HTCAV - 2024 HTCAV CHAMPIONS - JUST CARS

HTCAV - 2024 HTCAV Champions

Words: Chris Ralph

Photos: Phil Wisewould

Economic conditions may have trimmed the number of race meetings that some JUST CARS racers entered in 2024, but they didn’t trim fierce competition for the big cups. Always hard to win, the Champs once again came down to the last two rounds of the year.

HTCAV – 2024 HTCAV Champions — *2024 HTCAV Champion - Pete Meuleman Group Nb Ford Mustang.*

A vote for diversity

Engines and diffs in the front or back. Eight cylinders, six cylinders, four cylinders – or no cylinders at all. Two or four doors, built between 1952 and 1972, weighing between 600kg and 1500kg or so.

Given such variety, how can cars compete equally? Put simply, if the HTCAV Championship wasn’t class based, no small car would ever get a look-in.

Consistency can beat Speed

In the HTCAV, the more meetings you run, the more championship points you attain. And when your class has up to six fellow Camaros, Mustangs, Minis, Toranas or Cortinas, points can really mount up. Fastest lap in your class for the weekend also adds points, but reliability is golden.

With the youngest cars in the HTCAV now 50+ years old and the oldest more than 70, these maxed-out warriors are living on the edge. As such, only your best five meetings count toward the championship. That means a competitor with the most points can lose out to one with a better five-round score. However, maximum point scorers are still recognised, via the President’s Cup.

2024 HTCAV podium

1. It’s a Three-Peat (sort of) for Black Pete!

Mustang man Peter Meuleman won his first championship in 2021, went back-to-back in ’22, but Les Walmsley (ex-Charger, now Cortina) denied him a hat trick in ’23 - by two points.

In 2024, Pete’s all-black pre-65 Mustang triumphed over the Cortina of Don Knight; the car’s speed and reliability proving to be unbeatable.

Pete’s key to success? After every race, the Mustang was up on jacks, wheels off, spanner checking, bleeding, adjusting and cleaning everything. This approach gave “Team OCD” (what Pete calls himself and his crew of old surfie mates, Tony and Ryan) a 100 per cent reliability record.

2. Is Don. Is Good.

For much of 2024, Don Knight was a force in the Cortina class. The veteran driver and ex-HTCAV President led the championship for most of the year, only to be run down at the end – a leaking fuel pipe in Race 2 at Historic Sandown didn’t help his cause.

Spannered by son Leigh, Don's Cortina competed in seven of eight rounds, accumulating 198 points to take the 2024 President’s Cup.

3. Captain Reliable – Coxy!

After years of being shackled to his Racer Industries mobile shop in the pits, selling everything racers need, Gordon Cox now races the blue MkII Cortina he tows behind the RI van.

Competing in seven meetings at Victorian circuits, plus Mallala and The Bend in SA, Coxy credits the fast and furious multi-race card at Historic Mallala as the turning point in his 2024 season.