An array of Aussie touring car machinery took to Phillip Island over the weekend as part of the circuit’s popular Classic Festival of Motorsport.
The 32nd running of the classic included three Super Sprint sessions for 5 Litre Touring Cars, consisting largely of V8 Supercar-era machines, plus a handful of Group A and C guests.
Headlining the field was current Supercars full-timer Tim Slade, who after a heavy crash at Bathurst the previous weekend aboard his CoolDrive Mustang made an early return to the cockpit.
His drive came in the Kean family’s ex-Holden Racing Team VE Commodore, sporting the retro colours it wore at the 2010 Bathurst 1000.
Not surprisingly Slade proved the fastest driver of the weekend, recording a best of 1:34.5218 seconds around the 4.5km venue in the second session.
That eclipsed the 1:35.0365s young gun Harri Jones had managed in his family’s ex-Todd Kelly Holden Racing Team VE during Saturday’s first session.
Second to Slade in the final hitout was his Supercars team owner Tim Blanchard, driving an ex-Mark Winterbottom Ford Performance Racing Falcon.
Other Supercars in the field included Carey McMahon’s Dick Johnson Racing AU, Chad Parish’s FPR BA, Peter Xiberras’ Garry Rogers Motorsport VT and Andrew Cook’s ex-Rod Salmon AU.
The older Commodores included an ex-Peter Brock VN (Keith Linnell), Neville Kettel’s Clive Benson-Brown/Garry Rogers VH tribute car and an ex-Steve Masterton VK (Steven Tate).
All images courtesy of Rhys Paine Photography.
