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‘Stillwell’ D-Type Jaguar returns to Phillip Island
The most famous Jaguar ever to race in Australia, the 1955 D-Type sports
car originally purchased and raced by four times Australian Driving
Champion Bib Stillwell, will return to an Australian circuit for the
first time in 50 years at the 2013 Phillip Island Classic Festival of
Motorsport from March 8-10.
It will take part in Regularity events at the 24th annual ‘Classic’,
driven by its new owner, Brisbane-based collector and racing driver
Peter Harburg.
The D-Type, originally registered ‘XKD 520’ in the UK, is one of four
very special cars that Harburg is bringing to Phillip Island.
He will race the ‘Blaupunkt’ liveried Porsche 962 that finished third in
the 1988 Le Mans 24-Hour sports car race in the meeting’s International
Sportscar Challenge feature events against his Lola T610, which will be
driven by its preparer, fellow Queenslander and former V8 Supercar racer
Wayne Park.
Meanwhile Australia’s first Le Mans winner, Vern Schuppan will drive the
ex-Briggs Cunningham 1950 Aston Martin DB2 Sebring team car that he and
Harburg own jointly in Regularity events at the meeting. More....
Skaife to race his former Nissan Skyline at Phillip Island
Five times Australian Touring Car Championship winner Mark Skaife will
be reunited with the Gibson Motorsport team and his former Nissan
Skyline at this year’s Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport
from March 8-10.
Skaife, who retired from full-time touring car racing in 2008, but has
since been a driving force behind the V8 Supercars ‘Car of the Future’
program, will drive the HR 31 GTS-R sedan in which he contested much of
the 1990 Australian Touring Car Championship.
He will be the third Australian Champion making their Historic Racing
debut at the 2013 'Classic. Fellow six-time Bathurst winner Larry
Perkins will return to racing after a 10-year absence to drive the
ex-Kevin Bartlett 1985 'Pantera Bianca' coupe in the meeting's
International Sportscar Challenge, while four-time Australian Driving
Champion Alfredo Costanzo will race the ex-Bartlett 1971 McLaren M10B
Formula 5000 in open wheeler events.
Mark Skaife drove the Nissan Skyline HR 31 into fourth place in the
final round of the 1990 ATCC at Oran Park, with the race won by his
teammate Jim Richards in the team's then-new, four wheel drive Skyline
GT-R. Their combined performances secured the first of Nissan’s landmark
three consecutive Australian Touring Car Championship titles.
More....
Costanzo to race F5000 at
Phillip Island Classic FOM
Four-times Australian Drivers’ Champion Alfredo
Costanzo will race a Formula 5000 for the first time in more than 30
years in the 2013 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport from
March 8-10.
The CAMS Gold Star winner for the years 1980-1983
will drive the ex-Neil Allen McLaren M10B Chevrolet that was campaigned
successfully by Kevin Bartlett in 1971 and 1972.
His race appearance at Phillip Island will be his
first competitive track outing since he raced a Maserati in the 1998
Australian GT Championship and will mark the 30th Anniversary
of his last Australian Drivers’ Championship title in 1983.
It will be his first Historic Racing event and he
has had to apply to CAMS to renew his lapsed racing licence, although he
has kept his driving hand in with advanced driver training in recent
years.
More....
Famous Aston Martin to run at Phillip Island
The centenary of Aston Martin will be marked in historic style at the
2013 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport from March 8-10 with
the appearance of one of the British sports car maker’s most famous Post
War racing saloons.
One of the rare Le Mans-specification Aston Martin DB2 coupes that
formed Briggs Cunningham’s three-car entry in the 1950 Sebring Six-Hour
race in the USA will be driven in Regularity events at this year’s
Phillip Island Classic by its joint owner, Australia’s first Le Mans
24-Hour race winner, Vern Schuppan.
The famous Aston, chassis LML/50/13, was the first DB2 delivered to
Canada and is notable as being the 13th of the first 50 DB2 coupes
built.
These early DB2s are visually similar to the class-winning Aston Martin
teams cars that competed with distinction at Le Mans in 1949 and 1950
and are instantly recognisable to enthusiasts by their ‘washboard’
ribbed side bonnet vents and distinctive three-piece grille design.
More.....
Official: Phillip Island Classic is ‘World
Class’
It’s official. The Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport is one
of the World’s best Historic Motor Sport events.
That was again the judgement of the expert panel that short-listed the
‘Classic’ in that category of the International Historic Motoring Awards
of the Year 2012, with the event “showcasing excellence, rewarding
innovation, and providing the benchmark by which the world of historic
cars judges itself”.
It was the second year running that the Phillip Island Classic Festival
has been awarded this distinction, competing against such acknowledged
world-class events such as England’s annual Goodwood Revival, Belgium’s
Spa Six Hours classic festival and the Rolex Monterey Motorsports
Reunion in California, USA.
The Victorian Historic Racing Register is planning to build on this
result at the 2013 Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motor Sport staged
from March 8-10, with ‘Big Banger’ sports cars from the 1960s, ‘670s and
‘80s taking top billing at the event and featuring in a 30-minute mini-enduro
race on the Sunday.
More....
For more meeting details, visit www.vhrr.com For media enquiries and
publication quality images contact Michael Browning 0418 324 328
‘Glamping’ arrives at the 2013 Classic
Camping – or rather ‘Glamping’ – will be an option for competitors,
officials and spectators for the first time at next year’s Phillip
Island Classic Festival of Motorsport from March 8-10, overcoming the
traditionally tight accommodation on the Island over the Long Weekend.
The Classic’s organisers, the Victorian Historic Racing Register, hope
to create the upmarket ambiance found at major overseas motoring events
like France’s Le Mans Classic, where racing and exotic road cars are
regularly seen parked overnight outside Motorhomes and caravans.
More......
