HTCAV – 2023 Island Magic report
Words: Chris Ralph
Photos: As listed
Outside of the major historic events, Island Magic has established itself as the most popular meeting of the year amongst the Historic Touring fraternity. Island Magic is usually the last meet of the season, too, which depending on the championship scenario, means there can be a lot to play for.
Held each November at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit and conducted by the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club, (PIARC), Island Magic this year included Formula Ford, Formula Vee, Formula Open, Sports Sedans, Improved Production and the Porsche 944 Challenge, as well as the Historic Touring Cars, so there was plenty to see.
Coincidentally, this year’s 33rd running of Island Magic saw a 33-car Historic Touring entry, including six from interstate. Muscle dominated the grid, with twenty V8s wearing Ford, Chev and Holden badges, two Chargers, two Toranas and three Mazda rotaries. Under 2.0-litre entries included three Cortinas and a lone Mini.
Championship Showdown
With the 2023 HTCAV championship on the line, would current and two-time champ ‘Black Pete’ Meuleman in his black pre-65 Mustang score more points in his class than former Club Champ and ex-President Les Walmsley in the Cortina class?
While separated on-track, the two were neck-and-neck on the scorecard coming into the finale…
Qualifying – Saturday morning sort out
Queensland’s Craig Allan looked to continue his all-conquering Historic Sandown form, placing his newly rebuilt Mustang Fastback on pole ahead of WA’s two Camaro heroes - Paul Stubber and Aldo De Paoli - who qualified on the front row at Island Magic last year.
Darren Collins whipped the ‘Warhorse’ Mustang into fourth ahead of Michael Miceli’s and Ian Mewett’s Fastbacks, but that was his high point. A fire from a split fuel line burned under the bonnet for several minutes in Race 1, ruining more than Darren’s weekend.
Brent Trengrove’s Camaro was next best, qualifying in seventh, ahead of Andy Williams’s Torana and Adrian Moyle’s Camaro. Peter McNiven’s Mazda rounded out the top ten, with Darren Hossack’s purple RX2 stuck to his bumper. Brent’s dad Bill qualified his Mustang toward the back end of the grid, but withdrew before the opening race.
Race 1 – Saturday afternoon shake down
Such was the determination of Stubber to re-assert his dominance over pole-stealing upstart Allan, he rocketed away from the start and immediately sliced 0.2 seconds off his own outright Historic Touring Cars lap record, resetting the mark at 1m45.3s. Take that! He then lounged around in the 1.48s for the win (and the Alan McKelvie Memorial Trophy) while the battles raged behind him.
And rage they did. Allan’s Mustang and De Paoli’s Camaro nipped and tucked with De Paoli finally getting past on lap 6 of 8 before a final lap T1 lockup saw him take the wild ride across the gravel to rejoin at T2 behind Trengrove. De Paoli threw everything at the Chev ahead, but fell short of the final podium place by .006 second!
It was just as torrid further back. The evenly-matched blue Fastback Mustangs of Miceli and Mewett, joined by Williams’s giant slaying Torana, made a flying wedge ahead of the Mazdas of Hossack and McNiven. Miceli won out, finishing fifth, while Williams was usurped by Mewett for sixth after some back and forth between the Torana and Mustang.
Moyle’s ever-quicker Camaro picked up three places to finish eighth ahead of McNiven, while Hossack was stuck in third gear, winding his RX2 to astronomical revs.
Further back, Stephen Pillekers took a T12 swoop to pass Ben Dahlstrom’s Charger at the line, while Jervis Ward’s Falcon Rallye Sprint had the pesky Mini of Richard Hill stuck to his back end like a blowfly.
Race 2 – Sunday morning slides
It was a slippery track for the second stanza, but Stubber’s wildly optimistic guess at when the red lights would go out saw him bolt and be slapped with a 15 second time penalty, knocking him back to third after leading the field to the flag.
Once again, De Paoli and Allan were at each other’s bumpers; the former holding the Queenslander out for the first six laps before the tables were turned and Allan grabbed what would later become the race win by 0.5 of a second, but not before withstanding an all-in De Paoli onslaught.
Behind the podium finishers, the nimble XU-1 of Williams had scooted away from Miceli and Mewett early before Moyle inserted his Camaro into the fray. Driving one-handed to hold third gear in, Hossack was all over this group in the corners, lights ablaze and lifting inside front wheels.
Harassed by Mazdas, Ian Mewett’s Mustang goes a bit deep under brakes.
Credit
Photo: Phil Wisewould
But, on the slightly drying track, it was Moyle’s Camaro muscle that held sway in this five-car battle, finishing fourth ahead of Miceli, Williams, Hossack, Mewett and McNiven, who after a grid stall had scythed his way back up the order.
Rod ‘Hot Chicken’ Hotchkin (Falcon GT-HO) finished eleventh, while brother Brett (aka ‘Chips’) in a similar big Ford had to endure Hill’s blowfly tactics. David almost got the better of Goliath, with the Mini getting alongside the big GT-HO between T11 and 12 before sheer V8 grunt won the Ford a 0.9 sec gap at the flag.
Race 3 – The Victorian Historic Touring Car Trophy
The morning’s iffy weather had worsened by afternoon, and in dim, dank conditions (one hour after the scheduled start) for the last race of the meeting, it was Gorillas in the Mist with headlights.
Stubber walked his car off the line from an unaccustomed lowly P3 grid slot, but soon grabbed the lead. Behind him, De Paoli and Allan continued their entertaining punch up, ahead of the Moyle and Williams stoush. The Mazdas of McNiven and Hossack ganged up on Mewett’s Mustang, as Glenn Miles (eleventh and tenth in the first two races) watched in amusement from his Charger.
As is traditional, the WA Camaros confidently started their lairy demo 1-2 victory slides halfway through the last race, aided by the greasy track. But it wasn’t over yet.
The GT-HOs of Colin Larsen and Brett Hotchkin were chasing the fleet Falcon Sprint of Ward. When Larsen made a big lunge into T4 under Ward, he locked up, lifted, locked up again and eventually dinged into the Sprint. Ward limped into pit lane with a rubbing tyre, but Larsen sat stranded, unable to proceed.
Out came the Safety Car, only minutes before the pin was to be pulled on racing – but yes, there would be one last desperate lap to round out the year.
As the Safety Car pulled off at T12, Stubber and De Paoli bolted away before time – and both copped a 15-second penalty for overtaking before crossing the Start/Finish line. Second on track at the time was John Harrison’s lapped Cortina, with the pack breathing down his neck…
In what was a mad last lap dash, Allan stretched a lead over Williams to one second, who in turn had managed to get ahead of Moyle’s Camaro. Following penalties, Allan, Williams and Moyle filled the podium, with Miceli, Hossack, Mewett, Miles and Trengrove next in a frantic sprint to the line.
Following their penalties, naughty boys Stubber and De Paoli were listed in eighth and tenth place, respectively.
Photo: Phil Wisewould
A Fab Finale
The Makulu Vehicle Storage Driver of the Meeting award went to Williams in his giant-killing (and beautifully presented) Torana, while the Spirit of the Meeting trophy went to Brent Trengrove, who’d suffered distributor module failure in R1, couldn’t make R2, but stormed through the field in R3 from the back of the grid.
And that all-important 2023 Historic Touring Car Association of Victoria Championship result? You can read all about that next time when we’ll review the winners in every class.
(But if you can’t wait, the car in its 60th anniversary of winning races in Australia was triumphant – the Cortina by two points!)
