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Image thanks to Ian Welsh of Shifting Focus Photographics
Twenty two iconic Australian touring cars are set to take to the track for round two of the 2021 Heritage Touring Cars series this weekend, May 8 – 9, at Morgan Park Raceway kindly hosted by the HRCC at their Historic Warwick meeting.
We won’t be seeing any new cars enter the line-up this weekend, but Kris Van Der Borgh will be making his driving debut in the Scuderia Veloce 242GT Volvo he jointly owns with Peter Woods. The car competed at Bathurst in 1979 with David McKay and Spencer Martin at the wheel, and runs almost stock as it was when it came off the showroom floor. Kris is a veteran super sprinter and has been pit crewing with Peter for years, and we’re looking forward to sharing the track with him for the first time.
Peter Woods has taken custodianship of Beach Thomas’ Chickadee Celica and will be having his first run in that car at Morgan Park. The Celica was the first racecam car and was driven by Peter Williamson for a year before he sold it to Graeme Bailey. Bailey ran it for several years, eventually selling it to Beach Thomas in 1986 at the end of Group C.
Of the 22 Legends of Bathurst entered, there’s a perfect split between Group C and Group A cars and a good mix of makes and models. Japan’s touring car efforts will be on good display, including series of Toyotas joined by three RX-7s on the weekend. Phil Verwoert will be aboard his Berklee RX7, joined by the ‘83 car of Robert Ingram and Chris Bowden’s ex-Tony Mulvihill car, which is one of the last RX7s built.
Craig Foster will pilot his ex-Toyota Team Australia AE86 and Ian Helsdon and David Paterson will both compete in Sprinters – Ian in the ex-Malcolm Rea car and David in his Bob Holden Motors car. Craig Neilson will bring out his storied 1983 Mitsubishi Starion.
Sitting atop the food chain is the 1991 Sandown 500-winning GIO Nissan GT-R of Anthony Alford. While Tony has no Sierra RS500s to worry about this weekend, Adrian Allisey and Norm Mogg will keep him honest in the Commodore VL Walkinshaws, as will Mark Taylor in the Trevethan/McDowell car and Greg Keam in the FOX Mustang.
Tony Pallas will spend the weekend enjoying the twelve cylinders of his XJ-S Jaguar, while David Towe will no doubt be up at the pointy end in his JPS BMW M3.
Ford and Holden are both well represented in Group C. Terry Lawlor will compete in a 1980 Ford XD Falcon first raced by Bob Morris and Bill O-Brien. It will compete at Morgan Park in the same Breville/Channel 7 livery it ran in back in 1980.
Ian Ross will pilot a second XD Falcon built up from a taxi by privateer Mike Imrie and raced at Sandown, Adelaide International Raceway and the 1983 Castrol 400 before narrowly missing out on a run in the James Hardie 1000. On the other end of the cylinder spectrum we have Justin Matthews, competing in a Mk 2 Escort.
For Holden fans we have the Torana GTR XU1 of Steve Axisa. This is an ex-Neville Bridges car which became the last XU-1 to claim points in the Australian Touring Car Championship when it scored sixth at Lakeside in 1977.
Glenn Gerstel and Ed Singleton will both pilot Commodore VHs, with Singleton bringing out crowd favourite ‘Elvis’, an ex-Allan Grice STP VH Commodore.
Heritage Touring Cars will join a full entry of classic sports and race cars at the HRCC’s Historic Warwick. After spending 2020 with the cars under covers or running in events without spectators, we’re looking forward to putting them back on the track where our fellow enthusiasts can enjoy them.
Join us at Morgan Park over the 8th & 9th of May to see the Legends of Bathurst in action.
