The Shannons Phillip Island Classic, held February 10–12, celebrated the 50th anniversary of a remarkable Australian motor racing circuit. Racing started at Phillip Island as far back as 1928 and serious racing took place for many years on an airfield track about two kilometers from the current modern facility. In 1951, a group of businessmen formed the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club to build a new venue that would host the Australian Grand Prix. Work started in 1952 and the first race was held in December 1956. A number of meetings took place over the years and in the early 1960s, the Armstrong 500 was run, which eventually became the 1000-kilometer endurance race now run at Bathurst. Jack Brabham won the Moomba Trophy at Phillip Island in 1960 in a Cooper Climax T51.
The circuit closed for several years and reopened in 1966 but damage from long-distance, touring car races forced its closure again in the late 1970s. Another group of business investors purchased the circuit in 1985 and in 1989 it hosted Australia’s first ever round of the World 500-cc Motorcycle Championship. Racing has continued on both two wheels and four, and the Shannons Historic meeting has now become a major Australian racing meeting. The circuit overlooks the Pacific Ocean on the south side of Phillip Island, which is 130 kilometers south of Melbourne. The track is an excellent mix of fast and tight sections over rolling countryside. The main straight past the pits is very fast, and finishes with a blind brow and sharp drop to the right, a very daunting corner approached at 180 mph!
For 2006, a quality group of cars from Europe and the USA joined the staunch and enthusiastic Australian competitors. Porsche sent six very special cars from the Porsche Museum at Stuttgart. These included the Type 718/2 Formula 2 car which was part of Porsche’s 1960 F2 championship-winning team and became Dan Gurney’s car for the 1961 F1 season when F2 cars were also eligible to compete in F1 during the transition year for the new 1.5-liter formula. This F2 car was accompanied by four Targa Florio cars, the 1961 Type 718/8 RS Spyder and the 1964 904/8, both powered by flat-eight engines which were developed from Porsche’s F1 program. There was also a 1959 RS60 Spyder that won the Targa Florio in 1960 and a 356B Carrera GTL-Abarth which was a class-winner in 1962, and these had the 1.6-liter versions of Porsche’s famous quad-camshaft four-cylinder racing engine. The Porsches took part in the regularity events and also did a number of demonstrations for the large crowd. They were driven by Vern Schuppan and a number of Australian racing stars.
Sir Jack Brabham was on hand all weekend in relaxed style, along with other Australian racing greats like Kevin Bartlett and Bob Jane. Legend Peter Brock and his brother Phillip were racing in several of the four touring car races, which were re-runs of the great days of Australian “big banger” touring cars in the 1960s and 1970s. Brian Wilson brought his 1967 Brabham-Repco BT24/1 and Bert Skidmore was driving Lou Sellyei’s Eagle-Weslake. Skidmore won one of the single-seater races, which was the first victory for the Eagle since Gurney won at Spa in 1967. Race chairmnan Ian Tate, and all the hard-working staff at the Victorian Historic Racing Register, were incredibly friendly, efficient and worked overtime to help competitors, spectators and visiting journalists alike.
By Ed McDonough
