Dear PreWarriors,
Well, I go off for a fortnight and the next time I get on line I discover
that all hell has broken loose on this list and a few gazillion messages
more than normal have been circulated, mostly to do with bits of timber in
MGs and JH apologising about metrication. Hmmm.
Anyway, I enclose a brief article about the recent Wakefield Park historic
races which took place last weekend at this purpose built for historic
racing circuit in Australia. The article itself will be published in the
Malaysia and Singapore Vintage Car Register's excellent The Magazine -
apologies to anybody who might suffer the indignity of duplication.
Historic list members will doubtless note that Andrew Pursey of Morris
Oxford fame mentioned below also happens to be on the vintage racing list.
Anyway, without further ado:
Wakefield Park Historic Festival
Wakefield Park lies mid-way between Canberra and Sydney in New South Wales,
Australia. The circuit itself is 2.4 kilometres long and was built solely
with the intention of hosting club racing, particularly historic events. The
circuit itself was the brainchild of two local historic racers, John Carter
and Paul Samuels. Samuels is well known for his racing exploits world-wide,
particularly with the ex-Frank Matich Lotus XV sports car which has been
raced across Europe and also at the American Monterey Festival in 1994,
where Paul was the Driver of the Meeting.
The inaugural historic festival took place in 1994 and has been organised
every November since by the Historic Sports Racing Car Association of New
South Wales, which is the state's largest club for period motor racing. The
1996 meeting included some 33 events, being a mixture of races (both scratch
and handicap) and regularity events. The entry has remained steady around
250 cars with a judicious mixture of all eras and types of production-based,
marque racing and special cars.
This year a field of some 16 pre war chassis contested their own event in
addition to another few cars who ran only in the regularity categories.
Stuart Saunders possessed the most exotic, a 1927 Bugatti Type 35C. The
basis of the vintage field was a variety of MG and Austin 7 specials. Dick
Willis was present with his interesting Ford V8 engined special based around
a cut down Lancia Lambda chassis while perhaps the most historic car present
was Hugh Oldham's Riley Rizzo Special. In 1949 this car went through several
sets of white metal bearings during the prestigious Bathurst meeting on the
famous Mount Panorama circuit. On the Saturday, the Rizzo Riley ran the
bearings and won the Support Race prior to returning on Sunday to win the
weekend's feature race as well!
Australian sports car and F5000 ace, Frank Matich was guest of honour for
the weekend and was on hand to see 2 delectable examples of his own sports
racing cars. The SR4B twin cam car of 1969 driven by Bryan Miller
exemplified the late 1960's 1600c.c. genre. On the other hand, Keith
Berryman's fabulous 5000cc 1967 Matich SR3 was a magnificent example of a
genuine "big banger" sports racing car of the period.
There were various categories for 1950s and 1960s production sports and
saloon cars, with several drivers demonstrating astounding degrees of verve
with rather impractical machinery. One good example was Michael St.John Cox
whose Jaguar Mark VIIM is almost but not quite completely unsuited to
circuit racing, despite the driver's astounding efforts to maintain the car
within the confines of the tarmac. Alternatively, in the later classic
sports car class, there was even a delectable Ferrari Dino 246.
Alternatively, for those whose interests are rather more pedestrian, Andrew
Pursey pedalled his Morris Oxford with gusto in the 1950s saloon car class,
somewhere in the wake of the St.John Cox Jaguar.
The fastest cars to appear during the weekend were a gaggle of mid-1970s
Formula Atlantic cars, the category hotly disputed by Richard Carter's
yellow March 73B and Chris Farrell's powder blue Chevron B35. Filling up the
grid behind the delightful sound of the BDA machines, was the rapidly
growing Formula Ford category, including several locally constructed Bowin
and Elfin cars, as well as a mixture of English built cars.
Some of the Australian specials are ingenious, some agricultural. However,
all are quite intriguing. Many are Holden engined. The Buchanan, for
instance, includes a precise fibreglass replica of the Aston Martin DB3s
bodywork, the legacy of a mould taken from one of the original Newport
Pagnell cars in the late 1950's! Some Australian specials have prosaic
names. The minuscule Nedloh single seater is simply Holden in reverse.
Meanwhile the Lasos apparently gained its name as the result of an acronym
derived from its initial shakedown tests. Lest you are still confused,
apparently the driver was so impressed, he likened its performance to cattle
dung falling from a spade... Perhaps my favourite amongst the single seater
specials is the 3.8 litre 6 cylinder Dalro Jaguar front-engined single
seater which sounds wonderful and looks truly awesome as it wriggles while
almost but not quite comprehensively failing to efficiently transfer its
power onto the tarmac...
The atmosphere at Wakefield Park is delightful, a throwback to motorsport of
perhaps 30 years ago or more. In part this is as a result of a good
relationship between the organising club and the drivers as well as the
circuit management at Wakefield Park. Circuit owner Paul Samuels behaves
like the genial host of a cocktail party throughout - when in 1994 he had to
remove some spectators from a prohibited area, he treated it as a great
positive, noting that the appearance of spectators was much better than
anticipated! The circuit itself has buildings built in a period style which
help to maintain an aura of racing history.
Above all the great boon of historic competition in Australia is the
emphasis placed upon just being present on the grid. Being competitive is
regarded as almost an afterthought and the racing is happily bereft of
starting money politics as evidenced in some other parts of the globe. I
thoroughly enjoyed my weekend at the third Wakefield Park historic racing
festival. Who won the races? Who knows? Who, to be perfectly frank, cares...
Patrick Young
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