Festival lights up Phillip Island

Tuesday 14 March, 2023
Photos: Revved Photography
The Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit has played host to a massive weekend of racing action with the 34th Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport attracting almost 400 entries.
 
A grand total of 385 entries across 11 different categories featured throughout the jam-packed weekend, which produced hours of track entertainment for the many attending spectators.
 
Boasting the biggest entry list for the event was the regularity where more than 60 drivers took part in four sessions, and it was five different drivers taking out the most points in each session - John Hardy, Stewart Webster and Victor Spiteri enjoying their victories.
 
When it came to the racing, there were plenty of different categories appealing to fans of all kinds – ranging from Formula Fords, Historic Touring Cars and Group S Mosquito Squadron cars.

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The biggest of the racing category was the combined Historic Touring Cars Over 2L and Invited cars, which had 38 entries for qualifying.
 
The two standout performers for the category were Paul Stubber and Aldo De Paoli, who both having two wins apiece throughout the weekend, but it was the latter who took outright honours after Stubber failed to finish race two.
 
Stubber was doing double duties throughout the race meeting, switching his Chev Camaro for a Mazda RX7 to contest the star-studded Group C and Group A class, where he came away with two class wins.
 
Greg Murphy started off the strongest though, as he won the opening two races before an issue saw him and races one and two runner-up Steven Richards drop out of the top three behind winner Edward Sansil.
 
The duo made it back up to the top of the field in the final race as Richard claimed a thrilling win by half a second over Murphy and Chris Stillwell.

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Another major drawcard for the event were the Formula Fords, with 36 competitors taking part in the category’s four races.
 
In what proved extremely close racing, the biggest margin between winner and runner-up in any race was Nicholas McBride’s one and half second win in race one.
 
His next win was the final race of the weekend, which was also the International Challenge, where he snatched the victory from Andrew Reid by just two tenths.
 
However, in between those two wins, it was Jonathan Miles who claimed top honours for two races with each coming in at around one and a half tenths of a second.
 
In the Historic Touring Cars Under 2L and Invited Race, it was Joshua Axford and Joshua Axford who came away with two wins apiece.
 
Click here to view all the results from every category.
 
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