Mark Larkham aboard his Miter 10 Falcon EL at Sandown in 1998. Owners of this model of Ford will have two Historic events to compete at in 2023 as part of a trial for cars of this era being officially recognized as Historic cars by MA. Photo: an1images.com / Graeme Neander.
EARLY era five-liter V8 touring cars/V8 Supercars and two-liter Super Tourers will be invited to compete as invited cars alongside Heritage Touring Cars’ Group A and C historic cars in 2023.
The early five-litre touring car/V8 Supercars – limited to early model Commodores and Falcons – and two-litre Super Tourers have been confirmed as part of a trial program by HTC and Motorsport Australia’s Historic Motorsport Committee.
They will be invited to race alongside Group A and C cars at two non-championship HTC rounds next year – the HSRCA Sydney Classic at Sydney Motorsport Park on June 10-11 and The Bend Classic SA at The Bend Motorsport Park on October 27-29 (the same weekend as the Gold Coast 500)
The goal is to bring these new categories into Motorsport Australia’s 5th Category (Historic Racing) at the end of this trial program.
The Heritage Touring Cars championship point-scoring rounds exclusively for Group A and C touring cars will see the cars visit Phillip Island in March for the VHRR’s Phillip Island Classic, Morgan Park in mid-May and the ARDC’s Sydney Motorsport Park event in early September.
“This is the next natural era in Australian touring car motor sport history,” says Heritage Touring Cars President Terry Lawlor of the news.
“These exciting new categories will join Heritage Touring Cars in being ‘The Legends of Bathurst’.
“Early five-litre V8s started a new historic era which continues today with the ‘red versus blue battles’, and two-litre Super Tourers brought a bit of European spice to the Australian motorsport stage before the dominance of V8s and Supercars as we know today.”
Super Touring scenes at Winton in 1995. BMW duo Paul Morris and Geoff Brabham head the pack. Photo: an1images.com / Dirk Klynsmith.
Colin Haste, Chair of the MAHMC, is supportive of the move.
“We will give HTC all the help we can in relation to the promotion of the trial, liaison with promoters and documentation required,” he says.
“We fully support the initiative taken by the HTC to expand the categories involved.”
