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Phillip Island Classic Preview

Movies, songs, popular culture, motor sport. What do they have in common? Yup, it’s obvious, they all have something to do with time, specifically “the past”. But why should motor sport be involved in what happened, not what’s coming? The Victorian Historic Racing Register doesn’t really care because they know that the Phillip Island Classic, to be held over the ninth to the eleventh of March 2018, pulls people to the picturesque Phillip Island race circuit in droves. There’s something a bit extra special about this meeting. Along with a strong presence of members of the Group S racing family, the weekend will commemorate fifty years of Formula 5000 racing and with over thirty five sparkling examples of these thunderous machines expected. Legendary Australian touring car driver John Bowe will be in attendance and on the Sunday will showcase a 1974 March ex F1 car. He’ll be with fellow racer and noted collector Guido Belgiorno-Nettis in a Ferrari F1 car formerly raced by Italian driver Michele’ Alboreto. Both will be racing these historic machines against two younger drivers that have years of experience between them already, Tom Tweedie and Tim Berryman. The categories include the smaller and fascinating Formula Ford and Formula Vee, Groups Q and R, and pre WW2 cars in the Group J and some Group K, with post WW2 cars in Group K also. WW2 itself will be represented, in a motor racing sense, with the inclusion of Group L, a category for cars built between 1941 and 1960. These cars are those built especially for competition, be they factory backed or one-offs. There’s a sub-category in the Ls, known as “square riggers”. These are primarily MG TCs sans mud guards, windscreens, and headlights. But people don’t attend historic motorsport events such as this to just and merely goggle over the eye watering range of cars on track and on display. There are the personalities in attendance such as the aforementioned JB. This weekend will also have five patrons there. Better known as “KB”, one of Australia’s most loved drivers, Kevin Bartlett, a two time winner of the Australian Drivers’ Championship and a Bathurst 1000 winner, will be on deck. Alfredo “Alfie” Constanzo, an Italian born, Australian raised, driver, a four time Australian GP competitor and four time Australian Drivers’ Championship winner, is there. Alan Hamilton, who won the Australian Sports Car Driver award twice ,and along with Alfie is a four time winner of the Gold Star Championship, is slated to appear. Two time New Zealand Grand Prix winner John McCormack, who also won the Australian Drivers’ Championship three times, is scheduled to be there. And New Zealand’s MBE awarded driver Ken Smith, won the New Zealand Grand Prix in 1976, 1990 and in 2004 and raced Formula Ford, Formula 5000, Formula Pacific, Formula Mondial and Toyota Racing Series. Ken has competed over 59 consecutive seasons on the motor racing circuit. He has won the Gold Star Drivers Award five times, Formula 5000 Revival three times, the Penang Grand Prix three times, the Selanger twice and the Malaysian Grand Prix once. In 1995 Ken was inducted into the New Zealand motorsport Hall of Fame. Australian cars of note will be there. An Australian Grand Prix winning (Frank) Matich A50 and an MR8 Elfin 5000 campaigned in the US by Garrie Cooper and Vern Schuppan will be on track. Rare Spares ambassador for eleven years, JB says of the event, “it’s the second best race track in Australia and there’ll be 550 classic cars at this weekend’s Classic.” John drove three cars in 2017 and for 2018 says: “I’ll be driving something that’s very rare, an Allard J2X from 1952 owned by Carroll Shelby that had raced in the American sports car scene.” This will be the first time this car has competed in Australia. John acknowledged the support of his good friend Joe Calleja, current owner of the Allard, including the opportunity to drive his 1969 Group N Mustang. Of Rare Spares JB said:” Without Rare Spares there would not behalf of the Aussie classic cars on the road that there is now.” John mentioned a recent club meeting he attended along with his great mate Dick Johnson and just how many cars were there that had used Rare Spares. John’s relationship with the Phillip Island Classic goes back to 2000, and he’s driven a range of cars and 2000 first event, covering range of cars including a Le Mans style car to a 1970’s Porsche. John invites all Rare Spares attendees and fellow car enthusiasts to come and say hi! Are you heading down to the Phillip Island Classic? Or have you been in years past? Head over to the Rare Spares Facebook Page and tell us your experiences in the comments section below.

