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Big Names And Big Bangers Star In Shannons Phillip Island Classic

Big names and big bangers will be the stars of the 2006 Shannons Phillip Island Classic from February 10-12.

By Bass Coast Shire Council - 30th January 2006 - Back to News

Big names and big bangers will be the stars of the 2006 Shannons Phillip Island Classic from February 10-12, with some of the best-known names in Australian motorsport at the wheel of a record entry of big capacity sports cars, open wheelers and historic touring cars.

A huge field of 470 historic touring, sports and racing cars – including 24 significant cars coming from overseas – comfortably eclipses even last year’s Australian record entry.

It confirms the Shannons Phillip Island Classic’s status as the major historic race meeting in the Southern Hemisphere.

More than 270 of the entered cars have nominated for untimed practice on the Friday of the meeting.

Highlights of the 2006 meeting include: -

• Australia’s first Le Mans winner, Vern Schuppan, will race Rob Sherrard’s newly imported Porsche 962 sports car

• Fellow Le Mans winner Juergen Barth from Germany will be at the wheel of an 840HP Porsche 935K sports car alongside the identical car of teammate Rusty French

• V8 Supercar driver and former Australian Driving Champion John Bowe will campaign the Lola T610 sports car he raced against in the mid-1980s on his way to his 1986 Australian Sports Car title.

• And Peter Brock and his brother (‘Split Pin’) Phillip will go head to head in identical Torana A9X models in three Group C touring car races, while Peter ‘s former teammate John Harvey will be at the wheels of the earlier ex-Bob Jane XU-1 Torana.

The thundering sports car entry include a Porsche 962, two Porsche 935s, a Porsche 934, two Lola, two McLarens, two Matich sports cars an a Ford GT40.

They will be matched against up to five Formula One cars from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, numerous rapid Formula Atlantic and Formula 2 cars and three Formula 5000s in the three races for Category M & O Sports, Racing and Invited cars on the mammoth two-day, 33 race programme.

A pair of rare ‘Monzanapolis’ racers from the late 1950s – a unique single seater Lister from Britain and a Curtis Indianapolis car – will re-live a 49 year-old grudge match.

Six very special early 1960s racing cars from the Porsche Museum in Germany accompanied by Museum director Klaus Bischof spearhead a special Porsche theme that has attracted a number of rare racing models to the meeting.

Australia’s three times World Driving Champion will be amongst the many retired champions attending the meeting and taking part in parade laps.

Amongst them, racing legend Bob Jane will bring a number of his famous Mk II Jaguar, his Camaro, Torana and McLaren Repco sports car the meeting as part of his official role as Patron of the meeting.

The bumper sports and racing car field has already been eclipsed by the 97 Group N historic touring cars also entered for the meeting that has had to be split into two races for equally-match Under and Over 3.0 litre cars.

Entries for Pre and Post War regularity are also oversubscribed for the 2006 Classic, which with 451 entries for the weekend and more than 250 cars involved in untimed Friday practice already matches last year’s Australian record entry.

Vehicle displays are also up nearly 50 per cent on 2005, headed by six special racing Porsches from he company’s Museum in Stuttgart Germany. The substantial Porsche presence at the meeting has encouraged a big turn out of Porsche Club members in models from early 356 coupes and Speedsters to the latest 911 models.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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