SupercarXtra Magazine issue #129 is on sale now! It’s a champion drivers special edition, celebrating the greatest drivers in the history of Australian touring cars.

CLICK HERE to purchase the print edition of issue #129.

CLICK HERE to purchase the digital edition of issue #129.

The drivers’ edition follows on from Holden and Ford special editions published in 2022 and 2023.

Issue #129 includes the following:

The race of champions: How a ‘Race of Champions’ grid would look.

The king of the hill: Shane van Gisbergen’s rise to the top.

The flying Kiwi: Scott McLaughlin’s dominant run in 2019.

The greatest of all time: The case for Jamie Whincup being the greatest.

Lowndes’ greatest victories: The greatest wins of Craig Lowndes’ career.

MR. HRT: Mark Skaife’s rule with the Holden Racing Team.

Gentleman Jim: Jim Richards and his career peak with Nissan.

True blue battler: Dick Johnson’s successes with Ford.

Preparation & perseverance: Larry Perkins’ endurance mastery.

Brock’s best: The wins, cars, numbers and more of Peter Brock.

Blue blooded: Allan Moffat in his own words.

Mr. versatility: Colin Bond looks back on his versatile career.

Stormin’ Norman: The first star of touring cars, Norm Beechey.

Champions & records: The honour roll, champions and records.

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SupercarXtra Magazine is partnering with Speedcafe.com, bringing together two of the biggest names in the Australian motorsport media landscape.

The new arrangement allows readers to subscribe to the magazine directly from the most widely used motorsport website in the nation. It will also see content supplied in the magazine by Speedcafe.com’s award-winning journalists, as well as the inclusion of a ‘Powered by Speedcafe’ logo on the front cover of the magazine from the next edition, issue #129, which will be on sale in the coming week.

The partnership will mean that SupercarXtra will have access to a much larger pool of writers and photographers, meaning a better publication for its loyal readers. It’s good news as well for our valued advertisers and commercial partners, who will now enjoy a larger reach. There will also be a number of other new and exciting initiatives that will be unveiled in the near future.

Rest assured that your favourite magazine will continue to be full of entertaining articles and awesome photography from the past and the present. We also plan to continue our extremely popular Bathurst book series.

“I’m really quite excited by this joint venture,” said SupercarXtra publisher, Allan Edwards.

“This will give us the reach to grow the publication which in turn will avail us with the resources to take the magazine to the next level.

“I’d really like to thank the owners of Speedcafe.com – who clearly believe that print publications are still an important part of the overall media landscape – for their belief in, and support of, the SupercarXtra product.

“As we head towards our quarter of a century anniversary, our small but loyal SupercarXtra team can’t wait to start working with the crew at Speedcafe.com to make this publication even better than it has been over the past 23 years.”

Speedcafe.com owner Karl Begg added: “Speedcafe.com is pleased to partner with the team at SupercarXtra to provide the latest news in motorsport from Australia and around the world.

“We all love the digital world, websites, apps, social media, but at the end of the day the desire to hold something tangible and have something to put on the coffee table is still there for a lot of people.

“The magazine will be able to draw on Speedcafe’s world class editorial team to supplement the already fantastic SupercarXtra coverage.”

Ford’s storied history in Australian touring cars has produced hero cars and stars throughout the decades, as we celebrate in SupercarXtra Magazine issue #128, a Ford special edition.

CLICK HERE to purchase the print edition of issue #128.

CLICK HERE to access the digital edition of issue #128.

The Falcon is without doubt the most storied Ford name, with the home-grown models winning in the Group C and V8 eras.

The XC GS500 delivered Ford its most famous moment with the one-two formation finish at Bathurst in 1977. For a fairytale moment, it is the XD and Dick Johnson’s recovery from ‘The Rock’ incident in 1980 to winning the championship-Bathurst double in 1981.

The XY GTHO Phase III is probably the most sought-after Falcon, while the XR will go down in history as the first V8-powered winner at Mount Panorama. The BA ended Holden’s rule with a dominant three-year period, while the FG X marked the end of the Falcon era. All could be considered iconic Falcons.

Allan Moffat and Dick Johnson stand out in terms of Fords legends, taking the fight to Holden hero Peter Brock across three decades. Before them it was Ian Geoghegan, who was Ford’s first star with a run of four championships in his Mustang in the 1960s.

