Pro Touring heaven: Optima Ultimate Street Car 2025

He didn’t mean to buy the car and it definitely wasn’t going to be a track car, yet Melburnian Tommy Stockdale’s hi-po wagon rocked up to Calder Park and won the 2025 Optima Ultimate Street Car presented by R&J Batteries at its first attempt.

It wouldn’t be fair to call the 2025 OUSCC winning machine a mere ‘station wagon’ – this is no National Lampoon’s woody wagon, but a state-of-the-art 2022 BMW M3 Touring – and Stockdale says it was the BMW not the bloke behind the wheel making all the difference.

“I’m a total novice,” a humble yet euphoric winner told Street Machine after collecting the trophy – and a trip to SEMA in November – at Calder. “That’s the beauty of this challenge. You can bring a car here, you know, it’s a test for the cars and – I’ve done a little bit of track stuff so I can, I can steer a little bit – but I’d say, I’d say it’s mostly the car. But then again, it’s always mostly the car.”

The BMW M3 Touring – with ‘Touring’ BMW-speak for wagon – makes it four different winners in four years since the OUSC started in Australia, and with the 2025 result has been won by a Holden Monaro, an Audi TT Coupe and now a wild wagon.

MORE Interview: Optima Ultimate Street Car 2025 winner

The Optima Ultimate Street Car, first held in Australia in 2019 before COVID, has gone from strength-to-strength as a unique, stand-alone single-day event.

While it suits Pro Tourers, it pits almost any machine and driver across Autokhana short-track, Speed Stop (go-to-whoa), design and engineering, full circuit laps (road course) as well as drag racing. Same
car, same driver, same tyres – no excuses.

Six classes – Tuner, Outlaw, Exotic, Muscle and Modern – fought for the overall trophy, with 100 points for each category tallied up to determine the overall winner.

MORE How an Audi TT was crowned Australia’s Optima Ultimate Street Car

This year’s entry of 84 cars included 2024 winner Reese McIntosh and his winning Audi TT returning – but Rhys stepped into a BMW M2 with Barnett driving the machine that won last year.

It also saw Heath van der Waerden return in his 2025 Eagle Auto Parts Street Machine of the Year UC-cum-LX Holden Torana hatch as well as plentiful Mustangs, Falcons, Commodores and Monaros mixed with Skyline GT-Rs, Corvettes and SRT Dodges and Jeeps.

There was also a single street-driver Toyota Cressida (from Adelaide), several unassuming (and fast) Subarus and even a 1965 Buick Riviera – complete with four-wheel drum brakes to pull up six metres and 401 cubes of classic Nailhead V8.

Yes, it made the slalom on the autocross very entertaining – from SRT Grand Cherokees spatting mud to James Mackie in his XY Falcon. One of the quietest cars – at least when meandering through the pit area – was Tommy’s battleship grey M3 wagon.

The M3 Touring was launched as a road car in 2022 – the first time the M3 has been made as a wagon in its 40-year history – and being an M-Division product, is already muscled up for a fight.

Its 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six (codenamed S58) already comes off the showroom floor with forged internals – crank, rod and pistons – which Stockdale left alone, but he and the team at Southern BMW have gone to town everywhere else.

Making 375kW as standard – and with a factory 0-100km/h claim of 3.6 seconds through an eight-speed auto and all-wheel drive – it’s a high-performance hero off the bat.

With a customer engine recalibration and literally half-a-dozen coolers and radiators under it – and running on flex-fuel – Tommy says it’s good for 700hp (522kW) at all four wheels.

It also stops and turns thanks to KW Clubsport suspension with weight kept down thanks to a carbon bonnet and vented guards, as well as lightweight Apex 20-inch alloys with – get this – the standard factory issue Michelin Pilot Sport tyres.

Grip was critical at this year’s event, with a delayed start after rain and – as if mimicking the multidisciplinary format of the event itself – saw a classic Melbourne on-and-off again relationship with the sun.

The start to the drag racing in the late afternoon was paused – for hail. The regs state that tyres cannot be changed during the day, so whatever drivers chose to start the Autocross and Go-to-Whoa with was it – and for that, the track was freshly rained up.

Many entrants chose what would save their rides from the wall in the first event – yet they’d have to line-up on a dry track and drag strip later – but the rain came and went at random, making tyre choice a lottery. This year’s winning M3 means the event has been won by four-, six-cylinder and V8 power, as well as rear-wheel and all-wheel drive.

It’s the second year in a row an all-wheel drive car has won, with 2024 winner Reece McIntosh lamenting his rear-drive 2019 BMW M2 – which despite having immense pace, was significantly outgunned in terms of grip on the slippery drag strip.

“I could not get traction at all. We knew if we could get traction we’d do alright; without it we were nowhere. And Tommy did so well – he was top five in every event, and we were top five in every event except the drags.”

Of the four driving battles, McIntosh and Stockdale swept all four judge driving events, taking two wins each.

While the M2 posted the Fastest Time of the Day (FTD) on the autocross – McIntosh’s 51.73 a staggering three seconds ahead of anyone else – things were tighter in the Speed Stop (Go-to-Whoa) and the drag race. Stockdale scored the full points for both, with the M3 Touring’s 10.80 a mere 0.4sec better than the M2’s, but a 11.7-sec quarter-mile in the drag racing was not enough, In tricky conditions, Stockdale made the most of the M3 Touring’s traction for a brilliant 10.47 ET, sealing the event win by with 492 points to outgun McIntosh’s 488.

Despite missing out on back-to-back wins, McIntosh was still satisfied with how he and the car performed in tricky conditions.

“I’m still pretty happy, I think we did pretty well, especially considering two-wheel drive versus the all-wheel drive. I think there was only what – four points in it – which is pretty awesome, because we knew it was going to be close.”

