Widescreen Gallery – Kicking off the 2017 Historic Racing Season with the HSRCA
Images thanks to Seth Reinhardt
Our friends in the Historic Sports and Racing Car Association of NSW kicked off their 2017 historic motorsport season over the 8th and 9th of April with the 2017 Autumn Festival at Goulburn’s classic countryside circuit – Wakefield Park. Take a minute to click through and soak up the atmosphere and on-track action.
The event took inspiration from Goulburn’s countryside appeal and put on a relaxed weekend of historic motorsport that saw everything from the mighty Nola Chev above, to fiercely competitive Formula Vees and even a few more modern classics take to the track.
The aforementioned Vees were absolutely brilliant throughout the weekend and demonstrated some supreme racing. Drivers more than make up for anything that the cars may lack in raw cubic capacity by dicing for every free inch of track from lights out to the chequered flag. If you’re interested in historic racing and want a fun little machine that’ll teach you race craft and force you to become a tidier steerer – this is a great place to start.
The tin tops of Group N and Group S are also great to watch, and produce consistently full fields that are competitive from the pointy end through to the tail. Group N’s third race of the weekend was made all the more exciting when predictably unpredictable Goulburn weather gave them some rain and a very slick circuit to contend with.
Wakefield Park’s tight, twisty layout and short straights don’t give the big cars much room to stretch their legs, but the wings and slicks cars of Groups O, Q & R still put on some great races, and are always awesome to behold.
The regularity and super sprint events brought a great deal of variety to proceedings, giving cars like the ’37 Legend Ford Sedan and ’34 Legend 34 Ford coupe a place to compete. The super sprint in particular produced an opportunity to bring more modern machines out to play and included cars up to the late ’90s.
Formula Ford, K, L, M & Formula Juniors saw cars like the beautiful Lotus 51 above dicing on the hilly circuit. The older cars and the classics from the ’60s are so evocative of the sport’s golden age, and watching them on full song in the countryside setting is truly magic.
The cars were all beautifully prepared and driven with verve and vigor that pays little heed to their venerable stature. Wakefield Park sits on a hillside, and so you can see the whole circuit from the spectator areas, making it a great place to catch a few races.
Packed with stunning old race cars and buzzing with busy drivers and mechanics telling tales (possibly tall) of conquest on the track, or hard at work preparing cars, the pits and paddock were a lot of fun to wander through. Everyone’s very friendly and more than happy to chat about cars and motorsport.
Historic motorsport is especially open and friendly, so if you head to an event, make a point to wander into the pits and paddock, get up close to the cars and say ‘Hi!’ to their drivers, teams and custodians.
In the meantime, take a few minutes to enjoy the gallery below! For more photos from the weekend hit this link to the HSRCA’s official website, and join them on Facebook.
Images thanks to Seth Reinhardt
