MCNAMARA Park will roar into life this weekend with the annual Classic Master of Mac Park event.
This year will see an extra drawcard, with the first SA Sidecar championship for many years.
The championships have returned and have now been re-badged as the Laurie Fox Memorial South Australian Sidecar Championships.
“This is the first year of the Laurie Fox Memorial SA Sidecar Championship,” club spokesperson Andrew Vause said.
“We applied for the naming rights of the South Australian Championship, which has now been reinstated after a 20 year hiatus.
“It will be a big meeting for the club.”
In an interesting twist Stephen and David Jones will defend their title, which they claimed some 20 years ago.
The sidecar championships will cater for all sidecars from around 1945 to 2008.
Vause said it was the first time such an event has included so many different age groups.
“What it means is we have a lot of people who would normally come with older sidecars, who can bring their more modern sidecars as well,” he said.
“We have had a favourable response from guys saying ‘we can bring all our bikes and race them at the same place’.
“It has made the competitors happy.”
Big fields will ensure plenty of actions, with 30 sidecars registered, along with 125 solo bikes ranging in age from around 1938 to the 1990s.
“It has turned out to be a big meeting for us,” Vause said.
“Some of these guys are using this meeting as a precursor for the 2020 Australian Historic Road Race Championships in November here at Mac Park.”
The classic meeting always draws a crowd, with the old machinery bringing back plenty of memories.
“Probably the most popular class is the old P3 500s,” Vause said.
“They are the blue-ribbon bikes, the old Manx Nortons and the G80 Matchless, all the big old fancy bikes.
“The big 500s, that is the sound people remember.”
The different categories in both sidecar and solo events will provide plenty of interest for spectators.
A P4 race might include 20 bikes ranging from 125cc right up to 750cc, all competing in their own race within that one event.
It all adds up to a huge weekend of racing, with practice today and qualifying tomorrow from 9am, before around 13 races take place in the afternoon.
Sunday will see upwards of 25 races, starting at 9am and culminating with feature events for the various classes, plus a Laurie Fox handicap sidecar race.
