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Photos kindly provided by Will Tandy of Chicane Flicks
The 2025 Heritage Touring Cars season kicked off at the Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport over March 6 – 9, bringing close to 50 historic Australian touring cars to the iconic Victorian circuit across race and sprint categories.
Jonathon Webb in the 1992 Caltex Sierra
The season would start with a Sierra lockout of the front row, 2016 Bathurst 1000 winner Jonathon Webb unassailable in the 1992 Caltex Sierra, qualifying first and going on to take a clean sweep of the weekend. Webb was united with his Bathurst-winning car over the weekend, with the ex-Triple Eight TEKNO Commodore VF he drove alongside Will Davison in the 2016 race competing in 5L Touring Cars in the hands of Brad Host.
Heritage Touring Cars President Chris Stillwell would be alongside Webb for the first race, driving the first of the Sierras built by Caltex CXT Racing Team. Trans Am driver Ben Grice put ‘Elvis’, the STP Roadways Commodore VH, into third to start alongside Carey McMahon in the Yellow Pages RX7.
Don Dimitriadis with William Van Wersch on the inside
Race one saw Webb comfortable at the front, Stillwell and Grice maintaining the order from qualifying, with Grice the quickest of the Group C cars. Paul Stubber and Ed Singleton had a great race, steering the ex-Allan Moffat RX7 and ex-Allan Grice VH just clear of a quick trio of Group A cars. Don Dimitriadis made the most of some clear air between himself and the JPS M3 of David Towe, who was able to hold off the Lucky 13 VK Commodore of Michael Logiudice and Jeffrey Trembath’s VH.
Webb was able to find more speed in race two on Saturday morning, running a 1:39.2 for the quickest lap of the weekend, Stillwell maintaining second. David Towe and Ed Singleton earned promotions from race one, including a class win for Singleton, with Grice suffering an unfortunate DNF and Stubber falling back into the crowded midfield which now featured a scrap between seven drivers.
Meanwhile, Thomas Vondrasek’s XC Falcon, Dean How in the ex-Allan Grice/Jim Richards JPS Team BMW 635CSi and Douglas Westwood on his debut weekend with the series organised an exciting run to the finish separated by just two tenths.
The two Sierras maintained their dominance on Saturday afternoon, with Adrian Allisey moving onto the podium for his strongest finish of the meeting, having steadily improved throughout the weekend. His Walkinshaw VL is understood to be the first raced in the world having originally debuted in the Oran Park Pepsi 250. David Towe continued to move up the field, with Grice and ‘Elvis’ recovering from the early departure in race two to finish fifth.
Queensland’s Scott Robinson in a JPS BMW 325i
With race three in the books drivers had a long break before the final outing of the weekend on Sunday. Webb and Stillwell picked up where they left off on Saturday afternoon, completing a 1-2 sweep of the weekend for the RS500s. David Towe was able to sneak the M3 past Allisey’s VL to finish his weekend with a podium in third.
Glenn Gerstel finished his meeting with a personal best, finishing fifth overall with a Group C class win in the ex-Fred Geissler VH Commodore. Steve Axisa went second in Group C with Thomas Vondrasek third in the ex-Rusty French Morley XC Falcon.
Steve Axisa’s ex-Scott Taylor VH Commodore. This car ran five times in the Bathurst 1000 from 1980 – 1984, running as a six-cylinder in its debut
Our thanks to the VHRR and the many volunteers who made the 2025 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport a tremendous success. Reports from competitors have been uniformly glowing, with all having enjoyed a great weekend amongst likeminded fans of Australian touring car racing and the golden age of motorsport.
Heritage Touring Cars will return May 10 – 11 at Morgan Park Raceway for the HRCC’s Autumn Historic Warwick. Stay tuned to www.heritagetouringcars.com.au for more from the Legends of Bathurst.
Photos kindly provided by Will Tandy of Chicane Flicks
