THE V8 Supercar that won the 2013 Bathurst 1000 has enjoyed its first proper hitout in its new homeland.
A keen-eyed V8 Sleuth Facebook follower gave us a heads-up that FPR 1214, the Ford Falcon FG that claimed Ford Performance Racing’s maiden victory in the ‘Great Race’ at the hands of Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards, hit the Hockenheimring in Germany last weekend with German racer Stefan Rupp aboard.
The Falcon turned laps during a Porsche Club Days event at the former German GP venue in the Tourenwagen Revival category’s regularity-type sprints, posting a best time of 1m55.353s during a half-hour practice session.
The category welcomes all types of touring cars, ranging from DTM machines from between 1984 and 2010, the wild Group 5 DRM machines, V8 STAR cars, Super Touring and WTCC cars and Porsche Cup machines up to 2006, while the V8 Supercar slots into Tourenwagen Revival’s ‘Cult Classics’ division!
Rupp dovetailed his running in the Falcon aboard his usual steed: an Alfa 155 raced by Giancarlo Fisichella during the 1996 International Touring Car Championship.
The car, which was sold overseas late last year, was one of the first Car of the Future chassis built by FPR for the 2013 season. FPR 1214 served as Winterbottom’s car throughout a campaign that saw him enter the season finale at Sydney Olympic Park as one of four drivers in contention for the title.
David Reynolds took over the chassis for 2014 and the early part of 2015 before he received a new FG X Falcon, with FPR 1214 converted to the final generation Falcon body style ahead of its use to reveal Mark Winterbottom’s Bottle-O-liveried #1 car on the Monday after he clinched the 2015 title.
The car then passed to the team’s Super2 Series program, where it was campaigned by Jack Le Brocq, Josh Kean and Thomas Randle. Tickford placed the car up for sale at the end of 2018, restoring the car to its specification when it crossed the line at Bathurst in 2013 with the correct livery and many period-correct components.
The 2013 Bathurst-winning Ford is one of the many cars profiled in our magazine The Falcon Files documenting the history of all V8 Supercar Falcons built from 1992 to 2017 – get it here, it’s now just $15 plus postage, a bargain!
