Historic event to host 26th edition over Australia Day long weekend.
The 26th edition of the International Island Classic has been pencilled in to take place over the Australia Day long weekend on 25-27 January 2019 at the Phillip Island grand prix circuit in Victoria.
Featuring a century of motorcycles from pre-war machines through to new era model, the the Island Classic will see an expected 500 historic bikes and 300 riders compete in 56 races over a massive three days.
The headline event, the International Challenge, returns with teams from Australia, USA and New Zealand confirmed for battle. Current champion Australia is set to defend its precious International Challenge title, with David Johnson revealing to team captain Rex Wolfenden he’s keen to return, as are stalwarts Beau Beaton, Steve Martin, Shaun Giles and Cam Donald.
International line-ups are taking shape with the USA promising the return of Jason Pridmore, Jake Zemke and Barrett Long with the squad already immersed in testing. New Zealand has Damien Kavney and Glenn Hindle back on board to head the Kiwi effort.
After campaigning a UK team so successfully for more than a decade – with three title wins from 2015-2017 – Roger Winfield is unable to commit to a 2019 UK squad due to budget restrictions and new Australian legislation banning aviation fuel in motorsport from January 2019.
The UK squad has always run aviation fuel at the Classic (the fuel used in UK historic racing), and is unwilling to modify engines for the Australian government mandated, super unleaded fuel.