Exciting news mid season with the announcement this week that John Illingworth has acquired an outright MG B GT V8 that he will campaign from the 2024 season onwards
John has been an active competitor in his MG ZS V6 production car in recent seasons and has experienced HQ Holden, Saloon Cars and various hillclimb and tarmac rally competition prior. John has kept his eye on opportunities in recent times to move further up the field and this exciting development happened quite quickly.
“I have had my eye on a few options, when I saw this car come up I wanted to have a serious look at it, I didn’t know much about it but have come to find the car is quite well known. I have really enjoyed racing in the series and feel now is the right time to look at the next step” commented Illingworth.
The car is well known, originally built by MG Workshops in Melbourne for John Smallman as an outright competitor it then was campaigned by MG Workshops themselves with Andy McDowell at the wheel before passing through a few hands. The car has always been yellow and was active in local sports car racing in the 1990’s while its development has seen it grow to look quite angry. It has been in Mark Bonnamy’s hands for a number of years and primarily used on private track days with very little competition use, when the car came available John jumped to purchase it and will now set about getting himself familiar with it.
“There are some minor things to get ourselves on top of it, it is going to get some updates to make it compliant for racing, and there’s some checks and balances to do and then I plan to do a few days testing to get acquainted with it but I am looking forward to getting it back out racing. In recent times it has been a private toy although it has had some well known drivers set some solid lap times at Sandown” commented John. The car has had significant upgrades, and much of it’s recent life has seen it follow similar steps as Vince Gucciardo’s car, running Motec computers, Topstage V3 rear aero, a fuel injected Rover V8 and a watts link rear end amongst it’s technical tools.
The car is a welcome addition back to the grid and will be one not to be missed in 2024!
