Full Weekend of Historic Action at Phillip Island
The Phillip Island Classic ‘Festival of Motorsport’ historic racing this weekend in March is shaping up to be highly competitive with many past champions and legends of the sport competing in classic cars of yesteryear.
In the JK, LB and Invitation events close racing is expected with Nick McDonald in the Repco Holden, David Reid in the Faux Pas and Andrew Makin in his first outing in the Nalla Special. Also racing in this class are two highly competitive ladies with Samantha Dymond, winner of the 2019 Diana Davison Ladies Trophy in the VHRR Club Championship, in the Lola Mk.1. against Elisabeth Bailey from NSW, racing the GAS Formula Vee plus some eight other Formula Vee’s.
Within MO and Invitation Racing, two-times Bathurst 1000 winner, John Bowe will drive Peter Strauss’s Formula1 BT31 (ex Jack Brabham), Laurie Bennett will be in the Elfin 600B, Sean Whelan in the BT30 Brabham, Andrew Robins and Andrew Robson in BT30 Brabham’s and the hard charging Penrite BT16 Brabham will be driven by Keith Simpson. Of great interest will be the competition between Nick Bennett in the Elfin 600 and his father Laurie.
Event Patron and six-time Bathurst 1000 Winner, Larry Perkins will be challenged in the 5 litre Touring Cars by Chris Stillwell, Touring Car Champion and son of Australian Motorsport legend Bib Stillwell driving the ex Dick Johnson AU Falcon, Ed Singleton, President of the Heritage Car Association in the GRM Valvoline Cummins VT Commodore, Brad Till driving the ex Ford Tickford Racing AU Falcon and Allan Nash and Garry Collins will be driving the ex Jack Daniels VE Commodores.
Historic Touring Car racing will feature Western Australian Paul Stubber who has just returned from the USA after competing in 40 race meetings. He will be driving his very fast 1969 Camaro against local legend John Mann in his 1969 Camaro. Also in the category are the fast Torana XU1’s of Andrew Williams, Daniel Van Stockrom and Garry Edwards.
Amongst Group C & A are three of the fastest Group A Ford Sierra cars in Australia driven by Bryan Sala, Chris Stillwell and Metodia (Tony) Karanfilovski who will be challenged by four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy in his first full historic race meeting. Greg will be at the wheel of Peter Sturgeon’s M3 BMW. Bathurst legend Charlie O’Brien will race a 365 CSI BMW, seven-times Bathurst 1000 winner Jim Richards will drive the JPS 635 CSI BMW. The crowd will also be treated to the sound and spectacle of two Jaguar XJS V12 cars of Mike Roddy and Anthony Pallas.
Under the historic Q & R category the fastest historic sports car in Australia, the McLaren M8F 8000cc 850BHP will be driven by young Harrison Jones from Queensland and he will be challenged by the two Porsche cars of Russell Kempnich (956c) and George Nakas (962). Also under this category there are 10 Sports 2000 racing.
Tom Tweedie in the Chevron Formula 5000, Guido Belgiorno-Netti in the1985 Ferrari 156/85 and Ian Ross in the Formula 1 Lola will be strongly challenged by five Formula A cars driven by Andrew McInnes, Geoff Doulman, Luke Doidge, Rohan Carrig and Ben Terbutt. Also in this category is the Indy Car, March 86C driven by Ian Buddery and of special interest will be the Kaditcha AF2 driven by Malcolm Oastler.
Throughout the weekend nine ladies will be racing with Clair Greg – Formula Ford, Angela Corradine – Formula Ford, Elizabeth Bailey – Formula Vee and Samantha Dymond – Lola Mk.1. and regularity competitors Deb Louing – Alfa Romeo, Jessica Penn – Caterham Seven, Louise Raper – George Reed Ford, Joanne Coad – Vauxhall Special and Helen Linder – Mini-Cooper S.
Seven overseas drivers including Adrian Reynard – UK, Richard Tarling – UK, Xavier Michel – France, Chris Hodgen – UK, Donald Boyack – UK Martin Whitlock – UK and Jaap Blijleven – Netherlands will race against the best in Australia to provide a spectacular weekend of historic motorsport at the Phillip Island Classic ‘Festival of Motorsport’, an event internationally recognised as one of the best in the world.
