2024 Silverstone Festival report: Historic meeting sees more classic action

After a long wait for the track to dry out, race control released the grid for the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy and Stirling Moss Trophy. The fine field of 50s sports cars nevertheless had a soaking wet challenge which was bound to catch out the unwary. In both his Festival and ex-Graham Hill Lotus 15 debut, Johnny Mowlem was on the pole, but the car was started by owner Bon Grimes.

Thus, it was no surprise that the two Listers, owned by John Spiers and to be shared with Nigel Greensall were soon at the front. Nigel was in the Costin- bodied car and John in the Knobbly. The dastardly plan was that they would jump into each other’s car at half distance. Greensall was soon in the lead after passing his other car. But when he came into the pits he was told to stay in the Costin, thus he did and ran to a 15sec victory over David Hart’s similar Lister in the Stirling Moss Trophy. New Zealander Roger Wills was third in his Lotus 15, from Spiers in the Knobbly and then the Grimes Lotus 15 which Mowlem pulled up to fifth. The Woodcote Trophy for the older cars went to Lucas Halusa/Alex Ames Jaguar D type, delighted to stay ahead of the D type of brothers John and Gary Pearson.

With the track still wet much the organisers shuffled the timetable again so next up was one of the key races – the Masters F1 race for cars from 1966 to 1985. Matt Wrigley was on the pole in his Tyrrell 011 (the last Tyrrell model to win a GP) ahead of Stuart Hall in the Reynard designed RAM March, in which took the win at Monaco Historique in May.

The race started under yellow but when the safety car peeled off it was Hall who made the best start, and he soon pulled away from Wrigley who left the rest of the field well behind. Mike Cantillon, a regular winner in this event, had pulled off on the opening lap with ignition issues. However, the race hotted up in the closing stages as Wrigley hauled in Hall, who wasn’t happy with his tyres, but the former GTE-Am World Sports Car Champion hung on by 0.3sec to take the flag. Padmore had to retire the famous twin-chassis Lotus 88, also with ignition problems deep in the DFV.

Sunday’s race in the same category was superb. Adding to a reversed grid for the front-runners, the prospect of Cantillon and Padmore coming through the field and action was guaranteed. Again it turned into a tense Wrigley/Hall battle but this time the Tyrrell man hung on and left Hall, an unhappy runner-up. Cantillon charged from the back of the 26 cars field to third passing the similar Williams FW07 of Christophe D’Ansemboug in the closing stages while Padmore made it through to seventh in a car he found “interesting” to drive.

We went back a generation for the next race for pre-1966 grand prix cars – and what an extraordinary race we had. At the front of the grid were three Cooper T53s with Ian Nuthall the strong favourite. Indeed, Will immediately swept into the lead and was pulling away but then the car faltered, as it had a year ago and retired to the pits when the coil packed up. This gave the lead to Charlie Martin, who won last year, but who then subsequently spun it away.

Amazingly veteran Bestinvest founder John Spiers in his glorious front-engined Maserati 250F was in the lead and he held on to cross the line inches ahead of hard charging Sam Wilson in his Lotus 18, Martin had to be content with third and veteran Rod Jolley fourth. A quite remarkable race but so too was Sunday’s contest for these great cars too.

With a new coil Will Nuthall would start at the back in the 1960 Cooper-Climax T53, but how far could he race up the field of 40 cars? This time on Sunday’s dry track he passed half the field by the end of lap one, then he picked them off one by one finally passing arch rival Charlie Martin with ease to hit the front and win by 2.1sec. It was a strong candidate for drive of the meeting. Martin came home second well clear of Tim Child in his Brabham BT4.

With the track drying on Saturday there was a huge field for the Masters GT Trophy – a category which has really taken off and the youngest cars racing at the weekend. The 50min event, with a mandatory pit stop, saw Jonathan Mitchell in his Ferrari GT3 Evo snatch the lead at the start from pole sitter Neil Glover in the Lamborghini Hurracan. But then it was the similar car of David and Jason McInulty who hit the front.

