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Craig King photo
Heritage Touring Cars was proud to be a feature category of the HSRCA’s 2025 Sydney Classic over the King’s Birthday long weekend June 7 & 8, where we hosted round 3 of our 2025 series.
Sydney put on a pleasant winter weekend with just some chilly winds to contend with, making for good conditions for motor racing, if perhaps just a little cold to get the best out of the tyres. 17 Legends of Bathurst competed and were spread evenly across both Group C and Group A, and the 5-litre and lower capacity cars, with Matthew Hornby, Jamie McDonald and Shane Nichols running under the new Group 3A class for 5-litre Australian touring cars.
Craig King photo
Following Friday’s private practice sessions, David Towe had a blinder in qualifying to set the pace for the field with a 1:43.35 in the JPS BMW M3. Chris Stillwell was just a few hundredths slower to earn a spot beside him on the front row, ahead of the Commodores of Adrian Allisey and Michael Logiudice, with Steve Axisa quickest in Group C.
Race one was held in the spectacular Saturday afternoon sunshine, Stillwell maneuvering the Caltex Sierra RS500 into the lead and Adrian Allisey securing a second place finish. Towe kept up his pace from qualifying to finish third, with Rick Allen picking up speed and chasing him down to the line.
Steve Axisa had a great scrap with Michael Logiudice, very nearly catching him on the final lap to lead the Group C field home, Meon Nehrybecki also on the chase. Dean How from Victoria and Peter Woods from Queensland claimed second and third in class just behind the Nissan GTR of Greg Boyle and BMW 325 of Scott Robinson. Jamie McDonald and Mathew Hornby in the 5-litre cars had been very close in qualifying and were similarly inseparable come race time, organising a photo finish for eighth and ninth place.
A late morning start on Sunday gave the field perhaps the best conditions of the day, and the M3s made the most of it. Stillwell again claimed victory, with David Towe and Rick Allen in the Benson & Hedges E30 M3 moving in convoy onto the podium and relegating Allisey to fourth. Jamie McDonald was still in the thick of things, this time chasing the Commodore of Shane Nichols down to the line, again separated by just a couple hundredths of a second.
Steve Axisa continued to improve, finishing fifth overall still at the head of Group C, with Dean How also jumping up the order to finish ninth. Peter Woods set third place in Group C running with David Holland and Gavin Adamson, Greg Boyle and Scott Robinson enjoying another closely contested dice.
The final race of the weekend saw Stillwell complete a full sweep of the meeting, Adrian Allisey able to work his way back onto the podium for another second place finish following a closely competed duel with Rick Allen.
Steve Axisa capped off a magic weekend with fourth overall, Dean How moving up to eighth and David Holland getting past Peter Woods after an exciting race for third Group C. It’s great to see David getting to grips with the Torana XU-1, and even better to see dad Don Holland out at the track keeping an eye on the car he raced more than five decades ago.
Meanwhile, Jamie McDonald in the 1993 Holden Commodore VP SS and Garry Kirwan in the ex-Gerald Kay Walkinshaw VL SS put on perhaps the best show of the race, separated by just two tenths across the line.
With HQ Racing NSW bringing a great field of 3-litre HQ Holdens out to play, full fields of Group N touring cars and Group S sports cars, and MG Racing Australia also running an interesting field, the 2025 HSRCA Sydney Classic was a terrific meeting for fans of tin top racing. On track the meeting ran smoothly outside of a few delays for oil or recovery, and presented some exciting racing and very special race cars. The pits and paddock were relaxed and friendly, and we enjoyed the traditional social catch-up on Saturday night, making it an excellent weekend all around.
The HSRCA has extensive coverage available on their website here, and you can also find replays of the full weekend’s racing, kindly produced by Blendline TV, on their website here.
The 2025 Heritage Touring Cars season is in full swing, and you won’t have to wait too long until we’re back on track once more. The Legends of Bathurst will be at the 2025 Winton Festival of Speed August 2 & 3, and you can find all the details here.
Images thanks to Craig King and Seth Reinhardt.
By Craig King
By Seth Reinhardt
