Grp C/Grp A/V8SC 'Where are they now?' continued...

[Falcadore]

Nelson ran his Mustang right till the end of Group A almost. Seton was the first Mustang in the country IIRC but he got rid of it quickly, realising it was not going to be quick enough, so I guess that was the Pinepac car.

[cornermsport]

Originally Posted by Henry

Right spec bonnet for a start. The one that's on it isn't correct for either it's 1984/early 1985 or late 1985/1986 specification. Be nice if it was resprayed authentically inside and out too, but that's just being pedantic really. Quite a nice little car, and one which promised a lot in its day and only needed a little bit of luck to be remembered as being much more successful.


Either the Nelson car or the Seton one was the spare Pinepac car in 1986 IIRC.

The history and final resting places of the DJR cars was never fully explained to my complete understanding, except I believe that the one at DJR was one of the original DJR cars, purchased from WA. I thought the one that got its nose just about torn off was sold over there, but hadn't heard anything concrete on either of them.

I'm not sure who's car it was originally but i do remember the sports sedan Mustang of Kevin Clark from the Blue Mountains being a Group A car in the late 80's. I remember seeing it at Amaroo, as a group A car, in nearly the same colour scheme of mainly white, as the car is today, except now it has all the flairs and big wheels of sports sedans.

I always wondered if this was a DJR car???? Does anyone know if it is, or who else's Group A car it could have been???

[William Dale Jr]

The Callaghan VK had its last run in red at the final AMSCAR meeting of 1988, making way for the new VL for Bathurst. Callaghan Jnr ran the car - still in VK trim but resprayed in yellow - in the 1989 AMSCAR series from Round 2 onwards and in the first three rounds of the 1990 series before the car was updated to HDT-VL panelwork.

On Kevin Clark Mustang, I have a feeling this might have been the ex-Kramer car, but I'm not sure. On the Johnson Mustangs, one went to Ian Love in WA, the other to Robbie Ker in NZ. The Ker car was very, very badly damaged in practice for the January Wellington 500 in 1987, but the car reappeared in time for the October Wellington race. It's the ex-Love car that's in the museum, isn't it?

On the Everlast VS, the car was built from a brand new shell, but the running gear came straight out of the VL. IIRC, they did the bulk of their running in practice for the '96 1000 with the same engine that completed the '95 race. The VL that was used in '94-'95 wasn't the original Everlast VL, that car was sold off to Chris Smerdon in 1993. IIRC, the VL they used in those years was the ex-Schembri car which was an ex-Grice Roadways-built car. This brings me to something else; this car was always described as the car Grice used for Bathurst in 1989. Was this the car he used the previous year, or was it a new one?

BTW, does anyone remember the Peter Jackson 'Search for a Champion' competition? Where did that VL come from? Was that an ex-Roadways unit?

[pete60]

Hi, first time post so be kind. Here goes......

Wiliam, I recall that the there were 2 Roadways cars built in 1988...one for Grice and one for Garry Rogers. I think Grice drove his car the next year with Janson but the Rogers car sort of disappeared afetr 1989 I think the Grice car went the Daily Planet team, where it was badly burnt out at Bathurst one year. That shell eventually went to O'Brien to become the "new" blue VL.

I think Neil Schembri's VL was a Terry Finnigan built unit.

The PJ Search for a Champion car was (I think) an ex Wayne Park VL specced up to Walkinshaw standard.

[racer69]

If you can be bothered, have a look in the '02 Astc thread. In there it has quite abit of detail about how many Group A Mustang's were in Australia, what happened to them and so on. Well worth the look.

On the one sold to NZ which was crashed at the January Wellington 500 of 1987, wasn't Johnson meant to drive this in the race? It was still green when it crashed. Who was meant to partner him in the race?

The last time the Everlast VL appeared was at Symmons Plains in 1995 was it not. By the time Bathurst came around they were into a VR, as VL's had been outlawed

[groupnxu1]

Originally Posted by Falcadore

Mork's VS was a HRT VN. One HRT VR went to GRM to be Bargwannas #35 VS. One went to Paul Morris as well. Faulkner's early cars were ex-HRT. The '96 Bathurst winner was destroyed at PI in '97 IIRC. HRT still own the '01/'02 Bathurst winner. More detail I'll have to look up.

