Silverstone - Ferrari Owners' Club

After four years it was good to be back at the “Home of British Motorsport” and the open, manicured sweeps of Silverstone. During the ‘90s, the International Historic Festival ranked alongside the Goodwod Festival of Speed, Germany’s Nurburgring based Oldtimer Festival and Monterey as one of the historic season’s highlights. With open practice on Friday and 17 oversubscribed races over the weekend, complimented by a Bonhams auction, in-field car club displays, a shopping mall for that essential memorabilia and an art gallery, the BRDC organised event sought to rekindle the atmosphere of bygone times.

Now renamed the “Silverstone Classic”, the event attracted a 500 strong, global entry from pre-war Talbots and Alfa Romeos via E.R.A.s and Maseratis, to the ground-shaking Chevy-powered F5000s of the ‘70s and the most recent - the rapid Group C Jaguar XJRs and Porsche 962s of the mid-eighties. With the addition of the well supported and hotly contested Thoroughbred Grand Prix (TGP) Championship and Saturday evening’s BRDC 500, it was a full weekend of historic racing viewed by over 30,000 enthusiasts.

Race Preparation
The U.K. has long been home to some of the world’s acknowledged specialists in the restoration and preparation of historic cars – whilst Tony Merrick and Crosthwaite and Gardiner were the pioneers of this “cottage industry”, evolution and competition has added Hall and Hall, Pearsons Engineering, Sid Hoole / Martin Stretton/ Simon Hadfield and Vin Malkie Racing amongst others to this list. The Silverstone paddock was jammed full of multi-car transporters and motor-homes that reflect the amount of money being spent by enthusiasts in pursuit of their hobby.

Stars n' Stripes
20+ years ago there were two codes of historic racing – Europe was all about racing and racing hard, whilst in North America it was about demonstration – even Sir Stirling Moss once fell foul of the Monterey stewards when he was chastised for excessive speed! Thankfully things have changed – Californian Don Orosco was one of the first visitors to Europe over a decade ago, with his superbly prepared and competitively driven Reventlow Scarabs… this year he brought his sportscar version to Silverstone although practice maladies prevented him racing.

Fellow Californians, father and son John and Ryan Delane are arch-Tyrrell enthusiasts - they were welcome additions to the paddock, having shipped their ‘70s F1 transporter complete with four immaculate race-cars from Redondo Beach. More recently East coast resident and ALMS racer Duncan Dayton has been racking up the Air Miles in his pursuit of the TGP crown and has enjoyed considerable historic success throughout Europe with a F1 Williams and Lotus 16 prepared by Sid Hoole.

Prancing Horses
Sadly, competing Ferraris were limited to Dutchman John Bosch’s 312T3, driven in period by Gilles Villeneuve (interestingly there was a bigger crowd around the Barron Racing prepared car than any other in the 27 strong TGP grid!) and Harry Leventis’s gorgeous 246S raced by Pete Hardman at typically lurid angles in the Gentlemen Drivers Sports/GT Enduro (sadly retiring) and by Tony Dron to 3rd overall in the BRDC '50s sports car race.

The FOC was allocated a compact display area adjacent to the “Big Wheel”…grrrr!, but at least it was on a tarmac surface and not the muddy spot the Rolls Royce enthusiasts had to endure. Members provided a representative selection of tipos from Lusso to Enzo via 275GTB and the more recent 348, 355 and 360s.The secretariat camper van was doing a roaring trade in hot drinks and thanks must go to Peter Everingham, Derek Seymour and their helpers for arranging a display under difficult circumstances.

Parked in amongst the plethora of trailers and motor-homes was the ex-James Coburn 275GTB/4, a Cavallino Classic platinum award winner I last saw on the “Breakers” lawn in 2003 and currently for sale; Harry Leventis’s, Tim Samways prepared 330LMB, complete with cooling fan attached to the roll bar; a well used 250SWB and Irvine Laidlaw’s recently acquired 250GTO. Bonhams auction had two lots of Ferrari interest – a 512BB and a 365GT2+2, the latter finding a new home with a high bid of £29,900 (incl. buyers premium).

The Organisers
The JCB and Lloyds and Scottish Historic Championships of the ‘ 70s and early ‘80s were the embryonic race series from whch the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association developed. With increasing costs and circuit owners keen to attract historic racing to their tracks, individual race series organisers have latterly pooled their resources - hence the emergence of “TOPS”,“TGP” and “Masters” organisations. They have developed to organise, promote and deliver some of the most exciting race grids in Europe whilst, for competitors, identifying the commercial advantages of tyres, fuel, entry fees and accommodation – the Silverstone Classic brought all these organisations together and this was undoubtedly the most varied historic race meeting I’ve had the pleasure of attending…long may it continue!

The Racers
Multiple race wins went to 1988 British Touring Car Champion Frank Sytner at the wheel of his Penske F1and sharing with Simon Hadfield in his ex-Sid Taylor Lola T70. His first win was the undoubted highlight of the weekend as he held off a strong challenge from German classic car dealer Peter Wuensch (Wolf WR1), who was making only his second ever visit to Silverstone.

Simon Hadfield helped make it seven wins for cars prepared by his Shepshed based team, with a comfortable double in his ex VDS/Derek Bell Chevron B37 and his shared drive with Sytner.

Local resident Gary Pearson scored a double victory in JD Classics Jaguar XJR11 although he had to fend off a strong attack from former Supersports competitor Charlie Agg in his Nissan R90CK in race 1.

Fresh from his recent success in the family Ferrari Daytona Competition at Snetterton’s Ferrari formula classic race, Oliver Bryant shared with his father Graham in their AC Cobra and lifted the Gentleman Drivers Sports/GT Cup

Other notable drives included Allan Baillie (Lotus 18) and Mark Gillies (ERA R3A) who were never more than feet apart throughout the pre’66 race, won by Oporto victor Michael Schryver (Lotus 18).

As with any race event accidents are an inherent risk, sadly David Wenman crashed his Jaguar C type in Friday practice at Abbey corner whilst David Laing had to be removed from his inverted HRG Le Mans during Sunday’s ‘50s sports cars race. Speedy recoveries to both . Elsewhere, it was great to see established historic talent, Frenchman Flavien Marcais making a welcome return to the cockpit after recent neurosurgery, sharing John Bendall’s Iso Grifo A3.

And Finally
Two of the most interesting cars displayed over the weekend, both Bugattis, weren’t visible to all – Bonhams will sell the ex-William Grover "Williams" 1929 Monaco GP winning Type 35 and a Type 59 recreation at the Goodwood Revival in September…the former is likely to be the UK’s most expensive car at auction in 2005 and may well complement the auction house's June success with the marque.

The Silverstone Classic was a start towards replacing the International Festival. Traffic problems at the Northamptonshire circuit are thankfully a thing of the past, but the Bonhams auction lacked interest and the decision to route competing cars off the circuit through the vending area was nothing short of crass. Maintain the excellent entry and high standard of racing, address the infrastructure and marketing of the event and 2006 could bring a weekend gate of 60,000!

Where to Next...
August is traditionally a holiday month either side of the pond, but a busy time for historic motorsport – the AVD Oldtimer is but a week away. This is closely followed by the racing, concours and auctions (wouldn’t it be good if the Ferrari Breadvan came back to the UK!) that make Monterey, California, a jewel in the calendar.