Groups C & A Set for a Historic Weekend at the Baskerville Historics

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Groups C & A Set for a Historic Weekend at the Baskerville Historics

Lead image thanks to Stephen McKay

It’s been a little while since July’s record-breaking Historic Queensland at Warwick, round four of the 2018 Heritage Touring Cars series is coming up and it’s time to let the big cars roar once more. The Baskerville Historics will be held at Baskerville Raceway this weekend, with the main event running over the 22nd and 23rd of September.

This weekend marks the first time that Group C cars have raced at Baskerville in more than three decades, having last raced there in 1984 when a small field of Group C cars participated in a race won by Allan Grice in a Roadways Racing VK Commodore. Group A never raced there in period and will be making their debut on the Hobart circuit this weekend.

Heritage Touring Cars crowd favourite ‘Elvis’, Ed Singleton’s ex-Allan Grice STP VH Commodore, has its own history with the circuit. Back in 1983, the car picked up its only race win at the circuit, and with Ed on good form his search for a repeat is sure to result in a good show.

Practice kicks off early, with the first sessions heading out on Thursday morning and continuing through to Friday. The business end of the weekend will begin after lunch on Friday with the Baskerville Legends demonstration followed by qualifying. The touring cars are up in the afternoon, with Heritage Touring Cars going out just as the day winds to a close at around 3:45PM, following Group N and preceding the Muscle Car Cup.

Our first race of the weekend will be on Saturday morning, scheduled for 11AM. We’ll head out again for race 2 at 1:45PM and spice things up with a handicap race in the early afternoon (3:50PM). Race day Sunday will see the Heritage Touring Cars field out twice – at 12:05PM and 3:50PM.

Heritage Touring Cars drivers have ferried a magic field of historic Group C & A touring cars across Bass Strait and are set to put on a great show in Tasmania. We’d like to send a huge thanks to drivers for supporting the event, with several travelling from Queensland, many from New South Wales and Victoria and Mike Moylan bringing his Group C Ford Falcon XC all the way from Western Australia to compete.

In Group C, the 13B Mazda RX7 of Phil Verwoert and Volvo 242 GT of Peter Woods will be in the midst of a Ford versus Holden clash, with all other Group C drivers behind the wheel of one of the two classic Aussie marques.

The bulk of Ford’s Group C presence is made up of the iconic Escort. Justin Matthews, Neville Butler and Greg Keam will all be behind the wheel of the model and sure to get stuck into some great racing over the course of the event. George Nittis is returning to the field for the first time this year and will pilot the awesome ex-Murray Carter XE Falcon.

Looking to the other side of the camp and we have the Torana LX A9X of Shaun Tunny, which was raced at Bathurst by Kevin Bartlett and Bob Forbes. Tunny’s Torana will be joined by the Craven Mild A9X of Tony Sawford, with Steve Axisa bringing the ex-David Langman Torana L34 out to play as well. Lindsay Woollard will join Ed Singleton in representing the Commodores, piloting his Re-Car VC over the weekend.

Moving to Group A Holdens and we find Tasmanian native and 2014 Group C champion John Douglas on board the ex-Brian Callaghan Holden VL ‘Walkinshaw’.

Victorian Ben Henson will let his Commodore VK out to play at Baskerville. The car was built by HDT and competed in the Bathurst 1000 twice. In 1985 it ran under Auckland Coin & Bullion and was driven by Denny Hulme, and ’86 it was driven by Graeme Crosby and raced at Bathurst in Bob Jane T-Mart colours. This weekend it will be piloted by Jason White, who’s spent the past half-decade or so winning Targa Tasmania. Well aware of his talents behind the wheel of his Lamborghini, we’re looking forward to seeing what he can do on a circuit in a touring car.

The quick Commodores will be up against some fierce competition from Ford, with Terry Lawlor sure to have the Shell Dick Johnson Sierra RS500 up at the very pointy end.

Motorsport legend Bob Holden will be putting one of his signature Toyota Corollas up against all of that V8 and turbocharged muscle, joined by fellow Toyota driver John Abbott in the ex-Peter Williamson Supra.

Finally, we have two drivers representing Europe’s contribution to Group A touring car racing, with David Towe bringing out his iconic JPS BMW M3 and Tony Pallas bringing a few extra cylinders to the fore with the Group A Jaguar XJ-S.

We’re looking forward to heading south for the spring to get back on track with round 4 of the 2018 Heritage Touring Car series, and can’t wait to put on a good show for fellow fans of Group C & A muscle in Tasmania. Our thanks to Motorsports Tasmania and the Baskerville Historics committee for their tireless efforts producing the Baskerville Historics and welcoming Heritage Touring Cars.

The Baskerville Historics will be held at Baskerville Raceway from Thursday the 19th of September through to Sunday the 23rd of September. For more details about the event, see the official website at baskervillehistorics.com.

Stay tuned to www.heritagetouringcars.com.au for more from the Legends of Bathurst.