This is a story that will be updated over time as there is so much to tell.

The #3 Lumina is a car that has a very rich history, one that continues to the present day.

The car was given the AUSCAR VIN ‘A 053’, and the chassis number is BP8835R, Richard White states that that BP stands for being a Banjo chassis, 88 stands for 1988 and #35 is the chassis number for that year.

There is debate in Stock Car circles on the meaning of the R on some Banjo chassis, some say it means repair or reclip and some say it means Road Course.

The car while a Lumina also has parts belonging to an Oldsmobile such as the rear bumper, deck lid and roofline that suggested its past was as an Oldsmobile and while the 3/4 windows were suggested to be from a Pontiac, they were determined to be ones that suited a Lumina.

The car’s original life is unknown as of August 2025, we don’t know if it was a chassis brought over, an original Australian construction or a USA built car that was sold here in Australia, hundreds of hours have been spent reading and gathering information, but no publication has been found with the answer.

The known story of the car starts when it served as Brad Jones’ ride car from before the 1994/95 season.

The car was given the name ‘George’, this was not because of its said past owner but because of BJR’s habit of naming cars after characters from The Jetsons, the three race cars used by Brad were Elroy, Bubba and Kevin.

After it had served BJR as a ride car, it was moved on to the Jane’s to serve as their ride car and the #8 Blue made way for the famous yellow paint scheme that came with Bob Jane T-Marts sponsorship and the number 27.

After the fall of Stock Car racing at the Thunderdome, the car sat around collecting dust at Calder Park and was photographed in that state in 2011.

The car popped up in AUSCAR Racing Facebook group in January 2013 and it was on the move to a new home with Matt Czerny the new owner.

Here’s where the story gets a little strange, on January 21, 2013, Kim Jane said the car was brought from the Jones brothers and was unsure if it was raced, Kim Jones was contacted the next day and was ‘pretty adamant they never owned the car’.

Confused? it happens all the time in the Australian Stock Car tracing world.

It was reported in September 2013 that the car was moved on to Brisbane to be owned by Brett Baker with the car to become a #3 tribute car.

By 2015 it was up for sale for $20,000, it got the attention of many Stock Car enthusiasts as the car sported the #3 Goodwrench number and colours though the interior still showed its heritage with ‘George’ on the right side of the dash and pink was visible in parts of the roll cage and the interior.

The car was sold and was then moved to Tasmania where it stayed for several years with the Skeggs family, Ray Skeggs drove the car at Symmons Plains in 2018 as part of a monthly held LCCT Club Day and participated in a total of seven super sprints over two club days.

Ray’s efforts gave the #3 the fastest time in Sprints 11 and 14 and the fifth overall time in the February 2018 edition.

The car was then sold to Richard White in September 2022, it was sent back across Bass Strait to its new home in Victoria.

In November 2022, the #3 Chevrolet Lumina appeared at Winton to contest the final round of the Australian Stock Car Championship that is run by Stock Cars Australia.

Wet and miserable conditions at Winton meant that Richard only got to do qualifying (8th out of 10 cars) and Race 4 where his best lap was a 1:40.8927.

The #3 was taken to Calder Park in January 2023 where it graced the Thunderdome once again, while the track wasn’t perfect, the sight of it on the track was.

The Stock Cars Australia series returned to Winton in March 2023, Richard finished fourteenth in Race 1 before getting up to speed in Race 2 by recording a personal best time of 1:35.2993 and after a DNF in Race 3, was even quicker in Race 4 with a time of 1:34.7738.

Richard’s first full round resulted in a fourteenth, a tenth, a DNF (fuel filter issue) and a twelfth-place finish, the last race result was after starting near the very back of the field.

The car also copped a whack from an Astra, this resulted in repairs needed to be done after the round and it revealed the car’s past as yellow, blue, white and various shades of pink were discovered.

The car was tested at Calder Park Raceway two weeks before the scheduled August 2023 round of Stock Cars Australia, an engine issue was detected, and the car was ruled out of the Calder Park Raceway round and the Thunderdome exhibition laps.

