Adelaide Motorsport Festival 2017 Reflection – F1 in Adelaide

First off, welcome to 2018! I have enjoyed my holiday break and hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Wishing that your year will be full of prosper, happiness and good health.

The Adelaide Motorsport Festival once again was a successful event and the atmosphere felt like the Grand Prix was back in town and it made me feel like that two and five year old kid going to see the pinnacle of motorsport in all it’s glory.

The roaring sounds of the 3.5L Ford Cosworth V8’s (Lola Larrousse LC88, Scuderia Italia Dallara F189, Arrows Footwork FA15), 3L Ford-Cosworth DFV V8’s (Williams FW07B & March 741), 1.5L BMW Straight 4 Turbo (Benetton B186), and the screaming 800bhp Hart 3L V10 (Arrows A21) filled the air as the hairs stood on the back of your neck and made you relive those epic memories.

Seeing the fences crowded around the designated viewing area just to see the F1 machinery grace our shortened legendary street circuit was an amazing site to see once more and brought back memories of the past.

In terms of sound, it showed what the modern era of F1 lacks and really needs to bring back despite the great amount of power, torque and spectacular technology that the current 1.6L V6 Turbocharged Hybrids provide as well as the simplicity of the machinery which is what drove my love of F1 from such an early age.

It was great to see Supercars driver Tim Slade push the Arrows-Footwork FA15 to it’s limits and smash the lap record with a 43.03 seconds and eclipsing Ivan Capelli’s benchmark by 0.2 seconds that he set last year in the Leyton House March CG891.

Also seeing the 1000bhp Nissan GT-R Time Attack owned by Matt Longhurst (which substituted the 1350bhp Street FX Toyota WTF86 after snapping it’s driveshaft) up against the Arrows FA15.

From 30kph, the Arrows was too strong and won 300 metres clear in two of the three runs.

My thoughts on the machinery this year were that we had a great variety from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 00’s with the core being from our beloved Grand Prix era 1985-1995 but what would be great is to see another Ferrari or two, another Benetton, a Lotus, Williams and McLaren.

The wow factor of once again seeing a V12-powered Ferrari in the flesh in Adelaide (so lucky to see the 412t1 back in the day and twice at the 2015 & 16 events) would be something special along with one of Ayrton Senna’s legendary title winning McLaren’s, Nigel Mansell’s 1992 title-winning FW14B Williams or even some modern machinery but the event officials are definitely pushing the boundaries so never say never.

Another machine that was great to see in action was the Super5000, a prototype formula that hopes to bring a premier open wheel category back to Australia that fans can embrace as well as being part of the pathway for young drivers to race overseas in Europe or the United States.

It is powered by 5L V8 Supercar engine that produces 600bhp, weighs in at 850kgs and features a Supercars Albins ST6 with LSD and MoTeC Paddle Shift gearbox.

It was driven by 2007 Supercars Champion, three-time Bathurst 1000 winner and Garry Rogers Motorsport driver Garth Tander, Super2 Champion Josh Hazelwood and Super2 driver Josh Kean over the weekend.

Other categories that took part in the Adelaide Motorsport Festival included the Heritage Touring Cars, 5-Litre Touring Cars, Historic Sports Sedans, Formula Ford, Sports Cars, Pre-1969 And Invited, High Performance Street, 4WD Turbo, Invited Performance, Formula Libre, Supercar, Porsche Through The Ages, Ferrari and Time Attack.

Cars on display at the event ranged from Audi, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Maserati and Jaguar.

The event as a whole can definitely improve and organisers are ready to take it to the next level with plans to extend the track up to two kilometres long to entice more F1 drivers and international collectors.

The circuit will add 600 metres to the current route, heading further up Wakefield Road following the traditional track and then a sharp hairpin which will then see the cars follow the normal layout.

The track extension will increase the number of cars on track up to 24, increase entry income as well as offset some of the costs in extending the circuit.

Organisers are currently talking with international collectors and ex-Adelaide F1 stars that will come back if there is a track extension.

One major point that should have been implemented from the start was using the main straight, Senna Chicane and Wakefield Road also as viewing points for the public but thankfully the event officials have these great areas on mind for this year’s motorsport festival and it will be great to venture around the track.

Overall the event is great and can only get better. The only faults being needing more attractions such as more F1 machinery (classic and modern), some Prototype Sportscars, Tasman Series machinery, modern V8 Supercars, more viewing points so you can be spread out rather than cramped in or stuck behind people with that single long designated viewing zone, seated and shaded areas.

Tickets are well worth it being able to get up as close and personal to the cars, reasonably priced and the food stalls are great so come on down to this year’s event and relive some memories of our Grand Prix era!

The fifth edition of Australia’s answer to the legendary Goodwood Festival of Speed will be from the Thursday November 29 to Sunday December 2.