Four Motor Racing Legends races graced the 2024 Silverstone Festival as a dry and sunny final day of racing made up for a difficult Saturday affected by heavy rain.
The atrocious weather delayed the start of racing on Saturday morning and saw rescheduling of races, but the MRL Historic Touring Car Challenge with Tony Dron Trophy & U2TC stepped in where single-seater classes feared to tread by kicking off the action in streaming conditions.
The huge field put on a valiant opening show, but two safety cars and an eventual red flag somewhat inevitably curtailed the race. Darren Fielding’s BMW E30 M3 had risen up the order from 11th on the grid to lead after the pitstops and picked up victory at the biggest race meeting of the year. “You need a little bit of luck in racing and I’ll take it,” he said. “You couldn’t see the car in front and I was not too unhappy to see the red flags.”
Ric Wood’s Nissan Skyline was second to claim victory in his class, while David Tomlin was first Cosworth RS500 driver home to complete the overall podium. Max Lynn and Roan Lundy claimed U2TC honours in their Consul Cortina Lotus, Roan’s maiden drive in the 1965 machine and Matthias Jocher won the Tony Dron Trophy in his Ford Capri.
The conditions were little improved when the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy and Stirling Moss Trophy followed the touring cars as next on the Festival bill. A missed pit board meant John Spiers failed to stop his Lister Knobbly on the same lap as partner Nigel Greensall who had started the contest in a Lister Costin. The pair were supposed to switch cars, but the lack of pit coordination meant Greensall raced on solo in the Lister Costin in which he’d taken the lead on lap one – and he was still in front to claim Moss Trophy honours when the race was another to be stopped early by worsening conditions. In the Woodcote Trophy, Lukas Halusa and Alex Ames won a battle of the Jaguar D-types with John and Gary Pearson, the two cars finishing a fine sixth and seventh overall, while Ben Eastick completed a ‘D-type’ podium lock-out.
To the relief of all, Sunday dawned bright and sunny to offer perfect conditions for the BRDC 500 MRL Pre-War Sports Car race. Patrick Blakeney-Edwards scored a convincing victory in his Frazer Nash Super Sports, sharing with accomplished historic racer Chris Ward who was sampling a pre-war race for the first time. Rudiger Friedrichs in his Alvis Firefly Special got the better of Gareth Burnett’s Alta Sports, only for Burnett to get back ahead during the mandatory pitstops to claim second place. The race was stopped early after James Morley’s Bentley snapped a half-shaft and was left stranded on track when it shed its left-rear wheel, while Ross Keeling’s Delahaye 145 dropped oil after a feed pipe failed.
MRL’s Silverstone Festival was completed by a thrilling Royal Automobile Club Historic Tourist Trophy. The overall win came down to a battle of AC Cobras as John Spiers and Nigel Greensall’s invitation-class car faced off against Gregor Fisken and Chris Ward in ‘Junkyard Dog’ – racing in Europe for the first time. After the pitstops, Ward found himself hunted down by Greensall who took the lead after a fantastic duel, only for low fuel pressure to force him to pit with just four minutes left. That handed Ward his second victory of the morning, while on the last lap Richard Cook’s Cobra picked off the Jaguar E-type of John Pearson – sharing with brother Gary – to snatch second place.
“We lost the fuel pressure and that was it,” said a still smiling Greensall. “But what a great race! It’s always fantastic to drive against a friend like Chris.”
“Nigel had the better of us,” said Ward. “But ‘Junkyard Dog’ is straight out of the box. At the start I maintained the gap, but then all of a sudden I got mixed up with some backmarkers, overdrove a little bit and the tyres started to go off. But I would have tried to hang on to Nigel, I wasn’t going to give up. It’s really unfortunate he had problems.”
“Watching Chris and Nigel, two great pros, it was just beautiful,” said Fisken. “Great TV.”
Motor Racing Legends and Historic Motor Racing News subscribers celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the magazine with a hog roast and jazz band party on the Friday evening. Kingfisher kindly provided larger and cider to party goers and for the duration of the weekend in the Motor Racing Legends hospitality.
Full race results are now available to view and download on the’Entries and Results’ section of the website.
The MRL season will continue at the Spa 6 Hours meeting on September 26-28, when the Pre-War Sports Cars and Royal Automobile Club Woodcote and Stirling Moss Trophy will be back in action.
