20 Facts About George Fury

George Fury twice won the Southern Cross Rally in 1978 and 1979.

George Fury returned to rallying at the Australian championship level in 1990.

George Fury joined former Ford works driver Fred Gibson as drivers and proved instantly competitive despite running in the mid-car class, though he was still seen more as a rally driver and less as a circuit racer.

George Fury scored his first two race wins with the opening two rounds of the 1983 Australian Endurance Championship at Amaroo Park and 2 weeks later at the Oran Park 250, before going on to qualify 2nd for the James Hardie 1000 at Bathurst.

The Bluebird carried an in-car Racecam camera for race broadcaster Channel 7 with George Fury being able to talk to the commentary team while driving the car.

George Fury would give the Bluebird program its finest moment at the 1984 James Hardie 1000, qualifying on pole position for the final Group C Bathurst 1000 with a time of 2:13.85 in Hardies Heroes.

George Fury's time was not bettered in the Top 10 runoff until 1991 when Nissan team driver Mark Skaife recorded a 2:12.63 in a 4WD, twin-turbo Nissan GT-R.

George Fury gave both Nissan and turbo charging its first win in the ATCC in 1984 when he won Round 7 of the championship at Lakeside.

George Fury later claimed pole for the 1984 Castrol 500 at Sandown Raceway in Melbourne before going on to claim pole at Bathurst.

George Fury led from pole and wasn't headed in the entire 25 lap race and won from the previously unbeaten HDT VK Commodore of Peter Brock with the VK Commodore of Warren Cullen finishing third.

George Fury did perform some guest drives for the Frank Gardner run JPS Team BMW, finishing 2nd with Neville Crichton at Sandown, but scoring a DNF at Bathurst.

George Fury's drive at Bathurst in the BMW 635 CSi will forever be remembered as he followed team mate and 1985 Australian Touring Car Champion Jim Richards into the sand trap on the outside of Hell Corner.

For Richards, who was leading at the time and spent 3 laps with George Fury digging the cars out of the sand, it ultimately cost him and co-driver Tony Longhurst a chance of victory and what would have been a perfect score in the 1985 Australian Endurance Championship.

George Fury served notice on how competitive the turbo Skyline was to be when he put the car on the front row for its debut race at Amaroo Park.

George Fury won four of the six rounds of the 1986 Australian Endurance Championship, including winning the Castrol 500 at Sandown, but could only finish second behind Jim Richards after not starting the opening race at Amaroo Park and failing to finish at Bathurst where he had qualified third on the grid.

George Fury then teamed with Sydney driver Terry Shiel to win his second consecutive Sandown 500, before the pair went on to finish third at Bathurst which in 1987 was a round of the inaugural World Touring Car Championship.

Jim Richards joined Nissan in 1989 replacing Seton who had departed to start his own team, but with the emergence of another young driver in Mark Skaife, Gibson saw a diminished role for George Fury and released him at the end of the year.

George Fury then joined former Nissan team mate Seton for the 1990 Australian Endurance Championship, where Fury and Seton won the 1990 Sandown 500 in a Ford Sierra.

George Fury retired from motor racing at the end of 1991 and tended to stay away from the sport, preferring to live his life on his farm and driving the school bus in Talmalmo.

However, in mid-2014 at the request of his former Nissan team mate and later team boss Fred Gibson, George Fury was re-united with his Bathurst pole winning Bluebird turbo at the Winton raceway for a few laps of the circuit.