Phillip Island Classic, Australia

Rick Hall used the agility of the cars’ sprint set up to improve on his 5th place in race 1, coming home 3rd in the other two races. After engine problems in Saturday’s events, Rob Hall followed Rick to 4th place on Sunday in chassis #5. Carrying the flag for Italy, Alfa guru Joe Nastasi had brought his Alfa Romeo T33SC12 and T33/2 ‘Periscopio’ from the U.S. Joe had the Fernet Tonic liveried car up to 8th at the finish on Saturday morning. The prospect of witnessing spirited duels between these greats had been short-lived however, with the Alfas running just a few laps before returning to the pits on Saturday. Work began immediately as they were due at the Australian F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne the following week.

Bathurst-winning Aussie touring car driver Larry Perkins was more successful in ‘La Pantera Bianca’. Two inches lower than a GT40, its lightweight body had been ordered from the De Tomaso factory in 1985 by Paul Halstead and built as a ground effects car powered by an Australian-built 351 Cleveland V8. Perkins finished with two 5th places on Saturday. During Friday’s practice, the black 1972 Group S Pantera of Rusty French had literally towered over the low coupe. French had obviously come to grips with the newly re-surfaced track, and completed the weekend winning three of his four races. Ross Jackson’s yellow Pantera was in the top ten in all four events, finishing 4th on Sunday afternoon.

Alfas filled a third of the grid for the Division 1 Group S races. Steve Constantinidis was the highest placed finisher with a 4th place in race 1. In the Group A & C Touring Cars, Bill Magoffin was the sole Italian in his 1972 GTV 2-litre. More success came to a French classic in the Regularity events.

John Hardy has been running his sweet-sounding and well-sorted Alpine Renault A110 around the island for a long time and it showed. Two wins, a 2nd and a 5th from 4 starts is an impressive result when there are over forty others to avoid while trying to maintain consistent lap times. Geoff Burgess in his Alfa Romeo 1750 wasn’t far behind, claiming a 2nd and a 3rd. Paul Chaleyer’s ability was evident in Division 1 with a 1st place in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta 750 Spider.

There was a jewel to be found sitting in the sun behind the pits on Friday morning.
In 1939 the Maserati brothers had introduced their 4CL to take on the Alfa Romeos and ERAs and this car, chassis #1564, was the prototype. Its 1.5-litre, supercharged 4-cylinder engine boasts twin exhaust valves per cylinder and produces 220bhp. In the hands of Villoresi and Trossi it was used as a test car before the outbreak of war. Owner Paddins Dowling explained that it continued in this role while the brothers developed the CL and CLT series after the war.

Still carrying its original body, with 1564 stampings visible everywhere, its early ownership history is uncertain but it has been known in the USA since the 1990s. Paddins acquired the car in 2010 and it is most definitely not a museum piece. His first two races with it, at Sears Point and at the Monterey Historics, both resulted in wins. On Saturday morning at the Island, he brought it home 5th outright from 39 entries and first in class. He went one better in the afternoon race but on Sunday a brake issue had him back in the pits after 4 laps. This Maserati is a piece of history, being cared for by an owner in tune with its ability and provenance, and many of the admirers in the paddock knew they’d be seeing it again a week later, in the company of today’s Formula 1 projectiles, at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit.

The difference between the two racing codes was nowhere more evident than during Saturday’s racing, when Paddins came up behind veteran campaigner George Hetrel’s Bugatti Type 35C. George politely let him by but the Bugatti driver probably wanted to hear the supercharged Italian at race speed.

Across the track in the car park it was the same. John Lawson’s Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Mille Miglia Spider sat contentedly amid the onlookers, close to John Fitzpatrick’s Delage D6/70 Le Mans, while their owners went about their business from afar. It’s what makes the Classic at Phillip Island such an amiable place to be.