THERE’S been a steady stream of classic race cars; on trailers, in vans and purpose-built trucks making their way across the San Remo Bridge for the Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport at the famous Grand Prix Track over the holiday weekend.

And among them was Tony Sawford’s rare Allan Grice’s Craven Mild Torana A9X racing car.

The car carved out its own slice of rare racing history when Allan Grice crashed his only two Torana race cars in 1979 ahead of Bathurst and with the new Holden VB Commodore coming into production, there were no Torana shells available to build, test and drive before the big race.

They bought two privateer Toranas instead and rebuilt them up ahead of several lead-up races and after Bathurst, Grice passed the car on to his chiropractor, or so the story goes.

Now Tony Sawford of Gembrook owns and races the car and when he stopped off for the compulsory fish and chip lunch at the San Remo Fishermen’s Co-op on Thursday, on his way to the Island, we caught up with him for a photo and a chat.

In shiny, as new condition, he clearly loves the car and relishes the chance to show it and race it over the weekend.

“We’re racing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and we’re going into Cowes for the car show on Friday night. There should be some pretty nice cars in there for that,” said Sawford, after popping the fish and chips on the seat of his ute.

Sawford recently spoke to reporter Aaron Noonan in a Shannons video clip about his love for the car and getting out and racing it.

“I’ve always been a fan of the Torana, watching the Brocks, Morrises and all the other guys who used to race Toranas as a Holden fan back in the day and just the things they did to the cars to make them so dominant back in that racing period.