Gnoo Blas Classic kicks off today…

With the informal street parade of more than 100 entries rolling through town today, the town of Orange in NSW is preparing for its biggest ever annual Gnoo Blas Classic Car Show at the Sir Jack Brabham Park this weekend.

In commemoration of the Australian Touring Car Championships first ever race in 1960 at the Gnoo Blas Race Track, the festival is a celebration of 65 of Touring Cars, held in the park land named after Sir Jack Brabham, who had at one stage graced the famous circuit.

With what started as a smaller show run by the Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club 27 years ago, the festival has expanded into a show with hundreds of display cars and interactive events befitting of the history that the town represents in the annals of Australian motorsport.

Club President Wayne Swadling spoke with 2GB’s night-time host John Stanley in the lead up about the significance of this year’s event.

“With 450 members, we have over 1500 vehicles alone within our car club, so Orange has a great community,” Swadling said.

“The show itself has been going for around 27 years and it’s all to pay tribute to the Gnoo Blas race track, which is the racing circuit that surrounds our hospital in Orange.

“…The most important event was the first ever race for the ATCC in 1960, so that’s what the Gnoo Blas classic encompasses, and there’s everything on wheels involved.

“There’s 47 trophies to be handed out, and there’s going to be over 800 cars there.

“There’s also the world famous Albert Albion double decker bus that ran around Sydney from 1948 to 1968… in ’68 it was taken to London on a ship after it was driven to Perth then put on a boat where it was taken to Singapore then driven up through Asia.

“The idea was to get to London before Christmas, but they didn’t get there until the end of February. And after it made it, it did the whole trip all over again in reverse.”

The Albert is an old-school double-decker bus with more history than most…

There’s also 11 historic police cars, a Patina arena with rusty wrecks, a valiant corner, a “snake pit” for the cobras, and much much more.

For a very brief bit of history on the first ever ATCC race in Gnoo Blas…

The very first official outing for the Australian Touring Car Championship was held on the 3.75 mile circuit where an ATCC race was run under a set of national regulations with a 20 lap, 75 mile race held on 1 February. 

Whilst the race was dominated by three Jaguar Mark 1 cars won by David McKay, it was a Holden FJ driven by Max Volkers, taking the class win in the 2001 cc to 2600cc class.

For more ticketing and event information visit the clubs website  https://gnooblas.com/annual-classic/