The 40th anniversary of the opening of the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire will be marked by a special celebration race meeting on Easter Monday (March 24). <\/p>\n
Formula 2 topped the bill on Easter Monday 1968 (above) and continued to headline the circuit\u2019s programme until 1985, and the 2008 event will showcase the European F2 Trophy.<\/p>\n
The airfield was used for car racing in the 1950s, but the present circuit was built for the start of the 1968 season as a new home for the British Automobile Racing Club following the closure of Goodwood. <\/p>\n
The 1968 European F2 race, run as two heats and a final, was won by Jochen Rindt\u2019s Brabham BT23C despite the Austrian sliding off the track late in the race and crashing through an advertising hoarding.<\/p>\n
Support races in 1968 included Formula Vee and a round of the British Saloon Car Championship, and a contemporary Formula Vee race will be back on the schedule in 2008 along with a Top Hat race for \u201960s saloons.<\/p>\n
The European F2 Trophy, including cars from the 1600cc and 2-litre era of F2 racing, is set for a bumper season in 2008 with increased competitor support and an expanded programme.<\/p>\n
The Historic Sports Car Club\u2019s Grahame White, who is administrator for the F2 Trophy, said: \u201cI was the starter as well as the clerk of the course [for the 1968 races], so it will be wonderful to celebrate 40 years of Formula 2 at Thruxton.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":735,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167,22405,35762,181,22251,34614,115499],"issue_decade":[121591],"issue_year":[121626],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/31972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/31972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245790,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/31972\/revisions\/245790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31972"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=31972"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=31972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}