Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival, 2026

Story and photos by Vince Johnson

The heavens chose to wait until the last day of summer to finally bring South Australia some much-needed rain this year. In the state capital on the Victoria Park circuit, crews had obviously done their homework and on Saturday morning, in the paddock and pits, slicks were nowhere to be seen. With fifteen categories, ranging from Formula 1 to Historic Sports and Racing, including Motorbikes, the track was live from 8:30 to 5:30 each day.

A day earlier, in bright sunshine, many had taken the opportunity to run practice laps. Later, in the early evening, the ever-popular Gouger Street Party had seen a wide cross-section of entrants take a leisurely drive through the city centre to the display along the market and cafe strip. This year Martin Donnelly joined regular F1 visitors Stefan Johansson and Thierry Boutsen, winner of the 1989 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide (Williams Renault FW13), on the street for interviews.

Each group had 15-minute sessions on track throughout each day, though conditions saw some entrants putting discretion before valour. Not that this worried the drift crews, who headed out to entertain the crowd and hopefully create a dry line for others, especially the Formula 1 entries. Guido Belgiorno-Nettis once again returned with his two 1985 F1 Ferraris. He drove the ex-Michele Alboreto #27 while Stefan renewed his AGP memories from forty years ago in #28.

After thirty-one years, Mika Häkkinen was back on the circuit, this time in a McLaren Solus GT, sharing track space with David Coulthard in a McLaren Senna GTR. Another of the hyper cars, a locally-owned Pagani Huayra R EVO roadster, in the hands of the factory test and development driver Andrea Montermini, won many spectators’ vote for the best sounding car of them all. In the pits it sat alongside the Brabham BT62, with which it shares a garage after the Festival. On display not far away and celebrating sixty years since Sir Jack’s F1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship was ‘Old Nail’, the only Brabham BT19 ever built. Valtteri Bottas is a regular visitor to SA and he showed spectators how to give a Ferrari 812 GTS a rear-wheel workout, before heading to an interview session in the Grand Marquee.

Entered in the Sportscars group was the Harburg family’s Porsche 917/30, chassis #5, in the hands of Peter’s son Lachlan. It mixed track time with Scott Bormann’s Ligier JS P325 LMP3 and Thierry Boutsen in a Porsche 962C. Ferraris entered in the GT Style class included Keith Wong’s 488 Challenge, Nigel Hunt’s 488GT3, Paul Russo’s 458 Challenge, Carmelo Calabro’s 360 Challenge and Rod Wilson/Josh Buchan in the 296 Challenge. They were joined by three Lamborghinis: a Gallardo R-EX GT3 (Alex Rullo), a Super Trofeo GT3 (Mark Haig) and a Super Trofeo EVO2 (Aemel Nordin).

At the Festival were two cars with interesting USA history. The Aussie “So-Cal” Special in the Historic Sports and Racing class, being run by Louise Raper, had been built by George Reed in 1948 from a Ford A chassis, Mercury V8 engine and a standard Ford gearbox. Its second owner had changed that to a Wilson pre-selector and it ended up with Frank Walters in New South Wales. Frank knew what he wanted so in 1953 he contacted Alex Xydias at the So-Cal Speed Shop in Burbank, Southern California. The list of parts and modifications it received reads like a hot rodder’s dream, ultimately giving it 122mph and a quarter-mile of 15.5 seconds.

Fittingly, in the pits next to Guido’s two F1 Ferraris, sat the last car built by Bob Reisner of California Show Cars. With a Ferrari 400 chassis, V12 and running gear, when he passed away it lay unfinished in his Phoenix, Arizona workshop. Eventually, LTD Motorsport was able to purchase it and complete its construction.

Among the Japanese, American and British bikes were eight Ducatis. Understandably, riders left their knee and elbow pads well clear of the track. On Sunday afternoon’s ‘Ten of the Best’ shootout, still in wet conditions, a selection from across the categories competed for fastest lap. These included David Russell’s Lamborghini Temerario, Scott Bormann’s Ligier and triple Touring Car Racing Australia Champion Josh Buchan in the Ferrari 296 Challenge, who took the trophy in 49.06 seconds, the only lap under 50 seconds.

When the last of the cars came in the clouds still weren’t finished with their work. It’s a fair bet that next year most South Australian petrol-heads will be hoping their state lives up to its reputation as the driest state in the driest continent on Earth.

More for you!