Bound to spark special interest will be the recently arrived in Australia, Porsche 917/30 Chassis 005. It was built at the Porsche Weissach facility for Gerry Sutterfield, a large Porsche Dealer in USA and will participate at Phillip Island for the first time.
The air-cooled turbocharged 5374cc flat 12-cylinder 917s were the fastest cars of the era. In 1973, Mark Donohue dominated the Can-Am series with the 917/30 Chassis 003 for Penske.
The largest historic motor racing event in the Southern Hemisphere will have close to 400 cars in 10 categories at Phillip Island on March 7-9. They will range from the late 20s to the late 80s and include some international race cars not seen in Australia before.
With entries flowing in, there will also be close to 1000 cars on display from the many car clubs. It is a family friendly event that attracts all ages and has public access to the main garage area where these amazing cars of yesteryear can be viewed close up.
The Festival of Motorsport will also welcome Ernie and Elaine Nagamatsu from the USA with the former to drive the replica 7/8 scale (Old Yella) OY10 Chassis 00 Corvette Special Racer. The car was produced as a tribute to the original 00 Corvette Special raced by the legendary Dave MacDonald and is the first appearance in Australia.
The Nagamatsus will be accompanied by a 1971 Datsun 510, a model that was a prominent sedan race car in America in the early 1970s.
From the United Kingdom, Keith Allers will have his aluminium bodied 1958 Lola Mk 1 sports car. It created great interest and brought reviews from the press of the day as Eric Broadley’s first built car for the growing sports car market. Allers will also be in his Morgan sports which he will use as road transport while touring Australia.