Spectacular historics at Phillip Island

Report and photos by Brett Ramsey

A regular visitor to the Island meeting, Giddings has one of the World's finest collections of classic Grand Prix cars from the golden era of Grand Prix racing in the '40s and '50s and each year local enthusiasts wait with great expectation to see what jewel he will deliver down under.

This year it was an immaculately prepared and restored Maserati 250F that Stirling Moss drove to victory in the 1956 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.

"The late Murray Richards was the driving force behind this meeting and if he were alive today he would be both astonished and justifiably delighted with how this event has developed," said Giddings. "It truly is world class."

Almost 500 cars and drivers, many from Overseas entered this years event which attracted a huge crowd over both days.

This year's featured marque was Porsche, and the highlight was the appearance of six classic cars from the factory's famous museum including the ex Dan Gurney Type 718/2 which finished second in the 1961 World Drivers Championship and two classic cars of the Targa Florio, the Type718/8 RS Spyder and a 1964 904/8 both powered by the 2.0 litre flat eight that went into the company's Formula One effort of the early ’60s.

Also driving a Porsche was German driver and 1977 Le Mans winner Jurgen Bath, an imposing bear of a man with a crushing handshake and warm smile that grew constantly broader as he gave his impressions of Phillip Island. "It's much in a way like the Nurburgring... good fast corners, slow corners and an undulating layout but it's very modern and safe too," he said.

Barth drove one of Rusty French's K3 935s, French repaying a favour to Barth for helping him gain a drive at the Le Mans 24 hour race over two decades ago.

There were plenty of local heroes of the past and present on hand as well. Three-time Australian Touring Car Champion and this year's event patron Bob Jane happily signed hundreds of autographs for a steady stream of race fans surrounded by some of his most famous cars including the Jaguar Mk2 in which he won his first National title and the 7.0-litre Camaro in which he staged classic battles against Allan Moffat's Mustang and Norm Beechey's Monaro.

Peter Brock played Pied Piper to an entranced audience of young trainees from the Kangan Batman TAFE motorsport training course in between stints behind the wheel of a Group C A9X Torana. John Bowe drove the ex-Terry Hook Lola T610 that he had used to beat so regularly on his way to an Australian Sportscar title in 1986. Vern Schuppan drove Rob Sherrard's Ford GT40 and in the crowd, current day V8 Supercar stars looked on with the same wide-eyed wonderment of their young fans.

The Phillip Island Historic Classic is not just a nostalgic walk down memory lane, it's the perfect antidote to the self-importance of modern day motorsport where marketing, merchandising and the power of cubic money has slowly camouflaged the fact that this is just a sport, and sport's supposed to be fun.