Too little, too late
Nissan homologated a new weapon for Group A – the HR31 Skyline GTS-R – but it was no match for the now rampant Sierras, which were so dominant even Peter Brock decided it was worth driving a Ford!
The HR31 arrived late and, while its turbocharged sixcylinder engine sounded marvellous, it didn’t have winning performance. Fury was underwhelmed. “The six-cylinder was a bit heavier at the front (than the four-cylinder DR30), but it was just a car. I don’t think there was an advantage either way.”
In an abbreviated 1988 program, George’s best result was third in the Amaroo ATCC round, the Skyline happier in the tighter con nes of the Sydney circuit.
When Gibson recruited Jim Richards for 1989 to replace Seton (who had taken the Peter Jackson money to form his own team and run Sierras) and new young gun Mark Skaife was given a third team car, it seemed Fury’s card had been marked. And he knew it. Yet he reminded the team he was still around by scoring a shock ATCC round win at a wet Winton, then (with Anders Olofsson) followed Richards/Skaife home to nish fourth at Bathurst. Yes, missed the podium by that much – again.
With Richards and Skaife now entrenched, Fury was not surprised when Gibson cut him loose at the end of 1989. “I don’t hold that against Fred. I mean, these things have to be done. But you can’t blame me for wanting to drive longer because I was still able; I wasn’t falling off the perch yet. I was driving as well as I ever was.”
Seton grabbed Fury for the enduros and they scored a superb victory in the Peter Jackson Sierra at Sandown. Despite that – and the fact that he suspected the Bo Seton-built engines in Glenn’s cars were always better – George elected to race the second car at Bathurst. Glenn was much quicker, but neither car nished.
“Glenn wanted me to co-drive for him and my ego wouldn’t handle that. I wanted my own car. The last race I did was Eastern Creek in an endurance race. It turned out that the two cars weren’t the same and I thought, ‘Oh, bugger that.’ I was over it by then. The enjoyment was there, but the politicking…”
In the meantime, Fury had returned to rallying for fun driving a 2.5-litre Datsun 120Y – built by former Nissan suspension ace Jamie Drummond, an Albury lad who Fury had recommended to Nissan – and a 4WD Mitsubishi Galant VR4 owned by Wodonga’s Ged Beckton. He won Rally Tasmania and nally took the Alpine Rally – his home event, which had always eluded him – in the VR4, but rates the 120Y as the best rally car he ever drove.
He says it was difficult to go back from circuit racing to rallying, reckoning it’s easier to go the other way. “The biggest difference is how much more on the edge you are in motor racing. Rallying is nowhere near that. In rallying in those days, before pace notes, you always had something in reserve, always. Otherwise you’d keep having accidents and then you’d be out on your arse.”
George Fury’s last competitive outing was in Rally Australia in September 1991, when the Galant’s suspension failed.