The second year of
Group A in Australia saw the domination of the
JPS Team BMW team fade with several other teams pushing forwards. Most spectacularly was the return of
Nissan Motorsport Australia (now under the leadership of former
Bathurst winner
Fred Gibson) with the newly homologated
Nissan Skyline DR30 RS turbo. Led by long time Nissan lead driver
George Fury they were the main rival for another new team, the John Sheppard run
Volvo Dealer Team, a factory supported team which succeeded the
Mark Petch Motorsport Volvo team of 1985. The Touring Car Championship became a two horse race between Volvo's
Robbie Francevic and Fury. Fury was never able to haul in Francevic's early points lead and Francevic was crowned champion. Francevic was fired from the Volvo Dealer Team by Sheppard the day after the
Castrol 500 at
Sandown after refusing to drive what he believed would be an un-competitive car which had only been completed at the meeting started. He then returned to the Mark Petch team as they began development of a
Ford Sierra turbo. Although Francevic won the ATCC in the car, 1986 was the last time the Volvo 240T was seen in Australian touring car racing. Defending ATCC, Endurance and AMSCAR champion, JPS Team BMW's
Jim Richards picked up race wins during the season, claiming the
Australian Endurance Championship.
Peter Brock likewise returned to the winner list for
Holden Dealer Team, dominating the
Adelaide round of the ATCC before engine failure, and later claiming an ATCC win at
Surfers Paradise which would prove to be the last time a
Holden won a race in the championship until 1992. Brock's win at Surfers in his
Holden VK Commodore SS Group A would also prove to be the 34th and last ATCC race win for the HDT who had won their first ATCC race when coincidentally Brock won at Surfers in
1973 in a
Holden LJ Torana GTR XU-1 (Brock contributed 28 of those 34 wins with
Colin Bond winning the other 6). While Richards won the Endurance Championship through consistent placings, the big prizes went elsewhere. Nissan claimed the
Sandown 500 with Fury and his new young team mate
Glenn Seton (the son of
1965 Bathurst winner
Barry Seton who also built the engines for the Nissan team), while
Allan Grice and
Graeme Bailey returned from their attempt at the
FIA Touring Car Championship in Europe to claim victory in the
Bathurst 1000, with Grice also winning the Group A support race at the
Australian Grand Prix in
Adelaide. John Smith claimed the debut title for small touring cars, the distinction for the class was set at two litres leaving a field of Toyota Corollas, Isuzu Geminis and a Nissan Gazelle. The
Amaroo Park based Better Brakes/AMSCAR series was claimed by JPS Team BMW's number 2 driver,
Tony Longhurst driving the team's secondary car, a
BMW 325i, the forerunner to 1987's
BMW M3. Australia hosted the opening two rounds of the inaugural
South Pacific Touring Car Championship with the final three rounds held in
New Zealand. The opening round also doubled as Round 5 of the Australian Endurance Championship at
Calder Park while Round 2 was the Group A support race at the Australian Grand Prix. Allan Grice who won in Adelaide went on to claim the South Pacific title after a further win at
Baypark in NZ. ==Race calendar==