Historic cars return to Morgan Park in landmark event
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MOTORSPORTS: A huge range of historic sports cars hit Morgan Park Raceway at the weekend for the first time in more than 20 years.
The new ‘Historic Sports Sedans’ category was introduced at Warwick’s first 2021 Queensland Sprint Series event on Sunday.
A rolling start under a pace car enables 20 entrants to compete in each sprint, with all cars either made or modelled on race cars from 1988 and earlier.
Raceway president Steve de Lissa hoped the historic category would help attract a dedicated spectator base to the Warwick community.
“These cars haven’t had a category to run in for quite some time, so we’ve put together a category in a sprint-style format with a rolling start,” de Lissa said.
“It’s safer than standing starts and it’s more spectacular. They make a lot of noise, a lot of colour, and it’s really exciting to watch.
“We’ll have invited cars, too. They can’t compete in the championship, but they can still run in that format, which gives another dimension of colour and noise.”
Warwick District Sporting Car Club member and organiser of the new category Graeme Hodges was thrilled with the event’s early success.
“The rolling start is a really good, safe option for us, and it looks spectacular – over the years, we’ve found people love to watch these old cars,” Hodges said.
“The other thing we’ve found is I’m 70, and most of us are in that age bracket, where we’ve raced all our lives, but we don’t want that door-to-door racing anymore.
“It looks like racing and feels like racing, but it’s sprinting so you’re really only racing against the clock.”
Entrants must have a sprints licence and a car authentic to the pre-1988 period.
Contact Morgan Park Raceway on 0437 471 433 to be involved.
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