Hundreds of cars descend on one of Australia's oldest racing tracks at Lake Perkolilli

ABC NEWS (Australia)

One of Australia's oldest motor racing tracks has roared back to life this week. Nearly 200 vintage cars and motorcycles from across the country have made the journey to Lake Perkolilli on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie-boulder to race on the hard claypan surface.

Transcript

00:00We're at Lake Percolilly where before World War II this was one of Australia's earliest

00:08motorsport precincts.

00:11We're here to watch racing be revived at the hard clay pan surface where vintage car enthusiasts

00:19have flocked from across the country.

00:22There's more than 140 vintage cars here and about 50 motorcycles that have made the trip

00:28for the Red Dust revival.

00:31Now it's named that for good reason, we just have to look at Peter's face, he's been around

00:36the track and he's copped a fair bit of the dust and you've spent Peter two and a half

00:42years building a car for this event so tell us about it.

00:46Correct, it's a replica of a car that raced at Le Monde in France in 1925.

00:56We only really had photographs to go by.

00:59It was a fabric covered car.

01:03It ended up seventh on the track which is quite good against all the British cars but yeah.

01:10And it still has some of its original features.

01:12You were telling me it's got its own lap counter as well.

01:15It's got a lap counter, we've even got badges of the original agent for Chrysler in France and we've

01:25also got a badge for the original drivers of the car at Le Monde.

01:29Now this is not so much about the racing, the Red Dust revival, it's about the reliving

01:35of racing history but you've had your own special moment out on the track.

01:40Yes.

01:41You had a bit of a near miss, tell us about that, you've got a bit of shrubbery on the

01:44front of the car there.

01:45Yeah, in the dust you sort of can't see where you are and I ended up going off the side of

01:53the track.

01:54There was a big bump which spun the back of the car around and I ended up sliding down

01:59the track sideways.

02:01I ended up getting it straight but unfortunately I was on the inside and there was all these

02:07trees and things, shrubs, and I bounced down through them and eventually got back onto the

02:13track.

02:14So, very scary moment, yes.

02:17Well, thanks for talking to us and let's hope that that's the only near miss we have here

02:22during the Red Dust revival, the racing action, it finishes up here on Sunday.

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