Moffat started the Falcon success in the championship in 1973 and battled for supremacy against Brock at Mount Panorama. When Moffat moved on to Mazda, Johnson stepped up and took over the Ford mantle with his heroics at Mount Panorama.

Glenn Seton and John Bowe were the dominant Falcon drivers at the start of the V8 era, winning three championships.

After Holden became the dominant force, Marcos Ambrose endeared himself to Ford fans by ending the Commodore’s rule with two successive championship wins. Mark Winterbottom will also go down as a Falcon legend for winning Bathurst and a championship in the midst of a period of Holden rule.

Triple Eight’s Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup claimed the only Bathurst three-peat for the Falcon at Bathurst before Triple Eight’s defection to Holden, with Scott McLaughlin flying the Ford flag in recent years with a run of titles.

The Repco Supercars Championship fires up the lights for the only night event of the season, the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight at Sydney Motorsport Park, with the title battle heating up entering the second half of the season.

There was a change in the championship lead last time out in Townsville, with Erebus Motorsport’s Will Brown topping the standings for the first time in his career, sitting ahead of teammate Brodie Kostecki by seven points.

The Triple Eight Race Engineering duo of Broc Feeney and Shane van Gisbergen follow in third and fourth place respectively, with Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert best of the Ford runners in fifth place.

Despite Ford scoring a first on-track win of Gen3 in Townsville, questions remain over the performance of the Mustang relative to the Camaro following recent engine and aerodynamic tweaks. The fast and flowing Sydney Motorsport Park will be an interesting gauge for the relative performance of the Gen3 cars.

There will be two different race formats across the two races at the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight.

The below is your guide to the event, featuring the event schedule, preview, team and driver profiles and more.

The Falcon name has gone from Australian showrooms and race tracks. But it will always be remembered as Ford Australia’s much-loved home-grown car, especially amongst fans of Australian touring cars who saw the Falcon race across six decades.

In the 50th anniversary of the Falcon’s first Australian Touring Car Championship win, SupercarXtra Magazine issue #128, a Ford special edition, celebrates the history of the Falcon.

CLICK HERE to purchase the print edition of issue #128.

CLICK HERE to access the digital edition of issue #128.

When that last Falcon crossed the line in Newcastle in 2018, it had been 58 years since the first left an Australian touring car grid.

In that time 14 of Ford’s Bathurst wins and 17 of its Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) titles have been grasped, grabbed, stolen or simply run away with in racers wearing the badge. The Mustang Supercar may have history on its side and will continue to build on that into the Gen3 era, but it still has big shoes to fill.

Ford might have shone during Australian touring car racing’s Appendix J era, but it would be an even more definitive presence as the late 1960s came into view.

In the new Improved Production category of 1965 – the class that now determined the Australian Touring Car Championship – its V8-powered Mustang became the weapon of choice, winning five straight ATCC titles between 1965 and 1969.

In the Series Production category that had ownership of the Bathurst 500 and other events, the Falcon would once again become Ford’s front-line racer and make an even bigger impact.

When the new XR GT finished one-two in its first time out at Bathurst in 1967, the first win for a V8 at the Mountain, it set a Bathurst-winning blueprint that still prevails today.

Dominant Bathurst victories in 1970 and 1971 for its XW and XY successors, plus countless other Series Production wins, would cement this generation of Falcon as a touring car legend of legends. But it would only just sneak in an ATCC title.

While Falcons did contest Improved Production events during the early 1970s, including Ian ‘Pete’ Geoghegan’s famous Super Falcon, they never managed to truly get one over the Mustangs, the other American muscle cars that had owned the category from the start. But when the ATCC and Bathurst were brought together under the same wing for 1973’s new production-based Group C formula – stripping the Mustangs and other American muscle cars of their status as Australian touring cars’ premier attraction – it would be Ford factory driver Allan Moffat and his mighty XY GTHO Phase III that claimed the maiden Group C title, giving the soon-to-be superseded Falcon racer a final battle victory.

Through seven generations, issue #128 revisits the highlights of an Australian touring car legend, the Falcon.

The Repco Supercars Championship returns to the north of Queensland for the NTI Townsville 500 on the Reid Park street circuit, the sixth round of the 2023 season.

Following a surprising set of results last time out in Darwin, the championship battle resumes amongst ongoing parity debates with the Chevrolet Camaro having won 14 of the 15 races held in 2023.

Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki leads the championship by 59 points from teammate Will Brown, ahead of the Triple Eight Race Engineering duo of Broc Feeney and Shane van Gisbergen. Chaz Mostert is the best-placed Ford runner in fifth place, though the Mustang runners are losing touch in the championship race.

After first wins in Darwin, Team 18 and Matt Stone Racing will be out to continue their strong run of form, with Brad Jones Racing and PremiAir Racing the only Chevrolet teams yet to win a race in 2023.

The NTI Townsville 500 features two 250km races, with the grid for each race set by a single qualifying session followed by a top 10 Shootout.

Dick Johnson Racing stood on the brink of extinction entering 2013, facing mounting debts, a lack of sponsors and poor on-track results. Less than a decade on, it was back on top as one of the powerhouse teams in Supercars.

It was the latest remarkable comeback story from a team that built its legend on fighting back from adversity, as we reflect on in SupercarXtra Magazine issue #128, our Ford special edition.

CLICK HERE to purchase the print edition of issue #128.

CLICK HERE to access the digital edition of issue #128.

the legend of Dick Johnson and Dick Johnson Racing was born with the championship and Bathurst double in 1981, a year after the devastation of crashing out of Bathurst after hitting a rock while leading. It wouldn’t be the last adversity they faced, with even more remarkable and complex fightbacks over the coming years.

Dick Johnson Racing is currently one of the leading Ford team in Supercars, with a tally of 10 drivers’ championships, becoming the first team to win championships with three different car models – the Falcon, Sierra and Mustang.

It is remarkable to think, then, that Johnson’s team was almost lost to Supercars, following the trough of a 10-year period in which it went from champions to also-rans and near financial collapse to champions again and a current powerhouse outfit.

Dick Johnson Racing’s championship win with James Courtney in 2010 masked the trouble the team was in following a few bleak years. The collapse of 2005 title sponsor Westpoint and the failure of Johnson’s FirstRock Mortgage Centre and V8 Telecom businesses put the team’s budget under great strain, with its impact still felt despite Jim Beam’s backing leading into the championship-winning season.

The bubble burst in the immediate aftermath of the championship win. Charlie Schwerkolt, who owned 50 percent of the business, left in acrimonious circumstances. He leased the #18 entry (his half share in the two-car team) to Dick Johnson Racing for 2011 and 2012. But with a two-year maximum lease option and Schwerkolt eager to start his own outfit, Dick Johnson Racing was left with just one entry, the #17.

Championship-winning team manager Adrian Burgess and James Courtney also jumped ship, leaving significant voids for a team with a budget deficit. Experienced Englishman Malcolm Swetnam replaced Burgess as team manager, and rookie James Moffat teamed with Steven Johnson. But they didn’t produce results befitting the reigning champions with two podiums a far cry from the previous season. The customer Triple Eight Race Engineering Ford FG Falcons were rarely competitive, while Triple Eight had moved on to Holden and Dick Johnson Racing fell down the pecking order of Ford teams.

More significantly for the long-term, though, was the arrival of Ryan Story in an official capacity. Story was a devoted Dick Johnson Racing fan who had a doctorate in mathematics and had developed a lucrative data mining/statistical analysis business. He provided some sponsorship to the team before developing a business plan to attract new backers. His expertise would prove critical in the coming years.

Dick Johnson Racing doubled its operation in 2012 with an expansion to four cars. The two entries that arrived were from tie-ups with Dean Fiore and his Triple F Racing license and Paul Morris and his Paul Morris Motorsport license.
The extra entries would give the team the option to hold on to a license when the Schwerkolt #18 would leave at the end of 2012. Also, with Jim Beam recommitting its sponsorship for the entries of Johnson and Fiore, internet-security company Norton could join as title sponsor of Moffat’s car.

The four-car setup proved unsustainable, though, and the team slipped further down the grid with Johnson the best-placed entry in 17th. Swetnam left the team in April with title sponsor Jim Beam and investor Maurice Pickering also departing at the end of 2012. It was Pickering who had been working on a potential switch to Mazda for the team with the Car of the Future regulations coming in for 2013, though Dick Johnson Racing was left battling for survival entering the new era.

A potential title sponsorship deal with Hungry Jack’s fell through with the late delivery of Supercars’ television-rights deal, adding to the strain given the added cost in the transition to the Car of the Future. Wilson Security stepped up with sponsorship, and Crimsafe co-founder Steve Braback remained loyal to Johnson, while Story became heavily involved by running the budget to ensure the team stayed afloat.

