For the 7th consecutive time, Australia showed the UK and New Zealand teams the way to race motorcycles as a team around the fabulous Phillip Island Grand Prix track at the International Island Classic race meeting.
Former Moto GP star Jeremy McWilliams headed up the British team’s campaign, taking second place in each of the four hotly- contested classic bike races. While Jezza came away with the highest points tally of the weekend, Aussie Steve Martin dominated events, winning three races outright on his Suzuki Katana, , but an engine failure in one race meant he couldn’t match McWilliams in the consistency stakes! The strong Australian team won the overall event and came first in all four races, with Cameron Donald taking the honours in the second race of the day.
McWilliams, riding an immaculate XR69 Suzuki, was the first Brit to come out as the top points scorer in all the seven years that the races have been contested. Ryan Farquar, on the same make and model of bike, put in a strong performance for the British team – his best result was a strong fourth place.
A record crowd of just on 20,000 turned out across the three-day event to watch Australia’s best Historic racers take on riders from the United Kingdom, New Zealand, France and the USA. They weren’t disappointed with what they saw, witnessing a new outright Historic lap record of 1:38.964 set by Steve Martin in the final race and the first overall win by a British rider (McWilliams) in the International Challenge.