2011
Winton Festiv
al
of Speed - 13-14 August
This
year I travelled to the Winton Festival of Speed for the Saturday
action, electing to compete in the MGB GT at a Calder Sprint the following
day.
The
weather was kind, but followed periods of inclement weather in the
led up.
Still
in its infancy the entry numbers are not yet at the levels of the
other historic meetings in Victoria, but no doubt this will pick up
in the coming years.
With
a focus on muscle cars, the Saturday highlight to many would be the
Top 10 shoot out for Group N cars. Very well organised & compared
by the regular commentators, Darren Knight and Ron Simmonds. This
session shows that a “flyer” in a qualifying session is
not always re-produced in a shoot out. This was the case for Michael
Hibbert (Valiant R/T Charger) who qualified 4th, but was knocked down
to 10th in the shoot out. Tony Hubbard (Chevy Comaro) cruised to pole
position knocking off Frazer Ross (Ford Mustang) by ½ a second.
The
first race showed no change for the first two runners, but Denis O’Brien
(Ford Mustang) got up to third place to round off the podium.
After
an early battle in the Sa & Sb race, event organiser Ian Ross
raced away to a cruisy victory over the similar Shelby of Chris La
Rosa, but the race long dice went to two Group Sa cars vieing for
the 3rd place on the podium with Peter Jackson (Austin Healey 3000)
having the power over Don Bartley’s Austin Healey Sprite at
the finish.
In
the demonstration events we saw the collection of Porsche Museum cars
currently in the country, but also local heroic cars including the
ex HDT Marlboro Holden Commodore VB that Peter Brock took to the 1980
Australian Touring Car Championship. The owner, Rowan Harman, also
competed in the regularity Division 2 events.
A
number of categories were mixed due to the entrant numbers, which
led to 1960s F2 & F3 cars combined with Formula Ford. John Bowe
made another appearance in Trevor Simpsons Brabham BT23B-2 Climax
& showed his dominance during qualifying and the race over the
Brabham BT29. Then it was the battle of the Formula Fords with young
Tim Blanchard driving a proper racing car, the Van Dieman RF88 (in
which his father competed in period) leading the similar RF89 of Andrew
McInnes and David Hardman driving Bill Hemming’s Elfin 600.
The
feature for the meeting was the re-enactment of the Rose City 10000
race of 1978. That year, former F1 World Champ James Hunt flew in
for the race & drove one of the MR8-AC Elfins. This weekend saw
two of these cars in the Formula 5000 race, one the Hunt car, which
was driven by Bob Harborow, and the other of Bill Hemming, probably
Australia’s most travelled historic competitor this year fitting
in this event between consecutive weekends of racing the Junior in
Europe.
The
Penfolds Wines Matich A50 of Bryan Sala took the first race win of
the weekend, but it wasn’t without dramas in Friday practice
when he collided with another 5000, but was back on track after tireless
work by the team in an “all-nighter”. Andrew Robson was
content with a non-to-familiar second place against Australian competition.
Very
worthwhile making the journey to the Winton Festival of Speed as a
spectator this year, although competing would’ve being better!
