HISTORIC TOURING CARS

It must have been a real ‘pinch me’ moment for Kiwi touring car icon Paul Radisich

TOURING CAR CHAMPIONS REUNITED

You see, when the two-time FIA World Touring Car Cup winner — 1993 and 1994 — lowered himself behind the wheel of a gorgeous, ground-hugging Ford Mondeo super tourer for the opening round of this year’s Archibalds Historic Touring Car Series at Hampton Downs, he wasn’t sitting in a replica of the car that he drove to his second FIA world cup win at Donington Park on 16 October 1994. This car was the real deal, the very same car, chassis number 94M 003 — the V6-engined, front-wheel-drive Ford built by the engineering company of driver-turned-team owner Andy Rouse in April 1994 and driven into history by Radisich six months later.

Welcome to the new world of ‘historic’ car racing, where active owner-drivers, such as Invercargill businessman Scott O’donnell, believe that if it was built as a race car then it should continue to be used as a race car. O’donnell vividly remembers cheering his fellow Kiwi on when he attended rounds of the British Touring Car Championships (BTCCS) in 1993 and 1994 during his OE. So he must be punching himself today, sharing driving duties with Radisich at rounds of this season’s Historic Touring Car Series.

O’donnell fondly recalls those heady early years, when the rules dictated that the car you raced had to look nearly identical to the road car it was based on — rather than being one of the slick, air-dam-and-spoiler-bedecked examples of only a couple of seasons later. So, when the opportunity came up to buy 94M 003, and a sister car, 95M 006, he jumped at it.

The 94M 003 is the jewel in the crown of the burgeoning collection of historically significant, mainly Ford, tin tops that O’donnell is building up as part of a motor sport section at Transport World — the truck, car, and memorabilia museum set up by his late fatherin-law, Bill Richardson.

Having been built midseason, the car had seen little active use — just a BTCC round each for Rouse team drivers Kelvin Burt and Rob Gravett — before Radisich drove it to the second of his FIA World Touring Car Cup wins on a cool, overcast day at Donington Park.

The car was then shipped to the US with two other Rouse Mondeos for use in the 1996 North American Touring Car Championship — in this case driven by Jeff Andretti. Later, it changed continents again, joining other Mondeos bought by Aussie driver Peter Hills in 1997 for use in the Australian Super Touring Car Championship. However, the car saw little active use, remaining as a spare rolling chassis until Hills transferred the running gear from what had been his primary car — believed to be the former Kelvin Burt 1995 BTCC ARE9506 — into it to defend his 2001 title.

By this stage, Hills had updated the Mondeo’s wheel and aero package to the later

1998 model spec. He passed the car on to fellow Australian Adam Proctor to see out its days in the club-level Touring Car Challenge across the Tasman.

That could well have been the end for 94M 003 had not keen Kiwi car collector and Targa New Zealand founder Mike John bought both it and 95M 006 in 2010. In 2014, John onsold both cars to O’donnell, who put 94M 003 through another comprehensive rebuild, first the body at his own Transport World facility in Invercargill then the running gear at Neale Motorsport’s workshop in Christchurch. The fact that the car wasn’t campaigned for long in the UK, then was largely held as a spare in the US and Australia, has contributed a lot to its condition as a survivor and strength as a reborn race car. Decisions on what to do with 95M 006 — such as whether to keep it in the later aero spec — are still to be made.