History of the Phillip Island Race Track

A couple of hours South East of Melbourne lies the quaint little tourist destination of Phillip Island. Popular with locals and city slickers alike, it’s known for its fishing, surfing, and relaxed way of life and of course, it’s Penguin Parade. But if you’re into motorsport, then you’ll love the ‘Island’ for an entirely different reason. And that’s because Phillip Island is home to one of the best and most exciting race circuits on the planet. Racing on Phillip Island actually began in 1927 in the form of a 200 mile road race for motorcycles. The following year, the ‘100 Miles Road Race’ for cars was run, which would eventually become known as a little race called the Australian Grand Prix. However, back then it was simply a rectangular circuit utilising public roads with a length of 10 kilometres for cars and 16 kilometres for motorcycles. Then in 1935, the racing suddenly stopped for a while. It was the vision of Bernard Denham to build a dedicated motor racing complex and Winston Maguire’s job to make it happen, so in 1951 the two men along with four other local businessmen met to get the ball rolling. The actual design of the track was by Melbourne Consulting Engineer Alan Brown who based it on the Zandvoort Circuit in Holland, which in turn was designed by John Hugenholtz, widely regarded as “one of the finest racing circuit designers in the world”. The first ‘event’ took place in 1954 when a member’s only rally got the chance to drive around the unsealed circuit. On the 15th of December 1956, the first actual race was run on the sealed circuit in front of a lack lustre crowd, with several car clubs each contributing to the running of the event. The winner of that historic race was Lex Davison. That day also saw the soon to be great Jack Brabham compete in the main race, but also sadly saw the track’s first fatality. The first Armstrong 500 was run between 1960 and 1962. After the 1962 race, the track was so badly damaged, the race moved to Mount Panorama which of course morphed into the now famous Bathurst 1000. Unfortunately, funds weren’t available to repair the track at Phillip Island which forced it to close. Then in 1964, Businessman Len Lukey (now you know where Lukey Heights comes from) bought the track for £13,000. 1967 saw it reopen with the Phillip Island 500K endurance race. Rounds of the Australian Manufactures’ Championship and Australian Touring Car Championship were run during the 1970s, but due to escalating maintenance requirements, the complex eventually closed once more and was run as a farm. Then in 1984, it was sold again for $800,000 to an investment group which poured a huge amount of money into the infrastructure of the entire complex. In 1988, the final round of the Swann Insurance International Series for motorcycles was run, ushering in a new dawn and era for the track. The following year, the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix was awarded to Phillip Island. The ‘Island’ was once again back on the international map. The AMGP ran again the next year but moved to Eastern Creek in 1991. 1997 saw the old girl get her revenge though as the series returned to Phillip Island and has been there ever since. 1990 also saw the Superbike World Championship move from Oran Raceway near Sydney to Phillip Island, where it remains. Four wheels also returned to the island in a big way in 1990 with the Australian Touring Car Championship for the first time in thirteen years. Although the ATCC missed the next two years, it returned again in 1993 and stayed until 2004, although by now the series was rebranded to what we know and love as V8 Supercars. From 2005 to 2007, it went on to host the Grand Finale, the final round of the V8 Supercars season. It was around this time in 2004 that the ‘For Sale’ sign went up again for the now world famous race track. Always knowing a good thing when he sees it, billionaire Lindsay Fox’s Linfox Property Group bought it for an unknown amount in 2006. The four wheelers remained in the form of a 500 kilometre race between 2008 and 2011 known as the L&H 500. The Sandown 500 was replaced by the Phillip Island 500 as the annual V8 Supercar 500 kilometre race, which was later reinstated in 2012. Since then it has hosted the Phillip Island Super Sprint. All great champions have their ups and downs. Indeed, it’s in the face of adversity that the qualities of a true champion emerge. The great Muhammad Ali once said “Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” If you could apply this to race tracks, Phillip Island would definitely be a world champion.  

Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport

The Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport is the largest historic automotive meeting of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and provided a thrilling weekend of sights and sounds for entrants and enthusiasts alike.  The annual event took place March 5-8 at its home, the iconic  Phillip Island circuit, about 90 minutes south of Melbourne and was the 26th instalment of the now famous festival. Every year the event attracts many of the most awe-inspiring, collectable and historic cars from around the world and in 2015, over 500 entries were received for the three day festival, including 17 cars and drivers from overseas. Crowds were slightly down on last year, due to the wet conditions on Friday and cold temperatures on Saturday, however that didn’t affect the quality of the weekend. Over the three days, 49 races were scheduled to cater to the various categories and classes of vehicles present, including open wheelers, sports and touring cars. “Overall everyone enjoyed the weekend, despite some trying conditions on the Friday with some harsh weather and rain. Driver behaviour was fantastic and very few incidents on track,” said event organiser Ian Tate.  “One of the special cars attending was a 1936 ERA, built in England. The car won the 1938 Australian GP with Peter Whitehead.” The fiftieth anniversary of the Ford Mustang also coincided with event, providing the opportunity for celebrations around the milestone, which included Allan Moffat’s game changing Coca-Cola Mustang Trans-Am, a huge turnout of Mustangs and celebrity drivers.  There was also a Mustang Parade on Saturday and Sunday. Brian Thomson was the patron of the meeting this year. “We also want to thank Rare Spares for their support they provided to the event, it was appreciated.”  Rare Spares is a proud supporter of the event, and had a marquee with staff on hand to field enquiries from enthusiasts about parts throughout the weekend. Rare Spares also ran a $200 voucher promotion and hundreds of attendees entered for the chance to win.  For more information on upcoming Rare Spares supported events head to www.rarespres.net.au