Two cars were entered in 2013, despite initial fears the team would be unable to afford to go racing. With Schwerkolt taking the #18 entry and Morris selling his license, Dick Johnson Racing held onto the #17 and leased the #12 from Fiore. Tim Blanchard and Jonny Reid were the drivers with Steven Johnson forced to vacate the seat to the pay drivers, though Reid was soon replaced by rising star Chaz Mostert.

It was in the second half of 2013 that the stars began to align for Dick Johnson Racing. Mostert claimed a remarkable win at Queensland Raceway, a just reward for those who had worked so hard to keep the team going. But it was off track at the next Queensland round on the Gold Coast when the team’s future partner came into the picture, with Team Penske entering the equation.

Prodrive Racing Australia (now Tickford Racing) experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows in 2015, from dominant race wins with both veteran Mark Winterbottom and rising star Chaz Mostert to the latter’s horrific qualifying crash at Bathurst. We look back at how the friendship between the teammates shaped the team’s incredible campaign with the then new FG X Falcon in SupercarXtra Magazine issue #128, our Ford special edition.

CLICK HERE to purchase the print edition of issue #128.

CLICK HERE to access the digital edition of issue #128.

It was a weekend that defined the championship. Mostert’s season-ending crash on Friday at Bathurst opened the door for Winterbottom to take control of the 2015 championship. But there he was plodding around well outside the 10 on race day, nowhere near enough to put a lock on the series and keep his 300-point lead over Craig Lowndes and David Reynolds.

On lap 102, his car was pitted in the key call of the race; the dice was rolled and he was the first onto slicks at the end of a wet stint. When Lowndes pitted on the next lap he returned to the track just in front of Winterbottom. He had jumped from nowhere into contention. The risky call worked.

Up until Bathurst the season had been all about the competitive tension between the young charger Mostert and the experienced old fox Winterbottom; different energies from two drivers at very different parts of their careers. And motor racing is all about controlling energies and maximising the return.

Prodrive Racing Australia (now known as Tickford Racing) managed it well in 2015. Hence the fact that prior to Mostert’s injury, it held first, second and third in the championship with Reynolds also coming to the party.

With Mostert out, the title was Winterbottom’s to lose, and after more than a decade of knocking on the door, his quest was made easier on Friday afternoon at Bathurst. Not that he was thinking that way; his teammate had just been hurt and it took a while to even turn his attention to the title.

“I was sitting in the car waiting to go out and they announced there had been a big crash; I knew Chaz was on the track and I was hoping it wasn’t him,” said Winterbottom.

“Then I saw the crash, and I really didn’t want to get in the car and do qualifying. It is not that I was scared or anything; I was taking an emotional battering.

“Yes, he’s a competitor, but he’s also a friend. When it happened, I was thinking about him and not the championship; I couldn’t believe it when someone asked me that a little later… ‘Are you serious?’ was my reply.

“You just don’t think that way, and at any rate, it is not how you want to win the championship.”

While the battle between Winterbottom and Mostert was fascinating, it relied on the team getting the 2015 Falcon racer right. Despite the protestation of the Holden teams, the Falcon was clearly handicapped with its aero package prior to 2015. It took a while to get some upgrades on the FG and to restore the aero balance when it had its rear wing trimmed to help the others.

The change to the FG X in 2015 gave the drivers a more stable car to race, especially under brakes, and the once under-the-pump team became the dominant force in pitlane.

With a better car to drive, the drivers were making fewer mistakes and because they were starting at the front and controlling the pace, the team was doing likewise. It looked like a different team from its previous guise as Ford Performance Racing; a united team.

The Repco Supercars Championship heads north for the Betr Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway, the fifth round of the 2023 season.

The championship battle is shaping up between Erebus Motorsport and Triple Eight Race Engineering, with the Chevrolet Camaro having the edge on the Ford Mustang with 11 wins from 12 races between the two leading Chevrolet teams.

Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki leads the championship by 87 points from teammate Will Brown, with Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert holding on in third place from Triple Eight Race Engineering’s Shane van Gisbergen and Broc Feeney.

The Betr Darwin Triple Crown features three 100km races with a compulsory stop for a minimum of two tyres, with the three-part knockout qualifying format setting the grid for the opening race on Saturday followed by two single sessions for Sunday’s two races.

