Record breaking Historic Winton
Image: Andy Day
The 49th Historic Winton is in the books, and what an event it was with hundreds of historical machines taking to the Winton Motor Raceway short circuit on the May 30-31 weekend.
The weather was mixed, with scattered showers throughout Saturday, however Sunday despite the cold weather proved to be dry all day long.
These conditions did not keep away the hardy race fans as they flocked through the gates once again in 2026. In fact, the event boasted its biggest crowds, race fields and displays in years.
There were a lot of racing categories in 2026, all of which were packed with entries.
The categories were as follows, M/O, O/R, Formula Ford, J&K Sports and Racing, L&B Sports and Racing, Formula Vee, Group N, Group S, and no less than three regularity classes.
A large majority of the racing categories had a feature race at one point in the weekend.
Image: 1DX
Group S fight for the prestigious Alan Jones Trophy, the 2026 win went the way of Joe Di Bartolo in his Chevrolet Corvette.
It was a stacked entry list with 33 cars competing in the race and included Lotus’, Porsche 911s, Alfa Romeo GTVs and much more. Di Bartlolo prevailed by the slender margin of just 0.4s from Chris Jackson, with Graham Gulson third.
The Phil Irving Trophy was up for grabs in the M/O & Q/R Sports & Racing category, and it was #1 Michael Gibson who secured the win in his Lola T590 made back in 1983.
Andrew Ford came home second, less than a second behind the race winner driving his Birrana 274, Cheetah MK4 driver David Crabtree rounded out the top three.
Image: Geoff Colson
The buzzing Formula Vee drivers contested the HFVAA Trophy race which was traditionally well fought.
New South Wales based Matthew Pearce took the win ahead of Leigh Ball who set the fastest lap of the race. Dan Briggs was just 0.2s back in third.
It was a busy weekend for the the J/K and Lb Sports and Racing competitors, they shared the track all weekend long and had multiple Trophy Races.
Image: 1DX
On Saturday the J/K competitors fought for the Douglas Briese Trophy, while Lb competitors were racing for the Mark Dymond Trophy.
Conor Ryan won the race outright and in doing so secured the Mark Dymond trophy, historic racing veteran Graeme Raper took a dominant victory in the J/K category and second place outright, earning him the Douglas Briese Trophy.
However, on Sunday there was a handicap race which shook up the order.
The Lou Molina J/K Trophy was handed to overall race winner Neill Murdoch in an MG TB which was built in 1938, Raper was second.
Jack Waldon ended up in third position outright, but in doing so secured the Coad Memorial Trophy by winning the Lb category.
The age of the vehicles on track was wide, cars dating back to the 1920s through until the mid-1980s.
It wasn’t just on track where the numbers were high, off it there was a huge amount of display vehicles as part of the Shannons Car Park.
Anniversaries were celebrated including 120 years of Lagonda, while birthdays for Mercedes Benz, Ford, Riley 9, Willys Overland Whippet were also recognised at the event.
The event featured the largest amount of cycle karts ever amassed in Australia, as well as 30 Mini Mokes. Many historic motorcycles and Flxible Clipper buses were also on show.
Image: Wayne Jones
The event is run by the Austin 7 Club and sanctioned by the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance.
Austin 7 Club Chairman John Kessner stated that this year’s Historic Winton was one of the best on record.
“Whoever I talk to at the event, whether it be competitors, display club members, traders or spectators, they all say the same thing, that it’s a really great event,” Kessner said.
“Not only did we have a brilliant race weekend, Historic Winton featured a good number of firsts.”
The event amassed its largest amount of female entrants ever, 11 drivers in total, equalling 5% of the field.
“Our youngest competitor, Audrey Murphy, competed in Regularity Two (a time trial event).
“Our curated anniversary and club vehicle displays stretched around the site with Art Deco Clipper buses on the skid pan and Model T Fords in the show room,” Kessner said.
Image: Wayne Jones
“Vehicles on show are either elegant, rustic, quirky or just plain fun. We were thrilled to have the Australian Ride-on Racing Lawn Mower Association mount a display for this new sport and we also had Harry Ferguson tractors from different eras.”
If you missed the action and want to see all the racing from the 49th Historic Winton, you can watch it hereon Blend Line TV Club.
Historic Winton will again be held on the last full weekend of May in 2027, it will run on the weekend of May 29-30.