'Long Track' Historic Racing Comes To Winton

MELBOURNE – Jun 2, 2010: ‘Long track’ historic racing comes to Winton from 13-15 August this year with the staging of the inaugural Winton Festival of Speed.

Organised by the Victorian Historic Racing Register and supported by Shannons, Penrite and CoolDrive, the Winton Festival of Speed will build on the success of the Register’s annual Philip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport and Historic Sandown that have been attracting record entries in recent years.

Using the full 3.0km ‘V8 Supercar’ circuit rather than the shorter ‘club’ circuit employed for previous Winton historic races, the Winton FOS is designed to attract younger competitors with the accent on American and Australian muscle cars and a massive Shannons classic car display.

The Shannons Show ‘n Shine VIP parking area will cater for up to 1,000 vehicles of all makes, models and ages, with many encouraged to stretch the legs of their special vehicles on the circuit.

For the first time at an Historic Racing event, the ever-popular ‘Regularity’ events will be joined on the programme by timed ‘Sprints’, with 15 minute sessions set aside for Australian and American sports and muscle cars plus Porsches – all built up to 1985.

Participants in their special cars will be able to enjoy the full freedom of the long circuit during these timed sessions, while having to meet only minimal vehicle safety and driver licensing requirements.

Meanwhile racing action will focus on high performance racing, sports and touring cars, with 13 events planned for Group N, Group C and Group A Touring cars and production and big-horsepower sports cars.

A special attraction will be the turbocharged Porsche 935 that driven by Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass won the 1976 World Championship of Makes for Porsche. It is being sent to Australia from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart and will be making its first Victorian track appearance at the meeting.

With the announcement of the Winton Festival of speed, the VHRR has now created the embryo of a three-race Victorian historic racing series – something that was positively welcomed by enthusiasts in a recent poll conducted by the Register.