{"id":909787,"date":"2026-09-29T12:42:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909787\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T12:42:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:42:21","slug":"last-ever-group-c-winner-returns-to-scene-of-final-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/909787\/","title":{"rendered":"Last ever Group C winner returns to scene of final win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">THE car which won the last ever period race for Group C touring cars is returning to the same circuit, 42 years on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Tilford Touring Car Cup at next month\u2019s Baskerville Historics will feature two former Roadways Racing VH Commodores with strong connections to the Tasmanian venue, including the car that Allan Grice drove to victory in the final race of the Group C era \u2013 a non-championship event which was held at Baskerville in 1984.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That Commodore \u2013 the \u2018100 mph car\u2019 that previously qualified on pole position for the 1982 James Hardie 1000 \u2013 will be driven at the Baskerville event by the car\u2019s owner, long-time historic Group C competitor Ed Singleton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Singleton is also bringing the ex-Steve Harrington, STP-liveried Commodore nicknamed \u2018Elvis\u2019 to the Hobart circuit, which will be driven in the Tilford Touring Car Cup by Ben Grice, son of Allan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Adding to the nostalgia is the fact that the original builder and preparer of both cars, Roadways Racing\u2019s Les Small, has been engaged in recent years by Singleton to prepare and run the cars.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/26-09-29-Baskerville-2-1-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-266194\"  \/>Allan Grice and Steve Masterton battle at Baskerville in 1984. Photo: Bruce Smart (oldmotorsportphotos.com.au)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The final Group C event at Baskerville in 1984 was contested by a six-car field.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They were the two Roadways entries for Grice and Harrington, two Kmart-supported Commodores for Warren Cullen and Andrew Harris, the XE Falcon of Steve Masterton and a one-off appearance by a young <a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/stats-driver-110-Glenn-Seton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Glenn Seton<\/a> in the turbocharged Nissan Bluebird.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The connection between the Roadways Racing team and Tasmania \u2013 specifically, the Baskerville circuit \u2013 runs deep, as the Roadways road sealing company was established by the late Ian Harrington, father of former driver Steve, in Hobart in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The senior Harrington was himself a passionate motorsport enthusiast and state level competitor, and a former President of the Hobart Sporting Car Club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While he passed away in 1997, his company Ian Harrington Group completed the first complete resurface of the Baskerville circuit in 2016.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/superstore.v8sleuth.com.au\/products\/gricey-the-story-of-allan-grice-oam-book?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=buy-button&amp;utm_content=buy-button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/gricey_3b71a7a3-ef0b-44f5-a49f-24fce0d5e25f.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A large field of Group C and A touring cars are expected for the Tilford Touring Car Cup, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/the-revival-of-a-1983-race-name\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">which in another revival of past traditions carries the name of a touring car race supported by the same sponsor at Baskerville in 1983.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/91-bathurst-winner-set-to-race-in-hobart\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Among the drawcards in the field will be the Nissan GT-R driven to victory in the 1991 Tooheys 1000 by Jim Richards and Mark Skaife.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Baskerville Historics event will take place over October 16-18.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Small-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-266195\"  \/>Original Roadways Racing car builder and preparer, Les Small, tends to the \u2018Elvis\u2019 STP Commodore on a test day at Winton. Photo: Ed Singleton<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baskerville Historics is a V8 Sleuth advertising partner<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.v8sleuth.com.au\/video-grice-stoked-to-drive-fathers-commodore\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VIDEO: Grice \u2018stoked\u2019 to drive father\u2019s Commodore<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE car which won the last ever period race for Group C touring cars is returning to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-909787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}