Silverstone Classic 2016

A huge crowd, great weather and packed grids ensured the record breaking 2016 Silverstone Classic will be remembered as the best historic motorsport event ever held at the famous Grand Prix track. 20 races kept the fans enthralled, along with a huge amount of off track entertainment…

Topping the bill were a pair of races for the FIA Masters Historic Formula 1 Championship. In Saturday’s race, Ollie Hancock took the lead at the first corner with a very brave move around the outside of pole sitter Nick Padmore. However, Padmore was keen to regain the lead and passed the Fittipaldi F5A of Hancock at Brooklands. After a frantic opening few corners, Padmore slowly pulled away from the rest of field. Behind, Hancock was coming under pressure from the Tyrrell 010 of Loic Deman. The Belgian driver passed Hancock at the ultra fast Copse corner, but was unable to do anything about the Williams FW07C of Padmore in front. Hancock then fell back through the field, losing the final podium spot to the Lotus 91 of Gregory Thornton.

Sunday’s race started in similar fashion, with Ollie Hancock again taking the lead from Padmore at the start. This time the Fittipalidi driver was able to hold on for the first lap, before losing the lead to the Williams of Padmore at Village corner on lap two. From then on Padmore was never troubled, eventually winning the 25 minute race by over 29 seconds. Behind the flying Williams, a hugely entertaining six car battle developed, as Hancock desperately tried to hold off the Tyrrell of Loic Deman and the Lotus of Gregory Thornton. They were joined by Martin Stretton in the Tyrrell 012 and Christophe D’Ansembourg, before they made contact at Brooklands. This allowed Rob Hall in the glorious sounding Ligier Matra to join the battle. A frantic last lap saw Deman come from fourth to second, taking Hancock at Club on the final lap. At the flag, second to seventh place were covered by just over one second.

The 2016 Silverstone classic celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first Can-Am series with a pair of races for the ferocious American sportscars. Saturday’s opening race featured 10 V8 powered Can-Am racers battling with European cars of the same era. Rob Hall took pole position in his stunning Matra MS670B/C, but was soundly beaten off the line by the 900bhp Can-Am McLaren of Andrew Newall. Hall pressured the McLaren driver for the first 15 minutes of the race, before slipping by as Newall struggled on worn tyres to take the win. In Sunday’s race, Newall could not harness the huge power developed by the 8.8 litre Chevrolet V8 and was pipped into the first corner by Hall’s Matra. The two cars then battled for the entire 20 minute race, but Hall was able to hold on to complete the double.

Saturday evening was brought to a spectacular close by a twilight race for the Group C Le Mans cars of the 80s and early 90s. Nathan Kinch had qualified his Lola T92/10 on pole by a healthy margin, and wasted no time in converting this into a big lead, the Judd V10 powered car howling around the darkening Silverstone to take victory by over 50 seconds. Behind, Christophe D’Ansembourg’s Jaguar XJR-14 battled with the Nissan pair of Bob Berridge and Katsu Kubota, before a mechanical gremlin halted the Jaguar on the penultimate lap. Berridge also retired leaving Kubota to take a distant second, with the Porsche 962 of Mark Sumpter in third. Sunday’s race was easily won by the Nissan R93CK of Bob Berridge after Nathan Kinch retired on the opening lap.

The Jet Super Touring Car Trophy featured a packed grid of 90s Touring Cars, and they put on a great show for the big crowd. Colin Noble took victory in Saturday’s opening race by just two tenths of a second over a charging James Dodd, with ex-BTCC driver Frank Wrathall in third. Sunday’s race was more reminiscent of the controversial touring car races of the era, with Noble again fending off the Honda Accord of James Dodd. The final lap of the race featured plenty of doorhandle to doorhandle racing, before Noble forced Dodd into a spin at the final corner. The stewards took a dim view of this and excluded Colin Noble from the meeting, handing victory to James Dodd.

Other winners from the meeting included Andy Willis and Rob Hall aboard a Matra MS650 in Saturday’s World Sportscar Masters race, while the International Trophy for Pre ‘66 GT cars went to Leo Voyazides and Simon Hadfield aboard a Shelby Daytona Cobra. Sunday’s Pre ‘66 Big Engined Touring Cars encounter went to Craig Davies in a Ford Mustang, and the Historic Touring Car Challenge was won by Nick and Harry Whale’s BMW M3.

Full results from a fantastic meeting can be found here.