As an automotive photographer, I attend various events throughout the year. Some for many decades, some for a few years and one event I visited for the first time in 2023.
Visiting the Historic Grand Prix of Zandvoort in 2023 was the first time for me. But certainly not the last time. For me, it was the best historic motorsport event in 2023. The different racing series were so varied, the individual starting fields really big in terms of quantity and class, there really was something for everyone. In addition, the organisation was really perfect, even though red flags kept interrupting the individual races, there were hardly any delays.
The two events in Belgium on the traditional Spa Francorchamps circuit, the Spa Classics by Peter Auto and the Spa Six Hours by Roadbook were, as always, very well organised with a large number of racing cars from many decades of motorsport. This time, the Spa Six Hours ended on Saturday with the six-hour race for GT and touring cars. To be honest, I didn’t like that. On Sunday, privateers were allowed to take their racing cars out on the track for private drives. It was probably supposed to be a special 30th anniversary event, but as I mentioned, I thought it was a bit of a shame.
The Spa Classic by Peter Auto was very good, as you would expect from the Peter Auto events. But here, as at the Six Hours, I realised that some drivers were missing with their cars that I’ve seen there every year.
Today it seems to be more difficult than ever to fill the starting fields and so sometimes strange starting fields are put together, where racing cars fight against each other that you have never seen together on the track. But the organisers also have to move with the times and meet today’s requirements, one of which is certainly to introduce a young audience to historic racing so that this small niche of automotive entertainment remains alive. Environmental issues are certainly also playing an increasingly important role.
Sebastian Vettel, who drove demo laps at last year’s Festival of Speed in Goodwood in a number of historic Formula One cars, including an ex-Mansell Williams and an ex-Senna McLaren, is a pioneer in the environmental debate by fuelling his racing cars with e-fuel.
Then there was this extremely rainy summer, which also paralysed the Saturday FOS. But it wasn’t just there that some events literally fell through.
The second edition of the Classic Days in Green Park in Düsseldorf suffered extremely from the bad weather conditions, with one storm warning after another bringing this wonderful event to a complete standstill on Sunday lunchtime, which must have cost the organisers a lot of money.
I am all the more pleased that this fantastic event is back on the calendar for 2024. Traditionally on the first weekend in August, one week before the Oldtimer Grand Prix.
It has to be said that last year’s Oldtimer Grand Prix was a bit of a disappointment. After some chairs were moved behind the scenes by the organisers, the OGP will start in 2024 with a new namesake main sponsor and will now be called the Belmot Oldtimer Grand Prix from the 2024 edition. One can only hope that the OGP will regain its former strength, after all, this event is one of the oldest in the field of historic motorsport. I am optimistic and confident about the future, as there are also experienced people involved who know what makes a good event.
From my point of view, the Nürburgring Classics in spring has almost overtaken the OGP in terms of the quality of the participating racing cars and the acceptance of the public. This event was really great in 2023, especially the Gridwalk with the Force Formula One Legends mainly from the 1980s around the ex-Schumacher Benetton B192 piloted by Lorina McLaughlin and the wonderful Ferrari F1 of Uwe Meissner. That was probably the visitor highlight par excellence, a bit of a Monaco feeling.
All the events described here will also take place in 2024. We can only hope that more owners or drivers will get their historic racing cars out of the garage again and use them for what they were once built for – racing. That the European summer remains a little drier and that the public is keen to see old racing cars, which sometimes engage in breathtaking duels on the major racetracks.
Be there too, it’s worth it, the smell and the sound are always incomparable.
Calendar 2024
- Nürburgring Classic 24 – 26 May 2024
- Spa Classic 17 – 19 May 2024
- Historic Grand Prix Zandvoort 21 – 23 June 2024
- Classic Days Düsseldorf 02 – 04 August 2024
- Belmot Oldtimer GP 09 – 11 August 2024
- Spa Six Hours 26 – 28 September 2024
Of course, there are other events that are worth visiting. This calendar is my personal selection for 2024. Find out more about our photographer Ralph Lüker.
