Formula 1 returns to Adelaide

Formula One has returned to Adelaide – in exhibition form, at least.

The streets of the South Australian capital came to life at the weekend with the annual Adelaide Motorsport Festival, comprising yesteryear’s finest Formula 1 and V8 touring car classics and some big names from Australian and international motorsport.

While the annual Australian Formula 1 fixture is now a Melbourne-only affair, South Australia showed its continued motorsport colours as thousands of people endured 35-degree heat to see 350-plus vehicles combined duke it out in the Classic Adelaide Rally and Victoria Park Sprint.

Formula 1 has not been held in Adelaide since 1995 but the SA capital witnessed an exhibition-style display on Sunday when Italian driver Ivan Capelli completed multiple laps of the circuit aboard an Adrian Newey-designed House March.

Capelli set a blitzing lap record of 43.28 seconds on his final run around the famous street circuit, bettering the efforts of ace pilots Stefan Johansson and Pier Luigi Martini.

Exotica at the event included one of only eight Ferrari F40GTEs, a BMW-powered Benneton, Ferrari 599 FXX and modern examples including the McLaren 570GT.

The event included some competitive toe-to-toe racing. Most notable was the all-open wheel category, won by Brenton Ramsay’s Birrana Racing Reynard 94D Formula Holden.

Ramsay edged out Trent Shirvington’s Mygale M11 Formula 3 car by less than 0.3 seconds with a flying 45.8sec lap.

Daniel Munroe (Radical SR8) and James Winslow (WEST LMP4) went down to the wire in Sports Racer category, with the more powerful V8 Radical pipping former Australian F3 champion and LeMans racer.

David Towe (BMW M3) and Jordan Roddy (Jaguar XJS) topped the timesheets in the Heritage Touring Cars section, while local ace Chris Smerdon won the Burson Bathurst-era V8s.

Images: Adelaide Motorsport Festival/Richard Craill