Falcon GTHO

Historic Touring Cars have always been a replica category, allowing ‘new old cars’ to be prepared for Motorsports Australia’s Historic 5th Category. Fifteen years after pre-65 Group Nb appeared in 1980 the pre-72 Group Nc category hit the tracks. New builds now appear regularly but some very special ‘originals’ have been around for almost 30 years. This is one of them.

The JUST CARS Historic Touring Cars opened their 2023 account  at Sandown on 18-19 February. After a heatwave Friday practice session, great weather favoured a weekend of excellent Historic Touring Car action. The famed power circuit was in its element with an entry dominated by V8s.

The JUST CARS Historic Touring Cars 2022 HTCAV Club Championships have been run and done, with some surprise results in the Top 10. Just like a modern race enduro, the Championships are notoriously difficult to win and often come down to the wire. But before we unpack the year’s topline results, what’s HTCAV Club Championship all about?

What’s in a name? There’s always something magic about the last meeting of the year and a huge field of over 40 JUST CARS Historic Tourers made this season’s edition of PIARC’s Island Magic, their 32nd, something special. From every state in Australia they came, creating fierce battles right through the order. Six Camaros, six Mustangs, three Falcons and a lone Monaro bellowed a V8 tune, with roaring sixes, howling rotaries and screaming fours making the action as good to listen to as it was to watch.

Historic Sandown 2022 came roaring back to its competitive best for the first time since 2019, blessed with sunshine, big crowds and great displays. Two big fields faced the starter and the racing was tight and torrid in each.

After spending two years in Covid pit lane the VHRR’s long track Winton Festival of Speed meeting was back at full strength with 300 entries and headlining the now traditional 50km JUST CARS Cup for Historic Touring Cars. The traditional enduro did not disappoint, with just .5 sec between first and second after 17 torrid laps.

It was yet another sensational adventure for the JUST CARS drivers across the border at The Bend which continued to strengthen the growing bonds between the HTCAV and the Historic Touring Car Association of South Australia who were superb hosts all weekend. As HTCAV President Chris Stern posted, “we were treated like kings!”.