Canberra Festival of Speed organisers ready to put the pedal to the metal after another great event

More cars, more visitors and more action highlighted the report card for the second Canberra Festival of Speed.

The inaugural festival, held in March last year at Thoroughbred Park in Lyneham, received a commendation in the 2024 Canberra Region Tourism Awards as a ‘New Tourism Business’, and it looks set to only improve on that title after this weekend’s show.

More than 16,000 visitors made their way through the gates over Saturday and Sunday to see and hear – and feel – more than 200 cars from both the racetrack and the bedroom wall poster.

Organisers say it’s a 20 per cent uptick for both car and visitor numbers, with about half of the patronage (49 per cent) from interstate or overseas (some ticket holders hailed from as far as France, Germany, the US and the Philippines).

“Everything’s going in a positive direction,” Canberra Festival of Speed co-director Peter Bakavgas told Region.

Based on feedback from 2024, the ticketing system was simplified this year, a new entrance was installed, and bridges were constructed to allow visitors to enter and exit the circuit’s infield. The infield itself was also beefed up with more cars on display and food trucks to choose from.

“People were definitely happier with the new layout,” Peter continued.

“There were a lot of comments about how it improved the flow of the event.”

While there were no incidents in 2024, a few cars lost control and hit safety barriers this year – including an Ultima GTR, a UK-built kit supercar, and a couple of open-wheel racecars.

“It’s definitely not nice having people damage their cars when they’re coming to an event, but it is motorsport and, unfortunately, these things do happen, so it’s not something we can cure, so to speak,” Peter said.

The 750-metre circuit is speed limited at 120 km/h, and cars are only unleashed on it two at a time.

“You can go at your own pace.”

The festival has already been confirmed for 2026, although a few details still need to be ironed out.

Last year’s inaugural Canberra Festival of Speed followed in the footsteps of several ‘show and shine’ events Peter and co-director Martin Tanti had pioneered in Fyshwick, and – like those – was held in March.

Peter said the decision to hold this year’s over the Australia Day weekend in January was meant to capitalise on people making a trip to Canberra for the occasion, but it presented another challenge to organisers.

“I’ll be curious to look at the stats to see whether the long weekend was more of a positive or negative,” he said.

“The holdback was with entrants because a lot of the wealthy people with these kinds of vehicles are away pretty much all of January, so we had to have a big push – almost like year one – to get new cars in because our original network just wasn’t around.”

The weather gods also favoured both days of the festival with warm, sunny weather, but January is also more unpredictable.

“Ideally, the March dates again would be great, but there are a lot of contributing factors we have to combat, so we’ll take some time to discuss and figure out what’s going to be the best move for us.”

This year’s festival also included more motorsport-related cars.

“It was more of a 50-50 mix compared to last year, and we do want to keep that mix. We don’t want to go full motorsport, but we don’t want to not have these guys, because the likes of Harry Bates in his rally car really put on a good show.”

Peter and Martin initially signed a three-year contract with Thoroughbred Park to host the festival, and over the next year, they are confident they can secure another three years, starting in 2027.

“For both parties, it’s been really positive,” Peter said.

“It’s been crucial for Thoroughbred Park to be able to show what the venue is capable of besides the horse-racing side of things … I think the partnership works really well.”

The Canberra Festival of Speed also raised funds for local community foundation Hands Across Canberra (HAC), which supports 350 charities across the ACT.

HAC also hosted online auctions where visitors could bid for laps in a Batmobile, one of John Bowe’s touring-car-championship-winning Fords, or Harry Bates’ Toyota GR Yaris rally car.

Hands Across Canberra CEO Genevieve Jacobs described the festival as “a brilliant opportunity”.

“To see the look on the face of our Batman ride winner was priceless,” she said.

“It was a great weekend for Hands Across Canberra. Congratulations to the Thoroughbred Park team for pulling it off so successfully!”