After pit stops Jon Minshaw took the lead in his ex-factory BMW Z4 GT3 Evo, as the rain returned to make things even trickier and the race went full course yellow with 15min of the 45 mins remaining.

So, to keep the slicks or not was the quandary, but a red flag was then thrown quickly after which left former British GT front-runner Minshaw the winner. Nick Maton, who stayed out, was second in his GT3 Lamborghini Gallardo. After Jonny Mowlem took over Bonamy Grimes’ Ferrari 458 Challenge car, he roared up the field grid to take third place.

The late afternoon Saturday race was for the Masters Endurance Legends with a best ever line-up for this series with some great LMP1, 2 and 3 cars, almost entirely with great Le Mans histories. American Timmy da Silva surprised with a great lap to put his 2011 Pescarolo-Judd V10 on pole and later set the fastest lap of the meeting.

A lap two tangle at Village saw the front saw Tim’s father Harry, who started the car, and Steve Brookes in the diesel 2011 Peugeot 908 drop down the field. This opened the door for the d’Ansemboug 2012 Pescarolo Judd V10, as father and son Christophe and Werner maintained the lead in a car they recently acquired. But explorer/adventurer Brookes was soon back in the hunt with 2011 car which challenged the Audis in period, looking to follow up on his win a year ago. But two off-track moments lost him time and he then retired with gearbox failure.

So Max Lynn in one of the three Paulo Cantone designed 2015 BR LMPS 2 entered by the BBM organisation took over the lead – Alex’s younger brother keeps getting faster.

Mandatory pit stops, and then a full course yellow scrambled the field but when everyone was back up to speed it was the Belgian d’Ansemboug Pescarolo back in front now with son Werner at the wheel. They took the flag, to win from the other Peugeot 908 driven by Stewart Wiltshire with Shaun Lynn eventually third in his BR1. But one of the drives of the race came from Dane Mikkel Mac, the former Ferrari GT works driver having an outing with Keith Freiser in the Zytek LMP1 – famously crashed by Nigel Mansell at Le Mans – which finished fourth. The best GT finisher was veteran Dutchman Cor Euser in his equally venerable Marcos LM600.

Sunday’s race was a shorter 25-minute affair but still with a pitstop and it provide the Belgian father and son combination a second win of the weekend – the D’Ansembourgs won a by a sizeable 22 seconds. 20-year-old Hugo Cook, a British GT regular, finished a superb second in a Lola-Judd LMP1 car with the Peugeot of Stuart Wilson third. Regular past winner in this category, Steve Tandy, had collected a spinner in practice on Friday which damaged the front nose and splitter of his Lola B12/80 which put him on the back foot – he came through to fourth. Shaun Lynn was the best LMP2 after his BR01 team-mate, 16-year-old Alfie Briggs, got a penalty for passing under a yellow.

The Masters Sportscar Legends competitors had just one race for the late 60s/early 70s sports cars – a 20-lapper on Saturday. We had the prospect of two 1970 Ferrari 512Ms going wheel to wheel – father and son Oliver and David Hart against Alex Ames and Lucas Halusa – although their car was proving troublesome. Sadly last year’s winners, the 512 of Gary Pearson and Alex Brundle, were not entered this year.

The Dutch father and son duo duly won from James Claridge and Goncarlo Gomes in the Lola T296-DFV with Brundle and Pearson third having reverted to a Lola T70. That pairing of Spiers and Greensall again were fourth in their McLaren M1B Can-Am car ahead of Dan Eagling in the rare BDA-powered Royale RP17. Ames and Halusa were sixth.

Sunday’s racing started prompt at 9am and commenced with the three single-seater races lost through the Saturday downpour. One of the highlights of this meeting is always a fantastic Formula Junior battle with a huge 50 car field swapping places at every corner. Not so this year! Last year close favourite Michael O’Brien had drive train problems. This year he was driving Nick Fennell’s superb Ford of France Lotus 27. The only monocoque amongst a field of space frames.

