We begin this edition with sad news as Andrew Rhodes-Anderson passed away last weekend; Andrew had raced in Sportsman driving the #14 Holden VL Commodore that was previously raced in AUSCAR by Steve Harrington as the #4.

After racing in Sportsman, Andrew raced his car in SuperTT and Sedans competition and had won a title; the car was raced until 2008, and after that he had the car garaged, a secure fate that many AUSCAR, Sportsman and Stock Cars did not get to have.

Andrew moved into Improved Production racing in Victoria and raced for many years in the #96 Holden Commodore.

Just a few weeks ago, it was starting to become known that Andrew had sold his #14 Sportsman to Paul Botheras after having it parked for eighteen years.

Paul Botheras is not messing around when it comes to preparing the former AUSCAR and Sportsman for Stock Cars Australia action and is keeping the car as #14 in tribute to its late owner.

ASCN expresses its condolences to Andrew’s family, his friends and his fans.

This week was a special week for Aussie Stock Car News, we reached 10,000 site visits in a year for the first time, it is a milestone that was never expected to be reached.

It has been a bit of a struggle today to get the words down on what this means to me; the journey has gone on longer and further ever than thought possible.

I never thought I’d be in a position to go to three rounds, be driven on the Thunderdome in an AUSCAR and a Stock Car, write down the step-by-step building/restoration of cars that are being worked on, try figure out the #3 Lumina, write previews and recaps of every round and a whole lot more.

The coolest off the track part of the journey has probably been my parents watching the recent One Raceway round on SBS and trying to spot the ASCN sticker on the vehicles, I may have an ASCN t-shirt and the same stickers at home but seeing them on a car on television is something else and now they are saving up to come along to the 2025 round at Calder Park.

So, what’s next? Keep doing what I am doing, write things regularly, write them correctly, keep putting money in the money box to buy an AUSCAR and most importantly keep my head at the same regular size.

It is going to take a couple of years to get into a position to buy a roller because the DSP is not a financial windfall, it’s enough to live happily on but not to be a ready-to-go car owner, but it is where I want to get to, then we build the car even if we have to get the road car version and swap bits and then be an owner for one race and I say one race because to get to a second race, you got to get to the first one.

Here’s some very big news especially if you’re in South Australia, the Adelaide Motorsport Festival will have some extra Stock Car enjoyment next year as the #3 and #8 Richard White Racing cars are joining the festivities, it is reported that others will be joining them and when we know, you’ll know all about it.

Thanks to the work of John and Stan Butcher, we have uncovered a little bit more about the history of the #3 Lumina, Stan said that he, ‘never liked that old dunger’ but had also said that ‘it had a colourful career and was well used’.

This account is in line with what Larry McInnes said about the car’s condition when BJR got it which is the best possible news at this stage.

Unfortunately, at this time we still haven’t been able to fill in the gaps in the car’s history and while the George Elliot #55/Ron Goodman #05 Oldsmobile is the leading candidate to be the past of the #3, there’s still the possibility that NASTRAK/Ride of a Lifetime also had the car but there’s nothing out there to prove or disprove anything.

Somebody out there had a pink car on the outside and a light pink on the inside and it was in the hands of George Elliot but so far, the search has eluded us, a nice Christmas present would be the answer to the mystery.

Meanwhile Jake Frisch Motorsport is continuing formulating plans for their Pontiac, expect a flurry of activity when 2025 gets underway as the team strives to get it on track towards the end of the 2025 season.

On the research side of things, the belief is that the car was the Lawes brothers first Stock Car with Zac O’Hara currently owning the second one.

Jake’s car was the one that got caught up in the big wreck in the first Thunderdome race, the car had many great runs and some unfortunate mishaps in its time as the #6.

It is going to be a busy 2025 as there are a growing number of cars in the rebuild/restore line awaiting future racing action in Stock Cars Australia including the #19 that is our choice of main picture today.

This is the last ASCN edition for November 2024, just four more editions before it is it for the year and then we start 2025 from January 3, no breaks, no vacations just pure Stock Car action.

See you next week.