It was twenty years ago today

November 25 2021

It was on this date twenty years ago that the #17 Chevrolet Monte Carlo driven by Tony Southwell had taken victory in the third and final race of the V8 Stock Cars round at Calder Park Raceway.

Rodney Crick finished just .3080 seconds behind Tony giving Tony’s team a 1-2 finish in a fantastic way to end a season.

Tony had scored the fastest lap of the race with a lap of 43.8806 seconds with Rodney fastest at 0:43.8956 and they were the only two cars to run laps in the forty-three second range in the third and final race.

The 2001 season began with an exhibition round at Mallala and ended five rounds later at Calder Park after making stops at Oran Park, Queensland Raceway and Winton and when you include Mallala the championship had visited four states and it was well received by fans.

The average total of competitors per round was 11.6 so things weren’t too bad considering the amount of uncertainty that happened after Stock Cars screeched to a halt as racing stopped at the Thunderdome.

Andrew Miedecke dominated the 2001 season by winning more than half of the races with Rusty French, Dick Howe, George Elliot and Tony Southwell all taking home wins.

Driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo was usually the car of choice for the majority of the field but there were Ford Thunderbirds, Pontiac Grand Prix’s, Oldsmobile and even a Holden Calibra all making appearances over the course of the year.

Sadly this was the only completed V8 Stock Cars season as the 2002 season was brought to an abrupt halt after rounds at Oran Park, Mallala and Queensland Raceway and five cars turned up for an event at Winton Raceway later that year listed under V8 Stock Cars.

Stock Car owners tried for the next decade to get a series going but it wasn’t until Stock Cars Australia that regular competition was once again taking place and while SCA isn’t all Stock Cars and includes cars in the Stock Car family (AUSCAR, OzTruck, GTA etc.) interest in the series has awakened more than a half dozen Stock Cars from slumber and that number continues to rise.

That is the story of the last race of the 2001 season.