Sold-out summer of speed shows motor sport is booming – Ed’s letter

Our thirst for live motor sport shows no sign of abating. This summer I have been struck by the sheer scale and popularity of some of the headline events I have been to. They have moved from niche interest gatherings to truly mainstream juggernauts complete with all the trappings of a big business entertainment.

The first of the three such events I attended in July was the Le Mans Classic. It is usually biennial and with the last one taking place in 2022 this year’s was a one-off to celebrate 100 years of Le Mans proper. Perhaps unsurprisingly then it was sold out. And although I had been to previous Classics pre-pandemic the scale of this one (which started in 2002 with a crowd of around 30,000) took me by surprise. The organisers estimate a record 235,000 visitors over the course of the weekend and it was, as we rosbifs say, jam-packed.

The Classic is the brainchild of Richard Mille, the founder of the eponymous watch brand and a dyed-in-the-wool car fan (he serves as president of the FIA Endurance Commission too), and Peter Auto, the mainland’s biggest historic racing organiser. It consists of a series of 45-minute races for cars which have competed at the Le Mans 24 Hours or for similar cars of the same model from 1923 and ending in 1981.

With well over 700 cars in action there it was a veritable feast of historic racing. There is something about sitting on the Dunlop Chicane banking in that famous Le Mans twilight watching a brace of Ford GT40s chased by a Ferrari 275 LM that still has the power to raise goosebumps. And don’t get me started on the Silk Cut Jags…

You can read a brilliant and full report of the actual racing on our website. But a special mention here goes to Andrew Frankel, who competed in one of the 1930 continuation Bentleys alongside James Morley, one of three generations of Morleys to race Bentleys. Their car was troubled with overheating and missed the first race but, as Andrew told me afterwards: “We battled back from 70-somethingth position at the start of race two, to 19th by the end of race three, which in a bog-standard car in a race against GP Bugattis and Alfas we thought was reasonable.”

“It wasn’t the crowds I noticed at Silverstone, it was the demographic”

From La Sarthe to Silverstone for the British GP – another sell out. Here I was not surprised by the crowds. Last year saw a record 400,000 fans over the weekend, and this year there were even more: a reported 480,000 over the three days. But it wasn’t the crowds I noticed strolling around the outfield, it was the changing demographic. Under-18s, boyfriends and girlfriends, groups of teens with Max or Lando caps (£50 a pop from official merch retailers!) and young families combined with music and food stalls to create a real festival atmosphere. The presence of Hollywood star Brad Pitt filming his F1 movie there only added to the sense of starry excitement. And of course the racing wasn’t bad either…

I left Silverstone well after the race had finished – Lando Norris strutting the stage, mic in hand as the sun went down in front of his adoring home crowd – pondering how far the circuit and the sport has come.

And so to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Another inevitable sell out. But amid the hoopla of the hillclimb and new car launches (see our report on Lamborghini’s terrific-looking Le Mans challenger on page 10), it is the quieter corners that I still love. Like the small lightweight prototype sitting as a static display on the grass behind one of the grandstands and attracting barely a glance from the passing crowds.

It was the 1972 Duckhams LM T3, one of Gordon Murray’s early designs created at the behest of the late Alain de Cadenet as a way of getting himself on the Le Mans grid as a privateer. It was completed in around six months for a measly £5000 and came home 12th, and in doing so became the first DFV engine car to finish at Le Mans.

As the huge crowds bustled past on their way to the next glitzy unveil, I could afford a few quiet moments within touching distance of this wonderful piece of modest, home-built racing history.

I spent some time with McLaren in the team trailer on Saturday evening at Silverstone and chatting with them it was clear that they were as surprised as anyone at their pace in qualifying, which put Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in P2 and P3 for Sunday. “We knew we would be fast, but didn’t expect that,” said one of the upgrade package both cars now had. It was a view shared by Piastri. But he cautioned me against getting too carried away; it was in the low-speed corners that they think the car would still struggle, not something Silverstone has many of.

The result at the next race in Hungary, where Norris came home second and Piastri fifth, suggests that the upgrades to the car were even better than the computer modelling predicted – even on slower tracks. With McLaren on the up, Aston Martin in the mix and everyone remembering never to write off the Germans, the battle for second and third places this season could well give us the drama we are so sorely missing in the race for the championship.

Joe Dunn, editor
Follow Joe on Twitter @joedunn90

Next issue: Our October issue is on sale from September 6