Widescreen Gallery: The HSRCA’s 2019 Summer Festival

Submitted by msr on December 13, 2019

The Historic Sports and Racing Car Association of NSW wrapped up their 2019 classic motorsport season over the 30th of November and 1st of December, farewelling 2019 in spectacular style with their Summer Festival. Scroll along, and enjoy a widescreen gallery from the event.

The race meeting brought over 220 historic race and sports cars to Sydney Motorsport Park for two packed days of motorsport. The 60th anniversary of Elfin was featured, as was the Dawson-Damer trophy for ’60s race and sports cars, a team endurance race for Group S sports cars and the BMC Challenge – an event for cars powered by the BMC A-type engine.

The Summer Festival hosted strong fields throughout, and the brilliant fields of ’60s Group M & O race and sports cars and ’70s ‘Big Bangers’ – Groups Q & R – were particularly inspiring. These cars are incredibly evocative of the golden age of the sport, and we can’t get enough of them.

Elfin was well represented in M & O, in particular with the Elfin 600, as was Brabham, which made up the bulk of the field with everything from a Brabham BT2 to later cars like the BT29 and BT31 competing. The Q & R cars add wings, slicks and big motors to the equation and featured plenty of variety, with cars like a 1991 Romano SPA raced by Mark Skaife going head to head with a March 86C Indy car, a monstrous Lola T332 Can Am car and plenty more.

Sunday morning’s Group S team enduro is a staple of the summer event and is always a good show – especially as this highly-competitive category usually brings out a track-density field.

The mid-race driver change makes for an entertaining few minutes in the pits and paddock as everyone scrambles to call their drivers in with makeshift pit boards, deal with race seat belts and get back out onto the track.

The BMC Challenge was another entertaining addition, pitting Austin Healey Sprites, Minis, MG Midgets and the like against each other. The MG Midgets ran away with this first event, taking the top three spots, and we look forward to it growing in the coming years as the other marques seek their revenge.

Of course, there was magic motorsport to be found outside of the feature events as well. The classic touring cars of Group N were out in force and up to their usual door handle-to-door handle antics. Formula Ford and Vee also featured good fields and put on very closely-matched races, making use of clean lines and drafting in place of cubic capacity.

The two timed categories, Super Sprint and Regularity, were well-attended and brought a great variety of machinery to the meeting. And just because they’re not racing for track position doesn’t meant they aren’t giving it plenty – their events featured some very strong drives.

Sneaking a peak into the pits, and as usual they were full of stunning race cars and friendly people happy to have a chat about them. There’s always something interesting going on or an unusual car to poke around, and New South Wales’ classic motor sport scene is relaxed, open and friendly, making it a great community to get involved in.

The HSRCA will return in 2020 with a full season of classic motorsport, kicking off over the 21st & 22nd of March with the Autumn Festival at Wakefield Park.

For more from the club and even more photos from the 2019 Summer Festival, head to the HSRCA website at www.hsrca.com.

Images thanks to Seth Reinhardt.