There are 35 days to go until the racing action gets underway at Sandown Raceway to wrap up the 2026 season.
Don’t forget there is going to be plenty to see from December 4 to 6, HQ Holden, Excels, the Australian Endurance Championship, Sports Compact, the BMW E30s and the Australian Drivers Championship as well as our mighty Stock Cars Australia.
Everything you need to know about the round can be found right here, it has entry forms and the prices for spectators, it is $20 for Saturday admission, $40 for Saturday and Sunday combined, $30 for just Saturday and kids under 12 are free.
There was a bit of excitement this week when V8 Sleuth’s latest magazine edition contained a story about Future Tourers.
Future Tourers was an unlucky category; after years of preparation, it launched during Supercars dominance of the late 1990s, Supercars was seeing off Stock Cars and Super Tourers as competitors, and they had the V8 Lites that competed for the same kind of market as Future Tourers, the low-cost V8 racing option.
A number of Future Tourers ran throughout the 2000s and some of ex-AUSCARs that were converted to the category are still in Future Tourer specs, at least two have been recently seen, one being an ex-Pretty Holden Commodore.
Stock Car owners got very interested on October 18 when Rusty Cars Down Under announced that the #00 Pontiac (a roller) was up for sale, the #00 Pontiac was driven by Bryan Sala and before that it was a Holden Commodore bodied car driven by Craig Lawless.
We talked to Johnny Ray earlier this week, he’s a guy from America, a nice guy who has a chassis that he is trying to identify the builder of.
The chassis number is 42 4 20 88, there are two other known chassis with similar numbers, and those numbers are 62 11 8 88 and 3 8 10 89.
3 8 10 89 is a definite RCR car, stories have been written about its history so either they are all ex-RCR or the number system that RCR used was fashionable with other teams.
We have spent some time on this and have gotten nowhere, AI suggests RCR, but we need something conclusive and only humans can provide that.
Interestingly one of the cars had a piece of tape on the 9-inch housing cover that read ‘Daytona 3-13-97’ though Daytona was getting work done on the backstretch that particular week.
Our report on Jeremy Gunson’s #4 Chevrolet Silverado was a success; Jeremy has a lot of support both in Australia and overseas and that is great to see.
We’re still battling to become decent 80s style computer game makers; it is usually a case of one step forward and three steps back, but it largely works and it is really cool if you look from an 80s arcade standpoint.
There have recently been some really weird Stock Car videos made on YouTube obviously AI influenced or totally made by AI and these videos talk about the Thunderdome, but the footage bounces from NASCAR to AUSCAR to something else like the ATCC.
Sponsors
Sponsors are very important in motorsport and below are some of the sponsors that either sponsor cars or races in a round.
West Heidelberg Motors are located at 34 Lillimur Ave, Heidelberg West VIC 3081, those who have followed the racing closely would have noticed the business on the front of the #26 Holden Commodore driven by Brad Lighton as well as being a race sponsor.
Burgess Design and Build, they are located at 27 Market St, Goulburn NSW 2580.
Zoom Auto Care offers Mobile mechanical services and Race car services in the Goulburn, Tallong/Marulan and the Southern Highlands areas, if you interested in Zac’s services, call him on 0458132904.
Zoom Auto Care does have a Motor Vehicle Repair License with their license number being 63282.
If you have a car sponsor and you want to give them some promotion just like what you see above, we can do that here for you for free, it doesn’t even matter if you own that particular company.
If anybody is looking for sponsors and wants us to post about it, let us know what packages you are offering, and we will put it up for you right below and on the website for as long as you like.
Sponsors Wanted
Are you and/or your business looking into sponsoring a car? Eddie Ivermee is looking for sponsors for his #23 Oldsmobile Cutlass, this car is the only Oldsmobile in the field, that fact is guaranteed to get attention by photographers and by streaming services like Blend Line TV when they are showing races.
With no less than four rounds in a season and a maximum of four races per round, there is no shortage of visual opportunities for your business, if you are interested, please contact Eddie.
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, please contact Phil and help get the project closer to completion.
Parts For Sale
Need a set of Holden AUSCAR wheels? Brad Hall has a set selling for $500, a saving of $340 from earlier advertisements.
A remote engine oil cooler is selling for $200 on Facebook Marketplace, located in Hervey Bay, a nice area not far from ASCN HQ.
Engines are popular at the moment including a couple of Chevrolet and Dodge engines.
Chevrolet SB2.2 Engine – $25,000
Chevrolet Engine (DAI 048) – $40,000
Dodge R5P7 Engine – $22,400
Dodge 358 Engine – $29,000
Looking for a Scalextric Thunderdome set? There is one on Marketplace, it only has the #17 car and is priced at $150.
