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It’s been 40 years since the Australian Touring Car Championship moved to Group A and the first race for Group A touring cars was held at Winton, won by Jim Richards’ JPS BMW in the summer heat. Over August 1 to 3 more than 20 Legends of Bathurst will head to the 2025 Winton Festival of Speed to celebrate that anniversary, contesting the penultimate round of the 2025 Heritage Touring Cars series along the way.
Held at Winton Raceway, the meeting will bring more than 300 historic race cars out to compete, with feature events for our Group C & A touring cars and the 50KM Enduro Cup for Group N. Off track there will be a massive display of club vehicles, with over 500 set to attend, and a Friday night car show in Benella on August 1.
Tabitha Ambrose will make her Heritage Touring Cars debut in Winton driving an A9X Torana originally pedalled by Warren Cullen in 1977. The daughter of 2003 and 2004 V8 Supercar Champion Marcos Ambrose, she is currently contesting her debut season in the Australian Formula Ford Championship, where she drives under her dad’s championship winning Pirtek colours.
Trent Harrison will be back in his father Hugh Harrison’s ex-Colin Bond Alfa GTV6, which he drove in the event in 2024, bringing the car back into action after some time away. Elliot Barbour will pilot the Yellow Pages Mazda RX7 restored by Carey McMahon to make its Heritage Touring Cars debut at Phillip Island earlier this year.
Craig Foster will bring the ex-Toyota Team Australia AE86 Group A Toyota Corolla Coupe out for its first run of the year. This car is the last of the factory-built Toyota Racing Development TTA AE86s from Japan to come to Australia, and raced all the way up to Oran Park in 1989, when John Smith clinched the manufacturer’s title for the marque.
From the Group A field, David Towe has had an extremely consistent season and currently leads the championship with a comfortable margin ahead of Chris Stillwell and Adrian Allisey, with all three drivers set to compete on the weekend. Towe’s JPS M3 will be joined once again by the 325i of Scott Robinson and 635CSi of Dean How, the three JPS cars running together consistently throughout the year.
We may be celebrating the 40th birthday of Group A, but it’s the Group C drivers out in force. Steve Axisa has steered his VH Commodore to a comfortable lead in the competition through the first three rounds of the year and will be back in action over the weekend. He’ll be joined by Daniel Kelly, making his first appearance of 2025, Glenn Gerstel and Anthony Tekate all aboard VHs.
Juston Nilsson holds a Group C record on the circuit and will be out in his Nissan Pulsar EXA, with Gavin Adamson to bring out the Isuzu Gemini PF60. Derek Wickett had a good run at Morgan Park earlier in the year and we’re looking forward to seeing him back on track in the Escort. Cole Spender will run another Escort, with Carl Muller aboard the Capri 3.0S.
Tickets to the 2025 Winton Festival of Speed are available now. Head to this link to purchase online ahead of the meeting.
For those who can’t attend in person, the meeting will also be live streamed via V8 Sleuth’s website, Facebook page and YouTube channel across Saturday and Sunday. Keep an eye on the page here for more information.