The car was still brought to Calder Park Raceway as a display piece, it was a hit with those who came by to see the cars.

The #3 was ruled out of the rest of the 2023 season with plans put in place to get the car ready for the 2024 season with a new driver as Richard chose to drive the #8 Monte Carlo.

It was announced in 2024 that Jake Frisch would drive the #3 Lumina from the opening round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

Jake Frisch had finishes of eighth, fifth, sixth and fourth in his debut round at Sydney Motorsport Park.

The car was raced at Winton on August 9-11, 2024, in the third round of the Australian Stock Car Championship, Jake Frisch had finishes of eighth, eighth, seventh and seventh.

The car received upgrades after the round at Winton, this included a change in gearbox from Super T10 to a Jerico and a rear sway bar was added.

The car was used at Calder Park Thunderdome on September 28, 2024, an in-car camera captured the action as it happened and while the track was extra bumpy, the discomfort was worth every second.

The car returned to Calder Park Raceway on November 22, 2024, to do a Team Ride Day, a reward to the team for a great year that saw the team’s second car, the #8 Monte Carlo take a win and both cars having excellent results all season.

The car participated at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival in March 2025 and was driven by Elliot Barbour, Zac O’Hara and Tim Slade across four sessions held over that weekend.

The car along with the #22 Holden Commodore got to officially open a new bridge on Calder Park Drive in July 2025.

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A short time later, the car was brought to Brad Jones Racing in August 2025 where Brad got reacquainted with his former ride car.

There were no plans for the car to race at One Raceway on August 16 and 17 2025, this changed when the #08 Monte Carlo developed a problem and so the #3 Lumina was wheeled out and prepared for racing.

The car finished ninth in Race 1, finished tenth in Race 2 before it all came together in Race 3 as the car finished fourth and gave the car its equal highest finish.

Another fourth-place finish was on the cards in Race 4 when a right-hand front tyre popped on Lap 4 and the car was retired.

The car was driven by Sam Gibson at Calder Park Raceway on November 7 to 9, 2025.

Sam finished second in his debut race, won Race 2 ahead of Richard White, finished second to Phil Muffet in Race 3 and then won Race 4 to win the round.

Research Efforts

On July 27, 2024, we received from Shayne Hunter a copy of a Brad Jones article in Wheels Magazine, a couple of paragraphs talks about ‘George’ and at least one picture was matched up to a picture of the interior of George from 2023.

The article also shown that the #8 ride car was also white before it was blue, and this helped identify another paint layer that still remained on the car.

Brad Jones in 2024 confirmed via Macauley Jones that he had owned the car, he said that the car came from George Elliot, leaving it just a matter of finding out where and how Walter Giles fits into the story.

The very first lead we received on attempting to establish the early history of the car was from Larry McInnes, Larry said that the car was a ‘Walter car brought from George Elliot but had been Walters before that (I think or maybe leased)‘

We know Walter Giles obtained the #98 Buick from NASTRAK, but a complication to it being the car is that the chassis was reported to have gotten a Lumina body in 1994 and was driven by Mark Harrison.

A complication for this story is that George Elliot said it wasn’t his on February 18, 2025, but George was not sure about it later on.

Another complication to the Giles theory is that the chassis that Mark Harrison had was his at the same time that Brad had George, there is always the possibility that Motorsport News is incorrect.

Repairs from the #3 being hit by a Holden Astra revealed past paint layers, the pink would seemingly solidify it as being in the hands of Walter Giles, but Ron Goodman was also raised as a possibility as well, attempts were made to find anybody who painted the car for Brad Jones and knew what they painted over.

Attempts were made to trace the history of the #05 Oldsmobile that Ron Goodman raced on the Gold Coast in 1992, that car was given to Ron by George Elliot and it was given back to George after the Gold Coast race, the interesting part of the car was it was pink and the fact that while it was classed as an Oldsmobile, it had Lumina 3/4 windows.

Research continues on as of August 23, 2025, but is largely stalled as there are few resources available to purchase and examine in the hopes of finding the answer.