The Hobart Sporting Car Club in conjunction with the MG Car Club have received a massive 215 entries for next weekend's historic race meeting at Baskerville.
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There will be 11 different categories of competition on the track over the three days with practice sessions on Friday morning followed by qualifying in the afternoon and then 51 events on the Saturday and Sunday.
As a measure of the significance of the event more than 40 cars will make the trip to Tasmania including two in particular that have a special connection to the state.
In the early '80s the unique Elfin ME5 sports car was raced in Tasmania by Robin Pare and Tony Edmondson but is best remembered in the hands of three-time Tasmanian Street Car Champion Johnnie Walker.
The car has been returned to its original pristine deep blue colour scheme and signage as raced in round one of the Australian Sports Car championship at Sandown in 1983.
Walker stunned the seasoned opposition by qualifying third and finishing third and second in the two heats for second overall in the round despite having totally unsuitable tyres.
The second car is the famous Bob Morris A9X Torana that defeated Peter Brock in the 1979 Australian Touring Car championship which is now owned by successful historic racer Andrew Cannon and is prepared and maintained by Walker.
Both these cars and others will be on track six times over the weekend as part of the Baskerville Legends Spirited Demonstration laps.
The Tasmanian Vulgar Racing team has entered five cars for the meeting, two of which will be seen on track in Tasmania for the very first time and no doubt will create plenty of interest.
The 1978 Shakee CanAm sports car was designed and built in anticipation of rigorous rule changes for the American series, however the new rules turned out to be totally different to what was expected, making the car obsolete.
For V8 fans there should be a great battle ...
The car features a 3.5 litre aluminium Buick V8 with four downdraft carburettors pushing out 350 horsepower through a Porsche 904 transaxle.
Still on the American theme is a 1997 Ford Thunderbird 98 RCA NASCAR which was owned by the legendary driver Cale Yarborough who contracted John Andretti (nephew of the great Mario Andretti) to drive for him.
This car led both to their first win in NASCAR as team owner and driver winning 1997 Pepsi 400 at Daytona, beating the likes of Jeff Gordon, the late Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jarrett.
Dave Thompson has entered an MG Metro 6R4 which was designed to compete in the world rally championship in the infamous Group B era and which features a mid-mounted V6 engine.
The father and son combination Bruce and Adam Gowans will share the beautifully-restored Repco Holden-powered Toyota Celica Sports Sedan that has become a crowd favourite.
Between 1957 and 1983 the late Garrie Cooper designed and built 248 racing and sports cars in Adelaide covering some 31 different models, and over the years Elfin cars won 29 championships and major Grand Prix events in Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand.
Next weekend there will be 14 Elfin cars on the track or on display, ranging from the Bill Hemming-owned MR8 F5000 car to Formula vees, with a number of those cars owned and raced by Tasmanians over the years.
There are 21 early model Holdens entered for their regularity events with all but three being the ubiquitous FX or FJ models that were the car to have back in the '50s and early '60s and the build quality and presentation of the cars is superb.
During the week I had the pleasure of driving David Carey's beautifully presented 1948 FX model which he has just finished building and it is a work of art that I enjoyed driving immensely.
One of the feature events will be the prestigious Chris "Kit" Ellis Memorial Group N Mini race which will see six mainland entries up against ten Tasmanians.
Multiple winner James Willson and young gun Jeremy Bennett should be Tasmania's best chance to keep the trophy in the state, but they face a determined South Australian duo of Jason Armstrong and Justin Elvin who are not exactly the best of friends.
For V8 fans there should be a great battle between John Talbot in his Mustang and the flamboyant Darren Pearce in the Camaro in the Group NB over 3.0 litre Touring Car race but if it's wet there are five very quick XU1 Toranas who could figure in the results.
The Muscle Car Cup looks set to be a fierce contest between Adam Garwood in the V8 Ford Capri Perana, Brett O'Shea in the Commodore, Jarad House in his Torana, Adam Williams in his Torana hatchback and Kim Barwick in his Commodore.
And just to keep the V8s on their toes, toss in veteran Leigh Forrest in his turbocharged Toyota Celica which seems to have raced for ever, and in the Historic Sports and Racing class, there are 18 fabulous cars from the past.