A confirmed entry of over 500 competing vehicles for the third consecutive year has cemented the VHRR’s Phillip Islands Classic Festival of Motor Sport as one of the world’s great classic motorsport meetings.

The 48-event weekend programme includes capacity fields in most categories, headed by races for Group Sa, Sb and Sc Production Sports Cars that account for nearly 100 entries alone.

Faced with long reserve lists for the popular Group S category at recent Phillip Island Classic meetings, the Victorian Historic Racing Register this year decided to create separate races for the more modern Sc cars built between 1970 and 1977, such as Alfa Romeos, Datsuns, Panteras and Porsches. They were rewarded instantly with a full grid of 50 cars.

Other major grids before entries closed include Under 3.0-litre Historic Touring Cars (50 entries), Over 3.0-litre Historic Touring Cars (35), Formula 5000 open wheelers (35) and Group C and Group A Touring Cars (25), including two Bathurst Nissan GT-R ‘Godzilla’ coupes.

This year’s Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport, which is again being supported by Shannons, Penrite Lubricants and CoolDrive, will mark a number of major anniversaries: -

• It will commence Australian celebrations of Alfa Romeo’s 100^th anniversary, with a number of significant vehicles participating in the meeting

• It marks the 60^th year in motor sport of 1966 Bathurst winner, Bob Holden, who is again a Phillip Island Classic entrant

• It marks 40 years of the Holden Torana

• It is the 21^st anniversary Phillip Island Classic meeting conducted by the Victorian Historic Racing Register

As the major historic motorsport festival in the Southern Hemisphere, the meeting has again attracted a stellar line-up of the world’s best sports and racing cars. They include: -

• The ex- Giuseppe Farina 1951 World Championship-winning F1 Alfa-Romeo 158 Alfetta from Alfa Romeo’s factory museum in Arese, Italy

• The 1976 World Championship of Makes-winning Martini Porsche 935 coupe and a road-going version of Porsche’s 1998 Le Mans winning GT1 coupe from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany

• The ex-Carroll Shelby 1952 Maserati 200S sports car from the United States

• A rare and beautiful 1951 Ferrari 212 Export sports car from New Zealand

• A glorious 1953 Aston Martin DB3S sports racing car from the UK

The event is on 19th-21st March 2010

Tags: Classic Racing Cars, Historic Car Racing