Western Australia’s Street Circuit Revival
In the far south of Western Australia, motorsport continues to thrive with the annual running of the Albany Classic, drawing together a range of historic classes to race around the houses, in celebration of the granddaddy of WA’s street circuits.
Images: Unlabelled Photography
The modern iteration of the event is a throwback to the original Albany Tourist Trophy of 1936, which was a handicap race contested over 25 laps on a 4km long road course through the centre of town, all in front of an estimated attendance of 10,000 curious onlookers.
With the streets freshly bitumenised, Peter Connor claimed honours in his Rover from a field of seven by virtue of his favourable handicap, with five cars finishing the race.
That initial event, which also featured a race for bicycles, spawned many similar road circuits across Western Australia, with the Albany version utilised through to the outbreak of WWII, just when it was scheduled to host the 1940 Australian Grand Prix.
When the GP finally did tour west for its first running in WA in 1951, the meet was held at Narrogin, a Wheatbelt town closer to Perth.
Following the war, racing returned to an alternate circuit near the showgrounds, with action continuing through to 1963.
Revived in 1991, the event has been an annual attraction since, except for a 2020 pandemic induced cancellation.
The modern-day event is a multi-discipline, multi-venue festival, with Saturday’s action taking place at the nearby Mount Clarence Hillclimb, above, held a short distance from the downtown street circuit.
That portion of the celebration is in itself a throwback to the 1957 Australian Hillclimb Championship which was held on the tourist drive.
While the Hillclimb caters for a broad range of vehicles, the street circuit event, which is run to regularity trial rules in the name of safety, is solely focused on historic machinery.
The track takes in three city blocks, including five roughly right-angle corners plus a chicane, and like other contemporary street circuits around the country, the event has a definite party atmosphere, with the city surrounds filled with entertainment, activities and sideshows.
The 2022 running over the weekend saw fields provided from a range of genres, with each category receiving three sessions each.
For the record, topping the regularity point scores in each category were Clinton Rayner (Chev Camaro, over 3000cc Historic Touring Cars), Shane Udecz (Ford Cortina, under 3000cc Historic Touring Cars), Leonard Kidd (MG B, Production Sports Cars), Gerald Hammersley (XW Ford Falcon GT, over 3000cc Tin Tops), Ramon Panizza (Ford Escort, under 3000cc Tin Tops), Matthew Lawson (Leyland Mini, Historic Touring Cars under 3000cc), Mario Monachino (Fiat 500, Sports Cars) and Brian Eyre (Peugeot Wasp, Vintage Sports & Race Cars).
Many thanks to Unlabelled Photography for the excellent images to accompany this story.
Mark Walker (administrator)
A vastly experienced Motorsport Public Relations operator, journalist, commentator and photographer, Mark brings his unique angle to The Race Torque in both words and imagery. As well as serving as our key photographer on the ground at major events around Australia (and overseas), Walker will often chime in with his unique and pin-point sharp viewpoint of the racing world via the keyboard too.
