Saturday, 02 April 2011 15:06
We are very excited to be part of the inaugural Longford Revival Festival being held over this weekend. Styled after the now famous Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK, the revival seeks to bring back the memories from when Longford was the centre of Australian motorsport. From 1953 until 1968, up to 45,000 people would travel to the small Tasmanian town for the motor races.
The Longford Revival blends the old and new. On-track speed runs down the flying mile - situated on part of the original track - excite the crowds, while static displays of some incredible vehicles keep everybody entertained. On top of the motorsport action and displays Longford also showcases many Tasmanian foods and wines, as well as live music and much more, to make it a real celebratory weekend.
We are excited to have been able to bring down a selection of the amazing vehicles we import. Obviously we have our Saleen S302 Extreme Targa Race Car, but we also have the 'Transformers' Camaro, the new Dodge Challenger, one of our beautiful Shelby GT500 Super Snakes and perhaps one of the most appropriate vehicles for the revival - the 'Heritage Livery Package' Ford GT based on the famous Gulf blue and orange paint scheme. This is sure to be one of the most popular cars with the public. As well as all of these, the Saleen S281 Extreme Chaplain's Car is the official Safety Car for the event.
I was thrilled to be presented with an original Official Program from the 1968 Longford event by Lindsay Harwood, executive officer for the revival, to show their appreciation for our efforts put into the event. In return, we happily presented Lindsay with a Mustang Motorsport hat - hardly on the same level as the program, but it is a nice hat nevertheless!
Marty, the Targa Chaplain, is driving the 'Chappies Stang' and continues to hold the mantle of being the fastest chaplain in Australia - topping 207km/h on the flying mile. I guess he'll continue to be the champ until we find a 'faster pastor'!
Friday at Longford was a relatively quiet day. We set up our display and got ready for the speed runs down the flying mile. We are located on the back straight of the original grand prix track from the 1950s and early 1960s - where international motorsport really started in Australia before it was moved to Albert Park Lake in Melbourne. It is such a privilege to be able to openly go as fast a we want down the flying mile. The mile is made up of one kilometre to go as fast as we want followed by a 600 metre stopping space.
I missed the speed the Super Snake had done - oh well - but I assure you it was fast! I will give her another go tomorrow.The Saleen race car got to 217 km/h. It stopped great as you would expect. Hopefully we'll have some action shots tomorrow.
To keep the interest going with the cars, Maureen was not comfortable with driving on the flying mile. As I was wandering around interviewing people about their cars I asked Michael Renshaw, who has a beautiful turbo charged 1973 Torana GTR, if he would like to drive the Targa car down the flying mile. He eagerly accepted. "It's got a lot of power," he exclaimed after his run.
I picked up Graham from the airport last night. We had an early morning start to our Targa Tasmanaia recce in a Mazda 6 as the Saleen is the Safety Car for the Longford Revival Flying Mile. It didn't take long at all for the infamous 'Chucky' to rear his ugly head yet again. We'll keep you all up to date with the usual Pony Press updates throughout the rest of the Longford event, the lead-up to Targa Tasmania and, of course, Targa itself - so stay tuned!
Craig.
