Martin Tanti and Peter Bakavgas from Project Supercars flanking Canberra Racing Club CEO Darren Pearce. Photo: James Coleman.
Supercar fans (come on, that’s everyone) won’t even have to wait a full year for the next Canberra Festival of Speed.
Over 2 and 3 March, more than 13,500 visitors walked through the gates at Thoroughbred Park in Mitchell for what’s being described as “Canberra’s newest driver of tourism”.
Up to 30 per cent of ticket-holders hailed from outside the ACT, including a number from Washington DC in the US and Finland.
They were all drawn to witness more than 220 rare supercars – including a Ferrari F40, Lola F1 car, Ferrari P4 Le Mans car, as well as modern exotics like the Lamborghini Aventador S and McLaren 720S – not only on display, but also roaring around a purpose-built racetrack.
Australian billionaire Adrian Portelli also brought along his personal McLaren Senna and P1, and Canberra-born V8 Supercars driver Cameron Hill was the event’s official motorsports ambassador.
A number of food and drink vendors, including the Harmonie German Club’s food truck, were brought in to add European village flair.
In the first of many announcements to come over the coming weeks and months, Canberra Racing Club (CRC) CEO Darren Pearce confirmed the dates for the next Canberra Festival of Speed as 25 and 26 January.
This coincides with the Australia Day long weekend (and comes hot on the heels of Summernats 37), but that’s deliberate.
If you thought the Mount Ainslie Lookout was impressive before … Photo: James Coleman.
“We believe that will grow the festival to new heights with the advantage of a long weekend for the vehicle owners, business partners and fans from Canberra and around the country, to fully invest in the festival experience and all that the territory has to offer,” he said.
“Our ambition with year two is to make it bigger and better, hopefully getting over 300 cars and 20,000 people and making an event that all Canberrans can be proud of.”
The Canberra Festival of Speed traces its origins back to a casual “Cars and Coffee” event in Fyshwick, hosted by Martin Tanti and Peter Bakavgas from Project Supercars, both avid petrolheads and Lamborghini owners.
Project Supercars signed a deal with Canberra Racing Club in 2024 to deliver the Canberra Festival of Speed for at least three years. Photo: James Coleman.
Last year, the pair signed a three-year contract with the Canberra Racing Club to grow it into a much larger two-day festival in the pattern of the world-famous Goodwood Festival of Speed.
As part of this, a 750-metre tarmac show circuit was constructed at Thoroughbred Park to give owners the chance to unleash the horsepower and – tucked safely behind concrete barriers – the public the rare opportunity to watch.
Main criticisms of the event centred around visitor parking – which will be improved for 2025 as part of a whole new “entry experience” – and the ticketing system, which divided up the area into sections with the more costly granting greater access to places like the track infield.
Mr Pearce said this took away from the “whole festival experience” and will be simplified with one general-admission-style ticket for 2025.
Attendees also had to wait for the cars to stop running laps before they could cross between the infield and the rest of the grounds. This will be fixed too, with a pedestrian bridge to be constructed over the track.
The club is in talks with Capital Asphalt about extensions to the track itself.
“We want to increase the number of cars, and we want to introduce some new categories like rally and racing cars of yesteryear – think names like Peter Brock and Dick Johnson – and we want to bring in more ambassadors,” Mr Pearce added.
Harry and Lewis Bates are already lined up to show off their freshly delivered Yaris GR rally cars, and convincing others won’t be hard, according to Martin Tanti.
Despite the fact there was little to keep people from getting up close to the cars, he said all the owners “felt really comfortable” and weren’t concerned at all about vandalism. This has opened up more doors with other owners, particularly overseas.
“The highlight this year is we’re reaching into Europe and Dubai,” Mr Tanti said.
“There are some big social media influencers that reside overseas we are in talks with at the moment, and what that will mean is that we’ll be able to see some really incredibly rare vehicles.”
It’s understood Australian-born social media celebrity Alex Hirschi – better known as ‘Supercar Blondie’ – may attend from Dubai.
General ticketing for the Canberra Festival of Speed 2025, including vehicle entry and circuit passes, is expected to open on Ticketek soon.
Applications to be a sponsor or trader are open on the Canberra Festival of Speed website.
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