2016 adelaide motorsport festival 31087488816 o
2016 adelaide motorsport festival 30303069134 o
2016 adelaide motorsport festival 30303071194 o
2016 adelaide motorsport festival 30303079304 o
2016 adelaide motorsport festival 30317113033 o
Sam Charlwood22 Nov 2016
NEWS

Formula 1 returns to Adelaide

High-spec machinery – both old and new – graces Victoria Park once again

Formula One has returned to Adelaide – in exhibition form, at least.

The streets of the South Australian capital came to life at the weekend with the annual Adelaide Motorsport Festival, comprising yesteryear’s finest Formula 1 and V8 touring car classics and some big names from Australian and international motorsport.

While the annual Australian Formula 1 fixture is now a Melbourne-only affair, South Australia showed its continued motorsport colours as thousands of people endured 35-degree heat to see 350-plus vehicles combined duke it out in the Classic Adelaide Rally and Victoria Park Sprint.

Formula 1 has not been held in Adelaide since 1995 but the SA capital witnessed an exhibition-style display on Sunday when Italian driver Ivan Capelli completed multiple laps of the circuit aboard an Adrian Newey-designed House March.

2016 adelaide motorsport festival 31009711221 o

Capelli set a blitzing lap record of 43.28 seconds on his final run around the famous street circuit, bettering the efforts of ace pilots Stefan Johansson and Pier Luigi Martini.

Exotica at the event included one of only eight Ferrari F40GTEs, a BMW-powered Benneton, Ferrari 599 FXX and modern examples including the McLaren 570GT.

The event included some competitive toe-to-toe racing. Most notable was the all-open wheel category, won by Brenton Ramsay’s Birrana Racing Reynard 94D Formula Holden.

2016 adelaide motorsport festival 30303071194 o

Ramsay edged out Trent Shirvington’s Mygale M11 Formula 3 car by less than 0.3 seconds with a flying 45.8sec lap.

Daniel Munroe (Radical SR8) and James Winslow (WEST LMP4) went down to the wire in Sports Racer category, with the more powerful V8 Radical pipping former Australian F3 champion and LeMans racer.

David Towe (BMW M3) and Jordan Roddy (Jaguar XJS) topped the timesheets in the Heritage Touring Cars section, while local ace Chris Smerdon won the Burson Bathurst-era V8s.

2016 adelaide motorsport festival 30756448100 o

Images: Adelaide Motorsport Festival/Richard Craill

Share this article
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalistsMeet the team
Stay up to dateBecome a carsales member and get the latest news, reviews and advice straight to your inbox.
Disclaimer
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.

If the price does not contain the notation that it is "Drive Away", the price may not include additional costs, such as stamp duty and other government charges.
Download the carsales app
    AppStoreDownloadGooglePlayDownload
    App Store and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.
    © CAR Group Ltd 1999-2024
    In the spirit of reconciliation we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.