the Big Bangers are coming back to Qld.

[DAVID PATERSON]

The Annual HRCC Qld Historic Race meeting at Morgan Park on July 30 & 31 will see a diverse and exciting field of Group C & A Touring Cars racing for class & outright honours.

Group C & A are officially recognised by the sports governing body CAMS as Historic cars and only genuine cars may compete in the events. Replicas, lookalikes or tribute cars are not eligible. These cars are the real deal and as a genuine Historic class, the competitors are required to present the cars in their correct period specification and livery, as they were, “back in the day”, thereby providing older fans with a glorious nostalgia trip and giving younger race goers a chance to see Touring Car racing, “the way it used to be”.

Group C Touring Cars were the premier category in Australia from 1973 to 1984, competing in the Australian Touring Car Championship and the Bathurst 1000. At the end of 1984, Group A Touring Cars took over, racing in the ATCC and Bathurst until 1993. Group C was a uniquely Australian class, especially designed to give Australian race fans the chance to see their cars go head to head on circuits across the country.
Group A was created by the world governing body to enable manufactures across the globe to compete against each other on a level playing field. This enabled Australian competitors to take their own cars to Europe & Asia to test themselves against the world’s best.

This year’s event at Morgan Park is especially significant as it is 50 years since the Australian Touring Car championship was first run in Qld. It was won by Qld driver Bill Pitt, in a Jaguar. Fittingly, a Jaguar will be competing in this year’s race, the ex-Garry Wilmington V12 XJ-S.

It will be racing in Group A against three V8 Commodores, one of which, the Deluxe Coachlines car is still owned by its original constructor, Brisbane’s Wayne Clift. In what will be a battle of brute force versus technology, the other cars in Group A are the Xerox Shop Starion turbo, the ex-Mark Skaife Gibson Motorsport R31 Skyline GTS-R and the ex-Jim Richards/Tony Longhurst JPS BMW M3. The only little car competing in Group A is an ex-Bob Holden Corolla Sprinter, which took part in six Bathurst 1000 races.

Group C honours will be hotly contested by the ex-Bob Forbes/Kevin Bartlett & ex-Garth Wigston/Bruce Hindaugh A9X Toranas and the ex-Allan Grice/Colin Bond STP Commodore, which was nicknamed Elvis by Gricey’s team because it had so many hits. Chris Bowden will be keeping everyone wide awake in his buzzing ex-Tony Mulvihill Mazda RX-7. Two litre honours will be fought between the striking De Bortoli RS2000 Escort and Doug Clark in the Celica he raced at Bathurst in the early ’80s and has owned since.

The races at Morgan Park form round 3 of the series for these cars, having already raced at Phillip Island and Eastern creek, before travelling to Sandown later this year.

[Peter Mallett]

Hi David,

Pics and a report from this event would be good.

[delta]

Very interested in pic's also.The RS2000 sounds interesting.Good luck

[Derwent Motorsp]

I like a Big Banger for breakfast, preferably a ring of genuine Cumberland.