The event will be run exclusively on Dunlop’s super soft, the same as the previous round at Symmons Plains Raceway in Tasmania.

The below is your guide to the event, featuring the event schedule, preview, team and driver profiles and more.

Ford’s most famous moment in Australian touring cars is Allan Moffat Racing’s one-two formation finish at the 1977 Bathurst 1000. Allan Moffat recounted that iconic moment in the history of not only Ford but also the Great Race at Mount Panorama in in SupercarXtra issue #128, a special Ford edition.

CLICK HERE to purchase the print edition of issue #128.

CLICK HERE to access the digital edition of issue #128.

Wind the clock back to 1967 and you’ve got the first Falcon V8 rocking up at Bathurst, winning and ushering in a new age for Australian-made cars. Fast forward to 1987 and it is the Sierra heralding a new era for the brand. Trip onwards to 1997 and the maiden V8 Supercars title with Glenn Seton, 2007 and another Bathurst win for Triple Eight Race Engineering with Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup and 2017 and DJR Team Penske’s rise to the top.

Slap two sevens together, meanwhile, and you arrive at a year when Ford’s biggest star of the day, Allan Moffat, absolutely steamrolled the opposition, first to his third championship, then to his fourth and final Bathurst win, the latter with a crushing one-two formation finish that would haunt Holden fans until Peter Brock and his Holden Dealer Team finally equalled the feat in 1984. For many Australian touring car devotees who view the world through a blue tint, 1977 might just be the most sacred year of all in Australian motorsport.

Nothing could touch Moffat and his Moffat Ford Dealers team in 1977. There were 11 rounds in that year’s Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) – in a forerunner to today’s all-in-one championship seasons, it included the Sandown, Adelaide, Surfers Paradise and Phillip Island enduros – and Moffat ran away with seven of them.

Teammate Colin Bond, who had controversially been tempted away from the factory Holden Dealer Team to drive for arch-rival Ford, won another race. Six of their combined eight wins were done with one-two finishes. Add the famous Bathurst one-two finish to that and you’ve got nine wins out of 12 for the team, seven of them one-twos. That’s a lot of winning, but ask Moffat about 1977 and, like most fans, his thoughts jump straight to the big one, Bathurst. Or, more specifically, the brake issue that slowed him late in the race.

“Would you believe me if I told you I only drove about 12 laps towards the end there with the brake pedal on the floor?” he says. “(It happened) when I went across the top of the hill, across McPhillamy. The moment I went down through the Dipper the pedal went down to the floor.

“I thought, ‘Shit! I’ve got to turn left at the end of this corner!’ I was ready to throw it into first gear, I can assure you of that!”

The team orders that followed, sealing the Moffat-Bond one-two running order, have generated plenty of debate over the years, but to Moffat it’s all pretty simple. If there had been a threat to the team victory, he would have let Bond go. With their nearest rivals more than a lap behind, the pressure was off and the ultimate form finish could be enacted.

“I was conscious of the one-two aspect even before I had no brakes, we were so far ahead of everyone else,” he says.

“I was already slowing down and trying to close the gap. At one stage I had a full lap ahead of him (Bond). I wanted him up with me so we could get the one-two finish.

“So he was second in command. He was there and as long as I was in front and keeping going, I wasn’t getting on the phone going, ‘By the way, mate, I haven’t got any brakes so, you know, you better come up and catch me.’ It was really only with about four laps to go that he got up to me.”

In any case, says Moffat, the final call was made out on the track. There was nothing stopping Bond from nipping in front of his boss, but he respected the deal.

“We get up to that last little bridge,” says Moffat, using his hands to illustrate the two Falcons’ relative positions.

“I’m already in first gear because I didn’t need to bother with the brake pedal; I didn’t have one! And Colin’s come down here like this, and I’m here and he’s there, and we’re trying to go around the bend.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘I’m sending you a telepathic message, back off, we’re going around the corner together!’ and, well, he did back off and we came around the corner like that.

“By the time we got to the last straight we were already like that [places one hand slightly in front of the other] and Colin never went to pass and that’s how we finished. And to this day the photographs show the number one of my car and the number two of his, the best bloody form finish of all time!”

While competitive angst between teammates is common today, Moffat says it wasn’t a factor back in 1977.

“Colin was never anything other than pleasant about it,” says Moffat.

“I was in charge of the team and he was very gracious about it. He’d got more money that year than he’d ever seen in his life!”