Geelong Revival run and won
We enter one of the nation's most iconic grass roots motoring eventsThe dust has settled following another hugely successful running of the Geelong Revival, held on the waterfront precinct of Victoria's second largest city. 2015 represented the fourth running of the event in its current format, although there is a rich history of speed trials along the Geelong waterfront, dating back to 1956 .
The whole festival is centered around the main event of the Sprint, which sees cars of all descriptions run along the iconic quarter mile, in the heart of Geelong.
Categories vary based around configuration, and every effort is made for cars of similar ilk to be pitted against one another. The Saturday sees 'Modern Classics' take to the track.
"Saturday is aimed at up and comers. In fact we had one 16 year-old try his hand at the quarter mile this year. The idea is that the grass root motorsport runners are catered for on the Saturday," explains Motorsport Director Scott Pigdon.
Think lots of tarmac rally cars, some very exotic Posrche 993s and wild Godzilla reps, along with beautifully turned out Mazda RX2s and lots of warmed over Escorts, both MK1 and II and you'll be around the money. That's where we entered my MKI two-door 1975 model. More on that a little later.
Sunday represents the more hardcore revhead on the quarter mile, with predominantly CAMs racecars let loose. Runners this year saw the 1985 Bathurst winning V12 H-JS Walkinshaw Jaguar driven by John Goss and German driver Armin Hahne in the hands of local Mike Roddy. The car has lost none of its brute appeal and fans lining the overlooking hill were rightfully in awe of the big beast.
Also popular was the Advantage Racing VP commodore that Peter Brock and John Cleland raced at Bathurst in 1994. It's been faithfully restored by Geelong icon Dean Montgomery and driven by the bloke that did the work, Troy Kelly.
Of course there were motorcycles of all descriptions, numerous show and shines, aeroplanes, speedboats, vintage caravans, trades stalls and myriad other events and happenings for punter to enjoy.
But it was the track that got our interest.
My 1975 Escort is a road car, that has been nicely warmed over. With the help and expertise of Rob French at Rallyspec, we built it from a stock XL, then an auto, now a four-speed. It's bored to 1680cc, has a big cam, forged pistons, head work and oversized valves, all hooked up to a 45 DCOE Weber and a coated set of Pacemaker headers. I like the idea of timed motorsport events and the car, while road registered, fits that bill nicely.
A fire extinguisher was placed in the car, a blue triangle on the bonnet, a racesuit along with helmet donned, and a happily passed rudimentary scrutineering session and it was all systems go. Oh, you need a one-day CAMS licence, but this is easily obtained on-site, on the day for $62. The whole setup will set you back a bit over $400 to be part of it.
Of course, I was placed in the Saturday group, in the Production Cars up to 2000cc category, with four runs for the day. I had no idea what to expect when lining up for my first run. The track has a kink in the middle stage and I figured I had to straight line that as much as possible. That represented about the extent of my drag racing knowledge.
My first run saw me leaving in a cloud of wheelspin and tyre smoke. While the crowd seemed to enjoy it, it was obviously not the quick way down the quarter mile registering 17.2 seconds.
The second run was markedly better, with 16.4 on the clock. No one was more surprised than me when the third run saw a 16.1 second pass, good enough for third place among cars with 25 per cent more capacity. I started harbouring thoughts of a 15 second pass, which was a little premature with my final pass registering 16.2 seconds.
Adding to the fun was the fact that fellow scribe David Morley was in the same group, in his very tidy MkII Escort RS 2000. In the final wash up, the personal grudge match saw us win two races each, which was pretty fitting.
So. The Geelong Revival. Going from strength to strength and immense fun for the weekend warrior. In fact, the Geelong Revival Festival brought 50,000 people to Geelong and that means $4 million in economic activity for the city. Win, win.
Give it a go.
Go here for results and timings and get more information on the Geelong Revival here.
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
