The Victorian Historic Racing Register has enjoyed an eventful first weekend of August with the Winton Festival of Speed proving to be a hit.
With more than 270 entrants racing across a number of different categories and spectator numbers increasing from last year, the event had gone to another level in 2019.
This year’s edition of the festival also welcomed a whopping 500 cars on display during the Show ‘N’ Shine and event director Peter Donald couldn’t be happier with how the weekend panned out.
“I think it went very well and there was a lot of close racing across all the categories,” Donald said.
“We had a lot of positive feedback from competitors on both days, as well as post event, all indicating appreciation and saying what a nice event it was.
“It is nice when you get feedback like that.
“We had a really good crowd across both days too and we were up from last year’s numbers. They would have really enjoyed the show due to all the fantastic racing.
“We’re also very thankful for the officials that were there on hand throughout. We couldn’t run these events without them and we reiterated that to them at Saturday morning’s briefing.”
As for the racing itself, the categories involved a number of Historic Touring Cars groups, as well as Sports Sedans, Formula Vees and other invited categories such as the MG, Italian Classics and HQ Racing Cups.
Despite such a range of different categories, there were two different stand out races that headlined the event.
Taking centre stage on Sunday were Group N Touring Cars and Formula Ford, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary.
While Formula Ford had two races earlier in the weekend, it was Sunday’s final race commemorated the half century milestone and it was Jonathan Miles who came away with the memorable victory after leading for the whole race.
When the Group N Touring Cars got on track, they used the opportunity to honour the late Dean Neville and dedicated a race to him, a moment that was acknowledged by everyone at the track.
“The Group N Touring Car Race’s did a parade lap with their lights on for Dean and it was a nice touch,” Donald added.
“The category’s big race was turned into a a bit of a commemorative cup for Dean which made it even more special for the drivers.
“In the other categories, the fact we had 270 was a great outcome, especially for Winton. The two feature races with Formula Ford and Group N were fantastic as they both had really strong fields.”
The Victorian Historic Racing Register’s next event is the Historic Sandown taking place at Sandown Raceway on 25 – 27 October.