There are 106 days to go until the first round of the 2026 season gets underway at Sydney Motorsport Park.
We asked followers of our Facebook page what their motorsport aims are for 2026 and we got some great responses,
Mick Heppleston reports that it was a ‘Long hard road over Xmas break looking good for SMSP.’, to give readers some idea of the amount of work put in, the OzTruck was damaged all the way around in November and that included internal damage.
Defending champion Jeff Stubbs aim for 2026 is ‘Watch Zac race his own car’
Phil Muffet 2026 motorsport aim was, ‘Run two-wide with Zac Ohara through SMSP turn 1 in round 1 SCA.’
The good news is that Zac will be driving in 2026, he will be in the #1 Holden VT Commodore and potentially the #27 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
David Hender said ‘You never know. We might show up for a skid or two’ and we like that idea, change that might to a will, there has never been a better time to come on back for a run or two.
Laurence Mckinnon is aiming to get his #25 Ford Thunderbird on track in the second round of the season at The Bend which will be held on June 6-7.
Fun Fact: This car was owned by John Nissen who had Morgan Shepherd drive it at the Thunderdome in December 1994 as the #21, it was purchased by Terry Wyhoon a few years later who renumbered it #25 and it then went to Dick Howe who turned it into the #11, this car was the only Ford to win in V8 Stock Cars.
Defending Muscle Car Division champion Michael Rice said that his 2026 motorsport aim was ‘Just to make rd 1 would be awesome in the #108’.
Jeremy Gunson’s aim is to ‘Get this girl on track’, the girl is the ex-FDNY Racing Chevrolet Silverado that actually started life as a Dodge.
Eddie Ivermee says his 2026 motorsport aim is ‘Finally “Dropping the hammer” in the Oldsmobile with Stock Cars Australia National series’, we’ll have more on his Oldsmobile later in this edition.
Pauly Botheras aims to turn a lap in the #14 Holden Commodore that he owns, we certainly think that he will do that this year, he has a lot of people supporting him in that aim.
Now to some car updates
The #41 Ford Thunderbird affectionately known as Charlie and driven by Phil Muffet is getting a deep clean after a successful 2025 season which resulted in a win at Calder Park Raceway.
Eddie Ivermee is getting closer to firing up the engine in his Oldsmobile, the latest from Eddie is that the Radiator is in, the clutch slave cylinder is mounted and working and the power steering is plumbed up.
We haven’t heard from everybody yet so if you like to say your 2026 aim, please do so and we’ll put it in next week’s edition.
There has been a recent increase in the number of videos uploaded to social media with short videos of classic races from AUSCAR to HQ Holden action, this is always good news for fans.
A search has been underway for the locations of the Brad Jones driven Stock Cars ‘Elroy’, ‘Bubba’ and ‘Kevin’ as well as his AUSCARs.
Unfortunately, Macauley Jones last Saturday reported the bad news that ‘Bubba’ was destroyed in an unfortunate fire that burned out of control as the fire crew was reportedly on a break and that leaves Elroy (ex-Cope Lumina) and Kevin (once used Monte Carlo) as unknowns.
We’re still trying to find written or time period verbal proof of where Brad got the ride car known as George from, more about that further below.
Does anybody have a copy of above programme, it is the Round 4, 1998/99 season programme, Phil Muffet is interested in it as it features the #41 and a story on Gene Cook that may have interesting information on the car.
Did you know that Richard White owns the #5 that is also on the cover? it was driven by Max Dumesny, it was then owned by Barry Blake and it is now under restoration at RWR.
Parts Wanted
Do you have a Pontiac Grand Prix bonnet that is just taking up space? Phil Muffet needs one for one of his two Pontiacs, so if you’re eager to sell one, contact Phil.
For Sale
The #8 Monte Carlo is for sale, this car was built in 1999 for Joe Bessey and was run in Winston Cup competition, it was driven by Geoff Bodine and other drivers in 1999 and 2000, it went on to be raced in SCCA competition and then it was brought to Australia by Graham Booth and it has been around SCA since the very beginning.
Don’t worry fans, Richard White Racing isn’t going anywhere, they’ve got plenty of Stock Car racing left in them for the future.
