2012
Ballarat Festival of Motoring
Ballarat
Airfield - 2 September
A
brisk early morning start for Father’s Day, the action day for
the Ballarat Festival of Motoring.
70 highly desirable motor cars
took part in the Sprints and Regularity events of the day, which kicked-off
at 9:30am.
Paul Schilling has now taken
the band-aids off the Buchanan Cobra, fitted the new Ian Tate engine,
and was told to “take it easy & don’t over-rev it”
by the aforementioned builder. Fortunately, Paul adhered to most of
this, did stretch the boundary a little, but managed o put the car
on the trailer at the end for the drive home.
The early morning sunshine
was well received, but soon the wind factor, a well-known one for
those who have ventured to the Aerodrome in the past, unleashed itself
on the paddock area, and remained all day, under brilliant sunshine
though, so no complaints there!
Graham Smith was first to take
to the track in his March Formula 5000 for test purposes. This may
have given him the advantage in the sprints, as he took out Outright
First later on.
On behalf of Repco, Nigel Tait
brought out the 1966 Repco-Brabham BT19, which for the past few years
has had pride of place at the National Sports Museum at the MCG. This
provided half of the biggest news story out of the event, the first
time that Australia’s two Formula One World Championship winning
cars have being seen together. Paul Faulkner brought out the 1979
Williams FW07, in which Alan Jones piloted himself to the 1980 title.
Unfortunately, though the Brabham
was on static display only as having only recently left the Museum,
the car needs a good amount of preparation before its custodian, Nigel
Tait can commence demonstrations again.
Faulkner, though brought Cosworth
DFV noise to the Aerodrome throughout the day, slipping & sliding
with low grip off the start & on the corners. The spectators got
their monies worth.
Other great cars to take place
in the event included John Gillett’s MG K3 (which took part
in the 1947 event), George Hetrel’s Bugatti T35C, Ken Bedgood
– BMW 328, Ian McDonald – Repco Holden, and Graham Smith’s
other entry, the ex. Stan Jones Allard J2. Not to mention of course,
my father Simon, who I handed over the keys to the MGB GT for his
Father’s Day present.
The organisers spent many long
months dealing with authorities over getting a track licence to run
the full circuit that was used in the 1947-1961 period. This occurred,
but due to barricade infrastructure move in & out times, the speed
was dropped to 20km/h through one section. The timing system devised
to cope with this Regularity event, and the Sprints were in its infancy
& as such, some delays occurred during the day.
No doubt these will be rectified
before the next event in 2013.
The entire Festival though,
was a resounding success with the tour on the last weekend in August
taking over (entirely) the Buninyong township, the motor show at the
Ballarat Mining Exchange housed record numbers, and the dinners, the
Show n Shine on Saturday 1 September saw the Aerodrome’s hanger
area completely full of cars from around the region, & cocktail
parties were completely booked out.
Saturday
night – Reunion dinner – Ballarat Club
Saturday night was a good affair
at the once highly exclusive Ballarat Club, a fine Victorian building.
We sat in a vaulted ceiling room of 80 enthusiasts, which once housed
the Club’s two full-size billiard tables.
The evening went off with a
bang with some great, most likely tall stories told by many attendees.
Brian Reed was MC, and introduced Event Co-Director John Emery to
the floor. John’s legendary wit prevailed as he and Brique revealed,
after much speculation, that Bill Prowse would be the event’s
Guest of Honour.
This honour was bestowed for
Bill’s continued involvement in motor sport for more than 60
years. A Ballarat boy, Bill, now 88, competed in the first meeting
at the Ballarat Aerodrome in 1947 in his Riley.
A
print of Bill competing in that first event was auctioned off with
about 8 bidders taking part. The item was sold for $800.
Mining
Exchange Motor Show - 25 August to 1 September
A
great collection of racing & sports cars, motorcycles & model
cars were on display at the Ballarat Mining Exchance building on Lydiard
Street for this period.
A
visit by HRA on Saturday 1 September built enthusiasm on the following
days events at the Ballarat Air Strip, as the majority of vehicles
on display are to parttake in the on-track festivities. The collection
included the appearance of two World F1 Championship winning racing
cars, the 1966 Repco Brabham BT19 & the 1979 Williams FW07.
A
Mercedes-Benz SLS Gullwing looked a bit too modern, particularly with
1927 Bugatti T35C & 1933 MG K3 in the background, and a Holden
48/215 nearby. This car (pictured below) will re-live the Kangaroo
Stables entry in the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally in which the three young
Australian racing drivers; Tony Gaze, Lex Davison & Stan Jones
took part. This careful re-build will take part in the 2013 Historic
Monte Carlo Rally, some 60 years on from the '53 event.
Preview
Entries
for this year’s Ballarat Festival of Motoring - Motor Sport
events on September 2 will close this Friday.
A
number of cars that have already entered and are creating a great
deal of interest include: the cars driven by Australia’s two
F1 World Champions and believed to have never been seen together before
– Sir Jack Brabham’s 1967 World Championship winning Repco
Brabham BT19 and Alan Jones’ 1979 World Championship winning
Williams FW07; a recent import into Australia – a 2012 McLAREN
MP4-12C Super Car; and a number of great Australian Monoposto Specials
including John Hickford’s 1929 Lancia Lambda Special, Keith
Roberts’ 1932 Macdonberg Special; James McDonald’s 1958
Riley Special, Peter Whaley’s 1937 Standard Special and Ian
McDonald’s 1957 Repco-Holden Special. We are currently in the
final stages of negotiating for the participation of another significant
car that is being prepared as a national series contender, which we
hope will be completed in time for an appearance at our event.
Attached
please find copies of the current Information Brochure, Entry Forms
and Supplementary Regulations. Feel free to circulate them amongst
interested parties.
Please
complete your Entry Forms if you haven’t already done so and
return them by the weekend so that we can include you in time for
this year’s Souvenir Program.
Be
part of history while you can – don’t miss out on this
year’s event including the chance to compete on 3 Kilometers
of Australia’s most historically significant WW2 airfield runway
based motor racing circuit in the company of fellow enthusiasts and
some of Australia’s greatest sports and racing cars.
Best
regards from the team behind this year’s Ballarat Festival of
Motoring.
Promotional
flyer -
click here
Entry
form - Sprint 2 September -
click here
Entry
form Sprint Supp Regs - Click
here
Entry
form - Show n Shine - 1 Sept - Click
here
Further
information - www.ballaratfestivalofmotoring.com.au
