Historic Shelby GT350 headed for Sandown Historics

Terry Lawlor’s Shelby GT350 will be one of the many stellar attractions to feature at the Sandown Historic 30 Years of Thunder this weekend on November 4-6.

Lawlor recently took out the Heritage Touring Cars at the Bathurst 1000 in his Falcon XD that was piloted by Bob Morris and Bill O’Brien, and he now heads to Sandown with his storied and brutish GT350 to take on the HTC field.

It first raced in America between 1966 and 1971 in American club racing, but its history of historic victories has since been staggering.

Lawlor took it to the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca, America’s largest historical race meeting, where he stormed to victory over his yankee rivals in 2015 and 2016. He also raced it at the Indianapolis Speedway and at the Classic Daytona 24 Hour.

Lawlor’s Shelby GT350 that won the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca will be racing at the Sandown Historics

“We took it to Monterey to compete against the yanks where we beat over 40 of them,” Lawlor said fondly.

“We started the pre-union at Laguna Seca the week before and qualified it in 17th, and then they started telling me how I should be racing on the track. Before they knew it, we were climbing up the spots and then took out the victory which was really special…they stopped talking to me after that.” 

Lawlor’s Shelby GT350 in action at the Indianapolis Raceway in the States

In Australia, Lawlor has raced this particular car in Group S Sports cars since 2013, where it has broken lap records at Bathurst SMP, Phillip Island, and Sandown itself, where it’s in its element on the two big straights. 

At the Sandown Historic it will race in the Historic Touring Cars Group Sb, for sports cars built between 1961-1966.

“We love racing at Sandown, it’s a big horsepower track that really suits the Shelby. She loves to stretch her legs out there,”Lawlor continued.

Lawlor’s Shelby GT350 has raced such historic tracks such as Daytona, Indianapolis, and Laguna Seca

“Last year was quite wet so hopefully it dries up a bit, and it’ll be great to race in front of some fans, which was really something that was missing last time around. Because you can see the whole track, it’s a really great grandstand.”

“We’ll be racing against other Shelby’s and some big-block Corvettes, so it’ll be stiff competition to say the least, but hopefully we’ll prevail.”

Other classic categories running at the event are the Historic Formula Fords, Formula 5000’s and HQ Holdens.

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