“I’ll build another car for OUSC next year – it’ll probably be an Audi RS3 I’d say. I think you need to have all-wheel drive; I don’t think you can win in a two-wheel drive car – I think if everyone drives well, a two-wheel drive is not going to make it.”

Alex Barnett steered last year’s winning car to third overall, ahead of Mustang Motorsport’s James Johnson in a striking blue RTR Ford Mustang in fourth in the NGK Modern Class and fourth overall.

Fifth outright and first in the Muscle class was the returning Heath van der Waerden in his epic, retro-inspired pro touring Torana hatch fresh from being crowned 2025 Eagle Auto Parts Street Machine of the Year. “The only change I made over last year was a durability change in the oil system that had been plaguing me for years – that seems to be working,” he told Street Machine.

“That’s going in the Spirit of Tasmania tomorrow – I’m driving at eleven-tenths – that is my camping car. My wife and I will be camping in it nearly every night!”.

The ‘Hoonymooning’ Torana beat out Brendon Irvine’s red HQ four-door and last year’s Muscle class-winner John Szwede in his orange LX Hatch. Making it two class wins for a Holden Torana, the flame-spitting LX hatch of Ryan Whitfield took out joint first place in the Outlaw class – after being moved out of the Muscle Car due to a tyre infraction.

This saw Drag Challenge veteran Luke Graham – driving a blown 2013 Commodore SS-V ute – take joint first place in the Outlaws, ahead of Jake Manhire’s 1990 Toyota Cressida.

The 1J-powered Cressida had made the road trip from Adelaide, running on E85, making 360kW at the wheels and running on coil-overs and bargain-hunt turbo.

“It’s a 30/76, $180 off eBay,” Jake laughed. “I blew a genuine Garrett and needed a turbo for an event, so I bought that one and it’s been on the car three years!”.

The Tuner class was won by Connor Whelan in his 2006 Subaru Liberty wagon – yep, another wagon – from Sunbury, only a handful of kays down the road from Calder Park.

Whelan shares Sunbury with a significant number of kangaroos, one of which took out the front of the Liberty only days out from the event, forcing a scramble for new front-end panels – the class win a fitting reward after being runner-up in 2024.

An honourable Tuner class mention must go to Jesse Jury in the genuine barn-find L18-powered Datto 1600 – pulled from mother earth only weeks ahead of hitting the track – which was last, but with a gallant 19.2-second quarter-mile.

The Exotic class was won by Kevin Grech, a Drag Challenge regular with brother Grant in a silver LS-powered VK Commodore also being run at OUSC.

Kevin took the trophy for his black 1999 C5 Chevrolet Corvette – the only entrant in the class after a late Lambo scratching – which was stock-as-a-rock: “It has an air cleaner,” Kev joked.

Yet nothing could come close to the top two BMWs – and Stockdale’s win came as a shock because like most competitors, he was there just to have a ball.

“The event this year I think was a great success, because even though the weather was a little iffy, we worked around that – which we always do, we’re kind of used to that, we’ve run Ultimate Street Car rain or shine for 15 years in the US,” said OUSC co-creator and event host Jimi Day. “I love wagons – I’m a big fan of wagons, and to me nothing says street car more than a wagon – it’s not a race car, for sure.

“That BMW M3 wagon is special, it really is. They’re not available in the U.S. and if they were they’d sell every single one of them – it’s a really special car.

“But it takes more than that – it takes a special car and a special driver to really put it all together to make this work.”

Full results here

OVERALL TOP TEN

Tommy Stockdale, 2022 BMW M3 Touring
Reece McIntosh, 2019 BMW M2 Competition
Alex Barnett, 2015 Audi TT Quattro
James Johnson, 2024 RTR Spec 3 Ford Mustang
Heath van der Waerden, 1978 Holden UC Torana
Riccardo Pontonio, 2016 Mercedes-AMG C63 Estate
John Szwede 1976 Holden LX Torana SS
Brendan Irvine, 1974 Holden HQ
Connor Whelan, 2006 Subaru Liberty wagon
Matthew Fitzgerald, 2023 Audi RS3 sedan

MUSCLE TOP TEN

Heath Van Der Waerden, 1978 Holden UC Torana
Brendan Irvine, 1974 Holden HQ
John Szwede 1976 Holden LX Torana SS
James Mackie, 1971 Ford XY Falcon
Jason Briffa, 1969 Ford XT Falcon
Jake Young, 1997 Ford EL Fairmont
Adrian Richards, 1978 Holden LX Torana SS
Brad McCracken, 1976 Holden Torana
Shannon Dobell, 1977 Ford Fairmont
Grant Grech, 1984 Holden VK Commodore

TUNER TOP TEN (N.B. ONLY 9 ENTRIES)

Connor Whelan, 2006 Subaru Liberty wagon
Zane Heath, 2008 Subaru WRX STi
Macklin Gordon, 1999 Toyota Chaser
Steve Holland, 1961 Morris Mini
Kenneth Broderick, 2011 Infiniti EX37
Ying Bot, 2021 Toyota GR Yaris
Kian Heagney, 1990 Nissan S13 Silvia
Sam Brown, 2001 Subaru Outback
Jesse Jury, 1972 Datsun 1600

OUTLAW

Luke Graham, 2013 Holden VF Commodore SS-V ute/Ryan Whitfield 1976 Holden Torana
Jake Manhire, 1990 Toyota Cressida
Greg Smith, 1957 Ford F100
Casey Thomas, 1971 Ford XY Fairmont wagon
Tim Harper, 1965 Buick Riviera
Mal Schoch, 1966 Lincoln Continental
Nathan Spiteri, 2018 Dodge Challenger
Sam Van de Rheede, 1990 Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R
Xavier Lawrence, 2015 Volkswagen Golf R