It was a year that had it all for Richard White Racing, participation in the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, a freakish crash, a race in South Australia, action at One Raceway and a most triumphant round at Calder Park Raceway.

Adelaide Motorsport Festival

RWR’s start to the 2025 Australian Stock Car Championship season was slightly delayed as the team went to the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.

RWR was mainly there to help promote Stock Cars Australia, attendees at the festival had the opportunity to grab a free poster and ask Zac and Richard questions about the category.

The team cars were driven by a series of drivers including Elliot Barbour and Scott Pye, the duo is well known for their racing careers, but they are also known for their podcast Apex Hunters United.

There was a mishap involving the #8 Monte Carlo, the steering wheel was not properly secured, and it came off in Scott Pye’s hands resulting in the car ending up in the outside tyre bundle of the Senna Chicane (turn 1).

Scott was able to slow the car down before it hit the wall, Scott was fine and the damage was not severe enough to knock it out for the weekend, and after repairs were completed, the car completed a full weekend of activities.

The Bend – Round 2

The team’s 2025 Australian Stock Car Championship season started at The Bend; Richard qualified his Monte Carlo in fourth position in a round that marked the debut of Jack Perkins.

Jack’s appearance got plenty of attention and had some wondering if it was going to lead to something else down the line, it turned out that just a few months later, Jack was racing in Chicago and Portland in the Xfinity Series.

A collision with Danny Burgess put Richard’s Monte Carlo out of Race 1 after eight laps, the damage to both OzTruck and Stock Car were repaired with both being available for Race 2.

Richard drove a superb race to finish third in Race 2, his best lap time of 1:25.9928 was the third best of the race.

He finished just under two seconds behind Daniel Stubbs who was driving the #19 Monte Carlo.

Race 3 saw another battle with Daniel Stubbs with Daniel securing second place by just over one second in a race that was dominated by Scott Nind in the #34 Ford Mustang.

Richard was running second on the last lap, but he had to slow as there was oil on the track after Danny Burgess blew an engine and it dropped oil resulting in cars going off the track.

Race 4 delivered Richard another third-place finish, this time he got the better of Daniel Stubbs who finished fourth and had to hold off Jeff Stubbs to hold that position.

RWR went back home to Victoria with finishes of a DNF, a third, a third and a third.

Calder Park Drive Crossing Removal Opening

One road travelling annoyance is the wait behind the boom gates when trains are coming up or going down a rail line and the Victorian Government’s solution to the annoyance was to raise roads or rail to eliminate the congestion.

Calder Park Drive, situated some 600 metres off of Turn 3 and 4 (NASCAR direction) was one place to get the change with cars now going over a bridge, while this was well received by some, the changes to a nearby road annoyed others.

Calder Park track manager Rowan Harmon put construction company Fulton Hogan onto Richard about the opportunity to open the bridge with a Stock Car and so Lukas Gates and Richard White got the job of doing the honours.

The Visit to Brad Jones Racing

While on the way to One Raceway, the team stopped by Brad Jones Racing in Albury, the purpose of the visit was to give Brad Jones the opportunity to sit in his former ride car again, the car now known as the #3 Lumina.

‘George’ was one of four cars in Brad Jones’ stable of Stock Cars with the cars named Elroy, Bubba and Kevin doing the races and George being the ride car to take numerous people on rides around the Thunderdome or wherever required.

The car is also one of mystery, the mists of time have muddled up details of its past, Brad is certain that he got the car from George Elliot, but George is not sure, and it is also suggested that Walter Giles had it for a time, it may have also been used at the 1992 Gold Coast Indy round by Ron Goodman.

Was it raced at the Thunderdome or a Road Course? Who had it before it was in Australia? unfortunately there is nothing stamped on the car that gives away the secrets of ‘George’.

One Raceway – Round 4

After the team went to Brad Jones Racing, it was back to racing as the Australian Stock Car Championship went to One Raceway.

The #8 Chevrolet Monte Carlo was slated to all of the racing but a gearbox issue with the reverse gear was causing downshift issues in the other gears forcing the team to park the car.

The #3 Chevrolet Lumina was put into service, it was not set up for racing action, it was brought to One Raceway for the previously mentioned visit to Brad Jones Racing.

Richard finished ninth in the first race; this result had surprised people though they were not aware of the set-up issues, the best lap time for the #3 was a 1:11.2640.