Vehicles For Sale
The #9 Chevrolet Monte Carlo that you may have seen with George Kulig is for sale for the price of $20,000 but it is missing an engine, gearbox and brakes.
The car has had Stock Cars Australia experience; it had participated in the Queensland Raceway round in 2024.
If you’re looking for something in the style of the early decades of NASCAR, there is a Ford Galaxie for sale for $25,000, it is a 1969 Ford Galaxie body with a 1989 Randercar chassis with a McGunegill built 347 ci windsor engine, find out more here.
If that does not get your interest, how about a HQ Holden? There’s the #20 HQ Holden complete with the AUSCAR VIN ‘A 625’.
If you want something historic, how about the Future Tourer that James Brock drove to victory at Bathurst in 1999, it was previously the #03 AUSCAR that Peter Fitzgerald had raced, it is for sale for $69,500.
If you want a Generation 5 body shell, one is now available, it is a Camaro made by Five Star, it is the one that Michael Bouts raced at Calder Park in 2023, you’ll find it in the group Race Cars 4 Sale Australia if the link doesn’t work for you.
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, turnkey 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.
Cars Wanted for Buying
Phil Muffet is looking for a Chevrolet Lumina to buy; there are still a number of them in Australia and hopefully somebody is ready to part with one or two, the nicer condition that the car is in, the better.
Information Most Wanted
We are looking for whereabouts of cars and finding out parts of histories on a couple of cars, we’ve had some success in finding cars that have had a little bit of mystery to them whether it is a mystery about their past or their present location is a mystery.
If you have any answers to the following, drop us a line by commenting on this post, messaging on Instagram, sending an email or a message on Facebook.
The #1 VT Commodore began its Commodore life at Fastrack (unveiled in December 1999) before eventually making its way to the O’Hara family and a life in Stock Cars Australia.
The chassis did have a life somewhere before Fastrack, but details have been muddled up, it does offer up one clue, the chassis was a light blue.
So, who aside from John Sidney Racing had a blue chassis?
The #2 Lumina (the ex-Ian Thomas one that Barry Blake was unfortunate to hit) has the above on the dash, it is an Aroneck Racing Car #3 badge, that symbolises that it came from the third car on the team, we’re wondering does anybody from Tropic Coast Racing know if it is original to the car or it was part of a cache of parts and the dash was put in the car.
In 2023, the above #2 Chevrolet that was raced in ARCA was spotted in South Australia and Victoria, it has not been mentioned since, where did it go?
The car was driven in ARCA by Dustin Hapka in 2012 for Wayne Hixson; he drove it at Elko Speedway and Kansas Speedway for 18th and 32nd place finishes.
Last reports suggested that the car was being auctioned, hopefully it is still in the country.
One thing that has puzzled us is that Bob Middleton was driving the #95 at Calder Park Thunderdome in 1999 looking like the above, in 2026 he was driving the #85 in Adelaide and its interior looked the exact same including the red square seen on the right side, a feature seen in Phil Barkdoll’s cars.
Either the #85 and the #95 look exactly the same (and are both ex-Phil Barkdoll cars) or the #95 later became the #85, we’re curious to find out what’s the story.
Do you know the fate of this Ford Thunderbird? It is an ex-Charlie O’Brien car (it is not the #41 Ford Thunderbird) that was driven by Pete Nolan in 1999, it was last known to have been owned by a Rodney Brewer and was the #6, the number was styled just like Mark Martin’s was at the time but it did not have a Valvoline livery.
On the subject of a Ford Thunderbird, if there is anybody in contact with Martin Borrows, we would like to find out what happened to his Ford Thunderbirds, we are hoping that they are still around somewhere as the Thunderbirds are in small numbers and the more that we find, the better.
Does anybody know where the #88 Ford Fusion has gone? It has been a couple of years since it was last mentioned.
Does anybody know who ordered two Commodores for the 2000/01 season, a season that did not happen which resulted in the two cars remaining in the USA? The above car is one of the two.
Now that we firmly believe that the #8/#27 ride car turned #3 Lumina was originally an ex-#31 Race Cars & Engines Oldsmobile that was then used by NASTRAK/George Elliot, we are hoping to find out if the car was the one that was leased out to Ron Goodman in 1992, it has also theorised that Walter Giles used 8/27 when he went between Buick and Chevrolet Lumina eras.
The 05 in 1992 was notable for being an Oldsmobile front and back but had Lumina 3/4 windows just like the #3 Lumina has in the present day, it is also noted that the nose of the #3 Lumina has less paint layers than the rest of the body indicating that was installed later on.
We are hoping there is proof somewhere out there to solidify the story of the car.
That’s it for this edition of Aussie Stock Car News, thank you for coming.
See you next week.
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