THE Ford Performance Racing Falcon FG that Mark Winterbottom took to victory on the Gold Coast in 2011 is making a return to racing on the same Surfers Paradise street circuit next weekend – but not among a field of Supercars.
The car that Winterbottom and last-minute co-driver Richard Lyons drove to victory will take to the track in the last round of the Precision National Sports Sedan Series on the Gold Coast in the hands of current owner Ray Hislop.
Hislop regularly races the FG Falcon in its 2012 Bathurst Moffat Ford Dealers retro livery in the Kumho V8 Touring Car Series however will join the Sports Sedan field for the Gold Coast event.
The full history of the car – FPR chassis 1111 – and indeed all other FPR/Prodrive/Tickford Supercars will be included in V8 Sleuth’s new Tickford Racing car history 20th anniversary book that is due to arrive in stock in November/December and is available to pre-order now here.
2011 winning co-driver Lyons was a last-minute call-up to the drive 12 years ago, signed by FPR to replace Will Power who had been injured in the horrible multi-car IndyCar accident at Las Vegas the weekend prior that claimed the life of Dan Wheldon.
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Wheldon had been due to also travel to Australia to drive a Holden Racing Team Commodore with James Courtney.
Hislop has been actively racing the car in the Kumho Series this year and sits fifth in the series points heading into the final round at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International in November.
Hislop is among a field of 28 cars that have entered the Gold Coast round of the Sports Sedans series, marking the first time since 1997 that Sports Sedans have competed at the Surfers Paradise event.
Western Australian Tony Ricciardello leads the series by 59 points over Audi driver Jordan Caruso with 135 points on offer over the three-race Gold Coast weekend.
Ricciardello won the Australian Sports Sedan Championship four times (1998, 1999, 2001, 2002) and has won the National Sports Sedan Series seven times (2005, 2007, 2011, 2014-2016, 2019) since it was first established.
