MOTORSPORT: V8 fun in the sun for Ricciardo

After a winless season around the world with hybrid power, Daniel Ricciardo will conclude his year having fun at home with a "real" Formula 1 car and some karting.

Ricciardo is to demonstrate a four-year-old Red Bull RB7 with a naturally-aspirated Renault V8 at Sunday's Perth Speed Fest.

Australia's only surviving F1 world champion, Alan Jones, will be there too, driving a Maybach that Speed Fest organisers say is the car his father Stan raced in the 1950s.

Jones has just attended the 2015 awards of Britain's Autosport, the weekly British magazine and website that is the "bible" of world motor racing and where he received the prestigious Gregor Grant Award, named after Autosport's founding editor.

The presentation to him was made by Mark Webber, Australia's F1 star between Jones' era in the late 1970s and early to mid-80s and Ricciardo, who won three grands prix in 2014 after replacing Webber at Red Bull Racing.

Webber is now the world endurance champion with Porsche in sports car racing.

Jones was remembered at Autosport's London ceremony as "a hard-charging and no-nonsense racer, a star underdog" and for his pivotal role in the Williams team's first world championship triumph in 1980.

Ricciardo has also been honoured recently – by the British Racing Drivers Club with its Innes Ireland Trophy, as the Commonwealth driver displaying the most courage and sportsmanship, for the second straight year.

Although he has dropped from third to eighth in the world championship in 12 months, Ricciardo is rated by Autosport's GP editor Ben Anderson as the fourth-best driver in F1 this season – behind only Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg.

"Some of his driving in the second half of the year [Hungary, Singapore and Italy stand out] was truly outstanding," Anderson said.

Sunday's Speed Fest is at the Perth Motorplex at Kwinana Beach, 38km south of the WA capital's CBD.

Its permanent tracks are a drag strip and a speedway, but Speed Fest organisers say they will have five configurations within the venue for four and two-wheel action.

The RB7 that Ricciardo will demonstrate is the model in which Vettel won the second of his four world titles with Red Bull, while Webber also raced it as his teammate.

"It will be nice to hear the V8 and give the fans a bit of a show," Ricciardo said.

"I'll be trying to put on some excitement with noise and a bit of smoke."

Next Tuesday, at Barbagallo Raceway, 50km north of Perth, Ricciardo will join karters in a junior drive day as part of a program bearing his name and organised by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS).

At Sunday's Speed Fest brothers Will and Alex Davison will be in V8 Supercars and Alister McRae and Dean Herridge will run rally cars.

Others taking part on four wheels will be James Brock in a V8 ute and Perth year 10 student  Alex Rullo, a star of this year's Kumho touring car series and advancing to the V8 Supercar Development Series next year.

On two wheels will be Australia's latest MotoGP rider Jack Miller, superbike ace Wayne Maxwell and 500cc GP winner turned television commentator Daryl Beattie.

General admission to the Speed Fest is $99 for adults, $65 for children 15 and under, with those younger free. A family pass is $247, a pit pass $50 and there are two tiers of corporate hospitality, starting at $385.