The 2025 edition of the Winton Festival of Speed was the biggest to date, boasting a record attendance and a phenomenal atmosphere around the venue over the three days of action.

The Victorian Historic Racing Register (VHRR) run event was certainly a success, not only did the attendance record get broken, but the V8 Sleuth Open night was also a sell-out.

Couple this with the number of stars and notable historical racing cars, it was a must attend event.

There was something for everyone from touring cars to Sports Sedans, open-wheelers and even some one-make racing categories.

“Record numbers Saturday, record numbers Sunday, our ticket sales were up about four times on last year, that was just on online sales, and we had a lot of people through the gate both days,” said Ian Ross chairman of the event’s organising committee.

“We also had record entries of about 335. In terms of the debrief we had with categories, they all said it was certainly the best Winton Festival of Speed they'd ever been to. Weather helped, obviously, but they also said in terms of the overall vibe.”

If you are a fan of the Australian Touring Car Championship/Supercars you would have been in heaven, with multiple categories going through the eras of the Aussie series.

“We were more focused on our tin tops, which is what Australians like to see,” Ross said. Specifically, from say, late 60s, probably heavily 70s, 80s and 90s, cars that would have run on Australian tracks in their day.

“That's a very strong nostalgia draw card, as we said in our poster, Retro Racing.”

Heritage Touring Cars contained cars from the Group C and A era, including Ford Sierras, Holden VH Commodores, Mazda RX7 and a JPS BMW 635i.

The category contained Peter Brock Commodores, Dick Johnson Falcons and third-generation racer Tabitha Ambrose was driving an ex-Warren Cullen and Brian Sampson Torana.

“The crowd favourite was the Heritage Touring Cars, it always turns out to be the case,” he recalled.

“There was a Caltex Sierra, a number of Commodores and two Falcons in it, I think mine, and the Greens-Tuf car that has not been seen in over 30 years.

“It certainly is the number one category when you look at the results of the streaming views because they are race cars from the period, the genuine cars.”

New for this year was the 5L Touring Car class, it featured cars including Jamie Whincup’s 2014 championship winner driven by TCR Australia champion Josh Buchan, a Paul Morris Motorsport Commodore, and the BJR Falcon that very nearly won the 2001 Bathurst 1000.

“The 5 Litre class was a great success and we hope to have more of those cars running next year,” he stated.

Some of the other categories boasted staggering grid sizes, well in excess of 40 cars.

“Group N was the biggest number at 44,” he said. ”Group S was the second biggest at 38 and then the third biggest was 35 for the Historic Touring Cars.”

Historic Group S contained over 30 cars, while there were also large grids in Groups MOQR Sports and Racing and Formula Vee Qualifying.

Groups J,k and L, Formula Ford, MG and Invited British, Alfa Romeos and Porsche 944 rounded out a stacked list of categories at the Winton Festival of Speed.

The live stream can be viewed on the Winton Motor Raceway YouTube channel, click here.

All categories had at least three timed sessions and resulted in jam packed days, plenty for the race fan to enjoy on the sidelines.

Off-track there was just as much to see and do, a general admission ticket included free paddock access allowing fans to get up close to the cars and some of the stars from yesteryear.

There were many motorsport merch stores off track in which you could purchase old books, race programs or even model cars.

As for car displays, over 500 pristine machines were on show from Aston Martins to GTHO Falcons and everything in between.

The V8 Sleuth open night was a huge success; the event was a sellout. 1970 Australian Touring Car champion ‘Stormin Norman’, Norm Beechey made a rare public appearance, chatting with Aaron Noonan about his career.

Other guests included legendary Holden Racing Team Manager Jeff Grech, PremiAir Racing team owner Peter Xiberras, former driver Ron Harrop and AUSCAR champion Terry Wyhoon.