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HAPPY Father’s Day Dad!
What better present to give the ‘old boy’ on his big day than a full grid of Group A and Group C Historic touring car action with the Heritage Touring Cars?
This weekend’s Muscle Car Masters will host the fifth round of the Heritage Touring Cars championship and it promises to be an epic affair.
A bumper field of 37 cars has entered for HTC’s second visit to Sydney Motorsport Park this year, made up of 23 Group A cars and 14 from Group C.
The headline act must surely be the racing return of the Gibson Motorsport 1991 Bathurst-winning Nissan GT-R.
The ex-Richards/Skaife Nissan, which broke the 1000-kilometre race record that then stood for 19 years, is making its comeback to the track after a life that took it to Thailand and later a multi-year restoration.
Owner Carey McMahon will pilot the GT-R on its first race back on Australian soil since the early 1990s.
His regular mount, the Gibson Motorsport Skyline GTS-R has been entered to be driven by Chad Parrish.
Keeping the 1991 Bathurst winner honest will be the GIO GT-R that finished third in that year’s race in the hands of Mark Gibbs and Rohan Onslow.
It’s recently been purchased by Tony Alford, who will drive it in Sydney as he’s has elected to park his similar Winfield, #1 1992 Bathurst-winning GT-R that he drove at HTC’s last visit to SMP in June.
The GIO GT-R’s former owner/driver, Terry Lawlor, will return to his previous mount and has purchased back the ex-Colin Bond 1992 Bathurst Caltex Ford Sierra RS500 he raced prior to the ex-Bob Forbes team GIO Nissan.
New to the field this weekend is a car that holds a unique place in Australian motor racing history.
Do you remember the Volvo 242 GT than ran in the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 at Bathurst?
Peter Woods does, and will race that very same car this weekend!
Running virtually showroom-stock, complete with registration plates and sponsor Uniroyal’s radial tyres, the Volvo was driven by Spencer Martin and Peter McKay to a credible 21st position outright from of a field of 62 starters.
And they drove it home after the race!
This year marks the 25th Anniversary of Sydney Motorsport Park, and one HTC competitor has been there since day one. Veteran touring car racing favourite Bob Holden raced at the circuit’s first-ever meeting.
Then known as Eastern Creek International Raceway, Holden ran his Corolla in the first Nissan 500 back in November 1990, sharing with Mike Conway. The result that weekend was a ‘DNF’ but 25 years on you can bet Bob will be looking for the chequered flag!
Heritage Touring Cars will hit the track on Saturday (September 5) at 9.00am for qualifying, followed by Race 1 for Group A at 11:40am and Group C at 2:27pm. Both categories will combine for a five-lap race at 4:45pm.
They will return on Sunday (September 6) at 9.00am for a five-lap race and then at 12.32pm will compete in a special 25-minute race to mark the 25th anniversary of the circuit.
This weekend’s round is the fifth of six HTC points-scoring rounds for the season.
The sixth and final round will be held at the Historic Sandown meeting on November 7-8.
