The Silverstone Festival is a massive event that has a huge array of elements from Music Concerts, to Dragster Demonstrations, via massive car club displays and stunt driver performances. The banner promised plenty of noise. This, as well as visual delight, was in abundance.
As my passion is for cars moving at high speeds my cameras were focussed towards the on track action. Here a series of 20 races featured hundreds of cars piloted by over a thousand drivers. The cars ranged in age from one year to one hundred years – the drivers probably having an age span of just over half that number.
The weather was equally broad in range with spells of rain, sunshine and cloud. I always enjoy photographing cars dancing in the rain so the absolute highlight was seeing Esteban Gutiérrez braving the drenched track in a 2021 Mercedes W12 Formula One car.
It was also a pleasure to see Stuart Hall – who I have known since he was a schoolboy – winning the first of two Masters Racing Legends (Formula One, 1966-1985) in a 1982 March 821. He was runner up in the following days race.
Another friend, Chris Ward, had convincing wins in the Motor Racing Legends Pre War race and the RAC Historic Tourist Trophy. These were co drives with their respective owners, Patrick Blakeney Edwards and Gregor Fisken.
One challenge in photographing classic car racing can be that grandstands designed for Formula One tracks can make for very “empty” backgrounds. It was good to see big crowds at the event – especially when the F1 cars are on the track.
Here is a selection of some of my other favourites from the three day event.
