Silverstone Classic 2014

Paddock42 traveled to Silverstone last weekend for the Silverstone Classic for what has become a truly remarkable event…..the worlds biggest historic racing festival.

Friday saw drivers get out on track and qualify, it was good to see who and what was going to be the driver/ car to beat over the weekend. BTCC duo Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden put their Lotus Cortina on pole for their race in the Sir John Whitmore Trophy and they also managed to get the car on the second row for the Mustang Celebration race. The BTCC champions holding their own against some tough competition from various Ford Falcons and Mustangs and other Cortinas.

Saturday morning and Team P42’s JF and RC signed on in the media office early and were kindly escorted to a shiny new BMW 5 series Tourer to be chauffeured to the ‘Wing’ and the large media suite. After we had sunk some coffee we set off to scout the paddock, get some shots, take in the atmosphere and admire some of the worlds greatest race cars.

The paddock was packed, race entries had been high boasting full grids with 60 odd cars lining up for the Peter Arundell Historic Formula Junior races alone. In the international paddock most of the garages were arranged 3 to 4 cars end on end packing them in and outside race trucks and teams juggled race preparation with hospitality as the spanners flew sorting out issues that carried over from practice. As always the selection of racers was vast, covering just about all eras with Mclaren GTR’s, Porsches – GT2’s / RS / GT1’s, BMW E30’s, Super Touring cars sitting side by side with historic single seaters and sports cars.

The ‘Classic’ runs as a well-oiled machine but it is a relaxed paddock too, public can wonder around amongst the cars and get talking with the drivers. This is something that you could always do in the old days but in these times of ‘Corporate Motorsport’ we the enthusiasts and supporters seem to be ever far away from the action unless we have a VIP pass.

During the races there were a good few battles going on not only at the sharp end but throughout the field with drivers not afraid to rub door handles and push hard for a result, museum pieces these cars may be but racers they remain.

The racing ran into the evening on Saturday night with the Group C cars starting their race at 8;30 pm just as the sun light was disappearing from the sky. They put on a good show, headlights on, glowing brakes and spitting flames, it felt like Le Mans in the 1980’s. Bob Berridge in the Mercedes C11 was pretty much un-stoppable.

On Sunday a full days racing started at 09;00 with the Brian Henton Trophy for Classic Formula 3 it was set to be another great day but in the late afternoon tragedy struck in the HGPCA Pre’61 GrandPrix Cars. Following a big accident experienced racer Denis Welch succumbed to his injuries in the Silverstone medical centre. Denis and his team at Denis Welch Motorsport have supported Paddock42 since we started and we can only offer our sincere condolences and our thoughts go out to the team and the family at this terrible time.