We spent the 2019 Queen’s Birthday long weekend, June 8th & 9th, at Sydney Motorsport Park, celebrating the golden age of motorsport with a great group of people and a packed schedule of motorsport for the 2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic. Now that we’ve settled back in the present, it’s time to take a look back at the event with the wrap-up and photo galleries.
After a damp start to the event with Friday’s private practice, kindly hosted by Sydney Motorsport Park, Saturday morning threw us for a bit of a loop when we rolled up to a circuit blanketed in a fog that refused to lift. This delayed the firing up of engines while we waited for visibility to increase enough for the drivers and officials to safely see each other, but after an hour or so delay we were under way with qualifying.
Conditions for qualifying were far from the fastest, with the sun struggling to pierce the fog enough to dry the circuit out and put some heat into the tarmac, but drivers did an excellent job keeping everything on the black stuff and putting in some good times. By the time racing got under way after lunch things were still a little atmospheric, but the HSRCA Sydney Classic was on the gas and not lifting off.
Sunday morning greeted us with fog, for a change, but it was the normal kind that was quickly overpowered and gave way to an absolutely perfect winter’s day. Competitors made the most of it, putting on some great races, particularly during the business end of Sunday morning when we held several feature events.
Speaking of features, we were thrilled to host a round of MG Racing Australia’s 2019 series at the HSRCA Sydney Classic. Featuring a stunning entry of MG Racing Australia cars as well as a healthy contingent of Group S drivers, the category put a record field of cars on track for qualifying and three races. The cars were spectacular, the field varied and the racing close and exciting right the way through the order. We thoroughly enjoyed spending a weekend with the MG Racing Australia community and look forward to doing so again in the near future!
Riccardo Benvenuti Image
Historic Formula Ford Australia was our other featured category for the meeting, and contested a round of the Historic Formula Ford Australia Driver to Europe Series over the weekend. The Formula Fords always put on a good show and looked great both out on the track and in the pits and paddock. Thanks to Historic Formula Ford Australia for making the HSRCA Sydney Classic home to a round of your historic series!
The meeting was a great one for fans of tin-top racing, with strong fields of both Group S sports cars and Group N historic touring cars joining the MG Racing Australia entry. The Group S entry featured a great selection of cars, and put them to work well over the course of the weekend with some magic races. Group N had some fun events on Saturday in the fog, although some laps under safety car on Sunday truncated the action slightly – such is life in motorsport, however.
Our Regularity and Super Sprint grids continue to attract an interesting and varied group of cars, and of course friendly people. We love seeing these machines out on track, and hope to see these groups continued to be supported as they provide a good opportunity to get involved in a race meeting and get the car out on the track.
Leading up to the event we introduced some of the Formula Holdens that would join us for the weekend, and they were stunning out on track, as were the other wings ‘n slicks cars in Groups Q & R. It’s always exciting to see these cars open up around Sydney Motorsport Park, where they seem very at home. It was also great to see the earlier L, M & O cars out on track, and their races with invited cars and Vees were closely contested and plenty of fun.
Thank you to all of the drivers, family, friends and teams who support each other and HSRCA events. We know that a huge amount of work goes in behind the scenes to prepare the cars so beautifully and keep them out on the track doing what they do best in race condition and we appreciate you getting involved and helping us to celebrate historic motorsport in Australia.
A historic motorsport meeting is not just about the on-track action. The pits and paddock are full of beautiful cars, friends catching up to share stories of motorsport glory and plenty of hard work as competitors tweak and tune their cars. This weekend we were joined by an HSRCA club run display on Saturday that featured some absolutely stunning and unusual motorcars, as well as an equally-stunning MG display on Sunday.
We were also joined by HSRCA sponsor Shannons, and we enjoyed spending a weekend with the friendly and helpful people who looked after their display. Thank you Shannons for your support!
Most importantly, we would like to thank all of the volunteers who devote their weekends, and in many cases weeks before and after an event, to the HSRCA, our events and club motorsport in Australia. The sport would not survive without you and the talent, dedication and hard work you devote to it. Thank you!
Thank you from Rod, Richard and the HSRCA committee for a spectacular HSRCA Sydney Classic! We’re already back at work behind the scenes preparing for the Spring Festival which will be held on the 28th and 29th of September, and look forward to going racing with you again soon.
Put the kettle on, and spend a few minutes clicking through the following galleries to enjoy the excellent work of the many talented photographers who cover our events.
Images thanks to Campbell Armstrong Rider, Riccardo Benvenuti, Peter Dalton, David Jenkins, Seth Reinhardt, Syd Reinhardt, Mark Richards, Stuart Row, Geoff Russell, Neil Scott, Dan Stoodley and Ashton Turner. To get in contact with Jeremy, Peter, Seth, or Syd, email Seth at seth@hsrca.com.
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Campbell Armstrong Rider
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Riccardo Benvenuti
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Jeremy Dale
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Peter Dalton
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: David Jenkins
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Seth Reinhardt
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Syd Reinhardt
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Mark Richards
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Stuart Row
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Geoff Russell
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Peter Schell
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Neil Scott
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Dan Stoodley
2019 HSRCA Sydney Classic: Ashton Turner
Upcoming Meetings:
Spring Festival: September 28-29, Wakefield Park
Summer Festival: November 30 – December 1
