Canberra Festival of Speed 2026 founders Peter Bakavgas and Martin Tanti. Photo: James Coleman.
Exotic racing bikes will join the millions of dollars of machinery on show at the Canberra Festival of Speed for the first time when it returns to Thoroughbred Park this summer – and there are even “rumours” of a purpose-built kids’ track.
What started as a show-and-shine-type supercar show outside the Gerhards Quality Cars dealership in Fyshwick five years ago has morphed into a fully fledged festival at Thoroughbred Park in Lyneham – and what organisers hope is enough to rival the UK’s internationally acclaimed Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The inaugural festival was held in March 2024 before it was moved to the Australia Day long weekend in 2025 in a bid to capitalise on holiday traffic.
But the downside was that many of the car owners were also on holiday.
“The holdback was … a lot of the wealthy people with these kinds of vehicles are away pretty much all of January, so we had to have a big push – almost like year one – to get new cars in because our original network just wasn’t around,” co-founder Martin Tanti told Region at the time.
Organisers hope to get around this by running later in January – from Saturday, 31 January to Sunday, 1 February – but still during the final week of school holidays.
Mr Tanti, together with co-founder Peter Bakavgas and Canberra Racing Club CEO Darren Pearce, are still working through other finer details, but during a media launch event at Shaw Estate in Murrumbateman this week, also announced several key additions.
“I’m delighted to share that exotic performance motorbikes will be welcomed to the festival for the first time in 2026,” Mr Pearce added.
Whether these bikes will be allowed to lap the purpose-built tarmac circuit at Thoroughbred Park will depend on approval from Motorsports Australia.
Mr Tanti added that the number of cars has been growing by about 20 per cent every year, with last year’s 250-odd studded by an ex-Kimi Räikkönen F1 car, Brock A9X Torana, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and even the Batmobile.
He remained tight-lipped on what highlights we should expect next year, except to say “we have been working really hard behind the scenes to secure some of the world’s rarest vehicles”, hinting at “hypercars” and “high-impact vehicles” (including two of Ferrari’s “holy grail” models).
To bolster the festival’s family-friendly spirit, Mr Pearce added, “there are rumours of a kids’ track with kid-friendly cars so the kids can really get an immersive experience of the festival”.
The same European-flavoured food and drink vendors will return, the ticketing system – vastly simplified since 2024 – will remain, and attendees will be able to access the track’s infield at any point via two major overpasses.
A charity partner will be confirmed soon, too.
Martin Tanti, Darren Pearce and Peter Bakavgas. Photo: James Coleman.
Over its first two years, the festival has attracted nearly 30,000 visitors, with 49 per cent of those in 2025 coming from interstate or overseas.
“That’s no small feat – we are quickly becoming one of Canberra’s leading tourism generators,” Mr Pearce said.
“With this being the final weekend of school holidays, this is also a perfect time to make a long weekend of it for those out of town.”
Early Bird tickets for the 2026 Canberra Festival of Speed will be available from Tuesday, 12 August, from the Canberra Festival of Speed.
