Bathurst Winners Head Line-Up for Heritage Touring Cars 2023 Season Opener at Phillip Island

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Bathurst Winners Head Line-Up for Heritage Touring Cars 2023 Season Opener at Phillip Island

34 Group C & A cars will head to the Phillip Island Classic over March 9-12 to open our 2023 season with two Bathurst champions headlining the pack.

We are honoured to welcome two motorsport icons to the Heritage Touring Cars series for our opening round of 2023. Between them, Steve Richards and Greg Murphy hold just shy of a decade of Bathurst titles, amongst other accolades. They drove together in the great race in 1999, starting from 12th in the Gibson Motorsport VT and challenging Paul Radisich and Steve Ellery’s dominant performance. Outrunning the likes of Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes, Larry Perkins and even Richards’ father Jim, they claimed victory – their second Bathurst 1000 title each.

Steve Richards will bring out a family heirloom for the weekend – the ex-Jim Richards 1990 ATCC-winning Nissan Skyline GTSR31, to run alongside Greg Murphy in the #3 Nissan factory Skyline. We can’t wait to see these Legends of Bathurst on track in such iconic machines.

Ex-John Smith Toyota Supra Turbo

Amongst their challengers will be Tony Karanfilovski and Chris Stillwell in Sierra RS500s and Tony Alford, who will hop into an HR31 Skyline GTS after last year’s run in ‘Godzilla’. Michael Roddy will bring his Tom Walkinshaw Racing V12 Jaguar XJ-S out to play, which won the James Hardie 1000 in 1985, and Meon Nehrybecki will pilot an ex-John Smith Toyota Supra Turbo.

We also look forward to the return of the ex-Dick Johnson Greens Tuff Mustang in the hands of Terry Lawlor, who will bring the car out of a six-year retirement. That car will be joined by a second Group A Mustang – Carey McMahon to run a newly acquired ex-Lawrie Nelson 1984 Ford Mustang GT.

The newly restored Wellington 500-winning Diet Coke M3 of Eddy Sansil will be joined by Rick Allen in the Benson & Hedges M3 and David Towe in his JPS M3. Adrian Brady will pilot another ex-Jim Richards car – the #62 JPS BMW 635CSi Jim drove to great success in 1985.

Peter Abood will be in good company aboard the ex-factory Holden team Commodore, with Jamie McDonald, Wayne Clift, Adrian Allisey, Michael Logiudice and Garry Kirwan forming a strong field of racing Commodores to counter the fast Fords.

A strong field of 15 Group C cars is headed by the return of ‘Elvis’, the STP Commodore of Ed Singleton, a pair of Mazda RX-7s piloted by Paul Stubber and Don Dimitriadis, Thomas Vondrasek in the ex-Rusty French Morley Ford XC Falcon Coupe and Kyle Alford in the ex-Bob Morris Channel 7 XD Falcon that recently changed hands.

Staying with the Fords, and the Escort Mk2 of Neville Butler will be joined by Carl Muller’s Capri 3.0S, Ian Ross piloting his #49 XD Falcon, an ex-taxi bought from the wrecking yard of future Minardi Formula 1 team boss Paul Stoddard and run in the ATCC in 1983 and 1984.

They’ll be up against a pair of Toranas in the form of Anthony Sawford’s ex-Allan Grice Craven Mild car and Rodney Hatfield’s ex-Dustings & McRae L34. Mark Le Vaillant will join us in an ‘82 Commodore, with Glenn Gerstel bringing out a VH Commodore.

Craig Marsland will pilot the E49 Valiant Charger owned and run by New Zealand driver Doug Jack in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and debuted in the series by Craig last year during the 2022 series. Bill Cutler and Dean How will be on board a pair of BMW Motorsport cars, Bill in a Group 2 M535 and Dean in a JPS 635CSi.

The Phillip Island Classic will run from March 9 to 12 on the iconic Phillip Island Circuit and host six spectacular Formula 1 machines alongside our own storied Group C & A race cars, Formula 5000s, and much more with a magic entry of historic touring, sports and race machines. For more information head to the VHRR website at vhrr.com and stay tuned to heritagetouringcars.com.au for more from the Legends of Bathurst.

Greens-Tuf Mustang