You can buy the car as it is, you can buy the car with a fresh engine, or you can buy the car and have Richard White Racing prepare it for the 2026 season.
Check out the above video to see the car in action at Calder Park Raceway in November 2025, the #8 Monte Carlo had won one race that weekend.
If you’re interested, check out the link above that has all the details and then contact Richard.
If you have a Stock Car, an AUSCAR, a Sportsman or a HQ for sale, drop us a line any time and we’ll advertise it for free, it can be a complete, turn key car, a car missing some parts or even if it is just a roller, we’re also happy to advertise the sale of parts and promote offers for working on cars.
You may just have the car, the parts or the skills that somebody really needs.
Additionally, if you want to buy a car, tell us what you want, what condition you want it (complete or roller) in and your price range and we will post it for you.
Information Most Wanted
We met Paul Scicluna at Calder Park, he is looking for information on his #12 Pontiac Grand Prix.
This Pontiac raced at the Grand Prix round in 1999, it finished 23rd, 10th and 16th for the weekend.
The information we have received is that the car came from Les Kennewell and he got it from Robert Tinworth.
Determining which car from the Tinworth team is not as straight forward as Robert Tinworth said ‘l had 5 of them’ when asked about his cars in 2020.
An advertisement in January 1997 offered four Pontiacs for sale, two front steer cars with 23-degree engines and two rear steer cars that were to be sold as rollers.
One car that gets mentioned a lot is the ex-Kyle Petty Pontiac that was later the Harrington Commodore and then the Tinworth Pontiac, we’ve read somewhere it was sold a few years ago which if true would not be the car we seek as Paul has had his car since before 2000.
We are looking for anybody who may know with absolute certainty where the above ex-Brad Jones, ex-Kim Jane Chevrolet Lumina ride car nicknamed ‘George’ came from.
We have two different opinions on this car; one is that Brad Jones got it from George Elliot (he isn’t sure about that) and the other is that it came from Walter Giles (the Giles family doesn’t believe that) and both arguments are very confident that they are correct.
It has been suggested that it is the Buick LeSabre of Walter Giles, we haven’t found anything to confirm or refute that, a report has been found that Walter’s original chassis went to Mark Harrison but we’re still looking into it.
The car has Oldsmobile parts like the rear bumper, roofline and deck lid, it has Lumina 3/4 windows, and the front was added later on than the rest of the body.
On the dash there is an imprint of a square on the right side indicating that a plate was there at some time, had this remained we would have likely known its origin.
Pink was found in the surviving layers of body paint pointing its history towards Ron Goodman’s car for the Gold Coast in 1992 and Walter Giles who also had pink cars.
The #05 Ron Goodman Oldsmobile was an ex-George Elliot Oldsmobile as stated in the Round 4 1991/92 programme, it was originally claimed to be a car purchased from George, but a later publication said it was ‘lent’ (leased) to Ron by George, and it was given back to George.
The trail for that particular car goes cold after Gold Coast 1992.
As you can see, the right side of this Oldsmobile has a Lumina 3/4 window which is very interesting.
It appears that the Ron Goodman #05 also has a Lumina 3/4 window on its left side too making it a very odd-looking Oldsmobile, just as odd as ‘George’ is.
It would be interesting to know why the Oldsmobile was selected instead of a Lumina, was the #05 originally all Lumina? or was it previously all Oldsmobile and it was in the middle of a reskin?
Assuming it is the Elliot car, either George’s team fully changed the Goodman Oldsmobile into a Lumina after it was given back, or they just replaced the front to a Chevrolet Lumina after the Olds one took a beating on the Gold Coast, and it then served as a ride car with an Olds rear bumper.
Hopefully somebody who worked on George’s team in 1992 recalls a car going to Ron Goodman and then getting it back after the Gold Coast and knowing where it went next.
Somebody out there has to know for sure, Brad Jones getting a ride car had to be a pretty big deal as he only had ‘Elroy’ on hand early on, plus a ride car is a nice way to get more Stock Car laps in too and we believe that would make the car newsworthy.
See you next week.
Aussie Stock Car News 
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