Stahly’s 1997 Bathurst winner discovered in a junkyard

Old racing cars typically die an inglorious death.

They’ll be pirated for parts, left to rot among good intentions in a shed, and being eventually only valued as scrap, take their final chequered flag in the maw of a metal shredder.

Prior to the baby-boomer boom in historic racing, not even iconic race cars were immune. Peter Brock, speaking to this writer about his HDT Torana A9Xs for a February 1996 Wheels feature (“Once Were Warriors”), admitted: “So far as I’m concerned, a race car is a utensil. When its use-by date is up, it’s up.”

After more than a quarter of a century, the chances of survival for a little-known Ford Falcon EL XR6 production-class racer – the car in which I and two fellow journos took class victory in the 1997 GT Production Three-Hour enduro at Bathurst – should be close to zero.

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However, that car, in substantially one piece and still in its distinctive Ford Motorsport livery, has been discovered languishing in a Melbourne scrapyard.

Newcastle (NSW) motor sport enthusiast David Perkins, a longtime friend of three-time GTP class champion and period XR6 campaigner Chris Sexton, as well as Team Manager for Super3 Series Supercar driver Ryan Gilroy, has bought the car and is already progressing with plans to restore it.

“You’re far from being the only one who has fond memories of that car,” Perkins tells me. “Remember, it ran in official Ford Motorsport colours and because of what it was, generated a lot of media coverage through the season.”

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In 1997, reigning GTP class C champion Chris Sexton was approached by Ford Australia to run a second XR6 alongside his own Yellow Taxis-sponsored car.

The white Ford Motorsport “media” car was to be driven by a different motoring journo at each of the eight GTP championship rounds, with the three least-suicidal drivers being selected for the pinnacle Three-Hour Bathurst Showroom Showdown in October.

Wheels subscribers can use the archive to read the story of this Bathurst debutante’s dream coming true, at this feature.

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We’re looking forward to covering more of the exhumed XR6’s story and its restoration in a forthcoming feature.

What’s already known is that AFL football identity Sam Newman was subsequently loaned the car to gain licence signatures for a Ford-supported XR8 campaign in 1998. The XR6’s mangled rear corner and shattered rear window are just as Newman left them…

Chris Sexton suspects Newman’s tail-first thumping into a Calder Park mudbank has done the car at least one favour.

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“The mud has completely plugged the exhaust pipe, which is normally where moisture can get in and ruin the engine.”

Chris Sexton’s Yellow Taxis Racing XR6 is still in running condition at his home in the NSW northern rivers. David Perkins’ goal is to ultimately reunite the two cars, and their drivers, at Mount Panorama.

I can verify that at least one of these drivers still has all his original Ford Motorsport race gear from Bathurst 1997. Although, fitting into them may be something else again.