Whether it is actually as claimed “the world’s largest racing festival” is is definately a spectacle: Here’s the report from our British correspondent:
Having attended the Silverstone Classic – or Festival, as it is now known – several times over the past decade, it was a major disappointment not to be able to go last year as a result of the date having been moved a month from the end of July to the end of August, which last year clashed with my holiday (San Gimigiano, since you ask, and yes, it was wonderful!).
However, this year I was able to attend, spending at least some of each of the three days at what is claimed to be the world’s largest classic festival. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know, but it is certainly bigger, if not as glamorous as Goodwood, and it will take me a couple of reports to cover most of it for you. Besides an extensive racing programme, several thousand classic cars from 100 car clubs are spread around the site, a major auction (more on that and the club cars in Part Two) and if the cars aren’t enough to keep you entertained, there’s a sizeable retail village, a fairground for the kids, a whole host of other motoring and non-motoring-related entertainment and for those staying on or near the circuit overnight, music in the evening from some nostalgia acts such as the Sugababes and McFly – not my thing, I have to say.Furthermore, with an event on this scale it’s not remotely possible to provide a comprehensive report, but I hope I will be able to give you all at least an impression of the weekend.
After what has been a pretty miserable summer here in the UK, it would have been a major surprise had it played nice for the Festival – but for the most part, and despite an unsettled forecast, it mostly stayed dry, except for a brief period on Saturday and the final afternoon. Most of the weekend was extremely enjoyable, and for this first piece, I’ll take a look at the racing and race cars, although this will not be a race report as such – if you’re interested in the results you will have to check the Festival website. You can also watch just about all the race action on the Silverstone Festival Youtube channel, if you didn’t watch it live – Sunday’s racing is here, for example – (1) LIVE! Sunday at Silverstone Festival 2023 – YouTube.
One of the many delights of the Silverstone Festival is the open access to all grandstands and pits areas throughout the weekend, as well as the Silverstone Museum and because of the sheer size of the former airfield circuit, it rarely feels too crowded. It can involve a lot of walking, but buses are also laid on to carry people to various parts of the circuit.
Having said all of the above, however, I feel the event is losing some of its appeal – certainly as far as the car clubs are concerned, if the numbers of cars on show is any indication – but I’ll save that for Part Two. The track action is as comprehensive and exciting as ever, so let’s take a look at that.
Much was made this year of it being 75 years since Silverstone’s former WW2 airfields were used for motorsport, the first racing taking place in October 1948, and a number of special events were held to commemorate the anniversary, including a 75th Anniversary Grand Prix Trophy for Front-Engined GP Cars from the likes of Aston Martin, Maserati and Ferrari, with more events covering the spectrum of historic racing at the circuit, one of which was a demonstration of post 1966 F1 cars – remember the 6-wheeled Tyrell? I remembered this dramatic car being a noble but failed experiment, yet in 30 races it took one victory and fourteen podia – not bad, really. In fact, Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler finished 1st and 2nd in the 1976 Spanish GP. Also present was Sir Jackie Stewart’s Tyrell 001, with it’s big, flat front wing, and the 1968 Brabham BT24, absolutely gorgeous in its simplicity.
Friday was taken up with qualifying, with twenty races taking place over Saturday and Sunday, and between walking the paddocks and garages as well as the scores of club displays, I managed to catch a few minutes of a number of races.
With so much track action and so many historic racing cars to see, I’m going to limit myself to my own favourites, one of which was the MRL Historic Touring Car Challenge, featuring a grid filled with Rover SD1’s, BMW 3.0CSL, Ford Capri, Chevy Camaro and much more. At one point on Saturday morning, half the track was wet, the other half dry, making for some interesting racing conditions for these cars that morning! Even with over 40 cars on the track, this was by no means the busiest race of the weekend!
That honour belonged to line-up for the International Trophy for pre-1966 GT cars, with almost 70 (sic!) cars chasing each other around the circuit. As with the Touring cars, part of the appeal for me is that these were based on actual road cars you could buy – TVR’s, E-types, Cobra’s, Elans…and with so many cars on the track, racing incidents were inevitable, adding to the excitement.
Another very busy grid was that for the MRL Royal Automobile Woodcote Trophy & Stirling Moss Trophy, for pre-‘56 sports-racers and ‘proper’ sports-racing cars built before ’61. Among the 53 cars on the grid were Aston Martin DB2/4’s – one of which was rolled, but the driver was fortunately OK – Jaguar XK’s, and a whole gaggle of the ultra-low and streamlined Lotus XI’s and XV’s. Rain affected the second part of this event, as it did a couple of others in the afternoon, and it made for a lot of dicey racing in tricky conditions, with the safety car being deployed more than once, as was the red flag.
Perhaps the most evocative of all the races, particularly bearing in mind this being the 75th anniversary of motor racing at Silverstone, was that for the HGPCA Pre ’66 Grand Prix Cars, celebrating the glamour period of 50’s and 60’s front-engined Grand Prix cars. Wandering around the garages, I came across the most incredible group of cars – Maserati 250F’s, Ferrari Dino’s, Coopers…these also raced on a damp track, so caution in these valuable cars on their narrow tyres was definitely advisable. Glorious cars, even at slow speeds.
I think it was these and the ’66 to ’85 GP cars that made the biggest impact on me – the former with their tall skinny tyres and 100% analogue characteristics, and the latter representing the GP cars that drew me in to F1 in the first place, and so much more pleasing to look at than the current crop.
In amongst the entries for the Yokohama Trophy for Masters Sports Car Legends, for Le Mans-style sports cars and Group 4 period cars from ‘62 to ’74, was one of the cars of the day for me – a gorgeous 1971 Ferrari 512M, which competed in this race against brutally lovely Lola T70’s, more delicate Chevrons, McLarens etc.
The HSCC Road Sports Trophy was for road-based production sports cars, GT and touring cars built from the late 1940s through to the end of the 1970s, an almost impossibly broad range of cars to cover, but another class with Cobra’s, Elans, TVR’s…it’s fair to say that unless you understand the class requirements in detail, it’s sometimes not that easy to see why some cars are in one race, while ostensibly very similar ones are in another. Confused? I was, but it really didn’t matter.
There was so much more, including the first appearance of NASCAR racers at Silverstone, celebrating this uniquely American format’s 75th anniversary, and a new event for all pre-’66 Jaguars made its debut – the Big Cat Challenge Trophy -which made for some interesting contrasts, with C, D and E-types racing alongside XJ6’s, MkII’s and more.
As every year at Silverstone, one key characteristic of the on-track part of the Silverstone Festival was the enormous variety of racing cars across so many events, from humble saloons to the fabulous historic F1 racers. I’ll never be able to cover it all, so it’s time to let the pictures do the rest of the “talking”…
Thanks for the report, Tony, as it has just inspired me to a rather simple way of judging a historic race event: If it attracts a Tyrrell six-wheeler it is definately worth visiting.
Actually I visited my first Silverstone Classic around 1997/1998, and I’ll never forget it. In part because I drove there in my trusty old Triumph all the way from Denmark and the long way round via Holland – in part because I had never seen a Ferrari 250 GTO before, and there were about 15 of them there.
Glad to hear it is still doing well!
What car can be seen on picture no. 17 (blue car with no. 23)?
@gert, it’s an Ogle SX1000, based on Mini Cooper mechanicals. They were built for just a few years in the early 1960’s, with just 69 made. Interestingly, there was one for sale in the auction, but it failed to sell – estimate was £45k to £55k, bidding topped out at £33k.