Ouch! Classic Camaros, Holdens, and More Get Crunched In This Racing Crash

Touring Car Masters crash crumples a dozen vintage race cars.

Like their American counterparts, Australians love muscle cars. Starting in the 1960s, the Land Down Under imported in enough and also built enough of their own to have a proper V8-based car culture. And like muscle car fans stateside with vintage Trans-Am racing, the Aussies love to race theirs in the Touring Car Masters series. Unfortunately, hard racing in classic cars means we occasionally bear witness to priceless carnage like the beginning of this TCM race at Winton Raceway in Victoria, Australia.

Caught up in the mess are a couple of classic Porsches and one gorgeous red Camaro that gets doubled-up. Everyone walked away fine from this big wreck, but the repair bills will be huge on this one. Everything goes awry from the Winton’s first chicane, a notoriously tricky part of Australia’s racing world. Polesitter Jason Gommersall gets away from the second-place Holden Torana driven by Aussie legend John Bowe. However, Gommersall puts down the power in his own Holden Torana just a bit too early and spins in front of the entire field.

The chicane kept drivers busy enough that Gommersall’s crash was unsighted for many cars. Eddie Abelnica’s big red Falcon (which looks a bit like a more-attractive AMC AMX) collects the spinning Torana. Then, both cars snag Mark King and his all-red Camaro, which is also clobbered by a vintage Porsche. The first impacts dump water and oil and all kinds of junk on the track, which just makes things worse.

Luckily, every driver escaped with just bruised skin and egos. For the car owners, repairing these classic muscle cars is nothing new. They race a half-dozen weekends a year and, despite its appearnce, this isn’t vintage racing. The drivers don’t let up and they tend to lean on each other. We suspect most of these cars will be back, right as rain, later this year.