AMC reader John Kingcott was very interested in the story in issue #48 about Allan Grice competing in his famous Cessnock Motors Torana XU-1 at King Edward Park Hillclimb in Newcastle in 1973. John also noticed something we didn’t.
“If you look closely at the front left-hand corner of the car, it is damaged and the headlight surround is missing,” he writes. “This was damage resulting from Gricey rolling the car at Amaroo Park two weeks earlier after an altercation at Honda Corner in one of the heats.”
John was at Amaroo that day, and took a photo of the damaged Torana being returned to the pits on the recovery truck where Grice's team was determined to have the car ready for the final.
“I was in the pits at the time and witnessed the crew attacking the left-hand door which wouldn’t close properly, so out came the hacksaw and the crew cut the window frame off the door to make it close!”
This car went on to compete at Bathurst in 1973 (just a few weeks after it ran successfully at Newcastle) before being sold and competing in Improved Production racing in Queensland. John recalls that it was painted in Holden Dealer Team colours at this time.
Much later it turned up again in Historic Touring Car events, winning the first ever race for Group Nc cars at Amaroo in January 1995. It has since been restored to its original Cessnock Motors glory and has appeared at the Muscle Car Masters.
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