The Aussie car scene was rocked in September 2023, when Perth street machinerand all-round top bloke Nigel Warr was killed in a motorcycle accident, having only recently turned 60 years old.

Nigel had a stack of cool cars to his credit, but was most famous for 74UTE, his stunning HQ ute that we featured in aspirated form in the May 2020 issue.

Nigel and the ute came runner-up to Billy Shelton’s SICKO VL in the Red CentreNATS Grand Champion chase in 2021, before coming back to Alice in 2022 to snare the title outright.

Not satisfied with that accolade, Nigel brought the ute to Street Machine Summernats 35 in 2023 and ended up finishing in second place behind winner Livi Krevatin’s Porsche 911.

Today, Nigel’s son Thomas has continued the family tradition in the show-and-go stakes by taking 74UTE to victory as Bursons Auto Parts Grand Champion of Motorvation 38.

Thomas celebrated the victory with his mum Donna and sister Abbey, along with some of his dad’s close mates, including racers Anthony Begley and Craig Glassby.

Tom and the ute saw off a strong field of Grand Champion contenders, with the top three being rounded out by Ian Latta’s 13B rotary-powered Morris Minor ute and last year’s Grand Champion, Mitchell Rando in his fresh EH Holden.