Morks VS is infact Dencar 001 it was actully the Bob Forbes GIO VN also it ran entered under Bob Pearson at Bathurst 1991 the car had a whole new cage design and was updated to VP ( GIO Neil Crompton) one of the VN's that was later updated to VP was last raced in the Konica series in VS form by Clyde Lawance and is now in the hands of its new owner in Melbourne awaiting restoration back to VP, Brocks 95 VR became the young lions car that Bargs put in to the wall in warm up at Bathurst, car was stripped and later sold off car now in Queensland undergoing restoration by the same person that now owns the lowndes 96 championship car

[Amaroo Park]

Originally Posted by William Dale Jr

On Kevin Clark Mustang, I have a feeling this might have been the ex-Kramer car, but I'm not sure.

The Kevin Clark Mustang was built up by Kevin and a couple of posters from Ten-Tenths. The car was convertered to a sports sedan but has since been superseded and is still owned by Kevin. The current Sports Sedan is a space frame built again by Kevin and another poster here. Oh I know this cause I have worked on Kevins Mustangs

[cornermsport]

Originally Posted by William Dale Jr

The Callaghan VK had its last run in red at the final AMSCAR meeting of 1988, making way for the new VL for Bathurst. Callaghan Jnr ran the car - still in VK trim but resprayed in yellow - in the 1989 AMSCAR series from Round 2 onwards and in the first three rounds of the 1990 series before the car was updated to HDT-VL panelwork.

Wow, that's all pretty close, but IIRC the VK had its final fling as the main entry in red was the Pepsi 250, or 300 of '88. I remember being there with it, watching Gary Wilmington trying to be the pioneer again being the first person to run a Walkinshaw. I think Gary tried to run it with a road car computer which didn't work. Anyway, Brian & Barry didn't finish as i think it overheated.

Most of the running gear (Getrag, rear end, suspension, brakes) went into the new Walkinshaw shell for Bathurst 1988. The motors for the Walkinshaw were Perkins between 1988 - 90.

Eventually, the red VK was put back together with all the left over bits left from its 1985 spec days (Holden rear end, Super T10 etc) for Brian Jnr and Steven Graham to run as a move up from karts. Steven ran 1 or 2 races in sports sedan, wasn't that interested and moved to speedcars, that left it to Brian Jnr. Brian ran it at Amscar & ATCC round over the next couple of years as you suggest, with more left over parts from the Walkinshaw once it developed further (Getrag,etc). It was stripped back to a bare shell mid 1990, updated to VL Brock (VK's weren't allowed) and rebuilt, with a new Perkins Carby motor installed. That was the first time that actual car finished a Bathurst race, with engine drama always being a problem in previous years.

[Camaroz]

Laurie Nelson's Mustang was recently sold to a Group C Competitor(s) in Melbourne and is awaiting (or started) restoration.

My mail is both Pine-Pac Mustangs are still owned by the Andersons and in NZ.

[Noonz1]

Guys, Mork's VS is Dencar 001 and was the GIO car that went to Neil Crompton.
The 96 Bathurst winner sits forlorn in a shed at HRT after Craig crashed it in 1999 at INdy.

[V8 Supercars]

yeah I picked that car up on the track in 1999 at Indy. Was a sad looking Commodore to say the least

[anthony81901]

The 1st Everlast VL debuted at the Calder 300 in August 87. It was entered as # 11 and Perkins drove all but the last lap. It next appeared at the Oran Park 250 with Brian Sampson joining O'Brien and the pair ran the car at Bathurst from 87 to 91, but I don't recall it appearing at any of the ATCC rounds. It was converted to TWR specs for Bathurst 88.

By 92 it had been sold to Chris Smerdon who raced it in some ATCC rounds in 92 and 93 with Protech Computers sponsorship. The mechanicals were transferred into a new Perkins Engineering at the begining of 94 and the chassis sold to Scotty Taylor who raced it at Bathurst in 94 and at the Symmons Plains ATCC round in 95 still in its Everlast blue. The mechanicals were transferred to ex Gibson Motorsport VP chassis 002 which Taylor debuted at Bathurst 95.

The Callaghan TWR VL debuted at Bathurst in 88 and was raced as the Mobile Concrete Pumping car until at least the end of 90. At Bathurst in 92 and 93 it raced still in its yellow livery, but with Everlast sponsorship.

The mechanicals were then transferred to one of the Raodways VLs in 94 and it became the last VL to race at Bathurst in 95.

The VS debuted at Bathurst in 96 and only raced a couple of times in 97. By 99 it had been sold to Daniel Miller.

Garry Rogers had Les Small and Roadways Racing build 2 TWR VLs for debut at Bathurst in 88. He raced one in plain white with John Andretti as # 33 and the other was entered as # 2 for Allan Grice and Win Percy with FAI sponsorship. Grice raced the FAI car at Winton, Bathurst and the Adelaide GP in 89. Rogers elected to race at Bathurst with Ken Matthews in the 2nd Caltex Sierra that year, but appeared at Bathurst in one of the VLs in Valvoline colours in 90.

