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Heritage Touring Cars will head to Morgan Park Raceway this weekend, May 10 – 11, to contest round 2 of our 2025 series at the Historic Racing Car Club Queensland’s Autumn Classic Speedfest. 21 historic Group C & A touring cars will take to the track alongside a full entry of historic touring, sports sedans, sports and racing cars.
Both New South Wales and Victorian drivers have put in a great effort for this Queensland meeting, nine making the road trip up the coast to run. Amongst these drivers is Nathan Gordon, who will run the Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 that was raced at Bathurst in the ‘70s by his father Gil Gordon. Adil Jemali will also be joining us for his first race meeting and will pilot a newly acquired Ford Escort 2000.
Dean How is a long-time Heritage Touring Cars competitor, but will be making his first appearance at Morgan Park over the weekend. He’ll be aboard the ex-Allan Grice/Jim Richards JPS Team BMW 635CSi that he brought out of a 30-year retirement back in 2017, which will also run on the Queensland circuit for the first time.
Image thanks to Darryl Leslight
Darryl Leslight will share his Isuzu Gemini ZZ with his son Henderson Leslight, who has been driving in the series since he was 16 and has put in some crowd favourite performances during that time. The Gemini has a nice story – it was running in the 1981 James Hardie 1000 when it was hit from the rear by Kevin Bartlett in the Channel 9 Camaro as part of a six-car accident that would stop the race early for the first time in its history (Queenslanders Dick Johnson and John French becoming the first drivers from the state to win the race). At Morgan Park in 2023, KB signed the boot where he had hit it.
Fans of the iconic JPS team and livery have a few cars to look forward to this weekend, including David Towe’s signature M3 and Scott Robinson’s JPS BMW 325i. Scott is entering his third year of Heritage Touring Cars competition and runs the 325i that he purchased from the estate of David Harris, a dear friend of his and popular HTC competitor.
Don Dimitriadis’ VL Commodore will be another highlight. The Lansvale Smash Repairs Commodore was recently restored and has only appeared in a handful of events since. Other Commodores you can look forward to include Wayne Clift’s Deluxe Coachlines VK Commodore – which he built back in 1986 from an HDT-supplied Holden Motorsport shell – Stephen Axisa’s ex-Scott Taylor VH Commodore and Adrian Allisey’s Walkinshaw VL. Anthony Tenkate will bring out an ex-Warren Cullen VH Commodore.
Queenslander David Paterson will be on board an AE86 Corolla Sprinter built by Bob Holden late in 1986 and run by several drivers through the late ‘80s and early ‘90s before a stint in rally racing in the late ‘90s. It was restored by Paterson over more than three years and is one of just a few cars with six Bathurst 1000 starts under its belt. Ian Helson will pilot Paterson’s second Sprinter, which is a rare sight on Group C & A grids. This car was built by Malcolm Rea in 1991 and appeared through the early ‘90s in the AMSCAR series, as well as at Lakeside and Bathurst.
Come along to the HRCC’s Autumn Classic Speedfest, May 10 and 11, 2025, at Morgan Park Raceway in Warwick to see 21 Legends of Bathurst driven on track as they were back in the golden age of motor sport, alongside much more. For all the details see the HRCC’s official website at hrcc.org.au.
