In Pit Lane Videocast 055

WIN TICKETS TO HISTORIC SANDOWN

With a record 420 competitors taking part, this weekend’s 18th Nationallube Historic Sandown (November 6-8) can claim the largest entry ever seen at the popular Melbourne circuit since it opened in 1962. As well as capacity fields in most categories, some 100 V8-engined historic touring, sports and open wheeler racing cars will compete in 16 races over the weekend. A highlight of this year’s meeting is the final and deciding round of the 2009 Biante Touring Car Masters series, with former Bathurst winners Jim Richards and John Bowe again locking horns in their Falcon Sprint and Chevrolet Camaro respectively. Three generations of the Brabham family will also be on track for a unique Speed Comparison, with Victorian Historic Racing Register Patron Sir Jack dropping the flag on his Le Mans 25-Hour race winning son Geoff in a BMW M3, his grandson and rising Formula Ford star Matthew aged 15 and four times Australian champion John Bowe in a racing GT40 replica.

THE THUNDER ROLLS ON DESPITE V8 ISLAND RAID

It's now been confirmed, the V8 supercars will race at Phillip Island in November, the same weekend as the traditional Historic Sandown, Return of the Thunder. The Island race will feature two sprint races under the banner of the Phillip Island 300. Confirmation of the race has came as a huge blow to the Victorian Historic Racing Register who will clearly lose spectators and possibly trackside officials as a result of the clash. It'll be a big weekend for local marshals with a round of the Victorian Motor Racing Championships also on at Winton that weekend.

HISTORIC CLASSIC SUPPORTS VIC BUSHFIRE TRAGEDY

  Competitors and enthusiasts attending the 2009 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport from March 13-15 will support the Victorian Bushfire Appeal through a range of on and off-track activities. • Part proceeds from programme sales at the meeting will be donated towards the appeal • Motor racing legends including three-time World Champion Sir Jack Brabham, four-time Australian Touring Car Champion Bob Jane, seven-time Bathurst winner Jim Richards, two-time Australian Touring Car Champion Glenn Seton, Australian Sports Car Champion and Bathurst winner John Bowe and former driver and team owner Fred Gibson will all autograph posters at the Shannons Super Rig in the paddock for a gold coin donation • Richards, Seton and Bowe will additionally donate ‘hot laps’ to the highest bidders at a special auction held at the meeting’s Saturday night gala dinner • Laps of the Grand Prix circuit alongside Seton or Bowe in the new Nissan R35 GT-R that will be used as the ‘pace car’ on the warm-up laps for the combined Group C and Group A touring car races will also be sold • All gold coin entrance fees to view the Shannons Showroom collection of more than 100 classic sporting and muscle cars to be held in the new circuit’s new Expo Centre will go to the appeal. Combined, these initiatives are expected to represent a substantial donation by historic racing enthusiasts towards the Bushfire Relief Fund. More than 560 historic racing, sports and touring cars spanning six decades – including 18 overseas drivers from six nations – have entered the meeting, which is supported by Shannons, CoolDrive and the VACC. Practice and qualifying for all categories will take place on Friday March 13, with racing from 9.00am until 4.40pm on the Saturday and Sunday, March 14 and 15. 

QUEENSLAND’S SUNCOAST RALLY CANCELLED

The 2009 Suncoast Classic tarmac rally has been cancelled with organisers blaming the world financial crisis for a lack of entries. The management team of Silverstone Events, which planned to stage the rally on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast between 22 and 26 July, said that a smaller than expected number of registrations had resulted in its cancellation. Silverstone Events Director David Edwards said it appeared the world financial crisis has taken its toll on motorsport events like the rally. He said that while the number of enquiries for the second Suncoast Classic was high, those early registrations of interest had not translated into official entries. “Unfortunately, we have not received the number of entries we expected by this point,” Mr Edwards said.

RECORD ENTRY FOR HISTORIC SANDOWN

One of the highlights of the Victorian motor racing year  the VACC Historic Sandown on November 7-9 just got even better with the news that almost 360 cars have entered the event potentially equalling the record for the meeting. Despite the current economic crisis that has gripped the globe growth has occurred in all categories, with more than 20 Formula 5000s now confirmed for the VACC Trophy races, along with nearly 60 historic touring cars, and 70 classic and high performance cars spanning the history of the automobile have entered the popular Regularity (average speed) events.

MONARO MANIA TO HIT HISTORIC SANDOWN

The 40th anniversary of the first major race win by a Holden Monaro will be celebrated at the VACC Historic Sandown race meeting on November 8-9 this year. Around 40 Monaros of all models are expected to be on track or on display at the meeting to mark the historic victory at Sandown on September 15, 1968 of the then-new HK Monaro GTS 327 in the Datsun 3 Hour production car race.