Richard reported that the car was a real handful setup wise plus the restrictive exhaust caused the motor to run rich.

Race two was a tougher race for the #3 Lumina, the car finished tenth and had a best lap time of 1:10.5830 which was an improvement on the lap time of Race 1.

Race 3 which was the first of two Sunday races, and it was a much happier result for Richard as finished fourth and had a best lap time of 1:07.3910 almost four seconds better than Race 1.

The improved pace of the car was because of different rear springs were put in the car after the Saturday races and the team had more time to give the car a One Raceway friendly setup for Sunday’s races.

Race 4 saw the #3 Lumina looking good for a fourth-place finish, but a lap four tyre failure brought on by the not quite right setup resulted in the retirement of the car.

A ninth, a tenth, a fourth and a DNF to finish was the results for the round.

Calder Park – Round 5

The Monte Carlo was repaired for Calder Park, and the team launched a search for the driver to fill the seat of the #3 Lumina before the round.

Sam Gibson was chosen as the driver and conditions were great for Friday practice, Richard got the Monte Carlo stuck in the sand after getting ‘too greedy’ and Sam was getting comfortable in the Lumina.

Saturday was a wet and miserable day, a misty rain rolled continuously through the area, more of an annoyance than a downpour but wind kept the temperatures feeling low, it felt like three degrees throughout most of the day.

Sam topped the Saturday Practice timesheets with a time of 1:22.8463 and Richard was fourth with a time of 1:25.6199.

Qualifying arrived and Richard put his Monte Carlo on pole with a time of 1:19.1920 and Sam put the Lumina in fifth with a time of 1:24.0954.

Race 1 saw Richard got off to a great start and retained first; the pace car was out after Mick Heppleston hit a combination of a massive water puddle and soaking wet grass and hit the wall.

Sam made his way up to second position as challengers Phil Muffet and Jeff Stubbs both ended up down the main straight runoff area that pointed towards Melbourne.

Richard held the lead for the entire race and won by just over a second with Sam finishing second, the duo as well as third place Robert Marchese were the only drivers to have laps in the 1 minute 18 second bracket.

Race 2 was held in very unpleasant conditions, the conditions claimed another vehicle as Jeff Stubbs Dodge Challenger hit the wall with the front and rear of the car, he was able to drive it back to the garage with the team coming up with a repair solution within minutes.

Sam got out in front and held on to it by just over half a second ahead of Richard to deliver RWR another 1-2 finish.

The next day was much more pleasant weather conditions wise, rain was still around but blue sky was seen throughout the day, good weather conditions were at the track leading up to Race 3 and a drying track convinced the majority of the teams to put on dry weather tyres.

But as the field was ready to go, it started to rain and the track was wet once more, this particularly suited the #41 Thunderbird but not the rest of the field.

Phil made hay while the sun didn’t shine and made himself a massive lead, Sam contended with Jeff Stubbs and his repaired #45 Dodge Challenger that rocketed up the field but as the track started to dry, the #3 Lumina picked up the pace.

Richard didn’t have a great race, the wet track and his Monte Carlo weren’t perfect for each other and he finished sixth, but he did have the third fastest vehicle so if the race was run completely dry, he would have done really well.

Sam finished second to Phil Muffet, he had to wait until late on the last lap to get past the #45 Dodge Challenger to ensure that in three races so far that weekend, he finished no worse than second.

Race 4 was held in the best conditions for the weekend with no rain falling though there were still puddles to deal with in Turn 3 and Turn 6, Phil Muffet led the field to the green and had a great start, unfortunately a problem with his clutch hindered efforts to stop and he went spinning off at Turn 1 bringing out the caution.

The race resumed with Sam leading the pack, Richard made his way up the field to sit in second position with Daniel Stubbs in the #45 Dodge Challenger behind him with the trio separated by around 3 seconds.

While the three front runners got really close to each other at times, nobody could make a move and Sam picked up his second win for the weekend to claim the round and he also helped RWR pick up three wins from the four races.

Season Tally

#8 Chevrolet Monte Carlo – Richard White

1st – once
2nd – twice
3rd – three times
6th – once
DNF – once

#3 Chevrolet Lumina – Richard White and Sam Gibson

1st – twice (Sam Gibson)
2nd – twice (Sam Gibson)
4th – once (Richard White)
9th – once (Richard White)
10th – once (Richard White)
DNF – once (Richard White)