While Sydney basks in the weekend’s success of the V8s on the streets around Sydney’s Olympic precinct, the Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club in Orange is gearing up to celebrate the championship’s 50th year, first held on the Gnoo Blas track in 1960.
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At the time Orange was celebrating its centenary of local government and a packed program of events included the inaugural Australian Touring Car Championship, devised and run for the first time here.
After 20 action-filled laps of the triangular-shaped circuit, David McKay emerged the winner from Bill Pitt and Ron Hodgson, all in Jaguars.
That race was the forerunner of the championship, which is now the V8 Supercar series, and the Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club has big plans for its annual Gnoo Blas Classic Gold car show on February 13 and 14 next year.
The club holds the car show each year to keep alive the history of the old circuit and it attracts about 250 cars and thousands of spectators.
Unlike the V8 series, the early championship races were fought out by all makes of touring cars and not just between Ford and Holden as it is now.
The inaugural race at Orange attracted 51 cars of 15 different makes.
The Gnoo Blas club has tracked down about a dozen of the drivers in the first race and has invited them to Orange for the car show.
The show is already getting national publicity, including six colour pages in a special edition of a glossy Motor Racing Australia magazine published as a preview of the Sydney street races yesterday.
On the car show Sunday visitors will go on a short drive on the district’s excellent classic car roads to former Canterbury Bulldog Peter Mortimer’s winery for a taste of the local drop.
They will then have a picnic lunch at Lake Canobolas.
