A pair of Hills among the highlights of Adelaide Motorsport Festival

Last weekend’s Adelaide Motorsport Festival drew a record crowd to the city’s parklands as tens of thousands of petrol heads fuelled the prelude to the Formula 1 season opener with a celebration of the very best of Australia’s motorsport scene.

Stars from F1, V8s, and Le Mans were joined by some of the world’s rarest supercars as they took to a section of the old Grand Prix circuit for two days and a night of track and street action.

Here’s a taster of six of our personal favourites from the event.

Jake Hill, 1975 Shadow DN6B Formula 5000

Prior to the weekend, we thought that adopted Aussie hero Valtteri Bottas would hold the top spot, but a troublesome gearbox on the ex-DTM Mercedes 190E put a halt to its glory run, leaving reigning British Touring Car champion Jake Hill to show true Brit by driving four different cars (Can-Am Shadow, F5000 Shadow, Sierra RS500, and the ex-Marcos Ambrose Ford Fusion NASCAR), and boy did the crowd love it.

Speaking to Autosport after the final day, Hill said: “Wow! What an amazing place, and what a cool event. Sadly, an issue with the Can-Am car limited our running, but this was more than made up for with the experience of the RS500 and the NASCAR. Both have been on my bucket list for a very long time, and both were simply stunning to drive.”

However, the crowd’s favourite was the ex-Jackie Oliver Shadow DN6B. “The chassis is just amazing,” Hill continued, “it’s as good as any F1 car of the period, but with the added bonus of a massive V8 planted on the back.

“The experience it delivers is just incredible, the balance was perfect, the torque and power delivery sensational, and the brakes were more than up to the job. And let’s be honest, it absolutely looks the business as well.”

David Brabham, 1990 Brabham BT59

One of only two Australians (the other Alan Jones) to have raced in F1 at Adelaide, Brabham alternated his time between his1990 Brabham BT59, and the ex-Damon Hill1992 Brabham BT60B. Though success in F1 here did not come his way, Brabham will always be remembered for his incredible Australian F2 Drivers’ Championship win in the F1 support race in 1987.

A series of mechanical failures had left him lapless in both practice and qualifying, meaning he had to start the race at the back.

“Dad and I hadn’t spoken for three months,” Brabham recalled. “There’d been a bit of a scene, then suddenly, here we both are in Adelaide. Before the race, I went up to him, took hold of his F1 pass and said, ‘You’d better get me one of these, I’ll be needing it soon’.

“Well, he just let rip, telling me, ‘The days of you ever getting to Formula 1 are finished’. He’d never been more serious, so I told him where to go! All of a sudden, something inside me clicked. I’ll be honest, it could have gone either way, but I just drove like I’d never driven before. The anger became determination.

“I think I made 21 places on the first lap alone, and by lap 14 [of 15], I was in the lead. Well, dad was apparently running around like he was possessed, grabbing Jackie Stewart and Ken Tyrrell. The three of them were with me at the podium and Ken just said to him, ‘It’s time to get him back to England Jack, because he’s got a job to do in F3, and you know what comes after that’.”

Craig Lowndes, 2023 Pagani Huayra R

Supercars legend Lowndes topped the timed shootout in Pagani

Photo by: Steve Hindle

On any other day, our focus would be purely on racing cars, but when a three-time Supercars champion, and seven-time Bathurst 1000 winner, gets behind the wheel of one of the world’s most exclusive hypercars, it’s time to pay attention.

Lowndes won the ‘Ten of the Best’ shootout in the Pagani Huayra at the Festival’s end, and told Autosport: “It’s actually the first time I’ve driven it, and I have to be honest, it’s even more fun than the F1 [1988 Arrows A10B]. I mean, its V12 just screams at you to push it harder, faster, deeper, and it responds immediately and effortlessly. I was in the cockpit during that last run, listening to the induction along the straight, and all I could think was ‘oh yeah!’”

Steve Richards, 1987 Nissan Skyline R31 GTS-R

Richards drove his father’s Nissan

Photo by: Steve Hindle

Like Lowndes, Richards (son of legendary driver Jim Richards) is a multiple winner of the Bathurst 1000 (partnering Lowndes to victory twice). Here he is, delivering a crowd-pleasing, flame-spitting display as he holds off Chris Smerdon’s Ford Falcon.

Damon Hill, 1992 Brabham BT60B

Adelaide was the scene of highs and lows for Hill

Photo by: Steve Hindle

Hill is a driver with very mixed memories of Adelaide but he was reunited with his old Brabham from his maiden F1 season at the event this year.

“I love coming here – it’s a place flooded with memories and friends,” Hill told Autosport. “Obviously, I had extremes of both lows and highs. The low being 1994 when Michael [Schumacher] barged me into retirement [and out of title contention]. Then, returning the following year to win by two laps.

“You know, the BT60B wasn’t a good car, it was actually quite dangerous, but in racing, you’ve got to take every opportunity, and the opportunity it gave me was to show that I belonged in Formula 1.”

Tony Sawford, 1977 Holden Torana A9X

Sawford has undertaken full restoration of star of 1970s Torana tin-top

Photo by: Steve Hindle

Founded in Adelaide as a saddlery maker in 1856, the name Holden is still as much a part of Australian lore as ‘Fosters’. Sadly, the brand halted production of cars some five years ago, but capturing hearts at Adelaide was this superb restoration by Tony Sawford.

The Torana ASX raced into legend at Bathurst with Peter Brock and by 1979 was simply unbeatable on the touring car scene. Car owner Sawford said: “I bought this back in 2005. It had lived its early life as a racer but then was used for the road. It was fitted with standard seat belts, everyday seats and a road-type exhaust, but other than that, it was still as it was when it last raced, minus stickers. My job was to breathe new life into it. Its job is to remind people of that golden era.”