One of the cars had passed to John Trimble by 92 and was the # 22 car that caught fire in Thursday practice at Bathurst.

The Neil Schembri VL that appeared in some ATCC rounds in 93 was one of the 2 Roadways VLs. Weather it was this chassis or the other that went onto become the Everlast car in 94 is unknown. Terry Finnigan built Scembri's VP in 94, not the VL.

HRT built 3 VNs in 91, one at the begiining of the year for Win Percy, a 2nd for the Sandown 500 for Brad Jones / Neil Crompton and a 3rd for Percy / Grice for Bathurst. At least 2 of these were raced in HRT's limited 92 ATCC campaign.

All 3 were later converted to VPs, 2 debuting at the Sandown 500 in 92. Wayne Gardner's 93 car was sold at the end of that year to Graham Blythman of WA. It later passed to Graham Kendrick and was raced in the 01 Konica series by Leanne Ferrier. The other 2 were raced by Brock and Tomas Mezera in the 94 ATCC.

The Mezera car was used as the spare at Bathurst in 94 and raced at the Adelaide GP as # 016 by Craig Lowndes. After being used by HRT to test the VR aerokit it was sold to Graham Hart who debuted it at Bathurst in 96. It was raced in the Konica series by Terry Wyhoon in 02.

The Brock car was raced by Jones / Lowndes in the 94 enduros and as a VR in the 1st few rounds of 95. It was sold to Peter McLeod who raced it as the Enzed car in 95 and 96. It was later sold to Simon Emerzides.

Chasis 030 was debuted by Brock / Mezera at Sandown 94 and raced by Brock in the 95 ATCC. After being used at the Sandown ATCC round in 96 it was sold to John Faulkner Racing who raced it until the end of 98. JFR entered the car for Cameron McConville at a few ATCC rounds in 99, and Steven Richards at Indy the same year. It was raced by a few drivers in the Konica series over the next few years including Ryan McLeod.

Mezera debuted a VR at about Round 4 in 95. This was used in the 1st few rounds of the 96 ATCC by Lowndes and then for the 2nd part of the 97 series by Greg Murphy. In 98 it was sold to Garry Rogers Motorsport and raced by Bargwanna in 98 and Tander in 99. It was sold to Paul Morris Motorsport in 00 and raced for the last few rounds following the destruction the team's newer VR. It was raced by Owen Kelly at Bathurst as # 67 and entered by the team in the Konica race at Bathurst in 01 for Ashley Stitchbury.

Brock debuted a VR at the final ATCC round at Oran Park in 95. He raced this in the 96 ATCC. It was used as the Holden Young Lions car in 97, being destroyed at Bathurst.

Lowndes debuted a VR midway through the 96 series. This was written off in a high speed accident at Phillip Island by Greg Murphy in 97. It was later rebuilt and following the Lowndes Calder rollover raced by McConville and later Lowndes in a few ATCC rounds. It was raced at Indy by Lowndes and was written off.

Brock debuted a new VR at the Sandown 500 in 96. He raced this car until the end of 97 when Mark Skaife took it over for the ATCC. It was raced at the 98 Sandown 500 by Murphy and Mark Noske.

Murphy debuted a VS at Sandown in 97. Lowndes raced this car in the 98 ATCC.

One of the above 2 was used at Indy in 99 by Skaife and sold to Paul Morris in 00. It was destoyed at Oran Park.

[Falcadore]

wait wait wait, I need a pen... this is good stuff...

[Just Do It!]

That is nothing short of pure amazing, Anthony. No one is perfect, but please call the late Ashley Stichbury by his correct name. He is a legend, taken too prematurely, a man destined for greater things, and to some he was a great mate.

Your knowledge it must be said is absolutely amazing. Ashley will be smiling on you - sadly he was burnt by promises unfulfilled and a man less than honourable. No, I don't mean Paul Morris!

[William Dale Jr]

colinbond, like I said, I wasn't sure about the lineage of the Clark Mustang, so thanks for clearing that up.

cornermsport, yeah, I'd forgotten about the Pepsi 250. I can still remember Callaghan's efforts in the VK and the VL in the AMSCAR races. The word 'spectacular' doesn't suffice. They did a report on the privateers at one of the 1989 AMSCAR meetings, and they showed some of the footage from the wet practice sessions. The sight of the yellow VL on opposite lock coming through the last corner - in pouring rain but on full noise - is something I won't forget.

pete60 and anthony81901, thanks for the Roadways info (welcome to 10Tenths pete60!). I was pretty sure the Grice car was the same one both years, but it just seemed odd for it to be reported as only being the 1989 car. On the Schembri VL, I'm pretty sure it was the ex-Grice car, running in the same white and blue livery, sans FAI logos. I would assume then that the Daily Planet car was the ex-Rogers car. Interesting that the PJ car might have been the ex-Wayne Park Alcair car. I'd always thought that car had gone to John Leeson and the PJ car was from Roadways.

