Silverstone circuit celebrated its 75th anniversary in style over the 25-27 August bank holiday weekend with the rebranded Silverstone Festival. Kicking off the huge, 20-race programme were the Formula Juniors. True to form, the little single-seaters made for a cracking start to proceedings and brought a win for Sam Wilson in race one, just ahead of Alex Ames, recreating the Lotus vs Brabham battles in period. Wilson won again on Sunday by just 0.2 secs from Horatio Fitz-Simon in another Lotus.
The eclectic Thundersports grid gave Michael Lyons a dominant victory in his Hesketh-based IBEC 308LM, at times running 5 secs a lap quicker than any of his rivals on his way to lapping the entire 25-car field. The ʻbig-bangersʼ shook Silverstone to its ancient foundations, with the fastest cars doing 170mph on Hangar Straight.
In the first HSCC Formula Libre race, Henry Chart had an exciting start to the weekend when his Modus blew a motor in qualifying, leaving him without a car to race. However, his team simply dusted off a Trojan T101 F5000 and got it to the circuit just in time for Chart to start from the back of the grid. By lap five he had taken the lead in a car heʼd never driven before, and he went on to win after the red flag appeared a couple of laps early. He then followed that up with a dominant display on Sunday, romping home by nearly a minute.
Slick-shod, four-wheel-drive Nissan Skylines capitalised on the damp conditions to charge to the front of the 45-car Historic Touring Car Challenge field, but they were no match for RS 500 Cosworth horsepower in the early stages. Among many incidents, retirements and the mandatory pitstops, Calum Lockie suffered a heavy impact in his ex-Andy Rouse Sierra, bringing out the safety car and leading to a dash for the flag won by surprise victor Wim Kuijl, making his first visit to Silverstone in his glorious GA V6-powered Cologne Capri. One of the standout performances was ex-BTCC star Matt Neal in a Mk1 Escort, charging hard before handing over to Harry Whale to finish an impressive sixth ahead of much more modern machinery.
The busy safety car was again pressed into action for the 1966-ʼ85 Masters Racing Legends F1 cars on Saturday. The Williams FW07C of Mike Cantillon dived past the perfectly named Ken Tyrrell in his Tyrrell 001 to take a lead he wasnʼt to lose until the chequered flag dropped under safety-car conditions, but the W
