Packed 40-car field at Albert Park to be shown as part of Australian Grand Prix TV coverage …
THE golden years of Australian touring car racing will be front and centre next weekend at Albert Park as the Penrite Oils Heritage Touring Cars support the Formula 1 ® Rolex Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.
And even better news is the fact the Historic Group A and C touring cars that make up the category will be seen on Network 10’s AGP telecast.
The Saturday and Sunday races will be telecast as part of Network 10’s coverage, giving race fans the chance to see a capacity field of 40 cars compete in the invitation non-championship HTC event.
It’s the first time since 2012 that the HTC cars have competed on the Grand Prix layout in Melbourne.
There are a total of 22 Group A cars and 18 Group C cars entered for Albert Park with a range of great histories.
This year is 30 years since the introduction of Group A international touring car rules to Australia and Albert Park will feature both the Bathurst and Australian Touring Car Championship-winning cars from that historic 1985 season.
Mike Roddy’s Bathurst-winning Jaguar XJ-S V12 claimed victory in the hands of John Goss and Armin Hahne and will be part of the field as well as Jim Richards’ 1985 Australian Touring Car Championship-winning BMW 635 driven by owner Adrian Brady.
Richards himself will line up in his 1990 ATCC-winning Skyline GTS-R while also Nissan-mounted will be HTC Group A points leader Terry Lawlor in the GIO GT-R and GTS-R pilot Mark Eddy.
Group A features four turbo Sierra RS500s in the hands of Robert Ingram (ex-Moffat/ANZ), Craig Markland (ex-Bond/Caltex), Bryan Sala (ex-B & H) and Duncan MacLennan (ex-Japanese Touring Car Championship) as well as three BMW M3s driven by David Towe (ex-JPS), Jervis Ward (ex-Mobil) and Bull Cutler (ex-Schnitzer).
Bill Pye will fly the flag for V8 Ford fans in Dick Johnson’s former Palmer Tube Mills Mustang alongside fellow Mustang pilot Bryan Taylor (ex-Pinepac car).
There’s a fleet of Group A V8 Commodores including David Holc (GIO), Steve Voight (Jagparts VK), Paul Axiak, Garry Kirwan (Jagparts VL), Adrian Allisey and David Gardner (ex-Alf Barbagallo VN).
Hugh Harrison’s ex-Colin Bond Ignis Alfa Romeo GTV6 makes a welcome return to HTC with Richard Prince also making an appearance in the sole, ex-Lawrie Hazelton, Volvo 240 Turbo in the field.
The Group C cars will include the return of Chris Bowden’s Tokico Mazda RX-7 alongside the similar cars of Chris Dubois and Gary Rowe.
Falcon V8 pilots Mike Moylan, Neville Butler, John Mina, Ian Ross and George Nittis will go up against the Commodores of Lindsay Woollard, Jeff Trembath (ex-Warren Cullen/Alan Jones 1981 Bathurst car), Ed Singleton, Daniel Cotterill and Milton Seferis and the Toranas of Steve Perrott, Tony Sawford, Shaun Tunny, Dean How and Anna Cameron’s ex-HDT car.
The Penrite Oils Heritage Touring Cars will compete in three races over the course of the Albert Park weekend.
Practice on Thursday is at 12.40pm followed by qualifying at 3.50pm.
Race 1 is on Friday at 11.00am over eight laps, Race 2 is on Saturday at 12.10pm over eight laps and Race 3 is on Sunday over eight laps.
Check your local guides for telecast information on Network 10.
V8 Sleuth’s Aaron Noonan will be joined by Darren Knight to commentate the action at the track on the GPTV big screen/public address coverage.
