A dedicated group of Heritage Touring Cars legends is set to head to Victoria for the 2019 series finale at the VHRR’s Historic Sandown October 25-27.
Historic Sandown will be held at Sandown Raceway in Victoria from Friday the 25th of October through to Sunday the 27th. Friday is set aside for practice and will see competitors getting the cars dialed in and sorted for the weekend. We head out on Saturday morning for qualifying, following up with race one after lunch and two races on Sunday.
Group A will see a head-to-head double-header play out, with Chris Stillwell and Tony Karanfilovski doing battle in the Sierras and Michael Roddy and Tony Pallas pitting Jaguar XJS against Jaguar XJS.
Chris Stillwell’s RS500 debuted with Heritage Touring Cars last round at Muscle Car Masters, where Chris quickly got up to pace with fellow Sierra drivers Terry Lawlor and Tony Karanfilovski, finishing his weekend with a win in the final race. Recently restored, the 1988 Caltex Sierra was built by Colin Bond’s Caltex CXT Racing Team, competing in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1988 to 1992.
Tony Karanfilovski has one more season of Heritage Touring Cars experience under his belt than Chris, having debuted in the ex-Glenn Seton Peter Jackson Ford Sierra RS500 at Muscle Car Masters in 2018. Both drivers have been steadily improving, and should put on a great show at Historic Sandown.
Tony Pallas is a series veteran, and his ex-Garry Willmington Group A Jaguar XJ-S is a staple of Heritage Touring Cars fields. This weekend he’ll be up against another long-time competitor in Mike Roddy. Mike’s Tom Walkinshaw Racing V12 Jaguar XJ-S is a Bathurst winner, having claimed victory in the 1985 James Hardie 1000. John Goss and Armin Hahne shared the drive, crossing the line ahead of BMW 635 CSi pilots Johnny Cecotto and Roberto Ravaglia as well as team boss Tom Walkinshaw and Win Percy, who finished third in a second XJ-S.
Ford fans have plenty to look forward to at Historic Sandown, with the marque well represented across both Group A and Group C. George Nittis and Ian Ross will lead the horsepower charge in Group C, piloting the Murray Carter XE Falcon and ‘79 XD Falcon.
Ross’ car is an ex-taxi that was reborn into motorsport after it was saved from the wrecking yard by Mike Imrie and Graeme Treasure. The pair built it up into a race car in 1983, entering it in the ATCC and contesting rounds at Sandown and the Adelaide International Raceway. Its Sandown history continued in 1984 when it competed in that year’s season opener at the circuit, which was the final run on the original layout before the circuit was modified for the arrival of the World Endurance Championship.
Carl Muller is a weapon in his 1983 Ford Capri 3.0S, and is sure to be quick over the weekend, as is Neville Butler in the Mk2 Escort.
Lindsay Woollard and Aaron Cameron are set to represent Holden at the event. Lindsay’s been quick all year and is sure to be a challenger this weekend. His Re-Car Commodore VC has extensive ATCC history, even accruing a little extra fame when it was painted in #05 Commodore livery to appear in a Vita-Brit commercial that featured Peter Brock at the wheel driving against Dick Johnson’s Palmer Tube Mills Falcon. Aaron Cameron will pilot a ‘77 A9X Torana.
Finally, after a few runs in the freshly-restored ex-Fred Geissler VH Commodore Phil Verwoert will close the season out in his signature Berklee RX7 Mazda RX7.
Head to Sandown over October 25-27 to catch the Legends of Bathurst in action one last time in 2019. For more information on the event, head to vhrr.com and stay tuned to heritagetouringcars.com.au for more from the Legends of Bathurst.
Image thanks to Brett Ensinger
