Historic racing

All change… thanks to F1

GP calendar shuffle has knock-on effect for fixtures

The change of date for the 2017 British Grand Prix at Silverstone has had a significant impact on major historic events. The nation’s F1 showpiece moved back a week to July 16/17 when a series of race date changes was announced at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in late November.

The Silverstone Classic has been forced to alter its plans and will now run from July 28-30, a week later than originally planned. This was necessary as the logistics involved in Silverstone’s two biggest events of the year make it impossible for them to run on consecutive weekends.

The Midland Automobile Club has changed the date of the Classic Nostalgia weekend at Shelsley Walsh. The event will now run over the weekend of July 22/23, thus avoiding a clash with the British Grand Prix. 

The late changes to the F1 calendar also forced Goodwood to reschedule its Festival of Speed. The 2017 Festival will now run from June 29 to July 2, a week later than initially intended. The change avoids a clash with the Baku F1 race, thus ensuring that Grand Prix teams will be available to play their customary role in the Festival.

New owner for Chevron

WDK Motorsports Limited is the new owner of the Chevron racing car brand after buying the operation from Vin and Helen Malkie.

Chevron’s trading business and intellectual property rights have been sold to the Hampshire-based team, headed by Ian Cox. In addition, WDK was acquired last year by VV Capital LLP, the company owned by former Brands Hatch boss Nicola Foulston.

“This will enable us to diversify and means we can now offer our full race support package to both new and former Chevron customers as well as continuing to develop our existing business,” said Cox. Projects will include Chevron B8 and B16 FIA continuation cars.

Tribute to Scott Brown

A race dedicated to Lister sports-racing cars and demonstration sessions for GT1 cars and 1970s 3-litre sports-prototypes will be features of the 75th Members’ Meeting at Goodwood (March 18/19).

Archie Scott Brown will be celebrated as a capacity field of Listers contests the Scott Brown Trophy. The race will mark 60 years since he won the Sussex Trophy at Goodwood’s Easter Meeting.

Cars from the GT1 category of the 1990s will make their Goodwood debut in demonstration sessions over the weekend, with examples of the Porsche 911 GT1, Mercedes CLK GTR, Lister Storm and McLaren F1 GTR expected to represent the FIA GT Championship of the period.

Another demonstration session will feature early 1970s sports-prototypes, including the V12-engined Ferrari 312PB and Matra MS670, plus DFV-powered cars from Lola and Mirage. Group A touring cars from the 1980s will also appear.

Richards back in RS500

Australian touring car legend Jim Richards will race a Ford Sierra RS500 at the Silverstone Classic in July, a month short of his 70th birthday.

‘Gentleman Jim’ was a four-time Australian touring car champion and won the Bathurst 1000 seven times in a long and successful career.

He will race the Eggenberger-run Bastos-liveried car taken to victory in the 1989 Spa 24 Hours by Win Percy, Gianfranco Brancatelli and Bernd Schneider. It is hoped that Brancatelli will take the car over for the Oulton Park Gold Cup rounds of the Super Touring Trophy in late August.

The car is now owned by New Zealander Peter Sturgeon. 

Lees takes VSCC title

Tony Lees has been announced as the overall winner of the Vintage Sports-Car Club’s inaugural Speed Championship. Lees had a fine season in the ex-Ron Footitt 1925 AC/GN Cognac Special, taking several Pre-1931 Vintage wins. 

He also set a new class record at Shelsley Walsh, where he broke Freddie Giles’s 1993 time in the Cognac.

Historic F2 clash looms

There will be two race series for Historic Formula 2 cars in 2017, after French-based Peter Auto unveiled plans to run races for 1600cc and 2-litre F2 cars at its meetings.

The new series will be in direct competition with the Historic Formula 2 FIA International Series, which the HSCC has managed for the last decade.

Both series will be open to cars built to period regulations for Formula 2, Formula Atlantic and Formula B, starting from 1967 and running through to the end of 1978. 

“There are hardly enough cars for one series, let alone two,” said Grahame White of the HSCC.

Lister Costin reborn

The Lister Motor Company will build a run of continuation models of the late 1950s Lister Costin sports-racing car, using original chassis jigs. Each will cost £295,000 plus VAT and will have HTP documents to allow it to be raced in historic events. The Jaguar-engined car was designed by Frank Costin and used a sleek, low-drag alloy body.