Video: Formula One Cars to Star in Adelaide in December
A remarkable collection of classic Formula One Machinery spanning four decades of Grand Prix racing will assemble at the 2017 Adelaide Motorsport Festival, this December 9th-10th. Nine cars are confirmed to be part of the on-track demonstrations across the Saturday and Sunday, lapping the Victoria Park sprint circuit at speed in a series of sessions on each day.
The headline act is likely to be the 2000 Arrows A21 that was one of the star performers in the ‘Race to the City’ viral video launched several weeks ago (click on the Video tab to see Race to the City!). To be driven by Adelaide-based Supercars driver Josh Kean, the 800hp, 18,000 RPM Hart V10-powered car is thought the most likely to challenge the sprint circuit’s lap record of 43.28 seconds, set last year by Ivan Capelli in a Leyton House March.
The car was raced in the 2000 season by Jos Verstappen, at around the same time Mark Webber tested with Arrows prior to his Formula 1 career commencing.
Meanwhile, Pete Faulkner will steer his ex-Alan Jones Williams FW07-B in Adelaide this December; the same model car that carried Jones to the World Championship that year. The iconic Williams not only delivered Jones the world title that year, but the first title for the famous British team that has since become an icon of the sport.
The two other cars featured in the ‘Race to the City’ film will also be on track at the event, with Tim Slade to be behind the wheel of the ex-Christian Fittipaldi Footwork FA15 and Cameron Waters to drive the turbocharged Benetton BMW B186, as raced by Gerhard Berger. Supercars legend Craig Lowndes is also scheduled to drive the Benetton in a session across the weekend. The Footwork and Benetton will be amongst four Adelaide-era Grand Prix cars on track.
Local driver Brenton Griguol will race his Ford Cosworth V8-powered Larrousse Lola LC88, raced by Philippe Alliot in the 1988 Formula 1 season. Griguol, a regular competitor at the Victoria Park Sprint event, purchased the original, unrestored car earlier this year with its first public showing to be at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
Meanwhile, South African Andre Bezuidenhout will drive his BMS Scuderia Italia Dallara F189, driven in the 1989 Formula 1 Season by Italian driver Andrea DeCesaris. The car, powered by a Cosworth V8, is still driven in anger and in Bezuidenhout’s hands recently set the new outright record at the Simola Hillclimb in South Africa.
De Cesaris qualified ninth in Adelaide in the car in 1989, but spun off twice at the same corner in appalling wet conditions, completing just 12 laps of the race.
Several cars will turn back the clock to before the Adelaide era commenced, with cars from the 1970s and early 1980s also set to feature.
John Bowe and car owner Joe Calleja will demonstrate an ex-Hans Stuck March 741, as raced in the 1974 season. The car is a regular in the historic racing scene and also featured at the AMF in 2014.
Richard Lihou will drive a 1979 Candy Tyrell 009, powered by a Ford Cosworth V8. This particular car was raced in the 1979 season by Derek Daly, and was a competitive car that season – scoring four podium finishes in the hands of Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jarier.
Finally, Gerry Duyvestyn will drive the oldest Grand Prix car entered, a 1970 March 701 once raced by the great Mario Andretti. The 701 was a winner in the hands of Jackie Stewart in the 1970 season and was used by the March factory team, Tyrell and several other privateer runners that year and in 1971. Andretti raced the car in several races in STP colours, including a third-placed finish at the Spanish Grand Prix early in that season.
Joining the classic Formula 1 Machinery, USA-based open wheel machinery will also join the on-track sessions for the first time. The 1986 March 86C ‘Skoal Bandit’ IndyCar will make its AMF debut this December.
The 86C was one of the dominant chassis’ of its time and in Bobby Rahal’s hands won the PPG CART World Series that year. The Skoal Bandit sponsorship was famous across IndyCar and NASCAR competition for several seasons, though in the 1986 season was raced by Indy 500 great Tom Sneva.
The Adelaide Motorsport Festival is a five-day festival of motoring and motorsport, comprising of the Victoria Park Sprint - held on a shortened version of the Adelaide 500 circuit in Victoria Park – and the Adelaide Rally.
The rally takes in the Adelaide Hills and surrounding regions and commences on Thursday, 7th December.
