THIRTEEN historic race car drivers from eight Mornington Peninsula locations will participate in Australia’s longest running historic race meet on 24 and 25 May at Winton Motor Raceway, near Benalla, which is six percent of the national field.
Presented by the Austin 7 Club for 49 years, the 48th Historic Winton will send the crowd of Mornington Peninsula drivers race cars spanning from the 1930s to the 1980s in a variety of race categories including Regularity time trials which involves the competitor nominating the course completion time.
Allan Lowe, 83, of Sorrento has dedicated himself to historic car racing for most of his life including building a renowned Aussie Special, the Nalla Holden when he was 22. He’s raced a variety of cars since including DB2 Aston Martins but these days his vehicle of choice is a 1939 Singer Le Mans.
“At first, I wanted to be a footballer but my big brother David would take me to historic race meetings and I was hooked,” Allan said. “Legendary race driver Lou Molina was a big inspiration and seeing him race made me want to do it too. “My current 1939 Singer Le Mans was built by my brother David and I will be competing in Regularity 2 at Historic Winton this year.”
Fellow competitor Phillip Hallo of Mt Martha will race his 1930 Austin 7 in Regularity 1 and was chuffed that he won one of the three competitions last year. He estimated his course time and then was the competitor closest to achieving it. Not an easy thing to do when the adrenalin starts pumping.
Both Allan and Phillip are members of the Austin 7 Club which is celebrating its 75th Anniversary.
The Historic Winton weekend will commence with a parade of Austin 7s including race and passenger vehicle.
First published in the Mornington News – 20 May 2025