GT racer Michael was never headed and won by 7 seconds from Horatio Fitz-Simon whose throttle cable broke in qualifying and he came through to second ahead of Sam Wilson’s Cooper, while pole sitter Alex Ames in the ex-Mike Hailwood Brabham BT6 was fourth. Sam Harrison and Callum Grant might have challenged for the lesser podium slots but Harrison in Australian Lotus 22 copy Rennmax spun and Grant was eliminated in an incident.

Andrew Smith – the Northampton rather than Scottish racer of the same name – looked absolutely on for victory in both the Formula 3 and Formula 2 races. He started by cruising to a 21 sec victory in F3 Classic Interseries race in a March 783 Toyota which had started life as a Super Vee car in the States. Dominik Jackson was second in his Lola and Frenchman Eric Martin third in his nice Martini Mk39.

In the F2 encounter he immediately took control but four laps in the fuel pressure plummeted, and he retired the lovely ex-BMW Junior March 782. Thus, the earlier March 762 of LMP2 racer Alex Kapadia took a 9sec win over Matthew Watts in a March 772 with Mark Charteris a distant third in another March.

Also on Sunday morning was the 50-minute Royal Automobile Club Touring Trophy race billed as a Cobra v E-Type battle. It turned into a great scrap between the Cobra of Gregor Fisken and Chris Ward and the similar car of Nigel Greensall and John Spiers – apparently the first ever customer racing Cobra. It would have been close but with three laps to go Nigel retired to the pits with probable fuel pump failure. This left the Fisken/Ward car a massive 44sec ahead of Richard Cook’s Cobra. Gary and John Pearson came third in their E type.

The BRDC 500 for Pre-War cars provided Chris Ward with another Sunday morning win. His co-driver Pat Blakeney-Edwards was doing double duty as he was driving both his Frazer-Nash Super Sports and sharing former Force India boss Vijay Mallya’s BMW 328. It all worked out and PBE and Ward won by 37 seconds from Gareth Burnett in his Alta Sports and Rudi Friedrichs third in the Alvis Firefly Special.

A clash with a BTCC round meant that many of their regulars like Jake Hill, who loves racing historic touring cars, could not be present. At least this left the way clear for the regulars in the Pure Michelin Mustang Celebration Trophy race for-Pre 66 Touring cars. The race wasn’t only for Mustangs as there were also Falcon, Lotus Cortinas, Minis etc in this event back by Michigan’s Tourist Board.

Nevertheless, it was a former BTCC ace who won this – Sam Tordoff eventually holding off a spirited challenge from Julian Thomas, both in Ford Falcon Sprints. Making his historic racing debut was former Nissan protégé and factory racer Jann Mardenborough with team-mate Jimmy Broadbent. They finished third in the Mustang followed by seven more of the Detroit beasts.

Bringing the huge programme to a close on Sunday evening was International Trophy for Classic GT cars, often known as the masters gentleman’s race. Julian Thomas had won this for the past two years along with Calum Lockie. This time he was driving solo, as was Olivier Hart – leaving Dad to watch the Carroll Shelby continuation do battle.

What an incredible finale it proved to be with Hart and Thomas both before and after the pit stop, swapping the lead countless times in one of the most magnificent displays of sideways racing I have seen in many a year. Ultimately the young blond Dutchman pipped the X-Box boss to the flag by 0.345sec. Coming home in third place, the best of several TVR Griffiths was young harry Barton, his best result at this level.

The remarkable little Ginetta G4R twin cam of Dan Eagling mixed in with the big boys and canary yellow car finished fourth ahead of Greensall/Spiers, this time in their TVR ahead of the Dodd’s and Pearson E types. ATL fuel cell boss Giles Dawson, took the Elan 26R prepared by his Dad Andy to 12th, well ahead of the other Elan and second in the under two -litre class.

Thus ended a race meeting plus which had everything – and if that wasn’t enough Olly Murs was about to come up on stage. As ever the Classic is a date for your diary.