2022 in review

December 31 2022

We have reached the end of another year and this year was a very exciting Australian Stock Car Championship season with new cars and drivers, new winners and more.

Stock Cars Australia had high hopes for 2022 and it didn’t take long before it was evident that a big year was in store for us all.

The year started with entries being placed for Round 1 with drivers eager to return to the series after the adventures of 2021.

Stephen Chilby was back in the #226 OzTruck and it came with a new front end and colours that made it stand out in the crowd.

Brett Mitchell was back in the #8 OzTruck and there was no doubt that he was going to be a championship contender based on previous years results.

Peter Byrnes joined Corey Gurney as a driver in a GTA and while his season ended early with a mechanical issue we hope to see him back in 2023.

Aaron Hills eagerly joined the ranks of the Stock Cars in the #75 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Aaron would go on to contest three of the four rounds of the 2022 season.

Scott Nind returned to the series in 2022 after racing one round of the 2021 season, Scott would go on to contest the full 2022 season.

James Burge returned to the series after some time away and his OzTruck went from the #711 to the #11.

Laurence Mckinnon returned to the series in the XE Falcon after only getting to do one qualifying session in the 2021 season.

Danny Burgess and Robert Marchese were back in their #7 and #84 OzTrucks respectively with both drivers challenging for top three finishes every round.

The Gurney family were back with their Ford Falcon (Rod) and the Pontiac Grand Prix (Corey) cars respectively.

Morris Racing had their Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix cars ready to go for season 2022.

Zac O’Hara was back in the #27 Chevrolet Monte Carlo and was ready to mix it with the other Stock Cars of the Morris family, Aaron Hills and later on Mick Heppleston

February 18 and 19 was when the season kicked off,

Stephen Chilby won the first two races of the season before George Kulig who came down from Queensland to race his modified GTA won the last race of the round, the first round was George’s only appearance for 2022 and he is probably hoping that SCA puts a ASCC round in QLD in 2023 so he can join in the fun once again.

James Burge’s return to the series ended after the qualifying session to kick off the season as his OzTruck developed mechanical issues forcing the #11 out of the weekend and the season, while it was brief it was long enough for everybody to know it was still a seriously fast OzTruck.

It was announced on May 6 that Legend Car racer Brendon Hourigan was the owner of an OzTruck and this #51 OzTruck was previously driven to great success in Queensland by Lachlan Gardner.

Wakefield Park was the scene for Round 2 in what was later found out to be possibly the last round held at the track as restrictions were placed on the track that limits its viability.

The spoils got shared around as Stephen Chilby, Scott Nind and Brendon Hourigan all scored wins in the round, the latter two were winners for the first time.

Mick Heppleston started the 2022 season in his FJ Holden but he moved over to his #41 Ford Thunderbird for the round at Wakefield Park, Mick would continue to run in the #41 for the rest of the year.

Round 3 saw the action move to Sydney Motorsport Park and Brett Mitchell and Scott Nind split the wins between them in a round where rain threatened to derail plans for an action packed round.

Danny Burgess picked up two thirds and two fourth place finishes in his final round for the season in the #7 Steel N Stuff sponsored OzTruck.

Mechanical issues halted Brendon Hourigan’s 2022 efforts at Sydney Motorsports Park though he wasn’t out of motorsport as he hopped into his Legend Car to compete in that category.

Zac O’Hara’s #27 got a new look as Repco celebrated 100 years, this new look matched the 1999 look that the car had when Kim Jane raced the car to success, Zac’s car was then off to Bathurst to spend some time in the museum as the car’s season ended after the round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Lukas Gates (#22) and Troy Perichon (#6 and #7) taken their AUSCARs to Calder Park a few weeks later to cut laps on the Calder Park Thunderdome/Raceway course, this fueled speculation that they would be participating in the final round of the ASCC season at Winton in November.

It was announced on November 3 that Laurence Mckinnon purchased the #11 Ford Thunderbird, this Thunderbird was formerly the #25 of Terry Wyhoon and then the #11 of Dick Howe, both drove the car to great success.

The final round of the season was held at Winton, the likes of Stephen Chilby and Danny Burgess were out of action for the last round of the season and this meant that Robert Marchese and Scott Nind had the opportunity to climb up the leaderboard.

Richard White, Troy Perichon and Lukas Gates had opportunities to make their series debuts and Trevor Crisp returned to the series after a couple years away and he brought his #22 Dodge with him.

Lukas Gates and Troy Perichon flew the AUSCAR flag for the first time in the series as they brought their respective Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon to the track, mechanical issues stopped Lukas from racing while Troy battled the elements and finished all four races in his series debut.

Richard White brought the #3 Chevrolet Lumina to race for the first time in the series, he had to wait a while because of the wet conditions at lashed Winton but Race 4 was good to go and he finally got to make his series debut in the eye catching car.

Brett Mitchell ended the season in style by doing burnouts as he won three of the four races of the round while Scott Nind won the season finale.

Robert Marchese in the #84 OzTruck taken second place in the championship and Scott Nind finished the year in third driving the #16 Ford Mustang.

Brett Mitchell had a busy 2022 as he spent nine weekends racing in different series which included Super TT, Thunder Sports, QRDC and the Australian Stock Car Championship, some of those weekends involved double duty.

AMRS was renamed Hi-Tec Oils Super Series in December and the Australian Super TT Championship effectively replaced Thunder Sports, Thunder Sports was the series that saw some of the Stock Cars field race in over the years and vice versa.

Lukas Gates expanded his car collection by purchasing a second AUSCAR, this AUSCAR was the #31 Holden Commodore that was raced in AUSCAR for many years by Darryl Speers.

The 2023 Season Schedule was announced on December 14 with the series heading to Calder Park Raceway for the first time, it is the first time that Stock Cars have raced at the venue since the V8 Stock Cars raced there in November 2001.

For us it was a good year, we passed our best year result in the middle of December and we then hit 4,000 site views on December 30, the only problem with doing well in a year is trying to do as well the next year.

So that is the year as we saw it, so much action and next year is going to be just as action packed, perhaps even more action packed but the only way we’re all going to find out is by sticking around and seeing it all unfold.