We enjoyed our visit to Motorama at Longford last year so much that we were eager to go again this year. As last year’s event was so successful the organisers decided that they would hold a two-day event in 2022. The first day was held at Symmons Plains Raceway on Saturday and Sunday was at Longford. We decided that we would visit Symmons Plains as it would give us the opportunity to see some cars running on the track.

I was not able to find a program of events for the day online, not even on the Motorama Facebook page. I had contacted the organisers earlier to find out if we needed to book online like last year and was told no, we could just turn up and pay the $5 entry fee. Check in and mask regulations have been lifted for most Tasmanian venues. The information I was able to find online said that the entry fee would include the right to drive around the track and Naomi was keen to do that. In hindsight I probably should have asked them a few more questions but I thought that we’d get all the information we needed at the venue.

Symmons Plains is about 30km south of Launceston, near the town of Perth and not that far from Longford. It took us about two hours to get there and we arrived just before the official opening time. We had trouble working out where to park. We could not find anyone with programs or a public information booth. There were announcements about what was happening but if there was one about where to go to register to drive around the track, we missed it so unfortunately Naomi did not get to do that.

We did get to see a lot of classic cars and a few vintage ones parked near pit lane and we saw plenty out on the track. Many were obviously cars that were regularly raced and others had “special interest” registration plates and obviously belonged to collectors. We were not sure if there were any ordinary car owners having a go.

We decided that as nobody was around to tell us where we could go, we would go everywhere and if someone came and told us off, we would move on. We went in the garages, we went down pitlane and we went upstairs to the area above the garages where we could get a better view of the track. It did get quite warm and there were no seats up there. If we’d known we’d have brought some folding chairs.

After a while I noticed people sitting inside one of the marquees which I imagine are usually used as a corporate area. We decided to go in anyway. There were lots of empty seats and air conditioning and that is where we spent most of the afternoon.

We both took a lot of pictures and I’m sure that Naomi will post some of hers later on. Here are a few that interested me.

Jaguars

I remember that Matchbox made a model E Type Jaguar in the early 1960s so this car is always very recognisable to me.

I have a feeling that I photographed this one at Longford last year but it made a great photo sitting in the garage.

There were two of these very similar Jaguars in British Racing Green. Here is one of them out on the track.

Mini

There were a couple of Mini’s at the track, a Cooper S and a Leyland Mini. In this photo you can see how much larger the modern Mini is. Not really mini at all.

Holden Commodore

This car is a VK Holden Commodore from about 1985. It has been painted with the racing colours of the Holden Racing Team and bears the number 05 made famous by the late Peter Brock. I don’t think this is an actual Brock car I think it may have been done as a tribute but I’m not certain about this due to lack of printed information on the day. I certainly remember seeing these cars race in the 1980s when we were first following motorsports.

Ford

Of course, where there are Holden’s there are also Fords so here are three.

So, although we felt that the day could have been better had we had more information, we enjoyed ourselves. The two track commentators were very knowledgeable and entertaining to listen to and we saw some cool cars so all in all a good day out.