2023 was a highly anticipated year for Stock Cars Australia, the series was going to Calder Park for the first time as well as making stops at Winton Raceway and Sydney Motorsport Park.
There were plenty of developments in the off-season as Laurence Mckinnon got to work on the #25 Ford Thunderbird, Lukas Gates was readying the #22 Holden Commodore and Richard White brought the #75 Chevrolet Monte Carlo from Aaron Hills and turned it into the #8.
AMRS became the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series and got a television deal which put a couple of Stock Cars Australia races on TV and SBS on Demand as well as on YouTube.
The season started at Winton Raceway where conditions were thankfully much nicer than the 2022 season finale which was rain affected for the majority of the races, some of the racing action was streamed so people got to see the action live as it happened.
Defending champion Brett Mitchell had to stay home as the #8 OzTruck was in the middle of being freshened up but was back in action for Round 2.
The field was joined by Australian Super TT runners to make up a twenty-four-car event, the mix of cars made things a little dicey with the #3 Lumina copping a whack while passing one of the Super TT’s cars which did not impress Richard one bit.
It was a successful weekend for the series and hopes were high for Calder Park which awaited a few months down the road, the long downtime turned out to be an advantage as cars were able to be worked on to get them ready for Round 2.
June 2 saw Troy Perichon, Lukas Gates and Paul Hourigan testing the two AUSCARs and the one OzTruck respectively at Calder Park, Scott Nind tested his Ford Mustang at Calder Park on June 16.
Richard White tested his repaired #3 at Calder Park in preparation for the round there, unfortunately the Lumina developed engine issues and was out of action, but Richard did not miss the Calder Park action as the #8 Monte Carlo was ready to go.
Zac O’Hara appeared on ‘In Pit Lane’ in the lead up to the round at Calder Park, there was no shortage of coverage for the Calder Park round.
Round 2 came around at last and I finally got to enjoy watching some live racing action after years of following it online and waiting for COVID to stop wrecking plans to see a round.
Wet weather threatened to dampen hopes of a full round at Calder Park as visitors arrived from near and far to witness history, it was the return of racing of any kind to Calder Park and a return of Stock Cars doing exhibition laps at the Thunderdome.
Laurence Mckinnon left his #82 XE Falcon at home because he had brought along the #25 Ford Thunderbird and Lukas Gates got to make his series debut in the #22 Holden Commodore after mechanical issues had pushed back the debut of the AUSCAR in the series.
Scott Pierce in the #9 Holden Commodore finally got to make his debut in the series and the #9 is expected to be right in the thick of the action in the future.
Scott Nind was doing enough during the weekend to keep the #8 OzTruck behind him with Brendon Hourigan now regularly challenging for second place while Josh Hourigan and Danny Burgess were usually found close together on track.
The weather was at its coldest in Race 2 with a cold wind dropping low temperatures even further down and dark clouds were over Tullamarine, but the rain held off until the field was going back to the garages and stopped in time for the Sunday action to get underway.
Zac O’Hara whose #27 Chevrolet Monte Carlo was set for display duties at Calder Park managed to get some Thunderdome laps out of the car on Saturday then hopped into the #7 AUSCAR for Race 3 on Sunday before the #27 was declared good enough to log laps in Race 4.
Scott Nind swept the round at Calder Park and the weekend was a huge success, the field was bigger than ever before, the exhibition laps at the Thunderdome were well attended and the rain stayed away and did not impact the action.
Stock Cars Australia appeared on ‘In Pit Lane’ after the round was held with Laurence Mckinnon and Richard White being interviewed at Calder Park.
The #3’s engine was removed in September as it began the long road to being ready for the 2024 season.
Shortly after Calder Park, the #7 AUSCAR had a new owner, Jamey Hollier brought the car from Troy Perichon and we’ll be seeing the car in action again in 2024.
Scott Nind won every race in the first half of the season and was looking to do more winning with his new #34 Ford Mustang when the series arrived at Sydney Motorsport Park to race on October 13 and 14.
