Silverstone, 25 – 27 July 2008
Six months ago Motion works signed a 5 year deal with Silverstone to organise and promote the Silverstone Classic,
to once again enjoy the popularity enjoyed by the Coys Historic Festival run at the track during the nineties. They
certainly provided a packed programme for competitors and visitors alike, with twenty one races over the weekend,
featuring some seven hundred cars and 900 drivers. Maybe the schedule was a little too ambitious as there are
inevitable delays, given the propensity of historic race cars to shed parts or drop oil, notwithstanding drivers “red
mist” creating incidents and causing full course yellows. Thus some of the display runs had to be cancelled, which
wasn’t really fair on those who had made the effort to prepare cars for them, or for the paying public, who were denied
the opportunity to see them run.
However, they pulled together a fantastic array of cars, and the weather gods were benign, with warm sunshine the
whole weekend, making the whole experience thoroughly enjoyable. Apart from the large racing entry there were a
large number of one make car club displays in the infield, together with a Bonhams auction, an automobilia
shopping mall, plus musical entertainment at lunchtime and in the evening, hot air balloons, freefall parachutists,
aerobatic displays, the Yakovlevs Display Team being particularly impressive. They also provided a continuous
shuttle bus service using old Routemaster buses around the perimeter road, which judging by the number of
passengers was much appreciated in the hot conditions. This was particularly so for the open top one, as top deck
passengers could get a breeze and watch the racing, as they travelled from one point on the circuit to another.
The packed track schedule provided some great racing in the numerous categories. Particularly impressive were the
1966 – 1978 Grand Prix cars, with an impressively large, varied and colourful field, which showed how different the
design ideas were then, compared to today’s almost homogeneous aerodynamic wizardry. The field for the 1957 –
1966 GT & Sports Endurance Cars, The Innes Ireland Trophy Race, had an enormous entry list, as did the Duncan
Hamilton Trophy for 1948 – 1955 sports racing cars, and the grids for the Formula Junior and pre-1966 Grand Prix
cars, whilst the Group “C” grid was also well subscribed, and provided a thrilling battle throughout. Although there
were numerous full course yellows, for errant wheels and some accidents, fortunately with nothing worse than
damaged cars and egos, overall the meeting provided great track action for the reported 57000 spectators roasting in
the sun.
www.silverstoneclassic.co.uk
David O’Neill
07/2008
RACE 6 - CLASSIFICATION
Formula 1 Cars 1966 - 85
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