Events >> Ballarat Festival of Motoring
Ballarat Festival of Motoring
Website: http://www.ballaratfestivalofmotoring.com.au/
Date: Saturday 25th August - Sunday 2nd Sept 2012
This year marks the 51st Anniversary of the last Victorian Trophy motor race that took place at Ballarat Airfield as part of the 1961 Ballarat "International Meeting".
In the immediate post WW2 period the Ballarat Aerodrome played an important role with the conduct of motor sport at Ballarat including racing for both cars and motorcycles. In 1961 an International Meeting was conducted as an initiative of the Light Car Club of Australia in conjunction with the Ballarat chapter of the LCCA. This meeting was well recorded in the Australian Motor Sports magazine edition of March 1961.
The 1961 meeting also attracted the then leading Australian drivers and the cream of the racing cars in the country including Bill Patterson (Cooper-Climax); Alec Mildren (Cooper-Climax); John Leighton (Cooper); Lex Davison (Aston Martin); Stan Jones (Cooper-Climax); Bib Stillwell (Cooper-Climax); Arnold Glass (Cooper-Maserati); Austin Miller (Cooper-Climax); Bryan Thomson (Monza); John Ampt (Cooper - Jaguar); John Fish (Decca); Norm Beechey (Holden)
The 2011 Easter weekend will see a variety of activities to suit every motoring enthusiast and Ballarat will celebrate the significance of its motor racing heritage.
The Anniversary celebration will focus on the involvement and recognition of those spectators; competitors; officials; sponsors and the current owners of a significant number of the cars that were part of the Airfield based events.
Activities will include a series of promotional and community based events at the Ballarat Mining Exchange from Wednesday April 20 to Saturday April 23 2011.
