GT CHALLENGE SET FOR APRIL 17, 2027 AT GOULBURN SPEEDWAY (NSW)
By Dennis Newlyn.
The prestigious Diamond Air Conditioning sponsored George Tatnell Challenge returns to the 2026-2027 Speedcar season calendar and will be held at Goulburn Speedway on April 17.
Run under the sanction of the Speedcar Association of NSW, the last time this event took place was during the 2019-2020 final season at Sydney’s iconic Parramatta City Raceway.
GT event founder and manager Ken Jenkins made several attempts in immediate following seasons to continue the event honouring the Australian speedway great, but attempts to find a suitable race date on the schedule at a couple of venues could not be finalised and the GT Challenge was not held.
It is hoped the GT Challenge can become a permanent fixture on the NSW Speedcar racing calendar going into the long term future.
“This event honours honours not only one of Australian Speedway’s greatest competitors, but also a promoter’s dream,” Ken Jenkins said.
“George Tatnell was also one of the most colourful, charismatic, flamboyant characters the sport has ever produced.”
The 2027 GT Challenge main event payout prize money total figure contains the iconic “25” George Tatnell race number with the winner’s purse for the 30-lap feature set at $2,525.25c!
Joining long time sponsor Diamond Air Conditioning as a corporate backer for the April 17 sixth running of the GT Challenge is Dennis’s Newlyn’s Speedway Classics magazine with a $500 bonus included in the overall prize money total.
The Classics magazine money will pay $200 to the Hard Charger award winner, while the top three main event placegetters will each receive an additional $100 in cash.
Another highlight will be the running of the Bill Lawler Trophy Dash offering not only a magnificent trophy to the winner but additional prize money incentives, put up by the Lawler family, with $250 to the winner, $150 for the runner-up and $100 to the third finisher. The trophy dash honours the late Bill Lawler who for many years was historian for the Vintage Speedcar Association of NSW
The defending titleholder is Michael Stewart, while Ken Jenkins’ son, Darren, also is a GT Challenge winner. Former Australian Speedcar Champion Adam Clarke is a multi winner comprising the previously decided five event victors.
The George Tatnell family will be in attendance at Goulburn Speedway to watch the 2027 running of the GT Challenge.
George Tatnell died of pancreatic cancer in the early hours of Sunday morning, May 13, 2007 at Sydney’s Calvary Hospital. He was 68.
In 1988 GT became the first man to win both the Australian Speedcar and Sprintcar Championships, when he took the Sprintcar crown at Adelaide’s Speedway Park (City) venue. He was also a multi state and Australian Speedcar Champion, Australian Speedcar GP winner and “World” Speedcar titleholder in a magnificent career that started in Sydney stockcar racing in the early ‘sixties.
