ISLAND CLASSIC
INTERNATIONAL ISLAND CLASSIC, PHILLIP ISLAND 24-26 JAN
Report from Phillip Island’s annual festival of classic racing
This annual antipodean event kicked up a gear this year, featuring famous racers battling each other in international match races and mixing it with club enthusiasts in support races
‘AS WELL AS THE INTERNATIONAL MATCH RACES, THERE’S A HUGE CROSS-SECTION OF CLASSIC RACING’
ANEW ERA IN the International Challenge began at this year’s Phillip Island Classic road racing festival. Packed with talent, a pumped-up Team USA came within 13 points of beating defending champions Australia. Adding to the event was the return of a totally new Team UK. It came with an equally new focus on bringing back ‘genuine period’ machinery and a mixture of well-known racers along with club competitors.
America’s Josh Hayes fought race-long battles with Aussie young guns Alex Phillis and Jed Metcher. Phillis and Hayes bagged two wins apiece, with Phillis the highest individual points scorer overall. Team UK also hope their efforts this year, on a variety of machinery dating from 1972, will encourage both Ireland and New Zealand to return in 2021.
Meanwhile, big plans are afoot in the Team USA camp. The man behind America’s resurgence at Phillip Island, Dave Crussell, has started moves to lobby Motoamerica to include International Challenge-spec motorcycles as a support class in their 2021 national championship.
As well as the international match races, there’s a huge cross-section of classic racing on the support programme, so we ventured into the outer reaches of the paddock to find some interesting and different motorcycles...