On the Everlast cars, the Perkins-built car did 5 out of 9 rounds of the ATCC in 1988 but didn't do any more after that (although my 1990 result lists have major holes). After the 1990 Bathurst crash, the Callaghan VL didn't make another race appearance until the 1992 Triple Challenge wearing the original Mobile Concrete Pumping sponsorship and ran in that livery for the last time at the Amaroo ATCC meeting before it wore the Everlast logos.

Just as a point of interest, the HRT VR built raced by Lowndes after his 1996 Phillip Island accident is claimed as the only car built with a Petty Bar. Actually, the car Brock debuted at Sandown that year was built with one, but had to be removed before the car was allowed to race. Anyone with a tape of Bathurst '96 that has Mark Oastler's report on the build-up of the Brock car can see the Petty Bar in the car during the build, but disappears from the final race car.

racer69, Johnson was actually at the wheel of the car when it had the accident. It was a multi-car accident set off by Tony Longhurst, and it eliminated the Mustang Johnson was supposed to share with Robbie Ker (Ker had either already bought or was buying the car) and the Ed Lamont/John Morton BMW 325i.


So, if the Mork car was Dencar chassis 001, and 030 was the HRT's first 'true' VP, does anyone have any info on the numbers in between?

[Just Do It!]

Where is Ed Lamont these days? he was in Auckland at one stage, and involved with AC Delco in NZ - whatever happened to them??

[rdmdog]

Originally Posted by Noonz1

Guys, Mork's VS is Dencar 001 and was the GIO car that went to Neil Crompton.
The 96 Bathurst winner sits forlorn in a shed at HRT after Craig crashed it in 1999 at INdy.

Morky also purchased a VR/S shell from LRT, but I dont think he did much with it, maybe pulled the loom out and resold it to someone else in Sydney, somewhere in The Shire maybe.

Morky's first car was a bit of a grandpa's Axe, Pro-Duct, GIO, and I believe it was used by Gibson's to do some testing during the changeover from Nissan to Holden. John Henderson owned it and had a large ammount of work done then sold it to Morky before he had the chance to run it. Cant remember who had it in between.

[Falcadore]

Noonz, the godfather of these sorts of stats has stated from time to time that there are gaps in HRTs chassis numbers.

[gab73]

anyone kno anything about a walkinshaw in valvoline colours with the no 16 raced overseas by roland ratzinburg

[pete60]

So, if the Mork car was Dencar chassis 001, and 030 was the HRT's first 'true' VP, does anyone have any info on the numbers in between?[/QUOTE]

I know that HRT at one stage used to follow the Dencar chassis numbers they used when assigning their chassis numbers....for example, there is no HRT#39 as presumably that chassis number went to someone else. HRT (in its TWR owned period) would only have built 2 (maybe 3)VLs and maybe 4 or 5 VN/VPs so there are quite a few gaps indeed.

I think that the Lowndes petty bar car was #33. The first VT was #37..this ended up as the first Morris VT ( now in NZ?).

On a different tangent, Bob Jones of Cartrek fame owned a few VLs....at one stage he owned the ex Brock Bathurst winning VL. In 1992, he entered 2 cars at Bathurst. One was the black Ampol car and the other the green Tic Tac car ( which I think later was sold to Mike Conway). Anyone know the history of those cars? One was the ex Lambden Beaurepairs car (this could have been the ex Noske TWR VL built in 1988) but I don"t know about the other.

[William Dale Jr]

The ex-Lambden Beaurepaires car was the ex-HDT #10 car that won Bathurst in 1987. Updated to TWR spec by Roadways, Lambden raced the car in late 1988 before Jones purchased the car. Lambden continued to drive it in 1989 - although the car was now prepared by Car-Trek - before he took the Beaurepaires sponsorship to a Skyline for 1990. Jones raced the car in NZ over the '89/'90 summer before he purchased the Noske VL. After he bought the Noske car, I don't think the ex-HDT car was raced again. It was the Noske car that was used by Jones in the 1990 ATCC, and I have a feeling he later purchased another VL that became the Tic Tac car. Does the '92 Great Race book say anything about the lineage of the 2 Car-Trek entries in the race?

