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Photos kindly provided by Will Tandy of Chicane Flicks
Over the first weekend in August, Heritage Touring Cars joined in the VHRR’s 2025 Winton Festival of Speed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Group A and contest round four of our 2025 series.
21 Group C & A cars started the meeting, with Trevor Shuemack in the 2-litre BMW Super Tourer also joining the field. 5-Litre Touring Cars joined Touring Car Legends for a super sprint competition, bringing another five iconic V8 Supercars out to put on a great show for spectators in their original liveries.
Peter Xiberras ran his Red Bull Holden VF, in which Jamie Wincup famously ran out of fuel in the Bathurst 1000, sharing the driving with his son Perry for the first time. Peter would set the fastest time of the weekend, running a 1.29.2 during the last session of the meeting.
Jacob Khouri ran his Oricon BA Falcon, Chad Parrish in a category BA Falcon and Andrew Cook on board a Better Electrical BA Falcon. Kane Fitzgerald ran the AU Ozemail Falcon which Brad Jones rolled at Clipsal in period.
In the Group C & A competition, Elliot Barbour proved unassailable from the start, steering Carey McMahon’s Yellow Pages Mazda RX-7 to a series of progressively quicker lap records on the way to a clean sweep of the weekend. Justin Nilsson was also on lap record pace, getting close to his own Group C Under 3-litre lap record a number of times.
The meeting began with a chilly start to qualifying on Saturday morning, with Elliot Barbour setting pole position in the Group C RX-7, Chris Stillwell next to him in the Group A RS500. Trevor Sheumack in the 2-litre BMW Super Tourer went third quickest and was joined by Adrian Allisey in the Walkinshaw on the second row. David Towe was third quickest in Group A, Steve Axisa and Glenn Gerstel second and third in Group C.
Craig Foster had barely warmed up when the engine blew in the ex-Toyota Team Australia AE86. With a huge effort from both him and several other Heritage Touring Cars competitors who pitched in, they were able to get the spare fitted in time for the first race of the weekend.
Allisey and Axisa side by side
That first race saw Barbour run away at the front. Stillwell and Allisey chased, enjoying a good fight in the very different, but closely matched cars. Steve Axisa did well to get past Sheumack to move into fourth overall and second Group C, Gerstel outrunning Anthony Tenkate by just a few tenths to finish in sixth overall for third in category.
Third in Group A went to Trent Harrison in his father Hugh’s ex-Colin Bond Alfa GTV6 after a great race amongst some extremely competitive Group C cars. Juston Nilsson and Don Dimitriadis were extremely closely matched and put on a great race, Cole Spender and Derek Wickett doing similar in a pair of Escorts.
Race two saw the margins narrow slightly, although the top five positions didn’t change. Tenkate managed to put his VH Commodore ahead of Gerstel’s, and David Towe made an impressive return to the track after an unfortunate DNF in race one. Dimitriadis was able to get the better of Nilsson this time out, Harrison falling victim to both drivers. We were pleased to see Craig Foster and Carl Muller both on track and going the distance after an early finish to race one.
Heritage Touring Cars was back out in the cold early on Sunday morning, although the conditions didn’t seem to bother Barbour at all – he dropped under the 1:31s to settle on 1:30.9935 for the lap record on his way to a third race win. Chris Stillwell also ran his quickest race of the weekend, his fastest lap of the race a second quicker than his next best, the pair playing cat and mouse as they stretched out a big margin ahead of Adrian Allisey.
Dean How, with Glenn Gerstel hanging it all out on the power behind him, followed by Don Dimitriadis and Trent Harrison
David Towe was now up to fifth chasing Steve Axisa, while Nilsson and Dimitriadis had established the duel of the weekend, swapping positions once again. Dean How had a good run, moving the 635CSi in front of Trent Harrison who was locked in a great scrap with Peter Xiberras.
Craig Foster unfortunately missed this race, but earned the most determined competitor award after changing and rebuilding his gearbox twice in succession and getting the car sorted for the final race of the weekend. A huge thank you to our wonderful community, who are so quick to jump in and help other competitors at times like these.
Allisey leading Stillwell
The final run of the weekend came just after lunch on Sunday, and the top ten had settled into a familiar rhythm. Adrian Allisey bucked this trend and made perhaps the move of the race to sneak his Commodore past Stillwell and finish the weekend in second, while Axisa did a great job to hold the charging Towe off the podium. Trevor Sheumack made a welcome return after an early exit from race three as did Craig Foster, who finished the weekend running well. With that we were back up to 21 competitors, just one down over the full weekend which is a great result.
Our thanks to the VHRR for hosting another enjoyable historic race meeting. With our C & A and 5-Litre Touring cars joined by the Group C & A touring car tribute, Touring Car Legends, and of course the historic Group N touring cars, this was a great weekend for fans of tin top racing – not to mention all the other race and speed categories which put on exciting events throughout the weekend.
Ian Ross followed by Craig Foster
The whole weekend was streamed live on V8 Sleuth’s YouTube channel, the archive of which is available online now. Click this link for Saturday’s stream, and this one for Sunday’s.
With Winton in the books we’re already looking at the final points round of the year, which will be contested at The Bend Classic, October 24 – 26. Going into that final round David Towe holds on to his lead of the Group A championship followed by Chris Stillwell and Adrian Allissey, with Steve Axisa building on a seemingly insurmountable Group C lead and Dean How in second ahead of Gavin Adamson.
October may seem a ways away, but the cars aren’t quite going into hibernation just yet. The HSRCA will host a special event for under 3-litre C & A touring cars at their 2025 Spring Festival, which will be held at One Raceway August 30 & 31. Stay tuned for more from the Legends of Bathurst!
Photos kindly provided by Will Tandy of Chicane Flicks
