Widescreen Gallery – The Spring Festival of Historic Motorsport with the HSRCA
Images thanks to Seth Reinhardt
The historic sports and racing cars of the HSRCA returned to countryside Goulburn over the 1st to the 3rd of September, to enjoy a spring weekend of historic racing at Wakefield Park. Read on and enjoy a magic collection of photos from the event.
The Spring Festival was the club’s second outing for the 2017 historic motorsport season, which is building up to their headline event – the Summer Festival – this November.
The Wakefield Park meeting drew a varied and exciting collection of historic machines. Grids included two awesome fields of Group N touring cars, a series of door-to-door Group S races and a collection of Group O, Q & R sports and racing cars, as well as Formula Ford, Groups L & M and Formulas Junior & Vee and time-based events in the form of Regularity and Super Sprint.
Held on the first weekend of Spring, conditions were perfect for motorsport. The sun was out and the air was cool – perfect for fire breathing old motors (and kind on both cars and drivers). We enjoyed some great motorsport, with times falling quickly once the track warmed up.
Kicking off with wings and slicks and it was awesome to see such a strong field of the big cars tackling Wakefield Park’s tight and twisty layout. Lotus, Nola, March, Brabham and more were well represented and sounded magnificent opened up down the straight. The evocative single seaters of the ’50s and ’60s were represented admirably by Groups LM and Formulas Junior and Vee, which included some lovely specials, Elfins, Brabhams and Coopers.
The tin top races of Group N and Group S were typically close-fought and feisty, with both groups holding championship rounds over the weekend. Group N was dominated by Fords, Holdens and Minis, but also drew the likes of an Alfa Romeo Guilia, Volvo 164E, Lotus Cortina, a mighty Chevrolet Camaro, some fast Mazdas and more.
Group S, on the other hand, is the domain of Porsche, with a series of 911s often leading the field. In amongst it this time were some very quick MGs, Midgets and Bs, some big Austin Healeys, a stunning Chev Corvette in which John Bowe would romp through the field in later races, and a great variety of Triumph, Lotus and Datsun.
Regularity brought some brilliant variety and a great MG crew called the Rusty Nuts Racers. The Super Sprint category is designed to open the sport of historic racing to new people and provide a place to drive for those who may not be interested in, or able to run in, some of the other racing categories. The field at the Spring Festival included two stunning Lotus Elans, a lovely Jaguar Mark 2 and some seriously quick competition from a Matich SR3 and Chevron B8.
As always, the event was relaxed and friendly, and we thoroughly enjoyed catching up with everyone and exploring the pits and paddock to check out the wonderful historic machines residing within. We’re very much looking forward to the Summer Festival!
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.
If you’re a historic racer and looking for a brilliant weekend’s motorsport, entry to the Summer Festival is open now and you can find more details right here.
Images thanks to Seth Reinhardt
MORE: Widescreen Gallery – Kicking off the 2017 Historic Racing Season with the HSRCA
