We are searching throughout the Stock Car world for anybody who can tell us the origins story of this Lumina that is currently an Earnhardt tribute car.

The car is currently owned by Richard White and is running in the Australian Stock Car Championship, but the origins of the stock car have eluded us and others for over a decade.

We believe that the car started its life as an Oldsmobile, it has a stamped chassis number of BP8835R, it was given the AUSCAR sticker A 053.

BP stands for it being a Banjo chassis, 88 stands for 1988 and #35 is the chassis number for that year.

There is debate on the meaning of the R, some say replacement clip and others say that it stands for Road.

We’re hoping that maybe somebody in the United States has a chassis number either side of it, perhaps a bunch from a team were dropped off in Australia to get things going over here.

As for A 053, nobody knows, there appears to be no records of the serials numbers that were handed out to Australian cars, the destruction of Banjo records also complicates matters.

What we do know for certain is that both Brad Jones and the Jane family had this car for some time each starting from around 1994, but the big question is who had it before Brad and who had it before them when it was a fresh car ready for racing.

We were told that the car came to Brad Jones from George Elliot but on February 18, 2025, we were told by George that he didn’t own the car, but he was then uncertain after giving it some further thought.

Forgotten memories, mixed memories and the lack of paperwork have made it almost impossible to easily find out where this car came from.

There are gaps in the Australian Stock Car history between 1989 and 1993, from 1993 media records are a lot better in number and detail, so running into difficulties in pinning down a car history in not uncommon.

After it had spent time as the #8 and #27 ride cars, it had spent some time gathering dust at Calder Park, the above photos were taken by Declan Kirkham in 2011, the pink paint is visible showing it was not done after 2011.

The car was given new life by Matt Czerny who posted about the car in January 2012, car research efforts started at that time but were unsuccessful.

The car then spent some time in Queensland and Tasmania before settling in Victoria and is now racing with Stock Cars Australia with Richard White Racing.

Car Details

Sometime before the publication of the 1994/95 season media guide, the car was purchased by Brad Jones to serve as his team’s show-car as the guide mentions Brad Jones had such a car along with the ex-Cope Lumina, this is handy because his other cars ‘Bubba’ and ‘Kevin’ were not in Australia at that time.

Larry McInnes said that the car was a ‘Walter car brought from George Elliot but had been Walters before that (I think or maybe leased)‘

We have not found anything to match that account yet, but Larry is confident, and he did look after the car as Chief Mechanic for Brad Jones.

Larry gave us some more details on August 23, 2024.

“BJR she was pretty rough body wise , came with an engine in a million bits and was put together and dynoed by Dennis O’Brien in Wagga. Remember she was a ride car, so mechanicals were not top race parts…I am fairly sure the pink was Walter Giles pink. As for the body it came with the Lumina front and the Olds ? rear. (to BJR)

I think it was just black primer…no decals”

Stan Butcher said, ‘I never liked that old dunger it was rough as guts!‘ and ‘it had a colourful career and was well used and poorly repaired prior to me‘

Marshall Brewer said that it was the worst car that he ever driven.

As written earlier it has the stamped chassis number of BP8835R, it was given the AUSCAR sticker A 053.

We know that the front of the car is a Lumina, but the roofline, rear bumper and the deck lid are believed to be Oldsmobile body parts.

The 3/4 windows were the style that Lumina users had at that time suggesting this car was going from Oldsmobile Cutlass to Chevrolet Lumina.

We believe that the most distinctive feature of this car is the light pink that is right through the interior of the car, it is everywhere even on the pedals and the car body, it should be memorable as pink wasn’t a popular choice at the time for paint or primer needs.

Even the bars that surround the engine are pink, it has to be something unusual compared to the rest of the Australian Stock Car field assuming it is paint and not primer, but even pink primer may make it notable.

The car was not wiped of its paint between owners, as you can see the car has retained layers of its history, this was a part of the car that was covered up after the BJR blue was added, it doesn’t not have any Kim Jane yellow.

Note the black in the middle, is that the black primer that Larry was talking about?

Here is another shot of the paint layers from another section of the car that does have the Kim Jane yellow, so many layers, each telling its own story, a story that we’re trying to write.

Theories

The lead theory is that it is was the Ron Goodman Oldsmobile that was used on the Gold Coast in 1992, it is pink on the outside, the 3/4 windows are Lumina windows not Oldsmobile, it came from George Elliot, and it is an Oldsmobile front and back.

Above is a comparison of the 05 Oldsmobile and the #27 Lumina before it was turned into an Earnhardt tribute, while the 1992 TV image is off a few pixels, is it enough to say it is the same car?

This car was originally claimed in a 1992 publication to have been brought from George Elliot, but the Round 3 of the 1993/94 season book says that the car was ‘lent’ to Ron and was returned to George.

The big question is whether whatever George had it as or whatever Ron had it as was also light pink on the inside of the car? We need to find somebody who can answer that one.

Another popular theory is that it was a Walter Giles Buick, a report of a Stock Car round talked about Mark Harrison’s #19 and says that Walter’s original chassis was turned into a Lumina in 1994 and was with Mark Harrison and it appears to exist as the #19 Pontiac.

We’re still gathering information on all other Giles chassis to see if the George Elliot -> Walter Giles connection exists beyond one Buick.

We’ve looked into the theory that the car may have served as part of NASTRAK, and it was not raced, it is definitely not the #01 as that was later used as Adam Pay’s car and Adam still owns it but there were other cars used.

Barry Graham supplied Richard White with some photos from NASTRAK but none of them appear to be the car at this stage.

We have looked through hundreds of photos, studied the Bob Clark Motorsports Slender You Oldsmobile photos provided by Bryan Halman for any clue that it can be one of their cars.

It was said in January 2025 by ex-employees that Bob Clark Motorsports did not paint their cars pink on the inside, they did confirm that cars were given to what was then NASTRAK and it is confirmed that at least two ex-BCM Pontiacs did make it to Australia, and they were in NASTRAK Australia and were then raced in Australia by Allan Grice and George Elliot.

We’ve looked at the dozens of photographs that Shayne Hunter posted hoping to see the car in the background, no luck there.

Every time that we get close, and we think we’ve got the answer, it isn’t the answer.

Banjo chassis records were destroyed so we have no way of finding out any answers from the chassis builders, it was like this car fell from the sky and landed at Calder Park.

To paraphrase the legendary Robert Stack ‘For every mystery someone somewhere knows the answer perhaps that person is reading this tonight, perhaps it is you’.