The 2023 Sydney Classic is ready to break New South Wales’ historic motor racing drought June 10 – 11, with a massive weekend of motor sport at Sydney Motorsport Park. The meeting will see good grids line up throughout the field, along with a few very special firsts and a returning favourite. Tickets are available online now.
Sydney’s first historic race meeting since the highly successful 2022 Summer Festival will feature the Group C & A cars of Heritage Touring Cars, which will combine with early 5.0-litre V8s and 2.0-litre Super Tourers for the first time ever, the inaugural Group N endurance race and hot laps for people living with multiple sclerosis.
Close to 30 classic touring cars will line up for the inaugural Group N endurance race on Sunday morning. Following the successful format of the Group S endurance race, it will be run over 12 laps and feature a compulsory pit stop with an optional driver change. These events are always a lot of fun, with plenty of action in pit lane when the pit window opens. Don’t miss it!
In the combined Heritage Touring Cars field, look forward to a grid of iconic Australian touring car machinery, including Chris Stillwell’s 1988 Caltex Sierra RS500. The car was the first built by Colin Bond’s Caltex CXT Racing Team, and contested the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1988 to ‘92 where it achieved a career highlight third overall at Bathurst. It returned to the Heritage Touring Cars series in 2019, and has been a regular at the pointy end since. Stillwell will be up against a second Sierra, piloted by Andrew Miedecke, and Greg Boyle in the 1993 12hr Falken Nissan GTR amongst others.
Jamie McDonald’s ProDuct VP Commodore ‘PE 016’ was the first V8 Supercar made by Perkins Engineering for Bob Pearson. It debuted in 1993 at the Winfield Triple Challenge and competed at Bathurst in 1993 and 1995 with a best finish of 10th place. It was purchased by Rob Smith in 1996 and continued to compete in the ATCC, and is now understood to be the only surviving original VP Commodore not updated to later model specifications.
Turning to ‘wings ‘n slicks’, Andrew Kluver will be back on board the iconic ‘Budweiser’ Lola T332CS CanAm “Spider Car”. The car was built for Paul Newman and Bill Freeman’s Newman Freeman Racing team to contest the relaunch of the CanAm series in 1979, sponsored by Budweiser and has been authenticated by Bill Freeman as the only remaining “Spider Car” in the world.
And looking a little further back in history, Geoff Piggott will be competing in the 1959 MG ARA Aussie Special #88 alongside Eli Solomon, who we are pleased to welcome from Singapore. Eli is the author of Snakes and ‘Devils: A History of the Singapore Grand Prix’ and has competed with us many times in his Brabham BT18, including the Tasman Revivals in 2006, 2010 and 2012.
The 1959 MG ARA Aussie Special is based on a Lotus 11 with a space frame chassis and fibreglass and aluminium body, powered by a 1340cc MG XPAG motor. It was raced extensively in the early days of historic motor sport at Amaroo Park and has been in Geoff’s care for 20 years.
Following the success of our hot laps for people living with multiple sclerosis last year, we will be “Taking MS for the ride of its life” once more at the 2023 Sydney Classic. MS participants will head out on track at lunch on Saturday for a few hot laps around the iconic Sydney circuit to provide a memorable experience and raise awareness of the terrible disease.
Spectator passes are available online now, and will be purchasable at the gate each day. HSRCA and ARDC members and kids under 12 attend for free.
We look forward to seeing you at Sydney Motorsport Park over the weekend of June 10 and 11. Gates will be open from 8:30am, with racing starting from 9:00am on both days. Information on getting to the circuit is available on the Sydney Motorsport Park website: https://www.sydneymotorsportpark.com.au/pages/map