By Matt Hewson
The Geelong Revival Motoring Festival roared into life over the weekend, playing host to around 50,000 spectators along the Geelong Waterfront.
Showcasing more than 1100 vehicles, cars and motorcycles, the festival offered a diverse range of motoring entertainment, with racing, car shows, demonstrations, fashion, music and family activities.
Event director Nicholas Heath said the festival was a complete success for the organising team.
“We had great crowds and fantastic performances by everyone involved,” Mr Heath said.
“We’re a high speed motorsport event, so the first thing is that everyone was safe; that’s KPI number one.
“But we were really pleased the weather held off. I think on all fronts, the crowd, the racers, the car show guys, everyone had a good time.
“It was an incredible atmosphere and it probably exceeded our hopes.”
Nick De Jong took out Saturday’s Class K – All Wheel Drive Over 4001cc sprint event and Nick McBride won the Class 19 Open & Invited event on Sunday in a Porsche Taycan Turbo, while Michael Smith dominated the motorcycle sprint events on both days on his Honda CBR1000RR.
But Mr Heath said the show-stoppers of the weekend were Matt Mingay and the Hot Wheels Stunt Team, who wowed audiences with their death-defying antics and precision driving.
“The Hot Wheels Stunt Team was terrific, really exciting to watch,” he said.
“Because we’re a traditional motor racing event we weren’t sure how people would react, but those shows just went off, it was nuts.”
Mr Heath said he received a lot of positive feedback about many of the smaller events as well as the non-motoring events.
“We had a motorcycle feature in Brougham Street, up on Transvaal Square, doing stunts, climbing over handlebars, up on one wheel, that sort of thing,” he said.
“It was a bit of a last minute thing but it turned out to be hugely popular. And the Vintage Fashion Show went off really well, too, we had some fantastic entrants.
“We’re starting to see the return of those people, post-COVID, from Melbourne and interstate and that’s really encouraging.
“Everything remaining blessed, we’ll be back again in a year’s time to do it all again.”
