 4	WAN Ret	AIR 4	SUR 4			12th	14
1983	David Parsons	Holden VH Commodore SS	CAL Ret	SAN Ret	SYM 4	WAN 5	AIR Ret	SUR	ORA 8	LAK 5			7th	57
1984	Cadbury-Schweppes Racing	Holden VH Commodore SS	SAN 9	SYM 7	WAN	SUR	ORA	LAK	AIR				17th	20
1985	Mobil Holden Dealer Team	Holden VK Commodore	WIN	SAN	SYM	WAN	AIR	CAL	SUR	LAK	AMA 6	ORA	25th	13
1987	HDT Racing P/L	Holden VK Commodore SS Group A	CAL	SYM	LAK	WAN	AIR	SUR	SAN 8	AMA	ORA		24th	3
1988	Mobil 1 Racing	BMW M3	CAL	SYM	WIN 6	WAN	AIR	LAK	SAN	AMA	ORA		14th	6
1992	Peter Jackson Racing	Ford Sierra RS500	AMA	SAN	SYM	WIN	LAK	ECR	MAL	WAN	ORA 14		27th	8

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	DC	Points
1987	HDT Racing P/L	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	MNZ	JAR	DIJ	NUR	SPA Ret	BNO	SIL	BAT 1*	CLD 8	WEL 5	FJI	NC	0

* Despite winning the James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst, Parsons scored no World Championship points as he wasn't a registered WTCC competitor.

Complete Spa 24 Hours results

Year	Pos	Class	No	Team	Co-Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
						Engine
1987	DNF	3	3	HDT Racing P/L	Peter Brock Neville Crichton	Holden VL Commodore SS Group A	B	206
						Holden 304 4.9 L V8

References

1. Tuckey, Bill, ed. (1987–88). The Great Race (Hornsby: The Berghouse Floyd Tuckey Publishing Group) 7: 277. ISSN 1031-6124.
2. Howard, Graham; Wilson, Stewart (1986). "1982: Johnson, back-to-back". Australian Touring Car Championship: 25 fabulous years. Gordon: R&T Publishing. p. 237. ISBN 0-9590378-2-9.
3. "James Hardie 1000 Mount Panorama, Bathurst 30th September, 1984". Unique Cars and Parts. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
4. Tuckey, Bill, ed. (1987–88). The Great Race (Hornsby: The Berghouse Floyd Tuckey Publishing Group) 7: 263–265. ISSN 1031-6124.
5. "Tancredi Wins 2008 Commodore Cup Series". Commodore Cup. 2 December 2008. Archived from the original on 30 September 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-17.