2013 Phillip Island Classic Motor Races

[Steve Holmes]

Terry Finnigan raced this Group C Commodore in 1982, and shared with John Gates at Bathurst. Actually I think he might have raced the same car throughout 1983 and 1984, but its now presented back in its 1982 colours.

[zombie289]

I bleed ford blue but I reckon those VH Gp C cars looked amazing, still hold up today.

[Haga]

[quote="Steve Holmes"]These are the last of the pics from Steve Dansie. More Group A, including Jim Richards in his old HR31 Skyline, plus the Walkinshaw Commodore Adrian Allisey, and the Bryan Sala RS500. Can someone tell me the history on the Sala Sierra? I know he was racing this car himself when Group A was current, but I thought it'd been previously raced before he bought it? Looking at the yellow rollcage, is it one of the Tony Longhurst B&H cars?

My thanks again to Steve for allowing me to post his beautiful photos here.



Steve: Some info here re Sala car: http://rs500owners.com/index.php?topic=576.0

[conrod]

These are the last of the pics from Steve Dansie. More Group A, including Jim Richards in his old HR31 Skyline, plus the Walkinshaw Commodore Adrian Allisey, and the Bryan Sala RS500. Can someone tell me the history on the Sala Sierra? I know he was racing this car himself when Group A was current, but I thought it'd been previously raced before he bought it? Looking at the yellow rollcage, is it one of the Tony Longhurst B&H cars?

My thanks again to Steve for allowing me to post his beautiful photos here.



Steve: Some info here re Sala car: http://rs500owners.com/index.php?topic=576.0

Yes the Sala car is ex Longhurst. I was talking to him about it a few weeks ago in Invercargill where he was racing the 5000.It is one of the LHD drive cars, ex Wolf from Germany. They have owned it since buying it off Longhurst back in 1990 or thereabouts. Got to the point where it was worth nothing, so they decided to keep it. Glad they did too

Conrad

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks you guys. Reading through the comments on the RS500 owners forum, Sala actually painted the interior, engine bay and underside B&H yellow, to show its former history as a Longhurst car. But when he raced it in period these areas were still in Wolf base colours, which is how Longhurst also raced it. Even still, it looked great in 1991 when Sala first raced it.

[Steve Holmes]

The Sala RS500.

And leading the Forbes GTR.

[Steve Holmes]

Another from the Group C/A races, this is the Torana L34 raced in 1974 and '75 by brothers Rod and Russ McRae. Great looking colour scheme for the time! Prior to the L34 they'd raced an XU-1.

[Steve Holmes]

There are few things in the world that confuse me more than Schnitzer run BMW M3s, and this car is no exception. They retained essentially the same paint scheme from the original 2.3 litre cars in 1987, right through to the later 2.5 Evo cars, and into their involvement in the 2.5 DTM era. Additionally, they ran at least two cars per event, sometimes more. However, with this car featuring Bob Jane decals on the bumper, I'd hazard a guess its one of the cars that contested the 1987 WTCC, and which appeared at the Australian WTCC rounds at Bathurst and Calder (and Wellington in New Zealand).

Now, furthermore, many of the cars were also cross-entered, so this appears to be the car entered at Bathurst in 1987 driven by Markus Oestreich/Roland Ratzenberger, but also with Emanuele Pirro/Roberto Ravaglia entered as drivers. I assume this was to allow the lead BMW drivers to jump in this car if their own car failed.

[Bondy]

Another from the Group C/A races, this is the Torana L34 raced in 1974 and '75 by brothers Rod and Russ McRae. Great looking colour scheme for the time! Prior to the L34 they'd raced an XU-1.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]17187[/ATTACH]

Thats the second L34 mate, the first one landed in the trees on Conrod Straight in 74

[conrod]

There are few things in the world that confuse me more than Schnitzer run BMW M3s, and this car is no exception. They retained essentially the same paint scheme from the original 2.3 litre cars in 1987, right through to the later 2.5 Evo cars, and into their involvement in the 2.5 DTM era. Additionally, they ran at least two cars per event, sometimes more. However, with this car featuring Bob Jane decals on the bumper, I'd hazard a guess its one of the cars that contested the 1987 WTCC, and which appeared at the Australian WTCC rounds at Bathurst and Calder (and Wellington in New Zealand).

Now, furthermore, many of the cars were also cross-entered, so this appears to be the car entered at Bathurst in 1987 driven by Markus Oestreich/Roland Ratzenberger, but also with Emanuele Pirro/Roberto Ravaglia entered as drivers. I assume this was to allow the lead BMW drivers to jump in this car if their own car failed.

For someone who claims to be confused, you have a pretty good handle on this car Steve! Yep, this car was one that contested the 1987 WTCC, and was actually crashed heavily at Bathurst.(the origin of the Bob Jane decals) Schnitzer stripped the car while in Aus, and donated the shell to the Bathurst Motor Museum. It was subsequently sold,and rebuilt with whatever parts were avalable,(including a late 2.5 DTM engine, which is now in my car ) then sold, and bought by its present owner Bill Cutler in 2007, who stripped the car back to a bare shell, and rebuilt it with the period correct parts. He has been racing it for a few years now in the GpA and GpC category.

Conrad

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Conrad, fantastic description! So where did Schnitzer get their replacement car for the reamaining Australasian races following the Bathurst shunt? I think from memory several of the European based M3s endured some pretty big hits at Bathurst that year, including in practice. At least two of them started the race from pitlane.

[Steve Holmes]

Perhaps someone could explain to me the significance of this car? I'm a bit confused by it. The name on the door says Colin Bond, but it has the race number 7, with its class designation next to the number. Class designations were only displayed in Series Production until the end of 1972, and were dropped for Group C in 1973. Also, in Series Production, car numbers were based on the class they competed in, working upwards from Class D. So a Series Production Class C car wouldn't normally have such a low number. It'd usually be in the 20s, at least. However, the non-factory Mawer wheels suggest Group C, as these wouldn't be allowed in Series Production. Help! This is too confusing for my tiny brain.

[Steve Holmes]

Peter Brock/Bob Morris XU-1 from 1970 Bathurst.

[Steve Holmes]

Peter Brocks 1973 XU-1 Torana

[Steve Holmes]

Another shot of the superb replica (?) of Allan Moffats 1979 XC Falcon hardtop. In this guise Moffats hardtop didn't enjoy success, but it looked fantastic! Surely one of the best paint schemes ever seen at Bathurst.

[conrod]

yes a fantastic colour scheme, I wonder where the inspiration for that came from?

[Steve Holmes]

Yep, most definitely, and his Monza got the same treatment, although metallic brown replaced the black.

[Steve Holmes]

More Group C & A. Not sure of the origin of this RX7. Can anyone help?

[Steve Holmes]

[Steve Holmes]