[anthony81901]

Dencar 001 was the first VN completed and I think was displayed at the Sydney Motor Show at the end of 1990. It didn't debut until a few rounds into the 91 ATCC with Mark Gibbs running a VL for at least the first 2 rounds. Gibbs only raced it as no 21 for a few rounds before the Gibson Motorsport Nissan GTR superseded it. For Bathurst it was leased to Bob Pearson running in with both GIO and Pro Duct sponsorship as no 32.

With the Nissan having been nobbled by CAMS, Bob Forbes elected to enter the VN instead of the GTR for one of the 92 ATCC rounds. Rohan Onslow also raced it at an Amscar round at Amaroo that year. For Bathurst it was leased to Graham Moore who raced it with Wayne Gardner with Starthfield Car Radios sponsorship as no 21.

It was converted to a VP by Gibson Motorsport at the end of 92 and used as a development car by Mark Skaife. Neil Crompton raced it in the 93 ATCC as no 7 until it was superseded by a new VP for the last round at Oran Park when Mark Gibbs raced it as no 4. It was sold to Stuart McColl who as part of the deal raced it in GIO colours at Bathurst. McColl raced it in 94 with Kalari Transport sponsorship as no 14.

In 95 it was sold to Peter McLeod who transferred the mechanicals into his ex HRT VR. The chassis was then sold to Peter Henderson who replaced the mechanicals but sold it without use in 98 to Richard Mork. Mork upgraded it to a VS for Bathurst 2000 and it last raced at the Bathurst Konica race in 2003 at the grand old age of 13, the last race in which it was eligible.

TWR built at least one VL in the UK in 88. It was debuted at the Silverstone TT and was presumably the same car that was air freighted to Bathurst for use as the Tom Walkinshaw / Jeff Allam car. After exiting the race early in the race with a collapsed rear end it sat at HSV until rebuilt for use as no 16 at the Sandown 500 and at Bathurst in 1990. After its Bathurst victory it ended up at the TWR museum in the UK, but I believe has since returned to Melbourne.

The origins of the car that Win Percy ran in the ATCC and Neil Crompton raced at Bathurst is unknown, but I think this car too may have been built in the UK, although it has been suggested it was one of the Perkins Engineering built cars from 89.

There were definately only 3 HRT VNs with the next car being 030 which debuted at the 94 Sandown 500 after a 3 year gap. One of the VNs was chassis no 026.

I was under the impression that HRT chassis numbers from 030 up are HRT's own chassis numbers and are seperate from the 0xx Dencar series but I could be wrong. I recall that the Bob Forbes Racing VP which debuted at the end of 93 was Dencar 010 and the next car the team built, by this time under the ownership of Wayne Gardner was Dencar 020 at the beginning of 94.

Presumably the Tic Tac car at raced at Bathurst and in NZ at the end of 92 was HDT chassis 16, the 87 Bathurst winner, not that the 92 Great Race book mentions this answering WD Jr question.

Also further to my earlier post, the 2 last HRT VRs were entered in the 99 ATCC under the Holden Young Lions banner for Mark Noske and Todd Kelly (order unknown), although I think Kelly's car was destoyed in the opening round at Eastern Creek, hence why HRT resorted to the 96 car after Lowndes Calder rollover.

[anthony81901]

I think the TWR VL that was raced in Europe as no 16 was Allan Grice's Roadways Racing VL from the 87 series that was sold to TWR and shipped to the UK for use in the development of the TWR VL in 88.

[pete60]

Originally Posted by William Dale Jr

. Does the '92 Great Race book say anything about the lineage of the 2 Car-Trek entries in the race?

Unfortunately not, other than to say the Tic Tac car was an "older" Cartrek car.

The 1989 Great Race book says that Lambden had a "new" Beaurepaires VL for the Sandown 500 and Bathurst...indeed, there is shot of it in the garage at Bathurst with a blue cage and interior, as opposed to the white of the ex Brock VL.
The '90 GR book refers to Jones as the owner of 3 Commodores..this would presumably be the original and by then unraced Brock VL, the ex Noske VL and the "new" car. This last car was the one Jones and Heather Spurle ran at Bathurst in 1990 and Jones and Imrie ran at Bathurst '91 and I think went on to become the black Ampol car.
The '91 GR book talks about the car being ex Lambden and using many of bits off the Brock VL ( which was being restored at that time)...maybe the car was built by Lambden?

[rdmdog]

How big was Group A in NZ?

There always seemed to be plenty of drivers and cars coming over for Bathurst, are there a heap of cars in garages over there (Note the Pinepac Anderson Bros cars have had a menion already)

Did they have big grids regularly in the 80's or only when the O/S drivers and cars arrived for the Nissan/Mobil races?