Scott’s new Mustang was Michael McDowell’s ride in the United States, it was an immediate head turner from the moment it touched the ground at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Rod Gurney returned to the series in the #8 Ford Falcon XT GT, another returnee was Garry Stevens in the #15 Mazda RX7.
Laurence Mckinnon was back in the XE Falcon as the #25 Ford Thunderbird ran the Calder Park round with a donor engine with his engine still in development.
Scott was disqualified by officials in Race 1 and Danny Burgess won his first Stock Cars Australia race in the #7 OzTruck.
Brendon Hourigan picked up a third-place finish in Race 1, but a potentially serious mechanical issue parked the #51 OzTruck for the round.
Garry Stevens in the RX7 was the second fastest on the track in races 2 and 3, a twenty-second penalty cost the #15 a second-place finish and dropped the Mazda driver down to a sixth-place finish in Race 2.
Troy Perichon’s #6 AUSCAR lost an engine in Race 3, Brett Mitchell was sliding the #8 OzTruck around the track and Danny Burgess and Josh Hourigan had great recoveries from off track excursions to post great finishes including Josh pipping Danny at the line in Race 4.
After the round at Sydney Motorsport Park, Cole Davis conducted an engine test for his #77 AUSCAR and the #02 Sportsman that was formerly driven by Tony Howlett was restored and logged laps at Calder Park in November by Brad Hall.
Laurence Mckinnon and Robert Marchese between Rounds 3 and 4 got in some Bathurst action, Laurence taken his XE Falcon to the famous track and Robert had taken along a Holden VB Commodore.
The action moved to Winton for the fourth and final round of the season on December 9 and 10, this round marked the debuts of Brendan O’Connor and Jeff Stubbs.
A heatwave that hit Winton caused plenty of issues for drivers and their vehicles with Brett Mitchell overheating after qualifying and he was replaced by Zac O’Hara for Race 2, Zac became the first driver to drive a Stock Car, an AUSCAR and an OzTruck in the one season.
While Scott Nind dominated proceedings, Josh Hourigan and Robert Marchese had a race within in a race with Robert getting his best result of the season with a second-place finish in the last race of the year.
Brendan O’Connor and Jeff Stubbs had solid weekends in the series debut with Jeff Stubbs picking up third place finishes in both of Saturday’s races and Brendan picked up three fifth place finishes and a fourth.
Scott Nind won the championship ahead of Josh Hourigan and Robert Marchese, Laurence Mckinnon won the Muscle Division Championship and Troy Perichon was the inaugural SCA AUSCAR champion.
Scott Nind, Brett Mitchell, Brendon Hourigan, Josh Hourigan, Rod Gurney, Zac O’Hara, Michael Bouts, Stephen Dale, Paul Zemunik, Scott Pierce, Brendan O’Connor, Jeff Stubbs, Lukas Gates, Laurence Mckinnon, Richard White, Danny Burgess, Troy Perichon, Brad Lighton, Mick Heppleston, Robert Marchese, Garry Stevens and John Angiolella all driven at least one race in the series this year.
The year ended busily as we saw many people answer Richard White’s call for crew help, we also saw the #2 ride car come out of a long hibernation and efforts are underway to welcome the car into the Stock Cars Australia family.
The #34 AUSCAR was being reported as being found but the reality was that it had been spotted on and off for many years but until recently it was unobtainable.
We found the archived Gasoline Alley Motorsports website and it may have provided the answer to a mysterious #47 Chevrolet Lumina that was briefly shown online before it was taken down, the numbering is a similar style to the team cars, and they did have a Lumina for sale.
Now we’re here, December 31, 2023, the year is hours away from being over, but a new year is hours away from starting and I cannot wait to get started on 2024 efforts, there is still so much to know about and so much more to do.
There are several cars that are in the process of being restored for competition, hopefully we will retain everybody who raced in 2023 and with new cars the field will be bigger than ever.
Thank you for being here over the course of 2023 and thank you for your wonderful support of Stock Cars Australia.
Aussie Stock Car News 
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